Experimental Study of Associative Processes 113 
Another reason for allowing animals representations and 
images is found in the longer time taken to form the associa- 
tion between the act of licking or scratching and the con- 
sequent escape. If the associations in general were simply 
between situation and impulse-and act, one would suppose 
that the situation would be associated with the impulse to 
lick or scratch as readily as with the impulse to turn a button 
or claw a string. Such is not the case. By comparing the 
curves for Z on pages 57-58 with the others, one sees that for 
so simple an act it takes a long time to form the association. 
This is not a final reason, for lack of attention, a slight in- 
crease in the time taken to open the door after the act was 
done, or an absence of preparation in the nervous system 
for connections between these particular acts and definite 
sense-impressions, may very well have been the cause of the 
difficulty in forming the associations. Nor is it certain that 
ideas of clawing loops would be easier to form than ideas of 
Sea or licking oneself. The matter is still open to 
question. But, as said before, my opinion would be that” 
animals~do Havé representations and that such are the 
beginniny Of théeTich life of ideas in man. | | For the most part, 
however, such are confined io specific and narrow practical 
lines. | There was no evidence that my animals habitually 
did form associations of ideas from their experience through- 
out, or that such were constantly revived without the spur 
of immediate practical advantage. 
1 One result of the application of epee method to the study of 
the atellect of animals was the distinction of learning by the selection of 
imj/ulses or acts from learning by the selection of ideas. The usual method 
of earning in the case of animals other than man was shown by the studies 
re irinted in this volume to be the direct selection, in a certain situation, of- 
a slesirable response and its association with that situation, not the indirect 
seection of such a response by the selection of some idea which then of 
jcself produced the response. The animals did not usually behave as if they 
f thought of getting freedom or food in a certain way and were thereby moved 
I 
