270 



The Animal Mind 



a paw out and clawing a string outside, raising a thumb 

 latch and pushing against the door, and so on (Fig. 13). 

 The animals, on being first put into the box, made all sorts 

 of movements in their struggles to get out ; the right move- 

 ment was hit upon by accident. Only very gradually, as 

 the experiment was repeated again and again, were the 

 useless movements omitted, until finally the right one was 



Fig. 13. — Puzzle box used in Thorndike's experiments on cats. 



performed at once (704). Wesley Mills criticised these 

 ^ pioneer experiments of Thorndike's on the ground that the 

 animals were under such unnatural conditions and in such 

 an extreme state of hunger that they profited by experi- 

 ence more slowly than might otherwise have been the case 

 (492) ; and this may have been to a certain extent true. 

 In testing monkeys with puzzle boxes Thorndike placed 

 the food on the inside and the monkeys on the outside. He 

 found a marked difference between the speed of their 

 learning and that shown by the cats and dogs. "Whereas 

 the latter were practically unanimous, save in the cases of 

 the very easiest performances, in showing a process of 



