98 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



ory image ") soon disappeared and the test was wholly 

 unsuccessful. Practice, however, soon helped me to over- 

 come this last difEculty also. I believe that my inability 

 to evoke this specific reaction on the part of the horse, 

 lay in the unfavorable position which I assumed, for it 

 did not allow the horse to preceive my movements easily. 

 For the same reason, Hans would at first indicate " no " 

 and " zero " by turning to the right, seldom to the left. 



As in the case of counting, a high degree of concentra- 

 tion was also necessary here, but with this difference, 

 that here attention was directed to ideas present to the 

 mind, ("yes", "no", etc.), whereas in the counting 

 process attention was directed toward expected sensory 

 impressions (i. e., the taps of the horse). 



All that has been said thus far is readily understood 

 psychologically. The following curious fact, however, is 

 noteworthy. Hans used the head-movement to indicate 

 two such different concepts as " zero " and " no " ; it ap- 

 peared therefore that in both cases he was receiving the 

 same kind of directive. Observation proved that such 

 was the case and the directive in question was none other 

 than an imitation in miniature, or rather a movement 

 anticipatory of the expected head-movement of the horse. 

 Now, whereas the signs for " up ", " down ", " right ", 

 and " left " were natural expressive movements which are 

 normally associated with the corresponding concepts, this 

 cannot be said to be true of " no * and " zero ". My 

 laboratory observations (see page 107) lead me to con- 

 clude that the movements, by means of which the concepts 

 " no " and " zero " are naturally expressed, are quite dif- 

 ferent ; and neither of these corresponds to the signs for 

 " zero " and " no " which the questioner involuntarily 

 gave to Hans. What was the genesis of these unnatural 



