2i6 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



these two associations established, Hans gave the impres- 

 sion of having grasped the meaning of the color terms. 



The origin of the proper movements in response to the 

 jterms " up " and " down " may be explained by the fact 

 that the movements themselves were practised in a 

 purely external fashion. Thus, whenever the word 

 " left " was pronounced, the horse's head was pulled to 

 the left by means of the bridle or the reward was held off 

 to that side. Later, Mr. von Osten, who looked expect- 

 pectantly at the horse's head, whenever he pronounced the 

 word would unconsciously move his own head in the di- 

 rection in which he desired the horse to turn. This is 

 quite in accord with the words of Darwin to the effect that 

 whenever we wish an object tq move in a certain direc- 

 tion it is well-nigh impossible for us to inhibit an uncon- 

 scious, involuntary movement in that direction. Proof for 

 -this -may- be found on all sides, in daily experience.''' 

 Imagine, for instance, the strain sensations of the bowler 

 or billiard player as he follows the moving ball. It is im- 

 possible to decide whether Mr. von Osten, consciously 

 continued to image the head movements which he ex- 

 pected the horse to make or whether these anticipatory 

 images later remained below the threshold as was always 

 the case with Mr. Schillings and myself (see page loo). 

 But this question is of little significance, for even assum- 

 ing that he always thought of the movement he expected 

 on the part of the horse, this by no means implies that he 

 was conscious of the movements on his part, which were 

 associated with the thought process. 



Everything up to this point might be explained as the 

 working of simple memory association, but when we 

 come to problems in counting and arithmetical calcula- 

 tion, we are in the field of conceptual thought. Here, 



