Animal Intelligence

An Experimental Study of the Associate Processes in Animals

E. L. Thorndike

T
his monograph is an attempt at an explanation of
should today class an animal among the ‘worms.' To
the nature of the process of association in the animal give to the word a positive value and several definite
mind. Inasmuch as there have been no extended possibilities of meaning is one aim of this investigation.
researches o1 a character similar to the present one either The importance to comparative psychology in gen-
in subject-matter or experimental method, it is necessary eral of a more scientific account of the association-pro-
to explain briefly its standpoint.
cess in animals is evident. Apart from the desirability of
Our knowledge of the mental life of animals
knowing all the facts we can, of whatever sort, there
equals in the main our knowledge of their sense-powers,
is the especial consideration that these associations and
of their instincts or reactions performed without
consequent habits have an immediate import for
experience, and of their reactions which are built up by
biologi- cal science. In the higher animals the bodily
experience. Con- fining our attention to the latter we
life and preservative acts are largely directed by these
find it the opinion of the better observers and analysts
associa- tions. They, and not instinct, make the animal
that these reactions can all be explained by the ordinary
use the best feeding grounds, sleep in the same lair,
associative processes without aid from abstract,
avoid new dangers and profit by new changes in nature.
conceptual, inferential think- ing. These associative
Their higher development in mammals is a chief factor in
processes then, as present in ani- mals’ minds and as
the suprem- acy of that group. This, however, is a minor
displayed in their acts, are my subject- matter. Any nne
consideration. The main purpose of the study of the
familiar in even a general way with the literature of
animal mind is to learn the development of mental life
comparative psychology will recall that this part of the
down through the phylum, to trace in particular the origin
field has received faulty and unsuccessful treatment.
of human faculty. In relation to this chief purpose of
The careful, minute, and solid knowledge of the sense-
comparative psychol- ogy the association processes
organs of animals finds no counterpart in the realm of
assume a role predominant over that of sense-powers or
associations and habits. We do not know how delicate or
instinct, for in a study of the associative processes lies the
how complex or how permanent are the possi- ble
solution of the problem. Sense-powers and instincts have
associations of any given group of animals. And al-
changed by addition and supersedence, but the cognitive
though one would be rash who said that our present
side of consciousness has changed not only in quantity but
equipment of facts about instincts was sufficient or that
also in quality. Somehow out of these associative
our theories about it were surely sound, yet our notion
processes have arisen human con- sciousness with their
of what occurs when a chick grabs a worm are
sciences and arts and religions. The association of ideas
luminous and infallible compared to our notion of what
proper, imagination, memory, ab- straction,
happens when a kitten runs into the house at the familiar
generalization. judgment, inference, have here their
call. The reasons that they have satisfied us as well as
source. And in the metamorphosis the instincts, im- pulses,
they have is just that they are so vague. We say that the
emotions and sense-impressions have been trans- formed
kitten associates the sound “kitty kitty' with the
out of their old natures. For the origin and devel- opment
experience of nice milk to drink, which does very well
of human faculty we must look to these processes of
for a common- sense answer. It also suffices as a
association in lower animals. Not only then does this
rebuke to those who would have the kitten ratiocinate
department need treatment more, but promises to repay
about the matter, but it fails to tell what real mental
the worker better.
content is present. Does the kitten feel “sound of call, Although no work done in this field is enough like
memory-image of milk in a saucer in the kitchen, the present investigation to require an account o1’ its re-
thought of running into the house, a feeling, finally, of sults, the method hitherto in use invites comparison by
‘1 will run in’?” Does he perhaps feel only the sound of its contrast and, as I believe, by its faults. In the first
the bell and an impulse to run in, similar in quality to place, most of the books do not give us a psychology,
the impulses which make a tennis player run to and fro but rather a eulog y, of animals. They have all been about
when playing? The word association may cover a
multitude of essentially different processes, and when a
writer attributes anything that an animal may do to Editor’s note. This excerpt ifi reprinted from ‘ ‘Animal Intelligence:
association his statement has only the negative value of An Experimental Study of the Associate Processes in Aniinals,” by
E. L. Thorndike, 1898, Ps5'chologicul Review 3fonngrnpfi Supplement,
eliminating reasoning on the one hand and instinct on
1‹4), 1—8.
the other. His position is like that of a zoologist who

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October 1998 • American Psychologist
Vol. 53, No. 10, 1 1 2—5 1 127
 animal iiitelli gence, never about animal .‹tupidity. Though
the representative of the cat-mind in all the books. The
a writer derides the notion that animals have reason, he
unconscious distortion o1’ the facts is almost harmless
hastens to add that they have marvelous capacity of form- compared to the unconscious neglect of an animal’s men-
ing associations, and is likely to refer to the fact that tal life until it verges on the unusual and marvelous. It
human beings only rarely reason anything out, that their is as if some denizen of a planet where communication
trains of ideas are ruled mostly by association, as if, in was by thought-transference, who was surveying hu-
this latter. animals were on par with them. The history mankind and reporting their psychology, should be oblivi-
of books on animals’ minds thus furnishes an illustration ous to all our inter-communication save such as the psy-
of the well-nigh universal tendency in human nature to chieal-research society has noted. It he should liirther
find the marvelous wherever it can. We wonder that the misinterpret the cases of mere coincidence of thoughts
stars are so big and so far apart, that the microbes are as facts comparable to telepathic communication, he
so small and so thick together, and for much the same would not be more wrong than some of the animal psy-
reason wonder at the things animals do. They used to be chologists. In short, the anecdotes give really the abnor-
wonderful because of the mysterious, God-given faculty mal or super-nomial psychology of animals.
of instinct, which could almost remove mountains. More Further, it must be confessed that these vices have
lately they have been wondered at because of their mar- been only ameliorated, not obliterated, when the observa-
velous mental powers in profiting by experience. Now tion is hrst-hand, is made by the psychologist himself.
imagine an astronomer tremendously eager to prove the For as men of the utmost scientific skill have failed to
stars as big as possible, or a bacteriologist whose great prove good observers in the field of spiritualistic phenom-
scientific desire is to demonstrate the microbes to be very, ena,’ so biologists and psychologists before the pet terrier
very little! Yet there has been a similar eagerness on the or hunted fox often become like Samson shorn. They,
part of many recent writers on animal psychology to too, have looked for the intelligent and unusual and ne-
praise the abilities of animals. It cannot help leading to glected the stupid and normal.
partiality in deductions from facts and more especially Finally, in all cases, whether of direct observation
in the choice of facts for investigation. How can scientists or report by good observers or bad, there haxe been three
who write like lawyers, defending animals against the other defects. Only a single case is studied, and so the
charge o1‘ having no power o1’ rationality, be at the same results are not necessarily true fer the type; the observa-
time impartial judges on the bench? Unfortunately the tion is not repeated, nor are the conditions perfectly regu-
real work in this field has been done in this spirit. The lated; the previous history of the animal in question is
level-headed thinkers who might have won valuable re- now known. Such observations may tell us, if the ob-
sults have contented themselves with arguing against the server is perfectly reliable, that a certain thing takes place,
theories of the eulogists. They have not made investiga- but they cannot assure us that it will take place universally
tions of their own. among the animals of that species, or universally with
In the second place the facts have 8e • e £a lly been the same animal. Nor can the influence of previous expe-
derived from anecdotes. Now quite apart from such ped- rience be estimated. All this refers to means of getting
antry as insists that a man’s word about a scientific fact knowledge about what animals do. The next question is,
is worthless unless he is a trained scientist, there are “What do they feel?” Previous work has not furnished
really in this field special objections to the acceptance an answer or the material for an answer to this more
of the testimony about animals’ intelligent acts which important question. Nothing but carefully designed, cru-
one gets from anecdotes. Such testimony is by no means cial experiments can. In abandoning the old method one
on a par with testimony about the size of a fish or the ought to seek above all to replace it by one which will
migration ol‘ birds, etc. F'or here one has to deal not not only tell more accurately what the y du, and give the
merely with ignorant or inaccurate testimony, but also much-needed information how the y do ii, but also inform
with prejudiced testimony. Human folk are as a matter us what the y feel while they act.
of fact eager to find intelligence in animals. They like to. fi remedy these defects experiment must be substi-
And when the animal observed is a pet belonging to them tuted for observation and the collection of anecdotes.
or their friends, or when the story is one that has been Thus you immediately get rid of several of them. You
told as as story to entertain, further complications are can repeat the conditions at will, so as to see whether or
introduced. Nor is this all. Besides commonly misstating not the animal’s behavior is due to mere coincidence. A
what facts they report, they report only such facts as number of animals can be subjected to the same test, so
show the animal at his best. Dogs gct lost hundreds of‘ as to attain typical results. The animal may be pui in
times and no one ever notices it or sends an account of situations where its conduct is especially instructive.
it to a scientific magazine. But let one find his way from
Brooklyn to Yonkers and the fact immediately becomes
a circulating anecdote. Thousands o1 cats on thousands ' I do not mean that scientists hnve been too credulous with regard to
of occasions sit helples-sly yowling, and no one takes spiritualism, but am referring to the cases where ten or twenty scientists
thought of it or writes to his friend, the professor; but have been sent to observe some trick-peiformance by a spiritualistic
'medium,’ and havc all been absolutely confidcnt that they undcrstood
let one cat claw at the knob of a door supposedly as a the secret of its performance, rach of theirs $tying a toiall¡' different
signal to be let out, and straightway this cat becomes exy'laiiation.

1126 October 1995 • American Psychologist

After considerable preliminary observation of animals’ functions and permit them to be carefully observed.
behavior under various conditions, I chose for my general One may, by following it, observe personally more
method one which, simple as it is, possesses several other intelligent acts than are included in any anecdotal
marked advantages besides those which accompany ex- collection. And this actual vision of animals in the act
periment of any sort. It was merely to put animals when of using their minds is far more fruitful than any
hungry in enclosures from which they could escape by amount of histories of what animals have done without
some simple act, such as pulling at a loop of cord,
the history of how they did it. But besides affording this
press- ing a lever, or stepping on a platform. (A detailed
opportunity for purposeful and systematic observation,
descrip- tion of these boxes and pens will be given
our method is val- uable because it frees the animal from
later.) The animal was put in the enclosure, food was
left outside in sight, and his actions observed. Besides any influence of the observer. The animal’s behavior is
recording his general behavior, special notice was taken quite independent of any factors save its own hunger, the
of how he succeeded in doing the necessary act (in case mechanism of the box it is in, the food outside, and such
he did succeed), and a record was kept of the time that general matters as fatigue, indisposition, etc. Therefore
he was in the box before performing the successful pull, or the work done by one investigator may be repeated and
claw- ing, or bite. This was repeated until the animal verified or modi- fied by another. No personal factor is
had formed a perfect association between the sense- present save in the observation and interpretation.
impres- sion of the interior of that box and the impulse Again our method gives some very important results
leading to the successful movement. When the which are quite uninfluenced by any personal fact in any
association was thus pert‘ect, the time taken to escape way. The curves showing the progress of the formation
was, or course, practically constant and very short. of associations, which are obtained from the records of
If, on the other hand, after a certain time the animal the times taken by the animal in successive trials, are
did not succeed, he was taken out, but nc'i /et. II’, after facts which may be obtained by any observer who can
a sufficient number of trials, he failed to get out, the tell time. They are absolute, and whatever can be
case was recorded as one of complete failure. Enough deduced from them is sure. So also the question of
different sorts of methods of escape were tried to make whether an animal does or does not form a certain
it fairly sure that association in general, not association association requires for an answer no higher
of a particular sort of impulse, was being studied. Enough qualification in the observer than a pair of eyes. The
animals were taken with each box or pen to make it sure literature of animal psychr›1ogy shows so uniformally and
that the results were not due to individual peculiarities. often so sadly the influence of the personal equation that
None of the animals used had any previous acquaintnnce any method which can partially e1’imi’natc it deserves a
with any of the mechanical contrivances by which the trial.
doors were opened. So far as possible the animnls were Furthermore, although the associations formed are
kept in a uniform state of hunger, which was practically such as could not have been previously experienced or
utter hunger. That is, no cat or dog was experimented provided for by heredity, they are still not too remote
on when the experiment involved any important question from the animal’s ordinary courses of life. They mean
of fact or theory, unless I was sure that his motive was simply the connection of a certain act with a certain
of the standard strength. With chicks this is not situation and resultant pleasure, and this general type of
practicable, on account of their delicacy. But with them association is found throughout the animal's life nor-
dislike of loneliness acts as a uniform motive to get mally. The muscular movements required are all such as
back to the other chicks. Cats (or rather kittens), dogs might often be required of the animal. And yet it will be
and chicks were the subjects of the experiments. All were noted that the acts required are nearly enough like the
apparently in excellent health, save an occasional acts of the anecdotes to enable one to compare the results
chick. of experiment by this method with the work of the
By this method of experimentation the animals are anec- dote school. Finally, it may be noticed that the
put in situations which call into activity their mental method lends itself readily to experiments on
imitation.

October 1998 • American Ps’ycho1ogist

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