Animal intelligence: Experimental studiesThorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Science
Animal intelligence: Experimental studies
Thorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Animal intelligence; Psychology, Comparative
It has already been shown that in the animal kingdom there is, as we
pass from the early vertebrates down to man, a progress in the evolution
of the general associative process which practically equals animal
intellect, that this progress continues as we pass from the monkeys to
man. Such a progress is a real fact; it does exist as a possible _vera
causa_; it is thus at all events better than some imaginary cause of the
origin of human intellect, the very existence of which is in doubt. In a
similar manner we know that the neurones, which compose the brain and the
connections between which are the physiological parallels of the habits
that animals form, show, as we pass down through the vertebrate series,
an evolution along lines of increased delicacy and complexity. That an
animal associates a certain act with a certain felt situation means that
he forms or strengthens connections between certain cells. The increase
in number, delicacy and complexity of cell structures is thus the basis
for an increase in the number, delicacy and complexity of associations.
Now the evolution noted in cell structures affects man as well as the
other vertebrates. He stands at the head of the scale in that respect as
well. May not this obvious supremacy in the animal type of intellect and
in the adaption of his brain to it be at the bottom of his supremacy in
being the sole possessor of reasoning?
This question becomes more pressing if we realize that we must have some
sort of brain correlate for ideational life and reasoning. Some sort of
difference in processes in the brain must be at the basis of the mental
differences between man and the lower animals, we should all admit. And
it would seem wise to look for that difference amongst differences which
really do or at least may exist. Now the most likely brain difference
between man and the lower animals for our purpose, to my mind indeed the
only likely one, is just this difference in the fineness of organization
of the cell structures. If we could show with any degree of probability
how it might account for the presence of ideas and of reasoning, we
should at least have the satisfaction of dealing with a cause actually
known to exist.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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