Animal intelligence: Experimental studiesThorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Science
Animal intelligence: Experimental studies
Thorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Animal intelligence; Psychology, Comparative
K was a box arranged so that three separate acts were required to open
the door, which was held by two bolts at the top and two bars outside.
One of the bolts was connected with a platform in the back center of the
box so that depressing the platform raised the bolt. The other was raised
by a string which ran up over a pulley in the front, across the box 1
inch above the bars, over a pulley near the corner of the box, and down
to the floor, where it was fastened. Pulling on this string, either by
clawing at it where it was running vertically from the last pulley to the
floor, or by putting the paw out between the bars which covered the top
of the box, and clawing the string downward, would raise the bolt. If
both bolts were raised and _either_ bar was pushed up or down far enough
to be out of the way, the cat could escape. K, or ‘_Triple_,’ as it may
be called, is the box reproduced in Figure 1.
L was a box that also required three acts to open the door. It was a
combination of A (O at front), D (string), I (lever). The lever or bar
to be depressed was 2 inches to the right of the door, which was in the
front center. The string to be clawed or bitten ran from front center to
back center 1 inch below the top of the box.
Z was a box with back and sides entirely closed, with front and top
closed by bars and screening, with a small opening in the left-hand
corner. A box was held in front of this and drawn away when the cats
happened to lick themselves. Thus escape and food followed always upon
the impulse to lick themselves, and they soon would immediately start
doing so as soon as pushed into the box. The same box was used with the
impulse changed to that for scratching themselves. The size of this box
was 15 × 10 × 16.
EXPERIMENTS WITH CATS
In these various boxes were put cats from among the following. I give
approximately their ages while under experiment.
No. 1. 8-10 months.
No. 2. 5-7 months.
No. 3. 5-11 months.
No. 4. 5-8 months.
No. 5. 5-7 months.
No. 6. 3-5 months.
No. 7. 3-5 months.
No. 8. 6-6½ months.
No. 10. 4-8 months.
No. 11. 7-8 months.
No. 12. 4-6 months.
No. 13. 18-19 months.
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