Animal intelligence: Experimental studiesThorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Science
Animal intelligence: Experimental studies
Thorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Animal intelligence; Psychology, Comparative
The behavior of all but 11 and 13 was practically the same. When put into
the box the cat would show evident signs of discomfort and of an impulse
to escape from confinement. It tries to squeeze through any opening; it
claws and bites at the bars or wire; it thrusts its paws out through any
opening and claws at everything it reaches; it continues its efforts
when it strikes anything loose and shaky; it may claw at things within
the box. It does not pay very much attention to the food outside, but
seems simply to strive instinctively to escape from confinement. The
vigor with which it struggles is extraordinary. For eight or ten minutes
it will claw and bite and squeeze incessantly. With 13, an old cat, and
11, an uncommonly sluggish cat, the behavior was different. They did not
struggle vigorously or continually. On some occasions they did not even
struggle at all. It was therefore necessary to let them out of some box
a few times, feeding them each time. After they thus associate climbing
out of the box with getting food, they will try to get out whenever put
in. They do not, even then, struggle so vigorously or get so excited
as the rest. In either case, whether the impulse to struggle be due
to an instinctive reaction to confinement or to an association, it is
likely to succeed in letting the cat out of the box. The cat that is
clawing all over the box in her impulsive struggle will probably claw
the string or loop or button so as to open the door. And gradually all
the other non-successful impulses will be stamped out and the particular
impulse leading to the successful act will be stamped in by the resulting
pleasure, until, after many trials, the cat will, when put in the box,
immediately claw the button or loop in a definite way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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