Animal intelligence: Experimental studies — John Shaqi
Animal intelligence: Experimental studiesThorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Science
Animal intelligence: Experimental studies
Thorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Animal intelligence; Psychology, Comparative
A description has already been given on page 31 of the small box (C),
whose door fell open when the button was turned, and also of a large
box (CC) for the dogs, with a similar door. The thumb-latch experiment
was carried on with the same box (G) for both cats and dogs, but the
door was arranged so that a greater force (1.3 kilograms) was required
in the case of the dogs. It will be remembered that the latch was so
fixed that if the thumb piece were pressed down, without contemporaneous
outward pressure of the door, the latch bar would merely drop back into
its catch as soon as the paw was taken off the door. If, however, the
door were pushed outward, the latch bar, being pressed closely against
the outer edge of its catch, would, if lifted, be likely to fall outside
it and so permit the door to open if then or later sufficient pressure
were exerted. Eight cats (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 13) were, one
at a time, left in this thumb-latch box. All exhibited the customary
instinctive clawings and squeezings and bitings. Out of the eight all
succeeded in the course of their vigorous struggles in pressing down
the thumb piece, so that if the door had been free to swing open, they
could have escaped. Six succeeded in pushing both thumb-piece down and
door out, so that the bar did not fall back into its place. Of these five
succeeded in also later pushing the door open, so that they escaped and
got the fish outside. Of these, three, after repeated trials, associated
the complicated movements required with the sight of the interior of the
box so firmly that they attacked the thumb latch the moment they were put
in. The history of the formation of the association in the case of 3 and
of 4 is shown in the curves in Figs. 6 and 7. In the case of 13 the exact
times were not taken. The combination of accidents required was enough to
make No. 1 and No. 6 take a long time to get out. Consequently, weariness
and failure inhibited their impulses to claw, climb, etc., more than the
rare pleasure from getting out strengthened them, and they failed to
form the association. Like the cats who utterly failed to get out, they
finally ceased to try when put in. The history of their efforts is as in
Table 3: the figures in the columns represent the time (in minutes and
seconds) the animal was in the box before escaping or before being taken
out if he failed to escape. Cases of failure are designated by an F after
the figures. Double lines represent an interval of twenty-four hours.
TABLE 3
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