Animal intelligence: Experimental studiesThorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Science
Animal intelligence: Experimental studies
Thorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee)
Animal intelligence; Psychology, Comparative
In still another experiment the apparatus was (as shown in Fig. 20) a
pen 14 inches square, 10 inches high, with a wire screen in front and a
hole 3½ inches square in the back. This hole opened into a passageway (B)
leading around to C, where were the other chicks and food. Chicks who had
failed, when put in alone, to find the way out, were put in with other
chicks who had learned the way, to see if by seeing them go out they
would learn the way. Chick 70 was given 4 trials alone, being left in the
box 76 minutes all told. He was then given 9 trials (165 minutes) with
another chick who went out _via_ B 36 times. 70 failed to follow him on
any occasion. The trials were all given in the course of two days. Chick
73 failed in 1 trial (12 minutes) to get out of himself, and was then
given 4 trials (94 minutes) with another chick who went out _via_ B 33
times. In this experiment, as in all others reported, sure evidence that
the animals wanted to get out, was afforded by their persistent peckings
and jumpings at the screen or bars that stood between them and C. Chick
72, after 8 unsuccessful trials alone (41 minutes), was given 8 trials
with a chance to imitate. After the other chick had gone out 44 times,
72 _did go out_. He did not follow the other but went 20 seconds later.
It depends upon one’s general opinion whether one shall attribute this
one case out of three to accident or imitation.
I also took two chicks, one of whom learned to escape from A (in Fig. 19)
by going to B and jumping down the side to the _right_ of A, the other
of whom learned to jump down the side to the _left_, and placed them
together upon A. Each took his own course uninfluenced by the other in 10
trials.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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