Finally we sought to discover by what movements the horse could be made
to cease tapping. We discovered that upward movements served as signals
for stopping. The raising of the head was the most effective, though the
raising of the eyebrows, or the dilation of the nostrils--as in a
sneer--seemed also to be efficacious. However, it was impossible for me
to discover whether or not these latter movements were accompanied by
some slight, involuntary upward movement of the head. The upward
movement of the head was ineffective only when it did not occur as a
jerk, but was executed in a circuitous form,--first upward and then back
again. Such a movement was occasionally observed in the case of Mr. von
Osten. The elevation of the arms or of the elbow nearest the horse, or
the elevation of the entire body was also effective. Even if a placard,
with which the experimenter tried to cover his face, were raised at a
given moment, the horse would make the back-step. On the other hand,
head movements to the right and to the left or forward and back, in
fine, all horizontal movements, remained ineffective. We also found that
all hand movements, including the "wonderfully effective thrust of the
hand into the pocket filled with carrots", brought no response. I might
also change my position and walk forward and then backward some distance
behind the horse, but the back-step would only occur in response to the
characteristic stimulus. After what has been said it is easy to
understand how vain were Mr. Schillings' attempts to disturb the horse
and how naturally he might conclude that Hans was not influenced by
visual signs. Mr. Schillings simply did not know which signs were
effective.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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