. Animal behaviour. Animal behavior; Animal intelligence. 148 INTELLIGENT BEHAVIOUR simple as it is, possesses several other marked advantages besides those which accompany experiment of any sort. It was merely to put animals when hungry in enclosures from which they could escape by some simple act, such as pulhng at a loop of cord, pressing a lever, or stepping on a platform. The animal was put in the enclosure, food was left outside in sight, and his actions observed. Besides recording his general behaviour, special notice was taken of how he succeeded in doing the necessary act (in case he
. Animal behaviour. Animal behavior; Animal intelligence. 148 INTELLIGENT BEHAVIOUR simple as it is, possesses several other marked advantages besides those which accompany experiment of any sort. It was merely to put animals when hungry in enclosures from which they could escape by some simple act, such as pulhng at a loop of cord, pressing a lever, or stepping on a platform. The animal was put in the enclosure, food was left outside in sight, and his actions observed. Besides recording his general behaviour, special notice was taken of how he succeeded in doing the necessary act (in case he did succeed), and a record was kept of the time that he was in the box before performing the successful pull, or clawing, or bite. This was repeated until the animal had formed a perfect association between the sense-impression of the interior of that box and the impulse leading to the successful movement. When the association was thus perfect, the time taken to escape was, of course, practically constant and very Pig. 22.—Cage used in Professor Thorndike'a experiments. "If, on the other hand, after a certain time the animal did not succeed, he was taken out, but not fed. If, after a sufiScient number of trials, he failed to get out, the case was recorded as one of complete failure. Encugh different sorts of methods of escape were tried to make it fairly sure that association in general, not association of a particular sort of impulse, was being studied. Enough animals were taken with each box or pen to make it sure that the results were not due to individual peculiarities. None of the animals used had any previous acquaintance with any of the mechanical contrivances by which the doors were opened. So far as possible the animals were kept in a uniform state of hunger, which was practically utter ;. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of t
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