Still more noteworthy evidence is found in the behavior of cats and dogs who were put in these boxes, left one or two minutes, and then put through the proper movement. For example, a cat would be put in B (O at back) and left two minutes. I would then put my hand in through the top of the box, take the cat’s paw and with it pull down the loop. The cat would then go out and eat the fish. This would be done over and over again, and after every ten or fifteen such trials the cat would be left in alone. If in ten or twenty minutes he did not escape, he would be taken out through the top and not fed. In one series of experiments animals were taken and thus treated in boxes from which their own impulsive activity had failed to liberate them. The results, given in the table below, show that no animal who fails to perform an act in the course of his own impulsive activity will learn it by being put through it.
In these experiments some of the cats and all of the dogs but No. 1 showed no agitation or displeasure at my handling from the very start. Nor was there any in Dog 1 or the other cats after a few trials. It may also be remarked that in the trials alone which took place during and at the end of the experiment the animals without exception showed that they did not fail to perform the act from lack of a desire to get out. They all tried hard enough to get out and would surely have used the association if they had formed it.
Table 7
| Individual | Apparatus | Time in which impulsive activity failed to lead to the act | Number of times the animal was put through the movement | Time in which this experience failed to lead to the act | Time of final trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cat 1 | F (String outside unfastened) | 55.00 | 77 | 120.00 | 20.00 |
| Cat 5 | G (Thumb latch) | 57.00 | 59 | 55.00 | 10.00 |
| Cat 7 | G (Thumb latch) | 50.00 | 30 | 35.00 | 10.00 |
| Cat 2 | G (Thumb latch) | 54.00 | 141 | 110.00 | 20.00 |
| Dog 2 | BB1 (O at back, high) | 48.00 | 30 | 80.00 | 60.00 |
| Dog 3 | BB1 (O at back, high) | 20.00 | 85 | 55.00 | 10.00 |
| Dog 2 | M (Lever outside) | 15.00 | 95 | 140.00 | 30.00 |
| Dog 1 | FF[12] | 30.00 | 110 | 135.00 | 60.00 |
| Chick 89 | X (see [page 53]) | 20.00 | 30 | 60.00 | 30.00 |
| Cat 13 | KKK,[13][14] | 40.00 | 65 | 60.00 | 10.00 |
Now, the only difference between the experiences of the animals in these experiments and their experiences in those where they let themselves out, is that here they only saw and felt themselves making the movement, whereas in the other case they also felt the impulse, gave the innervation. That, then, is the essential. It may be objected that the animals failed because they did not attend to the process of being put through the movement, that, had they attended to it, they would later themselves have made the movement. It is, however, improbable that out of fifty times an animal should not have attended to what was going on at least two or three times. But if seeing himself do it was on a par with feeling an impulse to and so doing it, even two or three times would suffice to start the habit. And it is even more improbable that an experience should be followed by keen pleasure fifty times and not be attended to with might and main, unless animals attend only to their own impulses and the excitements thereof. But if the latter be true, it simply affirms our view from a more fundamental standpoint.
In another set of experiments animals were put in boxes with whose mechanisms they had had no experience, and from which they might or might not be able to escape by their own impulsive acts. The object was to see whether the time taken to form the association could be altered by my instruction. The results turned out to give a better proof of the inability to form an association by being put through the act than any failure to change the time-curve. For it happened in all but one of the cases that the movement which the animal made to open the door was different from the movement which I had put him through. Thus, several cats were put through (in Box C [button]) the following movement: I took the right paw and, putting it against the lower right-hand side of the button, pushed it round to a horizontal position. The cats’ ways were as follows: No. 1 turned it by clawing vigorously at its top; No. 6, by pushing it round with his nose; No. 7, in the course of an indiscriminate scramble at first, in later trials either by pushing with his nose or clawing at the top, settling down finally to the last method. Nos. 2 and 5 did it as No. 1 did. Cat 2 was tried in B (O at back). I took his paw and pressed the loop with it, but he formed the habit of clawing and biting the string at the top of the box near the front. No. 1 was tried in A. I pressed the loop with his paw, but he formed the habit of biting at it.
In every case I kept on putting the animal through the act every time, if at the end of two minutes (one in several cases) it had not done it, even after it had shown, by using a different way, that my instruction had no influence. I never succeeded in getting the animal to change its way for mine. Moreover, if any one should fancy that the animal really profited by my instruction so as to learn what result to attain, namely, the turning of a certain button, but chose a way of his own to turn it, he would be deluding himself. The time taken to learn the act with instruction was no shorter than without.
If, then, an animal happens to learn an act by being put through it, it is just happening, nothing more. Of course, you may direct the animal’s efforts so that he will perform the act himself the sooner. For instance, you may hold him so that his accidental pawing will be sure to hit the vital point of the contrivance. But the animal cannot form an association leading to an act unless the particular impulse to that act is present as an element of the association; he cannot supply it from a general stock. The groundwork of animal associations is not the association of ideas, but the association of idea or sense-impression with impulse.
In the questionnaire mentioned elsewhere, some questions were asked with a view to obtaining corroboration or refutation of this theory that an impulse or innervation is a necessary element in every association formed if that association leads to an act. The questions and answers were:—