Table 11
| Subject, Date, Act | Time tried alone, with result | No. of times imitatee did | Result after chance for imitation | Similarity or dissimilarity of act | Similar act attempted, though unsuccessfully in cases where it had not been before training | General judgment as to influence of training |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 3. Dec. 17, 1900. VV (wire loop) | 50 F | 43 | 55 F | No. | None. | |
| No. 3. Jan. 15, 1901. QQ (c) (nail chute) | 91 F | 75 | 35 F | No. | None. | |
| 1.30 | ||||||
| No. 3. Jan. 21, 1901. Gamma (wind) | 63 F | 43 | 5 F | Dissimilar. | No. | None. |
| 9.00 | ||||||
| 6.00 | ||||||
| No. 3. Jan. 21, 1901. QQ (ff) (string chute with wire) | 20 F | 30 | 1.30 | Dissimilar. | No. | None. |
| 2.00 | .40 | |||||
| .35 | ||||||
| 5 F | ||||||
| No. 3. Jan. 23, 1901. QQ (chute) | 1.15 F | 40 | 10 F | No. | None. |
Nothing in my experience with these animals, then, favors the hypothesis that they have any general ability to learn to do things from seeing others do them. The question is still an open one, however, and a much more extensive study of it should be made, especially of the possible influence of imitation in the case of acts already familiar either as wholes or in their elements.
Learning apart from Motor Impulses
The reader of my monograph, ‘Animal Intelligence,’ will recall that the experiments there reported seemed to show that the chicks, cats and dogs had only slight and sporadic, if any, ability to form associations except such as contained some actual motor impulse. They failed to form such associations between the sense-impressions and ideas of movements as would lead them to make the movements without having themselves previously in those situations given the motor impulses to the movements. They could not, for instance, learn to do a thing from having been put through it by me.
The monkeys Nos. 1 and 3 were tested in a similar way with a number of different acts. The general conclusion from the experiments, the details of which will be given presently, is that the monkeys are not proved to have the power of forming associations of ideas to any greater extent than the other mammals, that they do not demonstrably learn to do things from seeing or feeling themselves make the movement. An adult human being whose hand was taken and made to push in a bar or pull back a bolt would thereby learn to do it for himself. Cats and dogs would not, and the monkeys are not proved to do so. On the other hand, it is impossible for me to say, as of the dogs and cats, that the monkeys are proved not to do so. In a few cases the animals did perform acts after having been put through them which they had failed to perform when left to their own trial and success method. In the majority of cases they did not. And in some of these latter cases failure seemed so improbable in case the animal really had the power of getting an idea of the act and proceeding from idea to execution, that one is inevitably led to some explanation for the few successes other than the presence of ‘ideas.’
The general manner of making these experiments was like that in the case of the cats and dogs, save that the monkey’s paw was used to open the box from the outside instead of from the inside, and that the monkeys were also put through the acts necessary to operate some of the chute mechanisms. Tests parallel to that of comparing the behavior of kittens who had themselves gone into boxes with those who were dropped in by me were made in the following manner. I would carry a monkey from his cage and put him in some conspicuous place (e.g. on the top of a chair) and then give him a bit of food. This I would repeat a number of times. Then I would turn him loose in the room to see whether he had acquired an idea of being on the chair which would lead him to himself go to the chair. I would, in order to tell whether his act, in case he did so, was the result of random activities or was really due to his tuition, leave him alone for 5 or 10 minutes before the tuition. If he got on the chair afterwards when he had not before, or got on it much sooner, it would tend to show that the idea of getting food on that chair was present and effective. We may call these last the ‘on chair’ type of experiments.
A sample experiment with a box is the following:—