Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-08-21
INTELLIGENCE OF MONKEYS.
In Many Respects the Animals Hear
~ q Strong Resemblance to j
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"A series of careful experiments
with monkeys has recently been con-
Quoted by Prof. Edward Z. Thorndike
to ascertain the power and process
by which these animals acquire
knowledge. He has reached the con-
clusion, says a scientific paper, that
there is no warrant for the popular
idea that monkeys and other animals
learn from human example and by
the processes followed by man. But,
the experimenter says, the fact that
monkeys do not possess the human
types of ideas must not be taken as
evidence that they are no nearer rela-
tives to us mentally than are the
other lower animals. On the con-
trary, they occupy an. intermediate
position in every main psychological
feature between mammals in general
and the human species.
The essentials in an inventory of
an animals mental capacities are its
sense powers, the kinds of move
~ments it can make and their delicacy,
completely and number, it's instincts
or the sum of those tendencies to feel
and act which it has apart. from ex-
perience or learning and it's method
of learning or of modifying it's be-
havior to suit the multitudinous cir
cumstances of life. In each of these
respects the monkeys show kinship
with man.
In their motor equipment monkeys
possess first of all the muscular CO.
ordinations necessary to sustain an
upright position and consequently
the use of the forelimbs. The move
ments of these forelimbs are more in
number and suited to more complex
and varied tasks than are those of
lower animals. The attractiveness of
the monkey cage in a geological gar.
den is largely due to the similarity
of the monkeys movements and our
own. The monkey. not only has
body like a mans, but he also uses
it like a man.
Our native tendencies are so meta
morphosed by the education of a civ
ilized environment that in: adult age
they seldom appear in, recognizable
form. But if we take human beings
at from six months to three years of
age or later we find plenty of traits
that appear in the monkeys. In fact,
the human instinct which is perhaps
of prime Importance in human men,
tally, the instinct, which perhaps is
the real cause of many of our most
boosted powers, has it's clear proto~
type and homelogue in the monkey.
I refer to the instructive enjoyment
of physical and mental activity in
general, to the tendencies to- act and
feel as much as possible, regardless
of any ulterior practical considera-
tions, which we sometimes call de-
structiveness or constructlveness and
curiosity.
Even the casual observer, If he has
any psychological insight, will be
struck by the general, aimless, in
trinsically valuable Ito the animals
feelings) physical activities of
monkey compared with the special
lied, definitely aroused, utilitarian
activities of a dog or cat. Watch the
latter and he does but few things,
does them in response to obvious
sense present ations, does them with
practical consequences of food. sex
indulgence, preparation for adult
battles, etc. If nothing that appeals
to his special organization comes up
he does nothing. Watch a monkey
and you cannot enumerate the things
he does, cannot discover the stimuli
to which he reacts, cannot conceive
the raison d'etre of his pursuits.
Everything appeals to him. He likes
to be active for the sake of activity.
The observer who has proper oppor-
tunities and takes proper pains will
find this intrinsic interest to hold
true of mental activity as well.
Finally, in their method of learn
ing, although monkeys do not reach
the human stage of rich life of
ideas, yet they carry the animal
method of learning, by the selection
of impulses and associations of them
with the different sense impressions,
to point beyond that reached by
any other Of the lower animals, In
this, too, they resemble man, for he
differs from the lower animals not
only in the possession of new sort
of intelligence, but also in the ire
mendous extensions. of that sort
which he has in common with them.
A fish learns slowly few simple hab-
it's. Man learns quickly an infinitude
of habits that may be highly COM
pick. Dogs and cats learn more than
the fish, while monkeys learn more
than they. In the number of things
he learns, the complex habits he can
form, the. variety of lines along
which he can learn them and in their
permanence when once formed the
monkey justifies. his inclusion with
man in separate mental genus.
SPEEDY Americanization.
Nothing pleased me more in the
states than to go into one of the
public schools and watch America