The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-04-04

In the ease of chickens other OBJ
Stacles are used in place of doors. The
olrd. Tor instance. may have to mount
some steps to find its nourishment or
companions. which arc hidden from it.
n animal is always required to ere
ate !: mental association between the
lncloSurc and the means of getting
out. n dogs and cats are generally
moved by hunger. the chickens by the
desire of finding their companions.
I n cats shut up in the cage gener-
ally begin by acting violently, scratch
ing and biting the bars and passing
their paws TO the outside. At the end
OF eight or ten minutes they grow
calm and try to escape in a sensible
way, without paying much attention
to the o. which they see. by dint of
biting and scratching they end by dis
covering the method Of opening the
door and release themselves.
When the experiment is repeated
several times the cat comes to asso.
ria'e II act of opening the door and
the pleasure of getting out. After Il
few successful trials the cat comes to
bite or scratch h opening mechan-
ism Immediately. Placed i'm a similar
box he makes hardly any fuss, and
works the opening mechanism immc-
diately.
Dogs behave in Il different way.
They arc Very attentive to their nour-
ishment. think about that much more
than about the Gag and show less de-
sire to escape. They succeed quickly
IN learning tho opening mechanism
and recall how it works easily after
ward. Having once got to the food in
front or the cage they show no desire
to run far away. as the cats do.
Chickens were placed in a cage with
two outlets, n opening on the place
Whnra fhnir. fsNnrl n~<j
and the other on a closed cage. In
other cases an obstacle was placed in
the chickens path. such as steps to be
mounted or q tube through which it
mad to crawl. In other cases it could
escape by pecking at the door or
mounting Il little spiral staircase.
The shut-up chickens showed great
agitation. then tried to escape; but
they succeeded much less often than
the cats and dogs. According to these
results the dogs appeared most intelli-
gent. the cats lea to them, and the
chickens far behind.
Prof. Thorndikc argues that the ami
mails do no think like us; that with
them the impulse to the act comes
directly from tho feeling of discom-
fort caused by being shut w and bv
the desire to get out. They man form
an idea of the nature of the opening
mechanism, but it must be very rudi.
mentary.
Not me of them is capable of what
VIC call reasoning. The animal can
not infer that a certain act will pro-
Gure a forescen result. The mental as
sociations formed by animals may he
quite delicate. but then it requires a
long time to form them. For instance.
the professor. after 40 to go trials. ar-
customed a cat to go out of his cage
when he said, Il am going TO feed my
cats"
1t required ESQ experiments to lead
the cat to distinguish this speech from
the opposite. Il am not going to feed
my cats" and to stay in the cage when
this was said.
The number of associations formed
may be very considerable. Some
chickens even can learn % different
associations.
The associations formed can last a
long time. The cat trained to distin-
guish the two sentences given remem-
bered them so days later.