The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-06-06

entered their wise little heads, until
they hit the right one. Then they
practised that till they could do 1t,
first slowly, then quickly. then in
stantly, as a man would do 1t the
first time.
One coon, for example, spent a half
hour paving about, until by accident,
tumbling headfrst from the top, his
hind foot happened to lift the latch
and let him in. Next time he imme-
diately climbed TO the top of the
boz, tumbled off. stood on his head and
paved open the door with his hind
foot. In the course Of days he dis
covered that his front paw answered
as well and that there was 10 occasion
to stand on his head.
Men, for the m ost part, conduct the
business Of life as the coon opened the
door. They learn by their mistakes,
profit by their errors. gradually do
more and more nearly right, as they
And by trial that one scheme works
and another does not. They don't
expect to play poker or to sell shoes
or to make love especially well at the
first try.
Nevertheless there are some uncom-
monty able men who follow the other
method and go straight to the heart
OF their problem at the first Lick. -Du
Maurier and De Morgan arrived
with-thefr first stories. Neither C1eve-
land nor Wilson had had much politi-
cal experience. Every man finds
something that he does perfectly at
the first go.
Most tests of animal intelligence.
then, have been Of their learning by
trial and error. In these. dog. cat.
monkey and coon break about even.
Any one Of them, given time enough.
will find out pretty much anything
that he Is interested in knowing. Also.
unlike the horse or the COW, he will
nose for news, ever ready 10 improve
his MIND
Now comes Prof. w. T. Shepherd.
Phi. D., to test cat. dog. and monkey
on the other kind of thinking, the
kind that proceeds by analysis and
goes right the first time. His method
was to set a simple problem and see
IL the creature could think it out in
the logical. not the experimental, way.
He put his monkeys one at a time
in a cage eleven in all and all hum
cry. Outside the cage and just be-
yond the creatures reach he hung a
banana. Through the banana he
thrust a light stick that reached near
enough to the cage to be seized from
within.
Most Of the monkeys took one
glance at the situation, jumped
straight for the near end OF the
stick, and within six seconds were
setting accounts with the banana.
They saw exactly what was to be
done and did it straight off the first
time as we'll as they ever could.
Three OF the eleven monkeys found
the method Of analysis a little too
hard for them. One Of them took a
whole minute, another more than a
minute n a half to get a grip on
the problem. Even at the third trial
It took one Of them five times as long
o get his meal az it look some OF the
others.
The remaining animal was COM
pletely beaten. He fused around, ig-
nored the stick. tried to reach the
banana, and in general acted like a low
grade man trying to hold down a
high grade job. This by no means
complex problem proved too much
for his mentality.
n seconu test PROVIDED q ions llgnt
lever with the food at one end, too far
off to be reached, but the nearer
end within range. Here again the
creatures promptly met the test, all
except one of the three who had had
trouble with the other problem.
Still a third test involved a bit Of
food a yard off from the cage tied
to one end Of a string. while the other
end was within easy reach. Here
again, this tim unanimously. the
monkeys acted precisely as men would
have done. Their grasp of the situa-
ton was instantaneous.
Thereupon the same tests We're APP
piled to dogs. modified only by meat
for banana and by bringing sticks and
cords inside the cage where the dog
could take hold with his teeth.