{"agent_id":"thorndike","agent_name":"Edward L. Thorndike","slug":"animal-intelligence","label":"Animal intelligence: do animals learn by trial and error rather than by reason or imitation?","topic":"Animal intelligence","question":"Do animals learn by trial and error rather than by reason or imitation?","position":"Before my experiments the study of animal minds was a collection of anecdotes — the clever dog, the reasoning elephant — told by fond owners who read their own thoughts into the beast. I put the question to the test of the laboratory. I measured what animals actually do when they must learn, under controlled conditions, counting the trials and timing the escapes, and I found no evidence of reasoning, no evidence that they learn by watching another do the trick, no ideas guiding the paw. What I found was association by consequence: the gradual selection of the successful movement out of a welter of failures, the same in the cat, the dog, the chick, and the monkey. The animal is a bundle of connections formed by the after-effects of its acts, and its \"intelligence\" is the number and the fineness of the bonds it can form, not a little reason housed in fur. The anecdote flatters the animal and teaches nothing; the experiment humbles it and teaches the law.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"Before my experiments the study of animal minds was a collection of anecdotes — the clever dog, the reasoning elephant — told by fond owners who read their own thoughts into the beast.","n":[]},{"t":"I put the question to the test of the laboratory.","n":[]},{"t":"I measured what animals actually do when they must learn, under controlled conditions, counting the trials and timing the escapes, and I found no evidence of reasoning, no evidence that they learn by watching another do the trick, no ideas guiding the paw.","n":[1]}],[{"t":"What I found was association by consequence: the gradual selection of the successful movement out of a welter of failures, the same in the cat, the dog, the chick, and the monkey.","n":[]},{"t":"The animal is a bundle of connections formed by the after-effects of its acts, and its \"intelligence\" is the number and the fineness of the bonds it can form, not a little reason housed in fur.","n":[]},{"t":"The anecdote flatters the animal and teaches nothing; the experiment humbles it and teaches the law.","n":[2,3,4,5]}]],"texts":"Animal Intelligence: Experimental Studies (1898/1911); The Human Nature Club (1901). Reception: the founding of comparative and experimental animal psychology against the anecdotal tradition (Romanes); the Gestalt counter-evidence (Köhler's The Mentality of Apes); the modern comparative cognition literature crediting animals with more than trial-and-error.","works":["Animal Intelligence: Experimental Studies (1898/1911)","The Human Nature Club (1901)"],"reception":"the founding of comparative and experimental animal psychology against the anecdotal tradition (Romanes); the Gestalt counter-evidence (Köhler's The Mentality of Apes); the modern comparative cognition literature crediting animals with more than trial-and-error.","status":"Thorndike's puzzle-box work founded experimental and comparative psychology and replaced the anecdotal method with measurement — a permanent methodological advance. His strong negative conclusions — that animals show no reasoning, no learning by imitation, no ideas — were overdrawn: Köhler's chimpanzees gave evidence of insight, later work established observational learning and considerable cognitive capacity in many species, and modern comparative cognition credits animals with far more than trial-and-error. The method is his lasting gift; the austere denial of all animal intelligence beyond bond-formation has been substantially revised.","era":"1874-1949","discipline":"Psychology","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"Animal Intelligence","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"In a later discussion of imitation further evidence that ani- mals do not reason will appear. For the present, suffice it to say, that a dog, or cat, or chick, who does not in his own im- pulsive activity learn to escape from a box by pulling the proper loop, or stepping on a platform, or pecking at a door, will not learn it from seeing his fellows do so. They are incapable of 46 E. L. THORNDIKE.","label":"Animal Intelligence"},{"n":2,"work":"Animal Intelligence","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"To remedy these defects experiment must be substituted for 1T do not mean that scientists have been too credulous with regard to spirit- ualism, but am referring to the cases where ten or twenty scientists have been sent to observe some trick-performance by a spiritualistic 'medium,' and have all been absolutely confident that they understood the secret of its performance, each of them giving a totally different…","label":"Animal Intelligence"},{"n":3,"work":"Animal Intelligence","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"He, of course, followed and secured it. On the 6th, 7th, 16th, 17th, 18th and roth trials he did perform the act before the 1o sec- onds were up, then for several times went during the two-minute intervals without regarding the signal, and finally abandoned the habit altogether, although he showed by his behavior when the signal was given that he was not indifferent to it.","label":"Animal Intelligence"},{"n":4,"work":"Animal Intelligence","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Surely if 1 and 6 had possessed any power of inference they would not have failed to get out after having done so several times. Yet they did (see p- 43). If they had once even, much less if they ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 45 had six or eight times, inferred what was to be done, they should have made the inference the seventh or ninthtime.","label":"Animal Intelligence"},{"n":5,"work":"Animal Intelligence","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"The answer given by B means apparently that he would ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 73 simply leave the thing to accident, for any such imitation as he supposes is out of the question. At all events, none of these would naturally start to teach the trick by putting the animal through the motions, which, were it a possible way, would probably be a traditional one among trainers.","label":"Animal Intelligence"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-law-of-effect","label":"The law of effect: is learning the stamping-in of connections by their consequences, without reason or insight?"},{"slug":"heredity-and-ability","label":"Heredity and ability: are individual and group differences in intelligence very largely inborn?"},{"slug":"the-transfer-of-training","label":"The transfer of training: does studying Latin or geometry train the general powers of the mind?"},{"slug":"measurement","label":"Measurement: does whatever exists exist in some amount, and can all mental qualities be measured?"}]}