The associative processes of the guinea pig : a study of the psychical development of an animal with a nervous system well medullated at birth : a dissertation submitted to the Faculties of the Graduate Schools of Arts, Literature and Science, in candidacy for the degree of doctor of philosophy (Department of Philosophy) / by Jessie Blount Allen.

  • Allen, Jessie Blount.
Date:
[1904]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The associative processes of the guinea pig : a study of the psychical development of an animal with a nervous system well medullated at birth : a dissertation submitted to the Faculties of the Graduate Schools of Arts, Literature and Science, in candidacy for the degree of doctor of philosophy (Department of Philosophy) / by Jessie Blount Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    7/74 (page 297)
    Animals with complex psychical processes have been studied more extensively than the lowest forms, and the work done here comprises the principal literature in animal psychol- pgy. The classical treatises of Principal Lloyd Morgan are the model and the stimulus for all subsequent investigation. A recent book of his, “Animal Behavior,” contains summaries and critical notes of all new literature on animal psychology, and a timely discussion of the current conceptions and hypo- theses. Morgan, who has worked with chicks especially, finds memory, intelligent adaptations and a considerable discrimina- tion of objects among birds. Besides the numerous researches upon the chick, few other birds have been observed with re- spect to their psychical processes. Wesley Mills* is among the pioneers in the field of ex- perimental psychology. His observations upon a large number of animals, and suggestions concerning the correlation between physical and psychical development, are of especial value as recognizing the problems and methods of most recent investi- gations. The employment of the laboratory method of observation and experimentation has led to fruitful results in that, as condi- tions are known and controllable, explanations of given reac- tions may be made with a greater degree of assurance. Thok.ndike has given explicit and clear-cut formulation to the method of experimentation with animals. His free-and-easy psychological terminology, with his desire for a severely scien- tific interpretation of results, as well as unusual confidence in the meaning of facts observed, stimulate competition, not to say contradiction. i\Iy work on the guinea pig has been under- taken from a point of view somewhat similar to that assumed by Thorndike; viz., the point of view that the law of parsi- mony must govern interpretation, and a sufficient number of control experiments must condition every statement madet Reference will be made to specific points of Thorndike's work as occasion arises. ' Mills. The Nature and Developinent of Animal Intelligence, 1S98.