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Edward L. Thorndike
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LIST PRICE: $39.95
MEMBER/AFFILIATE PRICE: $39.95
116 pages
ITEM #: 4320009
ISBN: 1-59147-494-9
ISBN 13: 978-1-59147-494-4
PUBLICATION DATE: 1898
EDITION: Softcover
View the Table of Contents
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This monograph is an attempt at an explanation of the nature of the process of association in the animal mind. Inasmuch as there have been no extended researches of a character similar to the present one either in subject-matter or experimental method, it is necessary to explain briefly its standpoint. Our knowledge of the mental life of animals equals in the main our knowledge of their sense-powers, of their instincts or reactions performed without experience, and of their reactions which are built up by experience. Confining our attention to the latter we find it the opinion of the better observers and analysts that these reactions can all be explained by the ordinary associative processes without aid from abstract, conceptual, inferential thinking. These associative processes then, as present in animals' minds and as displayed in their acts, are my subject-matter.
Anyone familiar in even a general way with the literature of comparative psychology will recall that this part of the field has received faulty and unsuccessful treatment. The careful, minute, and solid knowledge of the sense-organs of animals finds no counterpart in the realm of associations and habits. The main purpose of the study of the animal mind is to learn the development of mental life down through the phylum, to trace in particular the origin of human faculty. In relation to this chief purpose of comparative psychology the associative processes assume a role predominant over that of sense-powers or instinct, for in a study of the associative processes lies the solution of the problem. Sense-powers and instincts have changed by addition and supersedence, but the cognitive side of consciousness has changed not only in quantity but also in quality.
This title will be printed on demand by the American Psychological Association (APA) from APA’s PsycBOOKS® database and may not be an exact duplicate of the work in its original printed form. All sales final; no returns accepted.
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