Loeb holds that all animals which are less developed than the tree-frog show no signs of learning at all.
Such an interesting conclusion and I wonder if they saw what exactly set them apart to not be able to accomplish the task set at trial to see if it is the same in humans.
Let us complete the picture of the methods used by our student of animal psychology. His animal is hungry; food is near by, in plain view, or at least within smelling distance, but out of the immediate control of the animal. But the animal must do something, turn a latch, pull out a bolt or gnaw a string before he can obtain the food. Our student sits patiently by with pencil, paper and stopwatch in hand.
Would this be borderline conditioning of the animal instead of an observation of it. As it is using food as the motivation there must be certain key things that the animals sees during these trials and think to do something to obtain the food.
The desire for food is one source of our control over the actions of our animals
This reminds me of the hierarchy of needs pyramid that has been brought up in past psychology courses!
The next most important concern of the investigator is to obtain the tamest animals which can be purchased or bred
I wonder if this call for tame animals can cause many bias errors as there is not a set definition on tame animals and could look different for each one. I also believe this wouldn't be an accurate study if they are looking at attaining bred or tame animals as it limits the data that can be collected.
In the first place, he must be prepared to watch his animals day in and day out, not for weeks, but for months. He must spend the greatest care upon them, doing his best to keep them in uniformly good condition. Time and money are spent upon their diet and the utmost precautions are taken to provide them with a warm and cleanly habitation. The higher we ascend in the animal scale, the greater care we must exert to keep our animals happy, and finally, when we reach the higher mammals, the conditions maintained for their care are not unlike those obtaining in any (well-kept) nursery.
I am surprised to see such care and respect for the animals at such an early time even before clear ethical rules were set in stone in regards to experiments on animals.
Furthermore, the time is not far distant when experiment stations will be established for the exclusive study of the minds of animals.
This really foreshadowed the countless animal scientist there is around the world now. It is because of the cat psychologist and researchers that I was able to watch a documentary about the mind of cats to understand my pet better.
If it is objected that language, the ability to communicate thought, forever makes the study of man different from that of the animal, we must at once take the position that language after all is nothing but a highly elaborated and complex form of behavior
A lot of people are seen as less if they are unable to speak or hear, I believe this early on observation shows how language is not a distinguisher, but a added trait. With this perspective, I feel like it opened doors for much more research and information about the human mind not just the animals.