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Were the dog capable of drawing inferences from simple percep- tional data it might be possible for him to reach some recognition of this reality by simple comparison of his perceptions after the manner of Mill. But we cannot ascribe such faculties of inference to an ordinary dog. We must presuppose more impressive startling kind of experience in the dogs case. He is perhaps pursuing some game which darts around or behind tree or stone while the dog in close pursuit dashes his head against the object. An experience or two of this kind would teach him to respect the tree or the stone that is to treat it as some- thing that has the power of resisting hurting him his experience would also call forth his latent memory association-processes the result of which would be his power to recognize the tree or the stone as an object which would arouse certain experiences even before he had actually repeated the experience of their arousal. prev next |