Oskar Pfungst

“ I myself for some time made these involuntary movements quite unwittingly and even after I had discovered the nature of these movements and had thus become enabled to call forth at will all the various responses on the part of the horse, I still succeeded in giving the signs in the earlier naïve involuntary manner. It is not easy, to be sure, to eliminate at once the influence of knowledge and to focus attention with the greatest amount of concentration on the number desired, rather than upon the movement which leads to a successful reaction on the part of the horse. ”

“ The horse must have learned, in the course of the long period of problem-solving, to attend ever more closely, while tapping, to the slight changes in bodily posture with which the master unconsciously accompanied the steps in his own thought-processes, and to use these as closing signals. The motive for this direction and straining of attention was the regular reward in the form of carrots and bread, which attended it. This unexpected kind of independent activity and the certainty and precision of the perception of minimal movements thus attained, are astounding in the highest degree. ”

“ Hans, on the other hand, seemed to give evidence of a high degree of independence and never appeared to look at the questioner. But we know now that, though he was never dependent upon the will of his master, he, too, abjectly hung upon the man's involuntary movements and never for a moment lost him from view. But since the horse is able to observe with one eye alone, and needed to direct only it and not the entire head toward the questioner, in order to focus comfortably, one could not conclude as to his line of vision from the direction of the head. ”

“ The human thought-reader can interpret movements, for he is familiar with the ideas which are their source. Thus when at the second tap, I notice a very slight jerk of the subject's head, and a stronger one at the fifth tap, I infer that he thought of the problem 2+3=5. While the experimenter thus cannot be said to read thoughts, he still infers them. The animal, on the other hand, we may be reasonably sure, draws no such inferences. In its conscious life it remains ever on the sensory level. ”

“ A horse that could solve arithmetical problems—an animal which, thanks to long training, mastered not merely rudiments, but seemingly arrived at a power of abstract thought and which surpassed, by far, the highest expectations of the greatest enthusiast. ”

“ It was easy to obtain any answer one wished to a question, simply by focussing consciousness, with a great degree of intensity, upon the answer desired. Thus Hans answered my question: "How many angles has a hexagon?", first by 6, then 2, then 27, in accordance with the numbers that came into my mind. The animal always followed the ideas which were in the questioner's mind, and never his words, for it was with the former that the movements upon which the horse depended were bound up. ”

“ It would not be legitimate to condemn the whole procedure from the very beginning on the ground of the horse's lack of knowledge of language or of its use. It was Mr. von Osten's aim to convey to the horse an understanding of the language, by means of sense-presentations, adequate to give rise to the proper sense-perceptions. Helen Keller and other blind deaf-mutes have been educated to an understanding of the language without the aid of vision and hearing. They have come to it through the sense of touch alone. Everything depends upon whether or not the predisposition for it is present. ”

“ What the significance of inflection may be, I am not at all certain. When a certain one of a number of horses standing in the same stable was called, all of them responded by pricking their ears, raising their heads, or else turning about. For this reason the reaction of the horse specifically called lost all significance. Likewise the call which is ordinarily used in lunging when the man in the center of the circle wishes the horse to change its gait, or to advance toward him, also proved ineffectual as soon as the man inhibited every sort of movement. ”

“ In ordinary life we often notice that highly concentrated attention is usually accompanied by non-voluntary inhibition of movements in the musculature which, for the moment, is not directly involved; the man lost in thought slackens his pace and finally stands still, the intent listener or looker-on holds his breath.
Of the three curves registering the movements of the head, we find that nothing peculiarly characteristic is revealed by the two upper ones, giving the movements up and down, and to the right and left, respectively. ”

“ With regard to the emotional life we are justified in concluding from the behavior of the horse, that the desire for food is the only effective spring to action.
The gradual formation of the associations mentioned above, between the perception of movement and the movements of the horse himself, is in all probability not [Pg 241] to be regarded as the result of a training-process, but as an unintentional by-product of an unsuccessful attempt at real education, which, though in no sense a training-process, still produced results equivalent to those of such a process. ”

“ Lo, and behold, the moment he set foot on the spot described by the old woman, the branch turns downward, and from its movements the man gathers that twelve feet below ground there lies buried some copper, silver and gold. He calls a peasant to dig a pit eleven feet deep, then he sends him away so that no other should get into the secret. He himself digs a foot deeper, but all in vain, for he finds nothing. ”

“ As is well said by the American neuropathologist, Beard, [65] (who first explained the phenomenon of thought-reading, on the basis of the perception of very minute muscular jerks, and therefore called it "muscle-reading" or "body-reading") : "Every horse that is good for anything is a muscle-reader; he reads the mind of his driver through the pressure on the bit,—though not a word of command is uttered." We know that in the case of perfectly trained horses the rider's mere thought of the movement which he expects the horse to make, is seemingly sufficient to cause the animal to execute it. ”

“ In view of all these considerations we can readily see how it was possible that the horse, perhaps in spite of rather defective vision, could react with precision to movement-stimuli which escaped observation by human eyes.
We can understand also the horse's never-flagging attentiveness when we recall that self-preservation prompts eternal vigilance over against all that is going on in the animal's environment. (In the case of Hans, hunger was at first the motive; later, habit did the work.) ”

“ Since the movement of the horse's foot does not occur as a jerk, but is of greater extent than a jerk would be, it was agreed that the observer was to stop the watch as soon as he recognized the back-step as such, not when the foot was being raised from the ground, because it was not then evident whether the horse would bring it back to the original position or whether he was preparing to give another tap, nor when he had brought his foot completely back, but at the moment in which it was evident that the horse intended to make the back-step. ”

“ Tapping with the hoof was naturally hit upon as one of the normal, expressive movements of the horse. This has long been used by trainers, in preparing horses for show purposes. The method used in training the horse to make this response is of no import, whether it was by touching his foot with the hand, or tapping his leg, or by any other means.
It is possible that many will declare, as being nonsensical, any attempt to introduce number-concepts [AJ] into an animal's mind, because the necessary motor basis is lacking. ”

“ He is fanatic in his conviction, he has an eccentric mind which is crammed full of theories from the phrenology of Gall to the belief that the horse is capable of inner speech and thereby enunciates inwardly the number as it proceeds with the tapping. From theories such as these, and on the basis of all sorts of imagined emotional tendencies in the horse, he also managed to formulate an explanation for the failure of the tests in which none of the persons present knew the answer to the problem given the horse, and also for the failure of those tests in which the large blinders were applied. ”

“ In order to answer this question we must determine more specifically what we mean by the term "training". Usually we take it to mean the establishment in the animal, of definite habits of motor reaction in response to certain stimuli purposely selected by the trainer, and without involving any process of animal consciousness other than association. Such a conception may be applied also to man, if we assume that the higher thought processes can be eliminated. ”

“ And a judgment passed upon a human personality is quite a different matter from a judgment upon a horse. If it is unscientific to make unqualified statements concerning a horse after the performance of only a few experimental tests, it is certainly an unwarranted thing to pass a moral judgment upon a man upon the basis of meagre material. ”

“ I had thought out the process hypothetically, i. e., how one might conceive of the rise of number concepts and arithmetical calculation along the peculiar lines which had been followed in Hans's education, and on the basis of the assumption that the beginnings of conceptual thinking are present in animals. Also, I had too much faith in human nature to fear lest nothing peculiarly human should remain after the art of handling numbers should be shown to be common property with the lower forms. ”

“ Relaxation—with the upward jerk and raising of the head—here occurs at the normal time; Hans taps to the end with his right foot. Oftener still the "jump" described occurs while passing over to the number just before the last. The goal seems within reach and the mental tension relaxes, and with it the physical tension,—the head gives a slight jerk and Hans makes the back-step. Since, however, another tap is still awaited with some degree of tenseness and, since complete erection of the head does not follow immediately upon the jerk of the head, the horse gives another tap with the left foot. ”

“ A gregarious animal, yet kept constantly in isolation, intended by nature to range over vast areas, yet confined to his narrow courtyard, and deprived of opportunity for sexual activity,—he has been forced by a process of education to develop along lines quite opposite to his native characteristics. Nevertheless, I believe that it is very doubtful if it would have been possible by other methods, even, to call forth in the horse the ability to think. ”

“ It is only when expectancy and volition are very forceful, that a sufficient release of tension can ensue. This release of tension is accompanied by a change in innervation and results in a perceptible movement. And it was only when the thought of "yes", or "up", etc., was very vivid, that the nervous energy would spread to the motor areas and thence to the efferent fibers, and thus result in the head-movement of the questioner. ”

“ THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM OF ANIMAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND "CLEVER HANS"
If we would appreciate the interest that has been aroused everywhere by the wonderful horse solving arithmetical problems, we must first consider briefly the present state of the problem of animal consciousness. [C] Animal consciousness cannot be directly gotten at, and the psychologist must therefore seek to appreciate it on the basis of the animal's behavior and with the assistance of conceptions borrowed from human psychology. ”

“ Without him we might have shown the horse to be dependent upon visual stimuli in general, but we never would have been able to gain that mass of detail, which makes the case valuable for human psychology. But I am tempted to praise not merely his patience and skill, but also his courage. For we must not believe that Mr. von Osten's horse was a "perfectly gentle" animal. If he stood untied and happened to be excited by some sudden occurrence, he would make that courtyard an unsafe place, and both Mr. Schillings and Mr. [Pg 10] Pfungst suffered from more than one bite. ”

“ There is no justification for the wide-spread belief that the horse which on account of the greater size of his eye (more correctly, on account of the greater focal distance) receives larger retinal images of objects than does the human eye, for that reason also sees objects, larger than we do. Horses' shying is often explained in this way. But the conclusion just mentioned is erroneous. The retinal image is not the perceptual image. It undergoes many transformations within the nervous system itself. ”

“ For, corresponding to the degree in which the horse began to react properly, the instructor's tenseness and excitement tended to decrease, and with this decrease of the emotional element in the man's consciousness, the accompanying non-voluntary, expressive movement gradually became less pronounced until it attained that extraordinary refinement which it possesses to-day. We noticed also, that whenever the horse, for any reason, had to be trained anew, Mr. von Osten's movements would, on the whole, become somewhat more gross, as for instance after the tests with the blinders. ”

“ From infancy we are trained to keep all of our voluntary muscles under a certain measure of control. During the state of concentration just described, this control is relaxed, and our whole musculature becomes the instrument for the play of non-voluntary impulses. The stronger the customary control, the stronger must the stimuli be which can overcome it. The steady unremitting fixation, which resulted in the horse's selection of the cloths, also involves a high degree of concentration. ”

“ If one called him, while he was running about the courtyard, he paid no attention whatever, but if one beckoned to him, he came immediately. A raising of the hand brought him to a standstill. If one now stepped forward or pointed one's hand in that direction, he would step forward, or vice versa, he would step backward. By means of minimal movements of the head, of the arm nearest the horse, or of the whole body, Hans could be induced to assume the position one desired, without touching him or speaking a word. ”

“ A horse that solves correctly problems in multiplication and division by means of tapping. Persons of unimpeachable honor, who in the master's absence have received responses, and assure us that in the process they have not made even the slightest sign. Thousands of spectators, horse-fanciers, trick-trainers of first rank, and not one of them during the course of many months' observations are able to discover any kind of regular signal.
That was the riddle. And its solution was found in the unintentional minimal movements of the horse's questioner. ”

“ The mental state just described is probably essentially the same as that of the spiritualistic "mediums" when they are occupied with table-rapping and table-moving. In both cases concentration is very intense,——in other words, the field of attention is limited. We saw that this state not only favors the tendency toward involuntary movement, but on account of the absorption of the individual's attention by a certain limited content, the person will be unaware of the voluntary movements as they occur. ”

“ We, however, define our concepts from the human and not from the [Pg 227] horse's point of view. We may definitely say, therefore, that the method described cannot be regarded as that of training, neither in its application nor in the effect produced, though in the latter it closely simulates the effects of the training method.
Having thus differentiated between the methods of instruction and training, let us now attempt to decide on the basis of such indications as we may possess, which of the two was actually represented by the development of the horse's attainments. ”

“ A number of musical tests were made in the absence of Mr. von Osten. In these Mr. Hahn undertook the questioner's rôle, and [Pg 197] since he had had musical training, he was aware of what the numbers should be, even when he could not see the stoppers of the harmonica, and, therefore, we readily understand why it was that the horse responded so wonderfully in his case.
The so-called musical ability of horses appears, from all that is known, to be confined within very narrow bounds. ”

“ Let us turn now, from the tests in counting and computation to those in reading. We have seen that Hans manifested his seeming knowledge of language symbols in a threefold manner: he might approach a slate on which was written the symbol asked for, or he would indicate its location in a series of slates by means of tapping, or finally by means of so-called spelling of the word which was written upon a slate or placard. The responses by means of approaching a placard were very often unsuccessful, while indications by means of tapping were scarcely ever unsuccessful. ”

“ The author having described the observations made upon the horse, and having discussed the activities of the questioner upon the basis of observations made objectively and upon his own introspections, and having verified the results thus obtained, by means of laboratory tests,—we are now in a position to solve satisfactorily all the problems which this interesting case has presented.
That which is least difficult to understand is the horse's seeming knowledge of language and particularly his ability to answer questions, no matter by whom, or in what dialect, they were put. ”

“ Hans was requested to tap a certain number. Then the experimenter would step forward into the horse's field of vision and would put the same problem again. Since, in the tests of the first kind, Hans would [Pg 43] always make the most strenuous efforts to get a view of the questioner, and since he would rave and tear at the lines whenever the attempt was made to tie him,—a thing which he had never done hitherto,—it was impossible to determine in some cases whether or not he had seen the questioner during the process of tapping. ”

“ Here we also obtained light as to the answers which Hans gave in those tests in which the method was that of "procedure without knowledge". These responses had nothing to do with the problem, for neither the horse nor any one else knew the solution. But in the horse's responses the degree of tension of the questioner's concentration was faithfully mirrored. An experimenter who was as skillful in concentrating as Mr. von Osten, obtained—almost without exception—very high numbers, whereas one whose concentration was slight would receive in response to nearly all questions the answers 2, 3 or 4. ”