Principles of Animal Psychology

Abstract

b y McGraw-Hill B o o k Company, Inc., 330 West 42nd St., N e w Y o r k , N .Y .Price, $4.00.In this volume Professor Schneirla is responsible for the chapters on inverte brates while Professor Maier is responsible for the chapters on vertebrate psychology.Each of the t w o areas of the work has been adjusted to the other in weeks of conferences between the two authors.Thus it is not a volume hastily put together.T h e authors m a y draw some criticism from experimentalists because they attempt to align all phases of animal behavior on a consistent philosophy from the very simple behavior of plants and unicellular organisms to the very plastic behavior of the higher vertebrates.Because of this attempt, whether in the present stage of development of the science, premature or not, and because both the authors are experienced writers their product is a very readable book.T h e discussion starts positively in an area of basic assumptions and travels a very definite path to the complex psychology of birds and mammals.We like particularly the points of view as evidenced in the chapter headings used.The work is in three divisions, Part I. Principles Discernible in the Behavior of Inframammalian Animals; II.Prerequisites to Behavior Dominated by modifiability, and I I I .T h e Nature of Modification in Behavior; Class Mammalia.Some of the well chosen chapter headings are: (Part I) Chapter I. Fundamental Characteristics of Behavior: Plants and Protista; II.First Prin ciples in the Behavior of Multicellular Animals: Porifera; I I I .A Transition Stage in Specialization and in Behavior Control: Echinodcrmata; IV.N e w and Sig nificant Advances in Adaptation: T h e Worms; V. Advances in Complexity and Variability of Behavior: Mollusca; V I .Basic Activities in the Phylum Arthropoda; V I I .Some Characteristic Activities of Higher Arthropods and the R o l e of Modifiability.T h e remainder of Part I deals with the behavior of vertebrates.It leads us through the comparatively simple reactions of fishes and amphibians to the more elaborate behavior of reptiles and birds.Part II is a series of three chapters on the "Prerequisites of Behavior Dominated b y Modifiability," while Part III deals wholly with the plastic behavior of the mammals under the general heading "The Nature of Modification in B e h a v i o r ." This series of chapters is a summary of what is known, from experimental work, of the very complex problem of "learning."Each chapter ends with three to six references which are captioned, "Sug gested Readings."Obviously the authors understand the limitations of learning as these references are so well chosen and so limited in number that the reader gets none of the mental shock which so often follows the sudden appearance on the scene of an extensive " b i b l i o g r a p h y ." (The present writer could never quite understand why, when thoroughly relaxed in a comfortable chair while enjoying the summary of a brilliantly written chapter, he suddenly comes face to face with a " b i b l i o g r a p h y ." E v e r y mental muscle tenses as he scrambles as best he can across this badlands to the next oasis of comfortable exposition.We react favor ably to the stimulus of authors who thus appear to know some of the unpleasant aspects of the problem of learning.)This hasty view of the contents indicates what we have stated before that the authors have put conscientious effort into the organization of the subject.T h e y view the field of animal behavior as a whole.T h e present reviewer gives a course on the biology of insects and for years has looked for a volume which will give a consistent analysis of the fundamentals of insect behavior as this is a phase of the work which has more interest for the students in his class than has any other feature of the course.We shall try the first seven chapters of this volume on our class.Apparently it is the first volume that makes any approximate fit to the needs of a teacher of entomology.Because

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