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قراءة كتاب Clever Hans (The Horse of Mr. Von Osten) A contribution to experimental animal and human psychology

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Clever Hans (The Horse of Mr. Von Osten)
A contribution to experimental animal and human psychology

Clever Hans (The Horse of Mr. Von Osten) A contribution to experimental animal and human psychology

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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high apartment houses in the northern part of Berlin. No fee was ever taken. The visitor might walk about freely and if he wished, might closely approach the horse and its master, a man between sixty and seventy years of age. His white head was covered with a black, slouch hat. To his left the stately animal, a Russian trotting horse, stood like a docile pupil, managed not by means of the whip, but by gentle encouragement and frequent reward of bread or carrots. He would answer correctly, nearly all of the questions which were put to him in German. If he understood a question, he immediately indicated this by a nod of the head; if he failed to grasp its import, he communicated the fact by a shake of the head. We were told that the questioner had to confine himself to a certain vocabulary, but this was comparatively rich and the horse widened its scope daily without special instruction, but by simple contact with his environment. His master, to be sure, was usually present whenever questions were put to the horse by others, but in the course of time, he gradually responded to a greater and greater number of persons. Even though Hans did not appear as willing and reliable in the case of strangers as in the case of his own master, this might easily be explained by the lack of authoritativeness on their part and of affection on the part of Hans, who for the last four years had had intercourse only with his master.

Our intelligent horse was unable to speak, to be sure. His chief mode of expression was tapping with his right forefoot. A good deal was also expressed by means of movements of the head. Thus "yes" was expressed by a nod, "no" by a deliberate movement from side to side; and "upward," "upper," "downward," "right," "left," were indicated by turning the head in these directions. In this he showed an astonishing ability to put himself in the place of his visitors. Upon being asked which arm was raised by a certain gentleman opposite him, Hans promptly answered by a movement to the right, even though seen from his own side, it would appear to be the left. Hans would also walk toward the persons or things that he was asked to point out, and he would bring from a row of colored cloths, the piece of the particular color demanded. Taking into account his limited means of expression, his master had translated a large number of concepts into numbers; e. g.:—the letters of the alphabet, the tones of the scale, and the names of the playing cards were indicated by taps. In the case of playing cards one tap meant "ace," two taps "king," three "queen," etc.

Let us turn now to some of his specific accomplishments. He had, apparently, completely mastered the cardinal numbers from 1 to 100 and the ordinals to 10, at least. Upon request he would count objects of all sorts, the persons present, even to distinctions of sex. Then hats, umbrellas, and eyeglasses. Even the mechanical activity of tapping seemed to reveal a measure of intelligence. Small numbers were given with a slow tapping of the right foot. With larger numbers he would increase his speed, and would often tap very rapidly right from the start, so that one might have gained the impression that knowing that he had a large number to tap, he desired to hasten the monotonous activity. After the final tap, he would return his right foot—which he used in his counting—to its original position, or he would make the final count with a very energetic tap of the left foot,—to underscore it, as it were. "Zero" was expressed by a shake of the head.

But Hans could not only count, he could also solve problems in arithmetic. The four fundamental processes were entirely familiar to him. Common fractions he changed to decimals, and

vice versa; he could solve problems in mensuration—and all with such ease that it was difficult to follow him if one had become somewhat rusty in these branches. The following problems are illustrations of the kind he solved.[E] "How much is 2/5 plus ½?" Answer: 9/10. (In the case of all fractions Hans would first tap the numerator, then the denominator; in this case, therefore, first 9, then 10). Or again: "I have a number in mind. I subtract 9, and have 3 as a remainder. What is the number I had in mind?"—12. "What are the factors of 28?"—Thereupon Hans tapped consecutively 2, 4, 7, 14, 28. "In the number 365287149 I place a decimal point after the 8. How many are there now in the hundreds place?"—5. "How many in the ten thousandths place?"—9. It will be noticed, therefore, that he was able to operate with numbers far exceeding 100, indeed he could manipulate those of six places. We were told that this, however, was no longer arithmetical computation in the true sense of the term; Hans merely knew after the analogy of 10 and 100 that the thousands take the fourth place, the ten-thousands the fifth, etc. If an error entered into Hans' answer, he could nearly always correct it immediately upon being asked: "By how many units did you go wrong?"

Hans, furthermore, was able to read the German readily, whether written or printed. Mr. von Osten, however, taught him only the small letters, not the capitals. If a series of placards with written words were placed before the horse, he could step up and point with his nose to any of the words required of him. He could even spell some of the words. This was done by the aid of a table devised by Mr. von Osten, in which every letter of the alphabet, as well as a number of diphthongs had an appropriate place which the horse could designate by means of a pair of numbers. Thus in the fifth horizontal row "s" had first place; "sch" second, "ss," third, etc.; so that the horse would indicate the letter "s" by treading first 5, then 1, "sch," by 5 and 2, "ss" by 5 and 3. Upon being asked "What is this woman holding in her hand?" Hans spelled without hesitation: 3, 2; 4, 6; 3, 7; i. e., "Schirm" (parasol). At another time a picture of a horse standing at a manger was shown him and he was asked, "What does this represent?" He promptly spelled "Pferd" (horse) and then "Krippe" (manger).

He, moreover, gave evidence of an excellent memory. In passing we might also mention that he knew the value of all the German coins. But most astonishing of all was the following: Hans carried the entire yearly calendar in his head; he could give you not only the date for each day without having been previously taught anew, but he could give you the date of any day you might mention. He could also answer such inquiries as this: "If the eighth day of a month comes on Tuesday, what is the date for the following Friday?" He could tell the time to the minute by a watch and could answer off-hand the question, "Between what figures is the small hand of a watch at 5 minutes after half-past seven?" or, "How many minutes has the large hand to travel between seven minutes after a quarter past the hour, and three quarters past?" Tasks that were given him but once would be repeated correctly upon request. The sentence: "Brücke und Weg sind vom Feinde besetzt" (The bridge and the road are held by the enemy), was given to Hans one day and upon the following day he tapped consecutively the 58 numbers which were necessary for a correct response. He recognized persons after having seen them but once—yes, even their photographs taken in previous years and bearing but slight resemblance.

A corresponding high degree of sensory activity seemed to accompany these astonishing feats of memory and reason. Although the horse is not usually credited with a very keen sense of vision, Hans was able to count

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