Explaining Thorndike's cats

[From Bruce Abbott (951102.1914 EST)]

Bill Powers (951102.1420 MST)]

    Bruce Abbott (951102.1325 EST) --

Then why did you say that the behaviors were confronted with the
situation, and so on (as you did)?

    Perhaps you could point out the passage. I don't recall saying
    anything of the kind.

    Bruce Abbott (951030.1715 EST):
     He began by noting that the different behaviors observed when the
    cat was first placed in the box occurred with different
    frequencies, and that some tended to occur earlier than others.
    This observation could be accounted for if it were assumed that,
    when confronted with this particular combination of conditions
    (which Thorndike called the "situation") different sorts of
    behavior tended to occur with differing probabilities, which could
    be arranged into a hierarchy from most probable (those occuring
    often and, usually, early) to least probable (those occuring rarely
    and, usually, late.

By gosh, I DID say that! Hasty sentence construction: I left out three
important little words:

      This observation could be accounted for it it were assumed that,
      when THE CAT WAS confronted with this particular combination of
      conditions . . .

This reminds me of an old joke:

      Chief: "Fear? My men do not know the meaning of fear!"

      Reporter: "A pretty brave bunch, huh?"

      Chief: "No, poor vocabulary."

···

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I'm sorry, but I'm just too angry to respond to the rest of your
comments--I'm likely to say things I will regret later. It is forcing me to
think very deeply about whether it is wise for me to continue this association.

Regards,

Bruce