Can Animals Think (1950)

[Music] this layout is a labyrinth a maze and it's going to be used in a test to see how quickly an animal can find its way through [Music] it now the professor's finger is indicating the only possible open road through the maze those are all last partitions that prevent a small animal from making any other progress through that Labyrinth there's food at the other side oh it's a white mouse Mr thin whiskers he's going to be the animal to make the [Music] trip you see he goes sniffing along he's hungry and he's looking for food and he's going to try and find his way to where the food is and it's at the far end of the maze as we know still sniffing you know the sense of smell is very helpful to animals in this case Mr thin whiskers can tell where he's been and where he hasn't been too by sniffing he doesn't want to retrace his steps that' be lost motion he isn't like the Goofus bird that flies backward because it doesn't care where it's going it only wants to see where it has been well Mr thin whitkus is really making PR progress pretty well along [Music] now he's getting warm getting warm very warm uh-oh that's the jackpot he's got it he wins the prize an aromatic chunk of cheese yum [Music] yum well we let him try it over and over again this trip through the M and the more often he tries it the quicker he makes the right turns gets to know his way [Music] around over to the food supply and back to his shelter where he lives way he's going back this time looks as though he could do it with one pow tied behind his back and maybe blindfold too he's really in a hurry uh-oh he just went back to get a pal well look who's here that's a crayfish the first cousin to the shrimp and and the prawn we can call him crusty because he belongs to the crustation like a lobster or or a crab now the professor is going to do a little balancing act with K crusty you know human beings have a sense of balance or they should have and the organs that keep us in Balance are in our ears now the crayfish has them in the antenes and uh or Fields if you want to call them that there's a little chamber by the way it's very much magnified and it has hard particles in it ordinarily the little particles rest on the bottom of that little chamber and tell crusty the crayfish that he's right side up rest among those hairs that are really nerve endings now the professor has taken out those natural particles and has substituted little metal particles for a a definite reason when he drops a magnet into the water the magnet attracts those metal particles and they go to the top of that container that chamber in which those metal particles were dropped well that seems to tell the crayfish that he's upside down so he turns over now he feels as though he were right side up but as you can see he's really upside down it's the magnet pulling those little particles to the wrong side that confuses them now when the magnet is withdrawn the particles fall back to where they should be and the crayfish turns right side up it's all very [Music] confusing now we're going to watch a guinea pig try to figure fure out the quickest way to a meal now here are two partitions Swinging Doors to them and food is placed behind each swinging door only in one case it's covered in the other oh well look who's here this is a guinea pig George he has more whiskers than George Bernard Shaw who is also a vegetarian well now George starts out he's looking for food and he makes his way across to well he turns to the right he's a conservative goes to the right and goes through the door marked o well there's food there but it's uh tied down under wire he can't get at it there's no profit in that so a little bit disappointed he goes out now he goes to the left through the door marked in and he finds the Blue Plate special a fine vegetable salad he's really sinking his teeth into it well we try it over and over again and he gets used to going to the left through the door marked M which means meal to him cuz that's where he finds his Blue Plate special now the professor Mr Mino is going to pull a switch on him the M or meal door is and also the food is moved with it now we'll see what George does about this well he goes out and he goes to where he usually found the food on the left but this time it's marked o and there's no food in there well he that's really skull duggery been going on according to the way George looks he'll probably for home and write his Congressman about that but he's stubborn he says wait a minute I know there's food around here somewhere so he goes through the door on the right just in a chance he has nothing to lose the one marked in and there's his Blue Plate special again and he's right up to his ears in that food there it still is through the door marked in on the right well the professor keeps switching backward and forward but one thing is constant and George finally finds it out that m means meal and when you turn him out he looks around picks the door marked M and when he gets there he knows he's on his way to his meal he has it now you'll see different animals faced with the same problem and you'll notice the different ways they react to it the professor is cutting a hole in this wire here and down along the wire you'll see a hen Deborah now the professor strews a little corn under the eyes of Debbie and Debbie looks at it good quality corn she's hungry she'd like to get it there's a hole down the wire Debbie only knew it she's walking down that way but let's see no she doesn't go far enough she just wouldn't go that far from the corn it has too much attraction for her so she goes back and looks at it well I don't think she's going to solve it she she puts her neck out but not far enough and she's baffled she's going to go hungry she just can't solve this problem [Music] now we try another animal a dog a snower Fritz the bone on the outside he reaches for it no he can't get it that way well zip one dog one bone didn't take him long to get [Music] it now we have a monkey behind the wire and a banana as the base that's monkey is uh Wilber force that is I call him Wilber Force he doesn't necessarily answer but I call him that anyhow well his reach isn't long enough to get that banana Through the Wire so he has to do a little figuring come on will before old chap put on your thinking cap don't just sit there oh now he has an idea yes sir he has an idea and now he has a banana it's just as simple as that for him him oh this is a chimpanzee the keeper calls him Charlie Charlie the chimp now the professor has half a pear in his hand and he lets Charlie sniff it he teases him with it then the professor puts it under that middle jar well Charlie saw him do that you know he likes a a bit of fruit and he keeps looking backward over his shoulder the where the professor put it as he's dragged away uhoh what goes on why the professor the omino has put a water of paper under there now the keeper leads him back to the bench where he saw the Paar hidden uhoh and he pulls up the right jar but what does he get just a no good water paper well he looks under those other jars he knew there was a piece of fruit around there somewhere by jingos he's still looking he's wondering what the became of that [Music] fruit he looks like a man wondering what became of last Summer's wages and you're still wondering and so am I [Music] [Applause]