SOURCE: “The Thesis: A Classic in Psychology,” in The Sane Positivist: A Biography of Edward L. Thorndike, Wesleyan University Press, 1968, pp. 126-48.

In the following excerpt from her book The Sane Positivist: A Biography of Edward L. Thorndike, Joncich explicates the major points in Thorndike's thesis “Animal Intelligence” and discusses its reception in the academic community.

As the year 1898 opens, it finds Thorndike “covering yards of paper with ink.” While his experimental work continues until mid-February, writing has already begun on the project conceived and begun at Harvard in 1896. “The title of my thesis,” he writes Bess [Elizabeth Moulton] in March, is “Association in Animals.” Before submitting the completed report to the Columbia faculty in April, however, he changes this to “Animal Intelligence,” subtitled “An Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals.”¹ The change is significant, for it represents the originality of Thorndike's conclusions; while his findings...