Context
Morgan was reacting to interpretations of animal behaviour - specifically the anecdotal approach of George Romanes - that he deemed excessively anthropomorphic. The prestige of Lloyd Morgan's canon partly derives from cases he described where behaviour that might at first seem to involve higher mental processes could in fact be explained by simple trial-and-error learning (what we would now call operant conditioning). A famous example is the skilful way in which Morgan's terrier Tony opened the garden gate, easily taken by someone seeing the final behaviour as an insightful act; Lloyd Morgan, however, had watched and recorded the series of approximations by which the dog had gradually learned the response, and could demonstrate that no insight was required to explain it.
Read more about this topic: Morgan's Canon
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