GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY IN TERMS OF BEHAVIOR BY STEVENSON SMITH, PH. D. PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY IK THjEuNlVERSITY OF WASHINGTON AND EDWIN R. GUTH IE, PH. D. f ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON 1921 COPTBIQHT, 1021, BT APPLETON AND COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AVEftXCA PREFACE In this book an attempt is made to state in terms of behavior the facts and principles of general psychology. Although the field it covers is jsomewhat more extended than that of most text-books in psychology, the authors have sought to make the book compact as well as sys tematic. For efficiency of teaching much traditional but unnecessary detail has been omitted. Only such facts of physiology as have important significance in an introductory course are included. Many blind-alley topics, an acquaintance with which has been considered a polite accomplishment in psychology, have been de liberately disregarded. The facts set forth are those which lead the student to a systematic explanation of his own conduct and that of his fellows. The purpose of the book is to describe mans original nature, the way in which this nature is altered by use, and the com mon modes of individual and social behavior that result. S. 8. E. B. GL CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE v CHAPTER I. THE ELEMENTS OF BEHAVIOR 1 Behavior Dependent on Bodily Structure ... 3 Classes of Sense Organs 6 The Exteroceptors 7 The Interoceptors ........ 20 The Proprioceptors 21 The Nervous System 23 Regulatory Character of Responses .... 28 Delayed Utility of Responses 31 Apparent Absence of Utility of Some Responses . 32 Orientation, Locomotion, and Intervention ... 33 Internal Responses 36The Action of a Stimulus-Response Mechanism . . 39 Webers Law 42 The Interaction of Stimulus-Response Mechanisms . 43 Compromise Responses 46 II. INSTINCT 48 Reflexes 49 Instincts Are Chain Reflexes 54 Precurrent and Consummatory Responses ... 60 The Effect of Varying Situations upon Precurrent Responses 67 Individual Differences 70 III. LEARNING 75 Positive Adaptation 76 Negative Adaptation 80 Transitory Changes of Threshold during a Single Practice Period 85 Initial Torpor and Fatigue 85 The Conditioned Response 88 Conditioned Emotional Responses 91 The Substitution of Similar Stimuli .... 94 Facilitating Effect of Conditioning Stimuli ... 95 vii viii CONTENTS CRAPTBB PIGS The Neural Basis of Learning 97 Associative Inhibition 99 The Serial Response 100 The Effects of Practice on the Serial Response . .105 Forgetting 109 Whole and Part Learning 113 Results of the Distribution of Practice . . . 115 Learning Meaningful Material 116 Trial and Error 117 The Shortening of a Trial and Error Series into a Final Habit Response 119 Imitation 130 IV. CCENOTROPES 134 Common Habits 138 Both Instincts and Ccenotropes Are Common Modes of Behavior 145 Play 148 Other Examples of Common Modes of Behavior . 153 V. PERCEPTION 158 Perception and Speech 162 At Different Times a Situation May Prompt Us to Different Perceptions 166 Compromise Responses in Perception .... 170 Perceptions from Simultaneous Stimuli . . . 171 Space Perception 172 Visual Space Perception 173 Visual Perception of Objects 178 Auditory Space Perception 180 Auditory Perception of Objects 181 Olfactory Perception 183 Kinsesthetic and Static Perception .... 186 Touch Perception 186 Time Perception 187 Judgment 190 Conviction andBelief 195 VI. HUMAN MOTIVES 198 The Delayed Reaction 198 The Wish 203 Attention 204 Volition 205 Intention 209 Drive 210 CONTENTS ix CHAPTER PAGE Sublimation 214 Conflict 216 Over-correction 218 VII. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 220 Fellow Man as a Constant Situation .... 220 Other Prevalent Situations 221 Formation of Habits in Common 224 The Spread of Tradition 232 Opinion Spreads from Mouth to Mouth . . . 236 Human Institutions 237 APPENDIX CONSCIOUSNESS 243 Consciousness and the Nervous System . . ...