5. As may be inferred from this whole chapter, and we shall still more clearly bring the matter out in the following chapter, the principal role of all instinctive activity, neglecting the vege- . tative and procreative (the latter especially is not lacking in habit supplementation), is to initiate the process of learning. If an object did not call out either a positive or a negative response, the formation of a habit with respect to that object would be impossible, unless we could take measures to condition a response.
CHAPTER VIII THE GENESIS AND RETENTION OF EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS A. ACQUISITION.
Introduction. — In the preceding two chapters we have dealt with the hereditary assets of man — his untutored ways of acting. It was clear from our study that if man were forced to make adjustments with only his inborn equipment his behavior would be lacking in that complexity and variety which we know exists in the adult. In habit we come to a higher and more varied level of functioning. For some reason a misconception has grown up in regard to habit. Many regard the term in a somewhat sinister way — as implying something that is inevitable, invariable and indeed somewhat fatal. To them it means the drug habit or alcoholism or some other pathological manifestation of activity. It is best to clear away such misconceptions since habits in our sense represent the bulwark of human organization.
A Conditioned Reflex Level of Functioning. — Between the purely instinct-reflex level of activity seen at birth and the level represented by definite habits of the type we are about to con- sider there is a stage of activity of the habit kind deserving more consideration than it has hitherto received. Not until the child begins to handle and generally manipulate objects, to build with blocks or clay, to crawl or walk from spot to spot and to put on language habits is it a going human concern. But it is unthink- able that a mass of individual acquisitions is not put on before this level is reached. We have discussed this phase of activity in several places — in the attachment and detachment of reac- tions to emotional stimuli and in connection with the positive and negative reactions which develop at a very early age. It remains to call special attention to it in connection with habit, The pattern of the activity is not complex and for this reason it is often spoken of as being the putting on of new instinctive 270 PSYCHOLOGY ^H 270 PSYCHOLOGY ^H part activities. Our own view is that they are of the con- ditioned reflex type and are therefore acquired. The whole level should receive a far more extended study since the peda- gogical aspect for parent and teacher is most important. To dwell for any length of time upon it here is out of place. But it is believed that the child is often made or broken at just this stage. One needs only to call attention to the mass of objects that . gets tied up with the fear responses, or the way the eighty-day-old infant learns to control its attendants by crying and giving way to rage. We recall these statements made in other connections in order to emphasize the point here that habits of the type we shall now consider are not the earliest to develop.
The Nature of Habit. — Any definite mode of acting, - either j explicit or implicit in character, not belonging to man 's hereditary (I equipment, must be looked upon as a habit. It is an individually j acquired or learned act. We have already pointed out that from the moment of birth the infant when not sleeping is moving almost ceaselessly the arms, hands, legs, eyes, head, and indeed the whole body. Stimulate him in any way and these movements become more frequent and increase in amplitude. Under the influence of intra-organic stimulation as seen in the hyperactivity of the smooth-muscle contractions in hunger and thirst, and especially in the hypersecretion of the ductless glands in rage, fear and other emotional activity, these movements become much more numerous. In pain, likewise, the number of move- ments is increased. It can' be maintained from our experimental work on habit that the autonomic system furnishes the restless seeking or avoiding movements of the body as a whole which lead the organism to display the instinctive repertoire out of which habits are composed. The question as to whether the ex- teroceptive sense organs (eyes, ears and nose) ever furnish this initial drive in the absence of autonomic activity is not so easily answered. It is maintained by psychologists generally that the moving, the flashing of bright objects, the sounding of noises, and in general the application of distance receptor stimuli, can increase the number and amplitude of these initial movements. It must be remembered, though, that such stimuli arouse the EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS 271 sympathetic nervous system which stirs up the smooth muscles and glands. It may be the return afferent impulses from these organs which set the seeking activity in the striped muscles in motion. The whole series of questions involved can be focalized by asking whether a hypothetically eviscerated animal depend- ing upon the reflex arcs ending in the striped muscles alone would ever display that activity which would lead to habit formation. Our own view is that habits would not be formed. It seems equally probable, though, that once they were formed in a normal animal they could be called out after evisceration if in some way the animal could be kept alive.1 Fortunately we do not have to answer such a question, since we are working with our animal as a whole and since the slightest observation will show that the habit-form- ing activities in a human being are present at birth and in all probability before birth.
1 The whole matter can be put in another way by stating what is meant by an adjustment. We will use a simple illustration: Suppose that the animal has been without food for some time: rhythmical contractions begin in the stomach which serve as stimuli for arousing the animal as a whole to activity. We call such activity " restless,'' "positive " or " seeking." They continue until by some customary or chance act food is grasped, carried to the mouth and eaten. The moment the food touches the stomach the rhythmical contractions in its walls die away and the restless seeking activity disappears. The animal is said to be adjusted — but only with respect to food. If the environment does not permit the act which will bring the cessation of such movements — that is, if he is restrained from acting or no food is at hand — he may do something else, for example, walk until exhausted. In time, however, the restless movements may disappear without food having been eaten; that is, the rhythmical contractions end of their own accord after a certain period — adjustment has taken place, but not of an organically safe kind. In our illustration the original, oftentimes called driving or compelling stimulus, was organic activity. Such are sometimes designated as needs or hungers. There is a strong tendency now to hold that the organism is always acting, even when displaying- highly organized habits, under the influence of an organic stimulus — we have already brought out the fact that such, stimuli in the glands and smooth muscles are very varied — and that man's ordinary reactions to things and people are the equivalents of his taking food in the above illustration. He becomes adjusted only when he reacts in such a way as to bring about the disappearance of the particular organic stimulus which is acting at the moment.
272 PSYCHOLOGY.
Certainly at birth or shortly thereafter the elements or unit acts out of which every habit is formed can be noted. We men- tion the contraction and flexion of the fingers, of the lower and upper arm, raising and lowering of the head, rotation of the head, bending the trunk from side to side and backward and forward, well-systematized movements of the legs, and a host of others. The conclusion is forced upon us that in habit np new elementary movements are needed. There are enough present at birth and more than will ever be combined into complex unitary acts. Since so many of the psychological texts speak freely of the formation of "new pathways" in habit it seems well to call attention to the simple mathematical fact that the number of permutations and combinations of, say, one hundred unit acts is a staggering number. Such speculations, though, are futile. One needs only to examine the five- or six-day-old infant to be reason- ably convinced that there is no need for the formation of addi- tional reflex arcs to account for all later organization.2 The new or learned element in habit is the tying together or integration of separate movements in such a way as to produce a new unitary ac- tivity. And by unitary activity we mean nothing more than the e very-day acts of life, such as reaching out the hand for an object that stimulates the eye, picking the object up and carrying it to the mouth or laying it on the table; or picking up a hammer in the right hand, a nail in the left, holding the nail with the left, hammering with the right until the nail is started, then with- drawing the left hand and completing the process by driving the nail home. These are simple and elementary acts to be sure, seemingly far different from building a model airplane or writing a novel so far as complexity is concerned. But it probably takes the child a longer time to learn to drive a nail well than it takes an adult engineer to build an airplane.
Instinct and habit are undoubtedly composed of the same elementary reflexes. They differ so far as concerns the origin 3 In stating the view this way we are of course neglecting- some of the late appearing elementary reflex movements such as blinking, extension of the great toe in place of flexion when the sole of the foot is touched, and the late sex reflexes.
EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS 273 of the pattern (number and localization of the simple reflex arcs involved) and the order (temporal relation) of the unfolding of the elements composing the pattern. In instinct the pattern and order are inherited, in habit both are acquired during the life- time of the individual. We can define habit then as we did in- i stinct as a complex system of reflexes which functions in a serial I order when the child or adult is confronted by the appropriate \ stimulus, provided we add the statement that in habit the pat- I tern and order are acquired, whereas in instinct they are in- ' herited. It would follow from this definition that so far as the observance of a single adult performance is concerned we should not be able to tell an instinct from a habit, so that here again the genetic* method is required to determine the relationship between the two. It should be noted that, usually, instinctive response is tied do*wn fairly well to a definite particular stimulus or situ- ation, whereas in acquired activity one and the same object can call forth from an educated man literally hundreds of different actions depending upon slight differences in its setting or upon his needs at the moment. Think of the number of activities that can be called out from one and the same individual by a piece of lumber, leather, stone, marble or metal.
Explicit and Implicit Types of Habit. — On page 14 we divided habit into explicit and implicit types. The examples we gave of explicit habits were unlocking a door, tennis and violin playing. We should add talking, lecturing, writing, working at any vocation and, in fact, doing the thousands of things that we see individuals and groups doing from the moment of waking to the moment of sleeping. We deal here with overt activity which can be observed without instrumentation (the subject mat- ter largely of ordinary observation). While the whole body is involved in these acts, the most conspicuous and most easily observable phase of the activity is the combination of movements we see in the arms, legs and other motile organs of the striped- muscle system. So far no enumeration of the total acquisitions of this character has ever been attempted for the adult. A slight indication of their number can be gathered from investigating the word repertoire of individuals. The exceptional five-year-old 18 274 PSYCHOLOGY • child of a cultivated family caii probably use more than two thousand words (page 322). Many uneducated adults never learn to use more than this number. The educated university man employs possibly five thousand words, the accomplished lexicographer can probably use appropriately ten to fifteen thou- sand words, giving the derivation of many of them. The number of acts, not counting the use of words, which have a name (for example, hammering, sawing, eating, reading) which an indi- vidual living a complex life does in the course of a week is enor- mous. When we contrast this wealth of possession with that of the infant of a hundred and twenty days, the age at which the simple eye-hand coordination is forming, it can be seen what a tremendous journey the young individual must take in order to arrive at that stage of organization which is called for by society as a matter of course. The hereditary pattern acts fade into insignificance so far as concerns their number and complexity.
The implicit-habit systems which we cannot observe except with the aid of instruments are probably equally as numerous if not more so and oftentimes more complex than the explicit. Many of the implicit habits have already been discussed under the heading of conditioned reflexes in the glands and in the un- striped muscles. Of the implicit habits involving mainly the striped bodily musculature little is known except those connected with throat, tongue and larynx. That a great many of the activ- ities involved in thinking are really implicit bodily movements, for example, of the shoulders, hands, fingers and other moving organs, is probable. A slight wave of the hand, the flicking of an eyebrow, the upward fling of the lip, a faintly muttered ' ' humph ' ' is the only organized immediate reaction we make towards many situations in life. Certainly in the deaf-mute not trained to speak the behavior ist assumes that all thinking is carried out in terms of the nascent movements involved in the deaf and dumb alpha- bet, the Brill reading system, and in the bodily musculature as a whole. That there are many abridged processes there is as true as in the thinking of a normal adult. In the normal individual the great mass of implicit habit systems are formed in the laryn- EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS 275 geal, tongue and throat muscles. They are in general word processes or the abbreviations of such. Naturally there are as many of these organized implicit activities as there are overt word responses and probably many more.
For ease of presentation only the acquisition of explicit bodily habits and their retention will be discussed in the present chapter. In Chapter IX the acquisition of explicit speech habits and the various forms of implicit habits will be taken up.
THE ACQUISITION OF EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS.
Genesis of Some Eye-Hand Coordinations. — Systematic tests were begun upon L on the 80th day. She was carefully tested each week thereafter in such a way that progress in eye- hand coordination could be observed. The method was as follows: The baby sat in the mother's lap facing the experimenter. The mother supported her by placing her two hands, upon the baby's waist, thus leaving both arms entirely free. The experiments were carried out in a brilliantly lighted room, in the same room with all shades pulled down, and in the dark-room as occasion demanded. A stick of red peppermint candy of the old-fashioned kind, half an inch in diameter, was suspended in front of her within easy reaching distance. After dangling the candy for a minute or two it was put into her mouth by the experimenter if she failed to reach for it. This was done invariably, following the method found so serviceable in animal psychology. On the 94th day, having failed to reach for the candy on any preceding test, the candy- was placed in the left hand in order to see how long it would take her to put it into the mouth. At the end of two minutes she had failed to make the adjustment with the left hand. When the candy was placed in her right hand she put it into her mouth immediately. Another trial with the left hand failed, another with the right hand was immediately successful. (We began to think that the child was right-handed).
Age, 101 days. Candy dangled in front of her as before. She fixated the experimenter rather than the candy. She failed to reach for the candy on five presentations. On the last trial she seemed to open her hand and to make tentative striking moTe- 276 PSYCHOLOGY ments. One interesting observation was made upon the way she put the candy into her mouth. After it was placed in her hand whenever she grasped the candy near one end and poked the long end into her mouth, she would push it, far back into her throat so that gagging ensued. She did this three times. It was evident that the contact of the object against the lips and tongue did not check the movement. The fingers had to reach the mouth before movement ceased.
108 days. No advance in manipulation could be noted. 115 days. Not much further advance in reaching. We ended the experiment by putting the candy first in the right hand and then in the left, recording the time it took her to put the candy in her mouth.
Time (in seconds): Eight 12 Left 2 The left hand was thus fully as successful as the; right in getting objects into the mouth.
122 days. No evidence of reaching with the hands on first tests. Candy was placed on the tongue and then quickly removed, then advanced again toward the face. The head was almost im- mediately thrust forward with the lips pursed and the beginning of sucking movements took place. As the mouth approached the candy both hands were raised, one touching1 the experimenter's hands. After an interval candy was again offered on the string. Grasped at it with left hand while pursing the lips. It was again offered. Grasped at it with left hand, catching it and putting it into her mouth. On the next trial she made the effort to grasp it with her left hand but failed.
129 days. Tested with candy suspended as before. At first would not fixate. Dangled it within six inches of the eyes. Slight movement was made with the right hand. The candy was then swung away and slowly brought back. Followed it with her eyes and when it was six inches distant from her face, she struck the candy with the back of her hand in two seconds, then pushed it over to the other hand, then to her chin, finally worrying it into EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS 277 her mouth. On the next trial there were no false movements in reaching. The right hand went slowly up and grasped the candy, and she pushed it up into her mouth without aid from her left hand. On the next trial she again reached definitely with her right hand and put it into her mouth. After these definite results we did not make any further tests because wei wished to see if the first trials one week later would be just as definite.
The grasping reflex was always tested at the end of each day's test. On the 122nd day she was made to grasp the rod with difficulty and then only with her right hand. She swung for some seconds with this hand. On the above date she made no effort to grasp the rod at all, but by "worrying" her we suc- ceeded in getting her to hold on for 33/- seconds (her time from the 35th to the 70th day would average around 12 to 15 seconds).
136 days. Candy held as before. The right hand started up immediately, grasped the candy and carried it to the mouth. Time, 8 seconds. On the next trial the right hand was used. Time, 10 seconds. On the succeeding trial the right hand was used. Time, 8 seconds. The left hand did not assist in any of these adjustments. The thumb was not used. The whole act was quite clumsy. The mother was then made to shift the baby 's position slightly on her lap. When the candy was presented, both hands started out, but the right hand grasped and took the candy to the mouth.
The grasping reflex was gone. Tested four times with the rod, but she could not cling. Defensive movements appeared. The right hand actually slapped the rod away. The left hand once momentarily grasped the rod, but she released her hold the moment she began to be lifted.
143 days. From this point on the detailed notes will not be given. In her reaching to-day the arms were outstretched at right angles to the body. She had the greatest difficulty in flexing the arm at the elbow. She would reach for the candy on her back and in the position for crawling.
150 days. Movement quite definite, mainly with the right hand. Occasionally the left assisted. The whole process of reaching required in general about three seconds.
278 PSYCHOLOGY 164 days. Left hand started first on nearly every test, but right hand succeeded in grasping the candy each time. The last five tests brought success in two seconds each for the whole operation.
171 days. Succeeded first with the left hand, then twice with the right, then with both hands, then again with the right. The coordination was so well established after this that the details are not instructive. On the whole, L used the right hand much more frequently than the left. At the age of two and a half years L was again tested. She is a well-developed child, walking and talking. She is completely right-handed.
Reaching for the Candle.— While the tests on reaching for candy were being conducted she was tried frequently with an ordinary lighted wax candle. She was tested first on the 150th day (reaching for candy had been established, see above). The room was darkened. She reached immediately with the right hand, advancing the whole upper part of the body. She then held out both hands, reaching as far out from her mother's lap as possible. Heat did not seem to make her withdraw even when the flame was held as close to her hand as an eighth of an inch. The candle was then held at a distance of one meter and moved in a circle at that distance. It was then slowly brought toward her face. She followed it definitely with the eyes. At a distance of 20 centimeters she reached for it immediately with the right hand. On the second trial she started to reach at a distance of half a meter. On the third trial she began to reach at 30 centimeters. On the last three trials her hand; was allowed to touch the flame, causing flexion of the fingers, but this did not deter her from reaching. On the succeeding trial she reached immediately with the right hand, the flame touching the fingers and again causing flexion. The definite reflex withdrawal of the whole hand occurred sharply on this trial, but the child did not cry. Twenty-five trials in all were given. In most cases the hand was allowed to come close enough to cause flexion of the fingers.
157 days. Tested in the dark-room. When the candle was EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS 279 two meters away no attempt was made to reach for it, nor did she reach for it when it was held at one meter's distance. When held at 20 centimeters she reached for it first with the left and then with the right. Many tests were again given on this day. She was often allowed to stick her fingers near enough to the flame to cause not only contraction of the fingers but actual withdrawal of the hand.
164 days. A similar set of tests was given. She would reach continually for the candle, regardless of the fact that her fingers were often scorched.
178 days. Definite progress in avoidance was noted. When the candle was presented she reached out with her left hand, but only after an appreciable interval, during which she sucked her fingers. On the next trial she reached with her left hand imme- diately. On the next she reached with the left and scorched her fingers; again, left hand was started toward the candle but was checked. On the final trial she would not reach for it, but looked at it and sucked her fingers.
220 days. Reaching for the candle persisted during the early trials. Her final reactions on this day were as follows: Left hand started out but was withdrawn. She then slapped at the light with her left hand. On the next trial she refused to reach for it, holding her left hand against her breast with the right clasped over it. On the next trial she started to reach out but pulled the hand back. Several other trials were given, but in only one did she actually reach out and grasp at the flame. The tests on this day show that the avoiding reaction is fairly well established. (In all, probably 150 trials were required to perfect the coordination to the extent just noted.)
These tests with the candle are given somewhat in detail both because of their intrinsic value in showing the rise of an avoid- ing reaction and by reason of the fact that a great deal of specu- lation and theorizing has been entered into in regard to the infant's reaction to the candle. Holt has recently developed an ethical theory which centers around such a reaction as we have 280 PSYCHOLOGY •