Psychology by Robert S. Woodworth (intellectual books to read .TXT) 📖

attempt to walk till it had fully reached the normal age for walking, and then turn it loose and see whether it walked of itself.

Such an experiment has never been made under strict laboratory conditions; but here is a well-attested case that approximates to an experiment. A little girl of seven months, a very active child, seemed to want to get on her feet; but the doctor decided that her feet were too small to use, and directed that she be put back in long dresses. For four months she was kept in long dresses, and great care was exercised never to place her on the floor without them. Then, one day, she was set down without her dress, and immediately up she got and walked; and from that moment she was very agile on her feet.

Another rather different case, but tending towards the {96} same conclusion, is that of a little girl who, in contrast to the preceding, gave her parents some anxiety because, up to the age of seventeen months, she wouldn't walk. She would stand holding on, but not trust herself to her feet alone. One noon her father came in from his work and, removing his cuffs, laid them on the table. The little girl crept to the table, and raised herself to a standing position, holding on to the table. She then took a cuff in one hand, and inserted the other hand into it, thus, for the first time, standing unsupported. She put on the other cuff in like manner, and then marched across the room, as proud as you please. For a few days she could walk only with cuffs, but after that was able to dispense with them. There are a few other cases, differing in details, but agreeing on the main point, that the baby walked well on its first trial and went through nothing that could properly be interpreted as a process of learning.

It would really be very surprising if the human infant were left to learn locomotion for himself, while all other animals have this power by nature. Just because the human infant matures slowly, and learns a vast deal while maturing, is no reason for overlooking the fact that it does mature, i.e., that its native powers are gradually growing and reaching the condition of being ready for use. The most probable conception of "learning to walk," in the light of the evidence, is about as follows. At the age when the child's bones and muscles have become strong enough for walking, the nerve connections for coördinating this complex movement have also just about reached the stage of development when they are ready for business. The numerous synapses in the nerve centers that must be traversed by nerve currents in order to arouse the muscles to this particular act are not, we may suppose, all ready at the same instant, and it takes some little time for them to pass from {97} the stage when they will first conduct to the stage when, having grown more, they conduct perfectly. In other words, the neural mechanism for walking can function imperfectly before it can function perfectly. It takes several weeks of growth to pass from the barely functional condition to the fully functional condition; and it is during these weeks that the child seems to be learning to walk, while really his exercise of the partially developed neural mechanisms has no effect except to hasten their growth to some extent.

Universality as a Criterion of Native Reactions

The fundamental sign or criterion of a native trait, in accordance with what we have been saying, is that it shall make its appearance when there has been no chance to acquire it through experience. This is the one perfect criterion; but unfortunately it cannot always be applied, especially with a slowly maturing and much-learning species such as the human. We need other criteria, and one of some value is the criterion of universality.

Consider, for example, the attraction between the sexes, and ask whether this represents a native tendency, or whether each individual acquires it, as he does his "native language", by learning from his elders. Before the body reaches sexual maturity, there has been abundant opportunity for the quick-learning child to observe sex attraction in older people. Yet it is highly improbable that the liking for the other sex which he begins to show strongly in youth is simply an acquired taste. It is improbable because the attraction between the sexes is so universal not only among mankind but among birds and mammals and, indeed, practically throughout the animal kingdom.

Fighting is a similar case. Not so universal as the sex instinct, it still appears almost universally among birds and mammals.

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The human individual is an animal, and some of his native traits are universal among animals. He is a vertebrate, and some of his traits, though not present in all animals, are universal among vertebrates. He is a mammal, with mammalian traits; a primate, with primate traits; a man with human traits; a Chinaman or Indian or European with racial traits; belongs to a more or less definite stock or breed within the race, and possesses the traits that are common to members of that stock; and the same with family traits. The criterion of universality, in the light of these facts, comes down to this: that when all individuals having the same descent show a trait in common, that trait is to be regarded as belonging to their native constitution--unless evidence can be brought forward to the contrary.

Smoking is universal among many Malay peoples, but we know, as a historical fact, that it was introduced among them after the discovery of America, not very many generations ago. Superstition is universal among some peoples, but we see the superstitious beliefs and practices taught by the older to the younger generation. Similarly with any specific language. It may very well be true in such cases that the universal practice appeals to some native tendency of the people; but the specific practice is handed down by tradition and not by inheritance.

Some Native Traits Are Far from Being Universal

Though the universality of a trait creates a certain presumption in favor of its being native, the opposite is not always true, for a trait may be native and yet appear in only a fraction of those who have a common descent. Eye color is certainly native, and yet one of two brothers may have blue eyes and the other brown. Mental deficiency runs in families, but usually some members of such families have {99} normal mentality. Genius is almost certainly a native trait, but it is the reverse of universal. The fact is that, along with certain traits that appear in all, the native constitution of a stock provides also for traits that appear only sporadically. Enough has been said to show that the criterion of universality is one that needs to be applied with judgment.

Why Acquired Traits Differ from One Individual to Another

Acquired traits are on the whole much less universal, much more individual, than native traits. They are readjustments of the individual to environmental conditions; and, as the environment varies, so the adjustments vary, even when native traits are the same. Acquired traits are often specializations of the native traits, as any specific language is a specialization of the vocal utterances that are native and common to all men, and as the peculiar gait of an individual is a specialization of the universal walking movement. The gait differs with the environmental differences to which the individual has adapted himself, and will be different in one who has been accustomed to walk over rough ground and in one whose walking has been done on the city streets.

Acquired traits are not independent of native, but are developed on the basis of the native traits. They are acquired not by laying aside native tendencies and working out something entirely new, but by acting in accordance with the native tendencies and making such readjustments as the environment demands. The acquisition of mental traits is accomplished by the process of learning, and we shall later have abundant occasion to examine it in more detail.

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What Mental Traits Are Native?

For the present, let us simply take a brief survey of the mental field, and notice what types of reactions are native and what acquired. On the motor side, the reflexes are native, while habitual and skilled movements are acquired. On the sensory side, nature provides the use of the sense organs and the sensations immediately resulting from their stimulation. The baby responds to touch, warmth, cold, sound and light as soon as it is born, or practically so, and undoubtedly has the corresponding sensations. In other words, the rudiments of seeing, hearing, etc., are provided by nature. But when we say, "I see a dog" we mean more than that we are getting certain visual sensations; we mean that we see a known object or known sort of object. This implies recognition of the object, either as an individual thing or as one of a class; and this the baby can scarcely be supposed to do at first. He sees the dog to the extent that he responds by visual sensations to the light coming from the dog, but not to the extent that he recognizes the dog as a dog. In short, the meanings of sensations are acquired, though the sensations themselves are native.

Things come to be known by use of the senses, and when thus known are not only recognized when present, but also remembered and thought of when they are not present to the senses. Such memories and items of knowledge, dependent as they are on experience, are to be reckoned among the acquired reactions. Ideas or conceptions of things also belong here.

Of the emotions, some are called "primary" or native--anger and fear are examples--while others result from the compounding of these primary emotions and are therefore acquired. As people and things come to be known, emotional reactions become attached to them, and give what {101} are often named "sentiments", such as love for this person, contempt for that one, family pride, patriotism. These sentiments, bound up as they are with knowledge and ideas, are certainly acquired.

Closely akin to the primary emotions are the native impulses, as the impulse to eat, to cry, to laugh, to escape from danger, to resist external compulsion and to overcome obstacles. The native impulses are the raw material out of which the numerous acquired desires of child and adult are formed. One sort of native impulse is the impulse to notice or pay attention to certain sorts of stimuli. These native interests of the child give birth to the various specialized interests of the adult. The baby's attention to a bright light represents a native interest; the older child's fixing his eyes on a dark brown piece of chocolate represents an acquired interest which has developed in a way that is easy to understand.

Finally, we must count among the native traits of the individual his inherited aptitudes for certain kinds of work. One child shows a natural aptitude for music, another for acting, another for mathematics, another for mechanical things, another for language, and so on. As any of these "natural gifts" is present in some degree in nearly all members of the human family, and not to anything like the same degree in animals, they are the characteristically human traits. It is on the basis of such native aptitudes that each individual proceeds, through the processes of learning, to build up his various acquired abilities, such as the ability to sing, to speak a certain language, to add, to work with tools, to perform athletic feats, and to take part in social activities of various sorts.

Our next task will be to examine more closely the native equipment of man, and after that to take up the process of learning, which is the way