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

a response to the points of resemblance.

But response by analogy is not always so childish or comic as the above examples might seem to imply. When we respond to a picture by recognizing the objects depicted, that is response by analogy, since the pictured object is only {407} partially like the real object; a bare outline drawing may be enough to arouse the response of "seeing" the object. Other instances of response by analogy will come to light when, in the next chapter, we come to the study of perception.

Fig. 58.--Response by analogy. The letters, A, B, X, Y, represent the several stimuli that make up the original object, and each of them becomes well linked with their common response (seeing the object, and perhaps naming it). When the linkage between X and Y and the response has become strong, a similar object, presenting X and Y along with other new stimuli, C and D, appears, and arouses the old response, by virtue of the now-effective linkage from X and Y to this response.

Fig. 59.--Association by similarity. Everything here as in the previous diagram, except that C and D get a response in addition to that aroused by X and Y, and so the new object is seen to be new, while at the same time it recalls the old object to mind.

The machinery of response by analogy is easily understood by aid of the law of combination. A complex object, presenting a number of parts and characteristics, arouses the response of seeing and perhaps naming the object. This is a unitary response to a collection of stimuli, and each of the parts or characteristics of the object participates in arousing the response, and the linkage of each part with the response is thus strengthened. Later, therefore, the whole identical object is not required to arouse this same {408} response, but some of its parts or characteristics will give the response, and they may do this even when they are present in an object that has other and unfamiliar parts and characteristics.

The machinery of association by similarity is the same, with the addition of a second response, called out by the new characteristics of the present object.

II. SUBSTITUTE RESPONSE EXPLAINED BY THE LAW OF COMBINATION

The substitute response machinery is more complicated than that of the substitute stimulus, as it includes the latter and something more. What that something more is will be clear if we ask ourselves why a substitute response should ever be made. Evidently because there is something wrong with the original response; if that were entirely satisfactory, it would continue to be made, and there would be no room for a substitute. The original response being unsatisfactory to the individual, how is he to find a substitute? Only by finding some stimulus that will arouse it. This is where trial and error come in, consisting in a search for some extra stimulus that shall give a satisfactory response.

Suppose now that the extra stimulus has been found which arouses a satisfactory substitute response. The original stimulus, or the reaction-tendency aroused by it, still continuing, participates in arousing the substitute response, playing the part of the originally ineffective stimulus in the conditioned reflex. Thus the original stimulus becomes strongly linked with the substitute response.

The process of reaching a substitute response thus includes three stages: (a) original response found unsatisfactory, (b) new stimulus found which gives a satisfactory substitute response, (c) attachment of the substitute response to the original stimulus.

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There are two main cases under the general head of substitute response. In one case, the substitute response is essentially an old response, not acquired during the process of substitution, but simply substituted, as indicated just above, for the original response to the situation. This represents the common trial and error learning of animals. The second case is that where the substitute response has to be built up by combination of old responses into a higher unit.

C. Substitute Response, but not in Itself a New Response 1. Trial and error.

Our much-discussed instance of the cat in the cage need not be described again, but may simply be illustrated by a diagram.

Fig. 60.--How the cat learns the trick of escaping from the cage by unlatching the door. S is the situation of being shut up in a cage, and T is the tendency to get out. R1 is the primary response aroused by this tendency, which response meets with failure, not leading to the end-result of the tendency. Responses are then made to various particular stimuli about the cage, and one of these stimuli, the door-latch, X, gives the response R2 which leads to the end-result. Now the response R2 was in part aroused by T, and its pre-existing weak linkage with T is so strengthened by exercise that T, or we may say S, comes to give the correct response without hesitation.

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2. Learning to balance on a bicycle.

When the beginner feels the bicycle tipping to the left, he naturally responds by leaning to the right, and even by turning the wheel to the right. Result unsatisfactory--strained position and further tipping to the left. As the bicyclist is about to fall, he saves himself by a response which he has previously learned in balancing on his feet; he extends his foot to the left, which amounts to a response to the ground on the left as a good base of support. Now let him sometime respond to the ground on his left by turning his wheel that way, and, to his surprise and gratification, he finds the tipping overcome, and his balance well maintained. The response of turning to the left, originally made to the ground on the left (but in part to the tipping), becomes so linked with the tipping as to be the prompt reaction whenever tipping is felt. The diagram of this process would be the same as for the preceding instance.

D. Substitute Response, the Response Being a Higher Motor Unit 1. The brake and clutch combination in driving an automobile.

This may serve as an instance of simultaneous coördination, since the two movements which are combined into a higher unit are executed simultaneously. The beginner in driving an automobile often has considerable trouble in learning to release the "clutch", which, operated by the left foot, ungears the car from the engine, and so permits the car to be stopped without stopping the engine. The foot brake, operated by the right foot, is comparatively easy to master, because the necessity for stopping the car is a perfectly clear and definite stimulus. Now, when the beginner gets a brake-stimulus, he responds promptly with his right foot, but neglects to employ his left foot on the clutch, because he has no effective clutch-stimulus; there is nothing {411} in the situation that reminds him of the clutch. Result, engine stalled, ridicule for the driver. Next time, perhaps, he thinks "clutch" when he gets the brake-stimulus, and this thought, being itself a clutch-stimulus, arouses the clutch-response simultaneously with the brake-response. After doing this a number of times, the driver no longer needs the thought of the clutch as a stimulus, for the left foot movement on the clutch has become effectively linked with the brake-stimulus, so that any occasion that arouses the brake-response simultaneously arouses the clutch response.

Fig. 61.--Combining clutch-response with brake-response. At first, the brake-stimulus has only a weak linkage with the clutch-response, and an extra stimulus has to be found to secure the clutch-response. But whenever the clutch-response is made while the brake-stimulus is acting, the weak linkage between these two is exercised, till finally the brake-stimulus is sufficient to give the clutch-response, along with the brake-response.

The combination of two responses is effected by linking both to the same stimulus; thus the two become united into a coördinated higher motor unit.

2. The word-habit in typewriting

[This] furnishes an example of successive coördination, the uniting of a sequence of movements into a higher unit. [Footnote: See p. 324.] The beginner has to spell out {412} the word he is writing, and make a separate response to each letter; but when he has well mastered the letter-habits, and, still unsatisfied, is trying for more speed, it happens that he thinks ahead while writing the first letter of a word, and prepares for the second letter. In effect, he commences reacting to the second letter while still writing the first. This goes further, till he anticipates the series of letters forming a short word while still at the beginning of the word. The letter movements are thus linked to the thought of the word as a whole, and the word becomes an effective stimulus for arousing the series of letter movements.

Fig. 62.--Learning a word-habit in typewriting. At first, besides the stimulus of the word, "and" it is necessary also to have the stimulus "a" in order to arouse the response of writing a, the stimulus "n" in order to arouse the writing of n, and the stimulus "d" in order to arouse the writing of d. Yet the stimulus "and" is present all this time, and its weak linkages with the writing movements are used and strengthened, so that finally it is sufficient, by itself, to arouse the whole series of writing movements.

Many other instances of learning can be worked out in the same way, and there seems to be no difficulty in {413} interpreting any of them by the law of combination. Even "negative adaptation" can possibly be interpreted as an instance of substitute response; some slight and easy response may be substituted for the avoiding reaction or the attentive reaction that an unimportant stimulus at first arouses, these reactions being rather a nuisance when they are unnecessary. On the whole, the law of combination seems to fill the bill very well. It explains what the law of exercise left unexplained. It always brings in the law of exercise as an ally, and, in explaining substitute response, it brings in the law of effect, which however, as we saw before, may be a sub-law under the law of exercise. These two, or three laws, taken together, give an adequate analysis of the whole process of learning.

The Law of Combination in Recall

Unitary response to multiple stimuli is important in recall as well as in learning. The clearest case of this is afforded by "controlled association". [Footnote: See p. 381.]

In an opposites test, the response to the stimulus word "long" is aroused partly by this stimulus word, and partly by the "mental set" for opposites. There are two lines of influence, converging upon the response, "long--short" (of which only the word "short" may be spoken): one line from the stimulus word "long", and the other from the mental set for pairs of opposite words. The mental set for opposites tends to arouse any pair of opposites; the word "long" tends to arouse any previously observed group of words of which "long" is a part. The mental set, an internal stimulus, and the stimulus word coming from outside, converge or combine to arouse one particular response.

The mental set for adding has previously exercised {414} linkages with the responses composing the addition table, while the mental set for multiplication has linkages with the responses composing the multiplication table. When the set for adding is active, a pair of numbers, seen or heard, together with this internal stimulus of the mental set, arouses the response that gives the sum; but when the multiplying set is active, the same pair of numbers gives the product as the response. All thinking towards any goal is a similar instance of the law of combination.

The Laws of Learning in Terms of the Neurone

We have good evidence that the brain is concerned in learning and retention. Loss of some of the cortex through injury often brings loss of learned reactions, and the kind of