Perception of Physical Things

The Primitive Impulse.

With reflex action, in the physio logical sense, we are not here concerned, so far, at any rate as there is no concomitant experience. But many actions which, externally viewed, appear to be purely reflex have conscious con comitants. The response to the prick of a pin involves not only an awareness of sensory pain, but also the impulse to remove it. Such experience might seem to provide a convenient point of departure for the study of conation.

In a sense, the presentation of pain is the object of the aver sion, but the statement requires guarded interpretation. Sense presentations as objects are essentially incomplete. The response is concerned with a physical source of stimulation more or less clearly so perceived. There is, moreover, a further way in which conation here relates to something beyond what is sensibly pres ent. The object of aversion is thought of as something alterable and as something to be altered in some way. The kind of altera tion required is probably never wholly indeterminate.

In conative activity at the perceptional level there is a group of presentations of paramount importance. So far as changes are effected in the external world, and thereby in the sensory field, they can only be produced by means of bodily movements simi larly presented. Conation is thus subsidiarily concerned with presentation of bodily orientation and of movements to be per formed. Whilst in simple reflex action awareness of bodily move ment may be extremely vague, and perhaps entirely absent, this is far from being invariably the case. Thought of the movement to be performed is often quite distinct, and the awareness of the body an important controlling factor throughout the operation. If we regard such simple deliberate acts as the primary form of conation, it is possible to exhibit the reflex and the habit as a specific modification resulting from exercise. From this approach the simplest formulation of primary reactions turns out to be somewhat complex, but the path is more than proportionately smooth for an account of subsequent development. We may state the case as follows : The presentations of external objects which call for alteration, when accompanied by an awareness of bodily orientation (apprehended as admitting of similar alteration), directly evoke a movement producing change in the required direction. Symbolically:

apprehended as alterable to (P1, be ing respectively objects of aversion and directly evoke M2 appetition) in conjunction with and indirectly P2 apprehended as alterable to /112 Even this formulation involves excessive simplification. In the first place Pi is apprehended in a context which from the outset plays an important part in determining the response ; and a simi lar complexity is involved in the presentation of bodily orienta tion Moreover, the latter is not simply a matter of muscu lar sensation. It comprises all that is relevant to an awareness of the general "organic state," such as the conditions of appetite in the narrower sense of the term. Further, the movement to be performed is apprehended as possessing a number of possible char acteristics of speed, extent and direction, and the performance will vary according as one or other characteristic is relevant to the intention.

Modifications of Conative Process.

Primitive conative tendencies may be modified in various ways. The cognitive con text admits of various forms of simplification and elaboration. Activity is not in general conditioned by single presentation but by complex presentational cues, the features of which are more or less clearly discriminated and jointly operative in producing the effect. Central features will have a context more or less stable or variable. When it is relatively stable a single subsidiary feature or merely a general impression will serve to guide activity. When the context is variable, response may call for similar varia tion. A second type of change relates to intensity. At first sight the frequent occurrence of the same situation appears to work in either of two directions. Conation may be intensified and specific tendencies confirmed, or there may be progressive weak ening of the original impulse. Practice in a game may lead to what is at first a mild diversion becoming a ruling passion. On the other hand we become adapted to sources of irritation and lose interest in pursuits which previously held our attention. A third kind of change arises in the progressive integration of the primary tendencies. Several cases call for special consideration.