(8) Suppose that you perform a selective action; the action issues
from a conflict of determining tendencies; you ‘decide’ among various
possibilities of action. Does the decision always take place in the
same way, or can you distinguish ‘types’ of decision?—Do not hurry
to answer the question; keep it by you, and answer it in the light of
experience.
(9) We saw that the motor reaction (which has its counterpart in
everyday life) is a telescoped impulsive action. Can you mention any
other kinds of action (also occurring in everyday life) which do not
find their precise place under the headings of the chapter?
(10) What kinds of action are involved in the product of constructive
imagination?
(11) (_a_) What is the chief psychological difference between
hesitation and deliberation? (_b_) Give, from your own experience, a
detailed analysis of some desire.
(12) It is very important that you should become acquainted with
the reaction experiment, and should analyse a number of reactions.
Many instrumental outfits are on the market; one of the simplest is
President E. C. Sanford’s vernier chronoscope (C. H. Stoelting Co.).
When you have familiarised yourself with the experiment, try to plan an
experimental study of selective and volitional actions.
References
W. James, Principles of Psychology, ii., 1890, ch. xxvi.; W. Wundt,
Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology, 1896, Lects. xviii., xxix.;
Outlines of Psychology, 1907, § 14; E. B. Titchener, Text-book of
Psychology, 1910, 428 ff.
Special references are: T. H. Huxley, Lessons in Elementary Physiology,
Lesson xi. (1896, 302); C. L. Morgan, Animal Behaviour, 1900, 138; A.
Bain, The Emotions and the Will: The Will, ch. iii. (1880, 352 and
elsewhere); H. Spencer, The Principles of Ethics, i., ch. xiv. (1892,
244 and elsewhere); L. Stephen, The Science of Ethics, 1882, 50; J.
Sully, The Human Mind, ii., 1892, 2, 236. The technique of the vernier
chronoscope is described by Titchener, Experimental Psychology, I., i.,
1901, 117 ff.; ii., 212 ff.
CHAPTER X
THOUGHT
I myself am inclined to hold that man really thinks very little and
very seldom.—WILHELM WUNDT
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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