Psychology : $b A study of mental lifeWoodworth, Robert Sessions
Science
Psychology : $b A study of mental life
Woodworth, Robert Sessions
Psychology
(a) Watching a rocket go up and waiting for it to burst.
(b) Just after the rocket has burst.
(c) Waiting for the dentist to pull.
(d) Just after he has pulled.
(e) Enjoying a warm bed.
(f) Lying abed after waking, not quite able as yet to decide
to get up.
(g) Seeing an automobile about to run down a child.
7. Make a list of six primary dislikes, and a list of six dislikes that
are dependent on the instincts.
REFERENCES
For a much fuller treatment of the subject, see E. B. Titchener,
_Textbook of Psychology_, 1909, pp. 225-264.
{187}
CHAPTER X
SENSATION
AN INVENTORY OF THE ELEMENTARY SENSATIONS OF THE DIFFERENT SENSES
With reflex action, instinct, emotion and feeling, the list of native
mental activities is still incomplete. The senses are provided by
nature, and the fundamental use of the senses goes with them. The
child does not learn to see or hear, though he learns the meaning of
what he sees and hears. He gets sensation as soon as his senses are
stimulated, but recognition of objects and facts comes with
experience. Hold an orange before his open eyes, and he sees, but the
first time he doesn't see _an orange_. The adult sees an object, where
the baby gets only sensation. "Pure sensation", free from all
recognition, can scarcely occur except in the very young baby, for
recognition is about the easiest of the learned accomplishments, and
traces of it can be seen in the behavior of babies only a few days
old.
Sensation is a response; it does not come to us, but is aroused in us
by the stimulus. It is the stimulus that comes to us, and the
sensation is our own act, aroused by the stimulus. Sensation means the
activity of the receiving organ (or sense organ), of the sensory
nerves, and of certain parts of the brain, called the sensory centers.
Without the brain response, there is apparently no conscious
sensation, so that the activity of the sense organ and sensory nerve
is preliminary to the sensation proper. Sensation may be called the
first response of the brain to the external stimulus. It is usually
only the first in a series of brain {188} responses, the others
consisting in the recognition of the object and the utilization of the
information so acquired.
Sensation, as we know it in our experience, goes back in the history
of the race to the primitive sensitivity (or irritability) of living
matter, seen in the protozoa. These minute unicellular creatures,
though having no sense organs--any more than they have muscles or
digestive organs--respond to a variety of stimuli. They react to
mechanical stimuli, as a touch or jar, to chemical stimuli of certain
kinds, to thermal stimuli (heat or cold), to electrical stimuli, and
to light. There are some forces to which they do not respond:
magnetism, X-rays, ultraviolet light; and we ourselves are insensitive
to these agents, which are not to be called stimuli, since they arouse
no response.
The Sense Organs
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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