Psychology : $b A study of mental lifeWoodworth, Robert Sessions
Science
Psychology : $b A study of mental life
Woodworth, Robert Sessions
Psychology
(b) _Substitute response_ refers to the case where the stimulus
remaining as it originally was, a new reaction is attached to it in
place of the original response. The conditions under which this
takes place are more complex than those that give the substitute
stimulus. A tendency towards some goal must first be aroused, and
then blocked by the failure of the original response to lead to the
goal. The dammed-up tendency then facilitates other responses, and
gives trial and error behavior, till some one of the trial responses
leads to the goal; and this successful response is gradually
substituted for the original response, and becomes firmly attached
to the situation and tendency.
(3) New _combinations of responses_ occur, giving higher motor units.
Human Learning
To compare human and animal learning, and notice in what ways the
human is superior, cannot but throw light on the whole problem of the
process of learning. It is obvious {312} that man learns more quickly
than the animals, that he acquires more numerous reactions, and a much
greater variety of reactions; but the important question is how he
does this, and how his learning process is superior.
We must first notice that all the forms of learning displayed by the
animal are present also in the human being. Negative adaptation is
important in human life, and the conditioned reflex is important, as
has already been suggested. Without negative adaptation, the adult
would be compelled to attend to everything that aroused the child's
curiosity, to shrink from everything that frightened the child, to
laugh at everything that amused the child. The conditioned reflex type
of learning accounts for a host of acquired likes and dislikes. Why
does the adult feel disgust at the mere sight of the garbage pail or
the mere name of cod liver oil? Because these inoffensive visual and
auditory stimuli have been associated, or paired, with odors and
tastes that naturally aroused disgust.
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