The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education; Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX.Preyer, William T.
Science
The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education; Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX.
Preyer, William T.
Child development; Child psychology
It has been demonstrated that the human being, at the very beginning of
his life, not only distinguishes pleasure and discomfort, but may also
have single, distinct sensations. He behaves on the first day
differently, when the appropriate sense-impressions exist, from what he
does when they are lacking. The first effect of these feelings, these
few sensations, is the association of their traces, left behind in the
central nervous system, with inborn movements. Those traces or central
impressions develop gradually the personal _memory_. These movements are
the point of departure for the primitive activity of the intellect,
which separates the sensations both in time and in space. When the
number of the memory-images, of distinct sensations, on the one hand, on
the other, of the movements that have been associated with them--e. g.,
"sweet" and "sucking"--has become larger, then a firmer association of
sensation-and-movement-memories, i. e., of excitations of sensory and
motor ganglionic cells takes place, so that excitement of the one brings
with it co-excitement of the other. Sucking awakens the recollection of
the sweet taste; the sweet taste of itself causes sucking. This
succession is already a separation _in time_ of two sensations (the
sweet and the motor sensation in sucking). The separation in space
requires the recollection of two sensations, each with one movement; the
distinction between sucking at the left breast and sucking at the right
is made after one trial. With this, the first act of the intellect is
performed, the first perception made, i. e., a sensation first localized
in time and space. The motor sensation of sucking has come, like the
sweet taste, _after_ a similar one, and it has come between two unlike
relations in space that were distinguished. By means of multiplied
perceptions (e. g., luminous fields not well defined, but yet defined)
and multiplied movements with sensations of touch, the perception, after
considerable time, acquires an object; i. e., the intellect, which
already allowed nothing bright to appear without boundary-lines, and
thus allowed nothing bright to appear except in space (whereas at the
beginning brightness, as was the case even later with sound, had no
limitation, no demarcation), begins to assign a cause for that which is
perceived. Hereby perception is raised to _representation_. The
often-felt, localized, sweet, warm, white wetness, which is associated
with sucking, now forms an idea, and one of the earliest ideas. When,
now, this idea has often arisen, the separate perceptions that have been
necessary to its formation are united more and more firmly. Then, when
one of these latter appears for itself, the memory-images of the others
will also appear, through co-excitement of the ganglionic cells
concerned; but this means simply that the _concept_ is now in existence.
For the concept has its origin in the union of attributes. Attributes
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account