Experimental Study of Associative Processes 37 



impulses to act, is not affected by this modification. Most 

 of this activity is determined by heredity; some of it, by 

 previous experience. 



My use of the words instinctive and impulse may cause 

 some misunderstanding unless explained here. Let us, 

 throughout this book, understand by instinct any reaction 

 which an animal makes to a situation without experience. 

 It thus includes unconscious as well as conscious acts. 

 Any reaction, then, to totally new phenomena, when first 

 experienced, will be called instinctive. Any impulse then 

 felt will be called an instinctive impulse. Instincts include 

 whatever the nervous system of an animal, as far as inher- 

 ited, is capable of. My use of the word will, I hope, every- 

 where make clear what fact I mean. If the reader gets the 

 fact meant in mind it does not in the least matter whether 

 he would himself call such a fact instinct or not. Any 

 one who objects to the word may substitute ' hocus-pocus ' 

 for it wherever it occurs. The definition here made will not 

 be used to prove or disprove any theory, but simply as a 

 signal for the reader to imagine a certain sort of fact. 



The word impulse is used against the writer's will, but 

 there is no better. Its meaning will probably become clear 

 as the reader finds it in actual use, but to avoid misconcep- 

 tion at any time I will state now that impulse means the 

 consciousness accompanying a muscular innervation apart 

 from that feeling of the act which comes from seeing oneself 

 move, from feeling one's body in a different position, etc. It 

 is the direct feeling of the doing as distinguished from the 

 idea of the act done gained through eye, etc. For this 

 reason I say 'impulse and act' instead of simply 'act/ 

 Above all, it must be borne in mind that by impulse I never 

 mean the motive to the act. In popular speech you may say 

 that hunger is the impulse which makes the cat claw. That 



