Experimental Study of Associative Processes 79 



and brooks and walls has got him into the habit of jumping 

 at the spot where he sees one ahead of him jump ; and so 

 he jumps even though no obstacle be in his way. If due 

 to instinct, the only peculiarity of such a reaction would be 

 that the sense-impression calling forth the act would be the 

 same act as done by another. If due to experience, there 

 would be an exact correspondence to the frequent acts 

 called forth originally by several elements in a sense-im- 

 pression, one of which is essential, and done afterwards 

 when only the non-essentials are present. These two 

 possibilities have not been sufficiently realized, yet they 

 may contain the truth. On the other hand, these limited 

 acts may be the primitive, sporadic beginnings of the 

 general imitative faculty which we find in man. To this 

 general faculty we may now turn, having cleared away 

 some of the more doubtful phenomena which have shared 

 its name. 



It should be kept in mind that an imitative act may be 

 performed quite unthinkingly, as when a man in the mob 

 shouts what the others shout or claps when the others clap ; 

 may be done from an inference that since A by doing X makes 

 pleasure for himself, I by doing X may get pleasure for my- 

 self ; may, lastly, be done from what may be called a trans- 

 ferred association. This process is the one of interest in 

 connection with our general topic, and most of my ex- 

 periments on imitation were directed to the investigation 

 of it. Its nature is simple. One sees the following se- 

 quence : 'A turning a faucet, A getting a drink.' If one 

 can free this association from its narrow confinement to A, 

 so as to get from it the association, ' impulse to turn faucet, 

 me getting a drink,' one will surely, if thirsty, turn the 

 faucet, though he had never done so before. If one can 

 from an act witnessed learn to do the act, he in some way 



