32 G. V. HAMILTON 



4. Feeble responsiveness. — A given set of stimuli may elicit 

 activities which are directed toward adjustment to them in a 

 manner to suggest that the threshold of responsiveness has 

 barely been crossed. An example has but this moment come 

 within my own experience: I was interrupted by a nurse who 

 wished to consult me about an unimportant matter which con- 

 cerns a patient for whose care I am responsible. I responded 

 to his question by seeking, in a rather indifferent frame of mind, 

 an answer that would satisfy, not so much the patient's needs 

 as the professional amenities of the situation. I found myself 

 saying, inadequately, " The woolen cap — the woolen cap — the 

 woolen cap." I was barely responsive to the situation, and 

 the result was a reaction which consisted in the repetition of an 

 unsuccessful attempt at adjustment. Had I been more respon- 

 sive, attempts at verbal adjustment would have varied without 

 repetition until a successful one had been found. Where habit 

 serves as a guide for the direction of activity such repetition is 

 less apt to occur, since a successful adjustment is at once effected, 

 thereby removing the subject from the influence of the situation. 

 In the schizophrenic psychoses the subject characteristically 

 withdraws his interest from reality, and is therefore apt to be 

 but feebly responsive to the outside world. There is also apt 

 to be a deterioration of the habits that were accjuired before the 

 advent of the psychosis, hence this disorder presents conditions 

 which we have already found to be favorable to the manifes- 

 tation of D and E reactions (the cases of Girls 6, 8 and 12, 

 alreadv cited). 



IV 



Determinants of the Initial Direction of Activity. — When a 

 subject first enters the enclosure he may first try any one of the 

 four alleys for escape. The fact that this first choice, as it will 

 hereafter be designated, was varied from trial to trial or at least 

 every few trials by many of the subjects calls for an examina- 

 tion of the records for the purpose of discovering, if possible, 

 the determinants of first choices. With this in view the record 

 of each subject has been given a detailed analysis, the results 

 of which are presented in table cS. This table requires the 

 following explanations : 



1. In the column that contains the list of subjects an as- 

 terisk (*) is placed opposite the name of any subject who had 

 less than 100 trials. Girl 2 had only 75 trials. Girl 6, 90 trials, 



