72 STELLA BURNHAM VINCENT 



carried over from one point of stimulation to another. In either 

 case there may be direct association with the object, either 

 positive or negative to which the animal reacts, but in the first 

 instance there need be but one such association since both pos- 

 sibiHties were present in the same moment, in the second there 

 must be both forms for the experiences are more widely sepa- 

 rated in time and order.^^ The affective and emotional tone 

 probably differs and influences- the corresponding reactions. The 

 hunger stimulus is most closely associated with the contact 

 senses while protective reactions from danger are likely to be 

 associated with the distant senses of sight or hearing and these 

 facts will affect the reactions. Experiments and conclusions 

 drawn from them should recognize these differences. 



B. The Sense of Familiarity 



^ One of the simplest forms of cognitive experience is known 

 as the sense of famiHarity. The conduct which seems to be 

 based on familiarity has been mentioned. It occurs in every 

 form of animal experimentation and is characterized by decrease 

 in errors, in useless activities and in time, yet it gives no evi- 

 dence of real sensory discrimination. The subject will have to 

 be discussed first from the human standpoint and then carried 

 over to the animal field. 



If we take the position that the activity comes first, or rather 

 that sensory discrimination arises out of the reaction or as a 

 result of it, we shall have put ourselves right in the beginning. 

 The response is originally to an entire situation, a whole, out 

 of which as yet no sense qualities have arisen : they are all fused. 

 But close observation shows that the reaction is being influ- 

 enced by these very sense qualities and that it changes with 

 their change although the introspective evidence in man and 

 the discriminative action in animals is lacking. How shall we 

 explain it? 



One explanation is that the reaction occurs too quickly for 

 any sense element to stand out and that there must be delay 

 or impediment for this to happen and yet that the reaction was 

 different because of these elements and in a general way was 

 sensed as such. 



^'Note: — This description does not apply, of course, in all of its details to 

 experimentation involving sound. 



