Method of Regulation in Behavior and in Other Fields. 485 



tinguished is of course greater than what we have set forth, but 

 this does not alter the principle involved. 



The law which we have just brought out may then be summed 

 up as follows: 



The resolution of one physiological state into another becomes 

 easier and more rapid after it has taken place one or more times. 

 Hence the behavior primarily characteristic for the second state 

 comes to follow immediately upon the first. 



The operations of this law are seen on a vast scale in higher 

 organisms, where they constitute what we commonly call memory, 

 association, habit, and the basis of intelligence. It has been shown 

 to hold in a number of lower organisms, though in these the mani- 

 festations of this law are comparatively little known. Yerkes and 

 Spaulding have demonstrated its applicability to Crustacea. The 

 low acelous flatworm Convoluta evidently shows it clearly, since 

 as we have seen in the preceding paper, it forms definite habits. 

 It has even been demonstrated, as we have seen, in the protozoa, 

 particularly Stentor and Vorticella. According to Hodge and 

 Aikins ('95) a method of reacting thus developed lasted in Vor- 

 ticella as long as five hours. In view of these facts, it is probable 

 that the law is a general one and that it will be demonstrated in 

 some form for other lower organisms. There seems to be no 

 theoretical reason for supposing it to be limited to higher 

 animals. The paucity of experiments fitted to test it is amply 

 sufficient to account for the very slight knowledge we have of it 

 in lower organisms. 



To return then to the thread of our discussion : In virtue of 

 this law of the readier resolution of physiological states after 

 repetition, the final reaction of a trial series, relieving the 

 organism of the interference with its physiological processes, is 

 later reached more readily than at first, and in time becomes the 

 immediate reaction to the interfering condition. Thus the change 

 of behavior induced by interference of a certain sort has come to 

 be of a perfectly definite character, and all trial movements are 

 omitted. 



It is in this second stage of the process, when the relieving 

 response has become set through the law above discussed, that 

 an end or purpose seems to dominate the behavior. This end or 

 purpose of course actually exists, as a subjective state called an 

 idea, in man. Whether any such subjective state exists in the 



