AUTOMATIC ACTIONS 



actions, for example, walking, speaking, writing, reading, sewingj 

 cycling, swimming, and the like, with toil and difficulty. At first 

 the performance is awkward, and the action on which we are 

 engaged requires our ' undivided ' attention. Gradually, however, 

 performance grows more facile till at length we are able during it 

 to do some other less habitual action at the same time. The 

 latter, then, in turn requires our 'concentrated' attention, until, 

 perhaps, it also becomes habitual. When an action has become 

 so easy of performance, so habitual, that we are able to do it 

 1 unconsciously/ it is said to be automatic. It is then so close a 

 copy of reflex action that psychologists usually include it in that 

 category. 



677. A true reflex, as we have seen, is not initiated by the will* 

 and is, besides, an action which the individual is born with the 

 power of performing. Therefore, it resembles an instinctive action 

 in that the power of perfoming it is innate, but differs from the 

 latter in that it is involuntary; whereas it differs from an auto- 

 matic action in that the power of performing it is innate, not 

 acquired. The problem before us is whether automatic actions 

 resemble true reflexes in being quite involuntary. The question is 

 important, for, as I say, psychologists usually include automatic 

 actions amongst the reflexes, just as they often include acquired 

 emotions amongst the instincts ; with the result that the full im- 

 portance of the distinction between the inborn and the acquired, 

 and, therefore, the part played by acquirement (i.e. the contents of 

 the memory) in the building up of the normal human mind is lost 

 to sight. We have here no mere question of nomenclature, nor 

 even merely a problem of pure science. Immense practical issues 

 hang on the conclusions we reach. For example, if we were able 

 to attain a thorough knowledge and agreement as to how the 

 human mind developed what it is possible and what impossible 

 to create or eliminate by means of careful mental training we 

 should also, in all probability, be in equal agreement as to the best 

 methods of educating our children. Even if a thorough knowledge 

 and agreement be unattainable by us, we shall, nevertheless, be 

 nearer both if we found our conclusions on careful investigation, 

 instead of careless assumption. 



678. A few facts may be first noted, (i) Every automatic 

 action (e.g. knitting, cycling) was clearly voluntary when first we 

 began to learn it. (2) As a rule, any action which has become 

 automatic is still clearly voluntary when we begin to perform it; 

 thus, we usually begin to walk through an impulse which is plainly 



