308 MAN --AN ADAPTIVE MECHANISM 



contact with fire. The distance ceptor stimuli of light 

 and heat take the place of contact ceptor stimuli. 



On the other hand, let the infant be given a bottle 

 of milk ; it feels the bottle (contact stimulus) ; it 

 sees the bottle, smells the milk (distance stimulus) ; 

 the nipple is placed between its lips and the action 

 pattern of sucking is excited. Thus the child obtains its 

 first experience with a nursing bottle. The simulta- 

 neous repetition of the same contact and distance cep- 

 tor stimuli repeats the excitation of the same action 

 patterns until in time the sight of the bottle alone 

 stimulates the food-getting action pattern. 



Thus from contact with each new factor in the en- 

 vironment, distance ceptor stimuli come to be inter- 

 preted in terms of contact ceptor stimuli. In like 

 manner sign language, spoken language and written 

 language at first were parts of action patterns which 

 first were stimulated by contact ceptors. The be- 

 ginning of mathematics is the action pattern of laying 

 one block upon another. So the natural sciences have 

 been evolved from the simple action patterns created 

 by such stimuli as heat, cold, movement, weight, 

 sound and light, by an ever increasing addition of 

 associated action patterns. Thus too has been evolved 

 the language of emotions. Education and training 

 are probably the sum total of secondary action pat- 

 terns introduced into the brain, and engrafted upon 

 the original contact ceptor action patterns. Thus the 

 action of the individual becomes inevitable ; and by 

 this conception we may interpret the life phenomena 

 and actions of man and animals. 



The action patterns of the child, which are wrought 



