THE DEVELOPING CONCEPT AND ITS FUNCTIONS 163 



of A, and the learning-process which we have to study consists 

 of the development of this A into two distinct forms, A' and A" . 

 (With the origin of consciousness we have no present concern, 

 any more than the student of cellular differentiation is concerned 

 with the origin of the first cells.) Upon certain occasions, let 

 us say, the usual response B brings an unpleasant result. Sub- 

 sequent behavior on meeting with the stimulus is thereupon 

 modified until a satisfactory mode of response is hit upon ; and at 

 the same time attention is directed to the stimulus previously 

 experienced as A . As a result of a successful modification of the 

 earlier behavior, we now find that the original vaguely sensed 

 stimulus A has become differentiated into the more attentively 

 perceived A' and A" , each demanding its own peculiar response, 

 B' and B respectively. 



Until the modified behavior has become habitual, and while, 

 therefore, consciousness is still actively functional, there is, on 

 the appearance of the stimulus A' (for example), a conscious 

 association of it with the kineesthetic and organic sensations that 

 accompany its response B', and perhaps with the revived image 

 of the immediate consequences of this response. When this asso- 

 ciation disintegrates, the stimulus tends to pass outside the field 

 of attention and later to drop out of consciousness altogether. 

 In other words, A', in so far as it is attentively recognized, 

 means B r or the remembered consequences of B' '. 



But there is another side to the meaning, which ought not to 

 be overlooked. When, at the outset of the learning-process, the 

 response B results at various times unpleasantly, it is not to be 

 supposed that it is only on the occurrence of such stimuli as will 

 later elicit the different response B' that an inhibitory tendency 

 will assert itself. Every A is still followed by B, for the lesson 

 is not learned from a single experience; and in every case a 

 slight weakening of the impulse may occur. And even if some 

 comparatively striking feature of the A that was wrongly dealt 

 with becomes quickly associated w r ith the shrinking movements 

 that attend the unpleasantness, so that only A 's with this feature 



