Modification by Experience 277 



tuning fork. Frequency cannot be a factor of importance 

 here. Such cases show that there do exist in animals ten- 

 dencies (a) to abandon movements which have no conse- 

 quences of importance to the organism, and (b) to eliminate 

 even movements that are important in favor of movements 

 that have greater importance. It is not clear why Watson 

 is unwilling to admit that the "sensory consequences," 

 the vital importance of the results of a movement, are 

 factors in determining its survival. He seems to think 

 that sensory consequences must be stated in terms of 

 mental processes, and therefore must not be mentioned by 

 a consistent "behaviorist." We, not being behaviorists 

 but psychologists, are quite willing to talk about the pleas- 

 antness and unpleasantness accompanying the benefit and 

 harm of reactions, but if we were behaviorists, we should 

 certainly not feel obliged to deny that animals can be ben- 

 efited or harmed by their own actions, because we feared 

 benefit and harm might suggest pleasantness and unpleas- 

 antness to the minds of our readers. 



Before we pass on to another aspect of learning, which 

 is quite as important in the phenomena of maze running 

 as the dropping off of movements, there are a few points 

 to be noted with regard to the relation between punishment 

 and reward, harm and benefit, as influences in learning. 

 Punishment appears to produce more rapid learning than 

 reward, unless it is so severe that it attaches itself to the 

 whole learning situation. Punishment and reward com- 

 bined give, probably, better results than either alone (328). 

 Further, a movement that results in harm, and is therefore 

 supplanted by the negative response of withdrawal, is more 

 completely eliminated than one which is merely useless 

 and is supplanted simply by a state of rest. Evidence of 

 this was obtained by Bogardus and Henke (59) in experi- 



