The Selective Process in Accommodation 8y 



environment,, by a conscious selection beforehand of certain 

 movements which are then and for the first time carried out 

 by the muscles} 



It may very justly be asked : If his view be not true, 

 how then can new movements which are adaptive, ever be 

 learned at all ? This is one of the most important ques- 

 tions, in my view, both for biologists and for psycholo- 

 gists; and the recent work on Mental Development is, in 

 its theoretical portion (Chap. VII. ff.), devoted mainly to 

 it, i.e., the problem of ontogenic accommodation. We cannot 

 go into details here, but it may suffice to say that Spencer 

 (and Bain after him) laid out what seems to be, with cer- 

 tain modifications urged in that work, the only theory which 

 can stand in court. Its main thought is this, that all new 

 movements which are adaptive or ' fit ' are selected from 

 overproduced movements, or movement variations, just as 

 organisms are selected from overproduced variations by the 

 natural selection of those which are fit. This process, thus 

 conceived, is there called * functional selection,' a phrase 

 which emphasizes the fact that it is the organism which 

 secures from all its overproduced movements those which 

 are adaptive and beneficial. The part which the intelli- 

 gence plays 'through pleasure, pain,^ experience, associ- 

 ation,' etc., is to concentrate the energies of movement upon 

 the hmb or system of muscles to be used and to hold the 

 adaptive movement, 'select' it, when it has once been 

 struck. In the higher forms of mind both the concentra- 

 tion and the selection are felt as acts of attention. 



1 * Conscious states do have a causal relation to the other organic pro- 

 cesses.' I do not find, however, that Professor Cope has made clear just how 

 in his opinion the * selection ' by consciousness works. 



2 The role of pleasure and pain, in regulating the discharges by a ' circular 

 reaction,' is spoken of below, Chap. VIII. § 6. 



