EEFLEXES 101 



Resistance and Habit. A reflex act is one which is 

 determined by circumstances and by the organization 

 of the nervous system. The same can be said of a habit. 

 A strong light keeps the pupil contracted and a dish 

 of candy at the elbow causes one to keep taking pieces 

 from it. The principle is similar. But we can usually 

 distinguish without confusion between a reflex and a 

 habit. We keep the first term for those reactions which 

 are inborn or acquired very early in life by all normal 

 individuals. Habits are established later and are more 

 variable. They are personal while reflexes are racial. 

 It is plain, however, that the fundamental condition 

 for a habit is a path of low resistance which favors a 

 certain action when definite stimuli are operative. 



The reflex principle is recognizable in nearly all our 

 behavior. We do not like to have it so for it seems to 

 make us creatures of circumstance rather than masters 

 of our situation. Yet we must admit that external 

 forces guide us in the performance of many acts which 

 we confidently call voluntary. When we walk, our 

 muscular contractions are modified every moment by 

 stimuli from many sources. Some of these we shall 

 have to analyze a little later. A child who is painfully 

 copying a word from the blackboard is really making 

 movements which are shaped by the visual stimuli he 

 receives. But we feel instinctively that it is a long re- 

 move from the simple reflex to an instance like this. The 

 question that cannot be put aside is: What is our will 

 and how far is it a positive force in shaping our conduct? 

 The physiologist defers to the philosopher at this point, 

 but as a human being he knows that one's conscience and 

 one's fellow men applaud a faith in one's moral freedom. 



If an act is not to be classed as reflex, in any degree 

 whatever, it must be one in which the origin is clearly 

 central and unaided by any afferent impulses. We 

 are disposed to think that this condition is realized in 

 those actions which we call voluntary; yet from another 

 point of view these can be regarded as delayed reflexes. 



