54 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



the moment it is the nature of these adjustments which 

 we are considering. What then is the part which con- 

 sciousness plays? To deal with this question let us leave 

 the process of learning for the present, and consider first 

 the acquired art. Here it is pretty clear from common 

 experience that so far as we are successful in executing what 

 we have learnt, consciousness is concentrated on the object 

 of perception, not on the act nor on its results. The bats- 

 man concentrates his whole mind on the ball as it comes 

 towards him, and this perception discharges automatically 

 (i.e. by processes in which consciousness plays no direct 

 part) the proper movements of the bat. If he c places ' 

 the ball successfully in a direction where he had observed 

 a gap in the field, this is the consequence of a previous 

 observation still operating on the fringe of consciousness, 

 but not in such a way as to impair the focussing of the 

 percept. The motion thus seems to follow on the sense 

 perception without the further intervention of conscious- 

 ness. Conscious perception leads direct to motion, and so 

 we speak of responses of this type as sensori-motor actions. 

 What is the precise function of consciousness in these 

 cases ? We have as the basis of the skilled act a structure 

 fitted to respond to stimuli of a certain order. But a struc- 

 ture, as we have seen, can only be adapted to general 

 requirements, i.e. to meet a certain type of stimulus, A, 

 with a type of response a and a type B with a response /3, 

 the response in each case being that which is generally 

 suitable. Now, what happens in any matter requiring 

 much skill in the treatment is that the situations are often 

 unique, that what is wanted is not a or /3, but a certain com- 

 bination of a with /?, involving perhaps some grading or 

 modification of each. The function of the close conscious 

 attention to the precise position, distance, movement, size, 

 etc., of the object dealt with at any moment is to combine 

 or correlate these distinct data, to yield us the precise 

 combination, A-B, of sense-elements which corresponds 

 accurately to the situation as a whole. Each element in this 

 combination discharges its appropriate motor impulse a, /3, 

 but their union in consciousness effects through a machinery 

 which does not enter into consciousness a corresponding 



