152 The Animal Mind 



supposing the animal concerned to be conscious? If they 

 are, the difference must be what has been called a difference 

 in local sign. There is certainly no evidence that space 

 perception is concerned. Space perception in our own ex- 

 perience always involves the simultaneous awareness of sev- 

 eral stimuli. But where a single stimulus only is operative, 

 the fact that reaction to it is modified by its location cannot 

 mean that the relations of that location to the location of 

 other stimuli are perceived. The truth is that space per- 

 ception is so constant a factor in our own experience that 

 we cannot imagine how a single sensation can be modified 

 in connection with change of place of the stimulus, where 

 space perception does not exist. A touch at any point 

 on the skin of a human .being is referred to a definite 

 point in a constructed space, tactile and visual; it is 

 given its proper place in a complex of sensations. What 

 modification of it would correspond to its location if it stood 

 alone in consciousness we cannot now conceive. 



55. Class II : Orienting Reactions; Possible Modes of 

 Producing Them 



Various forces, such as gravity, light, electricity, centrif- 

 ugal force, currents of water and air, are all influences 

 causing certain organisms to bring their bodies into a defi- 

 nite position. Such reactions, involving the direction of 

 the whole body with reference to a continuous force acting 

 upon it, are known as reactions of orientation. There are 

 various ways in which they might conceivably take place. 



(a) They might be due to the "pull" of a force upon 

 the passive body of an animal. In the case of gravity or 

 of a current of -wind or water, if one part of the body were 

 heavier or offered more surface to the force, the position 

 assumed could be explained without supposing any activity 



