250 The Animal Mind 



It is possible that, as a consequence of the general tendency 

 of the nervous system to establish short-cuts, after repetition 

 of this experience, the appearance of the stimulus may stir 

 up the negative reaction soon enough to inhibit the positive 

 one altogether; through the operation of the same law 

 whereby in learning a foreign language we first pass to the 

 meaning of a word by way of the sound of the English word, 

 but later make the association without any intervening link. 

 On the psychic side, the object which was at first agreeable 

 has simply become disagreeable. As for the cases where the 

 instinct has been reversed by means of pleasurable conse- 

 quences, the training of the hermit crab was accomplished by 

 pitting a stronger against a weaker instinct. Nothing but the 

 natural victory of the stronger innate tendency to move was 

 required to make the crab go into the dark part of the aqua- 

 rium to be fed, when the food was actually there ; but what 

 made it continue to do so when the food was removed? 

 The representation of the resulting pleasure, Spaulding says ; 

 shall we admit this, or confine ourselves to physiological 

 terms, and say that the nervous energy involved in the sight 

 of the dark corner has come to find its natural outlet in 

 movements toward that corner, through the repetition of 

 these movements as a result of the operation of the stronger 

 food instinct? The case of the water scorpion certainly 

 suggests rather the operation of a blind habit than the effect 

 of any representation of pleasure. Here the light-seeking 

 instinct is, as it were, pitted against itself ; shall we say that 

 the animal, guided by a representation of the pleasure it 

 has previously derived from turning to the left, does so now, 

 when the slightest turn to the right would actually give it 

 that pleasure? Possibly, but the behavior looks more like 

 the working of a mechanical habit of turning. 



