290 The Animal Mind 



quences of reaction to it in the individual's past may operate 

 to secure reaction to it in the future. To the cat in a puz- 

 zle box, the string that must be pulled to let it out offered 

 originally no stronger stimulus to action than any other ob- 

 ject in sight ; but after sufficient experience the string comes 

 to dominate the situation and determine the cat's behavior. 

 If the experience of consequences is slowly acquired, by 

 many repetitions, the process of reacting to an object originally 

 indifferent may be unaccompanied by any ideas of the con- 

 sequences of such reaction. If it is rapidly acquired, we 

 know that we human beings at least accompany our reactions 

 by calling up the results of our past reactions in the form of 

 memory ideas. 



98. The Peculiar Characteristics of Attention as a Device 

 to secure Prepotency 



We have suggested that attention is a means of securing 

 reaction to the vitally important stimuli acting upon an 

 organism. Does reaction to a stimulus always mean atten- 

 tion to the sensation accompanying that stimulus ? 



This question may best be answered by examining the 

 characteristics of the attention process as we know it. In 

 attention, the details of the object attended to become clear 

 and distinct. That is, attention is a state where discrimina- 

 tion is improved. Further, attention involves varying de- 

 grees of effort, and these are marked by varying intensity of 

 certain bodily processes. Attention under difficulties is 

 accompanied by a rigid position of the body, by holding the 

 breath, and by various muscular effects, aside from the pro- 

 cesses which, like frowning, are concerned with the adaptation 

 of the sense organ to receive an impression. These general 

 bodily effects of attention are all such as to suggest that the 

 body is to be kept as quiet as possible during the attentive 



