CHAPTER VII 



THE NON-INTELLIGENT MODIFICATIONS OF 

 BEHAVIOR 



" Both elements, automatism and plasticity, are found in different 

 proportions with all animals from the highest to the lowest." 

 WASMANN, Psychology of Ants and of Higher Animals. 



While there is in all organisms a certain measure of useless 

 if not positively injurious activity, the organic mechanism 

 is a self regulating one, and meets varied conditions of 

 life with appropriate changes of response. These adaptive 

 changes in relation to different circumstances are found even 

 in the lowest organisms. With the evolution of life they be- 

 come more varied and more specialized and contribute to the 

 development of intelligence which may be regarded as but 

 one species of the comparatively large genus of adaptive 

 variation of behavior. In accordance with a common 

 usage the term intelligence is here restricted to those forms 

 of behavior based upon the formation of associatiftns. 

 As Spencer has shown, intelligence is a part of the general 

 process of adjustment which makes up the behavior of an 

 animal. To a certain extent behavior is stereotyped and 

 to a certain extent it is plastic. Both kinds of behavior are 

 necessary in varying degrees in the life of all animals. In 

 this chapter we shall consider some of the plastic features 

 of behavior in which the element of association is not involved. 



ACTION OF COMBINED STIMULI 



Reaction to any given stimulus is often interfered with by 

 a tendency to react to other stimuli received at the same 



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