CHAPTER VII 







ASSIMILATION AND READJUSTMENT 1 



i. UNDER the names of reflex action and instinct we 

 have dealt with one method by which animal organisms 

 adjust their actions to suit their needs. This adjustment, 

 as we have seen, rests in a sense upon the correlation of the 

 experiences of the race. For if instinct is based upon 

 heredity, and heredity conditioned by natural selection, 

 the growth of an instinctive tendency is determined by the 

 aid which it gives in preserving the race. From the germ 

 of an instinct onward, those individuals in which it is more 

 vigorous or more advanced have an advantage in the 

 struggle for existence over others, and thus in accordance 

 with the current theories of the origin of species, an 

 instinct attains its perfect development. The same thing 

 may be said of reflex action, and of all that part of animal 

 behaviour which depends directly upon the response of 

 hereditary structure to stimulus. Thus by the action of 

 purely biological causes a correlation is effected between 

 the past experiences and the subsequent behaviour of a 

 species, whereby action is adapted to circumstances, as the 

 conditions of race-maintenance require. 



But, as we saw in Chapter I., this is not the only nor 

 the most efficient form of correlation between experience 

 and action. Throughout the greater part if not the whole 



1 In this chapter I am largely indebted to Dr. Ward's articles on 

 Assimilation and Association in Mind (N.S., Vols. II. and III.). The 

 corresponding portions of Mr. Stout's Manual of Psychology, which 

 unfortunately I had not seen when the chapter was written, contain a 

 clear and cogent statement of views which are, in the main, the same 

 as those expressed below. 



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