vin PRACTICAL JUDGMENT 153 



motor visual response an animal directs its behaviour, not 

 to the position of the object actually seen but to one 

 toward which it is moving, but if the action is truly 

 sensori-motor this is an effect of what is seen, discharged 

 by pre-existing tendencies in the organism. Next, in the 

 case of assimilation, the organism reacts to some quality 

 of the object which is not presented to its sense, but 

 again its action is determined by the presented object 

 itself acting upon the structure formed by the previous 

 experience. Let us now suppose that what is retained 

 from a previous experience may be not a mere quality of 

 feeling attached to the object but, say, the path on which 

 it will move, and we then get an adjustment to this path, 

 or rather to the position which the object will take upon 

 it, based not on an innate tendency but on a previous 

 experience. We thus get action directed in consequence 

 of a past experience to something not given in the present, 

 and here we seem to have the germ of what may be called 

 a practical idea. The development of the idea would 

 then depend, on the one hand upon the power of per- 

 ceiving complex objects of distinct but yet related parts, 

 and on the other hand on the power of any part to revive, 

 not merely feelings or elements tending directly to affect 

 conation, but elements of a perceptual character belonging 

 to the original complex. 



4. d. Concrete Experience and Memory. 



The way in which a relation is originally experienced 

 appears to have an important influence on its chances of 

 revival. We all know that we can remember with more 

 or less of accuracy, and for a greater or less period, persons 

 or places seen only once. Similarly we remember events 

 as having happened once. In all these cases a single 

 experience is enough to form a basis for subsequent 

 revival. On the other hand, if we want to learn some- 

 thing by rote, we repeat it over and over again, and get it 

 perfect by degrees. In the first case the power of revival 

 appears to be perfected by a single experience. In the 

 second, it grows very gradually by frequent repetitions. 

 What is the explanation of this contrast ? 



In the first place, we must beware of exaggerating it. 



