J.— PSYCHOLOGY. 171 



An animal may blend acquired with inherited skill. The song-thrush 

 may learn deftly to break snail-shells upon a stone. Yet in animals the 

 modification of such inherited skill is relatively small, compared with 

 improvements made by man. 



Human instincts (inherited, general responses to general situations, 

 characteristic of the species) probably play unimportant r61es in the 

 final polished expression of human skill. Yet they may powerfully 

 impel a person to strive to acquire a skill against material and human 

 obstacles. Tendencies to self-assertion and self-display, pugnacity, 

 gregariousness, and desire to win the regard of the opposite sex are such 

 forces. Whether they be regarded as integrations of reflexes or instincts 

 happens to matter little in the present connexion. 



Skill and Habit. 



That a congeries of habits ought not to be dignified by the name skill 

 has already been suggested. Naturally, habits are important components 

 of any skill. But in skill worth the name they are of a special kind. 

 They ensure adequate adaptation. Moreover, especially if the conditions 

 demanding adaptation are complicated and numerous, the habitual 

 movements interact so that the whole skilled action is more than the sum 

 of its parts. This may be illustrated from lawn tennis. A player may 

 acquire useful habits, such as gripping the racket correctly and placing 

 his feet and body so as to get his weight behind the drive. But if a return 

 has to be made from outside the side-line, the orthodox position of the 

 feet and the body must be modified to accelerate the quick assumption of 

 another position on the court, and another balance. For the ball has 

 usually been placed there to get him out of position for the next return. 



Skill, as distinct from habit, involves the ability to be aware of, and 

 to correct, imperfect or faulty adjustment. This is implied, for example, in 

 a surgeon's or automobile driver's skill. While skill employs habits, it 

 can immediately interfere with, break up or modify any combination of 

 them. This makes it easier to study in its lower than in its higher forms. 

 But this fact should not encourage students of skill to draw too wide 

 conclusions from the observation of its humbler components. It would 

 be difficult to infer the properties of alcohol from the most complete and 

 rigidly scientific study of charcoal. 



Patterning a Characteristic of Skill. 



The term ' pattern ' has appeared frequently in recent psychological 

 writings. But its meanings have been different and not easy to equate. 

 It will be used here simply and objectively to mean an arrangement of 

 human movements in time and space which shows integrated order. 



Always in theory, and often in practice, such a pattern could be 

 recorded, e.g. by Gilbreth's moving, interrupted light fastened to any 

 salient part of the body. Such a pattern could be left by the shoes of a 

 dancer, if they were suitably treated. The ice and the snow record 

 beautifully some movements of the skater and the ski-rimner. But they 

 receive a trace only of one part of the body. Usually, however, many 

 other parts are simultaneously moving in unison, in harmony, perhaps 



