Experimental Study of Associative Processes 79 
and brooks and walls has got him into the habit of jumping 
at the spot where he sees one ahead of him jump; and so 
he jumps even though no obstacle be in his way. If due 
to instinct, the only peculiarity of such a reaction would be 
that the sense-impression calling forth the act would be the 
same act as done by another. If due to experience, there 
would be an exact correspondence to the frequent acts 
called forth originally by several elements in a sense-im- 
pression, one of which is essential, and done afterwards 
when only the xon-essentials are present,’ These two 
possibilities have not been sufficiently realized, yet they 
may contain the truth. On the other hand, these limited 
acts may be the primitive, sporadic beginnings of the 
general imitative faculty which we find in man. To this 
general faculty we may now turn, having cleared away 
some of the more doubtful phenomena which have shared 
its name. RS 3 ved Meberhsy, as 
It should be kept in mind that an imitative act may be 
performed quite unthinkingly, as when a man in the mol 
shouts what the others shout or claps when the others clap ; 
may be done from an inference that since A by doing X makes 
pleasure for himself, I by doing X may get pleasure for my- 
self; may, lastly, be done from what may be called a trans- 
ferred association. This process is the one of interest in: 
connection with our general topic, and most of my ex- 
periments on imitation were directed to the investigation 
of it. Its nature is simple. ‘One sees the following se- 
quence: ‘A turning a faucet, “A getting a drink.’ If one 
can free this association from its narrow confinement to A, 
so as to get from it the association, ‘impulse to turn faucet, 
me getting a drink,’ one will surely, if thirsty, turn: “the 
faucet, though he had never done so before. V If one can’ 
from an act witnessed learn to do the act, he in some way 
