Considerations on the Problem of Learning 149 



grulty with the proclivity thus aroused. Ordinarily 

 a response A that Is closely followed by an instinc- 

 tive reaction B involving the liberation of a consid- 

 erable amount of nervous energy is reinforced, 

 probably as a result of the influence of this energy 

 on the nervous connections simultaneously excited 

 by the response A. If, however, the associated re- 

 action B Is opposed to A, as when an outreaching 

 action is followed by a withdrawing response, the 

 Influence of B tends to Inhibit the first. response A. 

 In both cases, A and B tend to become associated, 

 but the different secondary reactions have different 

 effects on the primary response with which they have 

 [become joined. 



Thorndike ^ has raised several objections to the 

 view here discussed, but none of them, I believe, are 

 fatal or even serious. "A secondary response R2 

 may bind R^ to S^ [the primary response to the in- 

 itial stimulus], even though It is Incongruous with 

 it, and disjoin R^ from S^ though it Is congruous with 

 Rj. Thus a cat In a box, the door of which is 

 opened, permitting escape and eating whenever the 

 cat scratches herself, will soon come to scratch her- 

 self as soon as put In the box, though there is no 

 congrulty between escape through a door and 

 scratching." This objection Is based on a miscon- 

 ception of the sense in which the word congrulty 

 was used In the statement of the theory criticized. 

 Viewed as two external, acts of the cat's body, there 



' "Educational Psychology," I, 189, 1913. 



