Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/710

 694 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The point which calls for special mention in the author's excellent treatment of habit is the very clear and simple exposition of the nature of the process by which the successful portion of the more or less random reaction to a stimulus which always characterizes the early stages of the formation of a habit, gets selected and impressed upon the organism, while the nonessential portions gradually disappear. His statement of it is that the successful movement is the one which reinforces the stimulus which is absorbing attention. This reinforcement in turn maintains the movement. The two experi- ences thus stand out more vividly in consciousness than any of the accompanying ones, and in this way become associated. The gradual disappearance of the superfluous movements is accounted for by the fact that, as the new pathway becomes firmly established, it is increasingly able to carry off all the nervous discharge occasioned by the stimulus. This theory is a very decided advance over the vague formula that the pleasure of the successful reaction serves to stamp it into the nervous system. Baldwin almost hits this formula- tion in his Mental Development, but fails to mention the fact that it is the vividness of the two experiences which accounts for their association.

The chapter on attention seems to the reviewer one of the most admirable, as well as one of the most important, in the book. " Attention " is defined as merely a name for the operation of the central and most active portion of the field of consciousness. The point in the adaptation at which most activity of consciousness is centered is always the point of greatest stress and failure in the adaptation. The various problems with regard to attention are taken up in turn, and discussed in the light of its functional signifi- cance. Its teleological nature is evident from the fact that it always occurs as a means to accomplishing some given end for the organ- ism. The author's analysis of attention resolves it into the three forms recognized by Stout voluntary, involuntary, and non- voluntary or spontaneous. Like Stout, he rejects the misleading term " passive attention " on the ground that all attention is essen- tially active. His important addition to Stout's treatment of the topic consists in his functional explanation of the three forms of attention. Spontaneous attention is fundamental and represents the inherited reactions of early infancy and the effortless acts of atten- tion throughout life. Both voluntary and involuntary attention involve the presence of an intention to attend, and imply previous