Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/777

APPENZELL. Innerrhoden being almost entirely Roman Catho- lic, and Ausserrhoden Protestant. Religious in- tolerance is still strongly marked in the district. Trogen, a village of 2578 inhabitants, noted as a summer resort, is the capital of Ausserrhoden. Appenzell (population, 431)0), a former country- seat of the abbots of Saint Gall (whence its name), containing two monasteries, is the capital of Innerrlioden. Consult Richnian, Appenzell, Pure DciiKH-iuci/ and Pastoral Life in Innerrho- den (London, I'Sflo). AP'PEBCEP'TION (Lat. ad, in addition to -f percipere, to seize entirely, observe, perceive). A term first employed by Leibnitz (l(i46-1716), for whom it signified a spontaneous activity of the ego which exercised such a modifying influence upon the crude "perceptions" of sense that they became transformed into clear and ordered elements of knowledge. This metaphysical concept was used by Kant (1724-1804) in his episteniology, with sharp emphasis upon the spontaneity of the activity. On the other hand, the term was taken over into psychology by Her- bart (1770-1841) and his followers, has been reformed and exiiaustively treated by Wundt, and more recently has received extended discus- sion at the hands of the English psychologist Stout.

Herbart and his school, especially Lazarus (1824) and Steinthal ( 182.3-99), lay s'tress upon the practical significance of apperception. This principle forms, indeed, the corner-stone both of their psychology and of all modern theories of education based upon it. Apperception is "that psychical activity by which individual perceptions, ideas, or ideational complexes are brought into relation to our previous intel- lectual and emotional life, associated with it, and thus raised to greater clearness, activity, and significance." The mental resultant of previous experience wherewith we meet and re- ceive a new experience is termed an "appercep- tion mass." There will, of course, be individual variations in the natvire of this mass; different minds are unequallj- prepared for a particular experience. One child will call butterfiies "fiy- ing pansies"; anotlier knows them to be in- sects. Thus, from the Herbartian standpoint, it is of extreme importance for the teacher to acquaint himself with the existing store of ideas in the minds of the children under his charge, in order that the new matter which he presents may be received by appropriate thought-atti- tudes.

Wundt's treatment combines the psychological acumen of Herbart with the Kantian emphasis upon s]ioiitaiieity as the characteristic feature of apperception. It includes a careful analysis of the experience of spontaneity into it,s ulti- mate psycliical and physiological conditions. The salient points of Wundt's doctrine are as fol- lows: Apperception designates (1) either cer- tain phenomena actually given in consciousness, or (2) a certain activity which we infer from these conscious data — i.e., a concept or category under which the phenomena are grouped. As regards the phenomena themselves, we liave to note first that the ditl'erent components of a given consciousness vary in prominence. Some ideas are clear, standing in the focus of atten- tion (q.v.) ; others are obscure. Ideas may, then, be in consciousness and jet not be "apper- ceived." Furthermore, the relation is not fixed. An idea may disappear from the focus of atten- tion and another, previously obscure, take its place. Clearness is not, like quality or extent of sensation, dependent merely upon the character of the stimulus. It is not, like intensity, which it most resembles, a function of a single idea, but attaches to a number of ideas. S'ow the entrance of an idea into the focus of attention is by no means a simple matter. Analysis discloses, besides the increase of the given idea in clearness, (1) a feeling of activity, (2) inhibition of other ideas, (.i) strain sensations and concomitant feelings which intensify the feeling of activity, and (4) the reflex effect of (3), which intensifies the given idea. A careful examination of Wundt's writings shows that the "feeling of activity" is not ultimate and unanalyzable, distinct from either sensation or affection ( q.v. ), but rather a conventional term representing a complex of sensation and affection from the presence of which in consciousness we infer an activity or spontaneity. Wundt distinguishes between "active" apperception, marked by the feeling of activity, and "passive" apperception, marked by a feeling of passivity, a lessening of the intensity of the concomitant phenomena, and less clearness of the focal idea, in typical passive apperception the clarifying of the idea is determined unequivocally and' immediately. In active apperception there are several rival ideas; the result is equivocal and frequently delayed. The conditions of apperception are either (1) objective, viz., (a) the intensity, and ( 6 ) the frequency of the presented occurrence; or (2) subjective, viz,, (a) the nature of the immediately preceding consciousness, and (6) the individual disposition of the mind, as determined by its entire previous history. Apperception is closely related to association. Association, according to Wundt. furnishes all the possible connections of ideas; apperception decides which of the possibilities shall be realized. Thus the idea x may be assoeiatively connected with o, b, c, and d, but apperception may bring it about that, in a given case of the arousal of x, only 6 appears in attention. This process of choice, of the enhancement of one out of several ideas, together with the feeling of activity, differentiates apperception from association. Apperceptive connections themselves may be eitiier simultaneous or successive. The former are subdivided into (a) agglutinations, (6) apperceptive fusions, and (c) concepts. (See Abstr.ction.) The judgment is typical of the successive form of apperceptive connections. Stout defines appercejition as the "process by which a mental system appropriates a new element, or otherwise receives fresh determination." Great stress is laid upon the "preformed mental system," which is regarded as an organic whole, not (as by Herbart) a mere apperception-mass of presentations. Ey its reaction upon the further processes of attention, it gives us the clew to the problems of mental growth and mental organization. Stout further introduces the ideas of "negative" and "destructive" apperception. Negative apperception is a form in which the effort to appropriate a new- element is unsuccessful ; destructive apperception is a form in which "one system by appropriating a new element wrests it from its preformed connection with another system." In each case there results some positive effect; former systems become modified or new systems are developed. The early experimental in-