The dawn of mind : an introduction to child psychology / by Margaret Drummond.

  • Drummond, Margaret, 1871-
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dawn of mind : an introduction to child psychology / by Margaret Drummond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    _ he reflex response varies very little in character. When the stimulus is applied, we know exactly what movement to expect. On the whole, the activity may not unfairly be com- pared to a mechanical one. Press the button, and the bell will ring, or the light will appear. Higher Level Activity.—<A delayed response or a variable response implies nervous activity on the higher levels. Very often a child is stimulated and gives no response. Yet long afterwards we may trace that stimulus in his activity. , I was walking with a three-year-old child along a road by the side of which were some dried leaves. ‘What a nice rustling noise they make when you tread on them,” I remarked. The child took no notice of my words at the moment; yet some three weeks later in similar circumstances she spontaneously remarked, “What a nice rustling noise the leaves make when you tread on them, don’t they ?”’ I do not think it at all likely that the child really remembered the previous incident, or had any idea that her comment originated not in the present only. But somehow or other she had preserved my words, and when similar stimuli played again upon her nervous system out came those words as the response. These processes of preservation and association will meet us again and again in our study of child life. So far we have looked at activity objectively. Yet we know that in such a case as the above the inner or sub- jective side of the nervous activity is the important one. The child heard and understood my remark though she
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