The elements of psychology / by Edward L. Thorndike.

  • Thorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee), 1874-1949.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The elements of psychology / by Edward L. Thorndike. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    352/394 (page 314)
    process is, from the point of view of the thing selected, attention, and, from that of the thing disregarded, neglect. The account just given is then as applicable to the latter as to the former. Tendencies to neglect, like tendencies to attend, are partly inborn and partly acquired. The laws of their acquisition are the same; discomfort being the rejecting and dissociating force as satisfaction is the emphasizing and associating force. Neglect may be intrinsic or derived, according as the object is in itself unattractive or repellent, or has grafted upon it the unattractiveness or repulsiveness of its mental associates. Neglect may be with or without a feeling of strain or effort. § 60. Satisfaction and Discomfort Two facts, resulting satisfaction and resulting dis- comfort, have been constantly invoked as causes of changes in the life of thought and action. The reader is acquainted with these facts in his own experience but certain knowledge about their presence and causation needs statement here. To explain fully why any human being thinks and feels and acts as he does, it is necessary to know what circumstances will give him the feelings of satisfaction and of discomfort. Having learned that connections productive of satisfaction are selected for survival and that connections productive of discomfort are eliminated, the final step is to learn what sort of result is satisfying. of disregard or neglect. The word inhibition is however used also to mean the prevention of any tendency, of tendencies to move, to perceive, to associate ideas and the like as well as the prevention of tendencies to attend to an object. It is best to avoid ambiguity by using rejection or neglect to refer to the negative aspect of at- tention and keeping inhibition for the more general fact of preven- tion.