Boris Sidis

“ They are like the mountain peaks―when glade and valley and mountain side are still immersed in darkness, the rising sun greets the mountain tops and plays and caresses them with its rays; when again the shades of evening begin to flit and gather over vale, ravine, and gulch, the rays of the setting sun long linger on the peaks taking of them their last farewell. ”

“ A change of the subordinate elements of the percept does not matter so much as the slightest modification in the quality or even in the intensity of the signal. This, of course, does not mean that the subordinate sensory elements are not psychologically and biologically of the utmost consequence to the organism, but they are not of that immediate importance as the focal, nuclear elements appear to the consciousness of the organism. The nuclear elements, as signal, focus the interest of the animal. ”

“ In the course of phylogenetic and ontogenetic evolution some sensory elements, the ones to which the organism is more sensitive, will be selected and become the indicators of the total percept, they will become the index, or better to say the pain-pleasure flag, the safety-danger signal. The central elements will thus be the most prominent, the most intense for that particular state of perceptual consciousness. The nature and character of the elements will vary with the organization of the species and the individual. ”

“ We may point out here an important aspect of the percept, an aspect which has been neglected by the older psychologists, but which is now being more and more emphasized by the younger psychologists who lay more stress on the functional and biological side of mental life. Like the life of all organized beings, the life existence of the psychic state is for some reaction, for some adjustments to the conditions of the external environment. ”

“ Activity gives the sense of 'physical' reality, the sense of material actuality, or of what is regarded as 'the really real.' In other words, sensori-motor reactions with consequent kinæsthetic sensations may be regarded as constituting the very essence of the real, external, material world,―the world of external, material objects.
The percept as we have pointed out forms one organic whole, the constituent elements are firmly integrated into one living organization. ”

“ The individual is stimulated by those nuclear elements; his whole attention is going out in direction to the object that has excited them. The whole organism is invaded by the subtle influence of the nucleus giving rise to definite sensori-motor reactions, intensifying the affective state which permeates the perceptual consciousness. ”

“ The bright colors of flowers developed in the course of natural selection for the fertilization of plants serve the same purpose; they awaken definite responses useful both to plant and insect, as it is hardly probable that the insects are primarily attracted by the beautiful coloring of the flowers. The visual stimuli awakening definite sensory elements may be regarded as central and nuclear which in turn serve as a highly sensitive trigger to release definite systems of motor reactions. ”

“ As in many other sciences, especially the ones of the purely mental variety, a good deal in psychology is traditional such for instance are the tripartite and bipartite division of the mind or the various classifications of the mental activities. ”

“ The nucleus and cytoplasm, however, are intimately related; the modification of one affects the other. Both nuclear and cytoplasmic structures form one organized whole, one living cell. Similarly in the percept we find a group of sensory elements which constitute the nucleus, and a mass of other sensory elements, possibly the main mass, forming the tissue of the percept. The nuclear elements are more intense and appear to be predominant in the total mental state,―both however are intimately connected and go to form the living tissue of the percept. ”

“ The great sensitivity of the nuclear elements is significant, in so far as they lead to better adaptation and to more successful reactions. It is not of any consequence for the cow to gaze at the stars, for the pig to observe the phases of the moon, but it is a matter of importance for them to perceive any signs of food, or the approach of a beast of prey. ”

“ We can well realize their vital importance, if we consider that the nuclear elements are the flag which indicates friend or enemy, war or peace, life or death if we regard the percept statically, we may describe it figuratively as a psychic compound, the union of the elements having somewhat the character of a chemical combination. A new compound is formed possessing qualities of its own, different from those of the constituent elements. ”

“ The heavenly bodies are non-existent for the brutes, because of lack of all reactions of adaptation, while food and predatory beasts are easily detected, because of the vital reactions bound up in the elements of the percept of which the nuclear elements form the signal. ”

“ The lower we descend in the scale of animal life, the more prominent do the motor reactions become. Where life is predominantly of the instinctive type, the motor side of consciousness is more apparent. ”

“ It may sometimes be well to disregard established principles, classifications and time-honored traditions and study the facts from a somewhat different standpoint. We may then possibly see the facts in a new light and realize aspects and connections which are hidden from the customary view of the phenomena. Suppose we take a mental cross-section of a moment of perceptual consciousness in the very act of formation of a percept. ”

“ The force of the central elements lies specially in the emotional or affective tone with which they are pervaded. They arouse an attitude towards the external world in general and to the special object in particular ”

“ To the dog a cat is not an object of beauty, but something to be run after. The sensory stimulations coming from the 'that,' which is mouse, is for the cat something to be on the alert, to jump after and to attack. ”

“ The psychic state is for some reaction and that sensory element which gives the cue for the formation of the psychomotor elements, leading to some given reaction is, for the time being, the center, the nucleus of the total state. ”

“ One of the important characteristics of the biological process is the final cause, the purpose formed by natural selection out of chance variations, and leading to the preservation of that process, to the preservation of the individual. ”

“ The central elements possess a sensory brightness far in excess of other elements, and hence they shed their sensory light on the more obscure, though no less important sensory elements. What however they illumine is not so much the peculiar sensory characteristics of those elements, but their own coloring with which they have saturated the total percept. ”

“ The percept forms a new compound in which the component elements are disguised and transformed by the qualitative aspect of the central elements. The subordinate elements become adapted to the active nucleus, and come out in the compound with sensory characteristics foreign to their nature. In the process of synthesis the subordinate elements become transmuted and assume the sensory characteristics of the nucleus. ”

“ The moth reacts to bright objects in going towards them, but this particular bright object, the flame, has not been provided for in the motor adjustments of the moth, hence the lack of adaptation, the going to the danger, instead of flying from it. ”

“ The fly attracted by the scent to deposit its eggs in decomposed meat; the wasp that strikes the caterpillar in definite places paralyzing its nervous system, thus preparing food for the coming larva; the newborn infant starting to suck, when put to the breast―are good examples of motor reactions in response to sensory stimulations coming from external objects. A definite sensory stimulus is the trigger which releases a definite set of motor reactions. The fly, the bee is hardly conscious of the sensory characters of the honey ”

“ We should therefore expect that in the psychic process which is the most highly developed biological process, purposiveness, formed out of psychic chance variations, will be one of the most important traits. ”

“ To isolate the various elements out of the synthetized percept, the central elements must be shifted,―the subordinate elements must be made focal, giving rise to new percepts, but at the same time making it possible to pass in review the various elements. ”

“ So apparently insignificant is the sensory side and so predominant is the motor side with its almost mechanically fatal reactions, that some physiologists put the whole mechanism of excitation and reaction in the lower animals under the category of tropisms, which may be positive or negative, according as the animal goes to or from the particular stimulus. ”

“ The sensory characteristics are profoundly modified in the synthesis, so much so that they cannot be directly discerned and can only be discovered by patient study. The elements do not exist freely, they are bound up in one indissoluble union of the percept. ”