Stimulus

“ A stimulus gives rise to sensation and perception; the perception gives origin to an emotional state; and the emotional state is fulfilled in appropriate motor-activities. The process is a continuous one, and, in the absence of inhibition, would in all cases inevitably fulfil itself. But through the faculty of inhibition, the final state of activity may be postponed or suppressed. ”

“ Thus, if it were necessary, before we could infer the probable effects of exposure to a particular stimulus on a man’s behaviour, to frame a workable hypothesis as to the physiological occurrences in the nervous system between the first reception of the stimulus and the issuing of the ultimate bodily reaction, we should still be waiting helplessly for the means of framing the simplest general judgments as to the probable effects of our actions on our social circle. ”

“ To call all mental processes reactions means that it is always in order to ask for the stimulus. Typically, the stimulus is an external force or motion, such as light or sound, striking on a sense organ. There are also the internal stimuli, consisting of changes occurring within the body and acting on the sensory nerves that are distributed to the muscles, bones, lungs, stomach and most of the organs. The sensations of muscular strain and fatigue, and of hunger and thirst, are aroused by internal stimuli, and many reflexes are aroused in the same way. ”

“ With a given stimulus and an intact nervous system, the effect follows the cause with a simplicity and definiteness far more obvious than in the case of activity which is accompanied by consciousness. ”

“ The Three Sets of Factors.—What exists outside of us therefore is a stimulus, some form of physical energy, of a kind suitable to excite to activity a certain end-organ of taste, or touch, or smell, or sight, or hearing; what exists within us is the nervous machinery capable of converting this stimulus into a nerve current which shall produce an activity in the cortex of the brain ”

“ When a stimulus promptly arouses a reaction, and that ends the matter, we speak of reflex action--provided, of course, the connection between stimulus and response is native. But when a stimulus sets up a tendency to a reaction that cannot be immediately executed, or towards an end-result which cannot immediately be reached, and when the tendency so aroused persists for a time in activity, and gives rise to preparatory reactions, then we speak of instinct. ”

“ In general we have a very exact feeling of the simultaneity of two stimuli, if they do not differ much in strength. And in a series of experiments in which a warning precedes, at a fixed interval, the stimulus, we involuntarily try to react, not only as promptly as possible, but also in such wise that our movement may coincide with the stimulus itself. We seek to make our own feelings of touch and innervation [muscular contraction] objectively contemporaneous with the signal which we hear; and experience shows that in many cases we approximately succeed. ”

“ The nerve stimulus itself has a cause; it ordinarily arises directly or indirectly from the stimulation of a sense organ. And the sense organs are stimulated by outside influences, as was explained previously.
Not only are our movements caused, but our sensations, our ideas, and our feelings follow upon or are dependent upon some definite bodily state or condition. The moment that we recognize this we see that our sensations, ideas, and feelings are subject to control. It is only because our minds are in a world of causality, and subject to its laws, that education is possible. ”

“ One can express this state of things otherwise by saying that the whole of the stimulus does not seem to be effective in giving us the perception of 'more,' and the simplest interpretation of such a state of things would be physical. The loss of effect would take place in the nervous system. If our feelings resulted from a condition of the nerve-molecules which it grew ever more difficult for the stimulus to increase, our feelings would naturally grow at a slower rate than the stimulus itself. ”

“ The arrows pointing away from perception and emotion are intended to indicate the fact that the consciousness of sense-stimulus on the one hand, and of activity on the other hand, are accompaniments of the nervous processes in the brain, and are referred outwards to the sense-organ or the motor-organ, as the case may be. ”

“ It cannot be doubted after the above discussion how a definition of this difference may be given which holds for every empirical investigation.
A sense-stimulus produces a complex of nervous and central processes. Among these is a certain group of processes which manifest themselves by changing the innervation of the heart, the blood-vessels, the lungs, and certain muscles. Another group is formed by those nervous and central processes which are more or less immediate effects of the sense-stimulation. ”

“ A quantity of stimulus greater than natural, producing an increased exertion of sensorial power, whether that exertion be in the mode of irritation, sensation, volition, or association, diminishes the general quantity of it. ”

“ It is merely a matter of the stimulus and the response becoming connected in that way as the result of experience. Our meaning is that an act can be touched off or prompted by any stimulus. Our nervous organization makes this possible. The particular stimulus that calls forth a particular response depends upon how we have been trained, how we have learned. In most cases our acts are coupled up with the ideas of the acts. ”

“ We found that when a sense organ is stimulated by its appropriate type of stimulus, this stimulation travels through the sensory nerves and sets up an excitation in the brain. This excitation in the brain gives us sensation. We see if the eye is stimulated. ”

“ The production of the sensation is known to depend on a certain external process, namely, the action of some stimulus, as light, on the sense-organ, which stimulus has its point of departure in the object, such as it is conceived by physical science. The sensation arises when the nervous process is transmitted through the nerves to the conscious centre, often spoken of as the sensorium, the exact seat of which is still a matter of some debate. ”

“ They are performed immediately upon receiving an appropriate stimulus, because we possess an organism calculated to act in a definite way in response to certain stimuli. There is no need for, and indeed no place for, anything to come in between the stimulus and the act. The stimulus pulls the trigger of the ready-set nervous system, and the act follows at once. Acts of these reflex and instinctive types do not come properly within the range of volition, hence we will not consider them further. ”

“ But if a stimulus be repeated at uniform intervals of time, the action, whether of our muscles or organs of sense, is performed with still greater facility and energy; because the sensorial power of association mentioned above, is combined with the sensorial power of irritation, and forms part of the diurnal chain of animal motions; that (p. 031) is, in common language, the acquired habit assists the power of the stimulus; see Zoonomia, Vol. ”

“ When our sense organs are stimulated, the stimulus is conveyed by means of sensory nerves to the brain and there gives rise to sensation, the sense organs are sensitive to various kinds of stimuli, the stimulus to the eyes gives the sensation of sight, to the ears the sensation of sound and so on. ”

“ And when this relation, besides being frequently repeated in the individual, occurs in successive generations, all the many nervous actions involved tend to grow organically connected. They become incipiently reflex; and on the occurrence of the appropriate stimulus, the whole nervous apparatus which in past generations 315 was brought into activity by this stimulus, becomes nascently excited. Even while yet there have been no individual experiences, a vague feeling of pleasure or pain is produced; constituting what we may call the body of the emotion. ”

“ Any agency, such as heat or pressure, which, by acting on the neurons of the body, is able to produce a sensation, may be called a sensation stimulus. It has perhaps already been observed that the stimuli that lead to voluntary action, as well as those that produce reflex action of the muscles, cause sensations at the same time. ”

“ The higher function of nerve action, which we call the intellect, as distinguished from simple reflex action and from instinct, is the choice among different responses to the stimulus of external realities. As conditions of life become more complex, the demands of external realities become more exacting. ”

“ When the outer stimulus comes and those tracts vibrate with the sensation A, they discharge as directly into the paths which lead to B as when there is no outer stimulus and they only vibrate with the idea a. ”

“ This development of the stimulus gives genuine continuity, since every moment in the process comes as a fulfilment of its predecessor and as a transition-point to its successor. In a purely mechanical act response follows stimulus like the successive strokes of a clock. It is a touch-and-go affair; the stimulus presses the button and then subsides, while the neural organization does the rest. In conscious behavior, on the other hand, stimulus and response keep step with each other. ”

“ It will be noticed the remarkably definite manner in which the response increases with the stimulus. The rise is at first rapid, but with high intensities of stimulus there is a tendency for the response to approach a limit. ”

“ If a stimulus, which at first excited the affected organ into so great exertion as to produce sensation, be continued for a certain time, it will cease to produce sensation both then and when repeated, though the irritative motions in consequence of it may continue or be re-excited. ”

“ In these actions the external stimulus first excites the mind, and the resulting mental processes—perhaps as memory of previous experiences—supply a variety of facts, any of which may act as stimuli to action. ”

“ Every stimulus that comes to the child is carried by an incoming (sensory or afferent) nerve to the brain, either directly or by way of the spinal cord. The stimulus may come from an object, from an organic sensation within the body, or from a thought. ”

“ Under increasing intensity of stimulation, the amplitude of response undergoes an increase which reaches a limit.
6. Sub-minimal stimulus induces a response of opposite sign to that under moderate stimulation.
7. Under rapidly succeeding stimuli, the individual responses become fused; the curve rises to a maximum, when the force of restitution balances the force of distortion due to stimulation. ”

“ Occasional accumulation of sensorial power in muscles subject to constant stimulus. In animals sleeping in winter. In eggs, seeds, schirrous tumours, tendons, bones. 3. Great exertion introduces pleasure or pain. Inflammation. Libration of the system between torpor and activity. Fever-fits. 4. Desire and aversion introduced. Excess of volition cures fevers. III. Of repeated stimulus. 1. A stimulus repeated too frequently looses effect. As opium, wine, grief. Hence old age. Opium and aloes in small doses. 2. A stimulus not repeated too frequently does not lose effect. ”

“ It is not necessary that these sounds should excite sensation or perception, in order to their exerting a degree of stimulus upon the body. There are a hundred impressions daily made upon it, which from habit are not followed by sensation. The stimulus of aliment upon the stomach, and of blood upon the heart and arteries, probably cease to be felt, only [381] from the influence of habit. The exercise of walking, which was originally the result of a deliberate act of the will, is performed from habit without the least degree of consciousness. ”

“ The application of the stimulus, whether that stimulus be some quality of external bodies, or pleasure or pain, or desire or aversion, or a link of association, excites the correspondent sensorial power into action, and this causes the contraction of the fibre. ”

“ Taking an initial stimulus with its concomitant sensory effect as the starting point we add by degrees small unperceived stimuli until a point is reached when a barely perceptible change of the external stimulation is effected in consciousness. ”

“ Familiar experiences tell us that a stimulus applied to the skin is followed by a muscular movement, or a glandular secretion; sometimes this takes place without any conscious sensation; sometimes we are distinctly conscious of the stimulus; and sometimes we consciously will the movement. ”

“ As we have seen, the body as a whole can respond to just one stimulus at a time. The response to this stimulus has the right of way. The whole body is integrated, set for this one thing. When fear holds the switchboard no other messages are allowed on the line, and the creature is ready for flight. ”

“ A vast amount of our activities are reflex, and in such action an efferent stimulus follows an afferent promptly and quite mechanically. It is only where efferent stimuli do not immediately become entirely transmuted into outwardly moving impulses that mental action comes in and an animal feels. ”

“ To acquire such a stimulus and to become conscious are one and the same thing. As was indicated previously, the conscious stimulus is correlated with the various inherited and acquired motor tendencies which have been set off and which are struggling for expression, and the uniqueness of the stimulus lies in the fact that the adaptive value of these nascent motor tendencies becomes operative as the determining principle in the organization of the response. ”

“ Life is simply a process of stimulus and response; and stimulus and response are one unitary movement. ”

“ The habits acquired by the constitution depend on such nice circumstances, that when one kind of stimulus ceases to excite the sensorial power into the quantity of exertion necessary to health, it is often sufficient to change the stimulus for another apparently similar in quantity and quality. ”