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This article throws light upon the three main types of unlearned actions. The types are: 1. Random Actions 2. Reflex Actions: 3. Ideo-Motor Actions.
Unlearned Action: Type # 1.
Random Actions:
Random actions are the spontaneous expressions of energy accumulated in the organism. They are supposed to be due to the automatic excitation of the central substance. The movements of the chick in the egg, and some earlier movements of the infant, e.g., stretching out of the arms, the legs, and the like are random actions. These actions are not evoked by external stimuli, and not actuated by the prevision of an end.
The original random actions, e.g., movements of the chick in the egg, and not psychically initiated. They are not prompted by a feeling of uneasiness. But the baby stretching out the arms and the legs may be prompted by a feeling of uneasiness due to an accumulation of energy in the motor centres, because he cries if his movements are stopped.
The aimless and irregular movements of the child in response to external stimuli are also sometimes called random movements. They are expressions of neural excitement. They are uncoordinated responses to external stimuli. When a child sees a coloured toy, he makes many aimless and irregular movements. Controlled and coordinated movements emerge out of these diffuse movements.
Some original random actions, e.g., movements of the baby in the womb are not psychically initiated. They are spontaneous expressions of accumulated energy in the motor centres. Other random actions e.g., the baby’s movements of arms and legs are psychically initiated.
They are prompted by a feeling of uneasiness due to accumulated energy in the motor centres. Some random actions are not evoked by external stimuli. The random actions mentioned above are not evoked by sensory stimulation. But some random actions are excited by external stimuli.
The child’s aimless, irregular and diffuse movements at the sight of a coloured toy are called forth by a sensory stimulus. Random actions are adapted to results beneficial to the organism. The child’s aimless movements of arms and legs serve the purpose of physical exercise.
They strengthen the muscles and serve as the basis of controlled and coordinated movements. But they are not so adapted deliberately. They are not guided by any idea of an end or purpose. They do not involve anticipation of any end. They are non-voluntary actions. But they are the foundation of voluntary actions.
Unlearned Action: Type # 2.
Reflex Actions:
A reflex action is a prompt muscular or glandular response to a sensory stimulus. It is an immediate response to a stimulus. When any take a slight whiff of pepper you sneeze. When you cease to take it, sneezing ceases.
‘Reflex actions are always reactions to sensory stimuli. The stimuli may be either external objects or organic disturbances. We close our eyes at the sight of dazzling object. Here the reflex act is excited by an external stimulus.
We sneeze when something (e.g., snuff) obstructs or irritates the nasal membrane. We cough when cold obstructs or irritates the throat. Here the reflex actions are evoked by organic disturbances.
All these reflexes are motor or muscular reactions to sensory stimuli, either extra-organic or intra-organic. Some reflexes are glandular reactions to sensory stimuli. If something irritating (e.g., dust) falls into our eyes, we shed tears. If we taste sour things, we have salivation. These reflexes are glandular responses to sensory stimuli.
There are two kinds of reflex actions, viz., (1) physiological reflexes and (2) sensation reflexes. Reflex acts may be performed with or without consciousness. The reflexes of which we are entirely unconscious are called physiological reflexes. The pupillary reflex is a physiological reflex.
When there is bright light, the pupil contracts; when there is dim light, the pupil expands. We are not conscious of the change in the size of the pupil. The reflexes of which we are conscious are called sensation reflexes.
We are conscious of winking, sneezing, coughing, etc. So these are sensation-reflexes. Sometime consciousness may take cognizance of reflex acts, but it does not produce them. We may be conscious that we have winked, but the closing of the eye-lids is a reflex action which is not produced by consciousness.
Physiological reflexes are unconscious and independent of conscious control. Sensation reflexes are conscious and preceded and succeeded by consciousness. But generally they cannot be controlled by consciousness. At the approach of a stick to your eyes you are conscious of the stick, and when you have closed your eye-lids, you are conscious of the winking. But you can seldom control the reflex action.
Sometimes sensation reflexes can be suppressed for some time, but they come out violently after some time. At the sudden approach of a constant, a thief, concealing himself, can suppress coughing for some time, but after a little time he is compelled to cough violently. Sometimes we may be able to suppress a sensation reflex (e.g., a sneeze) effectively with a vigorous effort.
There are two important points of difference between physiological reflexes and the sensation reflexes. Circulation, digestion, respiration, and the like, which are responses to intra-organic stimuli, and called by some physiological reflexes. They take place regularly and uniformly and are evoked by recurrent intra-organic stimuli.
Coughing is a sensation reflex. It is an act occasionally evoked, when irritating matter is lodged in the throat. When the mind is absorbed in an interesting topic, coughing may take place unconsciously and thus become a physiological reflex, though generally it is a sensation reflex in a waking condition.
The reflex arc is the physiological basis of a reflex action. A sense-organ is stimulated by a stimulus A sensory neuron carries the nerve impulses from the sense-organ to a nerve centre in the spinal cord or the brain stem. There is a synaptic connection here between the sensory neuron and the motor neuron.
The motor neuron carries the nerve current from the central switching station to a muscle or a gland. The muscle or gland acts according to the impulse received through the motor neuron. This combination of a sensory neuron with a motor neuron through a synaptic junction in the grey matter of a lower centre is called the ‘reflex arc’.
Reflexes are subject to general principles of development. All reflexes do not appeal at the same time. As the nerve centres ripen, different reflexes appear at different stages. Sneezing, coughing, hiccoughing appear within the first few days. Winking appears latter from the seventh to the eleventh week. Other reflexes appear later. In the second place, the reflexes are not always evoked by external stimuli.
They depend also upon the general condition of the organism. The baby sucks the breast of his mother when he is hungry. But he stops sucking when his hunger is satisfied, though his lips are pressed against the mother’s breast. When a person is nervously wrought up, a slight unexpected noise may evoke a violent movement. But if he is absorbed in some occupation, the same noise may not evoke any movement.
Reflexes are beneficial to the organism. When an object approaches the eye, the winking reflex protects the eye from possible injury. Coughing expels the irritating phlegm from the throat. Sneezing expels harmful substances from the nasal cavity.
Reflexes are beyond the control of consciousness. Physiological reflexes are unconscious. They are independent of conscious control. Sensation reflexes are preceded and followed by consciousness. But the motor reactions are not executed in response to conscious motives.
They can hardly be suppressed by consciousness. Sensation reflexes are preceded by sensations, but not by perceptions or ideas. They are sensation reflexes as distinguished from perceptual reflexes and ideo-motor actions.
Reflexes are immediate responses to sensory stimuli, either extra-organic or intra-organic. They are prompt or immediate reactions. They are uniform reactions. The same stimulus causes the same reflex. Bright light causes contraction of the pupil.
Reflexes are not learned. They depend upon pre-organized nervous pathways. No one has to practice, to be able to perform the reflexes. When the nervous system, develops, necessary connections are established between the sensory nerves and the motor nerves so that reflexes take place immediately.
Reflexes are not voluntary actions. They do not involve anticipation of any end. They are not intentional, deliberate or purposive. Reflexes are simple and local responses. They do not involve a complicated series of actions. They are simple response.
They are single reactions to stimuli. They are local responses. A particular part of the body responds to a stimulus in it. Many part or organs of the body do not respond to a situation.
Conditioned Reflex:
Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, discovered the conditioned reflex by conditioning the natural reflex about the year 1900. He made experiments with a hungry dog and evoked his salivary reflex by conditioned stimuli. A reflex is an immediate motor or glandular response to a stimulus. There is a natural response to a natural stimulus. If you put meat in the mouth of a hungry dog, there is secretion of saliva.
This is an unconditioned reflex. But it is found that other stimuli connected with the original stimulus, such as the sight of the smell of food, the sight of the dish in which the food is usually served, the sight of the person who usually gives food or even the hearing of his footsteps in the next room causes rapid flow of saliva in a hungry dog.
With the stimulus of food actually present in the mouth, the salivary response is-a natural reflex, but the same response aroused by such a stimulus as the sight of a dish, or the sound of footsteps of the person who usually serves food, depends upon the conditions under which the dog has been fed previously.
Pavlov called it a conditioned reflex. It is not strictly a reflex. So it is better to call it a conditioned response. Here the same response is made to conditions normally connected with the natural stimulus.
A conditioned response is established by connecting the natural stimulus with an artificial stimulus, thirty, forty, or fifty times continuously without any break. Then the natural stimulus is withdrawn, and only the artificial stimulus is presented, which evokes the same response. The artificial stimulus is called the substitute stimulus or the conditioned stimulus.
Pavlov found that any substitute stimulus, such as the ringing of a bell, the application of, heat or cold to the skin, the shining of an electric light connected with the natural stimulus such as giving food to a hungry dog a number of times,—thirty, forty or more,—evoked the same response, e. g, the excretion of saliva.
It is very curious that even a slight change in the conditioned stimulus already established will fail to evoke the response. When the response is evoked by the sound of a certain note as a conditioned stimulus, it cannot be evoked by a sound which differs from it by even a quarter of a tone.
Pavlov made a number of experiments to find out how conditioned reflexes are extinguished. A well-established conditioned reflex has not the fixity of a natural reflex. It can be gradually extinguished as it can be established by repeated practice.
If the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly applied without the natural stimulus, it gradually fails to evoke the conditioned reflex. The shorter the interval between such repetitions, the quicker is the extinction of the response.
If meat is shown to a hungry dog, without being given to him to eat for some days or weeks continuously, the sight or the smell of it cannot evoke the salivary reflex. Extinction of the conditioned reflex may be fundamentally the same process as negative adaptation.
In both a useless response to a constantly repeated stimulus is gradually eliminated. We can restore an extinguished conditioned reflex, simply by allowing it to act once more in conjunction with the natural reflex.
There is a kind of conditioned reflex in which the same stimulus evokes a different response. If a child sees a dog for the first time, he may approach and pat it. If the dog is gentle, the sight of it will induce the same patting reaction.
But if the dog is vicious and bites the child, the sight of it will cause him to withdraw and run away from it. Here the same stimulus (e.g., the dog) evokes an opposite response as a result of experience. The sight of the dog evokes running away.
Thus there are two kinds of conditioned reflexes. In the first place, a reflex action (e.g., salivation) is evoked by a substitute stimulus (e.g., the ringing of a bell). In the second place, the same stimulus (e.g., a dog) evokes a different response (e.g., withdrawing and running). In the former, a reflex is attached to a substitute stimulus. In the latter, the same Stimulus is attached to a substitute response.
Unlearned Action: Type # 3.
Ideo-Motor Actions:
They are movements which immediately follow from the ideas of movements. In an ideo-motor action first there is the idea of a movement; then this idea is converted at once into a movement. The idea of the movement is so impulsive that it carries itself out into the actual movement at once.
Here the movement is not under the guidance of will. It is not a voluntary action; it is an impulsive act. In an ideo-motor action an idea is immediately followed by an action without the co-operation of will. It is non-voluntary in nature. It is not deliberate, intentional or purposive.
It is different from a sensation reflex, in which a sensation (e.g., irritation of the nasal membrane) is immediately followed by a response (e.g., sneezing). In an ideo-motor action, an idea—not a sensation—of an action is directly followed by the action. We are conscious of nothing between the idea and the movement. We think of the action and it is done.
While you are talking with a friend, you become conscious of a pin on the floor or of some dust on your sleeve. You at once pick up the pin or brush away the dust without interrupting the conversation. These are ideo-motor actions which do not involve express resolves. Similarly, you sit at a table for dinner which is over and find yourself eating nuts, raising or fruits while you are talking with your friends. (fames).
While reading, a fly settles on your cheek and your find yourself waving your hand and removing it. Sometimes a person who climbs the top of a hill is so obsessed with the idea of jumping into the abyss below that he jumps at once. These are ideo-motor actions.
Suggestive, or automatic imitation also is an ideo-motor action. You smile at a child and he will smile at you. A child cries at the sight of another child crying. Mob action is very often an ideo-motor action. The people in a crowd clap their hands and laugh imitating others.
They do not know the reason why they do so. The actions of others bring the ideas before their minds so vividly that they cannot but execute the actions.
In abnormal cases also we find ideo-motor actions. In kleptomania the idea of stealing something is suggested to the mind of a kleptomaniac and it is immediately followed by stealing it. The person cannot inhibit the idea of the action.
Empathy:
Incipient movements are aroused in our organisms by movements in our environment. They are sometimes too slight to be noticed. But at other times they are readily noticed. When a spectator watches a football game, his leg automatically makes a pushing movement, when a player pushes a ball at a critical moment.
When a lover of music listens to music with rapt attention, he makes rhythmic movements in some parts of his body. In empathy we feel ourselves into the object perceived, and project our unconscious movement into it. It is not limitation.