CQUIRED REACTIONS UPON INSTINCT AND REFLEX ACTION,
AND THE MODIFICATION OF NATIVE REACTIONS BY EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING.

Already, in considering intelligence, we have partially rounded the
corner from native to acquired traits, and now, fairly around the
corner, we see ahead of us a long straight stretch of road. For there
is much to say regarding acquired traits and regarding the process of
acquisition. All knowledge is acquired, the whole stock of ideas, as
well as motor skill, and there are acquired motives in addition to the
native motive forces that we called instincts, and acquired likes and
dislikes in addition to those that are native; so that, all in all,
there are thousands on thousands of acquired reactions, and the daily
life of the adult is made up of these much more than of strictly
native reactions.

It will take us several chapters to explore this new territory that
now lies before us, a chapter on acquiring motor habits and skill, a
chapter on memory, a chapter on acquired mental reactions, and a
chapter devoted to the general laws that hold good in this whole
field. Our general plan is to proceed from the simple to the complex,
generalizing to some extent as we go, but leaving the big
generalizations to the close of the discussion, where we shall see
whether the whole process of acquiring reactions of all sorts cannot
be summed up in a few general laws of acquisition, or "laws of
association" as they are traditionally called. On reaching that {297}
goal, the reader may well come back, with the general laws in mind,
and see how well they fit in detail all the instances of acquired
responses that we are about to describe. We might have begun by
stating the general laws, but on the whole it will be better to
proceed "inductively", beginning with the observed facts and working
up to the general laws.

Acquired Reactions Are Modified Native Reactions

Though we have "turned a corner" in passing from native traits to
acquired, it would be a mistake to suppose we had left what is native
altogether behind. It would be a mistake to suppose that the
individual outgrew and left behind his native reactions and acquired
an entirely new outfit. The reactions that he acquires--or _learns_,
as we speak of acquisition in the sphere of reactions--develop out of
his native reactions. Consider this: how is the individual ever going
to learn a reaction? Only by reacting. Without native reactions, he
would be entir