pulse and
action. It may be noted further that, whenever the young child gains an
idea of an action, he tends at once to express that idea in action. On
account of this immediate connection between thought and expression, due
to an inability to inhibit the motor discharge, a child, as soon as he
is able to form ideas of the acts of others, must necessarily show a
tendency to repeat, or reproduce, such acts. Granting that this
immediate connection between sensory impulse and motor response is an
inherited capacity, the tendency of the young child to imitate the acts
of others may be classified as an instinct.

=Imitation a Complex.=--On closer examination, however, it will be found
that imitation is really a complex of several tendencies. The nervous
organism of the healthy young child is usually supercharged with nervous
energy. This energy, like a swollen stream, seems ever striving to sweep
away any resistance to the motor discharge of sensory impulses, and must
necessarily reinforce the natural tendency to give immediate expression
to ideas of action. Moreover, the social instincts of the child, his
sympathy, etc., give him a special interest in human beings and in their
acts. These tendencies, therefore, focus his attention upon human
action, and cause his ideas of such acts to become more vivid and
interesting. For this reason, observation of human acts is more likely
to lead to motor expression. That the social instincts of the child
reinforce the tendency to imitate is indicated by the fact that his
early imitations are of human acts especially, as yawning, smiling,
crying, etc. The same is further evidenced in that, at a later stage,
when ordinary objects enter into his imitative acts, the imitation is
largely symbolic, and objects are endowed with living attributes. Here
blocks become men; sticks, horses, etc.

=Kinds of. A. Spontaneous Imitation.=--In its simplest form, imitation
seems to follow directly upon the perception of a given act. As the
child attends, now to the nod of the head, now to the shaking of the
rattle, now to an uttered sound, he spontaneously reproduces these
perceived acts. Because in such cases the imitative act follows directly
upon the perception of the copy, without the intervention of any
determination to imitate, it is termed spontaneous, or unconscious,
imitation. It is by spontaneous imitation that the child gains so much
knowledge of the world about him, and so much power over t