through, what has
already formed a part of our experience. What is true of this particular
case is true of all cases. New presentations are always met and
interpreted by some complex experiences with which they have something
in common, otherwise the stimuli could not be attended to at all. This
ability of the mind to interpret new presentations in terms of old
knowledge on account of some connection they bear to that content, is
known as _apperception_. In other words, apperception is the law of the
mind to attend to such elements in a new presentation as possess some
degree of _familiarity_ with the already assimilated experience,
although there may be no distinct recognition of this familiarity.

CONDITIONS OF APPERCEPTION

=A. Present Knowledge.=--Since the mind can apperceive only that for
which it is prepared through former experience, the interpretation of
the same presentations will be likely to differ greatly in different
individuals. The book lying before him is to the young child a place in
which to find pictures, to the ignorant man a source of mysterious
information, and to the scholar a symbolic representation of certain
mathematical knowledge. In the same manner, the object outside the
window is a noxious weed to the farmer, a flower to the naturalist, and
a medicinal plant to the physician or the druggist. From this it is
clear that the interpretation of the impressions must differ according
to the character of our present knowledge. In other words, the more
important the aspects read into any presentation, the more valuable will
be the present experience. Although when the child apperceives a stick
as a horse, and the mechanic apperceives it as a lever, each
interpretation is valuable within its own sphere, yet there is evidently
a marked difference in the ultimate significance of the two
interpretations. Education is especially valuable, in fact, in that it
so adds to the experience of the child that he may more fully apperceive
his surroundings.

=B. Present Interests and Needs.=--But apperception is not solely
dependent upon present knowledge. The interests and needs of the
individual reflect themselves largely in his apperceptive tendencies.
While the boy sees a tent in the folded paper, the girl is more likely
to find in it a screen. To the little boy the lath is a horse, to the
older boy it becomes a sword. Feelings and interest, therefore, as well
as knowledge, dominate the apperceptive proc