ABSTRACT
In the other studies described in this book, the subject carries out actions on certain objects, with his cognizance of these actions depending on his observation of their effects on the objects, as well as of the results and of his own move ments. It is therefore useful to begin by analyzing a situation in which the role of the objects is reduced to a minimum, but where the action nevertheless is sufficiently complex for the subject to have trouble grasping it completely, although not so complex that his cognizance is delayed too long. Asking subjects to walk on all fours provides an excellent situation, since most of us could do this before we could walk and because the only material required is a fixed floor, serving simply as a support and not as an instrument or goal. Further more, this allows a particularly useful opportunity to check one of our general hypotheses, namely that cognizance de pends on active adjustments involving choices of a more or less deliberate nature rather than on automatic sensorimotor regulations. Walking on all fours, of course, because of its familiarity (unless deliberately obstructed), involves only reg-
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