ABSTRACT
The adaptation of conduct to various objects and various situations is regulated by sensory experiences which are generally very incomplete and fragmentary. I hear my name called in a certain complex quality of voice, and at once have the reaction that I am meeting a friend, the reaction which comes for a definite friend more or less warmly received. In the perception, there is an anticipation of experience which corresponds to a mechanism of conditioned reflexes. When the mouth waters at the sight of an agreeable fruit, there is, by anticipation, the normal reaction from tasting the savoury morsel. The perception will be released by a fragment of a sensory experience which has been less or more common, depending upon which preparatory attitude is better suited to the nature of the object perceived. If I am waiting for a friend in a reception room, the noise of an opening door will suffice to excite at once the perceptive conduct.
