An Introduction to the Theory of Perception

Abstract

THE continuity of race of the present fauna of the earth is due to many different factors. In the case of what we call the higher animals—slow-breeding, exposed to the attack of many sorts of enemies, in some cases subsisting on many forms of prey—accurate choice of reaction in each of a multitude of different circumstances has been, and is, a prime factor in the maintenance of race. Even where the choice of reaction may be limited, as between attack, flight, and no action at all, the determination of choice may be complicated; for the numbers of objects to which the choice is to be applied may be almost infinite.While the primary reactions (such as those mentioned above) may be classified with comparative simplicity, each individual reaction has to be modified in countless ways in accord with the variety of the object. Such ways may be briefly indicated by the expressions ‘mode of attack’ and 'direction of flight. In man, the biological value of team-work has been given effect to by a great development of the mechanism of spokenspeech and heard-speech; and man probably alone of all animals is able to convey to a comrade an accurate description of the objects and changes which he observes in his immediate or distant surroundings. His behaviour, both as an individual and as a member of a team, depends, as do the reactions of other animals, upon the distinguishing of differences in the surrounding environment.

An Introduction to the Theory of Perception.

By Sir John Herbert Parsons. (The Cambridge Physiological Library.) Pp. viii + 254. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1927.) 18s. net.