members of the social group. As Smith and Guthrie explain so admirably, a situation may prompt us to different perceptions at different times, and therefore the wise speaker will always observe with great care all of the elements in the time, the place, the subject, the social group, etc., to which those whom he addresses may be prompted to respond. He will utilize these wherever possible rather than permit them to become distracting. In the words of Smith and Guthrie, "Objects and events are never perceived independently of their settings." This the speaker should remember, and he should consider his setting, because for all practical purposes in a speech situation, he is but part of the setting.

IV. THE RÔLE OF HABIT IN PERCEPTION

The meaning which any stimulus or situation (combination of stimuli) will have for us is clearly dependent upon our past experience. Our responses to stimulation of a given kind fall into the relatively fixed patterns which we call habits. Therefore the habits of the reactor, so far as they can be known in advance, form the best possible basis which the speaker can have for predicting the behavior of those to whom he speaks. "Due to the dependence of perception on habit, the same combination of stimuli will be perceived differently by two persons. The tea taster's perception of tea, a florist's perception of roses, the fancier's perception of dogs, and the entomologist's perception of bugs differ from the corresponding perceptions of untrained persons. Each of us has his private equipment of habit and perceives any situation accordingly."8 This is simply another way of saying that an individual's responses to stimulation are determined very largely by the amount of conditioning which has preceded the stimulation; that is, what responses have been given in the past to the same and similar stimuli.

Habit is very closely associated with tastes. We like to be stimulated into doing the things which we find satisfaction in doing. This means that the speaker, if he is anxious to be liked, must not ask us to do strange and unfamiliar things and must not ask us to do things so difficult that our habit patterns are inadequate. Experience is the sum total of past responses. Everything which we have ever done belongs to our experience. It is more accurate to talk in terms of what we have done than in terms of what has been done to us. In so far as we can control our responses, we can determine what is going to be done to us, because only as we react can anything be done to us. This is what Kerfoot has in mind when he says, in his stimulating book on reading: 9

"If there is one fact that we have grown thoroughly to understand and accept, it is the fact that we have nothing to read with except our own experience, the seeing and hearing, the smelling and tasting and touching that we have done; the fearing and hating, and hoping and loving that has appeared in us; the intellectual and spiritual reactions that have resulted, and the assumptions, understandings, prejudices, hypocrisies, fervors, foolishnesses, finenesses, and faiths that have thereby been precipitated in us like crystals in a chemist's tube."

You will see that experience is held to be in its elements synonymous with sensation. Sensation, often thought to be the most passive of all psychological phenomena, is really an active process. We know this because when we can completely inhibit and cut off the motor side of the process, we get no sensation. This fact can be clearly demonstrated in the case of the hypnotized subject who is told that a hot iron will not hurt his hand and therefore feels no pain when the burning takes place. Our hypothesis is that, completely inhibiting his withdrawal reflexes, he does not respond to the stimulus, sets up no sensory-motor arc, and consequently has no painful sensation.

9 J. B. Kerfoot, How to Read, p. 150. Houghton, Mifflin Company.

V. DEFINITION OF PERCEPTION

We are now ready to attempt a definition of this term, perception. We must recognize that it is motor in nature, that it is made possible by conditioning, and that it is in some way related to experience. The traditional psychological definition of perception is that it is the process by which meaning is added to sensation: thus a percept is a sensation plus meaning. We can perhaps translate this into the terminology which we have been employing by saying that perception is a relatively fixed relation between a group of responses and a stimulus, or a group of stimuli, carrying with it the sense of familiarity which we have in recognition and recall. We may be said to perceive an object when a stimulus from the object causes us to respond more fully and completely than would be the case if we were being stimulated by it for the first time. When we are stimulated by an object for the first time, we sense it; our reaction is a sensation. Perception is a mental process in which a stimulus (or a group of stimuli) evokes past sensations images) in addition to present sensation, the past sensations having been conditioned by (associated with) the stimulus (or group stimuli). A large share of the responses which constitute perception are the result of experience or conditioning.

EXERCISES

Prepare a five-minute discussion of one of the following topics, aiming to be just as clear and interesting as possible.

(a) Empathy (examples and illustrations)

(b) How meanings get into words

(c) How to choose words which will stir up the most meaning in the mind of the hearer

(d) Why it is easy to get the meanings from a good speaker (e) How far is meaning an individual matter?

(f) What does a word mean? 10

10 See J. B. Kerfoot's How to Read, Chapter on "Muckraking the Dictionary."

II. THE CENTRAL IMPORTANCE OF ATTENTION IN THE SPEECH

SITUATION

III. ATTENTION AND THE AUTONOMIC DRIVE

IV. FUNDAMENTAL ATTENTION VALUES

A. Intense Sounds

B. Moving Objects

C. Variety

V. THE FACTORS OF INTERESTINGNESS

A. The Animate

B. The Vital

C. The Uncertain

D. The Antagonistic

E. The Similar

F. The Novel

G. The Concrete

I. DEFINITION

Most definitions of attention are in figurative language. We speak of the "focus of attention" and the "margin of attention" as if we were dealing with a lens of some kind, or as if attention were a purely visual phenomenon. It is true that we can learn a great deal from observing the behavior characteristic of visual attention. We note the fixation of the eyes, the more or less rigid supporting activity of other muscles which are said to "orient" the organism to a stimulus or a situation. Certainly one element in attention is clear, that is, orientation which means a muscular attitude on the part of the organism designed to bring a sense organ into a favorable position for receiving a stimulus. Note the strained attitude

or a person who is trying to hear a sound almost too faint to be audible. Observe the furrowed brow, the tense neck muscles, the decreased rate of respiration involved in trying to see something which is too distant or too minute to be seen easily. Attention is a unified, coordinated muscular set, or attitude, which brings sense organs to bear with maximum effectiveness upon a source of stimulation and thus contributes to alertness and readiness of response.

II. THE CENTRAL IMPORTANCE OF ATTENTION IN THE

SPEECH SITUATION

Any speaking which is to be effective must secure and hold the attention of the audience. This is simply another way of saying that the visual and auditory stimuli which the speaker is furnishing must be given a clear right of way so that they can dominate and control the responses of the reactor. Any one listening to and observing a speaker is being bombarded simultaneously by many stimuli, and the speaker's supreme obligation, as well as his greatest opportunity, is to contrive in some way to make the stimuli which he is furnishing more potent and effective than all others in the speech situation. If the speaker can do this, there is literally no limit to what he may achieve. If he cannot do this to some extent, he cannot do anything in speech. This principle seems obvious enough, and, yet, if you study most of the speakers you know, you will see that they frequently disregard it completely. Somehow the speaker seems to imagine that all he has to do is to speak and leave it to the audience to do whatever may be necessary to get his precious meanings. As an example of this, we may cite an incident which occurred in a university faculty meeting one night. One of the professors had been delivering a long, somewhat tiresome argument in support of a proposal which he was laying before the faculty. Upon the conclusion of his remarks another member of the faculty said rather testily, "I don't get your argument at all." The speaker retorted, "Well, all I can do is to state the argument."