Home James Mark Baldwin: Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology. 1901-02

 

 

Model [Lat. modulus, dim. of modus, measure]: Ger. Modell, Vorschrift; Fr. modèle; Ital. modello.

 

(1) In psychology: something held up for conscious IMITATION (q.v.).

It is recommended that this term be in all cases employed for the matter set up for purposes of imitation (the usage of Taine, Tarde, Royce), the term COPY (q.v.) being used in the wider sense given it under that topic. The word 'example' is used in the four languages, especially with an ethical reference, for cases in which the model is explicitly chosen and pursued.

 

Copy [ME. copy]: Ger. (1, 2) Copie, Muster, (2) Exemplar; Fr. (1, 2) copie, (2) exemplaire; Ital. copia.

(1) Anything imitated or liable to imitation, whether intentionally set for imitation or not.

(2) Something made by imitation of something else; as a verb, to imitate.

 

(1) As in the expressions 'copy for imitation,' 'printer's copy,' 'copy-book,' &c. The ambiguity arising from the two usages makes it desirable to use (1) altogether as the proper psychological term in all discussions of the imitative functions, model being reserved for a copy which is consciously set or held up for imitation. Under usage (2) we have the further turn that the word sometimes means a sample or specimen, as a 'copy' of a book. This, however, need not be reflected in psychological terminology. To secure clearness, the phrases 'copy-made' and 'copy-result' are recommended when the result of imitation is intended. The phrase 'the original' is often used (in Eng., Ger., and Fr.) for what is imitated when a direct comparison is made with the imitative result. See IMITATION (also for Literature), and MODEL

 

Imitation [Lat. imitatio]: Ger. Nachahmung; Fr. imitation; Ital. imitazione.

(1) The performance in movement, thought, or both movement and thought, of what comes through the senses, or by suggestion, as belonging to another individual.

 

This is the traditional and customary usage. It makes essential the fact that another person serves to set the copy imitated. This usage is that of Preyer and Lloyd Morgan. To distinguish imitation in this limited sense from the wider meanings designated below, it has been suggested that this be called 'conscious imitation' (when the repetition as such is conscious to the thought of the imitator), 'imitative suggestion' (when imitative to the onlooker only), and 'plastic imitation' (the subconscious conformity to types of thought and action, as in crowds).

 

<Invention> … A more adequate analysis of imitation has shown that we cannot limit that term to the intentional conscious procedure of the child by which he closely observes some other person and then himself carries out the action which that person performs before him. In the first place, many imitations are performed without the child's consciously observing the model or knowing that he is acting with reference to a particular deed of another. Again, it is not necessary that the child should imitate another person, or another thing, than his own self. When he looks at his own hands accidentally placed in this position or that, or at any attitude of his into which the circumstances of the time may have forced him, these he may imitate, aiming to do intentionally or spontaneously what was done before by his members accidentally or by external constraint. So also he may imitate his own mind as well as his own body. When he has before him something to imitate -- that is, before his mind -- it does not matter whether there be or be not outside of him another person actually doing the thing he is imitating. It may be that the model he aims to reproduce is the result of his own thought, imagination, fancy. Suppose a child opening his mind in the early morning, as he lies in bed in the dark, and thinking over the doings of the preceding day. Something of a striking character comes into his mind from the preceding day's sport, and he proceeds to jump from his bed and perform the act again and again. In this case he is imitating his own action of the preceding day, or -- if we interpret his present state -- he is imitating the image or memory which has arisen in his mind spontaneously. All this is so plainly the same sort of action as that in which the model is set up by some one else, that it is now called 'self-imitation.' Whenever the child thinks of anything he can do, and then proceeds to do it in a way which reproduces a result like that of which he thinks, then he is imitating, and his act is self-imitation.

… We find that the child goes on to invent largely in proportion as he actually carries his imitations out into action. He sets out to reproduce something which another person or his own fancy suggests, and just by carrying out this purely imitative purpose he falls into new ways of action or thought which seem to him more valuable. This is especially true when the function in question allows of large variations; when the hand is used or the tongue -- members which, by their great flexibility, give various possibilities of modified result. The child soon learns these possibilities, being to use his imitative functions with view to securing variations on the models, and loves to produce relatively new and inventive results. So, too, as he becomes strenuous, using his members vigorously and with less exact control, the performance flows over the limits of the model, so to speak, and gives to the result new and possibly valuable phases.

 

(2) In biology: see MIMICRY (4).

Mimicry (in biology) [Gr. mimikoV]: Ger. (English term); Fr. mimétisme; Ital. mimetismo, mimesi. The term mimicry is generally used to express a resemblance, independent of affinity, between certain species inhabiting the same country -- a resemblance which appeals to the senses of other animals, especially to the sense of sight, not uncommonly to hearing, occasionally to smell and touch.

4) Finally, we have the resemblance of a species which is not specially protected to one which gains comparative immunity from the possession of some unusual mode of defence.

In this case, the latter is called the model and the former the mimic. Mimicry thus becomes a case of 'false warning and signalling or pseudosematic colours,' and is distinguished from protective (and aggressive) resemblance, because in the latter an animal resembles something which is of no interest to its enemies (or prey), and is thus concealed; while in the former it resembles (pseudaposematic) something which its enemy positively fears or dislikes (or conversely - pseudepisematic -- which its prey positively desires or seeks), and thus becomes conspicuous.

 

Animalculist: Ger. Präformist; Fr. spermatiste, animalculiste; Ital. animalculista. One who believes that the male germinal cell or spermatozoon is or contains a miniature model of the organism into which it is to develop.

 

Laboratory (of psychology) and Apparatus: Ger. psychologisches Institut, Institut für experimentelle Psychologie, Apparate, Instrumente; Fr. laboratoire de psychologie, appareils, instruments; Ital. laboratorio, apparecchi, strumenti. A room or series of rooms fitted up for psychological experiments. By apparatus is meant all the instruments or material means of investigation, training, or demonstration.

 

B. Sensation and Perception. We have the following groups:

(1) Demonstration apparatus; physical and physiological instruments and models. Here belong models of eye, ear, brain, &c; models of the horopter, the field of vision, &c.; large wooden copies of metal instruments, made to show the working of the latter; models illustrating the stream of consciousness, the course of feeling, &c.; apparatus for purely physiological tests, for astigmatism, for the change of the lens in accommodation (phacoscope), for demonstration of the form of vowel waves by means of manometric flames, for recording muscular strength, work, and contraction (dynamometer, ergograph, and myograph), for the registration of pulse, respiration, volume (sphygmograph, pneumograph, plethysmograph), for exploring the eye (ophthalmoscope).

 



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