Development of voluntary control.

Abstract

How we acquire voluntary control over a muscle is a problem of vast interest and importance, because of the light its solution would throw upon the nature of the will; and the intense interest manifested in its solution is shown by the solicitude with which the actions of children are observed, the various experimental investigations, both direct and indirect, which are being carried on, and the many attempts to formulate theories which shall reckon and be consistent with all the facts. This article is concerned with an investigation of the conditions and processes involved in getting voluntary control over a muscle or group of muscles. So far as we are aware, comparatively little or no work has been done by the experimental method (that here employed) toward the solution of this problem. The method usually employed is the genetic, which is at a disadvantage in two respects : (I) It is impossible to determine when a movement becomes voluntary, since the child begins its life with a series of movements. There is no uniformity of development, and any conclusions that may be drawn are necessarily too general for a definite theory of the will. (2) This method does not afford the advantage of introspection.We have approached the problem in a definite way, selecting a muscle over which we had, as yet, no control, and by developing this control and keeping accurate records of the progress of the development and careful introspections of the accompanying mental states, discovered a number of facts, which, together with others found in the literature on the subject, justify us in drawing certain conclusions.The muscle selected to work with was the retrahens of the

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