I see smoke
on the ocean's far horizon, and I decide instantly, "a steamer." I have
not perceived any steamer, but only something that "goes with it," as it
were. I see the ship with my mind, not with my eyes; for I know that a
cloud of smoke out there always has, in my past experience, represented
just that. I compare the newly appearing stimulus--smoke in that
particular location--with all that is associated with it in my mind,
and classify it with the known. I apperceive "steamer."
In apperception, then, we construct from the known actually perceived by
the senses, the unknown. How does the child realize that the moving
speck on the distant hillside is his father? There is nothing to
indicate it except that it is black and moves in this direction. But
experience tells Johnny that father comes home that way just about this
time. Moreover, it says that father looks so when at that distance. When
Johnny is as sure it is his father as if he could see his face close
beside him he has apperceived him. The speck on the hill is the newly
arriving stimulus.
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