Childhood: John B. Watson. Experimental Studies on the Growth of the Emotions. What the Nursery has to say about Instincts. The Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1925, Vol. XXXII, No. 2.

This paper, by a well-known behaviourist, is worth drawing attention to on account of the interesting and full material it presents concerning the behaviour of infants during the first thirty days of life. The observations were made on several hundreds of infants, with a view to discovering their 'unlearned response', as the author calls them (refusing to admit the term instinct or instinctive) at this stage of development. This 'Birth-Equipment' comprises sneezing, hiccoughing, crying, peniserection, voiding of urine, defæcation, smiling, manual response (head, arm, hand, leg movements), feeding response, vocal behaviour.

The writer seeks to show that practically all these activities are, or certainly can be, brought about by suitable stimuli, and therefore he calls them 'conditioned', and, as they develop further, the outcome of 'training'. The experiments made were often original (e.g. introducing various animals to an infant three weeks old and observing the child's fear-reactions), and very careful records have been made.

No knowledge of psycho-analytical principles is shown in the deductions made by the writer.