ll this time I still am conscious of the offense done me.
But suppose something leads me to try to look at the other person's
behavior from his own point of view--then I perceive it in a different
light, and it may no longer appear a personal offense to myself. I
here get a substitute perception.

The process of blocking and substituting is the same process that we
have seen in trial and error.[Footnote: See p. 408.] The response
proving unsatisfactory, or promising to be unsatisfactory, is checked
and a substitute response found. Other elements in the situation get a
chance to exert their influence on the reaction. If perception of a
fact were absolutely the same as preparing a motor act, we could not
look over the situation, perceiving one fact after another, and
letting our adjustment for action depend on the total situation
instead of on the separate facts successively observed; nor could we
perceive one fact while preparing the motor response to another fact,
as is actually done in telegraphy, typewriting, reading aloud, and
many other sorts of skilled action. In reading aloud, the eyes on the
page keep well ahead of the voice; while one word is being pronounced,
the next word is being prepared for pronouncing, and words still
further ahead are in process of being perceived.

We conclude, accordingly, that perception of an object is not
absolutely the same thing as motor response to the object, nor even as
motor readiness to respond, although the transition from perception to
motor readiness may be so quick that the whole reaction seems a unit.
In reality, perception of the object precedes the motor adjustment,
and is one factor in determining that adjustment.

{431}

What Sort of Response, Then, Is Perception?

We can say this, that perception is knowing the fact, as distinguished
from readiness to act. We can say that perception is an adjustment to
facts as they are, while motor adjustment is a preparation for
changing the facts. Perception does not alter the facts, but takes
them as they are; movement alters the facts or produces new facts. We
can say that perception comes in between sensation and motor
preparation. But none of these statements is quite enough to satisfy
us, if we wish to know something of the machinery of perception. What
is the stimulus in perception, and what is the nature of the response?

It takes a collection of stimuli to arouse a perception. This
collection is at the same time a s