received
the impression from my voice that he was to do something that he was
bidden, and he did what was easy to him just at the moment,
"mechanically," without knowing which of the movements that he had
learned was required (cf. p. 116).

In regard to the _understanding of words heard_, several points of
progress are to be noted; above all a change of place in consequence of
the question, "Where is your clothes-press?" The child, standing erect,
being held by the hand, at these words turns his head and his gaze
toward the clothes-press, draws the person holding him through the large
room by the hand, although he can not walk a step alone, and then opens
the press without assistance. Here, at the beginning of the fourteenth
month, is the _idea of a definite stationary object associated with a
sound heard_, and so strongly that it is able to produce an independent
act of locomotion, the first one; for, although before this the
clothes-press had often been named and shown, the going to it is still
the child's own performance.

It is now a matter of common occurrence that other words heard have also
a definite relation to objects seen. The questions, "Where is papa?
mamma? the light?" are invariably answered correctly, after brief
deliberation, by turning the head (at the word "light," occasionally
since the ninth month) and the gaze in the proper direction, and by
lifting the right arm, often also the left, to point, the fingers of the
outstretched hand being at the same time generally spread out. In the
previous month, only the association of the word _mama_ with the
appearance of the mother was established. The following are now added
to the movements executed upon hearing certain words. The child likes to
beat with his hands upon the table at which he is sitting. I said to
him, "Play the piano," and made the movement after him. Afterward, when
I merely said the word "piano" to the child (who was at the time quiet),
without moving my hands, he _considered_ for a few seconds, and then
beat again with his hands on the table. Thus the recollection of the
sound was sufficient to bring out the movement. Further, the child had
accustomed himself, of his own accord, to give a regular _snort_,
contracting the nostrils, pursing up the mouth, and breathing out
through the nose. If now any one spoke to him of the "nose," this
snorting was sure to be made. The word put the centro-motors into a
state of excitement. The same is tr