n the
situation rises to the level of uncertainty and perplexity. To borrow
the classical illustration of the child and the candle, the child is in
a state of uncertainty because the neural activity of the moment
comprises two incompatible systems of discharge, the one being a
grasping and holding, the other a withdrawal and such further movements
as may be induced by contact with fire. Hence the candle has the
seductiveness of a prize, but at the same time carries the suggestion of
burning the fingers. That is, the perceived object has a unique
character of uncertainty, which inheres in it as a present positive
quality. We are here confronted with genuine contingency, such as is
encountered nowhere else. Other modes of behavior may be uncertain in
the sense that the incoming stimulation finds no fixed line of discharge
laid down for itself within the organism. In seeking to convert itself
into response it may either sweep away the obstructions in its path or
work itself out along lines of less resistance, in ways that no man can
foretell. There may be moments of equilibrium, moments when it remains
to be seen where the dam will break and the current rush through. Such
uncertainty, however, is the uncertainty of the bystander who attempts
to forecast what will happen next. It is not the uncertainty that
figures as an integral part of conscious behavior.

This inherent uncertainty means that conscious behavior, as contrasted
with the mechanical character of the reflexes, is essentially
experimental. The uncertainty exists precisely because an effort is
under way to clear up the uncertainty. The resort to eye or ear or to
reflective thinking is suggested by the corresponding nascent responses
and is an endeavor to secure something which is still to seek, but
which, when found, will meet the requirements of the situation.
Translating this process into terms of stimulus and response, we may
say that the conscious stimulus of the moment induces the investigation
or scrutiny which presently results in the arrival of a stimulus that is
adequate to the situation. The stimulus, in other words, provides for
its own successor; or we may say that the process as a whole is a
self-directing, self-determining activity. Stimulus and response are not
successive stages or moments, but rather simultaneous functions or
phases of the total process. Within this process the given situation is
the stimulus because it is that aspect or function