The reflex arc concept in psychology.

1896/07/01 by John Dewey · 1 voice · 20 citations
Computer Science · Psychology · #Cognitive Science and Mapping #Emotional Intelligence and Performance

paper · doi:10.1037/h0070405

openalex publication_date 1896/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Discusses the concept of the reflex arc. The conscious stimulus or sensation, and the conscious response or motion, have a special genesis or motivation, and a special end or function. The reflex arc theory neglects this genesis and function, and gives only the disjointed parts of the whole process. The stimulus and response form specific phases of coordination, which helps to unify the disjointed parts given by the theory. The stimulus represents the conditions which have to be met in bringing about successful coordination, and the response gives the key to meeting these conditions; it serves as an instrument in affecting the successful coordination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Cited by

• Experimental analysis of instinctive behavior.
• Beyond Mechanism—Extending Our Concepts of Causation in Neuroscience
• Ecological Psychology
• The motifs of radical embodied neuroscience
• Affordances from a control viewpoint
• How Purposeful Adaptive Responses to Adverse Conditions Facilitate Successful Auditory Functioning: A Conceptual Model
• Feeling Colour
• The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization
• Why do people get phished? Testing individual differences in phishing vulnerability within an integrated, information processing model
• Embodiment in Mathematics Teaching and Learning: Evidence From Learners' and Teachers' Gestures
• Toward a Theory of Experience
• Generating Meaning: Active Inference and the Scope and Limits of Passive AI
• J. J. Gibson’s most radical idea: The development of a new law-based psychology
• What is it like to be a chimpanzee?
• Friedrich von Hayek and John Dewey on the market and democracy: convergent, complementary, and irreducible contributions to liberal theory
• Generating meaning: active inference and the scope and limits of passive AI
• Free will: it unlikely exists in light of psychological theories; it “floats” in the complexity paradigm
• The implications of embodiment for behavior and cognition: animal and robotic case studies
• Polyra Swarms: A Shape-Based Approach to Machine Learning
• Perception [wikipedia]

Discussions

• Pourquoi ne pas se lancer dans un jour un article. On commence par le GOAT : #1 Dewey, J. (1896). The reflex arc concept in psychology. Psychological Review, 3(4), 357–370. doi.org/10.1037/h007... [bsky, 1 points, 1 comments]

Related

• Remarks on some aspects of reflex inhibition
• Two Types of Conditioned Reflex: A Reply to Konorski and Miller
• From interoception to control over the internal body: The ideomotor hypothesis of voluntary interoaction.
• Reflexive and voluntary orienting of visual attention: Time course of activation and resistance to interruption.
• Joint perception, joint attention, joint know-how