METHOD FOR CHANGING STEREOTYPED …...McV. Hunt, and H. Schlosberg. For assistance in the design and conduct of experiments and the interpretation of experi-mental data I wish to thank

Psychological Review1965, Vol. 72, No. 3, 196-214

METHOD FOR CHANGING STEREOTYPEDRESPONSE PATTERNS BY THE

INHIBITION OF CERTAINPOSTURAL SETS1

FRANK PIERCE JONES

Institute for Psychological Research, Tufts University

An empirical method is described for changing habitual responsepatterns by inhibiting postural sets which disturb the reflex balance ofthe head. The procedure results in a redistribution of postural tonuswhich is reported by S as a decrease in the feeling of weight andin the effort needed to move. Differences in posture and movement arerecorded by multiple-image photography, X-ray photography, andelectromyography. Anatomical and physiological mechanisms aresuggested to explain the phenomenon. The implications for behavioralscience are discussed.

The problem of behavioral changebecomes more important as society be-comes more complex. Even if a com-plete set of desirable responses couldbe successfully taught to everyone, thenecessity would still remain, in arapidly changing world, of modifyingor eliminating some of them. This iseasier said than done, however, as any-one can testify who has attempted tochange an unwanted habit. A well-learned response pattern continues to

1 The research reported in this paper wassupported by grants from the Carnegie Cor-poration of New York and the United StatesPublic Health Service (GM-04836), with thehelp of the Tufts Fund for Research inKinesthesis and the Katherine BowditchCodman Fund.

This study originated in conversationswith J. Dewey, who persuaded me that thesensory phenomenon described in this papercould (and should) be investigated withinthe framework of experimental psychology.The study was undertaken with the adviceand encouragement of G. P. McCouch, J.McV. Hunt, and H. Schlosberg.

For assistance in the design and conduct ofexperiments and the interpretation of experi-mental data I wish to thank my colleagues atthe Institute for Psychological Research,particularly M. and Dorothea Crook, Flor-ence E. Gray, and J. A. Hanson.

be elicited by appropriate stimuli longafter it has lost all value for the organ-ism. "I see the better course andapprove of it," the poet says, "but Ifollow the worse."

This paper will describe an empiricalmethod for changing habitual patternsof behavior by inhibiting certain pos-tural "sets." Once understood, themethod can be applied to any patternof response. It is demonstrated mosteasily with a movement which involveshead, neck, and trunk and which isperformed against gravity.

POSTURAL SET

The term set is used here to mean apreliminary change in the level and dis-tribution of tension as a preparation formovement (Jones, 1963). In prepa-ration for a movement against grav-ity, the increase in tension is oftensufficient to change the relation be-tween head and trunk. This change isso much a part of the movement tocome that it is seldom detected by themover. If it is eliminated from theresponse pattern (i.e., inhibited), themovement itself will differ markedlyfrom the ordinary movement in the

196

CHANGING STEREOTYPED RESPONSE PATTERNS 197

way the weight of the body is per-ceived. In addition, the movement willproduce a different distribution of pos-tural tonus, against which a subsequentset can be perceived kinesthetically asa figure-ground relation. The charac-ter and significance of the phenomenoncan perhaps be best understood froman introspective account.

INTROSPECTIVE REPORT

The effect on a movement pattern ofchanging the habitual relation betweenhead and trunk was first demonstratedto me by the late A. R. Alexander.2

Alexander used the movement fromsitting to standing for the demonstra-tion. The experience, which is stillvivid in retrospect, was unexpected.Assuming that the demonstrationWould have something to do withvoice production, I did not anticipatea movement of any kind. At the start,Alexander made a few slight changesin the way I was sitting. Thesechanges seemed quite arbitrary to me,and I could not remember afterwardswhat they were. Then, asking me toleave my head as it was, he initiatedthe upward movement without furtherinstructions. The movement (fromsitting to standing) was completed be-fore I had a chance to organize anyvoluntary response. The sensationwas not that of either getting up orbeing lifted. My body seemed to be

2 A. R. Alexander was a brother of F.M. Alexander (1923, 1932, 1941). Alex-ander's teaching, which was based on aprinciple of conscious inhibition, had animportant influence on the thinking ofDewey (1922, 1923, 1932; McCormack,1959). Coghill (1941) and Dart (1947,1950) gave firsthand accounts of Alexan-der's system. It was noted briefly but favor-ably by Sherrington (1946) and Herrick(1949) and discussed at various times inthe British medical press (Barlow, 1945,1954; Macdonald, 1926; Rugg-Gunn, 1940).A discerning account has recently been writ-ten by Carrington (1963).

straightening reflexly against gravity.The analogy of the knee jerk sug-gested itself immediately. The twomovements were similar kinesthetically,but this one, in an integrated fashion,involved the whole extensor system.

In addition to the reflex effect, themovement was notable for the waytime and space were perceived.Though less time than usual was takento complete the movement, the rate atwhich the head and other parts movedwas paradoxically slower, and thetrajectories which they followed wereunfamiliar. The experience is difficultto describe, but the impression wasthat of a sudden expansion in both di-mensions so that more time and spaceseemed available for the movement.

The sense of reduced weight whichaccompanied the movement persistedafter it was completed. The centers ofgravity of the head and trunk seemedto have shifted forward in relation tothe feet, and the weight of the bodyto be supported by structures whichpreviously had not been called intoplay. The effect of the change was toeliminate much of the fatigue whichfor me had been associated with stand-ing.

What later became a clear-cut, easilyrecognizable kinesthetic experience oflightness and ease of movement regis-tered at first as the absence of sensa-tions which, though familiar, had neverbeen consciously observed. The natureof these sensations began to be mani-fest, however, when an attempt wasmade to repeat the movement from sit-ting to standing. This time I got setin anticipation. There was an increaseof tension in the neck, trunk, and limbsas soon as the suggestion of getting upwas made. The tension had apparentlyalways been present as a preliminaryto movement, but by some process ofadaptation it had passed unobserved.Now, against the remembered back-

198 FRANK PIERCE JONES

ground of the previous movement, itstood out as a recognizable pattern.It was as if the reflex movement hadeliminated some of the "noise" fromthe system, so that when the signal re-appeared it could be perceived as adiscrete pattern of spreading tension.The pattern began first in the neck,fixing the position of the head andspreading quickly to the trunk andlimbs. While it was present, no move-ment except the habitual seemed pos-sible.

Once this signal—this pattern ofspreading tension—had been clearlyperceived, I found it reappearing in agreat variety of situations—in speak-ing, for example, in taking a deepbreath, in climbing stairs, in lifting aheavy weight, in changing the fixationof the eyes. The pattern was magni-fied by stress, but seemed to be presentin some degree a great deal of the time.It was repeatedly demonstrated to methat when this pattern was inhibitedand the tension prevented from spread-ing, the character of the associated ac-tivity changed: it became markedlyeasier and was accompanied by thesame kinesthetic effect of lightness Ihad observed before.

The kinesthetic effect of lightnesswas tonic and persisted long after aparticular movement had been com-pleted. With it almost from the startcame certain automatic or semiauto-matic changes which are probably sig-nificant for understanding the phe-nomenon: (a) a change in the restposition of the eyes and a marked re-duction in the tension used in eyemovements; (b) a change in the restposition of the jaw and a relaxation oftension in the tongue and throat; (c)a change in the rate and depth ofbreathing, associated with an increasein the excursion of the diaphragm. Allof these changes were corollaries ofthe postural change and disappeared

when I returned to my habitual patternof posture and movement.

I have described a clear-cut sensoryexperience. Though kinesthetic in ori-gin, it had the sharp and immediatereality of experience obtained throughother sense modalities. It was re-peatable, and it was not accompaniedby any detectable form of suggestion.I was immediately struck by the impli-cations of the experience for behavioralscience. It seemed to open up to con-trolled investigation an area of the selfwhich has heretofore been notoriouslyprivate and inaccessible and to providethe individual with a reliable means forchanging a behavior pattern withoutdelving into the past or having re-course to some outside authority. Theinhibitory control which I found myselfusing in simple, everyday movementsseemed capable of extending to anysituation which could be expressed interms of stimulus and response. Be-fore speculating, however, about im-plications and extensions, I decidedthat experimental data were needed inorder to define the phenomenon opera-tionally. To this end, a series ofstudies have been made at the TuftsInstitute for Psychological Research.I shall review them here and advance atheory of mechanism to account forthe data.

PROCEDURES FOR CHANGING THEBALANCE OF THE HEAD s

The subject, seated in a comfortable,"relaxed" posture, is asked to straightenup into a more erect posture. As heresponds, a slight change can be seento take place in the axis of his head,which is usually rotated backward,bringing the occiput closer to theseventh cervical vertebra. If he isasked to straighten up even further

3 The procedures described here areadapted from procedures used by F. M.Alexander.


FIG. 1. Three sitting postures, traced fromphotographs. (From left to right: habitualrelaxed, habitual erect, and experimental. Inthe final picture the subject has been guidedinto the erect posture by the experimenter,who counterbalanced the backward pull onthe subject's head during the movement.)

into his "greatest sitting height," theangle of head rotation will increase(Jones, Gray, Hanson, & Shoop,1961). After the subject has returnedto his relaxed posture, the experi-menter applies a light pressure at theback of his head just sufficient to coun-terbalance the backward rotation. Thesubject is then guided in a series ofsmall movements, while the experi-menter continues to prevent the back-ward rotation of his head, taking carenot to evoke stretch reflexes in neckmuscles by applying unnecessary pres-sure. At the end of the procedure, thesubject will again be in a more erectposture, but the relation of head totrunk will be different from that ob-served in the habitual posture (seeFigure 1).

If these procedures are carefully fol-lowed, the subject's weight will seemto the experimenter to be progressivelyreduced until little effort is needed tomove him passively. Any movementcarried out after the change will followa different course from the correspond-ing habitual movement.

EFFECT OF HEAD BALANCE ONMOVEMENT PATTERN

The effect of a change in head bal-ance on movement pattern was firstdemonstrated by Jones and Narva(1955) with multiple-image photog-

raphy. Small electric lights were at-tached to the subject's head, trunk, andlimbs and connected with wires to abattery. The subject moved with pro-file to the camera, which was left openthroughout the movement while anepiscotister (or "Marey wheel") in-terrupted the moving image 10 times asecond. The images of the inter-rupted lights provided a time-spacepattern of the movement. Though thetechnique lacked precision, the photo-graphs showed convincingly that thepattern of a movement is altered whenthe head balance is changed.

Jones and O'Connell (1956) refinedthe method by attaching strips ofScotchlite reflecting tape to the subjectand recording the moving image byrepetitive strobe at rates of 5, 10, and20 flashes per second. The strobo-scopic method is highly flexible andallows the subject a maximum of free-dom to move. Patterns obtained inthis way are sharp and clear-cut andcontain a vast amount of informationthat can be quantified. An exampleof the method is shown in Figure 2.The subject wears a black jacket tocut down reflectance. A small cross,which is centered in the Frankfortplane (Howells, 1937) halfway be-tween the tragion of the ear and thelowest point of the orbit, marks theposition of the subject's head and itsangle of rotation. Other markers areattached over the seventh cervicalvertebra and the sternal notch and tothe upper and lower arms. In thepicture on the left, the subject sits lean-ing forward in the chair and movesback into an upright sitting posture.The strobe is pulsed at 5 flashes persecond. In the picture on the right,the movement is repeated after the ex-perimenter has changed the relationbetween the subject's head and trunk.In the experimental movement, thetrajectory of the head is higher, the


2a. Habitual. 2b. Guided.

FIG. 2. Stroboscopic multiple-image photographs, from leaning forward to sitting erect.(Reflecting markers are placed on: head; neck, at seventh cervical vertebra; chest, atsternal notch ; upper and lower arm. Strobe at S flashes per second.)

curve is smoother and more regular,and the change in head pattern is ac-companied by changes in the patternsof the trunk and arm.

Other everyday movements whichhave been recorded in this way arewalking, stair-climbing, stooping downto pick up an object from the floor,straightening up from a slump, and themovements from sitting to standing,from standing to sitting, and from lyingdown to sitting up. In each of thesemovements, the pattern is characteris-tically altered when the relation ofhead to trunk has been changed.

MOVEMENT FROM SITTINGTO STANDING

The most striking differences in pat-tern are seen in the movement from

sitting to standing (see Figure 3). Inthe picture on the left, the subject, withmarkers on head, neck, upper andlower arm, leg, and foot moves fromsitting to standing in his habitual way.In the picture on the right, the move-ment is guided by the experimenter,who has changed the relation betweenhead and trunk in the manner describedabove.

In the movement from sitting tostanding, habitual patterns show indi-vidual differences which remain re-markably constant from trial to trial(Jones & Hanson, 1961, 1962). Whenthe movement is guided, individual dif-ferences tend to disappear so that theguided patterns are much more uni-form than the habitual. Quantitativemethods of pattern analysis (Jones &

3a. Habitual. 3b. Guided.

FIG. 3. Stroboscopic multiple-image photographs, from sitting to standing. (Reflecting markers are placed on head,sternal notch, right upper and lower arm, right leg, right foot, and left foot. Strobe at 10 Hashes per set-mid.)


O'Connell, 1958) were used to com-pare guided with habitual movements.In an analysis of 36 patterns from sixsubjects, indexes were found that dis-tinguished the guided from the habitualat a confidence level of .01 or better(Jones, Gray, Hanson, & O'Connell,1959). The three indexes which haveproved most useful in subsequentstudies are: (a) head thrust, whichmeasures the forward thrust of thehead during movement; (&) trajectoryratio, which measures the extent towhich the head trajectory departsfrom a straight line; and (c) risetime, which measures the time neededto bring the head above the startinglevel. In the guided movement, headthrust decreased, rise time was shorter,and head trajectory approached moreclosely a straight line.

The value of the three indexes wastested by applying them to patternswhich could be judged "better" or"poorer" on the basis of some externalcriterion. Jones and Hanson (1961)analyzed the movement from sitting tostanding as it was performed by "well-coordinated" and "poorly coordinated"subjects. Jones, Hanson, Miller, andBossom (1963) compared the samemovement in a group of normals and agroup of patients with neurological dis-eases. The three indexes which haddistinguished guided movements fromhabitual distinguished (again at a con-fidence level of .01 or better) wellcoordinated from poorly coordinatedand normal from abnormal movements.By these criteria, then, the guidedmovements are not only different fromthe habitual, they are better.

SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE

For the great majority of subjects,the guided movements are accompaniedby a kinesthetic experience of lightnessand ease of movement, which tends topersist after the experimental session

is concluded (Jones, 1954). By some,this kinesthetic effect is observed im-mediately, i.e., after the first guidedmovement. Others observe it onlyafter the movements have been re-peated a number of times. Whenasked to describe the experience, sub-jects are apt to find it difficult to puttheir feelings into words. To makethe task easier, a check list of 18 adjec-tives was constructed, 16 of thempaired opposites (Jones, 1964). Thesubject is first asked if the guidedmovements felt different in any respectfrom his ordinary movements. If theanswer is "yes," he is given the list ofadjectives and asked to check thosethat best describe the difference.

Data from 39 subjects are presentedin Table 1. All of the subjects werenormal young adults without previousknowledge of the phenomenon understudy. The responses were obtainedafter a brief demonstration of 10 or 15minutes.

The adjectives most frequentlychecked (i.e., lighter, less familiar,higher, and smoother) seem to give thecore of the sensory experience. Otheradjectives reflect individual differencesin the attempt to describe the unfa-miliar. A feeling of "unreality" whichsome subjects observed was variouslyidentified by "brighter," "duller," or"softer." The fact that some subjectschecked "slower," while others checked"faster," seems related to the para-doxical character of some of the guidedmovements (e.g., sitting to standing)which may be completed in a shortertime than the corresponding habitualmovements, but which reach a lowermaximum velocity. Sometimes the ex-perimenter failed to convey the kines-thetic effect of lightness. When thiswas the case, a different constellationof adjectives was checked with"heavier" and "more difficult" replac-ing "lighter" and "easier." Some sub-


TABLE 1

PERCENTAGE OF RESPONSES OF 39 SUBJECTS TO THE ADJECTIVE CHECK LIST

Adjective Adjective

LighterLess familiarHigherSmootherSlowerMore relaxedEasierSofterSteadier

726259544444413836

TenserBrighterMore difficultLess steadyHeavierFasterJerkierDullerLower

2015151313101083

jects reported that the feeling of light-ness was confined to the upper part ofthe body at the start and did not extendbelow the waist until a later stage inthe demonstration, or until a latersession. The spread of the kinestheticeffect from the head downwards (it isnever reported the other way around)is undoubtedly important for under-standing the phenomenon.

To measure the subjective feeling ofreduced weight, the method of magni-tude estimation has been used. Thesubject is asked to put a value of 10on the effort he ordinarily exerts in amovement against gravity; then, on thesame basis, he is asked to estimate theeffort involved in the experimentalmovements. Measured in this way, thefeeling of weight may be reduced any-where from 20 to 80%, with some sub-jects reporting that all sense of efforthas disappeared.

X-RAY STUDY OF THE HEAD-NECKRELATION

X-ray photography was used byJones and Gilley (1960) to obtain abetter definition of the three postures—habitual relaxed, habitual erect, andexperimental—shown in Figure 1.The subjects were 20 students at theTufts University School of DentalMedicine who were taking part in astudy of dental occlusion. X-ray pho-

tographs were taken of each of them inthe three postures. To analyze thephotographs, planes were constructedthrough the head and neck, and theangles which these planes made withthe horizontal and with each otherwere measured. Additional measureswere taken of the distance between thespines of the first two vertebrae andof the distance between sella turcica(which corresponds roughly to thecenter of gravity of the head) and ahorizontal line drawn through the sec-ond vertebra. When the three pos-tures were compared, it was found thatboth of the erect postures differedfrom the habitual relaxed in the anglebetween horizon and neck. They dif-fered from each other in the angle be-tween horizon and head, and in theangle between head and neck. In theexperimental posture, the distance be-tween the first two vertebrae wasgreater, and the distance between sellaturcica and the second vertebra wassmaller, than in the habitual erect.These differences are significant at the.01 level or better.

X-ray photographs of the two erectpostures are shown in Figure 4. Inthe experimental posture (on theright) the neck has lengthened, thehead has rotated forward on the atlas,the distances between the spines of thevertebrae and between the vertebrae


and the occiput have increased. Thoughthe head is slightly higher in the ex-perimental posture than in the habitual,its center of gravity relative to thevertebrae is lower.

ROLE OF THE STERNOMASTOIDMUSCLE

In the light of the X-ray findings,it seemed reasonable to expect a dif-ference in the activity of neck musclesin the two erect postures. Preliminaryinvestigation pointed to the sterno-mastoids (the prominent diagonalmuscles on either side of the neck) asthe muscles which distinguished mostsharply between the two postures.Later, the postural activity of thesemuscles was systematically studied inseven male subjects between the agesof 16 and 21 (Jones, Gray, Hanson, &Shoop, 1961; Jones, Hanson, & Gray,1961). Surface electrodes were placedover the right sternal head halfwaybetween origin and insertion. The ac-

tivity of the muscle was recorded asthe subject sat in his "most comfort-able" posture, in his "best" posture,and at his "greatest height." It wasrecorded again when he was guidedinto the "experimental" posture. Meanpotential for the seven subjects in-creased from 7 microvolts for mostcomfortable to 10 microvolts for bestand to 26 microvolts for greatest sit-ting height. In the experimental pos-ture it dropped back to 6 microvolts.The difference in the behavior of thesternomastoid appeared not only inthe postures themselves but also in themovements which led into them. Alldifferences (which are illustrated bybar graphs in Figure 5) are significantat a confidence level of .05 or better.

ANATOMICAL MECHANISMS

The head can be rotated, tilted, orlowered by contracting the muscles at-tached to it; but it cannot be lifted. Itcan be lifted only by straightening and

FIG. 4. X-ray photographs of two erect sitting postures. (A, habitual; B, experimental.)


24.

</> 20-

§ l f t>° 12.os "•

- B2 °4.

0-MCP

•1

BSP GSH EXPPOSTURE

I I1

H 6MOVEMENT

FIG. 5. Postural activity in right sternomastoid muscle. (Means for seven subjects.Abbreviations are: MCP, most comfortable sitting posture; BSP, best sitting posture; GSH,greatest sitting height; Exp, experimental; H, habitual movement into erect sitting posture;G, guided movement into erect sitting posture.)

lengthening the cervical spine. Be-tween the vertebrae and the skin thereare four structures whose joint actiondetermines the height of the head andits angle of tilt and rotation. They areshown schematically in Figure 6.

Intervertebral Discs

The cartilaginous discs between thebodies of the vertebrae contain fluidand are capable of exerting hydraulicforce on the bony structures aroundthem (Gray, 1942, p. 281). The discsare kept under pressure by ligamentsand by various muscles, including thesmall muscles which run from onevertebra to the next. If these musclesshorten, the distance between the ver-tebral bodies will be lessened, and thediscs will be further compressed. Con-versely, if they lengthen, the distancewill increase as a result of the releasedpressure of the discs. In the inter-vertebral discs, then, is a mechanismby which the height of the head can bealtered a small but significant amount.

Flexors and Extensors of the Neck

Both convexity (extension) of thecervical curve and its forward inclina-tion (flexion) are countered by the

tension of ligaments and muscles whoseorigins and insertions are on the verte-brae themselves (Gray, 1942, pp. 390,394-395). Acting together, the flex-ors and extensors of the neck straightenand strengthen the cervical spine, turn-ing it into a column of support and, inso doing, increase the height of the

head.4

* In standard textbooks of anatomy, theextensors of the head and the extensors ofthe neck are treated under a single headingand illustrated with the same plates so thatit is sometimes difficult to distinguish onegroup of muscles from the other. They havesimilar names (splenius, longissimus, etc.)and similar origins on the spinal column.They differ, however, in their insertions andin the functions which they perform. Whenthe neck is flexed, the head is brought for-ward and down. If, then, the neck extensorscontract, the spine will be straightened (ex-tended), and in the process the head will bebrought to a higher level, even though thehead extensors remain relaxed. Contractingthe head extensors, on the other hand, willnot lift the head, but will only tilt it back-ward so that the occiput approaches theseventh cervical vertebra. Duchenne (1959,p. 534) first pointed out in 1867 the differ-ence of function between the two sets ofextensor muscles. He had observed thatpatients whose neck extensors were paralyzedcould not lift their heads, though they stillhad the full use of their head extensors.


B

FIG. 6. Anatomical structures affecting the height and angle of the head. (A, inter-vertebral disks with interspinales and intertransversarii muscles. B, flexors and extensorsof the neck. C, flexors and extensors of the head. D, upper trapezius and stcrnocleido-mastoid muscles.)

Flexors and Extensors of the Head: I

In the upright posture, the head isin unstable equilibrium, its center ofgravity forward of the base of support(the atlas), and its weight balanced bythe tension of ligaments and muscleswhich run from insertion points at the

base of the skull to various originsalong the spinal column. These mus-cles, the extensors of the head, are de-signed to balance, in addition to theweight of the head, the tension in asmaller group of flexor muscles infront. By the lengthening and short-


ening of the various muscles in thesetwo groups the head can be moved inmany directions without destroying theequilibrium of forces (Gray, 1942, pp.386-395).

Flexors and Extensors of the Head: II.Sternomastoid and Upper Trapezius

There are two pairs of flexors andextensors which connect the head di-rectly with the shoulder girdle. Theyare the sternocleidomastoids (Gray,1942, p. 384) and the upper trapezii,which form a blunted isosceles triangleat the back of the neck (Gray, 1942, p.428). Simultaneous contraction of thetwo pairs of muscles will bring the headcloser to the shoulder girdle and in-crease the curve of the cervical spine,the Sternomastoid drawing the head for-ward and down, the upper trapeziuspreventing forward rotation by retract-ing the occiput.5 In the process, theorigins and insertions of the musclesand ligaments which maintain theweight of the head against gravity willbe brought closer together.

STARTLE PATTERN

An example of the joint action ofthe Sternomastoid and upper trapeziuscan be seen in the "startle pattern" ofFigure 7. Surface electrodes havebeen attached to the subject's skinover the right Sternomastoid and rightupper trapezius. In Figure 7 A he isstanding in his "most comfortable pos-ture." In Figure 7B he has beenstartled by the sudden slamming of adoor. The two sets of muscles havecontracted simultaneously. The head

5 It may be significant that the two muscleshave the same phylogenetic origin (Romer,1949, p. 285) and that, unlike other neckmuscles, they receive their principal inner-vation from a cranial nerve (the accessory).Duchenne (1959, p. 5) commented on theirextreme sensitivity to electrical stimulation,which he attributed to the peculiar charac-ter of their nerve supply.

is thrust forward, but the Frankfortplane remains horizontal. The pos-tural change does not stop with thehead and neck. As in one of the "atti-tudinal reflexes" described below, theshoulders are lifted, the chest is flat-tened, the legs are flexed, and the armsare extended.

The startle pattern, which wasstudied with high-speed photographyby Landis and Hunt (1939), providesa vivid example of how "good" posturecan change to "bad" in a very brieftime. The pattern itself is typical ofbad posture in general, whether it isthe result of age, disease, or lack ofexercise (Jones, Hanson, & Gray,1964). In the startle pattern, the ac-tive character of malposture and thesequence of events by which it comesabout can be clearly observed. Theresponse is not instantaneous. It be-gins in the head and neck, passingdown the trunk and legs to be com-pleted in about \ second. The neckmuscles are central in the organi-zation of the response. Jones andKennedy (1951), who studied thestartle pattern by multiple-channelelectromyography, placed surface elec-trodes in various locations on the sub-ject's neck, trunk, and limbs, with onepair always over the upper trapezius.The intensity of the stimulus wasvaried from the sound of a droppedbook to the sound of a .32 caliber re-volver. Sixty patterns were obtainedfrom eight subjects. In all cases whenthe stimulus was strong enough toelicit a response, it appeared in theneck muscles; in many cases, the re-sponse appeared nowhere else.

PHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS

I have described two reciprocal setsof structures in the neck, one de-signed to straighten the cervical spineand move the head out from the trunk,the other designed to bring head and

208 F R A N K I ' J K R C K J O N K S

"V

FIG. 7. Activity of neck muscles in the startle pattern. (A, subject standing in ''mostcomfortable posture." B, subject after door slam. EMG records: above—upper trapesius;below—sternomastoid.)


trunk closer together and increase--thespinal curvature. In the proceduredescribed earlier in this paper, thedownward pull of the sternomastoidand upper trapezius was counterbal-anced by the experimenter while thesubject moved. It is conjectured thatin the process, the pressure on the discswas reduced, the flexors and extensorsof the neck shortened, and a lengthen-ing took place in the flexors and ex-tensors of the head and in the smallmuscles between the vertebrae. Dur-ing movement, the lengthening whichappeared in the neck could be ex-pected by purely mechanical means toextend along the rest of the spine, withthe force being transmitted by muscleand ligament from one vertebra to thenext.

Stretch Reflexes

The mechanical effect of stretch onmuscle is modified by the action of thenervous system. When a muscle isstretched, it contracts reflexly, andthe strength of the contraction is pro-portional to the stretch. Thoughstretch reflexes occur at the spinallevel, they are under the influence ofhigher centers in the nervous system.This influence is transmitted directlyto the muscles through the system ofsmall motoneurons, the gamma effer-ents. As the level of activity in thegamma efferents rises or falls, thesensitivity of a muscle to stretch in-creases or decreases. Whether a con-tracting muscle shortens or lengthens(as in lowering a weight), the stretchreflex persists as long as the stretchstimulus is applied. Though the rangeof lengths over which muscles cancontract is considerable, there is anoptimal "resting length" at which aparticular muscle exerts maximumtension.

It seems reasonable to suppose thatone effect of the experimental pro-

. cedur-es is- to reorganize stretch reflexesin the neck and back so that moremuscle fibers take part in the antigrav-ity response, and that the muscles incontracting remain closer to their opti-mal resting length. This effect wouldaccount for the subjective feeling ofreduced weight while maintaining aposition as well as for the apparent lackof effort in movements performedagainst gravity,

Head-Neck Reflexes

The kinesthetic phenomenon and thechange in the movement pattern can-not be explained entirely by the be-havior of individual muscles. Suchan explanation does not account for themajor role which the head and neckappear to play in facilitating the move-ment, nor for the secondary changes,e.g., in breathing, reported by subjects.

In the posture of animals, it is wellestablished that the most importantmechanism of control is the head-neckrelation. Magnus and his associates(Magnus, 1924; Magnus & de Kleijn,1912; Rademaker, 1931), in a longseries of carefully controlled experi-ments, showed that the position of ananimal's head in space or its positionrelative to the body can affect thedistribution of tonus in its neck, back,and limbs. Magnus summed up theprinciple by saying that in posture andmovement the head leads and the bodyfollows.

In classifying his material, Magnusused two categories—the "attitudinalreflexes" and the "righting reflexes."

The attitudinal reflexes with recep-tors in the labyrinths and in the jointsof the neck (McCouch, Deering, &Ling, 1951) are used by an animal tomaintain a position that is assumed forsome special purpose, like that of acat drinking from a saucer or lookingup at a piece of meat held high. Theposition taken by the head imposes on


the rest of the body an attitude whichis maintained as long as it is functional.These attitudes are quite stereotypedand follow regular rules. According toMagnus, they are the most enduringand untiring of reflexes.

The righting reflexes take overwhen an animal is ready to return tothe normal upright posture. Thefixed position of the head is released;the imbalance of parts, registering at apostural center in the brain, initiatesthe righting response; as in the atti-tudinal reflexes, the head leads and thebody follows. The mechanism is moststrikingly demonstrated when a cat isheld on its back in the air and thendropped. The instant it is let go itbegins to right itself. The head turnsfirst. As it turns, the tensions in theneck, back, and limbs are progressivelyaltered. The body is twisted around,and the cat lands on its feet. (Ma-rey's photographs of the phenomenonare reproduced by Chatfield, 1957, p.205.)

Secondary effects of the head-neckreflexes on respiration, circulation, andeye position have also been demon-strated. In diving birds and mammalsthere is a highly developed set of re-flexes which stops breathing and slowsdown the heart in order to conserveoxygen (Irving, 1939; Scholander,1963). In ducks, this reflex is stronglyreinforced by the change in the rela-tion of head, neck, and body that takesplace in diving. Huxley (1913) foundthat without immersing a duck inwater, breathing could be stopped bybringing the head and neck into thediving position or by placing the duckon its back and dorsiflexing the head.Conversely, breathing was at once re-stored if the head was brought back tothe normal posture. A similar posturalmechanism to stop breathing and slowthe heart was later demonstrated indiving mammals (Koppanyi, 1929).

A. de Kleijn (1920) used monkeys todemonstrate the effect of head-neck re-flexes on the position of the eye in theorbit. He showed that the eyes moveddown when the head was dorsiflexedand up when it was ventriflexed, andthat the same shift in eye position tookplace when the head remained fixedand the trunk was rotated so as tobring the back closer to the occiput orthe chest closer to the chin.

Head-Neck Reflexes in ManIn human beings, the influence of the

head-neck reflexes is masked by pat-terns of voluntary activity. The mech-anisms are clearly present, however.They have been frequently demon-strated in infants (Gesell, 1954; Pei-per, 1963),6 young children (Landau,1923; Schaltenbrand, 1925), patientswith neurological diseases (Simons,1923; Walshe, 1923), and in normaladults (Hellebrandt, Schade, & Cairns,1962; Tokizane, 1951; Wells, 1944).A large number of drawings and pho-tographs to illustrate the patterns ofhead-neck reflexes as they manifestthemselves in dancing, sport, andeveryday activity were brought to-gether by Fukuda (1957).

Various specific reflexes, both at-titudinal and righting, have been de-fined in the literature. Rather thandescribe them in detail, I should likehere to emphasize what each set ofreflexes has in common. In the atti-tudinal reflexes, the head is drawn intoa fixed position and tonus is redis-tributed in the trunk and limbs. Inthe righting reflexes, again under theinfluence of the head, the normal dis-tribution of tonus is restored. Thesetwo mechanisms will account most

6 The secondary effect of differences in thetrunk-to-head relation on the position of theeyes, which was demonstrated in monkeys byde Kleijn (1920), was demonstrated inhuman infants by Voss (1927).


economically for the phenomena whichhave been described in this paper. Thesitting or standing posture of the aver-age person functions like an "attitude"which has been imposed on the bodyby the head. The procedures em-ployed in the experimental movements,by releasing the head from its habitualattitude, facilitate the righting reflexesand bring the subject into a differentorientation within the gravitationalfield. The changes in breathing, in cir-culation, and in the use of the eyes,which are sometimes reported, takeplace automatically by reflex facilita-tion when the head moves into its newrelationship to the trunk.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

I have described a mechanism bywhich the antigravity response can befacilitated. It is a mechanism whichordinarily operates below the level ofconsciousness. Magnus was emphaticthat the righting reflexes are subcorti-cal and inaccessible to direct consciouscontrol.7 An indirect control can be

7 Magnus (1925) :It seems to be of the greatest im-

portance that the whole central apparatusfor the righting function (with the onlyexception of the optical righting reflexes)is placed subcortically in the brain stemand by this means withdrawn from volun-tary action. The cortex cerebri evokesduring ordinary life a succession of phasicmovements, which tend to disturb thenormal resting posture. The brain-stemcentres will in the meantime restore thedisturbance and bring the body back intothe normal posture, so that the next cor-tical impulse will find the body preparedto start again [p. 349].Magnus (1930) :

We have . . . a subcortically actingapparatus which controls and adjusts theposition of our body, whether erect orrecumbent, in relation to space. This un-consciously acting mechanism, by the co-operation of complicated reflexes, restoresour body to the normal position wheneverit is displaced [p. 103].

established, however, if the subjectlearns to recognize and inhibit maladap-tive postural sets which interfere withthe response of the organism to gravity.

In the course of motor learning, setsmay be developed which are not thebest preparation for the movement tocome. They may, in fact, hamper theexecution of the movement. Unfor-tunately, like some of the "supersti-tious" responses which appear duringconditioning experiments, such sets donot extinguish readily. The organismadapts to them quickly; they come to"feel right"; and they remain unde-tected, because once the stimulus tomove has been received, attention be-comes focused on the goal to bereached.

One of these inappropriate sets isthe tendency to shorten certain neckmuscles as a preparation for a move-ment against gravity. It has beendemonstrated that such a movement isfacilitated when the preparatory short-ening of muscles is prevented by theexperimenter. If the subject becomesaware of the tendency, he can learn toprevent it and thus establish an in-direct control over the postural mech-anism. In my experience, the onlysatisfactory way to achieve such a con-trol is to reorganize the field of atten-tion, so that when a stimulus to moveis received, the focus of attention re-mains within the organism. This doesnot mean that the goal is excluded fromattention; it means that the goal isnot allowed to dominate the field. At-tention is organized around the head-trunk relation, with extension in timeand space so that both the stimulus andthe response can be comprised withinthe same field.

Ordinarily, attention is directedeither' outward to the environment orinward to the organism itself. Thecentral nervous system, however, is re-ceiving information about movements


and positions of the body and its partsat the same time that it receives infor-mation about events in the world out-side. There is no reason why the fieldof attention cannot be organized in thesame way. In such a field, the relationof the head, neck, and trunk, kines-thetically perceived, forms the back-ground against which events outsideand inside the organism take place.Thus it is possible to perceive an ob-ject simultaneously with the organism'sreaction to it, since both are comprisedwithin the same field.

Perceptually, objects are known tovary with the psychological context inwhich they are perceived. A staircase,for example, is perceived differentlydepending on whether it is to beclimbed or merely to be looked at.The difference, of course, lies withinthe perceiving organism. If it is astaircase to be climbed, it may elicit apostural set which is so marked thatit can be detected by an outside ob-server. The set can be detected bythe climber himself only if he reor-ganizes his field of attention so as totake in both the staircase and his reac-tion to it as he approaches and climbsit. With this shift in the focus of at-tention, he can perceive the cause-and-effect relation between the stimulus(the staircase) and his immediate re-sponse (the postural set). If he takesan experimental approach, he can de-vise a means to inhibit the set whilecontinuing to make the specific re-sponse (climbing the stairs). In theprocess, the antigravity response willbe facilitated in the same way as in theguided movements which were de-scribed above.

Climbing a staircase was used toillustrate a principle. Any activity—reaching for a pencil or making aspeech—would have done as well. Theprinciple of inhibition can be appliedto any movement. A movement pat-

tern is a complex whole which, forconvenience, may be thought of ashaving two aspects or parts: a specific,goal-directed part, and a tonic or pos-tural part, by which the integrity ofthe organism is maintained while thespecific response is being carried out.The tonic or postural part of a move-ment is not ordinarily perceived. Ten-sional patterns which interfere withthe smooth performance of movementcan be perceived, however. If they areinhibited, postural tonus is redis-tributed, and the specific, goal-directedresponse becomes easier. In contrastto the ease of the facilitated movement,old ways of moving come to feel wrong,and a new sensory standard is grad-ually established.

In the paradigm of postural changewhich I have just outlined, inhibitionis the basic principle. Inhibition is aterm which has been used by psycholo-gists and physiologists in a variety ofmeanings (Diamond, Balvin, & Dia-mond, 1963). I have used it here todescribe a process by which a personconsciously refrains from making a re-sponse which he could make if hechose. In this sense inhibition is thecentral function of

a nervous system which, when it functionswell, is able to exclude maladaptive conflictwithout suppressing spontaneity [Diamondet al., p. 395].

In the presence of inhibition, a stimu-lus should elicit only a generalized in-crease of alertness, leaving the organ-ism free to respond or not respond.

The principle of inhibition, as it hasbeen developed here, offers a new ap-proach to the problem of behavioralchange. In the close connection be-tween inhibition and postural tonus isa mechanism which not only reveals theinner pattern of a stereotyped responsebut brings it under conscious control.In so doing, it greatly enlarges the


area of behavior where free choice canoperate.

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(Received May 27, 1964)

Documents

METHOD FOR CHANGING STEREOTYPED …...McV. Hunt, and H. Schlosberg. For assistance in the design and conduct of experiments and the interpretation of experi-mental data I wish to thank