Responses Are Necessary
After the individual has a desire or need to learn, so that there is a :lear-cut goal in his own mind, wha.t else is necessary if learning is to :ake place? The old adage that "we learn by doing" provides the answer. Thus, the second factor common to all learning is some kind activity, or response. The learner himself must do something-ake responses. This activity may be overt, e.g., arm, leg, or hand activity in playing tennis, or it may be internal, as when he manipulates ideas in solving a problem. Trying to teach a person anything by giving him a verbal description of what you want him to do, or ::emonstrating to him how the task should be done, or showing him by -eans of a film the nature of the skilled performance, is of little use unless it leads to active doing by the learner himself. The person who earned to drive the automobile not only had the desire to learn but he ::id something about it by resorting to many responses-arm, leg, ~ger, reading, judging responses-all of which were a part of his natural equipment.
Of course, the necessary responses for attaining a goal must be Potentially available to the would-be learner. A feebleminded person annot get through school because the intellectual responses necessary for schoolwork are not available to him. The very young child not learn to write until his nervous and muscular system are efficiently developed to enable him to make the fine coordinations necessary for handwriting. The responses necessary for learning a ew task may also be limited by previous learning. Learning may be or impossible in an advanced course in mathematics if a prequisite is a basic course in algebra and the learner has never taken such a course. In the automobile driving situation the necessary responses are available to most people. In some cases, however, poor coordination, slow reaction speed, faulty vision, or some physical or mental defect may make it impossible to learn to drive.
