acts is a broad field of action which may be called automatic or spontaneous.
The distinguishing feature of this type of action is that all such acts, though
performed now largely without conscious purpose or intent, were at one time
purposed acts, performed with effort; this is to say that they were volitional.
Such acts as writing, or fingering the keyboard of a piano, were once
consciously purposed, volitional acts selected from many random or reflex
movements.
The effects of experience and habit are such, however, that soon the mere
presence of pencil and paper, or the sight of the keyboard, is enough to set one
scribbling or playing. Stated differently, certain objects and situations come to
suggest certain characteristic acts or responses so strongly that the action follows
immediately on the heels of the percept of the object, or the idea of the act.
James calls such action ideo-motor. Many illustrations of this type of acts will
occur to each of us: A door starts to blow shut, and we spring up and avert the
slam. The memory of a neglected engagement comes to us, and we have started
to our feet on the instant. A dish of nuts stands before us, and we find ourselves
nibbling without intending to do so.
The Cycle from Volitional to Automatic.—It is of course evident that no such
acts, though they were at one time in our experience volitional, now require
effort or definite intention for their performance. The law covering this point
may be stated as follows: All volitional acts, when repeated, tend, through the
effects of habit, to become automatic, and thus relieve the will from the necessity
of directing them.