II !:; NES'DR DtJGATIONAL PsYCHOLOGV li I'l liHIl' If" III ■i mm fork Hntt (S,aUt^t nf Agriculture At (fomell UniueraitH Stljaca. N. 1- Htbrary Cornell University Library LB 1051.P8 The outlines of educational psycliology; a 3 1924 013 082 601 The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013082601 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY (Third and Enlarged Edition) THE OUTLINES OF Educational Psychology An Introduction to the Science of Education BY WILLIAM HENRY PYLE, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Eetucttional Psycholosy in the University o( Missouri ^alttmorp VARWICK & YORK, Inc. Copyright, 1911, By WARWICK & YORK, Inc. Copyright, Itfi^, WARWICK & YORK, Inc. CONTENTS Chapter I INTRODUCTION The educational situation, the aim of education, the nature of children, the nature of the educational process, method, educational psychology, edu- cation and psychology, education a process of ad- justment. Page 1 Chapter II BODY AND MIND The evolution of the body, the evolution of the mind, evolution and education, body and mind. Page. . 13 Chapter III HEREDITY What we mean by heredity, the mechanism of heredity, the laws of heredity, mental heredity, special facta of heredity, social heredity, educational in- ferences. Page 24 Chapter IV INSTINCTS Deflnition and description, experimental studies, in- stincts in man, transitoriness and periodicity of instincts, order of development, early specialisa- tion of instincts, classification of instincts. Page 36 yi CONTENTS Ohapthe V the individualistic instincts Nature and number, fear, pedagogy of fear, the fight- ing instinct, causes of anger, manifestations of anger, control and treatment, competition in the schoolroom. Page *8 Chapter VI THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS The gang instinct, chums, gangs and clubs, why gangs are formed, high school fraternities, sympathy and co-operation. Page 61 Chapter VII THE ENVIRONMENTAL INSTINCTS The migration of lower animals, truancies and runa- ways, causes of truancies, the school and the migratory instinct, the collecting instinct, its universality, its development, pedagogy of the col- lecting instinct. Page •. 74 Chapter VIII THE ADAPTIVE INSTINCTS — PLAT Physiological considerations, definitions and theories, development of play instinct, play and moral character, the pedagogy of play, play of adults. Page 91 CONTENTS Vii Chapter IX THE ADAPTIVE INSTINCTS IMITATION Description and definition, psychological explanation, imitation in lower animals, function and impor- tance, education and imitation, school manage- ment and imitation, contrary suggestion, chil- dren's ideals. Page 108 Ohaptbe X HABIT Nature of habit, function of habit, importance in edu- cation, the ethics of habit, laws of habit forma- tion, repetition, repetition in attention, pleasur- able repetition, habit and attitude. Page 124 Chapter XI HABIT AND EDUCATION Function of the teacher, repetition and practice, ex- ceptions, rules for habit formation, habits are specific. Page 146 Chapter XII HABIT AND MORAL TRAINING Importance of the problem, futility of recent dis- cussions, moral training and psychology, must be based on definite principles, the instincts and moral training, inhibition, repetition and moral training, the school and the home in moral train- ing, practical moral training, the emotions, actions and character, objections considered. Page 164 Viii CONTENTS Chapter XIII MBMOKT Meaning of memory, experimental studies, relation of memory to age and sex, improvement of mem- ory by practice, conditions affecting retention, first impression, number of repetitions, value of associations, economical learning, transfer of memory training, relation of memory to intelli- gence, function of the teacher in memory work. Page 185 Chaptbe XIV attention Neurological point of view, active and passive atten- tion, function of attention, attention and educa- tion, training the attention. Page 206 Chapter XV thinking Association of ideas, imagination, thinking, training in reasoning, meaning, reason and education. Page 221 Chapter XVI PATIGDE Nature of fatigue, measure of fatigue, the psychologi- cal methods, complicating phenomena, the three phases of fatigue, length of school sessions and school periods, the pedagogy of fatigue. Page... 239 Chapter XVII Tests and Norms. Page 254 The Appendix. Page 269 PREFACE. The fact that we have had no general text-book in educa- tional psychology has led to the preparation of this book, which is the outgrowth of the work with my own classes. I have endeavored to select for treatment those facts and principles of psychology, fairly well established, that have evident and direct bearing upon the problems of teaching. The time is at hand when every step in educational pro- cedure must have scientific justification. This can come in the main from only one source, — the crucial test of ex- perimental determination. If this volume contributes, in some small measure, toward the end of making education more scientific, I shall feel that its publication will be justified. It has been my aim to be careful and conserva- tive, to keep within the warrant of established fact. How- ever, I realize that nearly every page shows the need of more facts, more data. Experimental psychology is a thing of only yesterday; educational psychology is a new-born infant of today. But it is an infant of great promise. The army of trained investigators that is attacking the myriad problems of the school, will give us, even in a decade, re- sults of great importance to education. But the work must be carefully done. It is my belief that a text-book should be a mere outline, to be elaborated by teacher and students. The questions and exercises and the references will help toward this elaboration. The questions, for the most part, are selected X THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIOlSrAIi PSYCHOLOGY from those asked by my students when the matter of this book was presented to them in class. The references are to such English sources as I have found most helpful. They fall into two classes : (1) parallel systematic treatises and (2) the original reports of experimental work. In neither case, however, are the references complete. They are intended only on the one hand to refer the student to other, and often more extended, treatments of the same subjects, and on the other, to give the beginning student some idea of the nature of the investigations on which the statements of the text are based. My indebtedness, direct and indirect, is great. Directly, I am indebted most of all, to Dr. W. L. Bryan, president of Indiana University, my first teacher in psychology ; to Dr. E. B. Titchener, Sage professor of psychology in the grad- uate school of Cornell University, in whose laboratory I learned something of scientific method; and to Dr. G. M. Whipple of Cornell, who has shown the possibilities of applying this method to the solution of school-room prob- lems. Indirectly, my greatest debt is to President G. Stanley Hall and the late Professor James. My thanks are also due to President A. Boss Hill and Dean W. W. Charters of the University of Missouri, and to my brother, J. O. Pyle, of Chicago, who have read most of the manuscript and given valuable suggestions. W. H. P. Columbia, Mo., September 1. 1911. THE OUTUNES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Chapter I. INTRODUCTION. The educational situation. — The educational prac- tice of the past has not been based on science as medical practice or good farming is now based on scientific principles. This, of course, does not mean that there has never been any good teaching. Long before there was a science of medicine many good remedies were discovered empirically, although little was known concerning the principles of drugs or the nature of their physiological action, nor was any- thing definite known concerning the nature and causes of disease. Now, however, medical practice has a scientific basis. Much the same can be said of farming. For thousands of years man has been till- ing the soil, and by the slow trial and success method has learned many good practices, but he has not imderstood the nature of the forces with which he has dealt. He has not known what caused success or failure. The farmer of today can have suificient scientific facts to make his procedure entirely intel- ligent. Although he can never have complete control of the conditions of his work, he can understand these [1] 2 THE OUTLINES OP EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY conditions, and can foresee tlie outcome of given situations. The practice of education has had a similar his- tory. We have had some great teachers in the past, but none of them has understood much of the real nature of what he was doing. If the great teachers themselves have known little of the nature of the material with which they dealt or the causes of their success, much less could their followers know. They could only imitate, with next to no knowledge of the principles which underlay their master's success. Systems of education have, for the most part, been based on some philosophical or religious conception. It is not correct to say that these systems have all been wrong; there has been, perhaps, some truth in all of them, just as there has been a grain of truth in most systems of philosophy. For example, some of Plato's ideas on education as expressed in the Re- public can now be scientifically justified. It has been impossible to have a science of educa- tion for the very simple reason that the data that must form a basis for the principles of such a science have not been at hand. What facts must be known before we can have a science of education? They fall into four groups : (1) the aim of education; (2) the nature of children; (3) the essential character- istics of the educational process, and (4) method, i. e., the most economical procedure in attaining the first through the knowledge contributed by the sec- ond and third and by direct investigation made for this sole purpose. The aim of education.— Society at any given time prescribes the type of individual to which it thinks INTEODUCTION 6 the children of that generation should be made to conform. Education is the institution of society that is to achieve that end, i. e., train the children for action in accordance with the ideals of the times. Just what the type is, depends on the ideals of the age, and could be determined for any given time and people by studying their social ideals. The ideal individual leads such a life as conduces to the general well-being of society. At the present time in our own country there is pretty general agreement as to what this means. The adult male must support himself and family, and in his relations with his fellow men must so conduct himself as to lead to mutual com- fort and happiness. It might seem that if this view of the aim and purpose of education is true, progress would be impossible. But such is not the case. The people of one generation can sometimes see that in some respect or other their relations and adjust- ments could be improved. It is then possible for them to bring up their children in such a way that the children, when grown, will come nearer to the better way of living. Education, then, is to achieve social efficiency; it is the conscious effort of society to give the young such information and such training as will enable them to produce ever a more perfect social life. And doubtless the ideal of social organi- sation will be that condition that will allow and make possible for all the greatest possible individual devel- opment of capacity to achieve and enjoy. Society exists for the individual and the individual exists for society, while education is the process of preparing the individual for his life in society and of making a better society. Every person who is to be a teacher 4 THE OUTLINES OF EDTJCATIONAIi PSTCHOLOaY should be a student of the science of sociology in order that he may understand society and its insti- tutions, their origin, their evolution and their func- tion. A teacher without such knowledge can only grope blindly after an unknown object, but with such knowledge he can work consciously to achieve the highest social ideals. The nature of children. — ^A child is a psychophys- ical being, that is, a being that is both mind and body. There are, therefore, two sciences that contribute the second group of facts for a science of education — biology and psychology. Biology tells us about the body, its organs and their functions, its growth and development and its evolution from lower animal forms. Psychology tells us about mind, its elements and the laws of their combination and organisation. Psychology tells us also about the development of individual minds and of the evolution of mind in the animal kingdom. That this second group of facts is necessary for a science of education is evident, for education is blind unless the teacher knows the laws of bodily and mental growth and fimction. The teacher must know something of nerves and muscles and their conditions of growth and activity ; he must know something of the physical organs and the con- ditions of their healthy functioning. He must know something of sense organs and how to test their effi- ciency. He must know something of instincts, of habits, of perception, memory, imagination, feeling, association and attention. Accurate knowledge on these subjects is absolutely necessary for intelligent procedure in teaching. rwTBODucTioiir 5 The nature of the educational process. — The teacher must also know the exact nature of the edu- cational process. What is taking place in the child when he is being educated? What is the child doing while he is being educated? What is possible and what is impossible? What is the function of the teacher? These and many more similar questions demand a scientific answer. Both sociology and psy- chology answer this question and both answer it in the same way, namely, in terms of adjustment. Sociology says education is the process by which young individuals are trained to participate in social life. From the point of view of psychology, educa- tion is essentially a process of habit-formation. The new individual is to pe acquainted with this material and social world and trained in the appropriate responses to be made in all the varied situations of life. There are, of course, two aspects of education : (1) getting information about the world and (2) mak- ing the right response in the light of this information. But the second factor is the ultimate end, for we need the information only to guide action. If we did not have to move, to respond, we should have no need of sense organs, no need of mind. It has only been the growing complexity of movement, response, that has necessitated the development of sense organs through which we learn of the world. In this process of ad- justment the function of the teacher is limited and his possibilities circumscribed. The utmost that he can do is to manipulate the environment of the child. Both biology and psychology tell us that the child comes to us with a body and mind inherited from his ancestors, with many definite responses already pro- 6 THE OUTLINES OP EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY vided for in the neuro-muscular system. Heredity, then, sets the first limitation; we can work only within the limits set by heredity. And in a certain sense the child is unapproachable, imassailable, he can not be touched, he can not be changed ; he is au- tonomous, he assimilates, he grows. Within certain limits we can change his environment. We can have something to do with the outcome of the child's actions in the way of pleasure and pain, we can make conditions favorable for the activity of one instinct or another, but more than this we can not do, and it is well that we know it. Education, then, is a process of adjustment that teachers and parents can par- tially guide and control by virtue of their power to change and manipulate the child's environment. Method. — Sociology gives us the aim of education, biology and psychology give us the nature of the child, psychology explains the essential nature of the educational process. Psychology also gives us a scientific basis for method. Of course, method can sometimes be inferred from the nature of the child, so that the second group of facts, in the largest sense, would include the fourth, but the fourth group of facts deserves independent statement and treatment because every detail of method must have separate and indpendent determination by experimental pro- cedure, although it is true that this procedure is always dependent upon the nature of mind. The best methods of teaching children to read, to spell, to write, to draw, to think, in a word to do all the vari- ous things that we want to learn to do, must be deter- mined experimentally, for in very few cases can they be entirely determined by a priori considerations. INTEODTJCTION 7 So complex are mind and its operations that the na- ture of every aspect of its operation must have inde- pendent determination. Educational psychology. — The term educational psychology is to some extent a misnomer, for there is really only one kind of psychology, the science which undertakes to work out the structure, function and genesis of mind. Educational psychology, as now generally understood, treats of the application of the .principles of psychology to education. It is, indeed, more than a chapter in applied psychology, and per- haps deserves to rank as a distinct subdivision of psychology. Psychology has for its problem the de- scription of mind in general; this description it works out ill its own way and in its own time as its purely scientific interests demand. Educational psy- chology takes over for its province that aspect of general psychology that has most immediate connec- tion with education. The problems of the general psychologists arise out of the needs of the science as a whole ; the problems of the educational psychol- ogist arise out of the needs of education. The meth- ods and procedure of the latter are, in general, the same as those of the former. Educational psychol- ogy, then, attacks a part of the problem of general psychology, and the only excuse for its existence as a separate subdivision is that education can not afford to wait upon the development of psychology as a whole, for psychology as such is not concerned with problems of education. However, since educa- tional psychology has taken over a specific part of general psychology, its problems have taken on a specific character and its laboratory has its special 8 THE OUTLINES OF EDTJCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY equipment. The educational psychologist must have the same training as the general psychologist, and, in addition, be familiar with the problems and condi- tions of the school room, for he is to be concerned with just those aspects of psychology that have closest connection with these problems and con- ditions. Education and psychology. — By reference to our discussion of the four problems of education, it will be seen how much education must get from psychol- ogy, making educational psychology almost the whole of the science of education. The knowledge of the nature of the child must come in part from psychology, while the nature of the educational process and method must come almost wholly from psychology, and only in small part from biology. A detailed statement of the divisions of these problems wiU show the topics that are to be treated in this book. Our discussion of the nature of the child must include a statement of the facts of mental evolution and mental heredity, the order and laws of mental development, particularly the development of the in- stincts and all the various mental structures and func- tions, — feeling, perception, imagination, attention, memory, association, thought and action, especially of habits and the laws of their formation. The na- ture of the educational process will receive no fur- ther treatment than is given in the following para- graph, but many of the other topics discussed either directly or indirectly throw light on this question also. The scientific basis of niethod lies partly in the facts of mental structure, function and development, from which they are inferred or deduced, and partly INTRODUCTION 9 in the results of special investigations, which have for their sole purpose the experimental determina- tion of economic methods of learning. We must also treat of method, not only from the point of view of general development, but also taking into considera- tion individual variation and abnormal types. Education a process of adjustment. — ^Both psychol- ogy and biology, as well as sociology, consider edu- cation to be a process of adjustment. A considera- tion of the life of lower animals will make the mean- ing clear. Many, perhaps most, of the lower animals need no training; they come into existence with proper adjustments for life already provided for in the neuro-muscular system. Most of them have no infancy ; from the first their life and life-adjustments are perfect and complete. Such animals do not have to learn, and, in fact, profit little by experience. But in higher animals, especially man, the yoimg are born more or less helpless and with their responses more or less imperfectly adjusted; they have a period of infancy, during which they acquire the proper ad- justments to the environment; in other words, they have a period of plasticity, during which they acquire knowledge of their environment and training in the proper responses to make to it. The long infancy in man is one of the chief factors that give him his con- spicuous advantage over the lower animals. Sociol- ogy tells us that infancy, by making necessary the development of the family, has made our civilisation possible. From the point of view of genetic psychol- ogy, infancy is no less important, for it serves as a period for training in adjustment. The only limita- tion to this training is that set by heredity, i. e., by 10 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSTCHOLOQT inlierited structure and the instincts. Within these limits a wide variation of adjustment is possible. Almost any response can be formed for any situa- tion. Without the period of infancy, adjustment to our complex modern life would be impossible. But with this period the only limit to social progress is, as we have said, that fixed by heredity. Life itself is adjustment, and education is the perfecting of adjustments during the early years of life. It is therefore a process of training in adjustment and of perfecting and fixing the adjustments. It has, as already pointed out, two aspects: (1) impression and (2) expression. Training con- sists in receiving impressions and learning and perfecting expressions. Knowledge and habit are, therefore, the two poles of education. From this point of view parents and teachers become guides for the child, and should take him by the hand and lead him through all the varied natural and social envi- ronment, and, by controlling and manipulating this environment, guide and determine the responses and adjustments formed by the child. But, as pointed out already, this is the utmost that can be done. What the child becomes is the resultant of two forces, the child and the world. The teacher can to some extent determine what this world shall be, but this is all. QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR FURTHEIt, STUDY. 1. Is it true that the people of any community are agreed as to the qualities or attributes of an Ideal citizen? Are they agreed as to the studies that should be pursued in school? 2. Make out a list of the twenty characteristics you consider most desirable in an American citizen. Arrange them in the order of their importance. Name five characteristics on which there 1b INTEODUOTION H not general agreement. Would the savage American Indian have agreed to your list of twenty characteristics? Will yonr list be acceptable 5000 years from now? What changes, In this respect, have you undergone in your own lifetime? 3. Does adjustment to surroundings mean submitting to these surroundings without modifying them? 4. I8 there any conflict between the interests of the individual and those of society? 5. Is society itself merely an institution existing for the good It may do for the individual ? 6. Does psychology have anything to say about the character- istics of the ideal citizen? About the aim of education? Are there any facts that tell us the kind of individual that we ought to be? Why, for example, do you thlnli people should be honest and truthful? 7. Can the development of the individual be made the aim of education? 8. Should a child's training in adjustment to his environment be equal for all parts of this environment? What rule can you give that will cover this matter? 9. If our ancestors throughout all the past have got along with- out a science of education, why can we not still get along without it? Why will not the methods of rearing children of 10,000 years ago be adequate at the present time? 10. Mention some defect In educational procedure due to Ig- norance. Point out some defects in your own home or school train- ing due to ignorance of parents or teachers. 11. Name some pioneers In the field of educational psychology. 12. Name some specific points on which information would en- able you to make a better teacher or parent. 13. What is the significance of the terms "willing" and "able" In MUnsterberg's definition of the aim of education? 14. If a person does not do as well as he knows, what defect in his training does this indicate? 15. Mention some principles of education held by Plato that can now be scientifically justified. S.EFEBENCES. On the educational situation, G. Stanley Hall, Educational Prob- lems, 1911, the introduction. For discussions of the aim and nature of education : H. Munsterberg, Psychology and the Teacher, 1909, Ch. Ix. (From the point of view of the philosopher.) M. V. O'Shea, Education as Adjustment, Chs. Iv and v. W. C. Bagley, The Educative Process, 1905, Pt. 1. N. M. Butler, Th^ Meaning of Education, Ch. 1. P. E. Bolton, Principles of Education, 1910, Ch. 1. J. W. Jenks, Citizenship and the Schools, 1906. (From tha point of view of the political economist.) 12 THE OUTLINES OF EDXJCATIONAX, PSYCHOLOQT H. H. Donaldson, The Growth of the Brain, 1895, Chs. xvlll and xlx. (From the point of view of the physiologist.) C. A. Ellwood, Sodologv and Modern Social Problems, 1910, Ch. xy. (From the point of view of the sociologist.) C. W. Eliot, Education for Efflcienc]/, 1909, Ch. i, Education for Efficiency ; Ch. li, The New Definition of the Cultivated Man. The Significance of Infancy : John Fiske, Excursions of an Evolutionist, Ch. xii, or in The Des- tiny of Man, Ch. It and v, or in Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, Vol. U, 344. A. F. Chamberlain, Tlie Child, 1900, Ch. 1. On the relation of Psychology to Education : E. L. Thorndike, Journal of Educational Psychology, 1910, Vol. i, p. 5. E. A. Kirkpatrick, Journal of Educational Psychology, 1910, Vol. 1, p. 7& G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence, 1904, the preface ; also Vol. li, pp. 496-497. H. Mtinsterberg, Psychology and the Teacher, 1909, Chs. xl and xll. John Dewey, Psychological Review, 1900, Vol. vii, 105. William James, Talks to Teachers, 1899, Ch. 1. Chapter II. BODY AND MIND. The background of psychology is biology, and although our interest here is strictly psychological, certain biological presuppositions and considera- tions, as well as certain psychophysical relations, are necessary to make our treatment of mental devel- opment fully intelligible. The evolution of the body. — "The doctrine of evo- lution merely states that the animal world as it exists is naturally developed out of the animal world as it existed yesterday. " It is only a statement of the fact that the temporal relations of phenomena are causal ; the events of today grew out of the events of yester- day, those of yesterday out of those of the day be- fore, and so on back. The animals of today are the natural descendants of the animals of the past, the plants of today of the plants of the past ; in fact, the inorganic, as well as the organic, world is believed to proceed causally from one phenomenon to another. Gravitation and evolution are twin conceptions that bring order out of chaos, put meaning into otherwise meaningless facts. The law of gravity merely states the fact of the orderly arrangement and relation of things in space, and the law of evolution states the fact of the orderly arrangement of phenomena in time. They might very well be called the laws of the orderly arrangement of phenomena in time and [18] 14 THE OTJTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY space. We must, of course, bear in mind that a law for natural science is no more than a shorthand state- ment of the relationships and uniformities that exist in a body of facts. The old view of the world was static. Events were looked upon as more or less independent and the re- sult of chance. Few men even dreamed of the great, underlying, interpenetrating relationship existing among all things. History was largely the chron- icling of unrelated events; science, a catalogue of unrelated facts. Species of animals and plants were supposed to have originated separately and inde- pendently, each the result of a special creation. The actions of man were supposed to be the result of his own capricious choice, uncaused. In contrast with this view of the world, the present view may be called dynamic. We look upon all things as in flux, yester- day flowing into today and today flowing into tomor- row. Nothing is uncaused, order pervades all things. A complete understanding of the conditions of one situation is the full explanation of the next situation. This view now pervades all thought ia science, phil- osophy, literature and history. In fact, the dynamic view is a presupposition of all science. The mind of the scientist thinks in terms of evolution. To illus- trate: the historian of today no longer hunts for facts merely, but for underlying movements and tendencies on which the events float as leaves upon a river. The naturalist of today sees in species only the resultant of the interplay of environmental forces, acting upon the species of the past. We have called the static view old and the dynamic view mod- ern; but it must be said that the dynamic view was BODY AND MIND 15 known and held by many ancient Greek philosophers. It did not, however, enter into the general thought of mankind till modern times. Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859, and this date may be considered to mark the beginning of a movement which has revolutionised modern thought. It is not our purpose -here to enter into the proofs of evolu- tion — for this the reader must go to biology — but only to state the modern view in order to point out its educational significance. The evolution of the mind.— The evolution of the mind is, in a sense, a correlate of the evolution of the body. The brain and nervous system have developed along with the complexity of body structure. There can no longer be any doubt that mind has developed from great simplicity among lower forms of animals to the more complex mental activity of the higher animals and man. In the animal kingdom as it now exists we find mind in all its various stages of devel- opment. And if we study the mind of any single human individual we find it at first relatively simple, and acquiring day by day new structures and func- tions quite analogous to the development of the body. To any one who makes such a study there can be no question of the development of the individual mind, for it takes place before our very eyes. And every- thing that we know about mental life points to the evolution of mind in general. And just as the evolu- tion of the body is a presupposition of the biologist, so the evolution of mind is a presupposition of the psychologist. Evolution and education. — It is very important that teachers have the evolutionary point of view, — ■ 16 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY that they see in the child the product, the outcome of the past. They must know that the race has been hammered out in the forge of nature, that the child bears in its every feature the imprint of the past. The teacher must know that the same forces and conditions of the environment that have brought about the development of the race still act upon the child. If these forces and conditions have brought us up out of savagery, they must at least be the start- ing point for modern education, for our bodies and minds presuppose these conditions. The doctrine of evolution must enter into the gen- eral philosophy of the teacher and be a part of his mental equipment. In addition to this general effect of the doctrine, we are indebted to it for several spe- cific aspects of modern education either for their ori- gin or justification. (1) Sequence of development in the life of the child, which makes education possible, is a part of the conception of evolution. This is the notion of recapitulation, which is a biological fact, and, in a broad sense, a psychological fact. Every stage of development is conditioned by the previous stage and the environing forces. This is due to the accumulated experience of organic forms, and doubt- less is as true of mind as of body. Therefore, the necessity of orderly procedure in education has its explanation and justification in evolution. (2) Ac- tivity in education, which lies back of manual train- ing and gymnastics, has its full explanation in evo- lution. In the past it was the response of the indi- vidual to the pressure of the environment that brought about progress, and a priori we should expect such response still to be a condition of prog- BODY AND MIND 17 ress and development. The facts seem to show that this is true. Evolution gives us an interpretation of this fact. (3) The modern nature-study movement has its justification in the doctrine of evolution. The movement is merely a recognition of the fact that we can not neglect noiv the natural and physical condi- tions that have made possible the development of the race. Man has always had the closest relations to his natural environment, and it would be strange indeed if he could now afford to neglect it. (4) Moral train- ing has no meaning except when considered in the light of the evolution of ethical and social ideals. But there is no use to specify details, for every phase of education takes on a new aspect, acquires new meaning and significance, when considered in thcs light of evolution. Body and mind. — It is already obvious from our discussion that mind and body are very closely ro- tated. It will be well, however, to notice in some detail certain aspects and consequences of this rela- tionship. (1) First one should notice the mere fact of relationship. We know nothing about mind except in its relation to bodies. The exact nature of the connection between them we do not know — ^we may never know — ^but we may sometime be able to give a pretty good description of it. We know now that every variation and fluctuation of mind has its corre- sponding variation and fluctuation in the body. It does not seem just correct to say that either is the cause of the other, — that the mental change causes the physical change, or that the physical causes the mental ; so in the present state of our knowledge we say merely that the two sets of phenomena go on 18 XHB OUTLINES OP EDTJOATIONAL PSYOHOLOGT together and are inseparably connected. (2) Th® intimate relation of the mind is with the changes in the brain and nervous system. There seems to be a complete parallel between intelligence and brain de- velopment throughout the animal kingdom ; the more complex the brain-structure, the higher the intelli- gence of the animal. Not only, then, is mind related to body, but it is more especially and intimately con- nected with nervous activity. (3) It is possible to consider the body of an animal as a mechanism, a mechanical structure greatly differentiated, with parts especially sensitive to certain types of impres- sions. These sensitive structures are all connected with muscular structures, and impressions on the former bring about responses in the latter. This* may all be considered as a mechanical process, but while certain parts of this process are going on, namely, the action in the brain cells, set up directly or indirectly by the impressions on the sense organs, there is consciousness. We need not concern our- selves in this book with the metaphysical question whether consciousness is a causal element in the physical series. This makes no difference to educa- tion. What the teacher ought to know is that the body may be considered purely as a mechanism, but that the development of the mind is invariably asso- ciated with the development of the mechanical processes, and that whatever the ultimate nature of the relationship may be, it is surely a most intimate one. (4) The mind, as we saw, is dependent upon brain structure and function; intimately associated with brain activity is muscle activity. We have, then, mind, brain, muscle, the great psychophysical trinity, BODY AND MIND 19 the tliree-in-one, existing in tlie most intimate rela- tionship, mutually depending, directly or indirectly, the one upon the others, each having no meaning without the others. (5) It seems that in the past mus- cular activity has made the development of our brain necessary, and it is a reasonable assumption that muscular development still has an intimate connec- tion with brain development and therefore with men- tal development. (6) From the point of view of the body it is the muscles and nerves that are trained and educated, and the training consists in the perfec- tion of muscular movement as related to nervous stimulus. (7) Another thing to be noticed is the com- plete dependence of mind, at least in man, upon sense organs. These organs are specialised nerve-endings, each type capable of receiving a certain sort of phys- ical impression. They are the means through which the environment brings about brain changes, — ^the necessary accompaniment of mind. This fact makes (8) the hygiene of the sense organs of the greatest importance to the teacher. A child without any sense organs would not have enough mind to quarrel about. And a child's mental life is incomplete if any sense- organ is defective or abnormal. It is therefore essen- tial that the teacher know the sensory equipment of the children under his charge, and that school authorities have accurate tests made of the sense organs of the pupils and have medical attention and help given when necessary. It is not only useless to proceed, as teachers, in ignorance of these facts, but it is criminal, for every child has the right to demand of society that all possible be done for his individual development. (9) We must not lose sight of the fact 20 THE OUTLINES OF BDUOATIONAL PiBTOHOLOOY that muscular activity is not only the condition of mental development, but the end as well. There seems little reason, ultimately, why we should know except that we may do. Knowledge is not itself an end, but only a means, only one step in the complete process of education. Education has suffered greatly in the past because of ignorance or forgetfuhiess of this fact. Whenever a teacher forgets that action, adjustment, is the end of training, then education begins to be formal and severs its relation to reality and life. It has too often been true that the work of the school room ^y^s artificial and had little rela- tion to the life of the time, when, in fact, it ought merely to be an aspect, an expression, of the life of the time, as the outgrowth of that of the past. (10) Under this view, manual training and industrial edu- cation take first rank in the curriculum and become the cornerstone of the educational structure. (11) The sharp distinction and separation of mind and body in the past has been a great error. There have been people who thought that the mind had little use for the body, and who have humiliated and degraded the body. We now see that this is a great mistake, for in order to look properly after the development of the mind we must look most carefully after the bodily conditions. QUESTIONS AND TOPICS rOR PURTHEB STTTDT. 1. In what sense ia the doctrine of evolution new If many great thinkers from the time of Thales haye held It in some form? What led to the general acceptance of the doctrine in the latter part of last century? 2. Does the child of today, on account of evolution and heredity, have greater capacity to learn than was possessed by children a hundred years ago? than the children of twenty thoasand years ago? BODY AND MIND 21 3. Is man still undergoing evolution? Will he probably acquire a new sense that he does not now possess? 4. Outline the evidence on which the doctrine of evolution is based. 5. Is there any evidence at all that stands In the way of accept- ing the doctrine? 6. Why should we distinguish between evolution and theories of evolution? 7. Explain the following terms : Darwinism, natural selection, survival of the fittest, Weismannism, Lamarckianism, spontaneous variation, the DeVries mutation theory. 8. To what extent does the mind of an individual pass through stages of mental development analogous to the minds of lower animals? 9. Is the snail a mere mechanism or does consciousness accom- pany its muscular activity? 10. Is It true that we have as much right to use the term 'cause' to designate the relation of mind to body as we have for using it to designate the relation between two physical phenomena? 11. What Is meant by 'free will'? determinism? From what point of view can we say that we 6a as we please f From what point of view can we say that our acts are all determined? 12. Is it true that strong minds are found in weak bodies? If you know of such a case, can you explain it? Look up the biog- raphies of a dozen great men to see what you can learn about their early life. 13. How can you account for rather mature minds in Immature bodies? and how explain immature, undeveloped minds In mature' bodies? 14. What important bearing on education has the fact that the development of the body is absolutely essential to the development of the mind? 15. Why is It that American schools have not used play and games to the full extent of their possibilities? 16. Professor Swift tells us in Mind in the Making that many great men In this country and England were slow In their develop- ment, got little benefit from their attendance at school and were considered weak-minded by their teachers. What explanation can you give? 17. Look up the biographies of eminent men and see If you find that as many of these men were precocious as children as were backward. 18. What motives have induced school authorities to put manual training Into the schools? 19. If mind and body are so closely related, can we say that all education Is education of the mind? 20. What is meant by 'hygiene of the mind' 7 Is there any hygiene of the mind apwt from the hygiene of the body? 22 THE OTJTIilNES OP EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 21. G. Stanley Hall says that school hygiene is the most im- portant part of pedagogy. In what sense is this true? 22. Is your own body in good condition? Are your eyes and ears perfect? Would there be as good reason for requiring teach- ers to pass a physical examination as there is for requiring them to pass a mental examination? Do you know of any cities that require teachers to pass a physical examination? 23. To what extent should teachers be prepared to examine and test the pupils as to their physical health and sensory capacity? Should some training in medicine and nursing be part of a teacher's equipment? 24. Describe simple tests for determining visual and auditory defects. Give illustrations of the effects on life and character of such defects. BEFEBEITCES. The evidence of the evolution of organic forms Is the whole science of biology, and specific references are almost out of the question, and since no student should undertake the study of edu- cational psychology without at least a general knowledge of biology, such references are unnecessary. The general nature of this evi- dence, however, may be found in such books as : J. LeOonte, Evolution; its nature and evidences and its rela- tion to Religious Thought, 1891. H. F. Osborne, From the Qreehs to Darwin, 1902. General text-books in zoology. A good notion of the significance of the doctrine of evolution may be obtained from the essays in the commemorative volume, Fifty Years of Darwinism, 1909. On the evolution of mind, see the article on Evolution and Psy- chology, by G. Stanley Hall, in Fifty Years of Darwinism ; also, B. L. Thorndlke, The Evolution of the Human Intellect, in Popular Science Monthly, 1901, Vol. Ix, 58. E. A. Kirkpatrick, Point of View of Oenetic Psychology, Journal of Ed. Psy., Vol. i, 76 ; Genetic Psychology, 1909, Ch. xi. On the relation of mind and body : H. Mflnsterberg, Psychology and the Teacher, 1909, Chs. xiii and xiv. E. B. Titchener, A Textbook of Psychology, 1910, pp. 9-15. On the dependence of mental development on muscular develop- ment : Hall's Adolescence, Ch. iii. H. H. Donaldson, The Growth of the Brain, 1899 ; is a book that emphasizes the importance of the brain and nervous system in edu- cation. On mental and physical examination and medical inspection: G. M. Whipple, Manual of Mental and Physical Tests, 1910. Tests of sensory capacity, Ch. xi. Questions in School Hygiene, 1909; very helpful in the study of school hygiene ; gives extended refer- ences on all aspects of the subject. L. H. Gulick and L. P. Ayres, Medical Inspection of Schools, BODY AND MIND 23 1910. A splendid treatment of the subject. The student is espe- cially referred to the first three chapters for a general treatment of the subject, and to chapter vili for examinations of vision and audition. Any good text in school hygiene gives directions for tests of sensory capacity. See such as those by Barry, Hope, Newsholme and Shaw. J. M. Taylor, Motor Education for the Child, Pop. 8t solve a single problem without making mistakes because he has not habituated the processes? 182 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL, PSTOHOLOQT 7. Give from your experience illustrations showing the impor- tance of regularity and uniformity in forming a moral habit. 8. Try to observe the training of children in their homes ; report the procedure of parents that seem to understand the laws of habit formation and of some who do not. 9. Give from experience or observation instances of the viola- tion by teachers of the laws of habit formation as applied to morals. 10. Can you prove that mere knowledge of the right is not sutfi- cient basis for moral action? 11. Do you think we need to worry about a man's ideals if he always does the right as a result of habituation? 12. Sometimes the children of preachers go wrong, — children that have been preached to and prayed for daily for twenty years. If you know of any such case, can you explain it? 13. What can the school do for a boy fourteen years old, normal mentally and physically, but who has had no moral training, and as a result lies, steals, etc.? If you have ever observed such a case, describe the treatment and the results. 14. Show that in the very same family the children may have the same knowledge of right and wrong, but that some are very much better than others so far as actions are concerned. Why is this? 15. A few years ago the author went to a town to give a lecture to a body of teachers. The next morning he found the people excited and threatening mob violence. A prominent minister of the town had been put into jail because of a serious crime. The man knew the right, for he had been teaching it to his flock. Why did he not do the right? 16. From your own experience, can you say that the careful study of mathematics or science will have anything to do with one's moral actions? 17. When you have the opportunity as a teacher, try to find evidence of the moral effects of school studies. Try to discover the moral effects of the study of literature or history. Is such effect a myth or a fact? Does the manner of teaching have any- thing to do with it? 18. Has any teacher ever had a great moral influence upon your life? If so, describe the matter in detail, giving your age and the exact nature of the moral influence. 19. Carefully consider the moral influence of your father and mother upon your life. Work it out definitely, considering methods and results. 20. Have you ever observed in your own life or the lives of others any definite moral influence from nature study? 21. Is it possible to do very much in the high school in the way of moral training unless it is based on admiration for, and imita- tion of, a strong, forceful, upright teacher? Without such a teacher, would the formal study of ethics have much more value than a microscopic study of earthworms? HABIT AND MOBAL TBAINING 183 22. Discuss the relation of religious belief to moral practice. 23. How can parents be macie to see that the main work of moral training must fall upon them? And how is it possible for the modern home to do its proper work in this regard? 24. Suppose you are a mathematics teacher In a city high school. What can you do in the way of moral training? Answer from experience, if possible. 25. Have you ever known of a case in which a home has been revolutionised morally through the influence of the school? If so, report in full. 26. Do you think religion necessary in moral training? Give the evidence to support the position that you take. 27. If a systematic course in history and mathematics is neces- sary, why is not a systematic course in ethics necessary? 28. Work out fully the moral influence that may come from the group games of youth. 29. Do you believe that the personal relations of teacher and pupils are more important for moral training than formal teaching of ethics? 30. What plan of building up a moral character was success- fully followed by Benjamin Franklin? Does this give us any idea as to the proper kind of moral training? HEFEKEKTCES. F. Adler, Moral Instruction of Children, 1892 ; G. A. Coe, Educa- tion in Religion and Morals, 1904; G. E. Dawson, The Child and His Religion, 1909; C. DeGarmo, Ethical Training in the Publio Schools, in American Academy of Political and Social Science, No. 49 ; Principles of Secondary Education, Vol. iii, Ethical Training, 1911 ; J. Dewey, Moral Principles in Education, 1909 ; Teaching Ethics in the High School, in Educational Review, Vol. vl, p. 313 ; E. O. Sisson, The Essentials of Character, 1910; E. E. Kellogg, Studies in Character Building, 1905 ; H. T. Mark, Tlie Teacher and the Child; M. E. Sadler, Moral Instruction and Training in School, 1908 ; B. P. St. John, Stories and Story-Telling in Moral and Re- ligious Education, 1910 ; H. Spencer, Education, Intellectual, Moral and Physical, 1894, still worth reading; D. S. Jordan, 'Nature Study and Moral Culture, N. E. A., 1896, p. 130; G. Stanley Hall, The Moral and Religious Training of Children and Adolescents, in Ped. Sem., Vol. 1, p. 196; Moral Education and Will Training, In Ped. Sem., Vol. ii, p. 72; G. E. Dawson, A Study in Youthful Degen- eracy, in Ped. Sem., Vol. iv, p. 221 ; Mrs. F. Schoff, The Home as the Basis of Civic, Social and Moral Uplift, in Ped Sem., Vol. xvi, p. 473 : D. Mussey, The Ideals of Ethical Culture for Children, in Ped. Sem., Vol. xvi, p. 513; G. E. Meyers, Moral Training in the School, in Ped Sem., Vol. xiii, p. 409; J. F. Rogers, Physical and 184 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Moral Training, In Fed. Sem., Vol. xvi, p. 301 ; L. W. Kline, A Study in Juvenile Ethics, In Fed. Sem., Vol. x, p. 239 ; L. D. Amett, Origin and Development of Home and Love of Home, in Fed. Sem., Vol. ix, p. 324 ; E. J. Swift, Mind in the Making, 1908, Ch. il ; M. V. O'Shea, Social Development and Education, 1909, pp. 265- 272; H. Munsterberg, Fsychology and the Teacher, 1909, Chs. xx and xxiv ; E. A. Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study, Ch. xl ; B. F. Young, Ethics in the School, 1902 ; E. H. Griggs, Moral Edu- cation, 1904 ; E. A. Sbarpe, Foundation Stones of Success, 1910, in three large volumes, containing abundant material for use in devel- oping moral Ideals. Chapter XIII. MEMORY. Meaning of memory. — ^Experiment seems to re- veal two kinds of images: (1) One that has an asso- ciative setting, which gives a feeling of fanailiarity with it, and (2) an image without any associative setting, and therefore lacking any accompanying feeling of familiarity. The former is called a mem- ory image, the latter an image of imagination. The term memory is used not only to designate this par- ticulair kind of image as distinct from the image of imagination, but is also used in the same sense as the term retention. "When we speak of the accuracy or fidelity of memory we mean that the image or idea represents accurately the original impression. If our memory is accurate, our idea of a past experi- ence agrees accurately with that experience. On the other hand, when we speak of a good memory or poor memory we have reference rather to the retention; we mean that retention is good or retention is poor. If today we can not reteall any of the experiences of yesterday, then we say that our memory is poor, meaning that the impressions are not retained. In general, then, we shall use the term as the name of a kind of image and also as synonymous with the fact of retention of images or ideas. In the former sense it is the name of a definite kind of complex mental process ; in the latter it is the name of a physical or psychophysical fact. For what is retained is doubt- [185] 186 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY less some modification of the nervous system, which is the basis of the brain process underlying the mem- ory image. Experimental studies. — ^Experimental studies of memory have been in progress for twenty-five years, and the main facts are fairly well determined and our knowledge of the various aspects and conditions of memory is tolerably accurate and complete. The divergent conclusions reached in certain fields are due, in the main, to differences in methods and con- ditions of experimentation. The main problem of experimental work has been the determination of the relation of memory to age, sex, intelligence, form and manner of presenting the material, ideational type, rapidity of learning, Mnd of material, and num- ber of repetitions. Other problems have been the question of improvement of the memory, the condi- tions of good memory, the most economical methods of learning, and the function of the teacher in the process of memorising. We shall proceed to set forth the results of the experimental work in the various fields and indicate the significance of these results for education. Relation of memory to age and sex. — ^It is the pop- ular opinion that the memory of childhood is supe- rior to that of any later period of life, but this seems not to be the case, for memory improves up to ado- lescence and possibly to maturity. The immediate memory span for digits improves from five in the early school years to seven in the later school years. Nor does memory decline later. The memory of adults remains as good as at any earlier period of life, at least till general mental decline sets in, al- MEMORY 187 though there are no experimental studies of the memory of old age. This improvement with age, however, turns out to be more a matter of immediate memory than of permanent retention. Some studies show that the child retains about as much relatively of what he learns as does the adult, but he can not grasp as much, can not learn as much, and this may be due to the fact that experience, increased knowl- edge, enhances the ability to learn. There is some evidence that memory, or at least some aspects of memory, reaches its greatest efficiency at about the beginning of adolescence. It seems, for example, that poetry can be committed to memory by pupils of this age better than at any other time. This may be connected with the fact of universal interest in poetry at this age, which prompts so many boys and girls to write poetry at this time. Most experimental studies of memory that have taken account of differences due to sex have found that the memory of girls was better than that of boys, although it is somewhat dependent upon the nature of the material 'memorised, boys sometimes excelling in rote memory for names of concrete things and for real objects. Girls also excel in logical memory. In tests of public school children conducted by the au- thor it was found that the girls excelled in logical memory at every age from nine to fifteen with the single exception of the age eleven, when the boys and girls made practically the same record. That the memory of girls should be rather uniformly better than that of boys is a curious and interesting fact that awaits explanation. 188 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSTOHOLOGT 40 35 20 25 20 Age Memorvj Curve 8 ■ % 10 II \Z 13 14 15 16 17 18 The Improvement of logical memory with age Is shown by the rise of the cinves The material used for the test was The Marble Stotue.— Whipple's Manual, p. 347. About 300 children of each age were tested. MEMORY 189 Improvement of memory by practice. — Some psy- chologists have held that our native brute retention, bejlng mechanical in nature and having its basis in the nervous system, can not therefore be altered by anything we can do. It may be true that the ultimate physiological basis of memory can not be improved by practice, but practice certainly improves the im- mediate memory both for nonsense and meaningful material. But here, again, it may be more a matter of increased ability to learn than increased ability to retain. However, the relative retention is im- proved just as much as the learning capacity is in- creased. But there is some correlation between learning and retaining, and, on the whole, the experi- mental work rather favors the idea that there is at least a slight improvement of retention with prac- tice. In some extended experiments conducted by the author, sub jects actually retained a larger percentage of what was learned after practice of three months. The ability to learn was increased in this time about four times. We can not, of course, be sure that in the latter ease the matter was not learned better than in the former. It amounts to the same thing in the end whatever be the actual function improved. The simple fact is that by practice one can greatly improve his ability to get and hold facts; for ex- ample, in the experiment mentioned above, a student by daily practice, in three months time, was able to learn in fifteen minutes the ideas contained in about 250 words of thought material. This task before practice required an hour, and the facts were re- tained better in the fast learning than in the slow, in the ratio of 9 to 8. 190 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY The conditions affecting retention. — WhsA heredi- tary factors cause the native individual differences in memory capacity we do not know, but, apart from the fact of individual differences, the factors influ- encing memory are, (1) the character of the initial impression, (2) the number of attentive repetitions, and (3) the nature and number of associations. The first impression. — The nature of an impression can vary in many ways, but its clearness and affect- ive values are most important for memory. The im- pression that is clear and vivid and that has a great pleasure or pain accompaniment is best remembered. An individual is most deeply impressed by those thiags and processes that touch vital interests, that are significant for the life of the individual. The teacher can therefore save much tima usually spent in repetitions by making the conditions of first pres- entation as good as possible. To this end, the child must be prepared for the material and the material for the child. The child must have had sufficient ex- perience to understand and appreciate the new ideas ; moreover, the situation should usually be such that he really demands the new material, — ^needs it and is eager for it. And, on the other hand, the material, the new ideas, must be naturally and logically pre- sented with due regard to concreteness, to explana- tion and elaboration. If not understood, the new idea can make little impression, and will therefore be poorly retained. The number of repetitions.— The value of repeti- tion for memory is much the same as for habituation. Liability to recall doubtless has the same neural basis as has the relation of response to stimulus in MEMOBT 191 habit. Eepeating an experience, thinking our thought over again, fixes the neural conditions on which retention and recall depend. Experiments show that, within limits, the greater the number of attentive repetitions, the better the retention. If, for example, a series of nonsense syllables is learned on one day, they can be re-learned on the next day with a saving of one-third of the time, and if they are repeated twice as many times on the first day as are necessary for a perfect reproduction, then there is a saving of two-thirds of the learning time on the fol- lowing day. But the repetitions are not all of equal value for retention. The first few repetitions, and particularly the first one, for most people prove of more value than succeeding repetitions. The degree of attention is probably the most important factor here ; if a high degree of attention can be maintained, then the repetitions doubtless will have a higher value for retention, at least till fatigue begins to interfere. Eepetition at any time is of little value in fixing an impression, unless the process is in a high degree of attention. The same rule, in fact, applies to repeated impressions that applies to the first impression, and the fact that after the first impression the thing is no longer new and has lost some of its freshness may account for the decreasing influence of the later pres- entations. And it is this loss of interest after the newness has worn off a process that presents the chief problem in drill work. How can the same material be presented again so as to have the value of an initial impression? The problem is easier here than it is in the case of habituation, for there is greater possibility of variation. Ideas can be re-presented 192 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY tmder all sorts of new conditions and combinations and from different points of view. They can enter into a generalisation, a deduction, an application. Such repetition becomes quite as valuable sometimes as the first presentation. The value of associations. — ^If one learns a series of nonsense syllables and a verse of poetry, the latter is much better retained, because of the fact that it has meaning. That anything has meaning is a mat- ter of association, of past experience. The nonsense syllables are associated together in a series, but there is nothing else to help hold them, whereas the words in the verse of poetry revive abundant asso- ciations apart from the fact that one word follows another in the lines. These old associations lay hold of and re-enforce the words in memory. A verse of poetry first presented is not something really new in the same sense that the nonsense syllables are new to experience. In fact, there is very little, if any- thing, in the verse of poetry that is new to experi- ence. If there is, and especially if there is very much that is new, then it approaches the nonsense syllables in difficulty of memorising. The richer in association an idea is, the better it is retained and the greater is its liability of recall. The proper sort of repetition, of review, of organisation, serves to increase and to fix these associations. These factors are all much affected by the individual's physical condition. In fact, every aspect of learning and memory is deli- cately dependent upon the physical state of the sub- ject. The effects of illness and fatigue become imme- diately evident in decreased capacity to learn and remember. MEMOBY 193 Economical learning. — (1) Commiting to mem- ory. It has been proved by experiment that the most economical way to commit to memory, say a poem, is to read the poem through from beginning to end, as a whole, and to continue to re-read it through in the same way till it is completely learned. It is not eco- nomical to divide the poem up into little units and learn these separately. And this is true whatever the length of the poem, at least up to one 240 lines in length, — the longest unit yet studied. Two of the most important factors in making this procedure the most economical are: (a) There is no time lost in cementing together the different parts and unlearn- ing the associations of the last line of a unit with the first line of that unit, as fixed by repeating the part separately, and (b) when the poem is read through as a whole, some parts of the whole all along are learned from the beginning and their fixation sets in from the start. In the case of a long poem that must be learned by several sittings there is much sub-conscious fixing that goes on between times, and if the poem is read through, this affects equally the whole poem. This principle applies only to verbatim learning, and we are not, perhaps, justified in making any inferences concerning the learning of ideas apart from verbal learning. This point must be settled by direct experimentation. We do have some knowl- edge, however, of the most economical distribution of time in committing to memory that will perhaps apply to the learning of ideas. If we have to learn something too long to commit to memory at one sit- ting, say 60 lines of poetry, the best procedure is to read it through twice at one sitting and repeat daily 194 THE OUTLINES OP EDtTCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY till the matter is learned. Of course, if one is to learn a thing, and must learn it as soon as possible, he can not consider the most economical distribu- tion of time, and must therefore learn it even though at a great loss of time as compared to the most eco- nomical procedure. Another element also enters in in favor of the short unit. In a short unit one can learn perfectly a short stanza in a little time, while if the whole poem is read through it is some time be- fore any of it can be repeated, and the learner seems to be making no progress, and a person, particularly a child, prefers to work in such a way that immediate results can be seen, and telling him to read on and by and by he will know the poem is very much like tell- ing him to work on and by and by he may be Presi- dent. Eemote ends do not appeal to a child. A few demonstrations of the best procedure might, how- ever, make even the child willing to work by the most economical method. (2) The best memory material. Memory for ob- jects is much better than memory for words, and for most people memory for concrete words is much bet- ter than for abstract words, memory for meaningful words is better than for nonsense or meaningless words. The most effective teaching, therefore, keeps near to the concrete reality. We should study the actual object when possible. When this is not pos- sible, then the best possible representation of the object. Abundant demonstration and illustration are a part of all good teaching. And it is always a sav- ing of time to spend it helping pupils to get clear, definite and accurate conceptions of reality. By do- MEMORY 195 ing this we save much time that we should otherwise have to spend in repetitions. (3) Cramming. As already pointed out, there seems to be at least a slight positive correlation be- tween quick learning and good retention. Experi- ment settles, at any rate, that the contrary opiaion, namely, that the slow learner retains the best, is not by any means a universal truth. The quick learner must necessarily possess the factors that make for good retention. He works under favorable condi- tions of attention and interest that are also factors of good retention. It must be that the impressions are deeper and the associations better for the quick learner. This favors retention. The fast learner gets his subject matter more as a unity, more as one piece, — he sees it whole, while the slow learner has forgotten the beginning before he has spelled his way to the end. Such, at any rate, is our interpreta- tion of the experimental fact that the fast learner not only retains absolutely more than does the slow learner, but, at least in some eases, relatively more than does the slow learner. Experiment is confirmed by the general observation that he who can read a book at the highest rate of speed gets most out of the book. This need not mean that the fast reader profits most by the reading of the book. If the cause of the slow reading be to ponder over the matter and think it out more clearly in all its consequences, then, of course, the slow reading is more profitable ; but this is another matter. What, then, about cramming? Professor Titch- ener is right in saying that there are two forms of cramming, — good and bad. There are at least two 196 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY forms of cramming that are legitimate: (1) At the end of a course of study, after a student has carefully worked out all the details of the course separately, a rapid survey of these parts as making a whole is of great benefit. It cements the parts together and gives them a higher meaning. Such a review is val- uable both as a form of repetition and in giving really new associations. The facts are seen in per- spective, and therefore are seen in their proper pro- portion and importance. But in saying this we as- sume that the facts have been carefully learned. The student who neglects his work during term-time and hopes to make up by a few hours of concentrated effort at the end can not hope to stand with the per- son who has been learning and organising the matter throughout the term, and especially is this true if the latter also makes use of a final organisation or review. A careful re-survey of a course at its end is often of as much worth as any other equal amoimt of time spent on the course. (2) Cramming is also a legitimate procedure in the organisation of a mass of subject matter for a particular occasion after which there will be no need for its use. One such occasion that a student meets is the passing of an examination, — such as is too often given, — an exami- nation that calls for a lot of isolated, unrelated, un- important details. To meet such an occasion, a stu- dent is justified in resorting to the cramming process. But such an examination can have no justification; it has no proper place in a scheme of education. (4) Ideational types. There seems some evidence that an individual learns best material suited to his type of ideation. An auditorily minded person MEMOBY 197 learns best a material that appeals to auditory imag- ery ; the visually minded person, a material that ap- peals to visual imagery. But the manner of presen- tation, i. e., whether through eye or ear, depends much on acquired habit and interest. For in the case of meaningful material, in whatever form it is pre- sented, it is worked over, interpreted, according to one's mental constitution and habits. But there are individual differences and preferences for certain forms of presentation, and also differences due to age. In the earlier years of school life auditory presentation is better, but by the age of nine the visual method begins to prove the better and im- proves much more than does the auditory. Some investigators have found that if the material to be learned is presented through more than one sense, it is better learned and retained. If the matter is read to the children, and they are also allowed to see it, and in addition also to write or in some way to repro- duce it, as by speaking it aloud or silently, then it is better learned. Such methods of presentation probably have the same value as repetition, for that is about what they amount to. They not only make a better initial impression, but may make better asso- ciations as well. Transfer of memory training. — ^After one has im- proved his capacity to get and retain ideas in a cer- tain field, does this increase his capacity in other fields? The result of the most careful experiments up to the present time indicate that the result of such practice and training is rather narrow and spe- cific. If, for example, a person is practiced in learn- ing and retaining numbers, this does not help much 198 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY in learning letters and figures. Or, if one is prac- ticed in learning meaningful material, it does not help much in learning nonsense material. There are certain habits that function in learning and memory. These habits are specific, but they may be considered general in so far as the situations and procedures in learning are measurably similar. It would be, perhaps, nearer the truth to say that all habits are specific, but that some of the situations in which a habit is applicable are universal. There are cer- tain physical conditions of attending and learning, more or less under the subject's control, that are much the same in all learning, and therefore drill in one form gives efficiency in all the others. In the learning of nonsense material, and to some extent in all rote memory, where the main factor is vivid- ness of impression, getting these favorable condi- tions for impression is about all that contributes to improvement. But in the case of logical material there are many other factors. There are habits of procedure to be acquired, habits of organising and fixing the ideas, and, in addition, there is an increase of familiarity with the subject matter that improves the learning and memory capacity in that particular kind of subject matter. The latter would not be of service in unrelated matter, but the habits of pro- cedure in learning logical matter doubtless have more or less general application, so that there is such a thing as learning how to learn. But it is not a matter of transfer of training, nor is it a matter of general habits, but is merely a case of acquiring habits whose conditions and situations occur in all learning. MEMOBY 199 The relation of memory to intelligence. — The rela- tion of memory to learning capacity has been pointed out. What is the relation of memory to general in- telligence ? What is the relation of memory to class standing? Experimental results are somewhat di- vergent, but it seems clear that when logical memory tests are carefully made, and when class standing is determined by any adequate method, a fairly high degree of correlation between students' standing as determined by a memory test and their class stand- ing will be found. A very close relation could not be expected, because there are many factors that deter- mine class standing, memory being only one of these factors. Even ability to learn is not a sufficient index of class standing, for ability to learn must be coupled with desire and willingness to learn. With other things equal, an efficient memory gives a student a great advantage. Habits of learning and habits of work are very important elements in determining scholarship. It often happens that a person who is quick to learn and has a reliable memory is a poor student, because, knowing that he learns readily, he leaves his learning to the last moment and allows no time for repetition, for more thorough organisation, so that the person with inferior ability, but better habits of work, will excel in class work. However, the very best students are those who are gifted by nature in ability to learn and remember, and who, in addition, have good habits of work. In a large class careful experiment will always prove this true. The function of the teacher in memory work. — Here, as in the case of habit formation, one of the main functions of the teacher is to correct mistakes 200 THE OUTLINES OF BDTJOATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY t. .434' 33 32 31 30 3>^ ■28 27 ! . (5^^ ij. JL IV V VI m The dlaeram sbows the relation of logical memorr t<> Intelligence. The number of school grade la represented on the horizontal axis, and the nam- ber of Ideas retained on the vertical axis. When children of the same age are found distributed through leveral grades, those In the higher grades have the better memory. MEMOBT 201 iB the early stage of memorisation. When a student sets to work to learn the ideas in a paragraph or page of a book, the first reading may give him some wrong or incorrect ideas, and it often happens that further reading does not disclose these mistakes to the learner, for on successive readings the thing is likely to come with the same meaning as at first, so that the learner is powerless to correct his mistake. Further reading is not only time lost, so far as getting the correct interpretation is concerned, but serves to fix the wrong ideas. The teacher's function here is to use every possible precaution to see that the correct idea is got at the beginning, at the initial reading, before repetition has firmly fixed the wrong idea. A second function of the teacher is to determine the learning capacity and memory efficiency of the dif- ferent pupils and direct their work in accordance with these facts. The child of quick learning ca- pacity must be taught to take care not to omit proper repetition and organisation, while the slow learner must be taught to work at the highest point of con- centration and told that on no account can he afford to neglect the repeated attacks. He should be taught to take advantage of several attacks on a task at different times, and not to depend on long continued, ineffectual repetitions that do not have proper con- ditions of attention and interest. If the pupils of different learning capacity must work together, then the bright ones should be given enough more work in the same subject or in other subjects so that the two will be on something near an equality. It seems hardly possible to make a greater mistake in the school room than to proceed on the assumption of 202 THE OUTLINES OF EDUGATIONAl. PSYCHOLOQT equal capacity in all the pupils. It seems probable that every individual has a definite coefficient of learning capacity that is fairly constant. A teacher should know, and know with some degree of exact- ness, what this coefficient is in the various pupils. There is just as much need for the teacher to know the learning coefficient of his pupils as there is for the engineer to know the efficiency of his engines and machines. The knowledge is necessary for wise ac^ tion in each case. A kno\^ledge of the individual's ideational type and other individual peculiarities will also be of help to the teacher in determining what forms of material and presentation to use and in un- derstanding the different results of instruction on the different pupils. Not only do the same impressions receive different interpretations by different pupils, but they bring about different reactions, receive dif- ferent evaluations and take different places in the permanent, organised knowledge of the individuals. QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOB FURTHER STUDY. (The various forms of tests can be given to the class as a whole by the Instructor.) 1. Make a brief study of the relation of memory to age as fol- lows : Make out lists of concrete and abstract words, one complete set of each. (See p. 204.) Have four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten words in the respective lists of concrete words and the same for the abstract words. Give the test by pronouncing the words and having each list reproduced in writing immediately after it is given. Use only words whose meaning is known to those tested. Do you find an improvement with age as stated In the chapter? 2. Test the logical memory of children of different ages by using a short simple story. Give the test by reading the story to the children and requiring them to write down immediately the ideas remembered. The story can be divided up into ideas or units, and the reproduction of the idea of each unit, not the exact words, is what is required. Do your results correspond to those obtained from the first test? MEMOET 203 3. Compare your own memory for various kinds of material with the memory of some one else in the class. 4. Compare the time that is required for you to learn 15 non- sense syllables with the time required to learn 15 English words whose meaning is known to you. Have another person prepare the words and syllables. The words should be of one syllable and the nonsense syllables should have three letters each, — a *;onsonant, then a vowel, then a consonant. Learn each list by reading it through yourself from beginning to end. Count the number of readings required for learning, and consider the list learned when you can say it through without looking at the words, at the same rate that you use for learning them. Which list requires the longer time? 5. If you have ever tried to commit to memory a Iiatin poem, you probably found it very difficult. Why? 6. Report from your experience or observation a case of poor teaching, — ^poor for the reason that the pupils did not understand the meaning of the matter presented. 7. Give instances of undue amount of repetition required be- cause of poor initial impressions. 8. Have you ever used any kind of memory device? If so, what was it and what was its value? 9. Compare the method of learning by wholes with the method of learning by parts, by finding a simple poem and learning about 30 lines by each method. You will perhaps need to perform the experiment several times and take the average for each method. If the material used Is very even and your condition is maintained uniform, a few tests will be sufBcient. The matter may be tested out on the class as a whole by the instructor. The class can be divided into two equal parts by lot or on the basis of tests. One half can then use the one method and the other half the other method, and the results can be compared. If this group method is used, great care must be used to have the work done under uniform conditions, — the same time of day, the same rate of reading, the same criterion of perfect learning, etc. 10. You can test the value of attentive repetitions by learning a few stanzas under cDod conditions of attention with the time required for learning a similar number when good attention is impossible, — say, in a room where several people are talking. 11. An experiment similar to the above can be performed on the class as a whole by the instructor as follows : The members of the class can spend five minutes on a paragraph in this book that has not been read, then five minutes on another paragraph of equal length. While one paragraph is being read, distractions may be furnished by a metronome and an electric bell. The experiment should be repeated a few times and the averages taken for each of the two procedures. 12. Some time is required for proving that memory improves with practice for the material and method used, but an hour of 204 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYOHOLOQT hard practice a day for a week ought to show improvement The question of the transfer of the training can be determined by test- ing the memory for various forms of material and method before and after the memory training. These tests should be with con- crete and abstract words, digits, objects, pictures, and different forms of material in connected thought. Do not expect your experi- ment to be worth anything unless it is done with the greatest of care. 13. The above experiment could be performed by the class as a whole in the following way: The initial and final' tests could be given by the Instructor to the whole class ; the practice for a week could be done by the Individuals in their rooms according to a careful method prescribed by the instructor. 14. The relation of memory to Intelligence can be determined by the instructor as follows : The standing of the members of the class in the various memory tests can be correlated with their standing in the subject of Educational Psychology. This correla- tion may be determined by the Pearson formula, or it may be roughly determined by ranking the class In the tests, from the best to poorest, then ranking them for the standing in psychology. Divide the two lists in the middle. If more than half of the better half in one list is found in the better half of the other list, then there is a correlation between memory and Intelligence as your test indicates. Do not attach much importance to your results unless the tests are carefully given and the rank in the class is carefully determined. 15. Try to determine experimentally whether you can learn bet- ter by reading yourself or hearing the matter read. WORDS FOR ROTE MEMORY TEST. CONCBKrE. Abbtbaoi. 1 1 street, ink, lamp. time, game, scheme. 2 2 spoon, horse, chair, stone. grade, fact, work, thing. 3 3 ground, clock, boy, chalk, book. pluck, love, blame, fear, proof. 4 4 desk, milk, hand, card, floor, space, force, pride, fright, joy, cat; size. 5 5 ball, cup, glass, hat, fork, pole, length, light, style, rate, cause, cloud. youth, hate. « « coat, girl, house, salt, glove, law, thought, plot, glee, life, watch, box, mat call, price, streng^th. MEMOBT 205 The words should be pronounced slowly and distinctly and at an even rate, one group at a time. In scoring the results, a word in its proper place can be counted as "two," a word out of its proper place as "one." Inserted words not pronounced should not be counted. REFERENCES. FOR SYSTEMATIC TREATMENT : E. B. Titchener, A Textbook of Psyonology, 1910, p. 396 ; G. M. Whipple, Manual of Mental and Physical Tests, 1910, pp. 356 and 394 ; W. James, Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1, p. 643 ; Talks to Teachers, p. 116 ; C. H. Judd, Psychology, 1907, p. 231 ; J. R. Angell, Psychology, 1908, p. 222 ; R. M. Terkes. Introduction to Psychology, 1911, pp. 189 and 300 ; H. Munsterbere, Psychology and the Teacher, 1909, p. 137; H. J. Watt, The Economy and Training of Memory, 1909. ORIGINAL STUDIES : T. L. Bolton, The Growth of Memory in School Children, in American Journal of Psychology, Vol. iv, p. 362; M. W. Calkins, A Study of Immediate and Delayed Recall of the Concrete and the Verbal, in Psychological Review, Vol. v, p. 451 ; E. A. McC. Gamble, A Study in Memorizing Various Materials by the Reconstruction Method, Psych. Review^ Monograph Supplement, Vol. x. No. 43, 1909; C. J. Hawkins, Experiments on Memory Types, in Psych. Review, Vol. iv, p. 289 ; E. A. Kirkpatrick, An Experimental Study of Memory, in Psych. Review, Vol. i, p. 602 ; F. Smedley, Report of Department of Child-Study and Pedagogic Investigation, Chicago Public Schools, No. 3, 1900-1901; W. G. Smith, The Relation of Attention to Memory, in Mvnd, n. s.. No. 4, p. 47; The Place of Repetition in Memory, in Psych. Review, Vol. ill, p. 21 ; E. N. Hen- derson, A Study of Memory for Connected Trains of Thought, Psych. Rev., Mon. Sup., Vol. v, 1903. No. 23 ; J. C. Shaw, A Test of Memory in School Children, in Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. iv, p. 61 ; W. H. Pyle, The Function of the Teacher in Memory Work, in Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. i, p. 474; The Most Economical Unit for Committing to Memory, in Journal of Edu- .cational Psychology, Vol. ii, p. 133 ; Retention as Related to Repe- tition, in Journal of Educational Psychology. Vol. 11, p. 311; H. Mflnsterberg and J. Bigham, Memory, in Psych. Rev.. Vol. 1, p. 34 ; J Bigham, Memory, Psych. Rev., Vol. 1, p. 453; C. Guillet, Reten- tion in Child and Adult, in American Journal of Psychology, Vol. XX, p. 318. Chapteb XIV. ATTENTION. Attention is a term applied to the arrangement of the contents of consciousness, at a given time, on the basis of sensory clearness. At any given time some conscious processes are clear, others relatively ob- scure. We commonly say that the clear processes are attended to and that the unclear are not attended to. This popular way of speaking of the facts is somewhat unfortunate, for it implies that there are mental processes and, in addition, something else that can take up an attitude toward these processes ; that the conscious processes go filing by some sort of arbiter that seizes upon some of them and lets the others go. But such crude notions as this can not be held by a scientific psychology that knows only the mental processes themselves. Mental processes are the sum-total of consciousness. It would be more accurate to say that mental processes are experienced in a state of attention when they are clear. By 'at- tending to' we should mean only that the process in question is relatively clear in comparison with other simultaneous mental processes. The clear, then, is the 'attended to' and the unclear is the 'not at- tended to.' The neurological point of view. — There is a point of view, however, that gives some justification for using the term in something like its old meaning, — the point of view of neurology or physiology. If ATTENTION 207 instead of a mental arbiter that is free to choose or select we substitute our physical bodies, with their nervous systems, there is some sense in saying that we attend to this or that. What we mean is that the nervous activity, which is the condition of our mental life, determines what mental processes shall be clear and what unclear. Our nervous system selects, chooses. This system is constantly stimulated by the environment, and there is a constant, ceaseless change in the distribution of nervous activity. The shift and change of clearness in mental processes parallels, and is conditioned by, this shift and change of nervous activity. In a sense, then, the nervous system selects and chooses, but this selection is entirely mechanical. The arrangement and distribu- tion of nervous activities at any moment is dependent upon past activities, ultimately upon heredity and environment. It is important that teachers understand this clearly, for such a point of view brings the problem of attention out of the clouds of an impossible meta- physics and puts it on a basis of fact. If the mind is an entity that attends or may not attend, as it pleases, then there can be no science of attention, there can be no training or direction of attention. But if atten- tion is a matter of sensory clearness depending upon the changing equilibrium of nervous activity, upon nervous habits, inherited and acquired, there can be a science of attention, and great possibilities of train- ing and direction appear. This control and direction of the attention of the pupils depends upon our ma- nipulation of the pupils' environment, just as every aspect of training depends upon such manipulation. 208 THE OUTLINES OF EDtrCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY We can, however, now, since we know what we mean, cpntinue to use the language of every day life and say that we attend to this or that. A concrete illustration will make the matter plain. Just now my consciousness was chiefly clock-tick, i. e., the men- tal process, which I may call "clock-tick," was clear, stood out distinct from other processes, — ^these other processes being pressure sensations from my clothes, sounds from a dripping faucet, a sort of general warmth and discomfort, and vague visual percep- tions of various objects in the room. Now, I say that I was attending to the clock-tick and not attending to the other processes, when all that I can mean is that the clock-tick was clearer than the other proc- esses. A moment later the whole pattern of con- sciousness was changed. The clock-tick became ob- scure, went almost below the conscious level, while noises from the stairway became clear. And in like manner the contents of consciousness are continually shifting. A process now clear presently is obscure, while some other process rises to maximal clearness, and the processes of a succeeding moment may be entirely different and with their own distribution of clearness values. The two phases of attention, active and passive. — There are two phases in the development of atten- tion. Some processes easily and naturally become clear and run their course in the focus of attention. Such attention is termed passive. It is occasioned by stimuli of certain qualities and by intensive, sud- den, repeated, novel and congruous stimuli. When two such stimuli simultaneously act upon the organ- ism neither one occasions a mental process that holds ATTENTION 209 its own in the focus of attention without interrup- tion from the other. Attention under such circum- stances is termed active, secondary or voluntary. It is only a temporary stage, for repetition of the situa- tion soon brings about the passive stage. The basis of the passive attention is habit in the nervous sys- tem, a definite order of nervous change that results from repeated experience. Professor Titchener has made very clear the nature of these two forms of attention and we can not do better than to quote the passage: "Secondary [active] attention is a neces- sary consequence of a complicated nervous system. Let us take an imaginary ease : the case of an animal endowed with two sense organs, an eye and an ear. Suppose that such an animal is exposed, at the same moment, to two different stimuli, a bright light in front of it and a loud sound at its side. It can not afford to neglect either. Hence it will attend, first, to the stimulus which has the greater attractive force; but, then, having attended to that, it will at once turn its attention to the other : and so there will be a seesaw of light and sound at the focus of con- sciousness, a quick succession of primary attention. • • • Now take a case that lies nearer home. Sup- pose that you are in your room preparing for tomor- row's examination, and that you hear an alarm of fire in a neighboring street. Both ideas, the idea of examination and the idea of fire, are imperative; there is a conflict. The cortex is set in one part for work, and this setting is reinforced by a large num- ber of associated excitations, — the nervous processes corresponding to ideas of the examination mark, the consequences of failure, and so on. The cortex is set 210 THE OTTTLINES OP EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY in another part for going to the fire, and this setting is similarly reinforced by the processes correspond- ing to the ideas of a run in the fresh air, an exciting scene, a possible rescue, and so on. The struggle may last for some time, and its effects may persist for a while after you have made your choice. So long as there is any trace of it, your attention is secondary or 'active' attention. * • • The making of a choice means, of course, that the stronger of the two con- flicting forces, the rival excitatory processes, has won the day, and the traces of the struggle that persist after the choice has been made mean that the victory has not been absolutely complete. If experiences of the sort are often repeated, so that a habit is set up, — a habit of work or a habit of play, — ^then the struggle is brief, and secondary attention is quickly replaced by primary. * * • This nervous system of ours, which is the scene of the conflict in secondary atten- tion, has a long evolutionary history. We are not all born equal; we are born with nervous systems that bear upon them a certain hereditary stamp, that already have within them lines of less and lines of greater functional resistance. The poet, we say, is bom and not made, and to a certain extent, if the phrase is permitted, we are all of us bom and not made. On the other hand, the child's nervous system is exceedingly plastic and impressionable ; it is easily moulded by education ; so that, to quote another cur- rent saying, habit may become second nature. The leanings and aptitudes and predilections that we show in adult life are, then, the resultant of two influ- ences, heredity and education, nature and nurture."* *Text-Boolc of Psychology, 1910. ATTENTION 211 Function of attention.— The function of attention, on the side of mind, is the unification of conscious- ness, and on the side of body it is the unification of movement. Combining both points of view in that of psychophysics, we may say that the function of at- tention is the unification of action. It is quite evident that attention is closely related to action. Stimula- tion is the initiation of action. Now, in such complex organisms as man, there are always several stimuli acting upon the nervous system at the same time. The organism can not respond to all of these simul- taneous stimuli at the same time. It is a unity and there must be organisation and unity in its actions. Therefore natural selection has developed the atten- tive individual. The nervous system constantly chooses and selects in the sense that there is always a center or focus of nervous activity as the resultant of all the various stimulations. It is this center or focus that determines the response of the individual. Clearness of consciousness, on the mental side, is the parallel of the center or focus of nervous activity. Or, to lay aside the distinction of mind and body, we may say that the attentive consciousness is the de- terminant of responsa It is almost as if we had sev- eral minds of various degrees of clearness value, but the clearest, with the nervous processes which corre- spond to it, always usurps the function of action. Attention and education. — If we are right in our assumption that education is to perfect adjustments, and if the conclusion of the last paragraph, that at- tention unifies action, is sound, then it follows that attention and education have intimate relations. Let us see what these are. It is evident that attention is 212 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSTOHOLOGX important for both aspects of education. On the knowledge side, in the getting and retaining of ideas, it is only the attentive consciousness that coimts, and on the side of expression we have seen that in the formation of habits it is only attentive practice, at- tentive drill, that is effective. (1) One of the functions of education is to remove consciousness from the level of active attention to that of passive attention in as many fields of activity as possible. If children are ever to be adequately adjusted, if they are ever to move freely, easily and efficiently in the fields of their activity, then the as- pects of these fields of activity must be made matters of passive attention. Consider the various branches of study: in mathematics the facts, at first, are mat- ters of active attention ; they are in the focus of at- tention for but short intervals of time, giving way to ideas and perceptions of marbles, tops, balls, and various other things that are much more interestiog and that seem to have no trouble in getting into the focus of attention and remaining there indefinitely. But through the influence of the child's teachers the mathematical ideas are continually brought to the focus of attention, although for brief intervals, until finally they are attended to with ease, and seem to have no trouble in holding their own in consciousness for hours at a time. Such development is found to occur in every field of mental activity, in all the school subjects. When as a child the entomologist studied insects, they may have been objects of passive attention for him for short periods of time, but if he became a student of insects there were long periods of hard study, when "bugs" had many rivals for the ATTENTION 213 focus of attention, and successful rivals, too. But now, after many years of study, the world is to him a world of insects ; there is little else in it. For days and weeks he lives among them, nothing else is so interesting, there is scarcely any lasting conscious- ness other than an insect consciousness. This is always true of efficient men. One never moves with efficiency anywhere until consciousness there is on the level of passive attention. It could not be other- wise. Life is action ; action flows from the attentive consciousness. There can be no consistent action as long as there is vacillation of attention, aslongas there is conflict and uncertainty. And from the point of view of constructive thought we come to the same conclu- sion. One 's thoughts on any subject will never amount to anything as long as the ideas on that subject have but a fleeting existence in the focus of consciousness. One thinks efficiently in any field only when he can not keep the ideas of that subject out of the mind. Therefore, viewing education from the standpoint of attention, its function is seen to be the develop- ment of the passive attention in the line of life's activities. How can this be done? (2) We can get our first answer to the above ques- tion by a consideration of the factors that give rise to passive attention. We found them to be certain qualities, intensity, suddenness, repetition, novelty and congruity. Our inherited nervous system is such that certain qualities always attract attention; the sudden stimulus, the repeated stimulus, the intensive stimulus, the congruous and the novel stimulus are intrinsically effective for consciousness. We can not keep from attending to the mental processes to which 214 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSTOHOLOGT they give rise. All through life these factors are effective, and there is always a certain legitimate use to be made of them. Movement can usually be depended upon to attract attention. The child is nearly always ready to attend to the moving thing and to the thing that has life. Novelty is also usually effective. -The lazy, incompetent teacher settles down to a monotonous procedure, a continuous repetition of a formal scheme. As a result, the pupils have no interest and make little progress. The competent teacher, while adhering to a system, constantly is finding new aspects, new details of familiar things, and although having a definite procedure, finds pos- sibilities of variation. The result is interested chil- dren that make progress. But perhaps greater mis- takes are made by failing to take into account the fact that the congruous attracts attention. In ordi- nary school work that consists so largely in getting ideas, ia dealing with symbols, teachers forget that ideas that have little meaning will not remain long in attention. Getting ideas is a system of grafting, and an idea can not be grafted onto an alien stock. It is the teacher's business to find a group of old ideas that can receive the new. "We have to start with only the stock that nature gives us, the instincts, and the ideas that have resulted from their activities, to- gether with habits that have been formed upon in- stincts as an ultimate basis. Budding and grafting onto this native stock is our only possibility. Pro- fessor Miinsterberg* has emphasised this factor of attention, as contrasted with the others which he speaks of as being objective, while this he calls sub- •H. Mttneterberg, Psvchologv and the Teacher, p. 163. ATTENTION 215 jective. As a matter of fact, all the factors have the same basis, namely, the nature of the individual as dependent upon his past life. But he is right in emphasising the importance of this factor. If we vsdsh to create the possibility of long and effective attention in any aspect of life, we can do so ade- quately only by patiently building up a body of or- ganised experience in that aspect of life. The basis of attention is always the same, — the needs of the individual. The baby and the young child have no trouble in attending to almost everything in their immediate environment. They handle it, taste it, pound it. When we undertake the child's formal education one of our greatest mistakes is that we try to interest him in aspects of life that have no mean- ing for him, and he therefore feels no need for the new ideas ; they have no relation to his past experi- ence. A child is not going to pay very much atten- tion to new ideas that can not be identified with his needs, i. e., brought into relation to his old ideas. (3) Training the attention. In what sense can we speak of training the attention ? In the language of a faculty psychology, attention would be a power of mind that could be improved by training. But if we are to consider attention as only the clearness aspect of conscious processes, what about training? There is no training in the sense that consciousness is some- thing in which there is no attention, but which ac- quires attention by training. Consciousness is al- ways attentive in the sense that there is always some sort of distribution of clearness values. What we are accustomed to call training the attention would be better spoken of as training in habits of learning. 216 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSTCHOLOGT A pupil can be trained, for example, to sit down and prepare a geometry lesson in spite of all sorts of diflB- culties and distractions. Such training comes about in something like the following fashion : When young the child is given some task to perform. He starts at it, but later sees something which interests him more ; he leaves his task and turns to the other mat- ter. In some form or other he is punished for neg- lecting the task, and is told that when he starts to do anything he must not leave it till it is finished. By suitable repetitions of such experience the child, by and by forms an ideal that may crystallize into some such words as, "a task to be performed, stick to it till it is finished." The ideal extends itself to include self-imposed tasks. Whenever, in the performance of a task, there comes temptation to leave it and take up something else, there may come up the words ex- pressing these ideals of work, and with them mem- ories of painful experiences that had come from neg- lected tasks, all of which serve to inhibit action upon the initiative of the tempting idea. The pupil says to himself, "Where was I reading? Oh, yes, the square of the hypotenuse, ' ' etc. And the interrupted work proceeds. But a training with such results is really a training in habits of work, is a training in a certain response to a certain kind of situation, and is in no proper sense a training of attention. It is a training, however, that results in maintaining atten- tion along certain lines of thought, when without such training there would be a shift in the direction of attention. For this reason there is no objection to calling it a training of attention. And it is needless to say that it is one of the most valuable trainings ATTENTION 217 that a person can have. As a result of it, one is able to sit down to his study table, perhaps with headache, toothache and memories of unpleasant experiences of the day, and go to work. At first the ideas of the study taken up may have but a fleeting existence till they are driven out by toothache, but we say, "No, I must go ahead with this work; now, where was 11 I was just taking up the function of attention," etc., and so after a little time, after a little seesawing back and forth, the ideas of our work are focal, all else is gone, and we may work on for hours without head- ache, toothache or memories becoming focal. The ability to act in this way is the result of training, and it might very well be called a training in attention, since it enables one, by his habitual way of meeting a definite situation, to direct the line of his attention. Without such a habit well established no one ever accomplishes anything, for there is nearly always the toothache, headache, memory, or something else to detract us from our tasks, and we have to resort to tricks and devices to hold ourselves to our work. And this is what Miinsterberg calls subjective con- trol ; it is taking the control of our destiny out of the hands of a changing environment and putting it within ourselves. One of the results of such training is that it actually varies somewhat the tjrpe of atten- tion. When one, by training, becomes able to hold himself to the same task of thought for a long time, it brings about a sort of mono-ideism. Ideas hover- ing about the central thought continually come; all other incongruous ideas are inhibited. Such thought becomes in the highest degree effective, for as the 218 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSTCHOLOGT result of tile liigli degree of nervous activity the radi- ations go into every associate path; our whole expe- rience is brought to bear on the topic in hand. Con- sciousness is enabled to work at its highest point of efficiency. But such a habit, on the part of a child, can not be formed in a day. And in any case the child can not transcend his nature. He must come to see that it is by sticking to his task that he can work out his ends and accomplish his purposes. And the things that one can work at for hours are always the things that concern one, things that are worth while. There is no training known among men that can keep long before consciousness anything that does not make in rather strong degree some one of the natural appeals to be there. (4) One reason that attention is often poor in school is because so much of the work is dealing with symbols instead of realities. The child is by nature not very much interested in symbols. They are not so apt to bite him as a snake is, and they are not so sweet as candy. The child gets an interest in the sym- bols only after they are identified with some of his natural interests. Such identification is made, for ex- ample, when a child learns that by writing c a n d y he can get some of the sweet to eat. More of the school work should deal with the living and actual realities, and, in the second place, the teacher should take greater pains to identify the symbols with the needs of the child in as direct a way as possible. It is strange that the schools have got so far away from nature, and that the life of the school has got so far away from the real life of the world. ATTENTION 219 QtTESTIONS AND TOPICS FOB ETJRTHEB STUDY. 1. Analyze your consciousness at several times, noting the dis- tribution of the various processes on the basis of clearness. Write out your description of these states, estimating the clearness of the various sensations, perceptions and ideas. 2. Give from your experience illustrations of primary and sec- ondary attention. Illustrate, from actual experience, the develop- ment of primary out of secondary attention. 3. Apply to different school studies the statement that the aim of education, from the point of view of attention, is to reduce as many of the fundamental activities as possible to the realm of primary attention. 4. What is meant by "habit of attention"? Can there be such a thing as habit of inattention? 5. Suppose that a teacher notices that certain pupils are usually inattentive to the regular work of the class, how could he deter- mine the cause of inattention? What possibilities are there? Give, if you can, an example of such a case, its cause and the cure. 6. Have you any acquired acts from which attention has en- tirely disappeared? 7. Can the development of primary attention In one field inca- pacitate one for attention In another unrelated field? Illustrate. 8. Visit several rooms In the public school and note the differ- ences in attention, and endeavor to discover the reasons for the differences. 9. Are we justified In having quietude for study, or should we train ourselves to study In the midst of distractions, such as conversations? 10. Make a careful analysis of your consciousness from the point of view of attention while playing the piano and singing at the same time. Does your attention shift from one to the other, or Is one process continually low In clearness value? Does either process ever go entirely below the level of consciousness? 11. From the point of view of attention, can you justify or must you condemn the practice of beginning one recitation by reviewing the preceding? 12. Does the length of time that we can hold the attention of a child depend on the subject-matter? 13. In what sense can you force a pupil to give attention? Illustrate. 14. Should a teacher ever attempt to secure attention to the subject that Is before the class by telling jokes or by making unusual movements or noises? 15. Can you get a child to attend to anything that has no Inter- est for him? 16. Show fully how it Is possible for something that has no Interest in itself for a child to acquire an Interest by being con- nected with something else Intrinsically Interesting. Illustrate from your own experience. 220 THE OUTLINES OF EDtJCATlONAL PSYCHOLOGY 17. Should children be allowed to specialize In subjects in which they seem to hare great natural capacity and interest? 18. Do you think that any normal child can become Interested In, and pursue profitably, all the school subjects? Give the evi- dence on which your answer is based. IS. What Is the effect on a child of having him in a grade ttiat Is quite too hard for him? 20. What is usually the trouble when the majority of an audi- ence pay little attention to a lecture or sermon? 21. What distributioh of work, play and rest should there be in the primary grades? How long can a child give effective at- tention? 22. In what sense is attention dependent upon bodily nourish- ment? BEFBHEITCES. FOR SYSTEMATIC TREATMENT: B. B. Tltchener, Textbook of Psyckology, 1910, p. 265; Lectures on the Elementwry Psychology of Feeling and Attention, 1908, Chs. v-vii ; W. James, Principles of Psychology, Vol. i, Ch. xl ; Talks to Teachers, Ch. xl; Briefer Course, Ch. xiii; J. R. Angell, Psychol- ogy, 1905, p. 64 ; Ebbinghaus, Psychology, 1908, p. 87 ; R. M. Yerkes, Introduction to Psychology, 1911, p. 292 ; C. H. Judd, Psychology, 1907, p. 189; W. B. Pillsbury, Attention, 1908; H. Mflnsterberg, Psychology and the Teacher, Ch. xviil. ORIGINAL STUDIES : L. R. Gelssler, On the Measurement of Attention, In American Journal of Psychology, Vol. xx, p. 473, an exhaustive experimental study ; H. W. Chase, Some AgpeotB of the Attention Problem, ia Pea, 8em,, Vol. wl, p. 281. Chapteb XV THINKING. Association of ideas. — One characteristic of man that distinguishes him, perhaps, from most of the lower animals, is that he has images and ideas. His life is not merely a perceptual life. His experiences may be lived again. What is at one time sensation, may be experienced again as image; what is at one time perception, may be experienced again as idea. One may see, today, a bridge over a river, and to- morrow, hundreds of miles away, may see the bridge again as idea. What interests us here, however, is the fact that when tomorrow the bridge comes back to us as visual image or idea there come also other ideas which correspond to perceptions which we had along with that of the bridge. While crossing the bridge we were riding with our friend, Mr. X, talk- ing abont the political campaign. This all comes back to us now as we think of the bridge. This group- ing together of images and ideas in accordance with our past experience is known as the association of ideas. The law of this association is that what is experienced together or in close succession once, either as perceptions or ideas, is likely to he so ex- perienced again. A child may see a sheep and hear it bleat ; afterward it may see a sheep or a picture of a sheep or in any way have the idea of sheep brought to mind and have also the idea of bleating. So close is such an association — an animal with its character- [221] 222 THE OUTLINES OP EDUCATIONAL PSTCHOLOGY istic sound — that a child is likely to name an animal "after" this sound, or characteristic action. It is in this way that our experiences are built up. Experi- encing things together and in various combinations is what makes knowledge and its organisation pos- sible. The child not only sees the sheep and hears it bleat, but sees it eat grass, sees the wool clipped from its back, sees this wool pass through various stages of manufacture, sees the sheep's young, eats sheep, — in a word, — the child sees sheep iu a great multitude of situations and relations. These sheep experiences of the child, from first to last, are built together into an organised whole, and may serve as a type of what constitutes knowledge. After the child has lived in this world for several years, he has built up an inner world corresponding to the outer world. The relationships in time and space of the objects in the outer world have their correspondence in the inner world of ideas. The objects of the outer world are grouped in infinite fashion, so are our ideas. When one thinks of the intricacy and com- plexity of mental life, one is likely to think that so simple a bond as contiguity, so simple a thing as being together in time and space can not explain all the connections to be found in mind. Three consid- erations may help to make the matter believable: (1) We can observe association in its simplicity in a young child, where in most cases, the basis of the connections of ideas is clear. The experience of the young child is so limited, that in most cases, it is easy to explain the flow of ideas from one to another. (2) We must also bear in mind that the external rela- tions of objects are, indeed, infinite. Therefore a THINKIKG 223 person that has lived here for a great many years has experienced the objects of the world in a great complexity of relationships. (3) All onr experience is bound together through mediating experiences. All the experiences of life are therefore organised into a whole. Let ns illustrate : The bray of a mule may make one think of Christ or one's first sweet- heart or perhaps of Pittsburgh, — of Christ, because one has read of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem ; of one's first sweetheart, because perchance once while driving with that lovely damsel, one collided with a mule; of Pittsburgh, because one has seen coal wagons drawn by mules and been told by the driver that the coal was mined at Pittsburgh. The reader may think that such explanations raise more difiiculties than they explain. What determines the succession of ideas when each may appear in many settings? There are several determining fac- tors;* among them being recency, frequency and mental ' ' set. ' ' Other things equal, the more recently objects have been experienced together or in close succession, the more likely is the perception or idea of one to be followed by the idea of the other. Other things equal, the more frequently objects have been experienced together in the past, either as percep- tions or ideas, the more likely is the idea of one to be followed by that of the other. But, other things equal, one's mental set, — one's frame of mind, mood, or present problem, — determines what idea, out of all the possibilities, will follow the one now focal. If one is reading the bible or taking part in a funeral *A complete list would Include primacy, intensity and possibly other factors. 224 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY procession, the bray may bring the triumphal entry to mind ; if one is reading a love scene in the latest novel, then, perhaps, the bray brings up an image oi the early loved one. One must also remember that the basis of association is to be found in the nervous system, but of the details of the neural conditions of association, we know little. We have sufficient evi- dence, however, to make us believe that our ideas and images, as well as our perceptions and sensa- tions, have their neural conditions without which they could not occur. The fact of brain activity be- ing the condition of mental activity helps somewhat to understand association. Let us see : Our ideas have as their conditions brain activities. The sphere of the latter is nerve cells. These nerve cells are all bound together by fibers. Brain activity in one group of cells arouses activities in other groups of cells. The laws of recency, frequency and mental "set" doubtless have their ultimate explana- tion in the physiology of the brain. Let us be clear as to the situation. The laws of recency, frequency and mental "set" are descriptive statements of psy- chological facts that have been fairly well demon- strated inductively and experimentally. The physio- logical explanation is a hypothesis. It has, however, many facts to support it. Imagination. — Li chapter XTEI we distinguished two kinds of images, the image of memory and the image of imagination. If an idea has accompanying ideas to give it setting in time and space, we call it memory. If it lack those accompanying processes which give it a feeling of familiarity, we call it imagination. Imagination and memory are, then, THINKING 225 the terms that designate the two extremes of our forms of imagery. We have learned that memory plays an important part in the life of man. So, also, does imagination. It gives color to the bare, prosaic affairs of life. To illustrate: The calendar on my wall has on it a simple picture of several pretty Jer- sey heifers standing in a grassy meadow, with a back- ground of trees, mountains and blue sky. As I look at the picture scores of images come and go. Some of them are clearly images with definite settings, but there are also many more images more or less vague and fleeting. I see now a rabbit here, a bird there, some people yonder. In a word, the little picture seems only a stage on which are enacted in quick suc- cession the scenes of an endless drama. Very promi- nent are the feelings that these images have brought and left. The picture has brought back to me for the moment my childhood days, clover fields and bumble- bees, and over all is a characteristic mood. If we had no imagination a picture would mean nothing to us, but since we have it the picture can call forth a train of ideas and images with their accompanying feelings. The greatness of a picture may be meas- ured by its power to call forth images of memory and imagination. This same thing is true of litera- ture. The words of the poet, novelist or historian are but the means of enabling us to picture forth an imaginary world. The words call up bits of experi- ence from various parts of our past life which fit together into a harmonious whole. To illustrate, let the reader read such a thing as Tennyson's Crossing the Bar, or Joaquin Miller's Columbus, and by in- trospection determine the sequence of ideas. The 226 THE OUTLINES OE EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY result, of course, will be different for different people, but for all there will come a train of ideas, for the most part, images of imagination, visual, auditory and kiaaesthetic, which arouse a very definite mood and frame of mind. It is such imagery that enriches our experience. Nearly everything that we see or hear brings up some past experience as memory or imagination, and this revived experience, this imagi- nation, cl9thes the bare skeleton of perceptual ex- perience. Thinking. — By thinking, in a broad sense, we usu- ally mean the succession in our mind of ideas, either of memory or imagination. This flow of ideas, in accordance with the law of association, is called thought. Directed or purposive thought may be called reason. In reasoning we are solving a prob- lem, meeting a situation. To illustrate : I go down town with my umbrella and come back without it. As I hang up my hat I miss my umbrella from the rack where I am used to seeing it. I then have an image of myself going off with the umbrella. I say, "Where did I leave it?" I then see myself in the postoffice, and see myself leaving with it. I did not leave it there. I see myself in the bank. I stood the umbrella in the corner while I wrote a check. I left the bank putting the money into my purse. There I left the umbrella. I go to the bank at once and find that the cashier has put my umbrella away for me. This is thinking in terms of memory images. Again, suppose one is asked whether dew is more likely to form on a clear night or on a cloudy night. One says: "Let me see," and then has a succession of ideas concerning the nature of dew, the cause of THINKING 227 dew, etc. One thinks in terms of memory images, of clear skies, their causes and consequences, of cloudy skies and their causes and consequences, and pres- ently says, "Why, on clear nights, because on clear nights the grass cools by radiation and the surround- ing air is cooled to the dew point. On cloudy nights radiation is largely checked, the air does not cool down to the dew point." The following may further illustrate the action aspect of reasoning: A boy, walking alone in a wood, comes to a stream, too wide for him to jump across. He pauses, looks about and sees on the bank a pole and several large stones. He has walked on poles and fences, he therefore sees himself putting the pole across and walking on it, but before having time to do it, he recalls walking on poles that had turned. The perception of stones now becomes focal, and since no inhibiting ideas arise, they are soon piled into the stream and the boy walks across. This flow of ideas leading up to the action takes different forms, — it is not always visual imagery, it may be auditory or kinaesthetic, and as we grow older, it is very likely to be in the form of verbal ideas or actually spoken words. But what- ever the form, the result is the same. In reasoning, then, we meet a situation that must be solved. In accordance with the law of association the situation arouses first one idea from our past experience, then another, till our problem is solved. The problem is solved when we come to a state of be- lief. The whole process, the associations and the state of belief, is dependent upon our past experi- ence. One's experience may be entirely inadequate, one may reach a wrong solution. But in any case, 228 THE OUTLINES OF EDUOATIONAI. PSYCHOLOGY the material is the same, — our experience; and the method is the same, — association, or rather, the re- call of ideas in accordance with the law of associa- tion. In the highest form of abstract reasoning the process is not essentially different. One can in no case do more than await the flow of ideas that follow upon the situation presented by the problem, and both the ideas one has and the nature of their asso- ciation are dependent upon experience. The flow of ideas proceeds until one comes that fits the situation, so far as one's experience is concerned. Suppose one is asked if it is ever right to tell a lie. One then has in succession a number of ideas, usually memories, of lies of various kinds told by himself or others imder various situations, one remembers the results ; one also has a succession of ideas relating to right and wrong conduct ; these may depend upon our early training and the ideals that we formed as a result. This is probably crystallized into a verbal expression, such as "The end justifies the means," "Tell the truth at all hazards," etc. Finally a norm of conduct and the particular situation presented come together in consciousness, excluding or inhibit- ing other ideas, the problem is solved, we feel con- tent, we have belief. Training in reasoning. — ^In a very definite sense one can be trained in reasoning. Of course, the basis is perceptual experience. If a child is ever to reason as a physicist, he must have a wide experience with the physical world, he must see falling bodies and measure their increments, he must heat bodies and measure their expansion, he must have a wide ex- perience with electricity, sound and light. After THINKING 229 sucli wide experience, when the physicist is con- fronted with a problem, he solves it as follows : The situation presented in the problem arouses, in ac- cordance with the law of association, various ideas until he has an idea that pictures just such a situa- tion as the present with such and such an outcome. Until such an idea comes, then, the physicist cannot solve his problem without resorting to experiment. He says: "I do not know, I shall try it and see." I once asked a physicist which would freeze first, a pan of cold water or one of hot water, placed out of doors on a cold day. He replied that there was no reason why the cold one should not freeze first, and besides he said he had tried the experiment and found the cold water froze first. This illustrates the usual procedure of science. When a new problem is pre- sented, by direct manipulation, the scientist produces the required situation and observes the result. He then has a new mental connection or association ready to function in the future. One can, then, train children to think, first of all, by leading them to get a wide and rich experience, — experience in the realm wherein they are to think. This is primary, for with- out experience there can be no thought. A teacher can further help the child (1) by directing attention to important aspects of experience, helping in the analysis and synthesis of experience. (2) In the next place the teacher can aid the pupil by encourag- ing a habit of cautious procedure. A child may ac- cept the first idea that comes as the solution to his problem; he may not be critical, — ^he can be led to form the habit of waiting, of saying, "hold on here, let us see, may be it is not this way," then other ideas 230 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY come, and others, then the first again, perhaps. Finally, after change of ideas back and forth, a cer- tain idea persists as a solution of the situation. In such a case, if the experience of the individual has been broad enough, the solution is likely to be cor- rect. (3) The child can also be encouraged to form a habit of putting the solution reached as above described to some crucial test. This is illustrated in the case of the physicist. He was pretty sure about the freezing of the water, but still there might be some factor that he had never considered, so he puts the matter to the test of direct experiment, — ^this is a habit with him, as it is with all men who deal with natural and physical science. To illustrate further, suppose one asks a boy what will happen if a strip of iron be firmly riveted to another strip of copper and the strips heated. The boy can solve the problem provided he has noted the relative expansion of iron and copper when heated. The situation will soon bring the proper ideas. But if he knows only that metals usually expand when heated, but does not know the relative expansion of iron and copper, he will not be able to solve the prob- lem ; he must experiment. But in either case, in the early stages of intellectual progress, he should be encouraged to verify his conclusions by resorting to experiment or some form of crucial test. First the problem, then the solution, then the test. And in each of the steps the teacher can be of much service to the pupil. The teacher's function here is to direct the experience of the child, set the proper kind of prob- lems, and aid in the forming of proper habits of ap- proach to their solution. In the early stages of prog- THINKING 231 ress in reasoning, imitation will function as an im- portant factor. But later through imitation a child gains a lot of experience that functions directly in the solution of problems. While one can be trained in reasoning, this train- ing is to a large degree specific. In the first place, because in thinking or in reasoning, we can only have ideas that have grown out of our experience. The material of thought is ideas, and the basis of ideas is experience. One cannot reason in a field where he has had no experience. Therefore a person who had spent his life as a botanist and had little or no experience in other fields could not reason in those other fields. One would not think of going to such a man to have him solve a problem in medicine, or law, or in engineering. One cannot reason where he has no facts. Then there is a further reason why training in reasoning is specific. There are certain habits of procedure best adapted to solving the prob- lems presented in the various fields of thought. One habitually puts to himself certain forms of questions that best lead to the proper solution of the problem. This is the reason why men who successfully meet the situations of their own profession so often utterly fail when called upon to meet unfamiliar situations in other fields. Often a scientist attempts to solve a problem in another science than his own, the result is usually to make himself ridiculous. It may be that there are certain forms of thought that are to some extent universal, forms which one learns by studying logic and mathematics. But, as a matter of fact, the great thinkers in the various spheres of thought have not learned to think by a formal study of rea- 232 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY soning. They have become great thinkers in their science by thinking in that science. Of course some fields of thought are so closely allied both as to matter and method that practice in one would give help in the other; such intimate relationships exist between zoology and botany, physics and chemistry, mathematics and astronomy. It follows, then, that children should have a wide experience, and a wide training in thinking. They must be trained in meeting the thought situations in the myriad aspects of life. As they grow older they should have more intensive training in the narrow sphere of their life-work. Meaning. — The meaning of an idea is another idea or group of ideas that always accompanies it in cer- tain situations. These accompanying ideas have reference to our needs in the definite situation. Meaning is best understood when considered with reference to action. Ordinarily the situations of life call for action. Constantly, as long as we live, we must be meeting situations. We are sitting in our library reading when the door bell rings. What does the ringing of the door bell meanf That some one wants to see me, that I must go to the door and let him in. When the bell rings I have a vague image of some one standing at the door and of myself letting him in. These ideas that accompany the ringing are its meaning. They are often very schematic. The perception or idea may throw us into a "set" or atti- tude that determines action, but is very poor in conscious contents. We may even open the door un- consciously, automatically. A perception at first may have no meaning because THINKING 233 it is new to experience. We may see an object for tlie first time ; it is imfamiliar ; it arouses no associate ideas. We do not know what to do with the new thing. Curiosity prompts ns to touch it. Some barbs, perhaps, stick our fingers. Henceforth, the thing has some meaning to us. When we see it, we remembe:^ the pain, we turn away from it, we leave it alone. It now has meaning ; it is a thing that pricks. The structural and functional aspects are clear. When we meet the things of the world we have to take up an attitude toward them; afterward, when we experience these things in perception or idea, our previous responses and their consequences come to us in accordance with the law of association. This accompaniment is the structural aspect of meaning. Now since our response is always an important aspect of this association, functionally, we may say that by meaning we mean use. A thing means what we can do with it. And from both points of view a thing means different things in different situations. It is evident that from the point of view of the active life of an individual the meaning of an idea is the most important thing about it. It is ideas with their meaning that are determined by association; it is ideas with their meaning that are the important factors in reasoning, and that on the side of con- sciousness represent the determinant of action. Cer- tainly from the point of view of a teacher, an idea is important only in so far as it has meaning. What does Lincoln mean? What does Napoleon mean? What does Hamlet mean? What does the civil war mean? What does evolution mean? What does democracy mean? So far as the getting of knowl- 234 THE OUTLINES OE EDTJOATIOKAL PSYCHOLOGY edge is concerned, the function of the teacher is largely to assist the pupil to organize his knowledge with reference to meaning. Reason and education. — ^We have considered edu- cation as a process by which a child becomes ad- justed to its environment. From this point of view the place and importance of instincts, habit, memory and attention have been considered. What, let us now ask, is the function of reasoning in such a sys- tem as we have outlined? Efficient action has been held before us as the aim of education. Efficient action must' have an instinctive or habitual basis. But human life is so complex that new situations are constantly arising, for which there is no organized form of response, but for which any one of several forms of instinctive or habitual action may, perhaps, be more or less adequate. However, since the situa- tion is new or has some new aspect, no response comes immediately. There is a pause between stimu- lus and response. At such a juncture, reasoning, as we have defined it, takes places. The conditions which give rise to reasoning, then, are always more or less new in the life of the individual. As a result of the associative processes, the difficulty of the new situation is met by some sort of action. Afterward, with repetition of the situation, the action becomes habitual. Of course, the passage of action from the stage of reason to that of habit is not always so simple. The first response to a new situation may bring unhappy results. The appearance of an appropriate response, in such a case, is delayed till a later appearance of the situation. But in such cases reasoning fails of THINKING 235 its ftmction, whieli is to secure in a new situation the best possible form of response as dependent upon the experience of the individual. It is evident that reas- oning indicates a stage of incomplete adjustment "when there is a pause, as indicated above, between stimulus and response. During this pause associa- tion brings various ideas to consciousness. Finally, some one of these ideas becomes, for the time, focal, and action ensues. The length of the pause for the appearance of ideas, and the fulness and adequacy of association, may be taken as a measure of intelli- gence. For, although reasoning represents a stage of incomplete adjustment, it is a means of meeting new situations with some success without making the individual entirely dependent upon the costly method of trial and error. That education would seem to be most effective that insures a pause in neiu situations, preventing premature action upon the appearance of the first idea; that provides for the child a rich and wide experience which is so organised as to be available for the solution of the new situation; that puts the solutions thus attained to the crucial test of practice, and that perfects, by reducing to habits, the forms of response thus attained. QTTESTIOITS AND TOPICS FOR TURTHER STUDY. 1. Would you say that association is essentially a physiological phenomenon? Is there anything in the nature of an idea that can bind it to another idea? 2. Explain fully the statement that the basis of association is in the nervous system. 3. Give specific illustrations to show how a knowledge of the law of association may be applied to classroom work. 4. Can a teacher direct the pupil's line of thought by suggession? 5. What is meant by the two worlds, inner and outer? 6. One can easily make both qualitative and quantitative studies 236 THE OUTLINES OE EDUCATIONAL PSTCHOLOGY of association. A test in the free flow of ideas, known as the "uncontrolled association test," can be given as follows : The class is told to write down as fast as possible all the words that come to mind, starting with a certain word given by the instructor. Three minutes may be allowed for the test. And any word will do to start with. In a test given to the author's class the first word was work. The average number of words written by the class was 54, the smallest number by any person was 16, and the largest was 92, the mean variation being 12. The list of words written by one student was as follows : work, wood pile, ax, chop, chip, carry, burn, run, jump, fight, school, building, new, home, summer, book, money, canvass, failure, work, school, bell, class next hour, lesson, extra work, grade. 7. In "controlled association" three tests may be used — the genus-species test, the part-whole test, and the opposites test. The genus-species test may be given as follows : Give the members of the class a list of words, with instructions to write examples of the class named by each word. Make the time so short that no one can finish the list. The following list may be used: (1) moun- tain, (2) city, (3) weed, (4) metal, (5) furniture, (6) machine, (7) author, (8) planet, (9) river, (10) book, (11) ocean, (12) fruit, (13) country, (14) animal, (15) bird, (16) food, (17) lake, (18) poet, (19) college, (20) statesman. 8. The part-whole test may be given as follows : Provide the members of the class with a list of words that name parts of wholes. The students are to write the name of the whole of which the word is a part. To illustrate, for finger, one might write han,d. The following list may be used: (1) window, (2) leaf, (3) pillow, (4) button, (5) nose, (6) smokestack, (7) cogwheel, (8) cover, (9) letter, (10) sepal, (11) page, (12) cob, (13) axle, (14) joist, (15) blade, (16) sail, (17) coach, (18) cylinder, (19) beak, (20) stamen. 9. For the opposites test the following list from Whipple's Manual may be used: (1) good, (2) inside, (3) slow, (4) short, (5) little, (6) soft, (7) black, (8) dark, (9) sad, (10) true, (11) dislike, (12) poor, (13) well, (14) sorry, (15) thick, (16) full, (17) peace, (18) few, (19) below, (20) enemy. Make the time so short that no one can finish. One difficulty with giving these association tests to a class is that ideas may come faster than they can be written down. If it is possible to give the tests to individuals, the associ- ated word may be spoken and the experimenter takes the time required by the subject to give a word for each in the list 10. The following words are good for a qualitative study of association and for noting the factors, recency, frequency and mental "set:" truth, school days, mother, picnic, duty, childhood, Christmas, teacher, kite, garden, ball, death, moonlight, railroad, poem, summer, lake, hope. The list may be slowly read and the subject given time to note down the train of ideas set up by each word. What do you learn from the experiment? THINKING 237 11. The class can make a study of imagination by noting what kind of images, whether of memory or imagination, are aroused by such words as the following : fountain, dove, tree, woman, angel, fairy, Caesar, father, garden, thunder, heaven, apple, train, moun- tain. 12. An interesting study of imagination can be made by noting the images aroused by ink-blots. A set could be mimeographed for class use. Whipple has prepared a standard set which can be had from Stoelting of Chicago. 13. How can we tell whether or not animals have images or ideas? 14. Show in what sense and to what extent one may be trained in imagination. 15. What differences are there in the Imagination of children and older people? 16. What should be the attitude of the high school toward im- agination? 17. Look at some pictures and make an introspective study of your experience. Malce a similar study of some short poem. For example, try The Village Blacksmith,, The Chambered Nautilus, The Last Leaf, parts of The Vision of 8ir Launfal. 18. Is imagination limited by experience? 19. Is there any relation between Imagination and Intelligence? 20. The members of the class should make an introspective study of reasoning. This can be done by putting various situations before them. For example, in speaking of the songs of the male and female birds, Lowell says "He sings to the wide world, She sings to her nest; In the nice ear of nature, Which song is the best?" Answer. Is it ever right to steal? Is a parent ever justi- fied in forsaking a child on account of the misconduct of the child? 21. What are abstractions, and how do they originate? 22. What is meant by the statement, "Teach a child to think for himself?" 23. What is meant by "originality" in thinking? 24. Is it true that many great discoveries are made in science by men who have had little experience or training in the field of the discovery? 25. Logic speaks of deductive and inductive reasoning. Show that, from the point of view of this chapter, they are essentially the same. 26. What characterizes a genius as to his association and reasoning? 27. What can a teacher do toward enlarging the experience of the child? Should his eflforts be limited to the classroom? 28. Suppose a situation or problem is presented to a person, and he cannot solve it. What is the trouble? 23§ THE OUTLINES OP EDUCATIONAL PSYGHOLOGY 29. Give an example of inadequate experience leading to a wrong conclusion. An example where haste does the same. 30. Does mathematics, or anything else, develop a general reas- oning capacity that can function universally? 31. To what extent should a child he encouraged to accept con- clusions not based on his own direct experience? 32. How is it possible for two people to have an argument and fail to come to an agreement? 33. Do dogs, horses, cats and monkeys think? Do they reason? REEEBENCES. FOR SYSTEMATIC TREATMENT: E. B. Titchener, Experimental Psychology of the Thought Processes, 1909, Textliook of Psychology, 1910, on Association, p. 374 fC., on Imagination, p. 416 ff., on Thought, p. 505 ff. ; W. B. Pillsbury, The Psychology of Reasoning, 1910, especially Chs. I, II and III, Essentials of Psychology, 1911, on Association, p. 135 ff., on Imagination, p. 213, on Reasoning, Ch. IX ; E. L. Thorndike, The Elements of Psychology, 1905, Chs. XVI and XVII ; J. R. An- gell, Psychology, 1908, on Imagination, Ch. VIII, on Reasoning, Chs. X, XI and XII ; J. Dewey, How We Think, 1910, Pt. 1 ; W. James, Principles of Psychology, 1896, on Association, Vol. II, Ch. XIV, on Imagination, Vol. II, Ch. XVIII, on Reasoning, Vol. II, Ch. XXI. ORIGINAL STUDIES : H. L. Brittain, A Study of Imagination, Fed. Sem., XIV, 1907, p^ 137 ; W. H. Burnham, Individual Differences in the Imagination of Children, Ped. Sem., II, 1893, p. 204 ; M. W. Calkins, Association, in Psych. Rev., Mon. Sup., 1896, Vol. I ; S. S. Colvin and E. J. Meyer, Imaginative Elements in the Written Work of School Chil- dren, Ped. Sem., XIII, 1906, p. 82, The Development of Imagina- tion in Schol Children, Psych. Rev., Mon. Sup., Vol. XI, 1909, No. 44 ; W. L. Gard, A Preliminary Study of the Psychology of Reason- ing, American Journal of Psychology, XVIII, p. 490; W. Libby, The Imagination of Adolescents, American Journal of Psychology, Vol. XIX, p. 249; T. Okabe, An Experimental Study of Belief, American Journal of Psychology, Vol. XXI, 1910, p. 563; C. W. Perkey, An Experimental Study of Imagination, American Journal of Psychology, Vol. XXII, 1910, p. 422 ; R. R. Rusk, Experiments on Mental Association in Children, British Journal of Psychology, Vol. Ill, 1910, p. 349 ; R. S. Woodworth and F. R. Wells, Assocto- tion Tests, in Psych. Monographs, No. 57, 1911. Chapteb XVI. FATIGUE. The nature of fatigue. — It is difficult to give an exact definition of fatigue because of the complexity of the phenomena and variations of the attending circumstances. Offner* defines it as a "condition of our organism that is developed by long continued work, and that, in addition to other symptoms, is characterised in particular by a reduction in capacity for, and pleasure in, work." While this definition holds true in general, complicating conditions may make action pleasurable till the organism is ex- hausted and enable the individual to work at least for a short time without showing any decrease in efficiency. We speak of fatigue as mental when there is inca- pacity for mental work, and bodily when there is in- capacity for bodily work. The symptoms of fatigpie for bodily work are, (1) acceleration of circulation and respiration, except that in intense effort the re- verse may be true ; (2) an increase of bodily temper- ature, and (3) a reduction in capacity for work. As fatigue increases, and especially when it becomes ex- cessive, there is (4) a lowering of mental functioning. This shows that physical work unfits us for mental *Mental Fatigue, translated by Professor G. M. Whipple. An admirable statement and discussion of the experimental worlt on fatigue. The reader Is referred to It for a fuller treatment of the subject. [239] 240 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY work, "Even serious mental disturbances have been observed as a consequence of bodily exhaustion." (Offner, p. 9.) (5) In the final state of fatigue there is pain in the physical organ that is being exercised. As a consequence of the bodily activity, there is produced in the muscles that are exercised certain poisons, known as fatigue poisons, such as lactic acid and potassium phosphate. If these poisons are taken from a fatigued muscle and injected into a fresh muscle, the phenomena of fatigue appear in the fresh muscle. Mosso* took the blood from a fatigued dog and injected it into the veins of a live, unfatigued dog, and thereby produced fatigue phenomena in the live dog. Physical activity, in addition to producing fatigue substances, also causes the fat and muscle substance to be consumed in producing the muscular energy. This is because dissimilation proceeds faster than assimilation. It is possible, with short pauses for rest, to keep the fatigue poisons eliminated, at least partially, until finally exhaustion, due to the consumption of the muscle substance, ensues. The replenishing of these consumed materials is accom- plished by nutrition, rest and sleep. During rest and sleep the fatigue poisons are eliminated and the tis- sue is restored. The effects or symptoms of mental fatigue are: (1) Lowering of the quality and then the quantity of work. (2) Fluctuations of the attention, shown in the difficulty of pursuing a line of work. (3) Sensi- tivity and discrimination decrease. (4) The capacity of the voluntary muscles for work is impaired, just as in bodily fatigue capacity for mental work is im- •A. Mosso, Fatigue, 1904, p. 119. (English translation.) FATIGUE 241 paired. The involuntary muscles are also affected. (5) Respiration changes, becoming first shallower and faster, then deeper, and in excessive fatigue shallower and faster again. (6) The pulse becomes faster and the head becomes hot on account of the increased supply of blood in the brain. The con- scious symptoms are disinclination for work, then weariness, then exhaustion with headache. To express the fatigue effects in terms of ability or ca- pacity to learn one can say that, as fatigue comes on, learning is slower and more inaccurate. The same fatigue poisons are produced as in bodily fatigue. The measure of fatigue. — ^In the first place, we must say that we can not rely upon the subjective symptoms of fatigue. One's feeling of fatigue is no reliable indication that there is fatigue. It has been shown that fatigue affects both mental and physical capacity. There are accordingly two methods of measuring the amount of fatigue: (1) by determin- ing the decrease in physical efficiency; (2) by deter- mining the decrease in mental efficiency. The first is known as the physiological method, which has sev- eral forms. The decrease in muscular force and effi- ciency may be determined by the use of the dynam- ometer, or the ergograph, or by testing the tapping rate of the subject, — the speed of tapping with the finger on a telegraph key decreases with fatigue. Fatigue may also be determined by testing the range of accommodation of the eye, — the range of accom- modation increases with fatigue. And still another method is by noting the changes in circulation and respiration. These various physiological methods have some value, but are, on the whole, inadequate. 242 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Much more reliable are those methods that measure fatigue by determining the decrease in mental effi- ciency. The psychological methods. — These methods un- dertake to deterimne the amount of fatigue, either by measuring the decrease in sensitivity or sensory dis- crimination, or by measuring the decrease in effi- ciency in performing some kind of mental work. We shall describe briefly the more important tests. (1) Esthesiometry. This method evaluates fatigue by measuring the two-point limen for compass points on the skin. In general, with fatigue, the two points when placed upon the skin simultaneously and with equal pressures are perceived as one at a wider de- gree of separation than when the subject is not fatigued. This test is, however, very difficult of application. Various other methods of determining sensory limens and discrimination have been used, but none so carefully worked out as the esthesio- metric method. (2) Simple computation. Easy ex- amples in addition or multiplication are given to the pupils for ten-minute periods hourly through the day. There is found an increase of speed, due to practice, but an increase in errors and corrections due to fatigue. In general, we may say that this tesi consists in giving a series of easy problems to be worked out at the highest rate of speed. Fatigue is indicated by an increase in the amount of errors. (3) Memory method. This method consists in deter- mining the immediate memory span for digits or words. Fatigue is indicated by a decrease in the immediate memory span. Practice, however, is likely to offset the effect due to fatigue. If the prac- FATIGUE 243 tice effects be eliminated, this is a most valuable method, for immediate memory span and ability to learn are closely associated, and are affected by any- thing that affects the condition of the body. By train- ing for a week or two, the immediate memory span could be brought to near its maximal efficiency ; then this test of fatigue could be used with considerable confidence. (4) The completion method. This test consists in requiring children to fill out sentences in which words and syllables have been omitted. The nature and number of errors and corrections is an index of fatigue, the quality of work done being in- versely proportional to the amount of fatigue. The difficulty of the method is in finding an even material for successive tests. (5) Cancellation method. Pu- pils are required to cancel out certain words or let- ters from a page of printed matter, allowing a speci- fied time for the work. It is difficult to get material that has an even distribution of the words or letters. Moreover, practice works here also to offset fatigue. (6) Copying method. The teacher writes on the board different combinations of the letters a, e, i, o, u, r, v, n. The pupils are given a certain time, say five minutes, in which to copy them. The number of mistakes and corrections indicates the amount of fatigue. (7) The combined method, (a) The pupils are required to count the letters in each of the first five lines on a page of their school reader, (b) They are required to add or subtract several pairs of two- place nimibers written on the blackboard and to write the answers on paper, (c) The teacher recites six one-to-three syllable words, or four one-to-two place numbers, or the words or numbers may be written 244 THE OTTTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY upon the blackboard and immediately erased. After seeing or hearing them the pupils write down as many as they can remember, (d) The pupils are given sheets on which are printed 100 words and 50 figures containing those used in test (c). They are required to underline those that had been given in the previous test. This tests recognition, (a) and (b) test attention, and (c) tests immediate memory span. (8) Continuous work method. This test con- sists in giving the same form of work for some time. A curve can then be plotted from the data showing the courfee of efficiency for the whole period. A good form of the test is the solution of easy problems in addition or multiplication for ten-minute periods, with five-minute periods for rest, continuing thus to work and rest for one or two hours. Fatigue is indi- cated by the number of errors and corrections. The speed may increase for at least a part of the period on account of practice. "Wlien the actual school work can be treated quantitatively, it may serve as the material for this test. Some combination of methods such as that in (7) wiU doubtless be best for the teacher to use in deter- mining the course of fatigue throughout the day or for different school subjects. Simple addition or multiplication, copying, cancellation and immediate memory tests would be a good combination. What- ever the tests and combinations used, the teacher must be careful to watch for complicating circum- stances, such as the practice effects. Complicating phenomena.— Practice effects. The above caution concerning the effects of practice leads us to a consideration of several phenomena that are FATIGUE 245 likely to be associated with fatigue. Practice always works in opposition to fatigue. If a task is per- formed at several times during the day, practice in- creases one 's efficiency in the later periods. Another interesting phenomenon is Jiahituation. One has less and less fatigue as one becomes skilful at his work. Habituation, then, reduces the amount of fatigue pro- duced by the same performance. A somewhat simi- lar phenomenon is known as warming-up. One can seldom do his best work at the very beginning of a task. Efficiency improves as one comes into the swing of his work. This rapid initial increase of efficiency is 'warming-up,' and is evident in practi- cally all work. Another temporary variation is the spurt, wlaidh may occur at any time during the progress of a task, and is especially likely to occur near the end of the performance. It is due to the release of some additional energy not available throughout the per- formance of the task. As one nears the end of a piece of work, for example, the idea that the end is near serves as additional motive and a consequent release of energy results. This phenomenon is simi- lar to the effect of a pace-setter in a race. These four factors must always be taken into account, — habitua- tion, practice effects, warming-up and spurts. The three phases of fatigue. — ^There are usually three stages of fatigue: (1) In the first stage, the speed of work may increase, but the quality de- creases. (2) In the second stage, the quantity, as well as the quality, decreases. (3) In the third stage, exhaustion comes for some individuals, but in others there comes an increased excitement which enables them to do hurried and irregular work, but this is 246 THE OUTLINES OF EDtTCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY followed by exhaustion. These three stages are not always found, however, for there are individual vari- ations. Four types of workers have been made out. These types have been named from the form of curve that indicates their working efficiency. The first is known as the falling type ; the work curve of this type shows a steady decrease of speed and increase of errors. The rising type shows a steady decrease in the number of errors. The convex type shows an initial decrease of errors, then a steady increase. The concave type shows an initial increase, then a steady decrease of errors. Then, in addition to these different types, there are variations in fatiguability due to health and to age. The young are very easily fatigued, as are also those suffering from disease or illness, particularly from some neurotic disease. There is a pretty steady increase in ability to resist fatigue up to the age of puberty, setting in a year or two earlier for girls than for boys.* It is therefore argued that the work of adolescents should be les- sened. And, since this period starts in earlier for girls than for boys, girls and boys should not be edu- cated in the same classes. For at first, the boys are able to do more work, and later on they are more easily fatigued than are the girls. This greater fatiguability at the beginning of adolescence or pre- ceding it is borne out by the decreased resistance to disease. President Hall says: "From thirteen to fifteen great reduction of school work for both sexes, but chiefly for boys, should be insisted on. No one should be allowed to go to school at all without nine hours of sleep and a hearty appetite, for even pres- Tor a discussion of this point, see Offner's Mental Fatigue, p. 78. PATIGUH 247 ence in school impairs nutrition, arrests growth, starts neurotic habits and especially checks the de- velopment of the higher powers, which are the last to unfold."* Length of school sessions and school periods. — How long should a recitation period be ? How long should a school session he? These questions can not at present be answered with certainty. And, indeed, the length of school periods should never be definitely and absolutely fixed because of the varying circiun- stances which produce fatigue. There is no good reason why a lesson period or a school session might not be shortened when the nature of the work or weather conditions are such as to bring on fatigue unduly early. However, there must be a length of period best suited, on the average, for children of the various ages. But there are not suflScient data at present for determining this average for children of the different ages or grades. This is a problem in school hygiene that demands immediate solution. Pending its solution by careful, scientific procedure, teachers can, by using the tests above described, de- termine provisionally the best length of lesson period and of school session. It seems safe to say, in the light of our present knowledge, that the present ses- sions are too long, at least for the younger children. From nine o'clock till twelve, with fifteen minutes intermission, is entirely too long for children of the lower grades, and there should be only a very short afternoon session for the younger children, or none at all. Of course, the proper length of a school ses- sion depends much on the nature of the work done ♦G. S. Hall, Adolescence, 1904, Vol. I, p. 243. 248 THE OtrTLINES OF EDUCATIONAl. PSYCHOLOGY and the length and frequency of the pauses. Even the proper length of a recitation depends much on the teacher and the nature of the subject. The teacher who is capable of keeping the children work- ing at high pressure should have shorter periods and more frequent pauses than the teacher who gets work only at low pressure. These pauses should be spent in rest, and it is not rest to spend the time at some other hard mental work or at vigorous athletic or gymnastic exercise. If there is any play at rest time, it should be very light. Or, if children play hard at recess time, there should be a short time after recess for rest before the hard work of school be- gins. For it must not be forgotten that fatigue is fatigue, however caused. It is also more or less gen- eral, for the circulation scatters the fatigue poisons over the body, and it is also probable that the part of the body used drains the other tissues of energy sup- plying substance. It is no real rest, then, to turn from one kind of hard work to another, whether the work be mental or physical. It is true, of course, that one can turn from one kind of work to a differ- ent task and do the new work with more efficiency for a time. This is due to the novelty of the new work, to interest. The old subject or task becomes monot- onous and there is no longer sufficient motive to bring about good work. With the new subject or task there comes a new motive, and one can work at higher pressure, perhaps, for a short time, much as is the case when one nears the end of a task. In the latter case, and in spurts generally, there is tem- porarily additional energy released, making for bet- ter work even without changing to a new task. This can be true because of a motive that makes possible FATIGUE 249 the use of additional energy, and in tlie case of change of task may be due to the fact that fatigue is to some extent local, in that it takes time for it to affect the system generally. Offner says, in discuss- ing the question of special and general fatigue: "Change of work also brings about recuperation oftentimes. If we mean by this statement that, when we resume a task that we have interrupted by some other form of activity, we then work considerably better than before the interruption — that, to speak more accurately, we enter upon the task again with a fresh supply of energy — then the statement is very much to be doubted. It can not be supposed that in our complicated psychophysical organism an activity of appreciable intensity can run its course in anypart without thereby affecting the functions of the other portions of the organism, and hence of the whole organism. Conversely, the less the active part be connected with the remainder of the organism, the more is it possible to limit its functioning to itself, the more slowly will the fatigue spread to the other parts, and the more possible will it be for the fatigue to take on the semblance of localised and isolated fatigue; * * * There is, then, such a thing as special fatigue, which we must look upon as a con- sumption of the constitutive material of the active organ — a process that in the very nature of the case is limited to the organ in question — and as a secre- tion of fatigue substance that accumulates at first at the point where the work is done. Nevertheless, there is no isolated fatigue. The fatigue substances do not remain where they are secreted, but are car- 250 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY ried forth through the whole body by the ceaseless circulation of the blood."* The more specialised a piece of work is, then, the more slowly does fatigue become general. There is, indeed, local fatigue, but it is only a temporary stage, and general fatigue always ensues if the work is continued. In fact, at the beginning of the learning process in acquiring some new sldll, it makes no difference how restricted the performance, — general fatigue comes quickly. A few years ago the author had occasion to learn the point alphabet of the blind. It was a terrible process, and he had to rest every fifteen minutes, and was quite exhausted at the end of an hour's work. When children are learning to draw and to write they doubtless suffer even greater fatigue. The pedagogy of fatigue. — ^The question of fatigue is of tremendous importance to education. If one is acquiring a new skill, it is high pressure work that is effective. In intellectual work, in acquiring new ideas, in memory work, in thinking, it is always at- tentive, high-pressure work that counts. Not only is this true in an individual task, but improvement is dependent upon work at the top of efficiency. In an experiment recently conducted by the author, two girls improved in learning capacity for four months, while a third made no improvement because she worked at low pressure. The work that counts most is the work that is done imder the most favorable physical conditions. As far as any improvement is concerned, drill work should stop short of consider- able fatigue, should stop as soon as fatigue is notice- •M. Offner, Mental Fatigue, 1911, p. 94 ff. FATIGUE 251 able. And as far as economy of work is concerned, there is little use in trying to learn after f atigne has become considerable. But, of course, there are times when one must disregard economy, when one must work to the point of exhaustion ; and as children grow older it should be part of their training to carry on work in the face of fatigue. It should be work, how- ever, at which they are skilful and in which they have power; it should not be in the initial stage of learning or of skill. Every adult who amoimts to anything must work almost daily to the point of ex- haustion, and it would be a poor education that did not give training in endurance. The important thing here is that the teacher know the conditions of work and of fatigue. The children must have time to re- cover from fatigue, rest pauses during the day and sufficient sleep at night, with frequent vacations. The school year should not leave the child exhausted. The school ought to be of such a nature that it would pro- mote the health and growth of the child. A properly conducted school ought to leave the child in as good physical condition at the end as it was in the begin- ning. This can not be true if the work is so hard and the rest and sleep so little in amount that the child can not recover from fatigue day by day. The wise teacher will so distribute the work and play and rest as to get the best work out of the pupils and at the same time maintain the best of health. Sleep is a very important factor in maintaining health. A child seven to nine years old should have eleven hours sleep, from the age of ten to thirteen there should be ten hours of sleep, and at least nine hours sleep for adolescents. 252 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOE FUBTHEB STUDY. 1. Should a child be allowed to sleep till it naturally awakens? 2. Is school work done by a child when mentally fatigued of any value? 3. Take some poem that has stanzas of equal length and try committing to memory when very much fatigued. Commit to mem- ory an equal amount under good conditions and compare the results. 4. Similarly test your memory for ideas. 5. Does the reading of interesting lictlon rest the mind after fatigue from hard work? 6. Can a person who is fatigued from several hours of mental work play ball as well as when not so fatigued? Test the matter. 7. Athletes often do poorly in school work. Is it because they use up all their energy in muscular work and have none left for mental work? 8. What do you consider a proper distribution of mental and physical work for a university student? Make a plan showing this distribution. 9. Why is it that a student should have plenty of physical work or play if muscular activity brings on fatigue that lessens one's ability to do mental work? 10. Test out for yourself the matter of general and special fa- tigue for both mental work and physical work. Try learning one subject after being fatigued by another. Try doing one kind of muscular work after being fatigued by another. 11. Do girls fatigue more easily than boys? 12. Do one's interest and cheerfulness in his work have any- thing to do with fatigue? BEFEBENCES. T. Bolton, The Reliability of Certain Methods for Measuring the Degree of katigue in School Children, in Psychological Review, Vol. vii, 136 ; A. C. Ellis and Maud Shipe, A Study of the Accuracy of the Present Methods of Testing Fatigue, in American Journal of Psychology, Vol. xlv, 496; W. James, The Energies of Men, in Philosophical Review, Vol. xvl, 1; F. S. Lee, The "Nature of Fa- tigue, in Popular Science Monthly, Vol. Ixxvi, 182 ; H. D. Marsh, The Diurnal Course of Effioiency, Columbia University Disserta- tion, New York, 1906; A. Mosso, Fatigue, English Tr., New York, 1904 ; W. B. Pillsbury, Attention Waves as a Means of Measuring Fatigue, in American Journal of Psychology, Vof! xiv, p. 541; C. E. Seashore and G. H. Kent, Periodicity and Progressive Change in Continuous Mental Work, Psych. Rev., Mon. Sup., Vol. vi, No. 28, 1905 ; W. S. Christopher, Chicago Public School Report on Child- Study Investigation, 1898-99, p. 38; P. W. Smedley, Report of Child-Study and Pedagogic Investigation, Chicago Public Schools, No. 2, 1899-1900, p. 64 fC. ; E. L. Thomdike, Mental Fatigue, in FATIGUE 253 Psych. Rev., Vol. vil, 466 ; Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. il, 61 ; F. L. Wells, Normal Performance in the Tapping Test Be- fore and During Practice, with Special Reference to Fatigue, in American Journal of Psychology, Vol. xlx, 437 ; J. H. Wimms, The Relative Effects of Fatigue and Practice Produced ty Different Kinds of Mental Work, in British Journal of Psychology, Vol. ii, 153 ; W. H. Winch, Some Measurements of Mental Fatigue in Adolescent Pupils in Evening Schools, in Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. I, 13; W. R. Wright, Some Effects of Incentives on Worlc and Fatigue, in Psych. Rev., Vol. xiii, 23 ; C. S. Yoakum, An Experimental Study of Fatigue, Psych. Rev., Mon. Sup., No. 46, 1909. For extensive bibliography see Whipple's translation of Offner's Fatigue, p. 122 and p. 128. Chapter XVII. TESTS AND NOEMS. Before we can deal intelligently with children we must have accurate information concerning their mental and physical natures. In this country, in the last few years, much progress has been made in the direction of medical inspection, although very little has been done in the way of mental and physical tests. And even what has been done in medical in- spection has not borne proper fruit, because, in most cases, notifying the parents of the conditions found and the publication of the statistical results was all that came of the inspection. Now, what is needed is something like the following: When a child enters school for the first time, accurate information should be obtained concerning its home and parents, accu- rate physical measurements and tests should be made, including a careful medical examination, and there should be such mental tests as it is possible to give. The data obtained should be recorded. The different forms of examination and tests should be repeated every six months during the school life of the child, and all the data recorded and as carefully kept as are the records at the court house. The medi- cal data should be obtained by a school physician, the mental and physical data can be obtained by the [254] TESTS AND NOBMS 255 teachers, but the tests ought to be under the direction of a psychological expert. For this work to be most valuable the tests given should be uniform throughout the country, and should be kept in similar form, so that when a child moves from one school district to another his record could be mailed to his new superintendent and would be perfectly intelligible. To make this possible there ought to be a national commission or committee to prepare the various mental tests from year to year and prescribe the methods of giving them and of keeping the data. Such data carefully obtained and recorded would be of inestimable value to the teach- ers of our schools in the actual teaching, and would at the same time be of great worth to the science of education. In the meantime the author suggests the following tests and forms of record. The records could be kept on heavy paper, 8 in. by 11 in. The mental, physical and school records could have 26 columns from top to bottom, allowing for 24 semi- annual examinations and two extra spaces. The medical record sheet should have 13 spaces from top to bottom and be ruled also on the back. Then there should be one sheet for the entrance record. This plan would require five sheets for a child's complete record throughout its school life. The leaves could have perforations and be kept in the form of a loose- leaf note book, or they could be kept on the order of a card catalogue. The reverse sides of the mental and physical record sheets should be used for record- ing additional data not properly covered by the for- 256 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY mal headings. The reverse of the school record sheet should contain the names of all the child's teachters, with the dates when they had charge of the pupil. Now, as to the data and methods of getting it : The headings of the medical record are self-explanatory. The mental and physical tests should be performed, on the whole, as prescribed in G. M. Whipple's Man- ual of Mental and Physical Tests. The Grip should be determined by the use of a Smedley dynamometer. The Tapping rate should be indicated by the number of taps in 30 seconds, determined by the use of a tap- ping instrument and described in Whipple's Man- ual, p. 100. The Lung capacity (also termed vital capacity) should be determined by the use of a wet spirometer. The height should be determined by the use of a stadiometer, the weight by the use of accu- rate scales. The visual acuity can be determined by the teacher by the use of Test type, and should be recorded in the ordinary form used by oculists, — ^to illustrate: If a child reads at 20 feet distance the letters that a normal eye can read at 40 feet distance, the visual acuity should be recorded as 20/40. The auditory acuity may be determined by the watch test and could be recorded in similar form. To illustrate : Take the average of the class as the denominator of the fraction and the actual distance at which the child can just hear the watch tick as the numerator. But the best way to test hearing is by the use of a Pilling-McCallie audiometer. The best form of mental tests must be worked out by extensive experiments with school children as well TESTS AND KOEMS 257 as with adults. A good test is one that is simple, easily given and easily graded, and that gives a high correlation with other tests. After giving various tests to several thousand school children and to a small number of adults, I recommend, provisionally, the foUowings tests and procedure as fulfilling the above requirements: For attention, the "A" test as de- scribed in Whipple's Manual, p. 254. The time al- lowed for the test was one minute. Whipple's for- mula for determining efficiency was used and the re- sult divided by eight, to reduce the grade to about the same scale of the other grades, as shown in the accompanying table. For association should be used Whipple's test for uncontrolled association and the three controlled association tests, namely, the part- wJiole, the genus-species and the opposites test. These tests are described in Whipple's Manual under tests 33 and 34; The time allowed for the uncon- trolled association test was 3 minutes, for the genus- species test, 45 seconds, for the part-whole test, 30 seconds, and for the opposites test, 90 seconds. The grade recorded in the table for association is the sum of the four results of these separate tests. For rote memory, the words given on p. 204 in this book can be used. In grading, allow one point for each word and one point for its correct position. Add up the points for both abstract and concrete memory and divide by 2, to obtain the grades as recorded in the table. For logical memory, Whipple's Marble Statue test may be used, — described in the Manual, p. 397. One point is allowed for each idea correctly reported 258 THE OUTLINES OP EDtrCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY by the child. The sum of these points gives the grade as recorded in the table. Of course, this test cannot be used a second time with the same pupils. This is true for most of the mental tests, and they will, there- fore, have to be replaced from year to year. For imagination, the ink-hlot test, Whipple's Manual, p. 430, may be used. The children are allowed one min- ute to write the things that are suggested by each ink-blot. The grade recorded in the table is the total of all the objects suggested by the blots. This test is better as a qualitative study of imagination than it is as a quantitative determination of imaginative capacity. Since the test was not given to many sub- jects, the grades of boys and girls are combined. A somewhat different test of imagination, especially of what is known as constructive imagination, is the word-building test, described by Whipple in the Man- ual, p. 441, and recorded in our table as invention. In the latter test we used both lists of letters, a, e, o, b, m, t and e, a, i, r, 1, p. Five minutes were allowed for each list, and the grade given in the table is the sum of the words written in the two tests. For learning, Whipple's two substitution tests, A and B, are used. The method of giving the tests, however, was not that described by Whipple, but modified as follows: The pupils were given test form A and allowed eight^ minutes to fill in the blanks. At an- other time they were given test form B and allowed eight minutes to fill in the blanks. In grading the work, one point was allowed for each blank correctly This time has proved too long for the older pupils, 10 minutes for the younger and 5 for the older pupils would be better. The number of characters per minute might be taken as the grade. TESTS AND NORMS 259 filled in. Add together the grades for the two tests and divide by 2 to get the results recorded in the table. This is one of the best of all the tests, easily given, easily graded, and it is a good criterion of a pupil's ability. The school records should be re- corded in the form of rank, the one making the high- est record being ranked 1, the next highest 2, and so on. Or better still would be to take the actual grade of the pupil and transfer it to a basis of an average of 50. This can be done by dividing 50 by the actual average of the class and then multiplying by the actual number of units accomplished by the pupil tested. This method really combines in one number both grade and rank.* In the mental tests the actual standing of the pupil can be recorded and compared with the table (pp. 260-261). ♦See A. P. Weiss, On Methods of Mental Measurement, Especially in School and College, In Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. II, p. 555. 20 lental Efficiency of Boys and Girls by ages .Age, 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 la 260 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY NORMS OP MENTAL CAPACITY. Boi/s. Age 8 9 10 U Tests : No. Av. No. Av. No. Av. No. At. Learning 9 27!o 35 27^0 30 ZL5 40 34.6 Logical memory 61 23.9 75 31.0 92 31.0 103 33.2 Rote memory 5 29.0 30 37.9 30 52.5 50 47.5 Attention, A test 20 23.3 10 24.4 28 31.6 Association 10 25.6 37 31.6 31 38.4 37 42.1 Imagination ink-blots 2 23.5 20 46.6 25 40.5 45 43.5 Invention 17 17.5 11 17.5 19 19.7 Total mental efficiency 25.8 30.7 33.1 36.0 Birls. Age 8 9 10 U Tests : No. Ay. No. Av. No. At. No. At. Learning 29 20.0 54 31.5 30 31.3 49 38.2 Logical memory 46 26.7 86 31.8 87 34.3 115 35.6 Rote memory 16 29.0 38 37.0 37 42.0 67 39.5 Attention, A test 18 16.0 24 28.0 21 30.0 26 38.0 Association 28 27.6 60 35.7 35 38.7 46 48.5 Imagination ink-blots 2 23.5 20 46.6 25 40.5 45 43.5 Invention 17 17.5 11 17.5 19 19.7 Total mental efficiency 28.2 32.6 33.5 37.6 TESTS AND NOBMS 261 NORMS OF MENTAL CAPACITY. Boya, 12 13 li 15 16 17 18 Gen. No. Av. No. At. No. At. No. At. No. At. No. At. No. At. At. 27 39.3 33 39.5 46 46.1 10 46.0 5 47.2 16 49.0 8 48.0 39.2 109 36.5 111 38.5 94 37.5 63 17.4 42 36.6 35 87.1 19 40.7 34.8 56 40.0 56 42.5 55 43.5 35 44.2 36 47.2 29 49.5 U 64.0 44.3 13 39.0 21 39.0 19 51.1 11 55.0 10 64.1 9 62.0 4 70.5 46.0 21 46.4 48 47.2 32 B2.3 12 55.8 17 54.8 16 68.1 8 72.7 48.6 21 43.8 39 62.0 12 31.5 12 31.5 12 34.2 14 33.3 11 31.0 38.3 16 23.1 14 25.8 21 22.2 18 24.0 16 33.6 21 34.5 11 35.8 25.3 38.3 42.1 40.6 42.0 45.4 47.6 50.4 39.5 OirU. 12 13 14 IS 16 17 18 Gen. No. At. No. At. No. At. No. At. No. At. No. At. No. At. At. 41 44.2 41 46.2 42 48.0 23 46.3 2 60.0 16 46.3 9 48.7 40.9 134 38.0 m 40.1 107 40.2 77 41.0 70 39.7 68 39.4 26 42.1 37.2 64 41.0 69 43.0 78 44.5 49 46.7 63 46.8 61 51.5 20 62.7 43.1 20 45.2 16 51.3 23 65.7 13 68.0 13 70.2 16 62.3 8 64.9 51.3 39 52.6 38 49.6 38 58.3 18 63.3 23 66.6 32 70.9 16 74.3 63.2 21 43.8 39 62.0 12 31.6 12 31.5 12 34.2 14 33.3 11 31.0 38.3 16 23.1 14 25.8 21 22.2 18 24.0 16 33.6 21 34.5 11 35.8 25.3 41.1 45.4 42.9 45.8 48.6 48.3 49.9 41.3 262 THE OUTLINES OF EDtTCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY ENTRANCE RECORD. The record on this page is to be filled out when the child first enters school, and should be made as complete and accurate as possible. Besides the Information called for, any other facts may be added. And later such facts should be added as the death of a parent, removal from one city to another, etc. And the date when the child has the various children's diseases should be entered here, together with the permanent effects of such diseases. Date of birth : Tr Mo Day Name in full Place in family (1st, 2nd, 3rd, eta). Father's name Year of his birth Place of his birth Occupation Health Mother's name Year of birth Place of birth Number of children TESTS AND NORMS 263 Xr. MEDICAL RECORD. Mo .Day. Date of birth: Name In full. Vaccination record (state whether successful) [...[.[".........] It the child has a disease between the regular times for school inspection, the disease, with the date, should be recorded. & § 2 2 10 o lis Sua Q ^4 Q s sH St. t OS 1 1 Diseases of mouth and tnroat and speech defects. i ■3 a UGO 11 1 1' ■ 264 THE OUTLINES OF EDTJCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Date of birth: Tr. Name in full PHYSICAL RECORD. Mo .Day. Height, Cm. •a 1 9t ^ Grip. XspplDg rate. visual acuity. Andltor; acuity. 1 a J 1" a J ^ J ■tS J TESTS AND NOEMS 265 MENTAL RBCOED. Mo .Day. Date of birth: Tr. Name in full Record standing by rank, disposition by a word. to Q o "S s a o S3 a > a 1 o < MS a 11 n o a a R Qi II 266 THE OUTLINES OP EDTTOATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Date of birth; Name in full. SCHOOL RECORD. (Standing in Branches Studied.) Tr. Mo Day. The names of the various school branches are to be filled In In ink and the pupil's standing recorded in the form of rank in class, 1 representing first in class ; 2, second in class, and so on ; deport- ment as excellent, good, medium, bad, very bad. 1 II — — — — — — — — — TESTS AND NOEMS 267 NOBMS OF STANDIWQ AND SITTING HEIGHT, IN CM. (SMEDLKY). Standing Height Sitting Heiglit. ■^86. Boys. Gills. Boys. Girls. 60 110.69 109.66 62.40 61.72 6-5 113.25 112.51 63.54 62.90 7.0 115.82 115.37 64.67 64.07 7.5 118.39 118.22 65.78 65.25 8.0 120.93 120.49 66.75 66.34 8.5 123.48 122.75 67.72 67.43 9.0 126.14 125.24 68.79 68.32 9.5 128.80 127.74 69.85 69.21 10.0 130.91 130.07 70.56 70.05 10.5 133.03 132.41 71.26 70.89 11.0 135.11 135.35 72.10 72.23 11.5 137.19 138.30 72.93 73.58 12.0 139.54 141.31 73.80 74.93 12.5 141.89 144.32 74.70 76.29 13.0 145.54 147.68 76.24 77.91 13.5 149.09 151.04 77.79 79.54 14.0 151.92 153.64 79.21 80.99 14.5 154.74 156.24 80.64 82.43 15.0 158.07 156.83 82.18 83.21 15.5 161.41 157.42 83.68 83.99 16.0 164.03 158.30 85.43 84.54 16.5 166.65 159.18 87.17 85.09 17.0 167.85 159.26 88.16 85.20 17.5 169.04 159.34 89.14 85.30 18.0 171.23 159.42 90.30 85.51 18.5 173.41 159.50 91.46 85.72 Norms of Weight, in Kg., with CSlothinq (Smedlet). Age. Boys. Girls. 6 19.738 18.870 7 21.613 20.974 8 23.817 23.010 9 26.336 25.257 10 28.707 27.795 11 31.223 30.662 12 34.151 34.373 Age. Boys. Girls. 13 38.084 38.974 14 42.696 44.219 15 47.993 48.161 16 53.238 50.652 17 57.384 52.386 18 61.283 52.923 268 THE OUTLINES OP EDUCATIONAL. PSYCHOLOGY NoBMB or Ltnro (Vital) Capacitt (Smbdi.bt). Age. Boys. Girls. Age. Boys. Girls. 6.., 1023 950 13... ... 2108 1827 7.. 1168 1061 14. . . ... 2395 2014 8.. 1316 1165 15... ... 2697 2168 9... 1469 1286 16... ... 3120 2266 10... 1603 1409 17... ... 3483 2319 11... 1732 1526 18... ... 3655 2343 12.. 1883 1664 Norms of Stbength oi ' Geip, in : Ka. (SMEDijnr). Boys. Plrl- Age. Rt hand. L. hand. Rt. hand. L. hand. 6.. ... 9.21 8.48 8.36 7.74 7.. ... 10.74 10.11 9.88 0.24 8.. ... 12.41 11.67 11.16 10.48 9.. ... 14.34 13.47 12.77 11.97 10... ... 16.52 15.59 14.65 13.72 11.., . . . 18.85 17.72 19.71 16.54 18.92 15.52 12.. ... 21.24 17.78 13... ... 24.44 22.51 21.84 20.39 14.. ... 28.42 26.22 24.79 22.92 15.. ... 33.39 30.88 27.00 24.92 16.. ... 39.37 36.39 28.70 26.56 17.., ... 44.74 40.96 29.56 27.43 18.. ... 49.28 45.01 29.75 27.66 NOBUB of Tapping Rate (Smedley). T»Jrt -» ] No. /-1I.1- Age. tested. Bthand. L. hand, tested. Rt. hand. L. hand. 8... 31 147 117 31 146 117 9... 60 151 127 44 149 118 10... 47 161 132 48 157 129 11... 49 169 141 48 169 139 12... 44 170 145 50 169 140 13... 50 184 156 45 178 153 14... 40 184 155 67 181 157 15... 37 191 169 48 181 159 16... 21 196 170 50 188 167 17... 13 196 174 40 184 162 18... 3 197 183 24 193 169 The records in the above table represents the number of taps In SO seconds. The number tested, howerer, Is so small that the table is not very reliable. APPENDIX. The Development or the Instincts. If we could make out a table showing the orderly appearance of the Instincts and ^he periods of their dominance, we could then arrange the currlctflum of the schools to correspond to the in- stinctive activities. But the matter is not simple. The time of first appearance of the various instincts varies much according to the reported observations, and their periods of dominance vary still more. The appearance of an instinctive action, even after the structures are ready for it, depends upon the appearance of the situation that normally calls forth the particular form of response. There is a variation of a year or two in the maturing of the struc- tures that underlie the instincts. And even after the first appear- ance of an instinct the future course is entirely dependent upon experience. An instinctive tendency may be early subdued, or it may be strengthened and perpetuated. The nearest we can come to a solution of the problem is to determine by statistical studies the time when, on the average, an instinctive tendency is at its height, and In some cases this may be sufficiently definite to be of value to education. But only in a broad way can the instincts determine the order of the curriculum. The individual, adaptive and environmental instinctive tendencies are all operative when the child enters school, and can be depended upon to furnish motive and initiative. The social tendencies are also operative and grow In strength steadily till maturity. The fact is that other factors are more important in determining the arrangement of the curricu- lum. As far as his instincts are concerned, we may teach a six year old boy about stars, bugs, flowers, weeds, stones, rivers and mountains, and wise teaching doubtless teaches something about all these things from the beginning. Since the appearance is vari- able, and since the strength of instinctive tendencies is dependent upon experience, and therefore varies immensely for different indi- viduals, the teacher will have to ascertain for each individual case what Instinctive tendencies will function best to furnish initiative and motive. At any rate, the Instincts will have to be taken into the laboratory and worked out with a great deal more care than has ever been used in their study before we can do anything more than indicated. However, it may be worth while to give in brief form the results of various studies of instincts and the emotive instinctive responses : Imitation. — First appearance, 59th day (reflex), 171st day (vol- untary), Dearborn; in 2nd half of first year, Kirkpatrick; 6th or 7th month, Baldwin; 15th week, Preyer; 237th day. Major; 4th month, Sully. Most prominent 4th to 7th year, Kirkpatrick. Play. — In the second quarter of first year, Kirkpatrick, Major, Shinn ; 341st day, Dearborn. Normally, always operative later. Migrating. — 1st to 3rd or 4th year, Kline; 2nd or 3rd year, Kirk- 270 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Patrick ; must be subdued by early adolescence or may become per- manent tendency. Collecting. — Not later than the 3rd year, Burk ; in the 2nd year, Kirkpatrick. At its height at 10, Burk. Construction. — Appears, 9th month. Sully; 13th month, Tiede- mann; 14th month, Major. Interest in construction is prominent throughout school life, normally. Rivalry. — According to Kirkpatrick, appears in the 4th or 5th year. It may be relied upon to function throughout child-life. Sympathy. — 7th and 8th month, Tracy ; 12th month, Sully ; 22nd month, Baldwin ; 27th month. Major ; 3rd year, Kirkpatrick. Later responses are largely due to experience and training. Pride. — 19th month, Preyer. Fear. — First appears, 2nd month, Tracy and Shinn ; 3rd month. Major; 4th month, Dearborn and Preyer; 7th month. Sully; 1st year, Kirkpatrick. Fear is greatest in 3rd and 4th years, accord- ing to Kirkpatrick. Anger. — In young babies, Kirkpatrick ; 10th month, Darwin and Preyer ; 2nd month, Perez. Curiosity. — 22d week, Preyer. Under proper conditions, curiosity functions throughout school life. It will be seen from the above that all the important Instinctive tendencies, except the socialistic, function normally throughout the school life of the child. The strength of these tendencies depends upon the demands made upon them in the experience of the child. The older and more fundamental to the life of man the tendency, the more independent it is of ezi>erieuce. INDEX INDEX Achilles, 54. Active attention, 208. Acquired characters not In- herited, 29. Activity In education, 16. Addams, Jane, 64. Adolescent play, 101. Advisor of clubs, 65. Aeneid, 54. Aim of Education, 2. Aim of moral training, 166. Affection, pleasant In habits, 130. American Indian, Migrations of, 76. Ancient languages, 159. Anger, 55. Appleton, L. E., 97. Art, 225. Association of ideas, 221. Association, determinants of, 223. Associations and memory, 192. Atavism, 28. ATTENTION, 206. Attention, function of, 211. and fatigue, 240. less with habituation, 129. meaning of, 206. and symbols, 218. Attitude in habit, 142. Automatisms, breaking of, 157. Biological results of habitua- tion, 126. Biology, background of psy- chology, 13. Birds, migrations of, 75. Body and mind, 17. Brain, function of, 92. Bright child active, 93. Bryan, harangue vs., 54. Cancellation method, 243. Capacity for work, 240. Cayuga lake, 49. Childhood and habituation, 141. Child, impregnable, 44. Children's troubles, 62. Chums, 63. Clubs, bad effects of, 64. benefits of, 64. and collecting instinct, 85. Co-efficient of learning, 202. COLLECTING INSTINCT, 83. Collecting instinct, development of, 83. use in school, 84. Collections, 84. Combined method in determin- ing fatigue, 243. Competition, 57. Completion method in determin- ing fatigue, 243. Computation method in deter- mining fatigue, 242. Committing to memory, 193. Conditions of drill, 151. Consciousness, 18. Consistency with children, 153. Continuous work method in de- termining fatigue, 244. Contrary suggestion, 118. Copying method in determining fatigue, 243. Country school, 86. Cramming, 195. Darwin, Charles, 15, 126. Defectives, should be removed from school, 118. Determine the child's world, 10. Development, 16. Discussions, futile In morals, 165. Disease not Inherited, 29. Dressing and feeding of child, 141. Drill, 149. Drills, should be short, 142. Dynamic view of world, 14. Education as adjustment, 9. Education not scientlflc, 2. Educational process, 5. Educational psychologist, 8. Educational psychology, 7. Emotions and morals, 178. Endurance due to habituation, 129. [2731 274 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY BNVIEONMBNTAL INSTINCTS, 74. Esthesiometry, 242. Eugenics, 31. Evolution of body, 13. Evolution and education, 15. Evolution of mind, 15. Exceptions, in liablt-formatlon, 152. Excess energy theory of play, 96. Experience, 222. Expression, 10. Extra digits, 28. Family fireside, must be re- vived, 69. Farming, scientific, 1. FATIGUE, 239. Fatigue, less with habituation, 128, 131. nature of, 239. pedagogy of, 250. poisons, 240. symptoms of, 240. Fatiguability, types of, 246. Fear, 50. expression of, 52. objects of, 51. Fighting Instinct, 54. Fighting among boys, 56. Fighting, agreements as to, 56. Fixity In morals, 181. Forbush, 64. Fraternities, 69. Function of teacher, 146, 199. Galton's law, 27. Gang Instinct, 61. Gangs and clubs, 64. Gangs, why formed, 66. General culture, 160. George Junior Republic, 70. Germ-plasm theory, 26. Girls and memory, 187. Gregarlousness, 61. Gravity, center of. In education, 174. HABIT, 124. Habit, and attitude, 142. and education, 131, 146. ethics of, 134. function of, 126. nature of, 124. flywheel of society, 135. Habit-formation, laws of, 136. Habit-forming, rules for, 154. Habituation and fatigue, 245. Habituation a growth, 150. HABIT AND MORAL TRAIN- ING, 164. Habits are specific, 158, 159. Habituation, principles of, 153. Hall, G. S., 56, 57, 96, 247. HEREDITY, 24. Heredity, force of, 31. laws of, 2T. limitation of, 29. meaning of, 24. mechanism of, 25. Heritage, our, 167. Honor and fighting, 57. Home life and the street gang, 68. Ideals of action, 171. Ideals, children's, 119. Ideational types, 196. Iliad, 54. Imagination, 224. IMITATION, 108. Imitation, and adaptation, 111. In animals, 109. basis of education, 112. definition of, 108. development of. 111. function of. 111. and habit, 138. and Infancy, 110. as interpretation. 111, 115. and language, 113, 114. Impression, first, 190. Improvement, none in low pres- sure work, 250. Industrial education, 20. Infancy, 9. Inhibition, 172. INSTINCTS, 35. Instincts, In chickens, 37. classification of, 44. defined, 35. individualistic, 48. In man, 38. and morals, l&S. and refiexes, 37. specialisation of, 42. INDEX 275 Isolated fatigue, 249. James, Wm., 51, 125, 135, Johnson, G. E., 96. Latin, why studied, 161. Lawful environment means a lawful child, 169. Law, meaning of, 14. Learning curve, 136. Learning by wholes, 193. Long Infancy, 30. Loss of body parts, 92. Lower animals and training, 9. Lower animals, migrations of, 74. Manipulation of environment, 169. Manual training, 20. Mastery of details, 148. Mathematical habits, 160. Meaning, 232. and education, 233. Measure of fatigue, 241. Medicine, scientific, 1. Mechanism, the body as, 18. MEMORY, 185. Memory, and age, 186. curve, 188. experiments in, 186. and Intelligence, 199. material, 194. meaning of, 185. method of, in fatigue, 242. and practice, 189. and sex, 186. Mental evolution, 8, 15. Mental heredity, 28. Method, basis of, 6, 8. Mendel's law, 27. Migrations, early, 76. Migrations and school, 81. MIGRATORY INSTINCT, 74. Migrations and the home, 82. Migrations of man, 76. Mind, brain, muscle, 18. Mollycoddles, 103. Motive, 149. Moral training, nothing new in, 178. Moral training and psychology, 165. Mosso, A., 240. Mfinsterberg, H., 214, 217. Muscular activity, end of edu- cation, 20. Muscles and nerves trained, 18. Muscles and brain, 91. Museums, school, 85. Natural heredity, 30. Natural selection, 32. Nature of children, 4. Nature study, 17. Neatness, habits of, 158. Nervous system and attention, 211. Nest-bulldlng, 35. Neurology and attention, 206. Norms, mental, 260-1. physical, 267-8. OfEner, M., 239, 240, 246, 250. Origin of species, 15. Pace-setting, 245. Pangenesis, 26. Parks, 68. Parents, associates of children, 173. Parents and fear, 52. Parents and laws of habit-for- mation, 154. Passive attention, 208. Pauses In school work, 248. Periodicity of Instincts, 39. Personal hygiene, 175. Phases of attention, 208. Phases of fatigue, 245. Philosophy student, 159. Physical condition and memory, 192. Physiological methods in fa- tigue, 223. Plasticity, 133, 180. PLAY, 91. 276 THE OUTLINES OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Play, of adults, 104. and drill, 102. and fatigue, 248. and morals, 101. pedagogy of, 102. and work, 103. Play Instinct, development of, 98. Pleasurable repetition, 140. Possibilities of parents and teachers, 43. Practice, 149. Practice effects, 226. Primitive moral training, 170. Professional habits, 159. Procedure in habituation, 147. Promptness at school, securing, 155. Psychic life and muscular ac- tion, 92. Psychological methods In fa- tigue, 242. Psychological results of habitua- tion, 129. Reasoning, 226. training in, 228. training in, specific, 231. and education, 234. Recapitulation and heredity, 26. Records, 255, 262-6. Repetition, 136. In attention, 140. In memory, 190. in moral training, 172. Rest by change of work, 248. Rest from practice, 151. Retention, 190. Rlis, J., 64. Rising early, 157. Roosevelt, 54. Rowe, S. H., 151, 154. Salmon, migrations of, 74. Savagery In children, 49. Schiller, theory of play, 96. School and home, 173. School management, 116. School sessions, length of, 247. Schools should not exhaust child, 251. Seals, migrations of, 74. Securing practice, 156. Sensitivity and fatigue, 240. Sensory clearness, 207. Skill due to habit, 127. Small differences, 31. Smoking, breaking habit of, 157. Social heredity, 30. Social Inheritance, 115. SOCIAL INSTINCTS, 61. Social instincts and the school, 67. Spalding's studies, 37. Special fatigue, 249. Speed and habit, 137. Spencer, H., theory of play, 96. Spirit of club, 65. Spurts, 245. Static flew of world, 14. Sympathy, 70. Tadpoles, migrations of, 75. Teacher and the instincts, 42. Teacher and fear, 53. TESTS AND NORMS, 254. Theater in the school. 116. Theories of play, 94. THINKING, 221. Thinking, defined, 226. Time and place for practice, 151, 156. Titchener, E. B., 195, 209. Training in attention, 213, 215. Tramps, 79. Truancies, 78. Truancies, causes of, 79. Typewriting, 139. Unit characters, 27. Unit characters of mind, 28. Usefulness of studies, 161. Utilizing gang instinct, 65. Variability of instincts, 36. Warming-up, 245. Welsmann, 26. Will and muscles, 93. Winter, learn to swim In, 126. Women, education of, 174. : I-llHMtHMtMH^ttMfta