1. Practice on the formation of some habit until considerable skill is

acquired. Draw a learning curve similar to the one on page 95, showing

the increase in skill. A class experiment can be performed by the use of

a substitution test. Take letters to represent the nine digits, then

transcribe numbers into the letters as described on page 192. Keep a

record of successive five-minute periods of practice till all have

practiced an hour. This gives twelve practice periods for the

construction of a learning curve. The individual experiments should be

more difficult and cover a longer period. Suitable experiments for

individual practice are: learning to operate a typewriter, pitching

marbles into a hole, writing with the left hand, and mirror writing. The

latter is performed by standing a mirror vertically on the table,

placing the paper in front and writing in such a way that the letters

have the proper form and appearance when seen in the mirror. The subject

should not look at his hand but at its reflection in the mirror. A piece

of cardboard can be supported just over the hand so that only the image

of the hand in the mirror can be seen.

2. A study of the interference of habit can be made as follows: Take

eight small boxes and arrange them in a row. Number each box plainly. Do

not number them consecutively, but as follows, 5, 7, 1, 8, 2, 3, 6, 4.

Make eighty cards, ten of each number, and number them plainly. Practice

distributing the cards into the boxes. Note the time required for each

distribution. Continue to distribute them till considerable skill is

acquired. Then rearrange the order of the boxes and repeat the

experiment. What do the results show?

3. Does the above experiment show any transfer of training? Compare the

time for each distribution in the second part of the experiment, _i.e._

after the rearrangement of the boxes, with the time for the

corresponding distribution in the first part of the experiment. The

question to be answered is: Are the results of the second part of the

experiment better than they would have been if the first part had not

been performed? State your results and conclusions and compare with the

statements in the text.

4. A study of the effects of spreading out learning periods can be made

as follows: Divide the class into two equal divisions. Let one division

practice on a substitution experiment as explained in Exercise 1, for

five ten-minute periods of practice in immediate succession. Let the

other division practice for five days, ten minutes a day. What do the

results indicate? The divisions should be of equal ability. If the first

ten-minute practice period shows the sections to be of unequal ability,

this fact should be taken into account in making the comparisons. Test

sheets can be prepared by the teacher, or they can be obtained from the

Extension Division of the University of Missouri.

5. An experiment similar to No. 4 can be performed by practicing adding

or any other school exercise. Care must be taken to control the

experiment and to eliminate disturbing factors.

6. Try the card-distributing experiment with people of different ages,

young children, old people, and various ages in between. What do you

learn? Is it as easy for an old person to form a habit as it is for a

young person? Why?

7. If an old person has no old habits to interfere, can he form a new

habit as readily as can a young person?

8. Cite evidence from your own experience to prove that it is hard for

an old person to break up old habits and form new ones which interfere

with the old ones.

9. Do you find that you are becoming "set in your ways?"

10. What do we mean by saying that we are "plastic in early years"?

11. Have you planned your life work? Are you establishing the habits

that will be necessary in it?

12. Is it an advantage or a disadvantage to choose one's profession or

occupation early?

13. Attention often interferes with the performance of a habitual act.

Why is this?

14. If a man removes his vest in the daytime, he is almost sure to wind

his watch. On the other hand if he is up all night, he lets his watch

run down. Why?

15. Do you know of people who have radically changed their views late in

life?

16. Try to teach a dog or a cat a trick. What do you learn of importance

about habit-formation?

17. What branches taught in school involve the formation of habits that

are useful throughout life?

18. Make a list of the moral habits that should be formed in early

years.

19. Write an essay on _Habit and Life_.

20. Make a complete outline of the chapter.

REFERENCES FOR CLASS READING

COLVIN AND BAGLEY: _Human Behavior_, Chapters XI and XVII.

PILLSBURY: _Essentials of Psychology_, pp. 48-59; also Chapter XV.

PYLE: _The Outlines of Educational Psychology_, Chapters X, XI, and XII.

ROWE: _Habit Formation_, Chapters V-XIII.

TITCHENER: _A Beginner's Psychology_, p. 169, par. 37.

CHAPTER VII

MEMORY

=Perceptions and Ideas.= In a previous chapter, brief mention was made of

the difference between perceptions and ideas. This distinction must now

be enlarged upon and made clearer. Perceptions arise out of our sensory

life. We see things when these things are before our eyes. We hear

things when these things produce air vibrations which affect our ears.

We smell things when tiny particles from them come into contact with a

small patch of sensitive membrane in our noses. We taste substances when

these substances are in our mouths. Now, this seeing, hearing, smelling,

tasting, etc., is _perceiving_. We perceive a thing when the thing is

actually at the time affecting some one or more of our sense organs. A

perception, then, results from the stimulation of a sense organ.

Perception is the process of perceiving, sensing, objects in the

external world.

Ideas are our _seeming_ to see, hear, smell, taste things when these

things are not present to the senses. This morning I saw, had a

_perception_ of, a robin. To-night in my study, I have an _idea_ of a

robin. This morning the robin was present. Light reflected from it

stimulated my eye. To-night, as I have an idea of the robin, it is not

here; I only seem to see it. The scene which was mine this morning is

now revived, reproduced. We may say, therefore, that ideas are the

conscious representatives of objects which are not present to the

senses. Ideas are revived experiences.

Revived experience is memory. Since it is memory that enables us to live

our lives over again, brings the past up to the present, it is one of

the most wonderful aspects of our natures. The importance of memory is

at once apparent if we try to imagine what life would be without it. If

our life were only perceptual, if it were only the sights and sounds and

smells and tastes of the passing moment, it would have little meaning,

it would be bare and empty. But instead of our perceptions being our

whole life, they are only the starting points of life. Perceptions serve

to arouse groups of memory images or ideas, and the groups of ideas

enrich the passing moment and give meaning to the passing perceptions,

which otherwise would have no meaning.

Suppose I am walking along the street and meet a friend. I see him,

speak to him, and pass on. But after I have passed on, I have ideas. I

think of seeing my friend the day before. I think of what he said and of

what he was doing, of what I said and of what I was doing. Perhaps for

many minutes there come ideas from my past experience. These ideas were

aroused by the perception of my friend. The perception was momentary,

but it started a long train of memory ideas.

I pass on down the street and go by a music store. Within the store, a

victrola is playing _Jesus, Lover of My Soul_. The song starts another

train of memory ideas. I think of the past, of my boyhood days and

Sunday school, my early home and many scenes of my childhood. For

several minutes I am so engrossed with the memory images that I

scarcely notice anything along the street. Again, the momentary

perception, this time of sounds, served to revive a great number of

ideas, or memories, of the past.

These illustrations are typical of our life. Every moment we have

perceptions. These perceptions arouse ideas of our past life and

experience. One of these ideas evokes another, and so an endless chain

of images passes along. The older we become, the richer is our

ideational life. While we are children, the perceptions constitute the

larger part of our mental life, but as we become older, larger and

larger becomes the part played by our memory images or ideas. A child is

not content to sit down and reflect, giving himself up to the flow of

ideas that come up from his past experience, but a mature person can

spend hours in recalling past experience. This means that the older we

grow, the more we live in the past, the less we are bound down by the

present, and when we are old, instead of perceptions being the main part

of mental life, they but give the initial push to our thoughts which go

on in an endless chain as long as we live.

=The Physiological Basis of Memory.= It will be remembered that the basis

of perception is the agitation of the brain caused by the stimulation of

a sense organ by an external thing or force. If there is no stimulation

of a sense organ, there is no sensation, no perception. Now, just as the

basis of sensation and perception is brain activity, so it is also the

basis of ideas. In sensation, the brain activity is set up from without.

In memory, when we have ideas, the brain activity is set up from within

and is a fainter revival of the activity originally caused by the

stimulation of the sense organ. Our ideas are just as truly conditioned

or caused by brain activity as are our sensations.

Memory presents many problems, and psychologists have been trying for

many years to solve them. We shall now see what they have discovered and

what is the practical significance of the facts.

=Relation of Memory to Age and Sex.= It is a common notion that memory is

best when we are young, but such is not the case. Numerous experiments

have shown that all aspects of memory improve with age. Some aspects of

memory improve more than others, and they improve at different times and

rates; but all aspects do improve. From the beginning of school age to

about fourteen years of age the improvement of most aspects of memory is

rapid.

If we pronounce a number of digits to a child of six, it can reproduce

but few of them, a child of eight or ten can reproduce more, a child of

twelve can reproduce still more, and an adult still more. If we read a

sentence to children of different ages, we find that the older children

can reproduce a longer sentence. If we read a short story to children of

different ages, and then require them to reproduce the story in their

own words, the older children reproduce more of the story than do the

young children.[5]

[5] See age and sex graphs, pp. 184, 188, 189.

Girls excel boys in practically all the aspects of memory.

In rote memory, that is, memory for lists of unrelated words, there is

not much difference; but the girls are somewhat better. However, in the

ability to remember the ideas of a story, girls excel boys at every age.

This superiority of girls over boys is not merely a matter of memory. A

girl is superior to a boy of the same age in nearly every way. This is

merely a fact of development. A girl develops faster than a boy, she

reaches maturity more quickly, in mind as well as in body. Although a

girl is lighter than a boy at birth, on the average she gains in weight

faster and is heavier at twelve than a boy of the same age. She also

gains faster in height, and for a few years in early adolescence is

taller than a boy of the same age. Of course, boys catch up and finally

become much taller and heavier than girls. Similarly, a girl's mind

develops faster than the mind of a boy, as shown in memory and other

mental functions.

=The Improvement of Memory by Practice.= All aspects of memory can be

improved by practice, some aspects much, other aspects little. The

memory span for digits, or letters, or words, or for objects cannot be

much improved, but memory for ideas that are related, as the ideas of a

story, can be considerably improved. In extensive experiments conducted

in the author's laboratory, it was found that a person who at first

required an hour to memorize the ideas in a certain amount of material,

could, after a few months' practice, memorize the same amount in fifteen

minutes. And in the latter case the ideas would be better remembered

than they were at the beginning of the experiment. Not only could a

given number of ideas be learned in less time, but they would be better

retained when learned in the shorter time. If a person comes to us for

advice as to how to improve his memory, what should we tell him? In

order to answer the question, we must consider the factors of a good

memory.

=Factors of a Good Memory.= (1) The first requirement is to get a good

impression in the beginning. Memory is revived experience. The more

vivid and intense the first experience, the more sure will be the later

recall. So if we wish to remember an experience, we must experience it

in the first place under the most favorable conditions. The thing must

be seen clearly, it must be understood, it must be in the focus of

consciousness.

The best teaching is that which leads the child to get the clearest

apprehension of what is taught. If we are teaching about some concrete

thing, a plant, a machine, we should be sure that the child sees the

essential points, should be sure that the main principles enter his

consciousness. We should find out by questioning whether he really does

clearly understand what we are trying to get him to understand. Often we

think a pupil or student has forgotten, when the fact is that he never

really knew the thing which we wished to have him remember.

The first requisite to memory, then, is to _know in the first place_. If

we wish to remember knowledge, the knowledge must be seen in the

clearest light, really _be_ knowledge, at the outset. Few people ever

really learn how to learn. They never see anything clearly, they never

stick to a point till it is apprehended in all its relations and

bearings; consequently they forget, largely because they never really

knew in the fullest sense.

Most teaching is too abstract. The teacher uses words that have no

meaning to the pupil. Too much teaching deals with things indirectly. We

study _about_ things instead of studying things. In geography, for

example, we study about the earth, getting our information from a book.

We read about land formations, river courses, erosion, etc., when

instead we should study these objects and processes themselves. The

first thing in memory, then, is clear apprehension, clear understanding,

vivid and intense impression.

(2) The second thing necessary to memory is to repeat the experience.

First we must get a clear impression, then we must repeat the experience

if we would retain it. It is a mistake to believe that if we have once

understood a thing, we will always thereafter remember it. We must think

our experiences over again if we wish to fix them for permanent

retention.

We must organize our experience. To organize experience means to think

it over in its helpful relations. In memory, one idea arouses another.

When we have one idea, what other idea will this arouse? It depends on

what connections this idea has had in our minds in the past. It depends

on the associations that it has, and associations depend on our thinking

the ideas over together.

Teachers and parents should help children to think over their

experiences in helpful, practical relations. Then in the future, when an

idea comes to mind, it brings along with it other ideas that have these

helpful, practical relations. We must not, then, merely repeat our

experiences, but must repeat them in helpful connections or

associations. In organizing our experience, we must systematize and

classify our knowledge.

One of the chief differences in men is in the way they organize their

knowledge. Most of us have experiences abundant enough, but we differ in

the way we work over and organize these experiences. Organization not

only enables us to remember our experience, but brings our experience

back in the right connections.

The advice that should be given to a student is the following: Make sure

that you understand. If the matter is a lesson in a book, go through it

trying to get the main facts; then go through it again, trying to see

the relation of all the facts. Then try to see the facts in relation to

your wider experience. If it is a history lesson, think of the facts of

the lesson in their relation to previous chapters. Think of the details

in their bearing on wider and larger movements.

A teacher should always hold in mind the facts in regard to memory, and

should make her teaching conform to them. She should carefully plan the

presentation of a new topic so as to insure a clear initial impression.

A new topic should be presented orally by the teacher, with abundant

illustration and explanation. It cannot be made too concrete, it cannot

be made too plain and simple.

Then after the teacher has introduced and made plain the new topic, the

pupil reads and studies further. At the next recitation of the class,

the first thing in order should be a discussion, on the part of the

pupils. This will help the pupils to get the facts cleared up and will

help the teacher to find out whether the pupils have the facts right.

The first part of the recitation should also be a time for questions.

Everything should now be made clear, if there are any errors or

misunderstandings on the pupil's part. Of course any procedure in a

recitation should depend upon the nature of the material and to some

extent on the stage of advancement of the pupil; but in general such a

procedure as that just outlined will be most satisfactory and

economical: first clear initial presentation by the teacher; then

reading and study on the part of the pupil, and third, discussions on

the following day.

Teachers should also endeavor to show students how to study to the best

advantage. Pupils do not know how to study. They do not know what to

look for, and do not know how to find it after they know what they are

looking for. They should be shown. Of course, some of them learn without

help how to study. But some never learn, and it would be a great saving

of time to help all of them master the arts of study and memorizing.

A very important factor in connection with memory is the matter of

meaning. If a person will try to memorize a list of nonsense words, he

will find that it is much more difficult than to memorize words that

have meaning. This is a significant fact. It means that as material

approaches nonsense, it is difficult to memorize. Therefore we should

always try to grasp the meaning of a thing, its significance. In

science, let us always ask, what is the meaning of this fact? What

bearing does it have on other facts? How does it affect the meaning of

other facts?

=Kinds of Memories.= We should not speak of memory as if it were some sort

of power like muscular strength. We should always speak of _memories_.

Memories may be classified from several different points of view: A

classification may be based on the kind of material, as memory for

concrete things, the actual objects of experience, on the one hand, and

memory for abstract material, such as names of things, their attributes

and relations, on the other. Again, we can base a classification on the

type of ideation to which the material appeals, as auditory memory,

visual memory, motor memory. We can also base a classification on the

principle of _meaning_. This principle of classification would give us

at least three classes: memory for ideas as expressed in sentences,

logical memory; memory for series of meaningful words not logically

related in sentences, rote memory; memory for series of meaningless

words, a form of rote memory. This classification is not meant to be

complete, but only suggestive. With every change in the kind of

material, the method of presenting the material to the subject, or the

manner in which the subject deals with the material, there may be a

change in the effectiveness of memory.

While these different kinds or aspects of memory may have some relation

to one another, they are to some extent independent. One may have a good

rote memory and a poor logical memory, or a poor rote memory and a good

logical memory. That is to say, one may be very poor at remembering the

exact words of a book, but be good at remembering the meaning, the

ideas, of the book. One may be good at organizing meaningful material

but poor at remembering mere words. On the other hand, these conditions

may be reversed; one may remember the words but never get the meaning.

It is of course possible that much of this difference is due to habit

and experience, but some of the difference is beyond doubt due to

original differences in the nervous system and brain. These differences

should be determined in the case of all children. It is quite a common

thing to find a feeble-minded person with a good rote memory, but such a

person never has a good logical memory. One can have a good rote memory

without understanding, one cannot have a good logical memory without

understanding.

Let us now ask the question, why can one remember better words that are

connected by logical relations than words that have no such connection?

If we read to a person a list of twenty nonsense words, the person can

remember only two or three; but if a list of twenty words connected in a

sentence were read to a person, in most cases, all of them would be

reproduced. The reason is that the words in the latter case are not new.

We already know the words. They are already a part of our experience. We

have had days, perhaps years, of experience with them. All that is now

new about them is perhaps a slightly new relation.

Moreover, the twenty words may contain but one, or at most only a few,

ideas, and in this case it is the ideas that we remember. The ideas hold

the words together. If the twenty words contain a great number of ideas,

then we cannot remember all of them from one reading. If I say, "I have

a little boy who loves his father and mother very much, and this boy

wishes to go to the river to catch some fish," one can easily remember

all these words after one reading. But if I say, "The stomach in all the

Salmonidæ is syphonal and at the pylorus are fifteen to two hundred

comparatively large pyloric coeca"; although this sentence is shorter,

one finds it more difficult to remember, and the main reason is that the

words are not so familiar.

=Memory and Thinking.= What is the relation of memory to thinking and the

other mental functions? One often hears a teacher say that she does not

wish her pupils to depend on memory, but wishes them to reason things

out. Such a statement shows a misunderstanding of the facts; for

reasoning itself is only the recall of ideas in accordance with the laws

of association. Without memory, there would be no reasoning, for the

very material of thought is found to be the revived experiences which we

call ideas, memories.

One of the first requisites of good thinking is a reliable memory. One

must have facts to reason, and these facts must come to one in memory to

be available for thought. If one wishes to become a great thinker in a

certain field, he must gain experience in that field and organize that

experience in such a way as to remember it and to recall it when it is

wanted.

What one does deplore is memory for the mere words with no understanding

of the meaning. In geometry, for example, a student sometimes commits to

memory the words of a demonstration, with no understanding of the

meaning. Of course, that is worse than useless. One should remember the

meaning of the demonstration. If one has memorized the words only, he

cannot solve an original problem in geometry. But if he has understood

the meaning of the demonstration, then he recalls it, and is enabled to

solve the problem. If one does not remember the various facts about the

relationships in a triangle, he cannot solve a problem of the triangle

until he has worked out and discovered the necessary facts. Then memory

would make them available for the solution of the problem.

=Memory and School Standing.= That memory plays a large part in our life

is evident; and, of course, it is an important factor in all school

work. It matters not what we learn, if we do not remember it. The author

has made extensive experiments to determine the relation that memory has

to a child's progress in school.

The method used was to give logical memory tests to all the children in

a school and then rank the children in accordance with their abilities

to reproduce the story used in the test. Then they were ranked according

to their standing in their studies. A very high correlation was found.

On the whole, the pupils standing highest in the memory tests were found

to stand highest in their studies. It is true, of course, that they did

not stand highest merely because they had good memories, but because

they were not only better in memory, but were better in most other

respects too. Pupils that are good in logical memory are usually good in

other mental functions.

A test of logical memory is one of the best to give us an idea of the

school standing of pupils. Not only is the retention of ideas of very

great importance itself, but the acquiring of ideas, and the organizing

of them in such a way as to remember them involves nearly all the mental

functions. The one who remembers well ideas logically related, is the

one who pays the closest attention, the one who sees the significance,

the one who organizes, the one who repeats, the one who turns things

over in his mind. A logical memory test is therefore, to some extent, a

test of attention, association, power of organization as well as of

memory; in a word, it is a test of mental power.

Other things being equal, a person whose power of retention is good has

a great advantage over his fellows who have poor ability to remember.

Suppose we consider the learning of language. The pupil who can look up

the meaning of a word just once and remember it has an advantage over

the person who has to look up the meaning of the word several times

before it is retained. So in any branch of study, the person who can

acquire the facts in less time than another person, has the extra time

for learning something else or for going over the same material and

organizing it better. The scientist who remembers all the significant

facts that he reads, and sees their bearing on his problems, has a great

advantage over the person who does not remember so well.

Of course, there are certain dangers in having a good memory, just as

there is danger in being brilliant generally. The quick learner is in

danger of forming slovenly habits. A person who learns quickly is likely

to form the habit of waiting till the last minute to study his lesson

and then getting a superficial idea of it. The slow learner must form

good habits of study to get on at all.

Teachers and parents should prevent the bright children from forming bad

habits of study. The person who learns quickly and retains well should

be taught to be thorough and to use the advantage that comes from

repetition. The quick learner should not be satisfied with one attack on

his lesson, but should study the lesson more than once, for even the

brilliant learner cannot afford to neglect the advantages that come from

repetition. A person with poor memory and only mediocre ability

generally can make up very much by hard work and by work that takes

advantage of all the laws of economical learning. But he can never

compete successfully with the person who works as hard as he does and

who has good powers of learning and retention.

The author has found that in a large class of a hundred or more, there

is usually a person who has good memory along with good mental ability

generally, and is also a hard worker. Such a person always does the best

work in the class. A person with poor memory and poor mental powers

generally cannot hope to compete with a person of good memory, good

mental powers generally, if that person is also a good worker.

=Learning and Remembering.= A popular fallacy is expressed in the saying

"Easy come, easy go." The person who is the best learner is also the

best in retaining what is learned, provided all other conditions are the

same. This matter was determined in the following way: A logical memory

test was given to all the children in a city school system. A story was

read to the pupils and then reproduced by them in writing. The papers

were corrected and graded and nothing more was said about the test for

one month. Then at the same time in every room, the teachers said, "You

remember the story I read to you some time ago and which I asked you to

reproduce. Well, I wish to see how much of the story you still

remember." The pupils were then required to write down all the story

that they could recall.

It was found that, in general, the children who write the most when the

story is first read to them, write the most after the lapse of a month,

and the poorest ones at first are the poorest ones at the end of the

month. Of course, the correspondence is not perfect, but in some cases,

in some grades, it is almost so.

The significance of this experiment is very great. It means that the

pupil who gets the most facts from a lesson will have the most facts at

any later time. This is true, of course, only if other things are equal.

If one pupil studies about the matter more, reflects upon it, repeats it

in his mind, of course this person will remember more, other things

being equal. But if neither reviews the matter, or if both do it to an

equal extent, then the one who learns the most in the first place,

remembers the most at a later time.

I have also tested the matter out in other ways. I have experimented

with a group of men and women, by reading a passage of about a page in

length, repeating the reading till the subject could reproduce all the

facts. It was found that the person who acquired all the facts from the

fewest readings remembered more of the facts later. It must be said that

there is less difference between the subjects later than at first.

In the laboratory of Columbia University a similar experiment was

performed, but in a somewhat different way. Students were required to

commit to memory German vocabularies and were later tested for their

retention of the words learned. It was found that those who learned the

most words in a given time, also retained the largest percentage of what

had been learned. It should not be surprising that this is the case. The

quick learner is the one who makes the best use of all the factors of

retention, the factors mentioned in the preceding paragraph--good

attention, association, organization, etc.

Another experiment performed in the author's laboratory bears out the

above conclusions. A group of students were required to commit to memory

at one sitting a long list of nonsense syllables. The number of

repetitions necessary to enable each student to reproduce them was

noted. One day later, the students attempted to reproduce the syllables.

Of course they could not, and they were then required to say them over

again till they could just repeat them from memory. The number of

repetitions was noted. The number of repetitions was much less than on

the first day. On the third day, the process was repeated. The number of

repetitions was fewer still. This relearning was kept up each day till

each person could repeat the syllables from memory without any study.

It was found that the person who learned the syllables in the fewest

repetitions the first time, relearned them in the fewest repetitions on

succeeding days. All the experiments bearing on the subject point to the

same conclusion; namely, that the quick learner, if other things are

equal, retains at least as well as the slow learner, and usually retains

better.

=Transfer of Memory Training.= We have said above that there are many

kinds or aspects of memory. It has also been said that we can improve

memory by practice. Now, the question arises, if we improve one aspect

of memory, does this improve all aspects? This is an important question;

moreover, it is one to be settled by experiment and not by argument.

The most extensive and thorough experiment was performed by an English

psychologist, Sleight. The experiment was essentially as follows: He

took a large number of pupils and tested the efficiency of the various

aspects of their memory. He then took half of them and trained one

aspect of their memory until there was considerable improvement. The

other section had no memory training meanwhile. After the training, both

groups again had all aspects of their memory tested. Both groups showed

improvement in all aspects because the first tests gave them some

practice, but the group that had been receiving the training was no

better in those aspects not trained than was the group receiving no

training at all. Aspects of memory much like the one trained showed some

improvement, but other aspects did not.

The conclusion is that memory training is specific, that it affects only

the kind of memory trained, and related memories. This is in harmony

with what we learned about habit. When we receive training, it affects

only the parts of us trained and other closely related parts.

=Learning by Wholes.= We do not often have to commit to memory verbatim,

but when we do, it is important that we should know the most economical

way. Experiments have clearly demonstrated that the most economical way

is to read the entire selection through from beginning to end and

continue to read it through in this way till the matter is learned by

heart.

In long selections, the saving by this method is considerable. A pupil

is not likely to believe this because if he spends a few minutes

learning in this manner, he finds that he cannot repeat a single line,

while if he had concentrated on one line, he could have repeated at

least that much. This is true; but although he cannot repeat a single

line by the whole procedure, he has learned nevertheless. It would be a

good thing to demonstrate this fact to a class; then the pupils would be

satisfied to use the most economical procedure. The plan holds good

whether the matter be prose or poetry.

But experiments have been carried on only with verbatim learning. The

best procedure for learning the facts so that one can give them in one's

own words has not yet been experimentally determined.

=Cramming.= An important practical question is whether it pays to go over

a great amount of material in a very short time, as students often do

before examinations. From all that has been said above, one could infer

the solution to this problem. Learning and memorizing are to some extent

a growth, and consequently involve time.

There is an important law of learning and memory known as Jost's law,

which may be stated as follows: If we repeat or renew associations, the

repetitions have most value for the old associations. Therefore when we

learn, we should learn and then later relearn. This will make for

permanent retention. Of course, if we wish to get together a great mass

of facts for a temporary purpose and do not care to retain them

permanently, cramming is the proper method. If we are required to pass

an examination in which a knowledge of many details is expected and

these details have no important permanent value, cramming is justified.

When a lawyer is preparing a case to present to a court, the actual,

detail evidence is of no permanent value, and cramming is justified.

But if we wish to acquire and organize facts for their permanent value,

cramming is not the proper procedure. The proper procedure is for a

student to go over his work faithfully as the term of school proceeds,

then occasionally review. At the end of the term, a rapid review of the

whole term's work is valuable. After one has studied over matter and

once carefully worked it out, a quick view again of the whole subject is

most valuable, and assists greatly in making the acquisition permanent.

But if the matter has not been worked out before, the hasty view of the

material of the course, while it may enable one to pass the examination,

has no permanent value.

=Function of the Teacher in Memory Work.= The function of a teacher is

plainly to get the pupils to learn in accordance with the laws of memory

above set forth; but there are certain things that a teacher can do that

may not have become evident to the reader. It has been learned in

experiments in logical memory that when a story is read to a subject and

the subject attempts to reproduce it, certain mistakes are made. When

the story is read again, it is common for the same mistakes to be made

in the recall. Certain ideas were apprehended in a certain way; and,

when the piece is read again, the subject pays no more attention to the

ideas already acquired and reported, and they are therefore reported

wrongly as they were in the first place. Often the subject does not

notice the errors till his attention is called to them.

This suggests an important function of the teacher in connection with

the memory work of the pupils. This function is to correct mistakes in

the early stages of learning. A teacher should always be on the watch to

find the errors of the pupils and to correct them before they are fixed

by repetition.

A teacher should, also, consider it her duty to test the memory

capacities of the pupils and to give each the advice that the case

demands.

=Some Educational Inferences.=--There are certain consequences to

education that follow from the facts of memory above set forth that are

of considerable significance. Many things have been taught to children

on the assumption that they could learn them better in childhood than

later, because it was thought that memory and the learning capacity were

better in childhood. But both of these assumptions are false. As

children grow older their learning capacity increases and their memories

become better.

It has particularly been held that rote memory is better in childhood

and that therefore children should begin their foreign language study

early. It is true that as far as _speaking_ a foreign language is

concerned, the earlier a child begins it the better. But this is not

true of learning to read the language. The sounds of the foreign

language that we have not learned in childhood in speaking the mother

tongue are usually difficult for us to make. The organs of speech become

set in the way of their early exercise. In reading the foreign language,

correct pronunciation is not important. We are concerned with _getting_

the thought, and this is possible without pronouncing at all. Reference

to graphs on pages 190 and 191 will show that rote memory steadily

improves throughout childhood and youth. The author has performed

numerous experiments to test this very point. He has had adults work

side by side with children at building up new associations of the rote

memory type and found that always the adult could learn faster than the

child and retain better what was learned.

The experience of language teachers in college and university does not

give much comfort to those who claim that language study should be begun

early. These teachers claim that the students who have had previous

language study do no better than those who have had none. It seems,

however, that there certainly ought to be _some_ advantage in beginning

language study early and spreading the study out over the high school

period. But what is gained does not offset the tremendous loss that

follows from requiring _all_ high school students to study a foreign

language merely to give an opportunity for early study to those who are

to go on in the university with language courses. A mature university

student that has a real interest in language and literature can begin

his language study in the university and make rapid progress. Some of

the best classical scholars whom the author knows began their language

study in the university. While it would have been of some advantage to

them to have begun their language study earlier, there are so few who

should go into this kind of work that society cannot afford to make

provision for their beginning the study in the high school.

The selection and arrangement of the studies in the curriculum must be

based on other grounds than the laws of memory. What children make most

progress in and need most to know are the concrete things of their

physical and social environment. Children must first learn the

world--the woods and streams and birds and flowers and plants and

animals, the earth, its rocks and soils and the wonderful forces at work

in it. They must learn man,--what he is and what he does and how he does

it; how he lives and does his work and how he governs himself. They

should also learn to read and to write their mother tongue, and should

learn something of that great store of literature written in the mother

tongue.

The few that are to be scholars in language and literature must wait

till beginning professional study before taking up their foreign

language; just as a person who is to be a lawyer or physician must also

wait till time to enter a university before beginning special

professional preparation. The child's memory for abstract conceptions is

particularly weak in early years; hence studies should be so arranged as

to acquaint the child with the concrete aspects of the world first, and

later to acquaint him with the abstract relations of things. Mathematics

should come late in the child's life, for the same reason. Mathematics

deals with quantitative relations which the child can neither learn nor

remember profitably and economically till he is more mature. The child

should first learn the world in its descriptive aspects.

=Memory and Habit.= The discussion up to this point should have made it

clear to the reader that memory is much the same thing as habit. Memory

considered as retention depends upon the permanence of the impression on

the brain; but in its associative aspects depends on connections between

brain centers, as is the case with habit. The association of ideas,

which is the basis of their recall, is purely a matter of habit

formation.

When I think of George Washington, I also think of the Revolution, of

the government, of the presidency, of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson,

etc., because of the connections which these ideas have had in my mind

many times before. There is a basis in the brain structure for these

connections. There is nothing in any _idea_ that connects it with

another idea. Ideas become connected because of the _way in which we

experience them_, and the reason one idea calls up another idea is

because the brain process that is the cause of one idea brings about

another brain process that is the cause of a second idea. The whole

thing is merely a matter of the way the brain activities become

organized. Therefore the various laws of habit-formation have

application to memory in so far as memory is a matter of the association

of ideas, based on brain processes.

One often has the experience of trying to recall a name or a fact and

finds that he cannot. Presently the name or fact may come, or it may not

come till the next day or the next week. What is the cause of this

peculiar phenomenon? The explanation is to be found in the nervous

system. When one tries to recall the name and it will not come to mind,

there is some temporary block or hindrance in the nerve-path that leads

from one center to the other and one cannot think of the name till the

obstruction is removed. We go on thinking about other things, and in the

meantime the activities going on in the brain remove the obstruction; so

when the matter comes up again, the nerve current shoots through, and

behold, the name comes to mind.

[Illustration: FIGURE IV--ASSOCIATIVE CONNECTIONS

The diagram represents schematically the neural basis of the association

of ideas.]

Now the only preventive of such an occurrence is to be found in the law

of habit, for the block ordinarily occurs in case of paths or bonds not

well established. We must _think together_ the things we wish to have

associated. Repetition is the key to the situation, repetition which is

the significant thing in habit-formation, repetition which is the only

way of coupling two things which we wish to have associated together.

Of course, there is no absolute coupling of two ideas. One sometimes

forgets his own name. When we are tired or ill, things which were the

most closely associated may not hang together. But those ideas hold

together in the firmest way that have been experienced together most

often in a state of attention. The diagram on page 147 illustrates

schematically the neural connections and cross-connections which are the

bases of the association of ideas, the circles _A_, _B_, _C_, _D_, _E_,

and _F_ represent brain processes which give rise to ideas, and the

lines represent connecting paths. Note that there are both direct and

indirect connections.

SUMMARY. Sensation and perception give us our first experience with

things; memory is revived experience. It enables us to live our

experience over again and is therefore one of the most important

human traits. The physiological basis of memory is in the brain and

nervous system. Memory improves with practice and up to a certain

point with the age of the person. It is better in girls than in

boys. Good memory depends on vivid experience in the first place and

on organization and repetition afterward. The person who learns

quickly usually retains well also. Memory training is specific. The

extension of the learning process over a long time is favorable to

memory. Memory ideas are the basis of thinking and reasoning.

CLASS EXERCISES

1. The teacher can test the auditory memory of the members of the class

for rote material by using letters. It is better to omit the vowels,

using only the consonants. Prepare five groups of letters with eight

letters in a group. Read each group of letters to the class, slowly and

distinctly. After reading a group, allow time for the students to write

down what they recall, then read the next group and so proceed till the

five groups have been read. Grade the work by finding the number of

letters reproduced, taking no account of the position of the letters.

2. In a similar way, test visual memory, using different combinations of

letters. Write the letters plainly on five large squares of cardboard.

Hold each list before the class for as long a time as it took to read a

group in experiment No. 1.

3. Test memory for words in a similar way. Use simple words of one

syllable, making five lists with eight words in a list.

4. Test memory for objects by fastening common objects on a large

cardboard and holding the card before the class. Put eight objects on

each card and prepare five cards. Expose them for the same length of

time as in experiment No. 2.

5. Test memory for _names_ of objects by preparing five lists of names,

eight names in a list, and reading the names as in experiment No. 1.

6. You now have data for the following study: Find the average grade of

each student in the different experiments. Find the combined grade of

each student in all the above experiments. Do the members of the class

hold the same rank in all the tests? How do the boys compare with the

girls? How does memory for objects compare with memory for names of

objects? How does auditory memory compare with visual? What other points

do you learn from the experiments?

7. The teacher can make a study of the logical memory of the members of

the class by using material as described on page 184. Make five separate

tests, using stories that are well within the comprehension of the class

and that will arouse their interest. Sufficient material will be found

in the author's _Examination of School Children_ and Whipple's _Manual_.

However, the teacher can prepare similar material.

8. Do the students maintain the same rank in the separate tests of

experiment No. 7? Rank all the students for their combined standing in

all the first five tests. Rank them for their combined standing in the

logical memory tests. Compare the two rankings. What conclusions are

warranted?

9. You have tested, in experiment No. 7, logical memory when the

material was read to the students. It will now be interesting to compare

the results of No. 7 with the results obtained by allowing the students

to read the material of the test. For this purpose, select portions from

the later chapters of this book. Allow just time enough for the

selection to be read once slowly by the students, then have it

reproduced as in the other logical memory experiment. Give several

tests, if there is sufficient time. Find the average grade of each

student, and compare the results with those obtained in No. 7. This will

enable you to compare the relative standing of the members of the

class, but will not enable you to compare the two ways of acquiring

facts. For this purpose, the stories would have to be of equal

difficulty. Let the members of the class plan an experiment that would

be adequate for this purpose.

10. A brief study of the improvement of memory can be made by practicing

a few minutes each day for a week or two, as time permits, using

material that can be easily prepared, such as lists of common words. Let

the members of the class plan the experiment. Use the best plan.

11. The class can make a study of the relation of memory to school

standing in one of the grades below the high school. Give at least two

tests for logical memory. Give also the rote memory tests described on

page 189. Get the class standing of the pupils from the teacher. Make

the comparison as suggested in Chapter I, page 15. Or, the correlation

can be worked out accurately by following the directions given in the

_Examination of School Children_, page 58, or in Whipple's _Manual_,

page 38.

12. Let the members of the class make a plan for the improvement of

their memory for the material studied in school. Plan devices for

learning the material better and for fixing it in memory. At the end of

the course in psychology, have an _experience_ meeting and study the

results reported.

13. Prepare five lists of nonsense syllables, with eight in a list. Give

them as in experiment No. 3, and compare the results with those of that

experiment. What do the results indicate as to the value to memory of

_meaningful_ material? What educational inferences can you make? In

preparing the syllables, put a vowel between two consonants, and use no

syllable that is a real word.

14. A study of the effects of distractions on learning and memory can be

made as follows: Let the teacher select two paragraphs in later chapters

of this book, of equal length and difficulty. Let the students read one

under quiet conditions and the other while an electric bell is ringing

in the room. Compare the reproductions in the two cases.

15. From the chapter and from the results of all the memory tests, let

the students enumerate the facts that have educational significance.

16. Make a complete outline of the chapter.

REFERENCES FOR CLASS READING

COLVIN and BAGLEY: _Human Behavior_, Chapter XV.

MÜNSTERBERG: _Psychology, General and Applied_, pp. 165-170.

PILLSBURY: _Essentials of Psychology_, Chapters VI and VIII.

PYLE: _The Outlines of Educational Psychology_, Chapter XIII.

TITCHENER: _A Beginner's Psychology_, Chapter VII.

CHAPTER VIII

THINKING

In Chapter III we learned about sensation. We found that when a sense

organ is stimulated by its appropriate type of stimulus, this

stimulation travels through the sensory nerves and sets up an excitation

in the brain. This excitation in the brain gives us sensation. We see if

the eye is stimulated. We hear if the ear is stimulated, etc. In

Chapter VII we learned that after the brain has had an excitation giving

rise to sensation, it is capable of reviving this excitation later. This

renewal or revival of a brain excitation gives us an experience

resembling the original sensation, only usually fainter and less stable.

This revived experience is called _image_ or _idea_. The general process

of retention and revival of experience is, as we have seen, known as

memory. An idea, then, is a bit of revived experience. A perception is a

bit of immediate or primary experience. I am said to perceive a chair if

the chair is present before me, if the light reflected from the chair is

actually exciting my retinas. I have an _idea_ of the chair when I

_seem_ to see it, when the chair is not before me or when my eyes are

shut. These distinctions were pointed out in the preceding chapter. Let

us now proceed to carry our study of ideas further.

=Association of Ideas.= The subject of the association of ideas can best

be introduced by an experiment. Take a paper and pencil, and think of

the word "horse." Write this word down, and then write down other words

that come to mind. Write them in the order in which they come to mind.

Do this for three or four minutes, and try the experiment several times,

beginning with a different word each time. Make a study of the lists of

words. Compare the different lists and the lists written by different

students.

In the case of the writer, the following words came to mind in the first

few seconds: horse, bridle, saddle, tail, harness, buggy, whip, man,

sky, stars, sun, ocean. Why did these words come, and why did they come

in that order? Why did the idea "horse" suggest the idea "bridle"? And

why did "bridle" suggest "saddle"? Is there something in the nature of

ideas that couples them with certain other ideas and makes them _always_

suggest the other ideas? No, there is not. Ideas become coupled together

in our experience, and the coupling is in accordance with our

experience. Things that are together in our experience become coupled

together as ideas. The idea "horse" may become coupled with any other

idea. The general law of the association of ideas is this: Ideas are

joined together in memory or revived experience as they were joined in

the original or perceptive experience.

But the matter is complicated by the fact that things are experienced in

different connections in perceptive experience. I do not always

experience "horse" together with "bridle." I sometimes see horses in a

pasture eating clover. So, as far as this last experience is concerned,

when I think "horse" I should also think "clover." I sometimes see a

horse running when a train whistles, so "whistle" and "horse" should be

coupled in my mind. A horse once kicked me on the shoulder, so "horse"

and "shoulder" should be connected in my mind. And so they are. The very

fact that these various experiences come back to me proves that they are

connected in my mind in accordance with the original experiences. The

revival of various horse experiences has come to me faster than I could

write them down, and they are all bound together in my memory. If I

should write them all out, it would take many hours, perhaps days.

Not only are these "horse ideas" bound together with one another, but

they are bound more or less directly, more or less closely, to

everything else in my life. I can, therefore, pass in thought from the

idea "horse" to any other idea, directly or indirectly. Now, in any

given case, what idea will actually come first after I have the idea

"horse"? This depends upon the tendencies established in the nervous

system. The brain process underlying the idea "horse" has connections

with many other processes and tends to excite these processes. The

factors that strengthen these tendencies or connections are the

frequency, recency, primacy, and vividness of experience. Let us

consider, in some detail, each of these factors.

=Primacy of Experience.= A strong factor in determining association is the

_first experience_. The first, the original, coupling of ideas tends to

persist. The first connection is nearly always a strong one, and is also

strengthened by frequent repetition in memory. Our first experience with

people and things persists with great strength, across the years, in

spite of other associations and connections established later. Just now

there comes to mind my first experience with a certain famous scientist.

It was many years ago. I was a student in an eastern university. This

man gave a public lecture at the opening of the session. I remember many

details of the occurrence with great vividness. Although I studied under

this man for three years, no other experience with him is more prominent

than the first. First experiences give rise to such strong connections

between ideas that these connections often persist and hold their own as

against other connections depending upon other factors.

The practical consequences of this factor in teaching are, of course,

evident. Both teachers and parents should take great care in the matter

of the first experiences of children. If the idea-connections of first

experiences are likely to persist, then these connections should be

desirable ones. They should not be useless connections, nor should they,

ordinarily, be connections that will have to be radically undone later.

Usually it is not economical to build up connections between ideas that

will not serve permanently, except in cases in which the immaturity of

the mind makes such a procedure necessary.

=Recency of Experience.= The most recent connection of ideas is relatively

strong, and is often the determining one. But the most recent connection

must be very recent or it has no especial value. If I have seen a

certain friend to-day, and his name is brought to mind now, to-day's

experience with him will likely be brought to mind _first_. But if my

last seeing him was some days or months ago, the idea-connection of the

last meeting has no great value. Of course, circumstances always alter

the matter. Perhaps we should say in the last instance that, other

things being equal, the last experience has no special value. If the

last experience was an unusual one, such as a death or a marriage, then

it has a value due to its vividness and intensity and its emotional

aspects. These factors not only add strength to the connections made at

the time but are the cause of frequent revivals of this last experience

in memory in the succeeding days. All these factors taken together often

give a last experience great associative strength, even though the last

experience is not recent.

=Frequency of Experience.= The most frequent connection of ideas is

probably the most important factor of all in determining future

associations. The first connection is but one, and the last connection

is but one, while repeated connections may be many in number.

Connections which recur frequently usually overcome all other

connections. Hence frequency is the dominant factor in association. Most

of the strength of first connections is due to repetitions in memory

later. The first experience passes through the mind again and again as

memory, and thereby becomes strengthened. The fact that repetition of

connections establishes these connections is, of course, the

justification of drill and review in school studies. The practical needs

of life demand that certain ideas be associated so that one calls up the

other. Teachers and parents, knowing these desirable connections,

endeavor to fix them in the minds of children by repetition. The

important facts of history, literature, civics, and science we endeavor,

by means of repetition, to fasten in the child's mind.

=Vividness and Intensity of Experience.= A vivid experience is one that

excites and arouses us, strongly stimulating our feelings. Such

experiences establish strong bonds of connection. When I think of a

railroad wreck, I think of one in which I participated. The experience

was vivid, intense, and aroused my emotions. I hardly knew whether I was

dead or alive. Then, secondly, I usually think of a wreck which I

witnessed in childhood. A train plunged through a bridge and eighteen

cars were piled up in the ravine. The experience was vivid and produced

a deep and lasting impression on me.

The practical significance of this factor is, of course, great. When

ideas are presented to pupils these ideas should be made clear. Every

conceivable device should be used to clarify and explain,--concrete

demonstration, the use of objects and diagrams, pictures and drawings,

and abundant oral illustration. We must be sure that the one taught

understands, that the ideas become focal in consciousness and take hold

of the individual. This is the main factor in what is known as

"interest." An interesting thing is one that takes hold of us and

possesses us so that we cannot get away from it. Such experiences are

vivid and have rich emotional connections or accompaniments. Ideas that

are experienced together at such times are strongly connected.

=Mental Set or Attitude.= Another influence always operative in

determining the association of ideas is mental set. By mental set we

mean the mood or attitude one is in,--whether one is sad or glad, well

or ill, fresh or fatigued, etc. What one has just been thinking about,

what one has just been doing, are always factors that determine the

direction of association. One often notices the effects of mental set in

reading newspapers. If one's mind has been deeply occupied with some

subject and one then starts to read a newspaper, one may actually

miscall many of the words in the article he is reading; the words are

made to fit in with what is in his mind. For example, if one is all

wrought up over a wedding, many words beginning with "w" and having

about the same length as the word "wedding," will be read as "wedding."

Mental set may be permanent or temporary. By permanent we mean the

strong tendencies that are built up by continued thought in a certain

direction. One becomes a Methodist, a Democrat, a conservative, a

radical, a pessimist, an optimist, etc., by continuity of similar

experiences and similar reactions to these experiences. Germans, French,

Irish, Italians, Chinese, have characteristic sets or ways of reacting

to typical situations that may be called racial. These prejudicial ways

of reacting may be called racial sets or attitudes. Religious,

political, and social prejudices may all be called sets or attitudes.

Temporary sets or attitudes are leanings and prejudices that are due to

temporary states of mind. The fact that one has headache, or

indigestion, or is in a hurry, or is angry, or is hungry, or is

emotionally excited over something will, for the time, be a factor in

determining the direction of association.

One of the tasks of education is to build up sets or attitudes,

permanent prejudices, to be constant factors in guiding association and,

consequently, action. We wish to build up permanent attitudes toward

truth, honesty, industry, sympathy, zeal, persistence, etc. It is

evident that attitude is merely an aspect of habit. It is an habitual

way of reacting to a definite and typical situation. This habitual way

is strengthened by repetition, so that set or attitude finally, after

years of repetition, becomes a part of our nature. Our prejudices become

as strong, seemingly, as our instinctive tendencies. After a man has

thought in a particular groove for years, it is about as sure that he

will come to certain definite conclusions on matters in the line of his

thought as that he would give typical instinctive or even reflex

reactions. We know the direction association will take for a

Presbyterian in religious matters, for a Democrat in political matters,

with about as much certainty as we know what their actions will be in

situations that evoke instinctive reactions.

=Thinking and Reasoning.= Thinking is the passing of ideas in the mind.

This flow of ideas is in accordance with the laws of association above

discussed. The order in which the ideas come is the order fixed by

experience, the order as determined by the various factors above

enumerated.

In early life, one's mind is chiefly perceptual, it is what we see and

hear and taste and smell. As one grows older his mind grows more and

more ideational. With increasing age, a larger and larger percentage of

our mental life is made up of ideas, of memories. The child lives in the

present, in a world of perceptions. A man is not so much tied down to

the present; he lives in memory and anticipation. He thinks more than

does the child. A man is content to sit down in his chair and think for

hours at a time, a child is not. This thinking is the passing of ideas,

now one, then another and another. These ideas are the survivals or

revivals of our past experience. The order of their coming depends on

our past experience.

As I sit here and write, there surge up out of my past, ideas of creeks

and rivers and hills, horses and cows and dogs, boys and girls, men and

women, work and play, school days, friends,--an endless chain of ideas.

This "flow" of ideas is often started by a perception. For

illustration, I see a letter on the table, a letter from my brother. I

then have a visual image of my brother. I think of him as I saw him

last. I think of what he said. I think of his children, of his home, of

his boyhood, and our early life together. Then I think of our mother and

the old home, and so on and on. Presently I glance at a history among my

books, and immediately think of Greece and Athens and the Acropolis,

Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates, schoolmates and teachers, and friends

connected in one way or another with my college study of Greek.

In this description of the process of thinking, I have repeatedly used

the words "think of." I might have said instead, "there came to mind

ideas of Athens, ideas of friends," etc. Thinking, then, is a general

term for our idea-life.

Reasoning is a form of thinking. Reasoning, too, is a flow of ideas. But

while reasoning is thinking, it is a special form of thinking; it is

thinking to a purpose. In thinking as above described and illustrated,

no immediate ends of the person are served; while in reasoning some end

is always sought. In reasoning, the flow of ideas must reach some

particular idea that will serve the need of the moment, the need of the

problem at hand. Reasoning, then, is controlled thinking, thinking

centering about a problem, about a situation that one must meet.

The statement that reasoning is _controlled_ thinking needs some

explanation, for the reader at once is likely to want to know what does

the controlling. There is not some special faculty or power that does

the controlling. The control is exercised by the set into which one is

thrown by the situation which confronts one. The set puts certain

nerve-tracts into readiness to conduct, or in other words, makes

certain groups of ideas come into mind, and makes one satisfied only if

the right ideas come. As long as ideas come that do not satisfy, the

flow keeps on, taking one direction and then another, in accordance with

the way our ideas have become organized. An idea finally comes that

satisfies. We are then said to have reached a conclusion, to have made

up our mind, to have solved our problem.

But the fact that we are satisfied is no sure sign that the problem is

correctly solved. It means only that our past experiences, available at

the time through association, say that the conclusion is right. Or, in

more scientific terms, that the conclusion is in harmony with our past

experience, as it has been organized and made available through

association. There is not within us a little being, a reasoner, that

sits and watches ideas file by and passes judgment upon them. The real

judge is our nervous system with its organized bonds or connections.

An illustration may make the matter clearer: A boy walking along in the

woods comes to a stream too wide for him to jump across. He wishes to be

on the other side, so here is a situation that must be met, a problem

that must be solved. A flow of ideas is started centering about the

problem. The flow is entirely determined and directed by past experience

and the present situation. The boy pauses, looks about, and sees on the

bank a pole and several large stones. He has walked on poles and on

fences, he therefore sees himself putting the pole across the stream and

walking on it. This may be in actual visual imagery, or it may be in

words. He may merely say, "I will put the pole across and walk on it."

But, before having time to do it, he may recall walking on poles that

turned. He is not then satisfied with the pole idea. The perception of

stones may next become clear in his mind, and if no inhibiting or

hindering idea comes up, the stone idea carries him into action. He

piles the stones into the stream and walks across.

As was mentioned above, the flow of ideas may take different forms. The

imagery may take any form but is usually visual, auditory, motor, or

verbal.

Further discussion of the point that reasoning is determined by past

experience may be necessary. Suppose the teacher ask the class a number

of different questions, moral, religious, political. Many different

answers to the questions will be received, in some cases as many answers

to the questions as there are pupils. Ask whether it is ever right to

steal, whether it is ever right to lie, whether it is ever right to

fight, whether it is ever right to disobey a parent or teacher, whether

oak is stronger than maple, whether iron expands more when heated than

does copper, whether one should always feed beggars, etc. The answers

received, in each case, depend on the previous experience of the pupils.

The more nearly alike the experiences of the pupils, the more nearly

alike will be the answers. The more divergent the experiences, the more

different will be the answers.

The basis of reasoning is ultimately the same sort of thing as the basis

of habit. We have repeated experiences of the same kind. The ideas of

these experiences become welded together in a definite way. Association

between certain groups of ideas becomes well fixed. Later situations

involving these groups of ideas set up definite trains of association.

We come always to definite conclusions from the same situations

provided that we are in the same mental set and the factors involved are

the same.

Throughout early life we have definite moral and religious ideas

presented to us. We come to think in definite ways about them or with

them. It therefore comes about that every day we live, we are

determining the way we shall in the future reason about things. We are

each day getting the material for the solution of the problems that will

be presented to us by future situations. And the reason that one of us

will solve those problems in a different way from another is because of

having somewhat different experiences, and of organizing them in a

different way.

=Meaning and the Organization of Ideas.= In the preceding paragraphs we

have several times spoken of the organization of ideas. Let us now see

just what is meant by this expression. Intimately connected with the

organization of ideas is _meaning_. What is the meaning of an idea? The

meaning of an idea is another idea or group of ideas that are very

closely associated with it. When there comes to mind an idea that has

arisen out of repeated experience, there come almost immediately with it

other ideas, perhaps vivid images which have been connected with the

same experience. Suppose the idea is of a horse. If one were asked,

"What is a horse?" ideas of a horse in familiar situations would present

themselves. One may see in imagination a horse being driven, ridden,

etc., and he would then answer, "Why, a horse is to ride," or "A horse

is to drive," or "A horse is a domestic animal," etc.

Again, "What is a cloud? What is the sun? What is a river? What is

justice? What is love?" One says, "A cloud is that from which rain

falls," or "A cloud is partially condensed vapor. The sun is a round

thing in the sky that shines by day. A river is water flowing along in a

low place through the land. Justice is giving to people what they

deserve. Love is that feeling one has for a person which makes him be

kind to that person." The answer that one gives depends on age and

experience.

But it is evident that when a person is asked what a thing is or what is

the meaning of a thing, he has at once ideas that have been most closely

associated with the idea in question. Now, since the most important

aspect of a thing is what we can do with it, what use it can be to us,

usually meaning centers about _use_. A chair is to sit in, bread is to

eat, water is to drink, clothes are to wear, a hat is a thing to be worn

on one's head, a shovel is to dig with, a car is to ride in, etc.

Use is not quite so evident in such cases as the following: "Who was

Cæsar? Who was Homer? Who is Edison? What was the Inquisition? What were

the Crusades?" However, one has, in these cases, very closely associated

ideas, and these ideas do center about what we have done with these men

and events in our thinking. "Cæsar was a warrior. Homer was a writer of

epics. Edison is an inventor," etc. These men and events have been

presented to us in various situations as standing for various things in

the history of the world. And when we think of them, we at once think of

what they did, the place they fill in the world. This constitutes their

meaning.

It is evident that an idea may have many meanings. And the meaning that

may come to us at any particular moment depends upon the situation. A

chair, for example, in one situation, may come to mind as a thing to sit

in; in another situation, as a thing to stand in the corner and look

pretty; in another, a thing to stand on so that one may reach the top

shelf in the pantry; in another, a thing to strike a burglar with; in

another, a thing to knock to pieces to be used to make a fire.

The meaning of a thing comes from our experience with it, and the thing

usually comes to have more and more meanings as our experience with it

increases. When we meet something new, it may have practically no

meaning. Suppose we find a new plant in the woods. It has little

meaning. We may be able to say only that it is a plant, or it is a small

plant. We touch it and it pricks us, and it at once has more meaning. It

is a plant that pricks. We bite into it and find it bitter. It is then a

plant that is bitter, etc. In such a way, objects come to have meaning.

They acquire meaning according to the connections in which we experience

them and they may take on different meanings for different persons

because of the different experiences of these persons. The chief

interest we have in objects is in what use we can make of them, how we

can make them serve our purposes, how we can make them contribute to our

pleasure.

The organization of experience is the connecting, through the process of

association, of the ideas that arise out of our experience. Our ideas

are organized not only in accordance with the way we experience them in

the first place, but in accordance with the way we think them later in

memory. Of course, ideas are recalled in accordance with the way we

experience them, but since they are experienced in such a multitude of

connections, they are recalled later in these various connections and it

is possible in recall to repeat one connection to the exclusion of

others.

Organization can therefore be a selective process. Although "horse" is

experienced in a great variety of situations or connections, for our

purposes we can select some one or more of these connections and by

repetition in recalling it, strengthen these connections to the

exclusion of others. Herein lies one of the greatest possibilities in

thinking and reasoning, which enables us, to an extent, to be

independent of original experience. We must have had experience, of

course, but the strength of bonds between ideas need not depend upon

original experience, but rather upon the way in which these ideas are

recalled later, and especially upon the number of times they are

recalled.

It is in the matter of the organization of experience that teachers and

parents can be of great help to young people. Children do not know what

connections of ideas will be most useful in the future. People who have

had more experience know better and can, by direction and suggestion,

lead the young to form, and strengthen by repetition, those connections

of ideas that will be most useful later.

In the various school studies, a mass of ideas is presented. These

ideas, isolated or with random connections, will be of little service to

the pupils. They must be organized with reference to future use. This

organization must come about through thinking over these ideas in

helpful connections. The teacher knows best what these helpful

connections are and must help the pupil to make them.

Suppose the topic studied in history is the Battle of Bunker Hill. The

teacher should assist the child to think the battle over in many

different connections. There are various geographical, historical, and

literary aspects of the battle that are of importance. These aspects

should be brought to mind and related by being thought of together.

Thinking things together binds them together as ideas; and later when

one idea comes, the others that have been joined with it in the past in

thought, come also. Therefore, in studying the Battle of Bunker Hill,

the pupil not only reads about it, but gets a map and studies the

geography of it, works out the causes that led up to the battle, studies

the consequences that followed, reads speeches and poems that have been

made and written since concerning the battle, the monument, etc.

Similarly, all the topics studied in school should be thought over and

organized with reference to meaning and with reference to future use. As

a result of such procedure, all the topics become organized and

crystallized, with all related ideas closely bound together in

association.

One of the greatest differences in people is in the organization of

their ideas. Of course, people differ in original experience, but they

differ more in the way they organize this experience and prepare it for

future needs. Just as in habit-formation we should by exercise and

practice acquire those kinds of skill that will serve us best in the

future, so in getting knowledge we should by repetition strengthen the

connections between those ideas that we shall need to have connected in

the future. All education looks forward and is preparatory. As a result

of training in the organization of ideas, a pupil can learn how to

organize his experience, in a measure, independent of the teacher. He

learns to know, himself, what ideas are significant, and what

connections of ideas will be most helpful. Such an outcome should be one

of the ends of school training.

=Training in Reasoning.= We have already mentioned ways in which a child

can be helped in gaining power and facility in reasoning. In this

paragraph we shall discuss the matter more fully. There are three

aspects of training in reasoning, one with reference to original

experience, one with reference to the organization of this experience as

just discussed, and one with reference to certain habits of procedure in

the recall and use of experience.

(1) _Original experience._ Before reasoning in any field, one must have

experience in that field. There is no substitute for experience. After

having the experience, it can be organized in various ways, but

experience there must be. Experience may be primary, with things

themselves, or it may be secondary, received second hand through books

or through spoken language. We cannot think without ideas, and ideas

come only through perceptions of one kind or another.

Originally, all experience arises out of sensations. Language makes it

possible for us to profit through the perceptual experience of others.

But even when we receive our experience second hand, our own primary

experience must enable us to understand the meaning of what we read and

hear about, else it is valueless to us. Therefore, if we wish to be able

to reason in the field of physics, of botany, of chemistry, of medicine,

of law, or of agriculture, we must get experience in those fields. The

raw material of thought comes only through experience. In such a subject

as physical geography, for example, the words of the book have little

meaning unless the child has had original experience in the matter

discussed. He must have seen hills and valleys and rivers and lakes and

rocks and weathering, and all the various processes discussed in

physical geography; otherwise, the reading of the text is almost

valueless. The same thing is true of all subjects. To reason in any

subject we must have had original experience in it.

(2) _The organization of experience._ After experience comes its

organization. This point has already been fully explained. It was

pointed out that organization consists in thinking our experience over

again in helpful relations. Here parents and teachers can be of very

great service to children.

(3) _Habits of thought._ There are certain habits of procedure in

reasoning, apart from the association of the ideas. One can form the

habit of putting certain questions to oneself when a problem is

presented, so that certain types of relations are called up. If one is a

scientist, one looks for causes. If one is a lawyer, one looks up the

court decisions. If one is a physician, one looks for symptoms, etc.

One of the most important habits in connection with reasoning is the

habit of caution. Reasoning is waiting, waiting for ideas to come that

will be adequate for the situation. One must form the habit of waiting a

reasonable length of time for associations to run their course. If one

act too soon, before his organized experience has had time to pass in

review, he may act improperly. Therefore one must be trained to a proper

degree of caution. Of course, caution may be overdone. One must act

sometime, one cannot wait always.

Another habit is that of testing out a conclusion before it is finally

put into practice. It is often possible to put a conclusion to some sort

of test before it is put to the real test, just as one makes a model and

tries out an invention on a small scale. One should not have full

confidence in a conclusion that is the result of reasoning, till the

conclusion has been put to the final test of experiment, of trial.

This last statement leads us to the real function of reasoning. Reason

points the way to action in a new situation. After the situation is

repeated for a sufficient number of times, action passes into the realm

of habit.

=Language and Thinking.= The fact that man has spoken and written language

is of the greatest significance. It has already been pointed out that

language is a means through which we can get experience secondhand. This

proves to be a great advantage to man. But language gives us still

another advantage. Without language, thinking is limited to the passing

of sensory images that arise in accordance with the laws of association.

But man can name things and the attributes of things, and these names

become associated, so that thinking comes to be, in part at least, a

matter of words. Thinking is talking to oneself. One cannot talk without

language.

The importance that attaches to language can hardly be overestimated.

When the child acquires the use of language, he has acquired the use of

a tool, the importance of which to thinking is greater than that of any

other tool. Now, one can think without language, in the sense that

memory images come and go,--we have defined thinking as the flow of

imagery, the passing or succession of ideas. But after we have named

things, thinking, particularly reasoning, becomes largely verbal, or as

we said above, _talking to oneself_.

Not only do we give names to concrete things but we give names to

specific attributes and to relations. As we organize and analyze our

experiences, there appear uniformities, principles, laws. To these we

give names, such as white, black, red, weight, length, thickness,

justice, truth, sin, crime, heat, cold, mortal, immortal, evolution,

disintegration, love, hate, envy, jealousy, possible, impossible,

probable, etc. We spoke above of meanings. To meanings we give names, so

that a single word comes to stand for meanings broad and significant,

the result of much experience. Such words as "evolution" and

"gravitation," single words though they are, represent a wide range of

experiences and bring these experiences together and crystallize them

into a single expression, which we use as a unit in our thought.

Language, therefore, makes thought easier and its accomplishment

greater. After we have studied Cæsar for some years, the name comes to

represent the epitome, the bird's-eye view of a great man. A similar

thing is true of our study of other men and movements and things. Single

words come to represent a multitude of experiences. Then these words

become associated and organized in accordance with the principles of

association discussed above, so that it comes about that the older we

are, the more we come to think in words, and the more these words

represent. The older we are, the more abstract our thinking becomes, the

more do our words come to stand for meanings and attributes and laws

that have come out of the organization of our experience.

It is evident that the accuracy of our thinking depends upon these words

standing for the _truth_, depends upon whether we have organized our

experience in accordance with facts. If our word "Cæsar" does not stand

for the real Cæsar, then all our thinking in which Cæsar enters will be

incorrect. If our word "justice" does not stand for the real justice,

then all our thinking in which justice enters will be incorrect.

This discussion points to the tremendous importance of the organization

of experience. Truth is the agreement of our thought with the thing,

with reality. We must therefore help the young to see the world clearly

and to organize what they see in accordance with the facts and with a

view to future use. Then the units of this organized experience are to

be tagged, labeled, by means of words, and these words or labels become

the vehicles of thought, and the outcome of the thinking depends on the

validity of the organization of our experience.

SUMMARY. Thinking is the passing of ideas in the mind; its basis is

in the association of memory ideas. The basis of association is in

original experience, ideas becoming bound together in memory as

originally experienced. The factors of association are primacy,

recency, frequency, intensity, and mental set or attitude. Reasoning

is thinking to a purpose. We can be trained in reasoning by being

taught to get vivid experience in the first place and in organizing

this experience in helpful ways, having in mind future use.

CLASS EXERCISES

1. A series of experiments should be performed to make clear to the

students that the basis of the association of ideas is in _experience_

and not in the nature of the ideas themselves.

(a) Let the students, starting with the same word, write down all the

ideas that come to mind in one minute. The teacher should give the

initial idea, as sky, hate, music, clock, table, or wind. The first ten

ideas coming to each student might be written on the blackboard for

study and comparison. Are any series alike? Is the tenth idea in one

series the same as that in any other?

(b) For a study of the various factors of association, perform the

following experiment: Let the teacher prepare a list of fifty

words--nouns and adjectives, such as wood, murder, goodness, bad, death,

water, love, angel. Read the words to the class and let each student

write down the first idea that comes to mind in each case. After the

list is finished, let each student try to find out what the determining

factor was in each case, whether primacy, frequency, recency, vividness,

or mental set. When the study is completed, the student's paper should

contain three columns, the first column showing the stimulus words, the

second showing the response words, the third showing the determining

factors. The first column should be dictated and copied after the

response words have been written.

(c) Study the data in (a) and (b), noting the variety of ideas

that come to different students for the same stimulus word. It will be

seen that they come from a great variety of experiences and from all

parts of one's life from childhood to the present, showing that all our

experiences are bound together and that we can go from one point to any

other, directly or indirectly.

2. Perform an experiment to determine how each member of the class

thinks, _i.e._ in what kind of imagery. Let each plan a picnic in

detail. How do they do it? Do they see it or hear it or seem to act it?

Or does it happen in words merely?

3. Think of the events of yesterday. How do they come to you? Do your

images seem to be visual, auditory, motor, or verbal? Do you seem to

have all kinds of imagery? Is one kind predominant?

4. Test the class for speed of free association as described on

page 193. Repeat the experiment at least five times and rank the members

of the class from the results.

5. Similarly, test speed for controlled association as described on

page 195 and rank the members of the class.

6. Compare the rankings in Nos. 4 and 5.

7. The teacher can extend the controlled association tests by preparing

lists that show different kinds of logical relations with one another,

from genus to species, from species to genus, from verb to object, from

subject to verb, etc. Do the students maintain the same rank in the

various types of experiments? Do the ranks in these tests correspond to

the students' ranks in thinking in the school subjects?

8. At least two series of experiments in reasoning should be performed,

one to show the nature of reasoning and the other to show the ability of

the members of the class.

(a) Put several problems to the class, similar to the following: What

happens to a wet board laid out in the sunshine? Explain. Suppose corn

is placed in three vessels, 1, 2, and 3. Number 1 is sealed up air tight

and kept warm? Number 2 is kept open and warm? Number 3 is kept open and

warm and moist. What happens in each case? Explain.

Condensed milk does not sour as long as the can remains unopened. After

the can is opened, the milk sours if allowed to become warm; it does not

sour if kept frozen. Why? Two bars of metal are riveted together. One

bar is lead, the other iron. What happens when the bars are heated to

150 C? 500 C? 1000 C? 2000 C? Answer the following questions: Is it ever

right to steal? To kill a person? To lie? Which are unwise and mistaken,

Republicans or Democrats?

In the above, do all come to the same conclusion? Why? Were any unable

to come to a conclusion at all on some questions? Why? Do the

experiments make it clear that reasoning is dependent upon experience?

(b) Let the teacher prepare five problems in reasoning well within the

experience of the class, and find the speed and accuracy of the students

in solving them. Compare the results with those in the controlled

association tests. Test the class with various kinds of mechanical

puzzles.

9. The students should study several people to ascertain how well those

people have their experience organized. Is their experience available?

Can they come to the point immediately, or, are they hazy, uncertain,

and impractical?

10. It is claimed that we have two types of people, theoretical and

practical. This is to some extent true. What is the explanation?

11. From the point of view of No. 10, compare teachers and engineers.

12. If anything will work in theory, will it work in practice?

13. From what you have learned in the chapter and from the experiments,

write a paper on training in reasoning.

14. What are the main defects of the schools with reference to training

children to think?

15. Make a complete outline of the chapter.

REFERENCES FOR CLASS READING

COLVIN and BAGLEY: _Human Behavior_, Chapters XVI and XVIII.

DEWEY: _How We Think_, Parts I and III.

MÜNSTERBERG: _Psychology, General and Applied_, Chapters VIII and XII;

also pp. 192-195.

PILLSBURY: _Essentials of Psychology_, Chapters VI and IX.

PYLE: _The Outlines of Educational Psychology_, Chapter XV.

TITCHENER: _A Beginner's Psychology_, Chapters V, VI, and X.

CHAPTER IX

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

=Physical Differences.= One never sees two people whose bodies are exactly

alike. They differ in height or weight or color of the skin. They differ

in the color of the hair or eyes, in the shape of the head, or in such

details as size and shape of the ear, size and shape of the nose, chin,

mouth, teeth, feet, hands, fingers, toes, nails, etc. The anatomist

tells us that we differ internally just as we do externally. While the

internal structure of one person has the same general plan as that of

another, there being the same number of bones, muscles, organs, etc.,

there are always differences in detail. We are built on the same plan,

_i.e._ we are made after a common type. We vary, above and below this

type or central tendency.

Weight may be taken for illustration. If we should weigh the first

thousand men we meet, we should find light men, heavy men, and men of

medium weight. There would be few light men, few heavy men, but many men

of medium weight. This fact is well shown in diagram by what is known as

a curve of distribution or frequency surface, which is constructed as

follows: Draw a base line A B, and on this line mark off equal distances

to represent the various weights. At the left end put the number

representing the lightest men and at the right the number representing

the heaviest men; the other weights come in between in order. Then

select a scale; we will say a millimeter in height above the base line

represents one person of the weight represented on the base, and in

drawing the upper part of the figure, A C B, we have but to measure up

one millimeter for each person weighed, of the weight indicated below on

the base.

[Illustration: FIGURE V--FREQUENCY SURFACE--WEIGHT

The solid line represents men, the broken line, women.]

A study of this frequency surface shows a tendency for people to be

grouped about the central tendency or average. There are many people of

average weight or nearly so, but few people who deviate widely from the

average weight. If we measure people with reference to any other

physical characteristic, or any mental characteristic, we get a similar

result, we find them grouped about an average or central tendency.

=Mental Differences.= Just as we differ physically, so also we differ

mentally, and in the various aspects of our behavior. The accompanying

diagram (Free Association) shows the distribution of a large number of

men and women with respect to the speed of their flow of ideas. When men

and women are measured with respect to any mental function, a similar

distribution is found.

[Illustration: FIGURE VI--FREQUENCY SURFACE--FREE ASSOCIATION

Solid line, men; broken line, women. The numbers below the base

represent the number of words written in the Free Association test, and

the numbers at the left represent the number of people making the

respective scores.]

An interesting question is whether our mental differences have any

relation or connection with one another. If one mental characteristic is

of high order, are all the others of high order also? Does a good memory

indicate a high order of attention, of association, of imagination, of

learning capacity? Experiments show that mental characteristics have at

least some degree of independence. But the rule is that they generally

go together, a high order of ability in one mental function indicating a

high order of ability in at least some others, and a low order of

ability in one function indicating a low order in other functions.

However, it seems that abilities that are very much specialized, such as

musical ability, artistic ability, etc., may exist in high order while

other mental functions may be only mediocre. It is a common thing for a

musical person to be of rather poor ability otherwise. To the extent

that special abilities require specialized differences in the structure

of brain, nervous system, or sense organ, they can exist in some degree

of independence of other functions. Musical ability to some extent does

require some such differences and may therefore be found either with a

high or a low degree of ability in other characteristics.

It is doubtless true that at maturity the unequal power of mental

functions in the same person may be partly due to the fact that one

function has been exercised and others neglected. A person having very

strong musical tendencies is likely to have such a great interest in

music that he will think other activities are not worth while, and will

consequently neglect these other activities. It will therefore turn out

that at maturity the great differences in mental functions in such a

person are in part due to exercise of one function and neglect of

others. But there can be no doubt that in many cases there are large

original, inherited differences, the individual being poor in one aspect

of mind and good in others. Feeble-minded people are usually poor in all

important aspects of mind. However, one sometimes finds a feeble-minded

person having musical or artistic ability, and often such a person has a

good rote memory, sometimes a good verbal memory. However, the so-called

higher mental functions--logical memory, controlled association, and

constructive imagination--are all poor in a feeble-minded person.

Each mental function may be looked upon as in some measure independent;

each is found existing in people in varying degrees from zero ability up

to what might be called genius ability. The frequency curves in Fig. VI

show this. Take rote memory for example. Idiots are found with

practically zero ability in rote memory. At the other extreme, we find

mathematical prodigies who, after watching a long freight train pass and

noting the numbers of the cars, can repeat correctly the number of each

car. Rote memory abilities can be found representing every step between

these two extremes. This principle of distribution holds true in the

case of all mental functions. We find persons practically without them,

and others possessing them in the highest order, but most people are

grouped about the average ability.

=Detecting Mental Differences.= It has already been said that mind has

many different aspects and that people differ with respect to these

aspects. Now let us ask how we can measure the degree of development of

these aspects or functions of mind. We measure them just as we measured

muscular speed as described in the first chapter. Each mental function

means ability to do something--to learn, to remember, to form images,

to reason, etc. To measure these different capacities or functions we

have but to require that the person under consideration _do_ something,

as learn, remember, etc., and measure how well and how fast he does it,

just as we would measure how far he can jump, how fast he can run, etc.

In such measurements, the question of practice is always involved. If we

measure running ability, we find that some are in practice while others

are not. Those in practice can run at very nearly their ultimate

capacity. Those who are not in practice can be trained to run much

faster than they do. To get a true measure of running capacity, we

should practice the persons to be measured till each runs up to the

limit of his capacity, and then measure each one's speed. The same thing

is true, to some extent, when we come to measure mental functions

proper. However, the life that children live gives exercise to all

fundamental functions of the mind, and unless some of the children

tested have had experience which would tend to develop some mental

functions in a special way, tests of the various aspects of learning

capacity, memory, association, imagination, etc., are a fairly good

measure of original, inherited tendencies.

Of course, it must be admitted that there are measurable differences in

the influence of environment on children, and when these differences are

extreme, no doubt the influence is shown in the development of the

child's mind. A child reared in a home where all the influences favor

its mental development, ought to show a measurable difference in such

development when compared with a child reared in a home where all the

influences are unfavorable. It is difficult to know to what extent this

is true, for the hereditary and environmental influences are usually in

harmony, the child of good hereditary stock having good environmental

influences, and vice versa. When this is not the case, _i.e._ when a

child of good stock is reared under poor environmental influences, or

when a child of poor stock is reared under good influences, the results

seem to show that the differences in environment have little effect on

mental development, as far as the fundamental functions are concerned,

except in the most extreme cases.