For example, the stimulus word note is very likely to bring forth different responses from the musician, banker, and teacher. By constructing a list of words containing relevant and irrelevant words, it is possible to determine whether a student has had a course, for example, in psychology. To such a student the following words are very likely to call forth definite associations gained through the study of psychology: nonsense, stimulus, kinæsthetic, etc., while to the average person such words will for the most part have no special psychological meaning. We are all aware of the fact that children in their oral language give evidence of their home and street associations.

The association reaction is one of the fundamental principles in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is too specialized a subject for us to consider in detail, but we can demonstrate the use of the principles in detecting guilt for some act, thus illustrating the influence that environment plays in our associations.

5. Sensation, Selection, and Retention

[PILLSBURY, W. B., Essentials of Psychology, pp. 165-166. Copyright, 1915, by the Macmillan Co. Reprinted by permission.]

The three general principles upon which all explantion in psychology must rest. . . . The first is that all our knowledge comes originally from sensation. All of its fundamental qualities are determined by the character of the sense-organs, together with the nature of the external stimuli. There are some forty of these simplest qualities. These, by their interaction and combination, give rise to the complexes of qualities found in the concrete objects of experience. The second principle is that the order in which mental processes of any sort enter consciousness and whether any process does or does not enter consciousness, depends upon the nature of the individual rather than upon the forces in the physical world. The nature of the individual that determines the entrance to consciousness is itself derived from his earlier experience and heredity. This fact of selection is the deciding influence, not only in perception, but also in recall, and in the voluntary control of action. The third and last of these principles is that each experience leaves a disposition in the nervous system that tends to the reinstatement of that experience on suitable occasion. These three principles recur together again and again in the explanation of the concrete mental operation. Together, they suffice for the understanding of practically all mental processes.

6. Recall: A Factor in Memory

[BETTS, George Herbert, The Mind and Its Education, p. 168. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1924.]

Recall depends entirely on association. There is no way to arrive at a certain fact or name that is eluding us except by means of some other facts, names, or what-not so related to the missing term as to be able to bring it into the fold. Memory arrives at any desired fact only over a bridge of associations. It therefore follows that the more associations set up between the fact to be remembered and related facts already in the mind, the more certain the recall.

7. Recognition: A Factor in Memory

[TURNER, E. M., and BETTS, G. H., Laboratory Studies in Educational Psychology, p. 106. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1924.]

Professor Colvin says that "to recognize an object merely implies that we react to it with a degree of familiarity, but it does not imply that we recall definitely where we have previously had experience with this object." We are all aware of the fact that we recognize the meaning of words which we would be unable to recall for use in our speaking vocabulary. The baby appears to recognize before he gives evidences of recall. Therefore the theories of recognition cannot depend entirely upon recall. Recognition implies, then, the reaction toward an object of past experience and a feeling of familiarity which could not occur the first time the object was experienced.

8. The Training of Memory

[JUDD, C. H., Psychology, pp. 243-244. Boston, Ginn & Co., 1917.] Much may be said with regard to the scope of memory and with regard to the possibility of increasing the scope of memory by training. It is doubtless true that the ability to retain impressions differs greatly with different individuals; some retaining many impressions and carrying them forward through long periods, others having little or no ability to retain. So clearly marked are these natural characteristics of different individuals that the changes produced through practice are relatively small. Indeed, Professor James asserts that there is no possibility of changing the degree of natural retentiveness through training. This statement has been shown to be out of harmony with the

facts, for there are evidences of increase in the scope of memory through training. Nevertheless, Professor James's statement is probably much nearer the truth than the popular assumption that memory can be radically changed through practice.

9. Making Association Purposely

[BOLTON, F. E., Everyday Psychology for Teachers, pp. 198–199. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923.]

In order to have things recalled it will not do to trust to chance associations that are expected to be found because things may be near together in space or time. Everyday illustrations may be given to show that mere chance contiguity in space or in time is not sufficient to produce an association in the mind. A class of forty were asked to tell the number of the classroom in which they assembled three times every week. Not one was able to answer correctly. They were asked to draw a dog's foot and a hen's track as they appeared in snow or mud. The drawings were far from accurate, some drawing three toes and some five toes for the hen's track. These were objects of frequent casual observation, but because no attention had been paid to them, no association had been formed. That the associations had not been formed was no discredit, but it shows us that in all teaching associations must not be left to chance. By questions, by analysis, by careful explanations, and by requiring concentrated thinking, pupils must be led to form definite associations and not be passive recipients of isolated facts. Careful questioning produces new ideas, new combinations of thought, i.e., new associations, thus increasing the number of suggestions and the probability of recall.

When a given idea has been associated with several others, it is of interest and importance to know which will be recalled when it comes before the mind. It is of more immediate interest to know how to weld associations so that the experiences can best be retained and recalled when needed. Although the stream of thought is to a large extent determined by chance associations, many desirable associations are not made without conscious effort. The child, for example, gains in a desultory manner many ideas about nature, art, social laws, and economic relations from his environment. The knowledge thus gained is sometimes so much overestimated that it is not deemed necessary to study these facts and phenomena in a systematic way. While environment is exceedingly potent in shaping one's ideas,

we must not forget that there are many with eyes who see not, with ears who hear not. The country boy with a vast wealth of natural phenomena all about him is too often completely deaf and blind to their richness. It is not at all uncommon to find bright country boys of 16 who do not know as many birds and animals and trees and flowers and varieties of rocks and soils as the city high-school boy who early in the grades has been taught to observe those things. The country boy has wonderful possibilities, but is often without wise guidance. Hence, in order to produce associations, the more purposeful the effort the better the associations will be made.

10. Retention and Forgetting

[TURNER, E. M., and BETTS, G. H., Laboratory Studies in Educational Psychology, pp. 98-99. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1924.]

Retention implies a state of rest during which the learned material is not in the field of consciousness, and after which it appears in the field of consciousness when the proper situation recalls it. This statement is not to be interpreted to mean that we carry around with us the names of our friends, but rather that we possess the machinery for producing the names when the proper stimulus is present. This machinery is the various brain connections.

Just as the fully developed muscle tends to atrophy when exercise is discontinued, so the machinery which makes possible retention tends to atrophy if not used. The ability or inability with which we are able to retain material varies considerably. Some material, such as the names of our immediate friends, is over-learned to such an extent that we are unlikely to forget it. But the poem, learned when we were in the elementary school, unless it aroused within us great interest or often has been repeated by us, may defy our attempts to recall it completely. We may be able to reproduce a word or a line of it; that is, retention may vary from 0 to 100 per cent. When one does not need to repeat a poem in his attempt to relearn it, the retention for that poem may be considered as 100 per cent. If the poem originally required 30 minutes to learn, and if, after an interval, just 15 minutes are necessary to relearn the poem, then we may say that the retention was approximately 50 per cent. The saving, whether it be in repetitions or time, is the measure of retention. It is often surprising to discover how quickly we can relearn the poems of our childhood which we

believed to be forgotten completely. Strictly speaking, we have not only obtained by this method an indirect measure of retention but also an indirect measure of forgetting.

11. The Part and Whole Methods of Learning

[REED, H. B., “Part and Whole Methods of Learning," Journal of Educational Psychology, 1924, Vol. 15, pp. 107-115. Baltimore, Warwick and York.] (Adapted.)

A survey of the psychological literature shows that most writers of psychological texts favor the whole method of learning. Among the psychologists who have taken this stand may be mentioned E. Meumann, Gates, Colvin, Freeman, Pillsbury, Starch, Hunter, Woodworth, Norsworthy and Whitley, and others. They have argued at length for the whole method. At the time of Meumann's work, only one investigation, that of Steffens, was in favor of the whole method. In Meumann's own laboratory, facts were discovered which favored the part method insofar as economy is measured by learning time. Ephrussi found the part method the better for vocabularies and non-sense materials. Of the more recent experiments, those made by Pyle and Snyder and Lakenan favor the whole method while those of Pechstein and Reed favor the part method. A large proportion of those by Larguier des Bancels and Pentschew favor the part method. So far, results in favor of either method were obtained from very few individuals, consequently the generalizations and interpretations are not conclusive. You are advised to weigh and consider the arguments on both sides. Probably judgment should be suspended until we have more scientific data available.

The Reed experiments may be divided into three groups: (1) four experiments with single individuals upon prose and poetry; (2) group experiments to show the influence of the part and whole method of reading upon prose comprehension; and (3) experiments with many individuals showing the effect of method on the learning of poetry.

With the first group of experiments in every case it was observed that the part-method is more economical both in learning and relearning of meaningful material whether prose or poetry.