Ed. Ub- I059 Bennett Formal Discipline THE LIBEIARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES This book is DUE on the last date sta mped below STATE NORMAL SOiOOi, feOS ANGBUBS, CHU. \ FORMAL DISCIPLINE oUXENOkMALStiiOyL, UOS A^GBI^BS, CALK. BY CHARLES J. C. BENNETT, A. M. I7S>5^ PUBLISHED BY Ucacbcrs College, Columbia Tllniverslti? NEW YORK 1907 1908 'LP CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Page The Meaning of the Doctrine of Formal Discipline - . - 7 The Extent of Belief in It and Practice According to It - - 8 PART I. EVIDENCE FROM ANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY Analysis of the Doctrine „ Analysis of the "Common Element" 23 PART II. EVIDENCE FROM EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Empirical Studies of Formal Discipline 30 New Experimental Data - - 45 Ok FORMAL DISCIPLINE Introduction Meaning of the Doctrine. Arising sometimes out of a prion philosophy, and at other times out of naive observations on actual life, there has for a long time existed the notion that mental power was a sort of entity which could be turned in any direction, to the solution of any problem. This is indicated by such phrases as, "He is a man of ability," or, "He has had good mental training," or, "He was well disciplined in col- lege," or "He has great intellectual power," or "He is a man of deep insight, " or "unusual foresight." In all these classes there is no specification of the lines in which these abilities are sharp or effective, no peculiar specification being considered in the general statement. The same is commonly heard in describ- ing people in other realms of expression, as, "He is a man of fine feeling," or "He is very sensitive," or "He is very appre- ciative or full of sentiment;" or still again in another general field, "He is a man of strong will," or "of great force." From these more general affirmations concerning human character, there are numerous gradations toward the specific. For example, "He is a good reasoner," "an acute thinker,'' "a shrewd observer," or "He is a lover of the beautiful," or "is fond of history,'' or "has great courage.'' In all these it will be noticed that there is no particular line in which these capaci- ties are said to be manifested. The question is not put : In what subjects is he an acute thinker, or of what sort of beauti. ful thing is he a lover, or in what phases of life is he courage- ous, e. g., in fighting, or in facing an audience or a woman; or of what sort of history is he fond, or in what lines is he a good observer. Again the question may be more narrowly put : He is a good mechanic, but with what tools.' She is a good musician, but on what instrument.!* She is a good painter, but 8 FORMAL DISCIPLINE with what — water color, oil, or pastel? Now these narrow questions are not what the advocate of formal disc ipline puts. He takes the larger words as exponential of character, like "well.trained mind," and holds that the particular actions are simply the outcome in certain directions of that general mental attitude. And the result on the side of education, both in theory and practice, is apparent. Any subject which exercises the stu- dent is as good as any other, or, if there is any difference, it is one of degree. The remoteness of the subject from the life which the student is to follow is of no importance, whether this remoteness relates to the subject matter, the method of getting that subject matter,or the accomplishment effected by the study. Though one were to be a Christian in adult life in morals and religion, the study of pagan literature was as generally helpful in that direction as the study of Jewish literature, for after all it gave the general things called "culture,'' "outlook." The same was held to be true of history, so that even yet modern history occupies a very subordinate place, if any at all, in most of the high schools, which are thinking more especially of the mental development of the student as opposed to the college which has more nearly in mind the nearness of practical life. Indeed, the great argument for the classics, for geometry, for algebra, in the older courses, and later for the introduction of botany, physics and astronomy, and still later for drawing, nature study and manual training, has been in more or less explicit form the dogma of formal discipline, i. }f' //' M FORMAL DISCIPLINE f However, there is much naive observation to lead to this "central energy" doctrine. We see that a brisk walk, though its particular form may be limited to the exercise of a few muscles, has a general bodily effect of making one feel better; or on the other hand a day's work with a very limited lot of muscles, the others being in a state of apparent rest, makes the whole body and mind tired. Each action seems to get a general response, there seems to be such a thing as inter-organic sympa- thy. It is easy to carry over this generalization to the realm of mind, and to make similar conclusions for it. Conscious exper- ience, also, supports this view, or seems to. We have a feeling of unity, a persistence of self oneness, not only longitudinally but latitudinally, not only from day to day, but in all the pro- cesses of the day at one time. We do not feel any such mental members, as we do physical. So whether we take analogy or direct consciousness, we may very rationally come out at the same place ; namely, that no effect is local, nor even localized with branches into other regions. Mi nd is then a totality, a unity, and any effectonkistotalj^^ni^^ The'second^lnean i ng~ofrorma 1 discipline_does not go so far. Man is a^umtyTHut only in certain respects. It is now a matter of the one including the many. Man includes within himself many little men, each with a different ^cKaracter,^et in some my^tenouswaycapaBTe^o^ other. _These are calleT'^erceptlorv Memo^ Imagination, Reason, Feeling, and WuiT They are entirely disparate in character and in func- Honp^uT'each is as real an entity and also as homogenous in constitution as was "The Mind" of the first position. The pre- cise attitude of this faculty psychology was laid bare in the phren- ology of Gall who located each of these separate persons with the names given above, in a separate compartment of the brain. A man didn't reason; his Reason did. A man didn't memorize; his Memory did. A man didn't will, but his Will did. A man was not imagination, memory, etc. ; but he had imagination, memory, etc., assistants which he employed when he needed them. He himself was different from all these, as they were different each from the other. He really was a something outside of his own mental states of Memory, Imagination, Will. FORMAL DISCIPLINE IS There are three important sub-phases of this general posi- tion, which need to be stated. The first was put forward forci. bly by Beneke, one of the first strong opponents of the Wolffian psychology and its consequent pedagogy. He considered that there were three original possessions, different in degree but belonging to every person: (a) animation or sprightliness (Lebendigkeit), which shows itself in making of concepts, judgments, relations; (b) power or force (Kraftigkeit), which shows itself in greater moderation, less pain, fear, quicker recoveries; and finally, (c) impressionability, sensitivity (Empfindlichkeit) ; these three are fundamental impulses, origi- nal capacities, which become differentiated into many forms of activity in later life. Any enrichment, dwarfing, or modifica. tion of these primitive mental sources modifies all the mature processes depending on them. The analogy in the biological world is the differentiation in evolution from a single homog- enous protoplasmic cell into the later complex animals. These original possessions constitute a sort of general intelligence, whose early cultivation or limitation diffuses itself into all later developments. (^) The second is that represented by Dr. Bahrwald,(^) who conceives of the mind after the form of society, in which there are individuals, but which is much more than the mere numeri- cal unity of these. There is a general intelligence resulting from the refinements and organization of experience on the passive side, and also in turn reacting upon and directing these on later individual experiences. This is also really the position taken by Spearman, who holds that there is a kind of domina- ting or directing mentality susceptible of training through the exercise of its specific expressions. "There exists a something that we may provisionall y termjGeo graJ^lenie iJisHnmmation^ anSTImTlarly a General intelligence, andJarther'tKat the'TuncJr Tlonal corFespondence' thyTa bsol^ute/i^Xy The third sub-phase concerns the internal groupings oi lese tw o is n ot appreciably less faculties, within >yhjch cross effects are possible. With Socra- ^Beneke, Erziehungs und Unterrichtslehre. ■^Bahrwald, Theorie der Begabung, p. 12. *Spearman, American Journal of Psychology, yo\. 15, p. 272. /. i6 FORMAL DISCIPLINE tes, knowledge determined will, and since then there have been clairnannioT''mteractiona^^ in all degrees : e. g., know- ^ledge_affectsthefeelings, and the latter the will; memory acts on reasoning,_ and reasoning on pre^entatToh, but not on the differentfacuiti^^The feelings ; so'alVo the Tove for beauty in form increases the sensitivity to the aesthetic in other direc- tions, but is inoperative on the will. The third_jiew_of formal discipline does not go so far as the second. While the distinction is a very real one, especially in practice, it is not easy for me to give it. Its cleavage does not run between separate mental powers which may operate in a relatively independent way, but, without distinguishing between the mind and body as such, between organic processes. The conception is that the whole person^ as such, functionsjn a certain way this moment ancT in another way the next, and that we may rightly classify these acts on the basis of certain elements common to the processes rather than on the things or powers which make up, or arc involved in these acts^ Under the former scheme, one trained his attention ; under this, he trains himself to do a complicated act called, as in the other, "attention." Or, one is trained in discrimination, which in its very wording puts emphasis on the act. This view refers to a congeries of nerve, muscle, attention, etc., which makes dis- crimination a function rather than a fact with mere content. To illustrate, a wood-chopper in the handling of the axe uses hands, arms, eyes, will, etc. So likewise does he use the same arms, eyes, will, etc., in pushing the plane, or driving a nail. The same engine may push or pull, or carry a load; may run up hill or down, backward or forward. The classification is made on the act in which the engineer — engine organism, enters as the agent. It conceives of every act as inyolyingQo a, greater or less^ degree all the mentaT^na physical capacities. For example, in reaHmgTn~^«(? VadisotX^o^xe inRome, there is involved not only my ability to image absent objects, but also my capacity to memorize, to discriminate, to compare, to sense, to judge, etc., besides the motor accompaniments, which are equally present, though not to the same apparent degree. This posi- FORMAL DISCIPLINE 17 tion is clearly in the mind of the manual training advocates who speak of the hand-eye-mind training, or the motor-sense adjust- ments and co-ordinations. There is another phase of this diffusion theory of participation which I shall have to put in as a corollary, and yet it may have all of the truth there is in the doctrine of formal discipline. Emerson calls attention to the fact that character is not intel- lect, great mentality, or exceptional emotional qualities, or unusual volitional capacities, if we are to judge by the number or novel quality of their actions. Yet we say that certain per- sons have strong characters, commendable dispositions, a some- what which underlies all those more noticeable mental and phy- sical phenomena. Points in this genera j_niake-up ma^be^s£ti>- arat ^d_out, such as cautTonT^^eTjabnity. s^ anity, prudence^ taste ^ atmosp here, integrity, w h olesomeness, ap plicati on, sympathy . etc. These^arejioj^actsiihe y^ ar e^ totaljia^itualways of per- sonal response^ Their unity undoubtedly connotes~~wh"at we mean by ' ' culture. ' ' Thesejarge personal va lues may not come. from^nxtrans fer of special training in any o f the senses already enumerated. Yet h may be tha ^system, industry , _ economv in its largest meaning, personal unity. £tc. . ma y be obtained froni the study of almost an}' subject^__and, for the moment overlook- ing the knowledge side, from one subject as well as another. These accomplishments may be called generalized habits or modes of action. They are often referred to as the "sub-con- scious" effects of education as distinguished from the conscious ones, such as improvement in "method," skill, or what not. They are largely unmeasurable and untestable, but constitute the "color, " the "atmosphere, " the spirit, the character. We have become a part of every person and thing we have touched. The last view of formal discipline, to be now described, is the extreme of the first! TF holds that we are machines for do-_ ingthin^ just as truly machines as any that our hands fashion for sawing lumber or rolling iron. We are a system o f levers^ £ulle_j3^etc. , a conscious machine,^_aTid thejryndj^s ajvord u^d to distinguish a— ^C£itai n_phase of the m achine ; for example, it defines the purpose, sees the end, marks out the way — it is the cabman on the carriage. Our learning to do this and that no i8 FORMAL DISCIPLINE more signifies that we can do something else than the fact that a saw is tempered and sharpened for sawing signifies that it can make a shovel. It may make a shovel, but that is not because if its edge being a good saw but because it is of such form that it may be adapted to the two purposes. So we may do o ne^thin^ well and also do another well, because we are so__pliably con-^ strucEearHaTwel^ay'HoTheseTwo things well. Also, I may be able to do one tliing^weTl and" another very poorly, because in this case I am made correctly to do the one and incorrectly to do the other. To do the other, I shall have to make some new combinations of muscles and nerves, etc., that is, make a new machine for this new work. In support of this are brought forth many men of great skill in one line unskilled in others, who have to get this second skill if they wish it, by as arduous labor as if they could do nothing else. There is little or no cross influence. We do not cultivate "powers," or the "mind," or ' ' f amities, ' '~"or'air'"'^organis m7''^^ specific modes of action, each with its own peculiar coof^TnafTon^ ^men^faTa^^moTbr. Of course, the'practical a3vice of this doc- trine in school life is to get at a thing that is to be done, with- out any intervention or doing of another thing as a medium. We have no Memory, Imagination, Reason, but can memorize this series of facts, not necessarily that ; have good judgment about this situation, but not another one ; can easily picture certain conditions, but not others. As with machines generally so with men : there are many sorts. These four positions seem to me to define the territory in which the problems of formal discipline arise. There yet remain the two questions: What is it that is carried over? and What are the means.? The first_anjwer is that studies give an increase in the nativeforce, original power, brute~capaat y^^^^^th e7oot-pounciro? energy^cTtolpealc.' ^nteiTectuaT"capacities" carry here the idea of room tKaT^has been enlarged ; spiritual or emotional range that has been extended. It is as if more potentiality had been added. No one faculty is sharpened, no special skill or knowledge secured; but just as food in the body is carried to FORMAL DISCIPLINE 19 all parts of the organism of the growing child by the circulatory system, without in any manifest way giving skill or deftness to any one part, so mental pabulum, through some sort of mental circulation, apperception, or something else, adds energy, force, power, strength, range, capacity, richness to the soul. The mind is built up by what it feeds upon ; not simply by what is taken into it. but by what is assimilated. Then the teacher's problem becomes: "What are the studies with these largely nutritious elements in them, and what are the proper ways of presenting them so that they will most effectively be ingested by the mind, and, as properly digested food, eventuate in action? What such a teacher is after, then, is not this or that particular skill, or this or that body of knowledge as such, but the issuing of opinions, judgment, poise, cosmic and human sympathy, insight and adaptability— in short, the quantity and quality of the larger life. The second position, of course, denies the first, and holds that the oulyresulTw^ich is moreJhan _local in its effect is ^ ^n Qwledge p^^TmowleggeoT factTw hich are of more or less ge n- erarappl ication, ancn^"mertiogs particularly. ' TFTs h'eld more narrowly that one gets the idea of accuracy, say in mathematics, as a proper rule to follow in solving any sort of problem ; and so though one is never to use mathematics yet as it n^CQ^^il^X.^^ par excellence the use of care, precision, etc., it is the subject to study so as to secure these methods which are of such universal application. The function of schools is to J2ligg,.QUtJn the clear fore front of consci ousness from the frag- ments and^nds of things ^caTIedloT'convemHce^llpBr^^ grapH}^^etc._, tKe common essen ces, their common values. and^eiT- eralize therru GetlheknowleHge^^tan^ mg_and^ex£eriencin£jn avital way such things as_ t£uth, hones ty^ .ada^bnityj_Jiumanit^^ subject, points out that the Greek teachers so universalized mathematics in their teaching, that number and geometrical form became to them a real way, a vital category for thinking any and all sorts of things universal, and had been made to arise out of the particular, in no mere metaphysical way, but in such ^Western Journal 0/ Education, May, 1903. 20 FORMAL DISCIPLINE direct contact with life that ever afterward it became an apper- ceptive form of the mind. We surely do have concepts not limited to the particular act which gave them origin. The thirdjDOsition^ holds ^that^skill^_J — taking on this habit or that mannerism, and finally this trade or profession, and finding, as in the case of Darwin, the neglected possibilities becoming more and more impossible. The boy can easily learn to ride the bicycle, or to speak a foreign tongue, but the adult, whether educated "all round" or in a specialty, finds much obstruction. The child can readily learn several languages, and speak them all equally well, but necessity forces a choice, which becomes a habit — and that gate of opportunity is closed, but closed that others may be opened. The man has simply become a machine to grind out a certain grist : educational, legal, medi- cinal, or what not. Habits, or training in certain ways, then, aid others by cooperating with them ; by assisting them. But there is the other side. He is never a pure machine; he is alive, and is changing, so that literally no two successive moments find him at the same place. He represents an un- stable equilibrium, hence every successive act is not what the preceding one was. Yet the preceding acts are the strongest 28 FORMAL DISCIPLINE determinant of what their successors shall be,— that is, educa- tion is possible. The effects of one day are not final, but deter- mine a new and different condition of tomorrow. "Aj^jmen jiever_thmkjthejajnejl^^ — the same act over again^ a^djhe_^sential^jifference^be^^ ITvMiig^nHliornrvIn'g things^ies in the fact that 2iyigg_thiljis^ influence of external surroundings, butthat any change J.hat_^ talces place In fHern is not lost but retained,_ and, as it were^ 'KmTfling]"ltg"~OT founda tion for future^ actions."(^) It surely would hardly be held that the knowledge obtained in school can be used again only under the conditions in which it was first taught. As Bacon taught, it may become power in realms much removed from its original source. It becomes a means of guidance in undreamed-of situations. Newton learned, no doubt, his numbers in connection with balls, stones, people; he applied them to stars and unseen forces. Knowledge is never mere cumulaljoa^amatte r of numerical incr^g-s e^^^as^ the atomisrwouTHTogicall y hqld ; as surely as the mind lives the 'indivi^uarfacts'aTejostled along until they are either forgotten, or enter into vital connection with few or many other mental states. If the extended application does not arise, it is probably due to the character of the knowledge rather than to the nature of the mind. This l ast thesis j s ^su2ported_b}^Moore, who_considersJjie transfe r of ftraini ng to come through an acquaintance with ^iethods7 ways oThandiTng^one^ rgelf, d ata^ prindgles, ^t ooIsl^^) It is aiso strongly empKasizedin the educational philosophy of DI^_^Dewe}^,(^) The sch oo l_i s_tq_be d. method of approach to the Jargerjjfe^__a^_^lace_wl^^ and processes are So the tests, in such cases, of effect fveeclucat ion, ' acq uired would be of the children's familiarity with social procedure, and their ability to use this knowledge under novel circumstances. The function and character of consciousness, the teleology ^Moore, Western Journal of Education, May, 1903, p. 299. *Moore, Western Journal of Education, May, 1903, p, 307, 'Dewey, School and Society. FORMAL DISCIPLINE 29 of knowledge, throws a side light on the problem of transfer. So long as mind was made a receptacle for whatever might creep in through the "windows of the soul," as Dr. Harris calls the senses, little could be said one way or the other on formal dis- cipline, unless there went with it the notion of mind as a sort of spiritual entity of the homogenous fluid sort. In that case, transfer would be large and inevitable. But mind^n_Jact i^ ^selective, active, motor, not as a wound-up toy which runs helter-skelter, nor as a vessel which takes in everything, but as a train on a track that is going somewhere in a special way. So it goes well in this direction and poorly in another! We have eyes to see, but we do not see many things which are before us. We discriminate easily here but not there. These facts are remembered at a glance; others will hardly stay after many repetitions. These are the evident truths of consciousness, aside from the question of whether one act aids another. And it is the same in the emotional consciousness. A physician by whom I sat at the opera lately was transported by the music ; he could literally feel a bodily reponse throughout. Yet afterward he said he could not conceive of what religion meant or how it felt, or of what nature its emotions were. The same distinctions are applicable to the will. We desire and are strong here ; we are colorless and ineffective there. We know of visuels, tactiles, audiles; of people who can see words, but can not say them; who can say them, but cannot write them ; who can hear them, but get no meaning from them, whereas if they see them they can understand them, etc. So the "all-round man" and the "many-sided interest" are figures of speech. From the appearance of the impulses in the child, with its accompanying movements, to the philosophic or professional interests of the adult, tjieJnteresJ^s.^JthejTiotives , the m e thods, th jg ffigljngs^^ Jhe^ ideals, the processes are functions,— are purposeful^ PART II EVIDENCE FROM EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY Empirical Studies of Formal Discipline The following section is a summary of the direct experi- mental data in so far as they have not already been summarized in the chapter on Formal Discipline in Thorndike's Educational Psychology : Dr. Jastrovv reports a series of laboratory tests made on two men famous for their skill as sleight-of-hand performers, (^) and at the same time compares the data with that obtained from a group of students who were subject to the same tests. The skill of these men, due to years of practice, was such as to put them in the rank with the world's few thousands of best "hand-and- eye" trained people. He first determined their tactile sensibility— distance for two points — with aesthesiometer. Mr. Hermann, 3.5 mm.; Mr. Kellar, 2. 5 mm. Average results from a considerable number of miscellaneous individuals, 2 mm. The next test was to arrange five weights in a series, in which each one weighed 1-15 of previous weight; Mr. Hermann failed, Mr. Kellar sue. ceeded; both failed for weights differing by 1-30. In general test, 92 % got the first test all right, 66% the latter. Sensitiveness to texture: Subjects passed their fingers over sets of wires' wound closely. In the first set, the wires in each successive case were one.fourth coarser; in the second set, one- eighth coarser. The sets were to be put in order. Mr. Kellar put first set in correct order, but got all wrong in the second set. Mr. Hermann got both wrong. "Another form of motor and tactile capacity was tested by requiring subject to arrange in order a series of bars of varying ^Jastrow, Science, May 8, 1896. FORMAL DISCIPLINE 31 length by passing the forefinger across them." Both Mr. Her- mann and Mr. Kellar did this successfully, sixty per cent of a miscellaneous crowd also did it correctly. Both Mr. Hermann and Mr. Kellar are ambidextrous. They were tested in moving both hands equidistant from a central point to right and left. Average distance fur right hand was 241.5 mm., for left hand, 247 mm. There was no regularity as to which hand would go farther from central point, as is shown by the following figures: for Mr. Hermann, 318, 330, 123, 302, 116, 260 for right hand; 316, 344, 140, 268, 160, 225, for left hand. This variation in the distance of the two hands is common to people in general. For Mr. Kellar, for right hand: 281, 357, 404, 155, 108, 313 mm.; for left hand, 268, 333, 411, 187, 133,337- Average excess for left hand, 8. 5 mm. ; average for right hand, 270 mm. ; left hand 278 mm. There was no regularity as to which moved the farther. "The subjects were required to mark off on the three arms of a cross a distance equal to that marked off on the upper arm of the cross, 50 mm. The lengths of the arms were unequal. Results for Mr. Hermann, on the left arm, 70.5 mm. ; right arm, 44. mm. ; lower arm, 60.5 mm. Mr. Kellar, left arm, 54.5 mm. ; right arm, 52. 5 mm. ; lower arm, 50 mm. Average for a mis. cellaneous group: left arm, 54 mm. ; right arm, 54 mm. ; lower arm, 61 mm. Mr. Kellar's average for the lower arm was less than the general average. Visual perception test: "form alphabet;" "twenty-five characters were made, composed of short and long, vertical and horizontal strokes in various combinations. Two hundred and fifteen of these were printed in miscellaneous order upon a sheet. A certain one of these was singled out for identification, and the subject was required to indicate as many occurrences of this character as he could detect within a limited time {90 seconds). Mr. Hermann marked off eight correct ones, Mr. Kellar marked off eleven. The general average of persons succeed in recognizing about eight forms in this time." Tests for quickness of movement and of mental processes : "For Mr. Hermann the maximum number of movements of the forefinger alone was 72 in 10 seconds, or 7.2 per second; and of 32 FORMAL DISCIPLINE the forearm, 75, or 7. 5 per second. For Mr. Kellar, forefinger, 83 in 15 seconds, or 5.5 per second; and for the forearm, 127 or 8. 5 per second. The average for large number of individuals for the forefinger movement, was 5.4 per second; and of a group of ten persons, 4.8 per second. The average forearm movement of the same ten persons was 7.5 per second. It thus appears that the movements of both Mr. Hermann and Mr. Kellar are rapid." Reaction time of Mr. Hermann to touch on right hand, 104^ ; variation, 11 ° ; Mr. Kellar's time was 129"^ ; average variation 10 ^ . For sound for Mr. Hermann, 163 ^ ; average variation 32 '^. For Mr. Kellar, 116'^ ; average variation, 25'^. For visual reaction for Mr. Hermann, 126°; average variation, 26'^ ; for Mr. Kellar, 125°, average variation, 6*^. For a group of miscellaneous people: touch, 172^; sound, 165'^; light, 176'^. "It thus appears that both of the special subjects tested, their reaction time was quicker than that of the average individual. "(^) To test manual quickness of movement : Time was taken between the touching of two instruments three feet apart, with same hand. Mr. Hermann's time, 610*^, variation, 76*^ ; Mr. Kellar's, 299'^, variation, 23°. Compared with ten other in- dividuals, whose average was 364 ^ , Mr. Kellar's time is below normal, although it is equaled by six out of the ten ; and Mr. Hermann's time is very long. Distribution of red and blue, associated with movements of right and left hands. "Mr. Hermann's time was 301 '^ , average variation, 64°; Mr. Kellar's, 256°, average variation, 56'^.'' Both shorter than with the miscellaneous group. But a more complicated reaction involved a movement with any one of the five fingers in response to the appearance of the numbers i, 2, 3, 4, 5, behind an opening in a screen. '' Mr. Hermann's time for such a reaction was 901 ° , with a variation of 200 ° ; Mr. Kellar's time being 753^, with a variation of 91°. The average time for ten individuals for such a reaction is 588®, with a variation of 84 "^ . So "their time is below normal in a reaction involving a simple distinction and choice, and is con- 1 J astro w, Science, May 8, 1896. FORMAL DISCIPLINE 33 siderably larger than the normal in a reaction involving a com- plex distinction and choice." For quickness in perception of color: Mr. Hermann, com- pared with 40 persons, had about the same quickness 5 to 4. 5, had much better when color and form were combined : 3 to 1.8 ; and also for words seen separately, 2 to 1.4, but could read clearly fewer words in one exposure. So Jastrow concludes, "On the whole as regards the quickness and scope of perception, Mr. Hermann would rank well (except in reading words in a sen- tence), but by no means exceptionally well in the general average." Mr. Kellar, in a similar test, ranks below Mr. Her- mann in all but the reading of words in a sentence, but would be equalled by 86% of college students." "I have repeated these tests on a local sleight-of-hand per. former, and find for him a good record and particularly a great quickness in movement. " At the Montana State Normal College, Dr. Bagley under- took to determine whether the habit of producing neat, well ar- ranged papers in the arithmetic work would function in the written work in English, Geography, and other studies. The experiments were carried on for three months in the inter, mediate grades. The results are most startling. The improve- ment in .the arithmetic papers was large and very noticeable from the first, but during the same time there was not the slightest noticeable improvement in the appearance of the language and spelling papers. (^) A recent extended contribution (^) to the problem of formal discipline is limited strictly to the territory of memory. There were eight subjects, all adults and people of large training. The tests were secured through use of A. non-sense material : (i) letters; {2) figures; (3) non-sense syllables. B, sense material: (i) words; (2) Italian words with no logical connec- tion ; (3) poetic phrases, and (4) prose sentences. By these the immediate retentiveness was determined. For testing the rate "^School and Home Education, 1904,9. 102. ^E. Ebert and E. Meumann, Archiv fur die Gesamte Psychologic, IV B. IV 2 H, 1904. 34 FORMAL DISCIPLINE of forgetting, another test was set consisting of long rows of non-sense syllables, rows of many-formed figures (visuella Zeichen), Italian vocables, poetic phrases, and prose sentences. It is to be noted that these preliminary tests were very extended, especially the second ones, which were relearned at intervals of increasing length, the rate of forgetting being thus determined by the comparative number of repetitions necessary to regain them. Then came the practice series, consisting of 32 rows of non-sense syllables, 12 in a row. • However, only 8 rows were learned, and relearned once, when a test series was again given. This method of retesting with the long preliminary series was thus gone through three times, and seemingly occupied much more time than the practice series. This taken in connection with identity in kind of some of the material, and great simi- liarity of the rest, made it possible to report the following improvement in per cents: Words. Prose. 11% 28% 60% 11% 9% 28% 66% These appear suflficient to the authors to enable them to say: "It may not be denied when the facts are taken into con- sideration that there is a general memory training, also that it is out of the question to increase through practice any special memory isolated from the totality of memory function. "(^) In order to test James' position on the incapability for increase in the memory powers. Winch exposed to different school grades, at intervals of about 7 days, twelve consonants arranged in four rows. After being presented, they were repro- duced in writing in 25 seconds by the children. As an example of the increase, standard seven may be taken. Tests with ip. 165. ■^. 157. Sjgj (Amounts Jess than i per cent omitted.) Non- sense syllables. Figures, B. 60% 85% Br. 40% 57% F. 125% 160% M. 16% 22% S. 33%0 57% W. Id^oC) FORMAL DISCIPLINE 35 entirely different combinations of the consonants were given on June 5, June 12, and July 3, and the results of increase in memory are shown by the following per cents of consonants remembered in proper order: 25.5, 30.3, 32.7. His conclu- sion is that James is wrong; that "pure memory'' is markedly improved by practice. When one considers the shortness of the practice and the largeness of the results, it seems pretty evident that the interpretation of their efficiency was familiarity with novel data, and not increased native power. Mrs. Carrie Liddle practiced sorting a pack of well-shuffled cards of six different colors, as rapidly as possible. All the cards as they were taken from the pack were put in a particular stall. When the maximum speed in sorting this pack was attained, another pack made up of cards differing in color from those in the first pack were sorted. The sorting of this second pack was kept up until a speed limit was reached. Then a pack having various geometrical designs on the cards was distributed in stalls as were those with colors. She found that going over from one pack of cards, after a speed had been reached, did not raise the time of curve much, if at all, and consequently ihat ability secured in discriminating one set of colors, or designs, aided in doing the same process with other colors and designs. And this was invariable for the eleven subjects, some of whom were children ; the others, adults. Psycho-physical ly the process was very complicated, so that while there is no question of the fact of distribution of cards of one sort, with greater facility, from practice with another sort — and that is a pertinent conclusion, — yet it is possible that this facility was due to the persistence or presence of, and hence training of, some simple motor co-ordinations. (*) Cross- Education. Another series of studies bearing on the general topic are the "cross.education" experiments. By this term is meant the results in skill, power or size in one side of the body produced by training the other. When Blair elec- trically stimulated the muscles of one ear, the motor discharge was simultaneous in the other, there being a tendency for the ^From an unpublished thesis on Transfer of Mental Facility, Univer- sity of California, 1904. 36 FORMAL DISCIPLINE two to work together, as with children there is a tendency for both parts of the body to work together. So there is this much of a cross effect : a co-ordinate stimulation. However, "when an impulse has once actually reached the muscles, the process from that point onward is one of segregation, elimination, co- ordination, adaptation." Bryan, at the conclusion of his work on motor-ability says: "It is certain that the right hand does not outgrow the left, and the fact that at 15 and 16 years of age, the probability of R>L is less than at 12, 9, or 6 years of age, seems to indicate that the left has gained upon the right. At all events, the fact that the left hand should make such relative improvement both in ability to carry out a movement, in which the right hand has had all the practice, tends to confirm the probability of bilateral effects of practice," which he says is largely mental. "The amount of force which can be exerted through one hand, and the time during which it can be exerted depend upon whether at the same time or just preceding, force has been ex- erted through the other hand." (^) Volkmann, by practice, increased the sensitiveness to the difference between two points on the left arm from 23.6 to 11. 2; at the same time there was an increase in the right arm, which was not practiced, from 26.4 to 15. 7. C) To determine whether other symmetrical parts are thus trained, he found the distance within which two points appeared as one for the tips of the fingers of both hands, and also for the left arm. Increasing by practice the distance on one of the fingers of the left hand, in- creased it for all the other fingers but not for the arm. The most extended experiments on this phase of the subject come from the Yale Psychological Laboratory. The first are from W. W. Davis. (') Oscar Raif, Professor of Music in the Berlin Hoch Schule, took the average speed of some pupils for both hands. For the ^Bryan, Atnerican Journal of Psychology, Vol. V, p. 202. ^Thorndike, Educational Psychology, p. 86. ^Yale Psychological Studies, Vol. VI, p. 7. FORMAL DISCIPLINE 37 right, it was 116 per minute; for the left, 112. He gave them exercises for the right hand only to develop rapidity. After two months the right hand yielded 176. Then he tried the un- practiced left hand, and it had gone up to 152, from 112. (') Exercising the great toe in rapid tapping, brought up the ability of the other foot, and both hands, though to a much less degree. In lifting weights by the right arm, its strength and size were increased ; and at the same time and on the same parts in the other arm, which was unpracticed, there was an increase. Also in lunging with a foil, six subjects were practiced, with right hand, with the effect of increasing its accuracy very markedly; and also, in a lesser degree, the accuracy of the left hand, which was not practiced. The records of four experienced fencers are given. Ac- customed as they are to use foil in right hand, they were little more skillful with the left hand than the unpracticed. The author remarks that the "form" of the right and left sides was very alike, and that the "fencers themselves were surprised to find it s© easy to lunge lefthanded. " (^) Group IV practiced the right hand in grasping a stick, but the transfer was of a negative sort, there being losses. This may be due, says Davis, to the fact that "the muscles learned how to contract properly for pressure of the cylindrical stick, but gained no advantage from this for gripping the dynanometer. " "F. was a strong, healthy man, a trained and skilled gym- nast. During 21-2 weeks practice — in tapping with right foot — he was not able to make any marked gain. He himself said, 'If I try to hurry too much, my foot stops almost altogether.' His gymnastic work had so developed his ability to send down to large muscles immense amounts of stimuli for action, that for a test involving small muscles he could not become an expert.'' (") ^W. W. Davis, Vale Studies in Psychology, Vol. VI. 2W. W. Davis, Vale Studies in Psychology, Vol. VIII, p. 75. ^Davis, Vale Studies in Psychology, Vol. VIII, p. Si. 38 FORMAL DISCIPLINE Of two subjects, one with much previous training, the other the reverse, the former gained in skill with a new instru- ment much more rapidly, as the table shows. (^) I St final 2nd final Average Previously trained 10.48% i4-36% 12.42% Not previously trained -1.27% 2.50% .61% On classifying subjects beforehand as phlegmatic and ner- vous, Davis found that a certain form of exercise had more effect on one class than another. Observe the following table :(2) The effects of this sort of practice on one person are indicated here: I st final 2nd final Average First, light practice 2.78 .24 1.51 Second, vigorous practice 12.04 6.85 9.42 The following table indicates two things : first, the transfer from the practiced to the unpracticed hand ; and, second, the difference in the amount of transfer as produced by vigorous and light practice. The ergograph was used to secure the practice. Distance weight Distance. Gain. Distance Gain was lifted in after 3 wks. after 7 wks. over beginning. of practice further ist (hard). light final practice. Left hand 1341 1488 11% i757 18% Right hand 1316 1492 13% I54i 3% (not practiced) Note that though right hand gained much in first effort, it did not at second. "This fact proves that the unused does not always get a share in the benefits of exercise. One side, by long continued practice, may become over-developed, while the strength of the symmetrical muscles on the other side may even be diminished. "(^) Joteyko fatigued right hand by exercise with ergograph, and finally secured pressure records with dynamometer for both 1 Davis, Yale Studies in Psychology^ Vol. VIII, p. 92. ■■^Davis, Yale Studies in Psychology, Vol. VIII, p. 93. ^Davis, Yale Studies in Psychology, VIII, p. 100. FORMAL DISCIPLINE 39 hands, as was also done at first. There was 3.decrease inactivity of left hand about equal to 20%. He concludes "the decrease in the unused hand was caused by the loss of energy in the cerebral enters. "(') Davis with the dynamometer tested both hands, then prac- ticed one of them. About half of the fifty subjects trained one hand, and the remainder trained the other. There was a gain of 8.06% for the men with the trained hand, and an average gain of 9.92% for the untrained. For the women, there was a direct gain of transference of 5.84%. There was a transfer effect for all the men but one; for the women, six failed to gain at all, and five lost somewhat. ''C^) (*)The left biceps and right abductor indices of two sub- jects, R. and W., were trained. The gain for W. was 26% ; for R-i 43%. But also the left abductor which was not exercised showed a gain of 100% for W., and 40% for R. The gain in the right biceps, "the most remote anatomically," was correspond, ingly less— 8% for W. and 32% for R. Other experiments were made by training the right abductor indices, with an effect of 52% gain for W. and 45% for R. ; and left biceps, of 2% for W., and 4% for R. So that "it appears that the accessory muscles of one side gain approximately as much from the exer- cise of the corresponding muscles of the opposite side as from the exercise of the fundamental muscles of the same side. That is to say, the diffused motor discharge from one side to the other is as great as that from the shoulder center to the finger center." For example, "the left abductor had no training, and shows a total gain throughout the entire series of about 300%." "Also it seems certain that the exercise of any muscle reacts upon all related muscles, which is to say that diffusion takes place in both inward and outward directions.'' The right hand and left were both tested for keeping up three balls. Then the training for the right was continued until great skill was reached, when the left was tried again. No tables 'Davis, Vale Studies in Psychology^ VIII, p. 104. ^Davis, Yale Studies in Psychology y VIII, p. 72. ^Wissler and Richardson, Psychological Review ^ VII, p. 29. 40 FORMAL DISCIPLINE are given, only the curves, which show: (i) "That the record for the left hand was in all cases higher than the preliminary test, never in one case dropping to it." (2) "All the subjects made a better record with their untrained left hand, when practice*^' was 'finally begun, than they had been able to do with the right hand at the beginning. ''(^) "Volkmann found that six months of regular practice in dis- tinguishing small visual distances, in which his eye gained remarkable power, had no effect whatever on his ability to dis- tinguish small tactual differences. "(^) A Miss B. was required to insert a pointed iron in a series of holes of diminishing size. She did it first with the left hand, giving 50'^ of successful trials. Then training with the right hand so that the number of successful trials rose from 60 to 88, the left hand was again given its turn, showing ^6'^'Jc of success- ful trials. C) That the chief element here is the attention is shown by the lowering percentage if there were any distractions, and (second) if the attention was focused on the movement rather than on the hole. "The training was psychical rather than physical." By using a dynamometer, the pressure by the left hand arose from 29.6^/^ on March 7 to 42.3% on March 20; while the practice was all with the right hand, whose strength arose from 28.8 to 48.6 in the same time.(*) Simon noted the curious fact that practice in judging with botheyes brought with] it but little betterment in judging with either eye alone; but when the left eye had been practiced by itself to its maximum powers, then the right eye also, although itself unpracticed, was nevertheless found to have advanced to its maximum. iSwift, American Journal of Psychology , XIV, p. 201. ^Swift, American Journal of Psychologv, XIV, p. 220. ^Scripture, Yale Psychological Studies, Vo\. II, p. 114. ♦Scripture, Yale Psychological Studies ^Vo\. II, p. 118. '^Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 56, p. 589. 120 2CX 3-9 7-1 3.8 6.6 FORMAL DISCIPLINE 41 "Practice with the left hand helped the right hand also,"(^) as is shown by the following table: 40 Before 3. i After .07 "There is no appreciable improvement at the rates for which the left hand had not improved. These results show (i) that the transference from one side to the other — a transference which has been established in other investigations as taking place from the right side to the left — also takes place from the left to the right ; and (2) that it is not mere practice that has this effect, but only successful practice. '' From these experiments on cross-education, the following may be said : There may be a carrying over of training effects from one side of the body to the homologous members on the other side ; these effects may be either in the form of skill, or force. In some cases there is no transfer; in some a negative transfer, or loss. There are indications that the "common ele- ment" is quite as much mental (knowledge of method or direc- tion ; attention), or objective, the likeness of the external situa- tion, as that it is physical. The failures and losses are as im. portant for a correct theory as the success. Correlation. — The chief evidence which anti-formalists bring forward is the seennngl}r'^convancTngo^ en£esainong^^opT£^^a^^ 'gooa memory for tones, but a poor one for colors, one who believes in a "memory faculty'' might consistently explain this varia- tion as due to the differences in the nature of the stuff— tones being easier to retain than colors. But if that were the explana- tion, all people should be better in committing tones to mem- ory than in memorizing colors; and increasmg one's skill in do. ing one thing should give a corresponding increase in doing the other. To prove this false seems a work of supererogation, so plenteous are the human refutations all about us. There are, ^Woodworth, Psy. Rev,, Monograph Series 3, p. 104. ^t 42 FORMAL DISCIPLINE however, as is well known, studies by Wissler, (^) Aikins, (^) Thorndike and'others,(*) which, even after their results are cor- rected for attenuation, as shown by Spearman, (*) show the thorough-going lack of complete correlation. Data from the Education of Extreme Types . Some side con- tribution bearing on this problem comes from the education of the extreme types. When we are dealing with the average man who is fairly well equipped with the abilities society demands, it is easy enough to make assertions both ways. On the one side the formalist can point out the numerous men who have taken the straight old line college course and who have gone into the most diverse occupations and succeeded, and say, "See what his Latin, mathematics, etc., did for him; and further, he will point to the tradesman, the artisan, the clerk, who has not had the intellectual training given by the college course. His opponent, some Herbartian, perhaps, will reply that the first men had such native talents that they would have succeeded in any case; that they went to college as they wore certain clothes, because it was the thing to do among their set, and that since all, or most all, bright youths aspired to go to college, naturally enough the colleges produced great men. But it is different with the abnormal classes, where the effort of the schools is to make them normal, and where the efforts are more or less measurable. As is known, idiots and young criminals were until quite recently considered hopeless and treated accordingly. However, men with the opinion of Dr. Seguin(^) have held that many such seemingly hopeless cases were merely instances of undeveloped conditions, and as Beneke had held in the early part of the century, so conceived of education as the removal of hindrances, the opening up of '^Psychological Review^ Monograph Supplement No, '^Psychological Review, Vol. IX, pp. 374 ff. ^Columbia Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and Education, Vol. IX, passim. ^American Journal of Psychology, Jan., 1904. ^Rooper, Educational Studies and Addresses, ch. I. Seguin "On Idiocy." FORMAL DISCIPLINE 43 avenues, the removal of limitations. So Dr. Seguin began by merely exercising the limp, flabby hand of the imbecile, mas- saging the muscles, moving the arm up and down. Then he gave the children incentives at first for doing physical move- ments. From these simple bodily processes, the steps are to easy mental requirements. So finally the clouded and atrophied tracts become open, both for the reception of sense stimuli and transmission of motor impulses. Often there would be freedom of innervation, but control would be wanting. "The eyeballs would roll from side to side with a short uneasy motion, and the range of their movements was small." By selection of proper exercises, these irregularities were often brought under control. In this way a higher intellectual life was made possible. The transfer was in giving even what normal abilities the child had, a fair opportunity and in putting some links in the chain of ac- complishments. "Arrested development must be taken to mean unequal arrests." "There are ten per cent of imbeciles above the median in memory, and nine per cent in intelligence tests. "(0 Johnson(^) points out that retentiveness is not a prominent factor in feeblemindedness. More than 15% of im. beciles are equal to average children in tested mental traits. These quotations from studies on imbeciles, who differ from the average person only in degree, support two assertions :— First, that "the normal intellect depends upon the interaction, and proper co-ordination of various parts of the nervous system," which same parts can be more or less effectively put together by the processes of education; and, second, these "powers" - or "faculties" of the weak-minded are of unequal strength, and show no tendency to bring up the wanting faculties or abilities. To further refine the first conclusion, it means two things : that the education of the socially incompetent consists in the acquire- ment of certain habits or co-ordinations which are of more or less general applicability, and will so make them tolerable by society and partially self-supporting, and again that these newly formed habits and opened pathways make it possible for their ^Norsworthy, The Psychology of Mentally Deficient Children. 2John.son, Education of the Feeble-Minded. 44 FORMAL DISCIPLINE more normal capacities, previously hemmed in and hampered, to find expression. The history of the reformation of criminals has run a par- allel course with that of imbeciles. They were judged to be all bad, and hopelessly so. Now, we think with many, if not all, that both statements are false. The phrase "honor among thieves" indicates but one of many virtues which thieves may possess. Their feelings may be very tender under certain excit- ing situations, and completely lacking in others. Criminals are often very religious, have keen aesthetic appreciations, and yet are morally insensible. Their judgments and intuitions are often very alert and refined in one line, but without efficiency in others. (^) Their courage is superb, often under the most terrible circumstances; and under others, their timidity, fear and cringing are despicable. Heredity and training seem to accentuate in them all sorts of differentiations in mental traits; and their training is often of the hardest and most successful sort. Nor are they hopeless. They seem so to be under the formal disciplinist conception of education, which makes them dress alike, march in line, go to bed and get up at a certain minute. The requirements in penitentiaries are military: minute, exact, orderly. This, it is presumed, gives the prison habitues the habits and ideas of accuracy, promptness, obe- dience, respect, neatness, orderliness, industry. True it is that the inmates do for years these very commendable things ; and to an onlooker who sees these men making such records as any martinet might be proud of, the prison system seems truly to be a great human reformatory. But it is only in the seeming; the facts are very different. Few of the men are made better, and most of the youths much worse. So now there are coming into existence such institutions as the George Junior Republic, C^) and the Elmira Reformatory (^), which abandon the doctrine of formal discipline and so employ an entirely different scheme of ^Havelock Ellis, Criminology., ch. on Psy. of Criminals. ^George Junior Republic, World's Work, Vol. II, p. 1296. ^Winter, Elmira Reformatory , N. Y., p. 2. FORMAL DISCIPLINE 45 education. It rests on two notions : first, the inmates are to acquire the knewledge and ideals of the better people of the larger world outside, and get the habits and modes of action which they will need in that larger life; second, to get these the prisoners are organized as far as possible into a type of society at large, in which the means, methods, motives and rewards are duplicates of those which will be needed when out of the prison. In a word, on the negative side, they have abandoned the cultivation of reason, of the will, of the emotions, of the habits of order, of obedience, etc., and they train individuals to do the particular things they need to do, to think and feel in the partic- ular ways that will be desirable for them, and finally to know the particular things they need to know. These institutions are successful as the records of the "grad- uates" for ten years show only a very small per cent that go back to their former wayward life. New Experimental Data The first experiments to be reported are two on the practice effects of memorizing, which were carried on, from the point of view of method, in the manner of those of Professor Wm. James on this same subject, except that the material was more varied. Subject K's preliminary and final test series were with rows of figures, each prepared by a different person, and the practice was on poetry; subject 'B's tests were with names of places, the practice in poetry. First experiment : Subject K. committed to memory five rows of figures, thirty figures in each row, at the rate of one row per day. This was the first test. The final test was also for five days, one row per day of thirty figures. The training was carried on for four weeks and consisted of memorizing sixteen lines per day from "In Memoriam." The data are given with curves. Fig. I. But one figure in the first test is as low as the highest in the final test. The absolute difference in the two series is 28 minutes, or 58% of the time of the first test. The average sav. ing for each trial is 5.6 minutes on an average time of 9.6 min- 46 FORMAL DISCIPLINE utes in the first series. Furthermore, the final test does not continue to fall as if it were part of the practice curve started in the first test. It may be that there were certain figure combin- ations in the first test which offered peculiar difficulties to the subject. Of such she was unaware, for she felt no special obstructions in one group more than in the other. No doubt the habit of doing this sort of mental work at a certain period each day, and the passing away of certain mental confusions which at first operated, were large factors, possibly sufficient to account for the difference. On the other hand, it is quite prob- able that the failure of Professor James' subjects to improve was due to their mental poise and "at-homeness" in doing just such work. The more specific directions for subject B. in the memory test were as follows : (i) Write out five lines of names of places, with fifteen names in each line, and commit one line each day for five days. The record for the time was kept in minutes, and will be found with Figure 2. (2) Two stanzas of "Faerie Queene" were committed then, every day for five weeks, the record again being carefully kept. (3) Again five lines of names of places, fifteen in each line, were memorized, at the rate of one line per day. By reference to Fig. 2, it will be seen that the work was done in a shorter time, the absolute difference being four min- utes, or 22% of the time of the first test. The first test is too brief to give, thinkably, any practice effect that would extend over the five weeks of interval. It is possible that the reflex from the learning of the poetry came in the form of a mental preparedness for doing that kind of thing each day. The possible increase in the ability to remember figures, could readily come from the special training in doing that very thing in so many subjcets of the curriculum. On the whole, then, an increased eflficiency has come from these four years. It has been small for the most part ; less than could be secured by a few days of direct training. So as a by product of their particular courses, while it is definite and pos- sibly all that could be expected, it is almost negligible. The second experiment concerned the improvement brought FORMAL DISCIPLINE 47 A. B. 15- 10- -1 r-j 1-1 L-J n P-'" n — d u S- Rql. A. B. L^^-^M_rx Ro2; Fig. I. Improvement of memory for figures due to practice in mem- orizing poetry. Subject K. A shows the ability in memorizing figures (in- versely, by the time taken) before the practice (solid line) and after the practice (dotted line). B shows the course of practice (by the time taken) in memorizing poetry. The times required for learning 30 figures were : before practice, 9, 12, 13, 9 and 5 minutes, after praciice 4, 5, 5, 2.5 and 4 minutes. The times required for learning 16 lines of 'In Memoriam," were; in order, 12, 14, 10, 14, 12, 10, 13, 9, 12, 10, i6, 13, 15, 6, 8, 8, 7, 10, 7, 10, 9, 1 1 6, 12 II, II, 9, 6 minutes. i Fig. 2. A and B mean the same as in Fig. i except that here the record is that of Subject B. The times required for learning 30 figures were: before practice, 4, 4, 3, 3 and 4, after practice, 4, 3, 2, 3 anci 2. The times required for learning 2 stanzas of the ''Faerie Queene" were, in order, 10, 5, 7, 10, 10, 5, 7, 6, 8, 9, 5, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 5, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 4,4 minutes. 48 FORMAL DISCIPLINE about in the discrimination of length by the eye as a result of practice in discriminating length by the knowledge gained from arm movements. There were two subjects, S. and D. The practice with both subjects was done with the follow- ing instrument : Into a narrow upright frame were fixed two parallel horizontal steel rods, about two feet long and one and one-half inches apart. On the lower rod were two spools fixed immovably at 25 cm, apart, and on the upper rod were two spools which were freely movable. Subject vS., being blind, folded, passed the index finger between the fixed spools, without touching the rod ; and having thus secured the space-image, adjusted the upper spools as nearly as he could at an equal dis- tance. In half of the cases of each day's practice, the movable spools were shifted to a distance greater than the norm; and in half, to a distance less than the norm, preparatory for their ad- justment by the subject. After each adjustment, the upper spools being held, the lower ones, by means of a slight contri- vance, were brought up against the upper ones, so that the sub- ject S. couldy^^/how much of an error he had made. The plan with subject D. differed only in that he touched the rod in the passage between the limits, thus getting both a motor and a tactile basis for judgment. For the preliminary and final tests for both subjects D. and S. the judgments were on the same sort of material, though the apparatus was not the same in both cases. A single black strip, 25 cm. in length was exposed for a definite time; following this, another of indefinite length was exposed, and then modified until the subject pronounced it equal in length to the norm, 25 cm. In half the cases the indefinite strip was longer to start with than the norm, and half, shorter than the norm. In both practice and test series, it is to be noticed that the norm was of the same length, the judgment in the former being wihout any help from the eye, in the latter with such help. The measurements are given in Table i. FORMAL DISCIPLINE (fl'O M5 -5 3 « !S *^ *> I 4) CO ■fO •<♦■ N t^ t>. 3 1> *.. ^ — . . ^ ^ a u H o WD ►J (/) 03 CQ < C— 1 I— 1 ^ C/5 CO « Oi «-S« JJ^^^^'S.^S I^O -.vg P^N r^-; O-.^ y ■" « <^ 2 po a> « o ^ « vo "100 o n oo o oo W 2-5 :3 Q ^ >-« CO 3-f? ry' «,. 4>.ti.5 \OsDoOO t^oo 00"i- •-i o o W "" r- *> "^ <«.-■'-' Ssfl H!>ob";: ou^o-o "^oo - vo oo oo o 0) <4 Wis N N N 4) "" so FORMAL DISCIPLINE These figures represent the average of five different records, that is, the actual data consisted of five times as much as is represented in the tables. The practice effects m the practice series are not very great, though more pronounced in S. than in D. One reason for this may, be that both subjects were skilled experimental psychologists, who as students and teachers had drilled themselves into many forms of movement. This is further suggested by the curve rising rapidly at first, which prob- ably represents their period of getting acquainted with a novel form of apparatus. This acquaintance being secured, actual physical dexterity grew slightly. Another reason for this low degree of increase was the hardness of the test. The fact of be. ing blindfolded added confusion by breaking out of the chain an ordinary associate in judgments of extension. Then, the prin- ciple of judgment with S. was very unusual; viz., deciding a length on amount of space passed though^ without touching anything. It was so wearing on the subject that it could be kept up but a few minutes at a time. This weariness was not so great with subject D., who used the ordinary means of touch in measuring the length. Concerning the main issue, the result of the experiment is negative. One subject showed improvement in the tests after training ; the other was, to an equal degree, inferior. The third set of data are figures showing the improvement after four years' college education in certain mental capacities. These figures are derived from the tests made at the Columbia University Psychological Laboratory, on students when they entered as freshmen, and again on the same students as seniors. This material is fully described by Dr. Clark Wissler in "The Correlation of Mental and Physical Tests. "(^) Those selected for comparison in this study are the tests on (i) perception of pitch, (2) perception of letters at different distances with (a) right eye, (b) left eye; (3) reaction time; (4) rate of perception in marking the letter "A" in a prepared page of mixed letters; (5) auditory memory for figures; (6) memory for a simple pas- sage; (7) quickness in naming different colors. '^Psychological Review, Mon. Sup., No. 16, p. 4. FORMAL DISCIPLINE • 51 In discrimination of pitch there was a slight gain, there being 57 cases of improvement, 32 of deterioration, 9 of no change, a median gain of i point, which means a reduction of the amount of error by about 1 5 per cent. The details are given in Table 2. In sharpness of vision, there was no demonstrable change, though (counting both eyes' records) there were I37 cases of improvement to 78 of deterioration, 71 cases showed no change, bringing the median to o gain. The average of the senior records is slightly superior. The details are given in Tables 3 and 4. In reaction time there was a slight gain, ^^ of the senior records being shorter, 61 longer than the early records, and 2 being equal. The median gain was ,006 sec. or roughly, 4 per cent. The details are given in Table 5. In the rate of marking A's. on a printed sheet of capital letters there was clear improvement of roughly 10 per cent. If only those cases are taken where the number of errors in the early equals that in the late test, the shortening of time measures improvement. The result of the calculation is a median dim- inution of time of 11 seconds. The details are given in Table "6. In auditory memory for figures there was no demonstrable change, though there were 60 cases of improvement to 38 of deterioration, and the average of the senior records was slightly better. The median tendency was, however, to no improve, ment. The details are given in Table 7, in which the upper and lower of each pair of figures represent respectively the fresh- man and senior records of one man. In memory for a simple passage, there was no improvement. Sixteen did better, 15 worse, and 8 the same in senior as in freshman year. For details see Table 8. In naming colors there was a median gain of 11 seconds or roughly 15 percent. 22 individuals improved and only 5 got worse. For details see Table 9. One of the cases in which improvement might be rationally expected was that of so-called logical memory, or the memory of a simple passage. However, it was there the very least, the movement being in the positive direction, but within the zero 52 FORMAL DISCIPLINE C3 O vO 00 vO ro 00 o M ~^ M < !z; y= HO fe I-; -a U u 00 Ji 3 y3 Tf ro w-> t>. 00 vn dj 1) C/3 VO ,*• C/3 rt t^ t^ « OO O .S o t^ t^ > > < < \r^ a>' •S is-! e 5 < lU 1) 0^ "•d ^?t ^f^ Sii ^?J. P^^ CJ,^ oOn m<^ f^"* r^t^ 'X '^ ^uT) r^>^ "^-^ f^u^ •Oio r~»0 N'* vO"^ i-,N t^'T M ^ii Pi^ '^''^ '^^ ""•"'' "^* ) I ^ ►7-, ^_^ i-it< ►"« t^«- NM M"" Pl'^ „^ rn? vOf^ -OvO nn MM in^ "^ "* QQ ry^ qj 15^>- — li^ N*" ''« r^- <^<^ 1^2 *i,<^ 2S ^ ?oo^ '■"'^ ^"^ ^"^ "^"^ ^ O -c ?^.^M •^O MM -^I^ «"" 0~ 2I°0 " rj-r^ uiLO •^f'l -0\0 u-)'0 •*\0 CO <^ 10 vO vO » o ■ \0 00 M M C/2 u f^ ;^ ^ M " o '^o N- OM «,"- M« mO O-^ 'T"- mO m~ f^M vn^O u^ -^ "S-^O iri\0 u-iO I'l ir> -^ «M T»-„ i_M «^0 mC> «m ""O MOO 00 00" to-0 O "« M "" M MM <3 f^ O >J~> > > < < 10 to "^ t^ fO ro bi) >.^ c I- c u ft, g 2"S IS w "O u u u v D (U Xi^XJ e e s 3 3 3 ZZ2; 54 FORMAL DISCIPLINE — o •1 vri " N 1-1 vO Tj- N « t^ \0 vO NO 00 NO VO NO 00 tT t^ NO N o ■* N N N 00 N N N N xO'* »o r,. I^ vO VO VO O VO 1^00 t-~ r^ 00 N r^ N N "T N N ■* Tf N N w-> ^/^ ro U-) VO ■>!■ ro VO r^ VO rooo ■* ■* VO VO -* o M hi 1-1 N i-^oo PJ t^ -* »o "^^0 NO r^ NO NO ro •* VO ro o « NO <-'^ VOOO ro VO 11 N ^ N 1-1 N ■* NO N (^ H« •^ N \0 t^ NO ro t^NC I^ -^ vonO • W 13 N <-) Im M >-' M N N Tf r^ t^ N N VO VO H O lO^ lO VO VO Tj- ro ro VO VO fe W u ^ hJ m ro N 1-1 t^vO vO O VO ro N NO VONO vOnO t^ ;-! o (U 1 -*-» N C« M N m N OO o f^ NO <^ N W M M 1 o 0) vO ^^ t^ t^ \0 "^ ro ^r VO VO VO VO H-1 pq < H-H ■*-* ►1 o H HH M 1-H ■* " vo"^ N n tT 1-1 c/3 > vO ^ VO vO SO NO rfNO vOnO rrNO E- O - 00 \0 •J^ NO VO N 00 VO -^ NO ^ NO O M 1-1 1-1 M f^ VO W PL, >- N ■1 N M N "^f N r^ N r^ N M -r vO t^ NO VO VO VO tT VO ro VO ro VO VO -^ VO 15 M N M O 'J- r^ •-I N O o 00 - to ro ^ 2 < xo r^ t^ r^ Tf ro NO vO vonO ttnO icrease ecrease « N O -* N ^ « N N O -tj-nO >o I^ VO ^ VO tT nO vO VONO nOnO .5 -a 1-1 N NO t^ vOnO -O r^ -^ >-l TfNO ■ > < < nS^^ N t^ »1 n M Nt VOOO tT O NO Tj- 1-nO lO ro roro vOnO 00 NO Tl-NO f< N ro N ^^^ N N N N -^ N O r^ Tt rovi iona easi \rt r» NO NO VO »o •>r '^nO Plfo ro tT imp Stat: deer ■* N 1^ Ti- N 00 N « H. 1- N >- ■1 N u u u tU (L) (L) '^Ul ro Tt VO Tj- t^NO nO t^ vOnO nO r^ •quin iquin quin C> Tt ■I r^ O T^ h-< IM N 0\ •* M 1— d ^•z,"^ lOOO \0 ro VO VO NO NO t^>o TT VO On O (4 N M N 00 N t Tt NO NO N W Wlt^ NO NO \o lo vO »0 -* -^ fOrO VO !>. FORMAL DISCIPLINE S5 u->00 00 N rO 'T ■* CJ «-t « — N OS W I^\0 N CO N 00 to lO torO fioO OO^ i-M c>"^ Mil Mn M— xN i-irj u^C^ t^'^ «»^ TfO rO"^ Ooo Tf* ro^< rvio vOvO riN, N-i-i «■-■ «•« 1-I-. w vOo "-ivo i/^O vnO <^ov '^'T "2 '^'^ fl„ >-ll-l >-<" I- — < -JO W 3 -■O OO -rr-* Nun oo f^oo '-I <^ t^vO O fO 21 Hi; in •^ -T n -" p-« »-« 0\ M HI 0\ U-IOO ON -"f ""2, riiJ-> r^ro ~0 OO^n OnOO i^ Ov \0 CO -^00 •* " M •* _« MM MM MM M" o a, e ° rt > >• «> ;:?^ 00 O r^ < <-• ro M tJ R f) M 4> DO " • o c MO .5 8 o 1> bO a' 'J ' > •=; ro O M N M c« *> 2 ^ wi " Cfl O rp N «;< 7 T* T "^ 9 7 » 6 »In ^0 ro 1^ *■« 00 00 NOVO 00 GO ONOO O0\O vO V 9 00 t^ N N N \0 9 S> 7 ^ 00 f^ r^oO 00 o 00 00 « Tj- -. ° c 9 9 9 t a> o 00 o uT- c o o V 7. N I-" -^ O rvo 00 o " "" "" •" " u (d o «: \0 - (^ P^ rO N iTi M 7 I* 9 7 9 4J 00 " A NO ro 4f r) On 6 ON N^ OV DO (A V3 OC 00 Coo r>. i-x OOO o *^ OOO N p* M o D o H» °9 ? M On rooN On NO 6 n6 E op - 9 6 ON- o t^sO O tC 00 lO 00 NO rvoo Ov t>. •< is — z 9 7 6 M A ^ VT) ■^9 rOO 6 N ro6 ro 5 O OT- O N On -o « OnO On O j-OO NO ro 00 M) z k> ,S ^ u 1^ o CO imp Stat det€ imp ro 1) a; ^6 w r^ 7 9 w o r< M ro "• N On ■-« — :3' p^XIXl 3 00 6n. OOO 6 i 1^00 00 00 00 6 o o 8n^ ro 6 Ov© 00 00 Num Num Num Medi On vO M H M lO ro — lO r^ 6 r- ^^ i«i t-. 00 00 ror^ I^NOO ►- O -00 O t^ r^NO W S 9 9 9 9 i^— Nro OO -^f^ ^ 2 O (»" O^^ -^r? ro>!n nOnJo 66 66 r^NO 6 CO Qi -^ „ -- oOOn OO 0000 0000 or-. OnJ^ ctnoo He - *j W V a pL, ^ « 2"^N m-"^ - ro— N— 99 Nro 99 ijo9 v^^ c t«^, OOnO O"^ no rovo iloilo — N ro6 ror< "^O Nt^ J* Q2 •-' OnOnOOO OoO r^r^OOOO OnOO On t^ 00 »0 g w - ^ ^ vo 2 97 99 97 9 r ?7 97 5| 9 <;t_,XA. ^^ ilnr^ ro6 66 "^O if"^ O"* Oro Pi ^ ^S S^ -o '^^ 2*^ -'" 2°° Z°° '^'^ a, 1/1 ■^ B o Q — ai V > j< < >j — N Z O fO \0 l-H — Q - y ^9 «9 99 Y^9 f^>'^ '?7 9f "P7>^ 5? • X 66 6co ooob r^io u-(io rON oro nOn QnnO i-^ k« ^ .H ^ O ^5-0 r^NO OnOn moo OnO rON O>0O 00 tJl OnOO 5? '** 't! > c ^ 9 r "Pr 79 99 79 7^ 77 9 TY' ^^ "?> ■-- -- ■'■-^ OOnOO— OO — m vriNO !i* •^ro 6*^ 60 I'lM — O OOnO OOf^ N— rt^ —I TO — N N O — r» r( O r» 6 >o 6ob ikoo vn u^ OoO On t^ t-f f^ !>. t>. W »^ — H S 6 g 3 3 ^Z, FORMAL DISCIPLINE 57 r^ lO \o i~^ 00 CO On 00 00 00 00 i-^ ri J^vo O 00 «~~-00 loio lo-^ u^iA r^r~. 00 00 "^00 r^. r^ vO vO OnO t^t^ uSl^ tOLO U^f>. u vq rovd \0 ro o' o' 4 t^ vq vq vq roro i'^ UO •>f lA^ yqyq 1^00 r^vd rOvo t^ r^ r^ vdoo too vq vq rnvq vq vq »0 rC 00 00 iAtJ- vd r^ Tj- LTI t^oo 00 00 fo vq rovq ro fnvq vq ro r^oo r^oo "^ c< vO r^ r^ ti r^ r^ 00 00 »0 r^ rOvO vq '^.^. >q r^oo lo lo r^vd r^ t^ vd r^ 00 00 r^vd f^ ro ro r>. ^"^. ro pp ri t^ vO r~. 00 00 00 00 00 00 rx lAi vn lO .5 "O rovq vd ri r-» r>. 00 t^ + rp t^ vO rn i^vd o'vd lO c>. r^ vd 4 00 r>- rnvq rovq t>. r^ tnvo to r^ ro vq ro r; r^ ■* r^ r^ r>.vO 00 00 -TvO ro rO vO vd vd 00 -d o >. 00 vO bO C M>^ '■^ c w rt ra i> > G o o .2 c o- 03 v s V i/i ta u k. u (U 4> V ^ Xi e E e Z22; S8 FORMAL DISCIPLINE O vo 0\0 rtX) Ph O 9i "ft 1 )-' H lU ^ vO ^ y5 ■(-> rt 15 "S >^ 00 o V N fO W 1 J3 -"S i-, CQ ;-i > < < lo N bc O vi^ ^i o c o^oo y f*'*^ a u a • -H rt »- > c o 2 o-C m •^ impi stati dete t^>o u b b a> V v ^X3J3 sss 3 3 3 z:^^ FORMAL DISCIPLINE 59 limit. Presumably the increase which the four years of college work has given is along some special line or interest. This agrees with the tests on this same point on men of science carried on January, 1905, Philadelphia, at the last session of the American Association of Science, by Mr. F. G. Bruner. Men of Science, Logical Memory 3.55 points out of 8. College Freshmen, •' " 4.45 " " " 8. As is seen, these famous men cannot remember the thought of the few sentences given in the test better than beginning college students. The only clear gains in the four years are in the speed of the ability to pick out and mark the letter "A" among other letters, and to recognize and name a series of different colors. Both imply added control of perceptive and motor connections, one in the eye-hand complex, and the other in the word area. The second test was only in a small degree a test of the quick- ness of color discrimination ; the hesitancy was over the name for the color. There was such a quickening, however, as was referred to above. The fourth series of experiments shows the result of special practice in discriminating different saturations of blue upon other sense powers in the case of sixteen children from the Speyer School of Teachers College. They were of average in- telligence, and none of them had had any special training in color. They were about eleven years old. A Milton.Bradley color wheel was used, with a set of the larger and smaller disks. Two of the smaller disks, of different colors, e. g., blue and white, were adjusted so that there was a fixed per cent of the blue and of the white. The outer disks were of the same colors but were shiftable, so that the amount of blue could be increased or diminished at will. When the disks revolved the inner disk presented a blue of one degree of saturation, and the outer disk another. The amount of this difference was indicated on a scale-disk. The children recorded their judgments with an 'T" or "O" according as the saturation of the inner disk, or outer disk, was greater, or with an "S, " if it was the same for both. The preliminary and final tests were in discriminating 6o FORMAL DISCIPLINE different mixtures (i) of red and white, (2) of yellow and green, (3) of orange and black. There was also, a preliminary test in distinguishing differences in pitch. Finally these children were tested in discrimination of length, in marking A's and in accuracy of movement. The practice was continued on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2 p.m., tor a half hour, through the period from October to March, and was done with the blue and white disks. In all this color work, the method of minimal gradations was employed, since it permits a class experiment. The children occupied the same relative positions to the color disks through the series and as far as possible, the light was maintained the same by use of shades. The training with the Speyer School children was very definite, and gives some very clear results. With the boys, the range within which the two tints of red were judged the same, was from 2.3 <^ to 4. 5*^ atthefirsttest (See Table 10). The 2.3'=' as opposed to the 4.5® represent the practice effects that came in during these preliminary trials. When these disks are re- turned for the final test, the range is from. 6*=" to .9°, (A. D. .2 to .4). This difference can hardly be considered to be a contin- uation of the rapidly descending first line, for, first it starts in much lower (1.9 '^), and, second, with the brief experimental period at first, it was not likely that the habit should have per- sisted through four months of complete inattention to these par- ticular colors. Again, the first line is a falling one, the last figures not indicating that the level of skill has been reached, and that it would fall further may be inferred from what happened with the practice curve for blue and white, which likewise started in at 4.5 '^ and fell to an average level of i. '^. But the second line is not a falling line, seeming to be simply the con- tinuation of a level line of skill. These same statements are perfectly duplicated in the case of the girls on the same test (See Table 10); and for the boys, with yellow and green (See Table 10). The only variation from this in the other two cases — girls with yellow and green (See Table 10), and boys with black and orange (See Table 10), is that the first curve indicates that practice effects had not ap- FORMAL DISCIPLINE 6i THE TABLE lo INFLUENCE OF SPECIAL TRAINING CRIMINATION Tests with red and white IN SENSE DIS- Boys. Before training After training Girls. Before training After training Boys. Girls. Boys. Girls. Boys. Girls. Before training After training Before training After training Avs. 4.5 A. D's. I.I Avs. .6 A. D's. .4 Avs. 3.5 A. D's i.o Avs. .48 A. D's. .2 Tests with yellow and green 4-5 '•5 •7 ,2 o 5 75 ■3 Avs. A. D's. Avs. A. D's Avs. A. D's Avs. A. D's 6.7 1.0 2.0 1.0 5-0 1.8 2.8 •9 Boys. Before training After training Girls. Before training After training Tests with black and orange Avs A. D's. Avs. A. D's. Avs. A. D's. Avs. A. D's. 3-0 •7 1.2 .6 2.7 .8 1.8 •5 2.8 3-0 1.2 •9 •3 4.2 1. 1 .65 .2 4.0 1.0 1-3 •5 5.0 1.2 1-7 .6 34 •5 Tests with pitch 6.: Before training Avs. A. D's. 2.0 After training Avs. 4.6 A. D's. I.I Before training Avs. 5.4 A. D's. 4.0 After training Avs. 4.5 A. D's 1.4 Practice series with blue and white 2.7 2.6 2.4 2.0 1.8 .83 '^ '^- 1.4 1.35 -9 -8 .6 .7 4.5 3.0 2.0 2.3 1.7 .9 .7 .55 i-i -84 -7 -7 .6 .6 .4 .7 4.0 3-0 4-3 •9 7-2 5-0 5-2 1-3 4-5 2.0 2-3 •9 6.0 4-5 3-2 0-7 5-1 1.8 3-0 .8 6.4 3-3 3-2 1.0 3-2 1.0 3-4 •9 3-0 .8 51 I.I 1-7 •5 6.6 3-0 3-0 .8 3-6 2.7 3-4 I.I Avs. Avs. .6 I.I I.I •9 1.6 •7 1.25 •9 .65 •5 1.06 .8 .65 •5 2-3 0.9 2.4 •9 3-0 2.0 4.0 1.5 3-2 0.8 5-3 1.2 62 FORMAL DISCIPLINE peared at all in the beginning, thus more completely isolating the last curve. With the last curves— with girls with black and orange (See Table lo), is the only case where there was a noticeable practice effect in the final test. But here as in all the others, the lines are clearly separate throughout, and from their form do not indicate that one is a continuation of the other. The average deviations for each case are given and in all cases are so low as to indicate the high reliability of the figures, and the general uniformity of experience for all the children. The practice curves (See Figs. 3 and 4, p. 65) present consider- able irregularities, but if it is observed that the ordinate unit is i-io^, these become smaller. During the practice with the blue-white series, the relative amounts of each were often changed, so that no certain tint could come to stand as a standard "same." But such changes in the sorts of blue to be judged did not modify noticeably the falling line, or the level line of skill. In brief, the ability to discriminate certain tints of blue was easily applied to other tints of the same color. The indications are that the practice was carried on longer than was necessary to reach the skill limit, but the extended time threw the test series farther apart, and to that degree obviates the criticism to which so many tests on this subject are open, namely that the increase in skill was due to the training within the test series itself. Before the practice with the blue- white series was begun, and just after it was closed, a test was made of the range within which the children could distinguish the pitch of two tones. The Gilbert Tone.tester was employed in the experiment. F sharp was taken as the norm, and the method employed, that of minimal gradations. As the figures (See Table 10) present it, the sharpness went from a range of 4.4 points at the first test — each point representing an eighth of the distance from F to F sharjD, or F sharp to G— to one of 3. 5 at the last test with the boys, or a gain of 20% ; and from 5. 3 points to 4. i points for the girls, or a gain of about 23%. One thing can be said : that the improve- ment in the discrimination of pitch is not at all com. mensurate with that in the color field. It is not, however, tena- FORMAL DISCIPLINE 63 ble to explain it as totally due to the ordinary singing exercises of the school that went on within the interim. Furthermore, the tones presented such difficulties that there was little practice effect, within either one of the series taken separately, so that the increase in skill must come from a source outside of tone in- fluences. It may be in part due to the actual physiological development of the sensorium ; but the amount of the difference is far too large for the growth of a four months' period. The average deviations fc^r both boys and girls are large and irregular, especially for the girls, in the first cases; but in the last cases, they are small, and much more regular, the A. D. of the average deviations for the boys being .2%, and .3% for the girls. The fifth experiment was conducted in the following manner: On a drum which revolved at a given rate, was placed a series of parallel lines, which were exposed in succession, through a slit in a large card board. The alternate lines were the norm, 10 cm. in length; the intervening ones differed from the norm by amounts ranging from one to ten mm. By the method of right and wrong cases, the threshold of difference was obtained. This was followed by the practice series running through two months, four times per week. The same drum was used with the comparison lines covered up; then the norms only were exposed through the slit. By a mechanism attached to a motor, a wide ribbon of paper was made to move continu- ously between an upper and lower surface. In the upper was a long opening large enough to move a pencil point freely, transversely to the direction of the moving paper. The subject, then, when the norm appeared in view, endeavored to duplicate it, in length, on the slow moving paper, which immediately carried his made line out of view. So the skill was largely due to practice of the motor sense. The preliminary test was again given as the final one. There were two subjects, F. and W. In order to give a safe range for judgment, and at the same time a sufficient number of judgments for each case, about 700 judgments were made in the preliminary series, using the rpethod of right and wrong cases. When the line was 4 mm. longer than the norm, F. got nearly 2590 of correct judgments 64 FORMAL DISCIPLINE in the preliminary test, and when 41-2 mm. long, he obtained nearly 25% correct judgments in the final test. Of the approximately one thousand judgments made in the practice series, the course of improvement may be indicated by a comparison of the first fifty with the last fifty. The average deviation from the norm of 10 cm., of the first fifty was 9.0 mm. and the A. D. of these deviations, 5.0 mm. For the final fifty cases, the average deviation from the norm was i.i mm., with the A. D. of these deviations i. 5. For subject W. there were 33 1-3% correct judgments when line was 3 mm. shorter than norm, and 25% when 3 mm. longer than norm; this in first test series. In the final series, the judgments were correct for 4 mm. longer, in a little more than one-fifth of the cases. So, so far as this test is concerned, there was no transfer of training effects, from motor practice to visual practice, but rather a loss. This may be due to an actual failure to make the comparisons more accurate, or to reduce the variability. For the first fifty cases, the average of the deviations from the norm was 3.4 mm. with an A. D. of 2; whereas, for the final fifty the figures were 4 and 2. i. The subject was troubled by fluctuations of attention, the tendency to draw by force of habit and ignore the norm, and by certain Muller-Lyer illusions in length caused by the variation in the relation of the lines as each appeared, to the sides of the opening. However the test itself is subject to criticism. First, sub- ject W. was at the same time acting as a subject in another ex- periment which required judgment at sight on length of lines. This criticism stands on the question of fact, whether he had already reached the limit of his capacity. Subject F. likewise was having in his capacity as laboratory director, much training in the same field. So again the value of the data turns on the same question of physiological limit. But more closely connected with the test is the criticism that the method of right and wrong cases necessitated so many judgments as probably to introduce extensive, if not fatal practice effects in the test series. The sixth experiment was with business college students. It is well known that such students are serious, that their FORMAL DISCIPLINE 65 increase in skill is very great, that it is measureable, and con- tinuous, and that there is little other training obtained during the period. So just at entrance, and after three months' drill in touch typewriting, and in shorthand, the following tests were given, all but No. 3 being done in thirty seconds. In No. i, (Fig. 5) the A's were to be marked ; in No. 2, (Fig. 6) the maze was to be traced, the distance and number of touches on the sides being taken in consideration; in No. 3, (Fig. 7) the lines were to be bisected, and one drawn at the bottom of paper as long as the one at the top; in No. 4, (Fig 8) the dots were to be marked. ^ir Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Figs. 3 and 4. The course of practice in discriminating blues. The height of the line represents the inaccuracy of discrimination by the in- crease in the blue required (in tenths of a degree). The different practice periods are recorded from left to right in the time order in which they oc- curred. Fig. 3 is for boys; Fig. 4 is for girls. 66 FORMAL DISCIPLINE OYKFIUDBHTAGDAACDIXAMRPAGQZTAACVAOWLYX WABBTHJJANEEFAAMEAACBSVSKALLPHANRNPKAZF YRQAQEAXJUDFOIMWZSAUCGVAOABMAYDYAAZJDAL JACINEVBGAOFHARPVEJCTOZAPJLEIQWNAHRBUIAS SNZMWAAAWHACAXHXOAXTDPUTYGSKGRKVLGKIM FUOFAAKYFGTMBLYZIJAAVAUAACXDTVDACJSIUFMO TXWAMOEAKHAOPXZVVCAIRBRZNSOOAQLMDGUSGB AKNAAPLPAAAHYOAEKLNVFARJAEHNPWIBAYAQRK UPDSHAAOGGHTAMZAQGMTPNURQNXIJEOWYCREJD UOLJCCAKSZAUAFERFAWAFZAWXBAAAVHAMBATAD KVSTVNAPLILAOXYSJUOVYIVPAAPSDNLKRQAAOJLE GAAQYEMPAZNTIBXGAIMRUSAWZAZWXAMXBDXAJZ ECNABAHGDVSVFTCLAYKUKCVVAFRWHTQYAFAAAOH Fig. 5. Facsimile of Form No. i. Fig. 6. Form No. 2 ; one-lialf actual diameter. FORMAL DISCIPLINE 67 Fig. 7. Form No. 3; one-half actual diameter. Fig. 8. Form No. 4; actual size. 68 FORMAL DISCIPLINE The data are in two groups : The first, group I, is from students who were taken separately into a private room, and given all the time they needed to complete each of the tests. In group II the students were all in one room, and at a prear. ranged signal they began to mark the A's in Form I, and con- tinued this for thirty seconds, when, the signal again being given, they all stopped. In this same way, and in the same length of time, they touched the dots, Form 4, and traced the maze, Form 2. They were not limited in time in bisecting the lines. Group I. Here the time which each student took to mark all the A's in Form I, at the beginning of a three months' period, was recorded, and the differences, that is the losses or gains in seconds, determined. The following is a distribution of these differences, the minuses indicating the cases in which a larger time was used in doing the work, and the pluses, a shorter time : —30, o, -\-s, -f8, +10, +10, +12, 4-20, +25, +29. The median, or middle number, is plus-f-io; that is, there is an absolute gain for the whole group of ten seconds. The distribu- tion of the time in seconds taken to mark the A's in the first test, is 132, 125, 125, 115, no, no, 98, 90, 82, 75, 75. The median for the group is no seconds. Letting this stand for the time it took the group on the whole at the initial test, then the gain of 10 seconds would be 9 1.11%. The A's omitted in this group, where full time was allowed, were so few as to be negligible. The following are the time records in seconds for each stu- dent 'in touching the dots (See Form 4): 137, 126, 125, 122, 120, 109, 91, 85, 83. The median is 121. If from each of these numbers the times taken for the final test, in doing the same thing, are subtracted, this is their distribution : — 7, — 5, — 3, — 3» +6, +13, -f24, +27, +29, +42. The approximate median gain is 9 seconds, or 7 5-12% of the original median time in touching the dots. In the bisecting of the lines (Form 3) for group I, there are two factors — speed and accuracy. The data below show that the work was done more quickly, and at the same time there was FORMAL DISCIPLINE 69 less variation in placing the bisecting mark from the true center. This first row of figures is the record in seconds for each student in the first test: 53, 25, 23, 23, 22, 20, 17, i7, U. U. 12. The median is 20. From the distribution of the differences for each student in the final test; viz. — i, +2, +4, +5, +5-> +6, -f8, _^9^ _|-9, -|-i5, 25. The median gain is seen as 6 seconds, or in relation to the 20 seconds, it is 30%. There were fifteen of the lines used in the test. By getting the difference between the half of each Ime, as the students marked it, and the real half, and dividing the sum of these fifteen differences by 15, is obtained the average error for each student. These are in mm. : 37, 3, 2.3, 2.3, 2, 1.7, 1.6, 1.5, 1.2, 1. 1, . I. The median variation is thus 1.7. If from each of these is taken the amount m mm. which was added to the real half-line, on the last test, we have the following distributions of differences in the accuracy of the first and final test: —1.3, -.9, -9, -I, +-i^ +-^' +■'' +-2' +-^' +-3' +^-"- ""''" the median improvement is . i mm, or about 6%. This means that per cent of increase in skill in bisecting the lines. The following are the records in seconds for each student in tracing the maze. There were only five who did this test : 72, 57, 42, 23, 20. The median is 42. In all cases there was a shortening of the time, as the following differences show : +3, _^5^ _|_9^ 4.17, -1-17. The median change, or gain, is 9 seconds or 22%. , , , -1 f For the number of times each student touched the sides ot the maze in the first test the following are the figures : 58, 52, 41, 23, 23. Median, 41. Differences between these figures and the ones for the final test: -22, -8, -1, +1, + 6. Here the minuses indicate loss of skill, that is increase in number of touches. The median gain in actual number of touches is i, which is about 2%. If the touches increased exactly in the same per cent as the distance it could be said that their rate of speed only had grown. But it is quite probable that accuracy also was greater in the second case, not only because of the questionable difference of 2% in number of touches but because the number was not much greater, as the greater speed necessi- tates greater accuracy to keep from touching the sides. JO FORMAL DISCIPLINE Group II. As was said, this group was tested as a class, the time being common for them all except in the case of bisect- ing the lines. The maze (Form 2) is divided into thirty parts, all of which can be traced successfully, that is without touching the side, in approximately the same length of time. So the time factor is eliminated in this test, and the following distribu- tion stands for the actual distances on this scale of 30 that each student traced at the initial test: 7, 7, 8, 8, 12, 13, 14, 14. The approximate median distance for the group then is 10. These subtracted from the records for the final test give the changes in skill for this act: —3, — i, 4-1.5, +3-5j +4> +4-5, -|-5. 5, -I-14. The median gain then is about 3.7 which is 37% of the median accomplishment in the preliminary test. The record of the number of times the sides of the maze were touched the first tim^, is: 0, i, 4, 8, 12, 13, 31, 43. The median number is 10. There was an increase in the number of touches for the last series, as the following differences show : — 5, 4-4, +8, -1-9, +11,4-12, +24, 4-32. Median, 10, or 100% of the original median amount. This increase is in part a necessary correlation of greater distance, and consequently their improvem^at in the test as a whole is left undetermined. As to the work of marking the A's by this group, the dis- tribution is in terms of the number of A's marked in the thirty seconds by each student: 38, 41, 42, 43, 45, 62, 69, 77, 88. Median number is 45. These are the figures for the first test. The differences between this record and the final one are: — 34, —23, —21, —17, o, 4-9, +13. 4-20, -)-42. As the median is o, there is no gain or loss, that is, the median for the last series was also 45, as well as for the first. As to the bisection of the lines (Form 3), the averages of the deviations, for each student, of the 15 lines, from the actual half, in the first test are as follows: o, 8., i., 1.2, 1.2, 1.7, 1.8, 1.8, 1.9,4 mm. Median, 1.7 mm. When these same 15 lines were divided three months later, the changes were — .5, — .4, o, 4-. 4, 4-. 4, 4-. 5, 4-. 9, 4-1-2, -I-2.3. Median gain 0.4 mm., or 23% of the median ability in the first series. In Group I, the time of each student in touching the dots (Form 4) was employed as a measure of skill. In this case the FORMAL DISCIPLINE 71 data refer to number of clots touched by the eight students: 55, 62, 63, 64, 70, 74, 90, 100. Median, 67. The median change in gain is 56., as the following distribution of the differences between the first and last tests shows: — 30, — 9, o, +4, -\-g, -|-9, -\-i2, +27. This 6.5 is about 9 2-3% of the median in the first test, and so represents that much increase in skill. Thus there are gains in every case in motor facility and motor accuracy. This is apparently a direct outcome of the special training which these students had undergone, in the two to four months which had passed between their appearance as untrained stenographers, penmen, etc., to the time of the second test, when their technical skill had greatly increased. Summary The main purpose of the first part of this study was to state the difficulty, point out the elements involved in it, and indicate what the solution would be on logical grounds. The second part brought together, in a brief form, the experimental data, both direct and indirect, on the question, and the third has added a little more evidence of the direct sort. From all this, it is admissible to state the following con- clusions as being the most tenable at present : 1. There may be a large application of knowledge secured in a limited field. The extent to which this may be valid, depends largely on the knowledge or ideal being consciously generalized. The limits are in each case personal, and are in. dependent of the clearness or adequacy of the information, in the particular case. 2. This knowledge is of any conceptual sort, and so may be of method, ways of attack, notions of caution, reflection, care, accuracy. 3. The studies on Cross.Education are unanimous in show- ing that the training in skill or power of one side of the body is effective in corresponding parts, on the other side. 4. There is a larger transfer of practice with children or youth than with adults. 5. The extent of the effect is in inverse ratio to the force of effect, being strong in processes functionally alike, and decreasing as the processes diverge. 6. The ''Common Element" in any two functions is not to be a determined a prioti. It may be "ideal," physiological, or objective. 7. There is some sort of transfer from memorizing one class of facts to memorizing another class of facts, and from memorizing prose to memorizing poetry. Memorizing poetry gives increased ability to memorize figures or names of places. 8. Training in the discrimination of some colors is highly FORMAL DISCIPLINE 73 effective in the discrimination of others, much less so with tones. 9. Negatively, training in one function may have no appreciable influence on another, or actually impede the proper action and development of another function. Bibliography AcKERMANN, E. : Formale Bildung. Adams, J. : Herbartian Psychology applied to Education. AiKiNS, H. A.: Thorndike, E. L. and Hubbell, E., Psy- chological Review, Vol. IX, p. 374. Bahrwald : Theorie der Begabung. Barnes, E. : Studies in Education. Baumeister, K. a. : Cyc. der Padagogik. Beneke, F. E. : Erziehungs und Unterrichtslehre. BiNET, A. and H. V. : La Fatigue Intellectuelle. Brickerhoff, Norriss and Thorndike, Columbia Contribu- tions, Vol. XI, p. 135. Bryan, W. L. : American Journal of Psychology, Vol. V, p. 125. Bunker, Western Journal of Education, Sept. 1903. Burris, W. p. : Columbia Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology and Education, Vol. XI, p. 122. Davis, W. W. : Yale Psychological Studies, Vol. VI, p. 6. DeVries, H. : Species and Varieties. Dewey, J. : Society and Education. Dewey, F. : Schuler der Padagogik. Earl and Thorndike: Columbia Contributions to Philoso- phy, Psychology and Education, Vol. XI, p. 147. Ebert and Meumann : Archiv fur die Gesamte Psychol- ogic, Vol. IV, p. I. Ellis, H. : Criminology. Fox AND Thorndike : Columbia Contributions to Philos- ophy, Psychology and Education, Vol. XI, p. 138. Galton, F. : Hereditary Genius. Gilbert and P^racker: University of Iowa Studies in Psychology, 1897. Hegel: Logic, — on Form and Content. Hughes : American Journal of Psychology. FORMAL DISCIPLINE 75 Hinsdale, B. A. : Art of Study. James, W, : Principles of Psychology. Jastrow, J. : Science, N. S. May 8, 1896. p. 685. Johnson, G. E. : Education of the Feeble Minded. Journal of Psycho-Asthenics, Vol. I, pp. 90, 141, v^ol. II, p. 26, 63, 107. Jordan, D .S. : Popular Science Monthly, Jan. 1905, p. 201. JuDD, C. H. : Psychological Review, Vol. IX, p. 27. Kant: On Education. Kern, H. : Grundriss der Padagogik. Ladd, G. T. : American Psychological Association Report, 1904. Liddle: Transfer of Mental Facility. (Unpublished Thesis.) LoTZEN : Logic— On Systematic Forms. MiTTENZWEY : Paedgogium, Vol. 8, p. 545. Moore, E. C. : Western Journal of Education, May 1903. O'Shea, M. V. : Education as Adjustment. Paulsen, F. : Geschichte d. G. Unterrichts. Romanes, S. J. : Mental Education in Animals. RooPER, T. C. : Educational Studies and Addresses. Schmidt, R. : Geschichte der Padagogik. Schmeding: Padagogische Archiv, Vol. 24, p. 33. Seguin, E. : On Idiocy. Smith, A. S. : Columbia Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology and Education, Vol. XI, p. 115. Smith, D. E. . The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics. Spearman, C. : American Journal of Psychology, Vol. XV, p. 272. Stout, G. F. : Psychology, Ch. III. Swift, E. J. : American Journal of Psychology, Vol. XIV, p. 201. Thorndike, E. L. : Educational Psychology. Thorndike, E. L. : Animal Intelligence. Thorndike and Woodworth : Psychological Review, Vol. VIII, pp. 247, 384, 553. Winch, W. H . : British Journal of Psychology, Vol. I, p. 127. 76 FORMAL DISCIPLINE Winter, A. : New York State Reformatory in Elmira. WissLER, C : Psychological Review, Mon. Sup. 3, p. 62. WissLER AND RicHARDSON : Psychological Review, Vol. VII, p. 29. Woods, E A: Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 62, p. 76. WooDWORTH, R. S. : Psychological Review, Mon. Sup. 3, p. 114. ZiLLER, T. : Allgemeine Padagogik. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. SUB. EDUCATION LIBRARY APR 16 1962 C I Lii^i mlO 1 Form L9-32in-8,'57(.C8680s4)444 '*J, DNIVBRSHY OF CALIFORNIA U)8 ANGBLBS Syracuse, N. Y. Stockton, Collf. EDUCATION LIBRARY LB 1059 B43 D 000 441 438