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NGWORTHand POFFENBERGER . .,
hT4 ,* applied
PSYCHOLOGY
BY
H. L. HOLLINGWORTH, Ph.D.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOB OF PSYCHOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
AUTHOR Of "VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY," "ADVERTISING AND SELLING," ETC

AND
A. T. POFFENBERGER, Ph.D.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

NEW YORK LONDON
1920
 Copyright, 1917, 1920, by

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

Printed in the United States of America.

 TO OUB TEACHEB8

J. McK. CATTELL
EDWARD L. THORNDIKE
ROBERT S. WOODWORTH
 PREFACE
Books in the field of applied psychology have tended in

the past to belong in one or several of three categories,

which may be described in some such way as the follow-

ing: (1) Technical monographs, such as are intelligible

only to the advanced student or the professional psycholo-

gist; (2)' "Volumes covering in an intensive way some par-

ticular and limited field of practice, such as education, ad-

vertising, mental examination; (3) General and more or
less prophetic popular essays, pointing out suggestive fields
of interest. There exists no book which well serves as a
general text of applied psychology, presenting its principal

aims, types, methods, its various fields of endeavor, and its

outstanding results and accomplishments. Students of ap-

plied psychology must at present be referred to a very
scattered series of special articles, monographs or books, of
varying value, and by no means generally, easily or equally
accessible. The general reader, working without expert

guidance, can hardly do more than dip in a random way

into magazine stories, subscription books, and an occasional
serious exposition of the more restricted type. The general

text books of psychology do not have the practical point of

view for which he is in search.
Applied psychology is clearly on the way toward a digni-
fied and prosperous existence. The present year has seen
vii
viii PREFACE
established the first professorship of applied psychology,

the first American journal of applied psychology, and uni-

versity courses and lectureships in applied psychology are

rapidly multiplying. Psychology has been recognized as a

vocation under the civil service regulations, and applied
psychologists are finding themselves called to work in fac-

tories, schools, courts, hospitals, agencies, banks, employ-

ment departments, and various branches of municipal and

civic enterprise. With this record of substantial achieve-

ment in applied psychology, it seems only appropriate that

there should be also available a general text book devoted
to the subject. The authors of the present book have both

been engaged for several years in teaching, research and

consultation in this field, and have long felt, in their own
work, the need for an exposition of the subject, which
should be comprehensive, suggestive and interesting with-
out sacrifice of definiteness, accuracy and balance. This
need has prompted them to prepare the present book, which
it is hoped may be useful at the same time to the student,
the teacher and the general reader.
In the earlier part of the text will be found a systematic
statement of various aspects, principles and results of
modern dynamic psychology which bear in a specially
practical way on the personality and competence of the
individual, regardless of his or her particular occupational
activity. Emphasis is given to problems of original nature
and instinctive equipment, the inheritance of mental traits

and capacities, individual differences, the conditions and

methods of effective work, learning and rest; the psycho-
logical influences of such biological factors as age, growth,
 PREFACE ix

sex and race; of such physiological factors as fatigue,

drugs, periodicity, posture, sleep ; and of such environ-
mental factors as illumination, ventilation, weather, hu-
midity, temperature, time of day, distractions, solitude.
In the latter portion of the text the attitude, content and
technique of psychology are considered in their particular
relevance to the various types and fields of occupational
activity. Attitude, content and technique, yielding three
distinguishable forms of application, are illustrated by con-
crete achievements in those fields in which the relations be-

tween science and practice have been most explicitly formu-

lated. These fields include the various departments and
activities conveniently classified under the more general
headings of Management (employment, supervision, organi-
zation, training) ; Industry (economy of effort, routing,
time and motion study) ; Business (manufacturing, adver-
tising, salesmanship) ; Law (testimony, evidence, responsi-
bility, prevention and correction) ; Social Work (misery,
delinquency, defectiveness, mental abnormality, social

psychology) ; Medicine (examination and research, phar-

maco-psychology, psychotherapy, the psychological clinic,

the medical curriculum) ; Education (school subjects and

operations, methods of teaching, individual differences, edu-
cational diagnosis, the learning process, educational meas-
urement). A final chapter discusses the various institu-
tional adjustments necessitated by the development of ap-
plied psychology, the current and probable future ten-
dencies, and their relative desirability.

In so new and rapidly growing a field as that of applied

psychology the teacher and professional student will for a
x PREFACE
long time find it useful to supplement even the most en-
cyclopedic text book with concrete results from current
investigations and achievements. The present book will

have accomplished its aim if it assists in systematizing a

field hitherto vague and unorganized, and helps to demon-

strate that applied psychology is a dignified, productive
and vigorous activity, as well as a fervent hope and a con-
fident prophecy.

H. L. HOLLING WORTH.
A. T. POFFENBERGEB.

Columbia University,
June 1, 1917.
 CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY . 1
Definition of Applied Psychology; Scope of Applied
Psychology; Difficulties and Limitations.

IT. INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY UPON ACHIEVE-

MENT 21
Inheritance Common to the Human Species, General
Characteristics, Reflexes and Instincts; Inheritance
Common to the Races of Man.

ILL FAMILY INHERITANCE 40

Physical Inheritance ; General Mental Inheritance, De-
fectiveness; Specific Mental Inheritance, Special
Ability, Disease and Habits.

IV. EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING ....

Nature of the Learning Process; Efficiency and Habit
52

Formation; Acquisition of Skill; Efficiency and Mem-

ory; Effects of Practice on Individual Differences.

V. INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE ON EFFI-

CIENCY 78
Physical and Physiological Characteristics of the
Sexes; Mental Qualities of the Sexes, Instincts, In-
telligence, Variability and other Characteristics; So-
cial and Legal Age Limitations; Physical, Physiologi-
cal and Mental Changes with Age; Chronological and
Mental Age.
ad
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER
VI. ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS .... PAGE
98
Temperature and Humidity; Climate and Season of
the Year; Weather; Time of Day; Diurnal Course of
Efficiency; Day and Night Work.

VII. ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS (Continued) . 120

Influence of Illumination; Distraction; Monotony and
Solitude.

VIII. WORK, REST, FATIGUE AND SLEEP . . 138

Optimum Duration of Work Periods; Relation be-
tween Work and Rest; Measurements of Mental and
Physical Fatigue; Function and Hygiene of Sleep.

IX. DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 161

Physical and Mental Effects of Tobacco, Alcohol, Cof-
fee, Tea, Strychnine, Morphine, etc.

X. METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY IN

SPECIAL FIELDS 185
The Psychological Attitude; Applying Psychological
Knowledge; Application of Psychological Technique.

XL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE . . 194

Selection of Employees; Organization and Manage-
ment; Psychological Influence of the Environment.

XII. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP . . .221

Mental Set and Shift; Effective Distribution of Effort;
Organizing the Worker's Movements; Time and Mo-
tion Study; Psychological Effects on the Worker.

XIII. PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET . . .232

Psychology of the Consumer; The Psychology of Ad-
vertising; The Psychology of Salesmanship.
 CONTENTS xiii

CHAPTER PAGE
XIV. PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW . . . .248
The Accumulation of Evidence; The Evaluation of
Testimony; Determination of Responsibility; Adapta-
tion of Corrective Measures.

XV. PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER . 270

The Causes of Misery; Delinquency and Deficiency;
The Nature of Mental Abnormality; The Abstraction
Fallacy.

XVI. PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE . . .284

General Relations; Psychological Researches on Pa-
tients; Researches on Effects of Drugs; The Use of
Psychological Agents; Determination of Organic Con-
ditions of Efficiency; The Psychological Clinic; Psy-
chology and the Medical School.

XVII. PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION . . .306

The Psychological Attitude in Education; The Con-
tent of Psychology in Education; Psychological Tech-
nique in Education.

XVIII. THE FUTURE OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 324

Terminology; Institutional Adjustments; Five Forms
of Adjustment; Their Relative Advantages.

APPENDIX 331

INDEX 343
 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTEE I

EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

Everyone is familiar with the great increase in

the popularity of psychology within recent years.
The number of books on psychological topics, the
number of so-called psychological plays, of refer-
ences to psychology in the newspapers and maga-
zines, of efficiency bureaus and similar enterprises
in the business world, all indicate a remarkable

change in the status of psychology.

Modern Tendencies in Psychology.— What is the
cause of this great and sudden popularity? One
might surmise that due to the fondness of the
it is

American people for fads, and that in a few years

nothing will be heard of all of these applications of
psychology to practical life. But there is another
reason which seems far more plausible than this.
It is the change which has taken place in the attitude
of psychologists themselves toward their problems
in the last twenty years. If we go back to the time
of Aristotle, we find that psychology was of a specu-
lative nature, and that its subject matter was the
. l
2 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
soul. Each philosopher had his own philosophy and
arranged his psychology to suit that. Many cen-
turies later therewere attempts at an accurate de-
scription of the mind; and the mind consisted of
consciousness and nothing more. Consequently,
there was great difference of opinion as to what the
mind was really like. Each man alone could see
and examine his own consciousness and no one could
dispute what he found. Thus there were possible
as many different views of the mind as there were
individuals studying it. Many
of our psychological
problems even today are in a state of confusion for
the reason that examination of consciousness offers
the only source of information at present available.
For some psychologists insist that there
instance,
are no such things as mental images, because they
themselves do not find them in their consciousness.
Others assert that there are images but that they
are of no use, that they are simply accompaniments
of the necessary processes, or are by-products of
these necessary activities. Others contend that the
mental images are absolutely essential to thought
and give them a very high place in the mental life.
These differences of opinion are probably inevitable
so long as the investigations are limited to the study
of consciousness.
Such a state of affairs would naturally be unsatis-
factory to those who hoped to make psychology a
science. There could be no reduction of the findings
to laws, so long as these findings differed in the case
EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 3

of each individual, and each was a law unto himself.

It was necessary to find another source of informa-
tion about the mind, which
would reveal uniformities
among different minds, and permit the formulation
of a general human psychology. This source of in-
formation was found in the behavior of the individ-
ual,which might be taken as a sign of what was go-
ing on within the mind. When an individual dis-
played the same outward signs, made the same bod-
ily movements as oneself in an identical situation, he
was assumed to be having the same mental experi-
ences. Among the most helpful signs of mental ac-
tivities in human beings are language signs. By
this use ofanalogy the sphere of psychology was ex-
tended to include not only all normal human beings,
but also the animal kingdom and that of the insane
and undeveloped mind, because each of these classes
has outward behavior which corresponds in a way
to our own and hence can be interpreted as signifi-
cant of mental activity. But it is well to keep in
mind that these objective forms of behavior were
firstused as aids to the understanding of the inner
life and the formulation of the laws of the mind.

The outward signs of mental life, or the behavior

of the individual, have gradually come to attract
more and more interest, so that at present, in the
opinion of some psychologists, they are the most im-
portant aspects of psychology. In this way the tables
have been turned and consciousness has become an
A APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
aid to the understanding of behavior, instead of the
reverse. In fact, there is a more extreme stage than
this,among those who call themselves behaviorists.
These men ignore consciousness altogether, and
maintain that no help can be derived therefrom.
Psychology then becomes the study of behavior, the
study of the situations in which persons find them-
selves, and the responses which they make to these
situations. It is evident that this kind of study can
be made as well on the lowest forms of animal life
as on human beings. Indeed, it can be more easily
studied in the lowest organisms, where the situa-
tionsand the responses are most simple, and in this
realm the behavior psychologist has done the greater
part of his work.
The reason for the great change of emphasis from
consciousness to behavior is not alone the difficulty
in buildingup a system of theoretical psychology,
but the change must be due in part to demands of
practical life. So far as the latter are concerned,
it is the behavior of men that is important; it is

human action and not human consciousness with

which one has to deal. Of course, behavior is here
used in a broad sense, and includes not only the
gross bodily movements but also the class of bodily
responses that we call language. A man's whole
life consists in a process of adjustment to his en-

vironment, a series of responses to situations, of

forms of behavior. To be a success or failure means
to succeed or to fail to adjust oneself to one's en-
EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 5

vironment. A man who responds to the situations

in which he is placed in a. normal manner, or as other
people do, is said to be sane ; one who fails to adjust

himself in this way is said to be insane or out of

his mind.
When analyzed from the practical point of view,
all education consists in the development and con-
trol of behavior, in training an individual so that
he shall react normally when put into certain situa-
tions. Special training likewise consists in develop-
ing the possibility of reactions to particular situa-
tions. The education of a stenographer consists in
part in training him to react by certain finger move-
ments when certain characters appear before his
eyes, or to make certain marks with a pencil when
certain sounds strike his ears. All commercial and
business life consists in making reactions to specific
situations, and the training is only in preparation
for the correct responses when the situations are
presented. The whole may be expressed by the
statement that every act of an individual, no matter
how complicated it may be, is capable of analysis
into the situation or appeal and the reaction or re-
sponse to it.

One might ask why the change in the point of

view of psychology was so long delayed, why the —
theoretical aspect held sway so long. Munsterberg
answered this question by saying that every science
must reach a certain stage of maturity before prac-
tical applications can be made. Such has been the
6 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
case with the older sciences of physics and chem-
istry. The science of psychology is very young in
comparison with these, and doubt has sometimes
been expressed as to whether it is yet mature enough
to afford safe practical applications.
A psychology constructed from this behavior point
of view is called dynamic, or behavior, psychology,
and its function may
be said to be threefold: (1)
To give a knowledge of the general principles of
behavior. (2) To find how types of behavior may
be acquired. (3) To find how the behavior of an
individual in any particular situation may be con-
trolled. To satisfy the first of these demands re-

quires a knowledge of the physiological basis of

behavior, and especially of the nervous system which
controls behavior; to satisfy the second requires a
knowledge of what forms of behavior we inherit
from our ancestors, immediate and remote, and how
this behavior may be modified; to satisfy the third
requires a knowledge of the dependence of behavior
upon the factors of memory,
attention, perception,
association, suggestion, and upon such conditions as
health, disease, age, sex, together with the influence
of such environmental factors as climate, season,
temperature, etc. In short, one's behavior at any
time depends upon the integrity of his physiological
mechanism, upon his heredity, his education, and
upon the present stimulus or the appeal to action.
"When one considers that all of these sets of con-
ditions are variable factors in different individuals,
EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 7

it may appear impossible to predict at any one time

just what an individual will do, or to control his
actions. A further complication is added in that
these factors may vary in relative influence in differ-
ent situations and with different individuals. Yet
in spite of all of these varying factors, numerous
experiences of our daily life prove to us that the
reactions of a number of individuals can be predicted
with a fair amount of certainty. The common co-
incidences in which two people find themselves think-
ing about the same thing, or about to make the same
remark, indicate the power of the stimulus to create
the same response in different persons. It simply
means that the three other factors aside from the
present stimulus have not been so different that a
given stimulus cannot bring forth the predicted re-
sponse. A so-called association test for the diag-
nosis of various forms of mental abnormality has
been constructed on the principle that normal indi-
viduals will react in more or less uniform ways, and
that any great deviation from these normal forms
of action indicates abnormality. One thousand per-
sons were asked to tell the first word that came into
their minds when each of a hundred different simple
words was read to them. The records were then
compiled, showing how the thousand people agreed
in their responses to each word. A few of the stim-
ulus words and the responses that were made to
them will illustrate the nature of the results. In
the following fist the first word is the stimulus word,
8 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
the second is the response and the figures following
show the number of persons out of a thousand that
gave this particular response.

dark light 427 Bible book 338

man woman 394 tobacco smoke 387
soft hard 365 blossom flower 467
black white 339 sour sweet 349
river water 393 eagle bird 567
window glass 316 lamp light 650

Give the stimulus word flower and one can be

almost certain that the response will be rose, or
give the word and just as certainly will the
table
response be chair. When one man meets another on
the street and extends his hand in greeting, he does
it with the certainty that the other will do likewise.
When one considers the matter he will find that all

social and business life has for its foundation the

assumption that the behavior of human beings can
be controlled and predicted with great certainty.
Definition and Scope of Applied Psychology.— In
a general way we might define Applied Psychology
as the application of the findings of psychology to
the affairs of daily life. Miinsterberg has made, in
his "Psychotechnik," a distinction between theoreti-
cal psychology, applied psychology and psychotech-
nics. The first is what we know as pure or general
psychology. The second consists in the explanation
by psychological laws of past events and the facts
EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 9

of other sciences. For example, the explanation of

movements or historical characters
certain historical
by appeal to psychology, and the application of the
laws of psychology to the physics of color would be
called applied psychology. Likewise, the application
of the laws of mathematics to astronomy or the laws
of chemistry to physiology would be applied science.
Technics, on the other hand, would be represented
by the application of the laws of mathematics to the
construction of electrical machines for lighting pur-
poses, or by the application of the laws of chemistry
to the making of dye stuffs or medicines. So, Miin-
sterberg would define psychotechnics as the appli-
cation of psychology to the solution of practical
problems.
Such a distinction is a limited one, since every
scientific discovery has the possibility of leading
to some practical application, so that sooner or
later it will determine a course of events in the

future and for practical life. The scientific con-

struction of medicines demands that the science of
chemistry shall first have been applied to physio-
logical processes. When been done, in a
this has
given concrete situation, examination will show what
is lacking in the human organism, or what mechan-

ism is functioning improperly, and medicines may

be administered accordingly. Likewise, the proper
blending of color dyes in the dyeing and printing of
cloth and, in the construction of esthetic color pat-
terns requires that the psychological laws of color
10 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
contrast shall have been applied to the physics
first

of light mixture and the chemistry of dyes. Applied

psychology and psychotechnics thus become co-ex-
tensive.
In the following pages we shall consider the field
of applied psychology to be every situation in which
human behavior is involved and where economy of
human energy is of practical importance. This in-
cludes much that would be excluded according to
Miinsterberg's definition. If one wished to subdi-
vide the field further, it could be done according to
the kinds of human behavior or according to the
activities in which human beings engage. For in-
stance, we might have the applied psychology of
medicine, law, business, education, industry, and a
hundred others. Obviously, this would be too cum-
bersome for treatment in detail and would involve
much repetition, since many of the different occu-
pations would include essentially the same forms
of behavior and be subject to the same conditions.
Our plan will be to study first the behavior of the
individual and its economy or efficiency without ref-
erence to any particular sorts of occupation. Then
we show how these conditions of efficiency may
will
be observed in the various larger and more impor-
tant fields of human activity.
History of Applied Psychology.— The history of
applied psychology may be divided roughly into
epochs or stages. One cannot mark off any definite
period when it came into existence. In some crude
EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 11

form or other it has probably existed as long as men

were able to formulate any laws of the mind,
whether these laws were correct or not. But one
can mark off four periods more or less clearly up
to the present.
1. —Long before the time of experimental psychol-
ogy, persons were accustomed to make use of very
vague notions of the workings of the mind in the
problems of daily life. The mind was supposed to
be subject to the influence of all kinds of outside
forces, those of inanimate and animate and
objects,
consequently, people's behavior was influenced by
all kinds of superstitions and myths. Breaking mir-

rors, spilling salt, putting up an umbrella in the

house, getting married on Friday, being a member
of a party of thirteen, and the like were unlucky
factors in one's experience.
That one cannot work so well when tired as when
rested, that thememories of some people are better
than of others, that some persons are stupid and
others bright, are conclusions that were applied to
daily life before they were subjected to scientific
test in the laboratory.
2. —
After experimental psychology had developed
and a mass of standard experiments had been ac-
cumulated, there was a tendency to apply these ex-
periments directly to other fields, just as physio-
logical and physical experiments were carried over
directly into the psychological laboratory at its be-
ginning. This tendency was perhaps most notice-
12 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
able in education and medicine. For instance, edu-
cation took over directly the experiments in memory,
imagination, attention, etc., and tried to use them in
solving educational problems. In the attempt to
measure any form of complex activity, the proce-
dure a large number of the
consisted in applying
standard laboratory tests to persons of varying
ability in the particular activity. Then those tests
that were well done by the experts and poorly done
by those known to be poor in the work, were con-
sidered good tests of this kind of ability. This pro-
cedure is still of much value and is used where it

has been impossible to analyze some complex form

of activity into its elements. In such cases the best
that can be done is to proceed in a random fashion
in the hope that some tests will be discovered which
will serve as indices of particular ability. It does
not necessarily mean that the thing tested is a vital
part of the process but for some reason serves as a
symptom, in much the same manner that rose spots
on the skin serve as a symptom of typhoid fever.
3. —
The third stage, the one into which applied
psychology is just entering, is that in which the
practical problems themselves are studied, and the
actual situations form the material of the experi-
ment. For example, in order to test the memory
of individuals for advertisements of various kinds,
the routine memory experiments with simple mate-
rial are not used, but the tests are made with
advertising material in some actual advertising
EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 13

medium, such as a magazine or newspaper. In case

one wants to know what is the most economical study
period for children of a certain age, he goes into
the school and tries various lengths of study periods
and measures the results of each for its efficiency.
In studying the psychology of crime, the psychology
of the witness or the criminal, one puts an individual
into a situation which has similar mental condi-
tions and tests his reactions. But it is not necessary
to put a witness in a courtroom, or put a street car
motorman on a street car to test him, although the
particular forms of behavior must be duplicated.
Where analysis of the behavior into lower terms is

not possible or convenient this very procedure of

trying the individual out in the task may be resorted
to as in the two cases cited above. But the case of
telephone operators will illustrate the other proce-
dure. An attempt was made to pick out good oper-
ators by putting them dummy
keyboard and
at a
noting the efficiency of their work. It was found
that this was a much less valuable method than to
analyze the duties of an operator into their ele-

ments and to apply tests to these simpler forms of

behavior. Bather simple measures of memory, at-
tention and accuracy of movement served as fairly
adequate tests.
4. —To this third period must be added a fourth
including the type of work begun independently of
psychology and under the name of efficiency engi-
neering. It consists mainly of the analysis of vari-
14 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ous tasks into their essential elements and then
adapting human behavior to them in such a way as to
produce the greatest output with the greatest econ-
omy of effort. For instance, a certain series of oper-
ations, such as handling machinery, will be photo-
graphed with a moving picture machine, or with a
stereoscopic camera, and every movement studied.
If any movements are found to be superfluous, they
must be eliminated. Much of this efficiency research
has been accepted as invaluable by the applied psy-
chologist, and in turn the efficiency expert has found
that his work has led him into problems which must
be referred to the psychologist.
It may seem strange that when such a great
amount of attention and money have been expended
on perfecting machinery for practical use with a
view to economy, that the matter of the human ele-
ment should have been so long neglected. When
thousands of dollars are spent to increase the effi-

ciency of a certain machine, seems peculiar that

it

the individual handling the machine should not have

been studied just as carefully to bring him to his
maximum efficiency. For every machine, no matter
how automatic it may be, still depends on the human
factor for its management. It seems as though this
human factor had been left to care for itself on the
assumption that common sense ought to tell a per-
son what is the most economical way to do things.
On account of this reliance on common sense many
of the tests that are made and the changes recom-
 :

EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 15

mended for the sake of efficiency are at first sight

considered But any series of operations
trivial.

when carefully examined will demonstrate the fact

that common sense does not pick out the most eco-
nomical methods. In fact, from the nature of the
case, it seems that this would be impossible. When
one begins to learn any performance, common sense
will probably select the method which seems easiest
at that time. But at a later stage of the training
this method may be an actual drawback to further
progress. For instance, if one learns to write on
the typewriter without instructions, he is almost
sure to use the first finger of each hand and to fol-
low all of his movements with his eyes. But it has
been demonstrated by experiment that rapid writ-
ing requires that it shall be by the touch method and
with all of the fingers. Common sense would not
start that way, because progress would be too slow
and because the difficulties would seem too great.
Much of the neglect of the human factor in effi-

ciency is due a few un-

to a failure to realize that
necessary movements permitted in such an activity
as sewing, would add much to the bodily energy con-
sumed in the course of a day. The following con-
clusion from an experiment wrongly attributed to
one of the writers is as follows

" . . . It takes more physical energy to play the '

Evening
Star' on a cello than to shovel four tons of coal. He
finds further that a pressure average of three and a half
pounds per note is exerted and the total for a three-
16 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
minute rendition to be nine thousand four hundred and
fourteen pounds."

Whether or not this be a correct statement, it

serves to emphasize the possibility of great waste

of energy from small and unnecessary movements.
A type of work which has been investigated, and
which would be considered about as simple as«work
could possibly be, is that of handling pig-iron, pick-
ing up one pig at a time, carrying it a short dis-
tance and then droppingit. Yet, by careful analysis
movements made, the output of a man in
of all of the
a day's work was increased from about twelve tons
to forty-seven tons. More than this, his working
hours were reduced, his pay increased two-thirds
and he went home each night much less fatigued
than when doing one-fourth of the work. Another
type of work, namely, shoveling, has been investi-
gated and has yielded just as startling results. A
movement made in the act
careful analysis of every
of shoveling showed, that it was inefficient to use
the same type of shovel for all kinds of work and
that the shoveler could not wisely determine the
rate at which he should work. His common sense
would not tell him what would be the state of his
efficiency at the close of the day, nor whether he was
starting too slowly or too rapidly to get the maxi-
mum results for the whole day. Attention to factors
such as these is said to have increased the output
of each man by a huge per cent. One series of tests
EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 17

showed that 140 men could do as much as 500 had

previously done, and the wages of each of the 140
were raised.
It has probably occurred to the reader that such
increase in efficiency must depend somewhat on the
choice of the right individuals for the particular
task. Not every man could carry 48 tons of pig-
iron in a day. It is quite true that applied psy-
chology demands that we have means of selecting
individuals according to certain standards, in other —
words demands that we study differences among
it

people as well as likenesses. The early work in

psychology consisted in developing the laws of be-
havior and ignoring the exceptions. Applied psy-
chology demands that just as much attention be paid
to the exception as to the average —that the per-
sonal differences be taken into account. This em-
phasis on the differences among people is one of
the greatest steps in advance toward a real ap-
plied psychology. As soon as the attempt is made
to fit a man tc his job, or to fit the job to the man,
his stupidity, slowness, nervousness, aptitudes, etc.,
must be known. For instance, if a man wants to be-
come a typesetter, he should be tested to see whether
his reactions are rapid enough to make him able to
compete with others. He may be an individual whose
reactions to stimuli are habitually so slow as to dis-
qualify him for certain occupations. A man who
wishes to become an aeroplane driver must be one
whose reactions to changes of position are rapid
18 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
enough to prevent his machine from turning turtle
completely before he can make the movements to
right it.

The fundamental fact of applied psychology is

and all ad-
that the individual is the unit of action,
vance in this science upon a knowledge of
must rest
the laws of individual behavior, and the conditions
which affect it. To one who reviews the field of
modern business, industry and education, the strik-
ing thing is the emphasis that is being placed on the
individual rather than the group. It can be seen
in education, in the recognition of the fact that the
individual should be the real unit rather than the
class, although actual practice is limited to an ap-
proximation to this ideal; it can be seen in the
administration of charity which now consists in the
study of individual cases ; it can be seen in industry
in the use of the piece work system and reward
system, which base pay on what the individual can
do; the consideration of the individual in the con-
struction of machinery; the arrangement of hours
of labor, rest, vacations; the consideration of the
individual in the selection and training of employees.
Difficulties and Limitations of Applied Psychol-
ogy.— One of the great dangers for applied psychol-
ogy is that too much may be expected of it, and
that it may be extended into fields where it is not
prepared to go. In fact, its great popularity has
led some venturous spirits to carry it quite beyond
EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 19

the zone of safety. Two difficulties inherent in the

subject may be pointed out:
1. —The problems and situations of daily life are
extremely complicated and are influenced by a great
many factors. Consequently, great care must be
taken that no important factors are overlooked in
analysis. Correct results demand an analysis, not
only of the task into its elements, but wherever pos-
sible of the total behavior into its elements. Errors
may be due to incompleteness in either of these
spheres. One example will suffice to indicate this
danger. There is among the results of experimental
psychology what is called the curve of forgetting,
which shows the rate at which the average mind
forgets simple material with the passage of time.
It has been found that forgetting goes on very
rapidly for a period immediately after the learning,
but the rate becomes slower and slower as the time
lengthens. This curve of forgetting has been pro-
posed as a basis according to which business houses
shall send out their follow-up letters in order to get
the maximum effect. Since forgetting is most rapid
during the very early stages, a schedule must be
arranged by which the letters shall be sent out rather
frequently at first and gradually becoming fewer
and fewer as time goes on. Whether such reasoning
can be carried over from the laboratory experiments
on simple material to the complicated situation of
the mail order business, might, of course, depend on
many other factors of equally practical importance.
20 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
2. —Psychology will always be limited by the fact
that wbile it can determine the means to the end, it

can have nothing to do with the determination of

the end itself. For example, it may be able to tell
how to arrange the labor economically for the con-
struction of a bridge, but whether the bridge should
be built or not is another question ; it may tell how
to get information from a person accused of a crime,
or from a material witness without his knowing it

or even against his will, but whether that is the right

thing to do must remain for ethics or sociology to
decide; it may be able to tell how to sell an order
of goods to a purchaser who does not want the
goods, but whether this would be ethical or not
psychology need not decide. In short, it may deter-
mine means, but the determination of ends and their
values is beyond its sphere.
 CHAPTER n
INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY UPON ACHIEVEMENT

However one may choose to take sides on the

question as to whether heredity or environment is
the more important, it must be agreed that the fun-
damental basis of all human efficiency is to be found
in the physical and mental constitution which is
given to one as a legacy by his ancestors. We start
with an inheritance good or bad and upon this basis
our success or failure must be established. Much
investigation has been carried on, in recent years,
to determine whether certain special aptitudes, such
as musical or mathematical ability, are inherited.
Although such questions as these are more or less in
dispute there are certain fundamental facts which
are generally agreed upon. We will take up the
problem by beginning with the more general inher-
ited characteristics, following this with the discus-
sion of more and more specific qualities, somewhat
as follows:

I. Inheritance common to the human species.

II. Inheritance common to particular races.
III. Inheritance in families.
21
22 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Underlying the whole question of inheritance is
that of the mechanism of inheritance and closely
related to this that of the bodily seat of the inherited
qualities. The problem of the mechanism of inherit-
ance or the laws of inheritance is of great impor-
tance for the elimination of bad and the preserva-
tion of good characters, but this problem is too in-
volved to be discussed here. We are interested
mainly in the study of the facts of inheritance to put ;

them together into a theory would be to select that

biological theory into which the facts best fit.

So far as the bodily seat of the inherited qualities

is concerned it may be said that they are represented
by conditions in the central nervous system, the
brain, or cerebrum, the cerebellum and the spinal
cord. The nervous system is thought of as a system
made up of centers and connecting pathways very
much like a large telephone system with its central
station, local and private exchanges, and the
its

tremendous number of wires connecting these sta-

tions. Certain pathways open to travel mean that
certain bodily activities will take place when stimuli
affect the senses. The inherited tendencies are con-
ceived as conditions of lowered resistance in certain
pathways which make them open to use without any
previous exercise. Just as habits are thought of as
certain changes produced in the conduction units,
or neurones, so the inherited tendencies are repre-
sented by relatively simple and fixed paths of con-
duction predetermined for the individual, and cer-
 —
INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 23

tain more complex systems of conduction paths

which are linked together so as to function in a
predetermined way.

I. Inheritance common to the human species.

A. Reflexes. —At birth our bodily mechanism is

so constructed that certain simple forms of behavior

will occur when certain definite stimuli affect our
sense organs. A bright light falling into a new-
born baby's eye will cause the pupil of the eye to
contract; food placed in the mouth will cause acts
of swallowing. These together with the acts of
emptying the bowels and bladder and many more
activities necessary for the preservation of life are
known as reflexes. These are characterized by:
a. — Their automatic nature. As long as the mech-
anism is intact, a certain movement follows a
certain stimulus with a machine-like precision,
b. — Their independence of consciousness. These
reflex responses may become known to us in
one way or another, but they are not under
our control, except in a few rather remarkable
cases, which must be considered as abnormali-
ties.

c. —By their similarity in all people,

d. —By their relative fixity. These reflexes can-
not ordinarily be changed or varied as a result
of experience, other than the breaking down
of the physiological mechanism underlying
them.
 — —
24 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
On
account of these four characteristics they are
of no great interest to the applied psychologist so
long as they function normally. When any abnor-
mality develops in these reflexes, it may serve as a
symptom of more severe behavior disturbances that
may follow. For example, the knee jerk, the pupil-
lary reflex and others serve as signs of the approach
of locomotor ataxia, paresis and the like.
B. Instincts. —In addition to the simple reflexes
functioning at birth there is a large group of more
complex activities included as part of our original
equipment, and known as instincts. It is known that
they are not learned by the individual because,
a. —They appear to function more or less ade-
quately the first time the stimulus which ex~

cites them is received.

b. — They common to the human race as a
are
whole, however much the surroundings of the
various groups of peoples may differ. And
further, a large proportion of these activities
are common to the higher animals, as well as
man. In addition to these two characteristics,
instincts are further characterized by
c. —Their complexity as compared with the re-
flexes, in that they consist of a chain or series
of movements occurring in an orderly
sequence,
d. —They are usually accompanied by conscious-
ness, although they do not always depend on
consciousness for their control.
 :

INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 25

e. —They are modifiable in the course of the indi-

vidual's life experience.
This group of activities or tendencies to activity
is of especial importance to the student of behavior
and efficiency for three reasons
1. —The acquisition of all kinds of behavior, how-
ever complex and however much learning may be
involved, constitutes modification of these original
forms of behavior. It is a rule that all learning
must proceed from the known to the unknown or that
learning consists in the modification of something
that the individual can already do. Thus if an or-
ganism lack some of the instinctive forms of be-
havior, its ultimate development will be defective
to that extent.
2. —Many of our acts throughout our whole life
are guided and controlled by these instinctive ten-
dencies. However much they may be modified by
experience and learning, we still retain the direct
and unlearned form of response under many cir-
cumstances. This is especially true where for any
reason the inhibitions placed by society upon our
actions are removed or disregarded, as in great emo-
tional disturbances, in anger, sorrow, joy and the
like. For instance, many of the atrocities committed

by soldiers in war, and by persons in mobs, are

attributed to the fact that these unlearned tenden-
cies to action are no longer under control. But we
act instinctively in many cases where one would not
at first suspect it —the things we attend to, are inter-
26 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ested in, and the things ve 131 :-o and dislike are to
a large extent determined by instinct. A knowledge
of the nature and the strength of these instinctive
tendencies enables one to select stimuli for their
arousal and consequently to exercise some control
over the behavior of people.
3. —Instincts are subject to the most extreme vari-
ation in two directions, that is, certain tendencies
may be abnormally strong or abnormally weak. In
either case profound modifications of the total be-
havior result. Failure to recognize the deep-seated
cause of many of the variations of human behavior,
especially the criminal types of behavior, has led
to a wrong conception of how such conditions may
be successfully treated.
Two examples from the business world will illus-
trate the use of a knowledge of the instincts. The
advertising man who puts up the largest and most
brilliant sign knows that, other things being equal,
it draw attention from its less brilliant neigh-
will
bors, because we have an inborn tendency to be
attracted by large and bright objects. Again, a
book agent who tries to sell a dictionary to a mother
and emphasizes its necessity for the education of
her children will sell where another who neglects
this point might not, because of the great strength
of the parental instinct.
A. complete catalogue of the instinctive tendencies
of human beings would be extremely large, hence we
will consider only those which have most importance
 INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 27

from our point of view. First let us consider five

fundamental characteristics of our original natures
as described by Thorndike.
1. —We are born with the possibility of getting
sensations of certain definite kinds when certain
stimuli affect our sense organs. This simply means
that we are born with sense organs and brain struc-
ture such that certain stimuli produce specific forms
of reaction in consciousness. This fact is so obvious
that it is likely to be overlooked, and yet the great
change in the mental life caused by the failure of any
part of this mechanism to function, as in the case
of congenital blindness, shows the importance of
this original equipment. Furthermore, we are given
a mechanism of a certain sensitivity and this sensi-
tivity cannot be increased directly. All that can be
done is to make the best use of the mechanism as
it is given to us. Individual differences in sensi-
tivity are relatively fixed, and in each case mark
the limits of efficiency beyond which the individual
cannot go, however great his training.
2. —Another characteristic of our original equip-
ment is that out of all of the stimuli which affect our
sense organs, certain ones will come clearly into con-
sciousness while others will be crowded out. This
means that we are born with a tendency to pay
attention to certain kinds of stimuli in preference
to others, or that we naturally attend to some kinds
of objects. This natural attention is of great im-
portance, for it forms the foundation of all of the
28 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
highest forms of attention. If it be lacking there is

no means by which the behavior of the individual

may be modified. Moreover, we are born with the
possibility of a certain strength of attention, and it
is the difference in this native attention strength
which is responsible for much of the difference in
accomplishment of different individuals. For in-
stance, according to some authorities, that which
makes the musician or the artist or the mathemati-
cian is, among other causes, the difference in the
character and intensity of his original attentiveness
rather than the fact that he has inherited some
specific ability directly.
3. —Some of the stimuli which cause sensations
and make us attend affect us pleasantly and some
affect us unpleasantly. There is a feeling of one
kind or another which accompanies most of our sen-
sations. Thus a bitter taste is naturally unpleasant,
as anyone can discover who tries to feed something
bitter to a very young baby. The way in which,
during the course of evolution, certain stimuli have
come to produce these unpleasant conscious states
is interesting to speculate upon but does not alter
the facts. What interests us more than the feeling
is the behavior that accompanies or follows the
feelings. In the presence of unpleasant stimuli we
naturally respond so as to get rid of the unpleasant,
and the responses continue in varying form until
this result is accomplished. This variety of re-
sponse which follows upon the receipt of unpleasant
 INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 29

stimuli in the effort to get rid of them, and upon

the pleasant in seeking to retain them, forms the
foundation of all modification of the instinctive ten-
dencies, which we have said constitutes learning.
Furthermore, as will be shown later, the strength
of one's memory for objects or experiences depends
among other things on the type of feelings they
arouse, hence the importance of arousing the proper
feeling tone in connection with experiences to be
attended to or remembered.
4. —We are said to have a natural tendency to be
active both mentally and physically. The specific
character of our activity may be and usually is
determined by various factors in our environment,
but the activity itself is an inherited tendency. There
is no such thing as laziness, strictly speaking. To
refuse to be active is a symptom of defect or disease,
lowered bodily tone, improper nourishment or the
like. Laziness, however, is not so much inactivity
as activity in a wrong or useless direction, as judged
by social or ethical standards.
5. —Of all of the stimuli which affect our sense
organs, are attended and cause a pleasant or
to,

unpleasant reaction, some leave a permanent effect,

are remembered, and others are forgotten. This
fact like sensitiveness, is taken so much for granted
that its great importance impresses us only when
some abnormality appears. Retentiveness depends
upon a fundamental characteristic of the nervous
system, its impressibility, which is not subject to
30 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
improvement, according to James and others. Thus
one's possibilities of memory are fixed by his hered-
ity, although his actual accomplishments within this
limit may depend on education and other factors.
In addition to these five fundamental facts of
inheritance, there are a number of more specific
reactions to specific situations in our environment,
and it is to these that the term "instinct" is com-
monly applied. As stated earlier, we are interested
in them because of their great strength and influence
upon all of our behavior. For a full discussion of
these tendencies the reader is referred to special
texts on the subject. However, a few of them will
be briefly described.
1. —The instinct of self-preservation is a name
given to a group of tendencies to action which pro-
tect the individual. In this group would be included
the food-taking tendencies, and all sorts of protec-
tive movements, such as putting out the hand when
falling. The flight reaction accompanied by the
mental state of fear is the tendency to protect one's
self from dangerous objects. When the flight reac-
tion is inhibited from any cause, the mental state
may still be present and in very intense form. When-
ever stimuli, which instinctively provoke a fear re-
sponse, are presented to an individual, one may be
sure of a strong reaction oh the part of the recipient.
To take an example from the business world, any
advertisement which works upon the instinctive fear
of disease or death will be successful in producing
 —— :

INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY SI

some kind of a reaction, e. g., the recommendation

of overshoes to prevent grippe, or the immediate
use of dioxogen to prevent blood poisoning and
death.
2. Curiosity. —The appeal to one's curiosity is

a powerful stimulus to action observed in both man

and the animals. Sometimes, indeed, it is so power-
ful as to compete with the instinct of self-preserva-
tion. In cases like this an animal will risk its life
in order to satisfy its curiosity. Animals are often
caught by appealing to this instinctive tendency to
examine or investigate. The makers of grab bags
and prize packages well know the power of this in-
stinct in children, and many manufacturers seem to
assume that it is just as strong in the case of adults.
Modified and controlled by experience, this same
curiosity forms the driving force of the scientific
investigator. The point of importance for us is
that it is a factor that must be taken into account
in explaining the behavior of human beings, whether
children or adults ; and, further, that persons differ
in the strength of this instinctive tendency to inves-
tigate and examine.
3. Collecting Instinct. —The collecting instinct in
animals is well illustrated in the case of the wood-
rat cited by James

I found the outside of the nest to be composed en-

symmetry, so as to present
tirely of spikes, all laid with
the points of the nails outward. In the center of this
mass was the nest, composed of finely divided fibers of
 —
S3 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
hemp-packing. Interlaced with, the spikes were the fol-
lowing: about two dozen knives, forks and spoons; all the
butcher's knives, three in number; a large carving knife,
fork and steel; several large plugs of tobacco ... an old
purse containing some silver, matches and tobacco; nearly
all the small tools from the tool closets, with several large
augers ... all of which must have been transported some
distance, as they were originally stored in different parts
of the house. The outside casing of a silver watch was
disposed of in one part of the pile, the glass of the
same watch in another, and the works in still another.

The boy's pocket which contains snch a variety

of objects also bears witness of the force of this
collecting tendency. Nearly everyone has at some
time or other had a hobby for collecting some quite
useless article, coins, buttons, stamps, tobacco tags
and the like. To the force of this instinctive ten-
dency, more than to the actual value of these objects,
is due the great popularity of trading stamps, sou-
venirs, coupons, etc.
Abnormal development of this tendency shows
itself in the hoarding of gold by a miser, in the
thefts of the kleptomaniac, and the collecting of
absurd articles by inmates of institutions for the
insane.
4. Pugnacity. —The fighting instinct in human
beings, on account of the power of social order,
does not commonly show itself in physical combat.
But the love of combat may take the milder form
of watching a cock fight, dog fight, or a pugilistic
contest. Most frequently it shows itself as emula-
 —
INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 33

tion and rivalry of a more kindly sort, and is a

healthy stimulus to do one's best and better than
one's neighbor. The slavery of fashion is due in
part to this instinct and the limits to which people
;

will go to outdo each other in following the latest

styles, and in owning the latest model of an auto-
mobile show the intensity of this instinct. When
the rivalry consists in trying to excel one 's own past
record, becomes one of the most valuable tools
it

of education and industry.

5. Sociability. —
There is a very definite tendency
among animals and human beings to gather into
groups and to react unpleasantly toward solitude.
One of the most terrible punishments to which a
human being can be subjected is solitary confine-
ment. Many animals become terror stricken when
separated from their fellows and give evidence of
joy when returned to them. The great popularity
of seaside resorts, circuses, football and baseball
games, due in large part to the crowds and the
is

consequent stimulus to this instinctive tendency.

Who would enjoy a great football game if he had
to stand alone in the cold and watch it? The thea-
ter managers, too, know well the influence of a full
house upon the popularity of a play. According to
MacDougall, those of us who explain our enjoyment
of crowds as a purely intellectual interest in people
are really misinterpreting an attempt to satisfy our
sociability instinct.
An abnormal development of this instinct is
 —
34 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
counted among the fears. The fear of being alone,
the fear of being in open places, such as street cross-
ings, may be considered as a variation of this in-

stinct. The latter is generally relieved or absent in

the presence of other people.
6. Imitation. —Although a tendency to imitate
which would enable one to repeat what he sees being
done by another and what he had before been un-
able to do, is denied by many present-day psycholo-
gists as a powerful factor in learning new acts, still

the term ''imitation" is of use in describing certain

tendencies in human conduct. The quarrel is as to
whether one's learning is in the last analysis re-
ducible to imitation. This question will be dealt
with in connection with the problem of learning.
The so-called psychology of the crowd which at-

tempts to account for what a crowd will do that one

isolated individual will not do, is the psychology of
imitation. This, of course, is not a matter of learn-
ing to do something new, but merely a determination
of which act of a great number of learned ones shall
be carried on at a given time. The strength of this
tendency is well recognized by the business world,
which makes it the basis of many of its appeals to.

purchasers, and by industry, which uses it as a

stimulus to increased activity. To take the last-
named case, it is a co m mon thing in industries where
efficiency is the aim, to put a good man in the midst
of a group of slower individuals on the assumption
 INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 35

that the poorer ones will imitate the better and thus
be urged to increased activity.
7.'—There is a group of instinctive tendencies
called racial, on account of their value to the race
or species rather than to the individual. These are
very powerful and deep-seated tendencies to action
and must be considered in a study of behavior. They
are generally characterized by unconsciousness of
the end to which they lead. In animals they are
the most common and powerful instincts, comprising
the nest-building and the egg-laying instincts, the
care of the young, the protection of the group at the
cost of the individual life, and the procreation of
offspring. In man they are curbed and veiled by
social laws and customs, but in the form of the
maternal instinct and the sex instincts, love and
jealousy, they are powerful stimulants to action
and of importance in the determination of behavior.
The willingness of a soldier to die for the sake of
his country, when all the results of training and
tradition are subtracted, has, by some authorities,
been attributed to one of these racial instincts.
II. Inheritance peculiar to specific races.— Are
there characteristics of mind and behavior peculiar
man, which need to be con-
to the different races of
sidered from the point of view of efficiency'? "We
hear much nowadays about hereditary racial differ-
ences —that the Germans represent a race with cer-
tain characters, the French with others, the English
with others, etc., with practically no attempt to sep-
 :

36 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
arate the facts of inheritance from the effects of ed-
ucation, customs and general environmental condi-
tions. The actual experimental studies have been
made on rather simple functions, such as sensory
acuity, motor ability (speed of reaction, speed of tap-
ping, etc.),and simple judgments (form board test,
etc.). Although these traits are simple, yet they are

characteristics in which peoples are supposed in the

popular mind to differ. For instance, certain races
are thought to have remarkably keen vision, others
are said to be very slow, others very quick in their
reactions. The upshot of all of the experimental
tests seems to be that the racial differences in fun-
damental qualities independent of training are
slight. There is in every case, even in sensory
acuity and speed of reaction, much variability
among the members of the same race, so that in the
race making the best records there are always some
individuals who do as poorly as some of the best
individuals in the poorer races. Professor Wood-
worth in discussing the results of the form board
test, which is a fair test of intelligence and little

dependent on specific training, and which he tried

on a number of different races, says

As between whites, Indians, Eskimos, Ainus, Filipinos

and Singalese, the average were small and
differences
much overlapping occurred. As between
these groups
however, and the Igorot and Negrito from the Philippines
and a few reputed Pigmies from the Congo, the average
differences were great and the overlapping was small. . . .
 INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 37

If the results could be taken at their face value they

would indicate differences of intelligence between races,
giving such races as the Pigmy and
the Negrito a low
station as compared with that of most mankind. The
fairness of the test is however not beyond question; it
may have been of a more unfamiliar sort to these wild
hunting folk than to the more settled groups. This crumb
is, at any rate, about all the testing psychologist has
yet to offer on the question of racial differences in in-
telligence.
"")
( .

When one takes the full meaning of this statement,

namely, that between the highest and the lowest
races there are no differences which have up to this
time been positively established, it is scarcely to be
expected that differences of any importance would
be found among the higher races themselves.
More comparative measurements have been made
of the negroes and whites than any other pair of
races. Galton believed that, making allowance for
difference of environment, the negroes were inferior
to Europeans by about one-eighth of the difference
between Aristotle and the lowest idiot. The meas-
urements made by Mayo of negroes and whites of
the same social standing in the New York City
public schools is worth mentioning in this connec-
tion. Although the two groups were perhaps not
exactly comparable on account of the different social
status of the two races, the difference is not very
considerable. It has been estimated that the negroes
represented a somewhat more rigid selection than
the whites. Mayo studied the academic records of
 :

38 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
the two groups, and concluded that in academic
achievement only three-tenths of the negroes reached
a position attained by one-half of the whites. This
means that the range from zero up to a grade of
70 would include 50% of the whites and 70% of the
blacks. Further, he found the variability of the
negroes to be slightly less than that of the whites.
This would be the more important finding, if the
difference in variability were large enough to be
significant. It would mean that among the whites
there would be a greater chance for exceptional in-
dividuals to appear, both good
and bad that is, one ;

would expect the men who became greatest to be

white rather than black.
So far as applied psychology is interested in the
question of racial differences, the following state-
ment made by Thorndike will serve as a satisfactory
answer

From all these facts the student may make his own
estimate of the original mental differences of races, and
learn the need of more actual measurements of race dif-
ferences and of intelligence in interpreting them. My
own estimate is that greater differences will be found in
the case of the so-called "higher" traits, such as the
capacity to associate and to analyze, thinking with parts
or elements, and originality, than in the case of sensory
and sensori-motor traits, but that there will be very great
overlapping. . . . Even if the differences were larger than
these (such differences as the above statements show) the
practical precept for education would remain unchanged.
It is, of course, that selection by race of original natures
 INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY 39

to be educated is nowhere nearly as effective as selection

of the superior individuals regardless of race. There is

much overlapping, and the differences in original nature

within the same race are, except in extreme cases, many-
times as great as the differences between races as a
whole.
 CHAPTEE in
FAMILY INHERITANCE

I. Physical Inheritance.— In addition to the origi-

nal characteristics common to the human species and
to the race to which one belongs, every individual
possesses certain traits by virtue of having a certain
immediate ancestry. The influence of ancestry upon
a number of physical characteristics such as eye and
hair color, height, etc., has been worked out. Mental
resemblances are not so definitely determined, but
those which have been found, supported by the cer-
tainty of physical inheritance, lead us to expect that
one's immediate ancestry is of considerable impor-
tance in determining what his mental qualities shall
be.
It should not be expected that, if heredity is a
two persons of the same ancestry should
real factor,
have original natures which are identical in every
respect, except as a different environment changed
them. This may be easily proved by taking physical
characters which cannot be affected by environment,
e. g., color of the eyes. The coefficient of correla-
tion of two brothers in eye color is only .52, on the
principle that if they were always identical the co-
40
 :

FAMILY INHERITANCE 41

efficient would be and that if there were only

1.00

a chance relation between them, the correlation

would be zero. To make the relation still clearer, if
every person who had a brother with blue eyes had
blue eyes also, and if every person who had a brother
with gray eyes had gray eyes also, and so on with
every color, then the coefficient would be 1.00. But
if one with blue eyes might have a brother with any

eye color, then the correlation would be zero.

Take height as another illustration. Children of
parents who are three inches above the average in
height, will average only about two inches above
the average, i. e., they will not be identical in height
with their parents but will tend toward the average
of the whole race. Thorndike describes the reason
for these variations as follows

In all thought of inheritance, physical or mental, one

should always remember that children spring, not from
their parents' bodies and minds, but from the germs of
those parents. The germs of a man are
qualities of the
what we should know in order to prophesy directly the
traits of his children. One quality these germs surely
possess. They are variable. Discarding syntax and ele-

gance for emphasis, we may say that the germs of a six-

foot man include some six-foot germs, some six-foot-one

germs, some six-foot-two, some five-foot-eleven, some five-

foot-ten, etc. Each human being gives to the future, not

himself, but a variable group of germs. This hypothesis
of the variability of the germs explains the fact that
short parents may have tall sons, gifted parents stupid
sons, the same parents unlike sons.
 A

42 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Other well established relations between relatives
in regard to physical traits are:

Trait Individuals Correlation

Height father and son .30

< i
brother and brother .50
<< << <«
Cephalic index .50
Hair color tt tt a
.60

These figures show very clearly that one owes his

physical characteristics to a certain extent to his
immediate ancestry.
Consider next a characteristic that comes a little
nearer to being mental, namely deafness. It has
been found from statistical studies that out of every
four persons who have one brother or sister congeni-
tally deaf, one is deaf, while of those persons who
have neither brothers nor sisters born deaf, only one
out of a thousand is deaf. This means that if one
is of the same immediate ancestry as a person con-

genially deaf, he is about two hundred and fifty

times more likely to be deaf than a person who is
of the same ancestry as a hearing person.
II. General and Special Mental Inheritance.—

number of statistical studies have been made which

tend to show that general mental and moral traits
are inherited. In fact, this is so generally believed
that only one recent study need be mentioned as an
illustration.Thorndike studied 168 families, each
having only two children. In 138 of these families
 :

* FAMILY INHERITANCE 43

both children were "accelerated" or bright, or both

were retarded or dull. The remainder of the group,
80 families, had only one of the two children bright
and the other dull. That is, to put the conclusion
into a single statement, there is a very high corre-
lation between brothers and sisters in intelligence.
Francis Galton has made a statistical study of the
inheritance of specific mental abilities and found
that the abilities required for success as a judge,
statesman, minister, commander, poet, artist and
man, are inherited. But the nature of his
scientific

data makes him unable to make exact allowance for

influences of training and environmental influences.
Consequently, his figures might really show general
and the form of its ex-
intelligence to be inherited
pression to be dependent upon environment.
Other investigators, among them F. A. Woods
and Havelock Ellis, have made similar statistical
studies and conclude that there is inheritance of
even such qualities as temper, common sense, and
the like, but these reports are also subject to the
same complicating influence of environment.
Thorndike experimented upon a large number of
pairs of twins with many of the simple mental tests
to determine similarity of mental ability, and found
the following coefficients of correlation as compared
with those for brothers and and unrelated
sisters,
children, the figures representing the combined re-
sults of all of the tests
44 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Unrelated children 00 correlation
Brothers and sisters 40 correlation
Twins 80 correlation

The influence of inheritance upon a very specific

mental quality, namely, spelling ability, has been
tested experimentally, although here there is some
difficulty in separating the influence of heredity from
that of environment. Earle studied the spelling
ability of 180 pairs of brothers and sisters, who had
uniform school training, and found a correlation
between brother and sister of .50. This means that
if one child deviated by a certain amount from the

average child in spelling ability, his brother or sister

would deviate from the average child just half as
much, that is, he would resemble his brother or sister
to that extent.
After due allowance has been made for the influ-

ence of environment, Thorndike gives it as his opin-

ion that "what knowledge we have . . . supports
the view that a man's original nature is organized
by inheritance and
in great detail, particular traits
complexes of showing similarity between
traits
father and son or brother and brother. In another
'
'

connection, the same author, in discussing the value

of entrance examinations in college, emphasizes the
importance of heredity. He states that one can get
a better idea of what a student can do in his senior
year of college, by finding what sort of records his
older brother had made than by taking his own
entrance examination record.
 FAMILY INHERITANCE 45

The belief in the inheritance of mental charac-

teristics has received considerable support from the
recent studies of mental defectives. It is always
easier to trace the transmission of defects than nor-
mal traits, because of the more obtrusive character
of the former. Especially clear is the inheritance of
the defects resulting from incomplete or retarded
structural development of the nervous system, giv-
ing such deviations from the normal as weak-mind-
edness, imbecility, idiocy, etc. Only one study need
be cited here.
Goddard has made a study of mental defect in two
lines coming from related ancestral stocks. A man
of good stock had an illegitimate child by a weak-
minded girl and then later married a woman of good
stock who bore children. The descendants of the
same father by two different mothers have been
traced for a number of generations. In the case of
the descendants from the offspring of the weak-
minded girl there is a continuous series of incom-
petents, drunkards, drug users, prostitutes, etc.,
while the other branch of the family shows a long
line of people of good standing.
"What makes this case of particular value is the
fact that both lines of descendants continued to live
in the same neighborhood for generations. The
history of the two families shows the transmissi-
bility of mental defect, and more than this, it shows
that what is transmitted is here a general mental
deficiency which may show itself in a great variety
46 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
of ways depending on the specific conditions affect-
ing different persons.
The inheritance of insanity is more difficult to
demonstrate than that of feeble-mindedness, but
numerous statistical studies tend to show that this,
too, may be transmitted. To give one case, Mott
has analyzed 18 families, in which both parents
suffered from insanity, or nervous breakdown, or
were suicides, and finds that 39% of the offspring
were affected. In 90 families where only one parent
was insane, only 9.6% of the offspring were affected.
Granting now that certain physical characteristics
and conditions of high and low intelligence and pos-
sibly some more particular mental traits are inherit-
able, let us consider whether any specific tendencies
of another kind can be inherited, such as particular
diseases, the drink habit, drug habit, and the like.

The balance of opinion today is against this sort

of inheritance, using the term in its strict sense.
But it is granted that a child may be born afflicted
with disease as a result of parental infection before
birth, or may be born with a constitution so low in
general vitality that stimuli will be sought of the
drug or alcoholic sort, in order to enable it to com-
pete in the struggle for existence. Or again it may
be born with a low vitality, with the result that it is

very susceptible to disease

From the standpoint of any one individual life and
its efficiency, the question of actual inheritance of
disease may not seem to have so much importance,
 FAMILY INHERITANCE 47

since when one finds himself afflicted with a disease

or habit no distinction between real inheritance and
prenatal influence can be made. But when one con-
siders the chances of transmission to future genera-
tions, then the distinction between inherited and
acquired conditions becomes quite important. For
example, if a mother is afflicted with tuberculosis,
and gives birth to a child, the child may become
infected with the tubercle bacillus, by way of the
blood of the mother, although such cases are thought
to be extremely rare. Infection of the embryo with
syphilis on the contrary, quite common. Both
is,

of these cases are examples of prenatal infection

and not real inheritance. "What most frequently
happens is that the embryo is interfered with in
its development so that the child is born with a

weakened constitution, with its vitality below par,

and on this account may be highly susceptible to the
tubercle bacillus or any other disease germ. An
individual born in this condition is far better off
than one endowed by heredity with a specific disease
or habit would be. By proper living and proper
selection of occupation, the former may escape many
of the ill-effects of his inheritance, while the latter,
being born with the condition, must either be cured
or be doomed.
From the point of view of the production and
development of efficient individuals, therefore, the
question of family inheritance is of great impor-
tance. It demands that only individuals with the
 :

48 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
possibility of efficient lives be born. This means
such control of marriages as now exists in many
states,namely, the refusal of marriage licenses in
the absence of a clean bill of health and evidence
of normal mentality from the contracting parties.
Every state but the following eleven have enacted
laws preventing marriage in case of one or more of
the various kinds of deficiency, including imbecility,
feeble-mindedness, epilepsy, idiocy and venereal
diseases:

Alabama Louisiana Tennessee

Arizona Missouri Texas
Colorado New Hampshire Alaska
Florida New Mexico

The production of none but efficient individuals

means further that individuals known to be defective
shall be prevented from having offspring, a matter
also regulated in some states by law. Asexualiza-
tion, or the performance of operations to prevent
the possibility of offspring,is provided for by law

in the following states, in case of various kinds of

defectiveness

California Nevada
Connecticut New Jersey
Indiana New York
Iowa North Dakota
Kansas Washington
Michigan Wisconsin
 : :

FAMILY INHERITANCE 49

In the following states bills have been proposed

but lost

Arizona Vermont
Illinois Virginia
Minnesota

In Oregon a bill was passed by the Legislature and

killed by a referendum vote of the people. In the
states where there are laws, they usually begin some-
what as follows: " Whereas heredity plays a most
important part in the transmission of crime, idiocy
and imbecility. ..." The following is an extract
from a law concerning the prevention of offspring
in the state of Iowa, which may serve as an example
of the others

It shall be the duty of the state board of parole, with

the managing officer and the physician of each public
institution in the state, entrusted with the care and cus-
tody of criminals, rapists, idiots, feeble-minded, imbeciles,
lunatics, drunkards, drug fiends, epileptics, syphilitics,
moral and sexual perverts, and diseased and degenerate
persons, and they are hereby authorized and directed to,
annually or oftener, examine into the mental and physical
condition, the records and family history of the inmates
of such institutions, with a view of determining whether
it is improper or inadvisable to allow any of such in-

mates to procreate and to judge of such matters. If a

majority of them decide that a procreation by any of
such inmates would produce children with a tendency to
disease, deformity, crime, insanity, feeble-mindedness,
idiocy, imbecility, epilepsy or alcoholism, or if the physical
50 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
or mental condition of any such inmate will probably be
materially improved thereby, or if such inmate is an

epileptic or syphilitic, or gives evidence, while an inmate

of such institution, that he or she is a moral or sexual

pervert, then the physician of the institution, or one

selected by him, shall perform the operation of vasectomy
or ligation of the fallopian tubes, as the case may be,
upon such person. Provided that such operation shall be
performed upon every convict or inmate of such institu-
tion who has been convicted of prostitution or violation
of the law as laid down in
or who has been twice convicted of other sexual offenses,
including soliciting, as defined in
or who has been twice convicted of a felony, and each such
convict or inmate shall be subjected to this same operation
of vasectomy or ligation of the fallopian tubes, as the
case may be, by the physician of the institution or one
selected by him.

The production of efficient individuals means the

adoption of many other radical means of improving
the human stock. It means that the use of the above
mentioned radical measures must be extended be-
yond persons who are found in institutions, to in-
clude those incompetents and defectives who are at
large. The type of defective known as a moron,
seldom put in institutions, and yet incurably defi-
cient, morally and intellectually, represents the
group among whom offspring might be prohibited.
Here is a field where applied psychology deter-
mines the means of attaining efficiency. Whether
the end or the purpose to which the means leads
is right or not must be settled otherwise. It is
 FAMILY INHERITANCE 51

obvious that today the means of obtaining efficiency

which depends upon the determination of what kind
of individuals shall be born, conflicts to a certain
extent with public sentiment. It is justifiable to
proceed slowly in such matters, for we are con-
stantly reminded that many of the great characters
of history were defective in one or other of the ways
mentioned in the preceding pages. But there is no
doubt that the pressing character of the problem of
deficiency will cause a more widespread limitation
of production of possible burdens and menaces to
society.
 CHAPTER IV
EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING

We have previously discussed the tendencies of

the individual toward activity before he comes into
contact with his environment. Since the necessary
reactions to environment begin at birth or even
before, we have been forced to speak of possibilities
of certain kinds of behavior or tendencies to action,
meaning simply that the first time a stimulus affects
the organism a particular response will follow. How
are these original tendencies to action modified as a
result of environmental influences, or to put the case
more simply, how does one learn? We have said
that all situations naturally produce a satisfying or
an annoying state of mind in the individual and that
the organism tends to make movements of random
character to retain the satisfying state or to change
the annoying into a satisfying state; further, that
there is a tendency for the reactions resulting in a
satisfying state to produce a more lasting effect
upon the nervous system than those reactions which
produce an annoying state. Hence, by virtue of
these original characteristics of the organism, we
52
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 53

have a mechanism by which certain kinds of move-

ments may be selected out of a number of more or
less random movements and become connected or as-
sociated with a certain objective situation. If the

stimulus produces a reaction which is at once pleas-

ant, this form of response becomes easier to repeat
when that stimulus is again received. If the stimu-

lus produces a response which is accompanied by an

annoying state, then the random movements occur;
and the response which finally produces the satisfy-
ing state is the one which is most easily repeated
when the stimulus is next received. Consequently,
learning may be reduced to the formation of connec-
tions between situations or stimuli and responses or
reactions. It consists in (a) the strengthening of
some original responses by repeating them, and (b)
weakening certain other original responses to a
given situation and substituting other responses
which in turn grow stronger with use.
For convenience of treatment a distinction may be
made between the case in which the response consists
of a bodily movement and that in which it consists
of a change in consciousness, but fundamentally
there is no In one case the objective
distinction.
change is the object of interest and in the other it
is the subjective or mental change. The underlying
is of the same character in both cases.
nerve activity
There are some investigators who assert that every
response to a stimulus is a movement response,
which may or may not be accompanied by conscious-
 :

54 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ness. Pillsbury, in speaking of the relation between
habit and memory, says

Habits, as was seen, are due to the establishment of

connections between sensory and motor neurones by a
change that takes place at the synapse. After these have
been frequently connected, the stimulus tends to reinstate
the act whenever it appears. Retention of ideas has
exactly the same basis. The cells involved in the ideas also
act together, and this activity produces changes in the
synapses. Whenever one of the ideas presents itself
again, the other is, or tends to be, reinstated. Not merely
the cortical elements are rearoused in memory, but the
whole sensori-motor tract may be partially active. This
brings the process still nearer to habit. Memory is an
habitual response in which the greater part of the activity
is in the cortex. The activities of the sense-organ and
the muscles are subordinated to the central processes,
while in habit the whole sensori-motor tract is active in
approximately the same degree.

Efficiency in Habit Formation and the Acquisition

of Skill.— The objective type of learning is variously
termed habit, practice, or acquisition of skill. A
great mass of experimental work has been done both
on animals and on man to determine the fundamen-
tal laws of habit formation. A good example of
learning in animals is the case cited by Thorndike
of a house cat learning to escape from a pen to get
food.

If we take a box twenty by fifteen inches, replace its

cover and front side by bars an inch apart and make
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 55

in this front side a door arranged so as to fall open when

a wooden button inside turned from a vertical to a
is

horizontal position, we shall have means to observe such

[learning process]. A kitten, three to six months old,
if put in this box, when hungry, a bit of fish being left
outside, reacts as follows: It tries to squeeze through
between the bars, claws at the bars and at loose things
in and out of the box, stretches its paws out between the
bars, and bites at its confining walls. Some one of all of
these promiscuous clawings, squeezings,
and bitings turns
round the wooden button, and the kitten gains freedom
and food. By repeating the experience again and again,
the animal gradually comes to omit all the useless claw-
ings, and the and to manifest only the particular im-
like
pulse (e. g., to claw hard at the top of the button with
the paw, or to push against one side of it with the nose),
which has resulted successfully. It turns the button
around without delay whenever put into the box. It has
formed an association between the situation, confinement
in a box of a certain appearance, and the response of claw-
ing at a certain part of that box in a certain definite way.
Popularly speaking, it has learned to open a door by turn-
ing a button.

"Learning by trial and error" is the name given

to this sort of learning.
Much of the learning of human beings is of this
crude and
sort, especially the learning of infants
young But even in adults the same selec-
children.
tion of the correct movement from a number of more
or less chance series of movements is the basis of
learning. A young child who is learning to write
will make many random movements with his hand
56 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
and many useless movements of other parts of his
body, such as gritting his teeth, scraping his feet
on the floor, and sliding around in his chair. When
some of the movements produce a satisfying effect,
through an approximation to the copy, or the ap-
proval of the teacher, these movements get the ad-
vantage over all others, so that when another at-
tempt is made, the correct movements will tend to
occur sooner. Finally, when learning is complete,
only those movements which aid directly in reaching
the desired result are retained.
The results of experimental studies of the learn-
ing process are summarized in the following state-
ments :

1. —A series of more or and random

less diffuse

movements lead to chance success. There must be

a cause for these random movements. It may be
only the instinctive tendency to be active, or hunger,
or interest in some specific task such as learning to
write, or to solve a puzzle. Interest is the impor-
tant factor in the learning of adults.
2. —The pleasurable stamp in the
effect tends to
successful movement more permanently than the
unsuccessful, so that when the procedure is repeated,
some of the incorrect and unnecessary movements
are dropped off and the right one occurs sooner. In
terms of time, there is a gradual reduction of the
time necessary to perform the act.
3. —
The influence of unpleasant effects must not
be overlooked. Stimuli which are annoying lead nat-
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 57

urally to activity that will continue until a pleasur-

able result occurs. Thus, if it does nothing more
than lead to activity, the unpleasantness would aid
in the learning process, since movements of this type
are just the sort that give opportunity for chance
success. Compared with the direct effect of pleas-
urable states in establishing a habit, the unpleasant
states are sometimes called secondary or indirect
aids to learning.
4. —Learning, with the consequent reduction in
time of performance, is in many cases due not to

making the same movements faster and faster, but

to making entirely different movements. That is,
the habit when formed may consist of a set of move-
ments entirely different from those employed in the
beginning. Learning is thus primarily a process
of selection of movements.
5. —
To get a proper conception of the changes
which occur in learning, the whole process must be
conceived as taking place in the nervous system, i. e.,
it must be treated as a physiological change. It re-

solves itself into a modification of certain conduction

units in the nervous system so that a certain stimu-
lus will lead directly to a certain movement. Thus
any factors which tend to establish such paths of
conduction in the nervous system are of use in learn-
ing. Of these factors, two of the most important
are repetition of the stimulus and increase in the
magnitude of the stimulus.
6. —
It is generally agreed that learning must be
58 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
spontaneous. And this conclusion naturally follows
if our explanation of learning be correct. If one is
to learn an act of must make the movements
skill, lie

himself rather than watch another make them, or

rather than have his own limbs passively moved by
another. Since training is a preparation of sensori-
motor conduction paths, the complete paths must be
exercised, and this occurs only in active movement.
Guiding a child's hand in teaching him to write
would then be an inefficient method of instruction.
The acquisition of skill depends upon the same
conditions as those just cited. Very careful and de-
tailed studies have been made upon the acquisition
of skill in typewriting, in telegraphy, in target shoot-
ing and other similar activities. The most recent
and complete of these experimental studies is that
on typewriting. In this experiment every error
made and the time required for every single opera-
tion of the machine were recorded during the course
of the learning process. The introspections of the
learners were recorded at frequent intervals to aid
in interpreting the causes of improvement. The fol-
lowing conclusions to be drawn from this work sup-
plement those derived from the study of the more
elementary form of learning described above.
7. —
The methods by which improvement comes are
—
seldom conscious, one falls into the right way of
doing things without knowing what the change is.
Anyone who has learned to play tennis, golf, to skate
or to swim, will recall that very often he did not
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 59

know or could not discover just what constituted

the modification in his procedure which changed the
unsuccessful into the successful trials. The reason
that the successful variations may not be conscious
is that the learning consists in changes in the physio-
logical mechanism, hence it would be impossible for
one to be conscious of anything but the outward re-
sults of the change. In the case of typewriting, cer-
tain steps in the process of improvement were dis-

covered. The improvement has been attributed to

the "formation of higher units" or the acquisition
of larger and larger groups of movement habits.
These are series or chains of movements which are
set going with as little conscious control as one
single movement requires in the untrained person.
Thus a skilled typist writes whole groups of letters
and even words with one conscious effort, rather
than one letter at a time, although each letter always
requires a specific movement. So it is that an expert
operator can move his fingers in writing faster than
they can be followed by the eye, or even faster than
they can be followed in thought.
8. —
After a certain set of responses has once been
developed, it is often of value to become conscious
of them in order that they may be repeated the more
readily when needed. For example, the ability to
write certain combinations of letters on the type-
writer without attention to the letters comes gradu-
ally, and one is surprised to find himself able to do
it. To use such higher units efficiently the writer
60 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
should be conscious of these newly acquired habits,
so that he may distribute his attention to the great-
est advantage.
9. —Improvement often resultsfrom the elimina-
tion of bad habits, the dropping off of useless move-
ments. In most cases these, too, are unconscious
change^, which may be discovered after they have
been established. Watching a beginner learn any
complicated act will reveal a great number of use-
less and retarding movements, which must be elimi-
nated as practice continues. The greatest efficiency
results from learning under such guidance that only
right habits can become fixed. The value of this is
especially clear in typewriting, where one 's common
sense will not guide him into the most economical
procedure, and where if left to himself, one will form
habits which must be broken with more or less diffi-
culty before further progress can be made. It is
largely on account of the value of forming right
habits from the very beginning of the learning proc-
ess that instruction has come to play such a large
part in the scientific management program.
10. —
The typewriting experiments show the great
value of incentive in helping one to improve. The
promise of promotion, the promotion itself, or a
desired reward of any kind, will often give the
needed spur to one's energy. In the case of teleg-
raphy, men will remain for years at a fixed degree
of efficiency, until some unusual stimulus will cause
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 61

a striking increase in speed. Obviously, such spurs

to effortcome relatively seldom, but there is a source
of interest and incentive available to all learners.
That is the incentive which comes from competing
with one's own past record. Such self -competition
has most of the good points of actual competition
—
and rivalry with one 's fellows which have a strong
instinctive basis,—with none of its bad points. Any
person who will carefully keep a record of a series
of his trials in acquiring skill, either in terms of
amount of work done, or time required to do it, and
will draw the results out in curve form will develop
great interest in building the curve from time to
time and noting its changes. The value of self-com-
petition is being recognized in school work in con-
nection with the ''practice method," where such in-
dividual records are kept by the children, and in in-
dustrial work, where an individual works by the
piece method and a reoord of his daily or hourly
achievement serves as a strong incentive to in-

creased effort.
Kirby used the practice method of teaching arith-
metic to a group of 1,300 New York City school chil-
dren, and compared their records with children
taught in the ordinary manner. The children were
further compared as to length of their practice pe-
riods. In discussing the experiment, Kirby thus em-
phasizes the importance of knowledge of one's past
record as an incentive:
 "

62 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
After a practice period was finished and pencils were
laid down, the children were eager to tell their own scores
and to learn the scores of others. It acted as an im-
mediate reward and so as an incentive. Just before
. . .

beginning the second and each following practice period,

the exact score of each child in the preceding day's prac-
tice was read, both the number of columns worked and
the number correct. .. The children were told that their
.

individual improvement was to be measured and they

were shown that no matter how low or how high their
present record, their final standing would be determined
by the amount of gain made. They were shown that it was
not primarily a contest among the individuals of the class
but an effort on the part of each one to surpass his own
previous record. The children were encouraged to com-
pare their last record with their own previous records, and
at times the scores were read to them in such a way
as to indicate gains made.

In accounting for the greater improvement in the

group whose practice time was divided into rather
short working periods, he says,

The group working in shorter periods had a longer

time in which to catch the spirit of the experiment, and
to become enthusiastic over surpassing their previous per-
formance. They had their own records read to them
more times and had the incentives to intense effort re-
peated more often.

Experimental results indicate that there is no act,

except a reflex, no matter how specialized the train-
ing may have been in the course of one's occupa-
tion, that cannot be improved by practice, under the
conditions of the so-called "practice experiment
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 63

Typesetters of years of experience are able to im-

prove considerably under practice conditions, and
bank clerks who have added figures for years can
make striking increases in speed in a few hours of
self -competition. The practical application of these
facts is obvious.
11. —There a ''physiological limit" beyond
is

which our bodily mechanisms will not allow us to

go either in speed or in amount of work. Thus
the delicacy of our sense organs limits the fineness
of our sensory discrimination, the structure of bones
and muscles limits our strength, and the conducting
mechanism, including the nerve fibers and their cen-
tral connections, limits the speed with which our
movements may follow the stimuli or situations
which cause them. For instance, the physiological
limit for a movement of the finger in response to
the stimulation of the eye by a light of moderate
intensity is about one-tenth of a second. But in the
great majority of cases, it is not the physiological
limit which blocks progress. Most often it is the
lack of sufficiently powerful incentives, the presence
of wrong movement habits or other remediable con-
dition. According to James, most of us get into the
habit of living on too inefficient a plane, and could
increase our output largely without taxing our or-
ganism to the danger point. He says,

Of course there are limits, the trees don't grow to the

sky. But the plain fact remains that men the world over
64 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
possess amounts of resource which only very exceptional
individuals push to their extremes of use. But the very
same individual, pushing his energies to their extreme,
may in a vast number of cases keep the pace up day after
day, and find no reaction of a bad sort, so long as decent
hygienic conditions are preserved. His more active rate
of energizing does not wreck him ; for the organism adapts
itself, and as the rate of waste augments, augments ac-
cordingly the rate of repair.

Just how one may know his real limit beyond

which it is not safe to go, will be discussed in a
later chapter.
Efficiency inMemory.— In distinction from the ob-
jective form of learning or habit formation, there is
the subjective learning or memory. This last is a
general term commonly used to cover all such phe-
nomena as retention, recall, association and recog-
nition. The results of the large amount of experi-
mental work on memory may be gathered into a few
statements, showing the most economical methods of
learning. We are not likely to feel the necessity for
economy and efficiency in our mental activities, be-
cause we do not commonly think of them as consum-
ing energy. But when one realizes that time and
energy are required as much as in bodily activity,
the need for economy is apparent.
1. —The most efficient learning consists in selecting
the particular type of memory adapted to a given
kind of material and the use to which it is to be put.
The schools in their work emphasize the most diffi-
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 65

cult kind of memory, an unaided verbatim repro-

duction. There are certain cases that require this
type of learning, e. g., all isolated materials such as
the multiplication tables, and the spelling of words.
But there are other kinds of material which should
be easily obtainable when needed, but which need
not be carried in the mind at all times. In such
cases one need not learn so completely that the facts
may be recalled at any time but only well enough
that they may be relearned easily when needed.
Thus most of our knowledge acquired in our school
days has apparently gone completely from our
minds, but only a small percentage of the original
labor will bring it all Much of the education
back.
of the engineer, the professional man and the teacher
is of this kind.
Then there is much material which need be learned
only so well that it will be recalled along with some
other definite thing with which it has been associ-
ated. The name of a person may be thus associated
with the sight of his face, a telephone number with a
particular name, a foreign word with the sight of
the English equivalent. This type of memory re-
quires much less effort than absolute recall and in
its place is just as efficient.

Some things need be remembered only when they

themselves are present. This form of memory is
called recognition, and it is the most economical of
all. It consists simply in knowing a thing or being
familiar with it, when we meet it. For instance, it
66 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
is far more important for one to know his fountain
pen when* he sees it, to be able to nse it, than to
know all about it at other times. In what way and
how well a thing is to be learned must depend on
the use that is to be made of it, economy of ef-
for
fort demands that the means shall be employed
which will be most efficient with the least expendi-
ture of energy.
2. —If a large quantity of material is to be learned,
common sense will not enable one to select the most
economical method of learning it. Experiment has
shown that the material should be learned as a
whole rather than in parts. To take an example,
if one had a poem of sixteen four-line verses to

learn, the correct way to learn it would not be to

learn it one verse at a time, a procedure commonly
followed by an untrained individual, but to read
from beginning to end again and again until the
whole could be repeated. There is only one drawback
to this method, namely, that a person is likely to be-
come discouraged or lose interest when progress is

apparently lacking, if he does not have sufficient

confidence in the method. It sometimes happens that
in first using this method of learning, rather poor
results are obtained, but if given a fair trial, the
time saved and the greater permanence of the re-
sult willshow the real efficiency of the method.
The reason for the greater economy of the "whole
method" lies in one of the most fundamental laws of
learning, namely, that one should always begin by
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 67
J
doing a thing as nearly as possible in the way it is
eventually to be done. Otherwise, it must not only
be relearned in parts, but old habits must be broken.
In learning anything in sections, associations are
formed between the end of a section and its begin-
ning, but since repetition as a whole is the desired
end, all of such associations must be finally broken
and correct ones formed. Learning the task as a
whole in the first place forms only habits which will
be needed in the perfected performance.
—
3. A third fact in economical learning has to do
with the distribution of time and effort. If the ex-
act influence of fatigue, practice, and a number of
other factors involved in learning were known, one
could arrange beforehand the time schedule that
would be most economical for learning. But since
we do not have such knowledge in sufficient detail,
the problem has to be attacked empirically. Various
tasks are set and a given amount of time allowed
for learning. This time is differently distributed
for different individuals, some spending theirs in one
continuous work period, and others spreading their
time over a period by dividing it into portions. The
conclusion which has been drawn from experiments
of this type is that too great concentration or dis-
tribution of time is not economical. The learning
periods should be short enough to avoid the onset
of fatigue, and long enough not to cause the loss
of too much time in getting warmed up to the task
at the beginning of each learning period. No abso-
68 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
lute rule can be laid down for all individuals, but it

can be safely said that a moderate distribution of

time always gives more economical results than
spending the same amount in one continuous study
period. The same facts are true of motor learning
or muscular activity. The reason in the latter case
seems more obvious than in memorizing, but it is
no doubt the same in both cases. Activity causes
an increase in the nutrition of the part used, and
these nutritive changes, whether they occur in the
nerve or in the muscle mechanism, would be most
furthered by a distribution of the working time.
4. —The permanence of the effects of learning has
been measured for various sorts of material and for
fairly long periods of time. Naturally, the duration
of the effect of learning depends much on the char-
acter of the material,e. g., whether or not it is logi-
cal in character, and whether or not it is related to
one's permanent interests. But allowing for all of
these possible variations, the effects of learning fade
out in relatively the same manner, whatever the na-
ture of the material learned. Thus, it has been
definitely established that forgetting goes on very
rapidly for a short time after learning and then
more slowly until the passage of months or even
years does not seem to reduce the quantity retained.
A necessary corollary to these facts about forget-
ting is that of the value of repetition in learning, or
from time to time what has been learned.
reciting
The most economical time to do this repeating is
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 69

during the period shortly after the learning, because

this is the critical period in which a large propor-
tion of the material, if not refreshed, will be lost.
The laboratory experiment which indicates the slow-
est rate of forgetting, shows that, of a poem learned
well enough to be repeated correctly twice imme-
diately after learning, over 20% will be lost in 24

hours ; while at the end of 30 days only 76 % will be

lost. These figures mean that in a period thirty
times as long, less than four times as much of the
material is lost. The results of other experiments
with different kinds of material show a much greater
difference in the rate of forgetting during the dif-
ferent time intervals.
5. —One of the most important conclusions drawn
from experimental work on learning is the neces-
sity for the intention or the "will to learn," in or-
der that things shall be remembered. The case is

analogous to the active as compared with the pas-

sive attitude in habit formation mentioned earlier in
the chapter. Anyone can abundant evidence
find
from his own experience that only the things which
he wills to learn are likely to be remembered. For
instance, the writer has in the course of certain ex-
perimental work named a series of 100 colors (five
different colors, each repeated twenty times, ar-
ranged in a random order), over 1,000 times in order
to measure his speed of reading, and he never
learned the list so far as to be able to recall even
the first three colors. Here the intention was to gain
70 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
speed in reading and not to remember. One's igno-
rance of situations which he meets daily during years
of his life testifies to the importance of this intention
to learn. The inability to describe correctly the face
of the watch which has been carried for years and
looked at many times each day is one striking ex-
ample.
6. —
Just as there is a physiological limit to our
speed of action or our endurance, so there is a limit
to our learning power, set by the original character
of our nervous mechanism. What one's training
does is to enable him tomake the best use of his
native memory, by teaching him the value of various
aids to memory such as we have been discussing in
these pages. Original differences in retentiveness
may account for the great individual differences in
the memories of adults.
The Function of Imagery in Learning. There is —
no one question concerning consciousness in which
people seem to differ more than in the importance
they attach to images or mental pictures in learn-
ing and thinking. Some persons have very vivid
imagery and find it present in consciousness so con-
sistently that they make memory and the presence
of images of past experience practically synony-
mous. To such persons, one way to improve mem-
ory and learning power is to cultivate a rich and
detailed mental imagery. To others, such imagery
is almost unknown and consequently seems value-

less for mental operations. To Francis Galton and

 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 71

many others since his time, people seem divisible

into types according to the character and richness
of their imagery. The most significant fact in the
work of Galton is the relative paucity of images
found in scientific and abstract thinkers, and its
great prominence in children.
A question of particular importance to the ap-
plied psychologist concerns the value of imagery for
special kinds of work. For instance, does the in-
ventor need vivid visual imagery so that he may
see in his mind's eye the thing that he shall con-
struct;do the painter and the sculptor need vivid
and detailed imagery from which to copy their cre-
ations does the musician need to have auditory im-
;

agery to create and reproduce music; is any work-

man benefited by his ability to get good mental pic-
tures of his task and his attitude toward it? It is
difficult to draw a perfectly definite conclusion as to
the practical function of imagery. But careful in-

vestigations indicate that persons lacking these im-

ages altogether, or possessing them in such vague
form as to make them seem useless, have been emi-
nent in the activities mentioned above. Further-
more, individuals who can demonstrate that they
rely on these images in learning are rare. So far
as the present state of our knowledge permits us
to judge of the matter, it would seem to be a waste
of time to cultivate imagery as an aid to learning
or as a source of mental efficiency. And it would be
absurd to select individuals for special types of work
72 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
upon the basis of their imagery, either as to its
character or its vividness.
Transfer Effects of Training.— In studying effi-

ciency in mental life one frequently encounters this

question: Is there a general ability or intelligence
which is trained and developed in the course of ex-
perience, or is training specific in its effects,

modifying only the function exercised? Our educa-

tional systems have been built upon the assumption
that there is a general intelligence which is subject
to improvement, and that such studies as algebra,
Latin and Greek are especially valuable for this
general training. Exact measures of the effects of
training in simple mental and motor activities, sup-
ported by the modern conception of the function of
the nervous system, tend to support the view that
training is specific, affecting only the function ex-
ercised. The problem is a rather complex one, since
a function memory as we speak of it in a prac-
like
tical sense may correspond to a large number of
separate functions in the nervous system. The
methods of studying this problem of transfer may
be illustrated by the description of an experiment
recently reported. From a series of 500 numbers,
persons were practiced for ten days in canceling out
every 3 and every 5 from a page of digits. They
had been previously tested for their speed in cancel-
ing from a series of number-groups, every group
containing combinations of 3 and 5, and combina-
tions of 4 and 7. After the ten days' practice in
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 73

canceling 3 and 5 separately, the group cancellation

tests were repeated. It was found that in the can-
celing of the groups containing 3 and 5, there was
a gain equal to more than 50% of the gain in the
task actually practiced, that is, the transfer effect
was 50%. But in canceling groups containing 4
and 7, there was no gain whatever to be attributed
to practice. In the one case we find identical ele-
ments, the numbers 3 and 5, responsible for the
transferred improvement, and in the case of the
numbers 4 and 7, there were no identical elements,
and no improvement. This means that there was
no improvement in the general ability to cancel num-
bers, but only in the ability to cancel specific num-
bers or groups of numbers. This particular experi-
ment and its results are typical of those performed
by numerous investigators.
In response to the growing conception of the limi-
tations of general training, one can see a natural re-
action in the educational procedure, a reduction in
the emphasis upon purely cultural studies, with an
increase of emphasis upon vocational and practical
aspects of training.
The problem as it should be stated today, is not
whether specific training spreads to all other func-
tions, but to what extent, and whether the amount of
spread is sufficient to warrant the time and energy
spent in general training. No complete solution has
been reached to cover all cases, but there is a con-
clusion which may be safely drawn, namely, that one
74 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
gets the best results from practicing the apt he wants
eventually to perform, and in the way that he wants
to perform it, and is benefited by other related acts
only so far as there are common elements in the two
acts.
Influence of Practice Upon Variability.— There is

an important question concerning the effects of uni-

form training upon differences among individuals.
Does uniform training make people more alike or
more different than they would have been without
it? The question as stated would be answered dif-
ferently by persons who attach much or little im-
portance to heredity as compared with environment.
To the former, training or practice would only give
opportunity for original qualities to show them-
selves, and hence would result in increased differ-
ences; while to the latter, similar training would
produce greater uniformity. The matter has been
attacked experimentally, in the case of very simple
mental operations, such as calculations and speed
of perception, but the results are difficult to inter-
pret. Differences at the beginning of training may
be due to differences in the extent to which the par-
ticular function has been previously trained, or to
actual differences in original capacity to learn. The
effects of practice would be different in the two
cases. If the differences at the beginning of prac-
tice are due to inherited capacity, then practice
would increase these differences; but if the differ-
ences before practice are due to differences in train-
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 75

ing, the individual with little previous training would

be given the opportunity to acquire it, and the in-
dividuals would become more similar. It is practi-
cally never possible to evaluate the factor of previ-
ous training in experimental tests, since no one ever
begins training in any function at the zero point of
efficiency, nor can be assumed that two or more
it

people begin the training with the same preliminary

preparation. About all that the practice tests show
thus far is that the relative position of the individ-
uals of a group at the beginning of practice does not
necessarily indicate what their relative order will
be at the end of practice. The one who begins best,
may, at the end of practice, be the best, or may drop
to an inferior position and be supplanted by one who
began with an inferior grade of performance. This
is especially the case where practice continues until

ultimate ability is approximated. The variation in

position due to the interaction of previous train-
is

ing and original capacity, and perhaps also to such

factors as change in the attitude, of the individual
toward the work, or loss of interest. Expressed in
terms of coefficients of correlation, reported by
Thorndike, the relation between relative position at
the beginning and end of practice is for a group of
28 persons tested in mental multiplication .48; and
by Hollingworth the same relation in the case of a
number of simple mental tests on a group of 13 in-
dividuals is .42. This latter figure is the average
of separate correlations, and the author emphasizes
76 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
the fact that the different tests included in the group
do not show the same
all relation. The relation be-
tween beginning and end of practice represented by
a correlation of .40 to .50 indicates changes in po-
sition about half as great as would occur by pure
chance.
The practical conclusion to be drawn from this
type of experimental work is that one should be
cautious in judging ultimate capacity of an indi-
vidual from any sort of preliminary test. The con-
clusion agrees with one quoted from Thorndike
earlier, that the college marks of one 's older brother
in his senior year are a more reliable index of what
the individual himself will do in his senior year,
than are his own college entrance examinations.
A further question may well be asked, concerning
the influence of practice upon the variability of
oach individual's performance. It is well established
that practice decreases the variability of an indi-
vidual, makes his performance more uniform. In
fact this may be considered a matter of common ob-
servation. The by trimming
variability is reduced
off all superfluous and wrong movements, leaving
fewer factors to vary. But even when this has been
done, variations in performance are not completely
eliminated; there will always be slight variations
in speed and accuracy. The question then arises
whether there is an actual reduction in the variation
of the movements still retained as a part of the per-
formance, or whether the reduction is only apparent
 EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING 77

and due to the elimination of the useless movements.

In studying this matter, statistical errors are likely
to creep in, since if variability is calculated on the
basis of the time required, it is much reduced by
practice, but if calculatedon the basis of quantity
done in a given time, the variability increases with
practice. In concluding as to the change in the
character of one's work as a result of practice, the
figures must not be taken at their face value, but
must always be interpreted in the light of the method
of deriving them.
 CHAPTER V
INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE ON EFFICIENCY

Sex.— There is one more inherited characteristic

which must be considered in a study of efficiency,
namely, sex. It is inherited from our immediate an-
cestry, although the factors which determine sex
are not yet understood. To what extent does one's
sex predetermine efficiency in practical life? Does
being a male or a female imply the possession of
certain original characters which make one or the
other incapable of certain kinds of useful activity?
This is an extremely difficult question to answer, on
account of the characteristics which the sexes ac-
quire from their early training, and on account of
the fixed traditions which have been cultivated con-
cerning the proper occupations for men and women.
Custom has certainly been a very powerful factor
in determining what be the sphere of the sexes.
shall
Just because the sexes are never subject to the same
environmental conditions, there is scarcely any op-
portunity to study their differences in original na-
ture.
The practical question of relative capacity of the
sexes is being answered to a certain extent in the
warring countries because the scarcity of men has
78
 INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 79

forced women into many of the positions formerly

occupied exclusively by men. In two years time we '

have grown accustomed to hearing of women iron

workers, women street car conductors and motor-
men, women farmers and women chauffeurs. And
they seem to be efficient in these tasks. What will
be the effect of this work in the course of time upon
women and their offspring remains to be seen.
The question of sex differences can best be
handled by considering, first, the physical and the
physiological and then the mental characteristics of
the sexes. Physically, women have a smaller aver-
age size and weight of the body as a whole, and of
parts such as the skull, and trunk. Men are uni-
formly stronger than women and more so than the
difference in bodily size and weight would warrant.
The difference is to be attributed at least partly
to intrinsically stronger muscles, rather than to dif-
ferences in their development. The most striking
difference in structure and functions, however, is in
what are called the primary sex characters. Thus
the anatomy and the physiological mechanisms of
women are adapted to the bearing and the rearing
of children, whether they ever have
them or not. In
connection with this primary sex function, all fe-
males have been thought to be handicapped by their
periodical functions, which incapacitate them both
physically and mentally for a certain time each
month, and on this account women have been con-
sidered as excluded from many of the professions
80 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
and occupations open to men. The same argument
lias many times been used against coeducation. A
certain amount of physical disability may be
granted. But recent and careful experimental study
of mental and motor ability over long periods of
time has failed to show any rhythmic variation in
ability or performance, and has tended to refute the
older views as inapplicable to normal healthy women.
Some interesting statistics are available concerning
the efficiency of women in industry. In a work pub-
lished by the Russell Sage Foundation in the inter-
est of labor legislation, it is stated that women suf-
fer especiallyfrom present day conditions in indus-
trial work, such as overstrain from excessive speed
and complexity, prolonged standing and the absence
of a monthly day of rest.

In addition to their susceptibility to injuries of the

generative organs, working women have been found more
liable than men to disease in general. There is a con-
sensus of opinion among those who have longest observed
girls and women at work, that the burdens of industrial
life press more heavily upon them than upon men.

Wherever statistics of the morbidity of both working men

and working women exist, the morbidity of women is
found to be higher. The two most important facts
. . .

to be noted are women's higher morbidity when compared

with men in the same occupations, and their longer dura-
tion of illness, measured by the number of days lost from
work. . Thus are women physiologically handicapped
. .

by a greater general liability to disease, and a peculiar sus-

ceptibility to injuries of the generative organs. In a
 INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 81

word, they are less men, and

resistant to fatigue than
their organisms suffer more gravely than men's from the
strains and stresses of industrial life.

Such facts as these may well be questioned when

presented as evidence of natural sex differences, for
in the case of working women there is often the
burden of looking after the home in addition to the
industrial labors, which is not borne by the men. In
short, not only similarity of industrial conditions
must be taken into account, but all other differences
in the environment outside of working hours must
likewise be considered.
Are there any innate mental qualities peculiar to
each of the sexes? Perhaps the most important dif-
ferences to be looked for would be those of instinc-
tive equipment. Can any differences in instinctive
equipment be discovered? There are two instances
mentioned by Thorndike, namely, differences in the
pugnacity or fighting instinct and in the parental
instinct. The former is said to be much more promi-
nent in men and the latter in women. If such na-
tive differences really exist they will account for
much of the difference between the sexes, e. g., the
great prominence of men in the field of competitive
activities and of women in
the moral qualities re-
sulting from her natural tendency toward parental
activities. It is no simple matter to decide upon
the relative strength of these two instinctive tend-
encies in men and women, because as general con-
cepts the meaning of the terms is not definitely de-
82 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
termined. And further, the environmental differ-
ences may be such as to give prominence to the dif-

ferent tendencies in the two sexes very early in life,

although they may be originally equal in strength.

There is little agreement among authorities concern-
ing any other instincts in which the sexes might differ.
Are there any natural differences between the
sexes in general intelligence ? This question may be
answered by studying the records of tests of mental
characteristics little affected by training. Thorn-
dike has collected the most important data concern-
ing sex differences in mental ability. These are
given in the accompanying table. The figures rep-
resent, in the case of each trait, how many males are
as good as or better than half of the females (or
what per cent of the males reach or exceed the me-
dian of the females). For instance, in the case of
the tests for spelling the table shows that only
thirty-three per cent of the men attain a degree of
efficiency attained by fifty per cent of the women. In
all cases the records are the result of laboratory
tests, except where they are noted as derived from
school marks.
Per cent men reaching
Name of Test median of women

1. Color Naming and Card Sorting 24

2. Cancellation Tests 33
3. Spelling 33
4. English (School marks) 35
5. Foreign Languages (School marks) 40
6. Immediate Memory 42
 INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 88

Per cent men reaching

Name of Test median of women
7. Sensory Threshold 43
8. Retentiveness 47
9. Association (Speed and accuracy) 48
10. General Information 50
11. Mathematics (School marks) 50
12. School Marks (Average of all studies) 50
13. Discrimination (Other than color) 51
14. Range of Sensitivity 52
15. History (School marks) 55
16. Ingenuity (Special tests) 63
17. Accuracy of Movement (Of arm) 66
18. Physics and Chemistry (School marks) 68
19. Reaction Time 70
20. Speed of Movement (Finger and arm) 71

These records are collected from various sources

and represent different degrees of reliability. The
twenty traits may be roughly divided into three
groups, namely, those traits in which women excel
(1 to 7) ; those traits in which the sexes are equal
(8 to 14) ; and those which men excel (15
traits in
to 20). An examination of these three groups may
give some grounds for certain differences generally
attributed to the sexes. For instance, women ap-
pear to be better in language work, and men in sci-
ence work, women rank higher in sensitivity and
men in activity. But the overlapping of the sexes
in these traits is just as significant as the differ-
ences. And, further, one cannot exclude the pos-
sibility that these differences, such as they are, may
have other than a hereditary basis.
 :

84 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Men and women may be ways not
said to differ in
measured by these mental tests, for instance, in emo-
tionality, impulsiveness and sympathy. Although
these characteristics cannot be measured in the same
way as some of the simpler mental qualities, still
they may be investigated in less direct ways. Some
results have been reported which are based upon the
judgments of the two sexes by friends, teachers, rel-
atives and acquaintances. Such measures of char-
acteristics based on this type of judgment conscien-
tiously made are subject to inaccuracies, but still
give a more reliable picture of sex differences than
the casual impressions or prejudices that usually
form the basis of opinion. Thorndike has worked
over all available records of this sort and has pre-
sented them so as to show the per cent of men reach-
ing or exceeding fifty per cent of the women in each
trait. For instance, in the case of patience, thirty-
eight per cent of the men are found to have the de-
gree of patience found in fifty per cent of the women.
The traits studied and their values follow

Per cent men reaching

Name of Trait median of women

1. Interest in Persons Rather Than Things 15

2. Emotionality 30
3. Temperance 30
4. Impulsiveness 34
5. Religiousness 36
6. Sympathy 38
7. Patience 38
 INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 85

Per cent men reaching

Name of Test median of women
8. Vanity 40
9. Shyness 42
10. Temper 56
11. Self-Consciousness 57
12. Humor 61
13. Independence 70
In practically all of these characteristics, as in the
groups of traits previously described, there is a
great overlapping of the two sexes. It is quite likely
also that some of the differences which are shown
may be due to the different standards in the traits
which custom decrees for men and women, that is,
the differences may be due to environmental rather
than to hereditary factors.
There are still other possibilities of differences
between the sexes. One of these is a difference of
variability within the two groups, which, if found
to be the case, would be a very vital difference. For
instance, if men were found to be the more variable
sex, in the sense that men covered a greater range
of performance, then the bestand the worst human
beings would be men, and the fact that men have
figured more prominently in the deeds of the world
would be accounted for in the original constitution
of the sexes. Likewise, if this were true, the highest
achievement in the future could be expected from men.
A rather common opinion among scientific men
has been that men are more variable than women in
this sense. The view was first contested by Karl
86 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Pearson and since that time the earlier studies have
been examined more critically and much evidence
has accumulated which casts doubt on claims of dif-
ferences in variability between the sexes. When un-
favorable environmental conditions are allowed for,
and sufficiently large numbers of individuals are
tested, differences in variability do not appear.
Three sorts of evidence have been presented by a
recent writer in an attempt to dispose of the prob-
lem of sex variability:
1. — Physical measurements of newborn infants of
both sexes. This is perhaps the only case where in-
nate variability of the sexes can be compared, un-
modified by environmental influences, since by the
time that mental tests can be given the latter factor
may have changed the innate tendencies. Holling-
worth and Montague studied careful physical meas-
urements of 2,000 newborn babies, 1,000 of each sex,
and failed to find any significant differences in the
range of variability in the two groups in the char-
acters measured. Pearson studied physical charac-
teristics of adults of both sexes and he too failed to
find any differences in variability.
2.— Mental tests of the two sexes. The most re-
cent studies of large groups of people of the two
sexes fail to show any differences in variability in
the abilities tested. Among such studies may be
mentioned that of Trabue on 13,000 school children
in the completion of sentences, the arithmetic tests
of Courtis on several thousand children, the Binet-
 —
INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 87

Simon tests made by Terman on 1,000 children and

Pyle's extensive measurements of school children.
3. —Statistical studies of mental deficiency in the
two Such studies made by institutions for
sexes.
the feeble-minded and defective show at first glance
that there are more men than women admitted to
these institutions. Since this is just what should be
expected if men were more variable than women,
men being both better and worse than women, such —
data have been used in support of the contention
that men are more variable than women. But a
closer study of the significance of the figures, to-
gether with consideration of the forces that bring
cases to institutions for the defective, shows that the
two sexes are affected unequally by these forces.
Defective women are much more likely to be main-
tained outside of institutions than men, because they
are essentially a dependent and non-competitive
class, hence do not succumb in the economic struggle.
As far as range of variability of the two sexes is
concerned, the arguments give no good
above
grounds for assuming a difference.
We may conclude our survey of the relation be-
tween sex and efficiency with the following statement
from Thorndike:

The most important characteristic of these differences

is The individual differences within
their small amount.
one sex so enormously outweigh the differences between
the sexes in these intellectual and semi-intellectual traits
that for practical purposes the sex differences may be dis-
 :

88 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
regarded. So far as ability goes, there could hardly
be a
stupider way to get two groups, alike within each
group
but differing between the groups, than to take the two
sexes. As is well known, the experiments of the past gen-
eration in educating women have shown their equal com-
petence in school work of elementary, secondary and col-
legiate grade. The present generation's experience is

showing the same fact for professional education and busi-

ness service. The psychologist's measurements lead to the
conclusion that this equality of achievement comes from an
equality of natural gifts, not from an overstraining of the
lesser talents of women.

Age.— The influence of age upon physical and

mental capacity is universally recognized, and yet
the popular conception of age qualifications of all

sorts is neither definite nor uniform. In practically

no case is there good scientific foundation for the
social, business and industrial age requirements.
The economic factor may seem to be important in
determining the age qualifications for work of vari-
ous sorts. For instance, the labor of boys and girls
is usually cheaper than that of adults, while the em-

ployment of old persons is not advisable because

they are likely to be inefficient, and their employ-
ment may involve their care after they cease to be
useful. A few examples of age qualifications follow
1. —Certain railroads will not employ men over the
age of 35 years, and have a pension system whereby
they are automatically retired from service at the
age of 65-70 years.
 ;

INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 89

2. —In some states no person under the age of

sixteen may drive an automobile, although the
writers know of no case where there is an upper
or old age limit for such work.
3. —Entrance to college is frequently limited to
persons over a given age, e. g., 15 years.
4. —Applicants for police service must be over 18
years of age (sometimes 21).
5. —The vote is limited to adults 21 years of age
or older. Under that age men are infants in the eyes
of the law, requiring a guardian for the transaction
of legal business.
6. —Persons under the age of 14 (sometimes 16)
cannot be employed in industrial work.
7. —
Children under five years of age may ride free
on most public carriers, and children under the age
of 12 years may ride for half of the adult fare.
8. —The so-called age of consent varies from 12 to
16 years in different states.
For many of these and other age qualifications
there appears to be no sound reason. Why should
the legal age be 21 years rather than 18 or 25 years
why should an intelligent fifteen-year-old boy be
prohibited from driving an automobile, while a
feeble man The whole con-
of 70 is not restrained?
ception of age requirements seems to be based upon
the idea that chronological age is a real measure
of physical and mental qualifications, or that there is
a uniform change in individuals with age, so that
number of years lived will serve as an index of fit-
90 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ness. The reliability of this age index of capacity
must be determined by investigation.
The physical and physiological changes with age
may be divided into two groups First, those rela-
:

tively rapid and pronounced changes, the date of

whose occurrence is fairly uniform in all people, such
as the appearance of the teeth, making possible a
change from liquid to solid food, the maturing of
the sexual mechanisms from 12 to 17 years of age,
known as the adolescent period, and the menopause
in women between the ages of 45 and 50 with its
important physical and physiological changes. Sec-
ond, there are the gradual and continuous changes
in structure and function which occur from the mo-
ment of birth to death.
The body increases rapidly after birth in size and weight.
It is the popular idea that the rate of growth increases
up to maturity and then declines as old age advances. As
a matter of fact, careful examination of the facts shows
that the rate of growth decreases from birth to old age, al-

though not uniformly. At the pubertal period and at

other times its downward tendency may be arrested for a
time. But, speaking generally, the maximum rate of
growth reached some time during the intra-uterine
is

period, and after birth the curve falls steadily. Senescence

has begun to appear at the time we are born. The
. . .

signs of old age may be detected in other ways than by

observations upon the rate of growth. Changes take place
in the composition of the tissues; these changes, at first

scarcely noticeable, become gradually more obvious as old

age advances. The bones become more brittle from an
increase in their inorganic salts, the cartilages become more
 ;

INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 91

rigid and calcareous, the crystalline lens gradually loses

its elasticity, the muscles lose their vigor, the hairs their
pigment, the nuclei of the nerve cells become smaller, and
so on. In every way there is increasing evidence, as the
years grow, that the metabolism of the living matter of the
body becomes less and less perfect; the power of the
protoplasm becomes more and more limited, and we
itself

may suppose, would eventuallyfail, bringing about what

might be called a natural death. As a matter of fact,

death of the organism usually results from the failure of
some one of its many complex mechanisms, while the ma-
jority of the tissues are still able to maintain their ex-
istence if supplied with proper conditions of nourishment. 1

The special mechanisms which most commonly

fail are the heart, blood vessels, the kidneys and the
lungs. Now these changes are not so closely corre-
lated with the number of years that one has lived
that years may be taken as a sign of physical age
the failures are more likely due to accident or to
manner of living than to age. Examples of this lack
of correlation between physical condition and age
in years are abundant. Many a man of 70 years is
physically younger than others of 45. Realization
of such disparity is leading to the development of
new physical age standards. One's age may now
be measured in such terms as blood pressure and
kidney action, rather than in years, months and
days. That "a man is as old as his arteries," has
become a popular expression. A recent campaign
for the employment of old men as office help, clerks
1
Howell, W. H., "Textbook of Physiology" (1908), p. 904.
92 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
and messengers to offset the scarcity of labor, would
be quite justifiable if coupled with the physical ex-
amination of all candidates and the selection of those
chronologically old but physically young.
Careful measurements emphasize not only the
great individual variations in physical and physio-
logical development with age, but also the variation
in the rate of development of different characters in
the same individual. The accompanying curves in-
dicate the different rates of change in a few physical
characters, height, weight, length of skull, strength
of grip, speed of movement (rate of tapping with
finger), and sensitivity to pain. In order to make
the data comparable, all age values for the different
measurements are expressed in terms of the value
at 18 years of age, which is taken to represent 100.
Measurements of this sort have not been systemati-
cally made beyond the age of 18 years. The figures
along the base line show the chronological age, and
those along the vertical show the per cents of the 18
year values. Differences in the shape of the curves
will indicate differences in rate of development. For
instance, the length of the skull changes only slightly
but very uniformly from 6 to 18 years. Strength
of grip, on the contrary, undergoes considerable
change, with an increase in rate at the age of 14
years, the adolescent period. Between these ex-
tremes, various rates of change may be noticed. Each
curve may be compared with the straight line which
 INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 93

represents the change in age upon the basis of 18

years as 100.
RATE OF DEUELOPMEHT
U1 TERMS OF THE PER CEJ1T OF THE: IB YEAR
.

RECORD REACHED BY EACH YEAR

%
too

SO

60

70

60

50

«0

30

20

to

/JGE-6 7 Q 3 10 1/ 12 13 H 15 16 17 16

The following table gives the 18 year values for

each of the traits as well as the units of measure
for each. In the first column are the traits, in the
second, the unit in terms of which the measurement
was made, in the third, the record for 18-year-old
boys and girls, the values representing the average
of the records for the two sexes.

Averages of Physical Traits at the Age of Eighteen

Trait Unit of Measure Average Value

Height Centimeter 165.0
WeiVH Kilogram 57.0
94 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Trait Unit of Measure Average Value
Skull Length Millimeter 189.0
Strength of Grip Kilogram 39.5
Tapping Rate 30 seconds 195.0
Pain Threshold Kilogram 1.9

The study of the individual differences in physi-

cal and physiological characteristics for a given age
shows that environment, and special habits of liv-
ing are more vital than mere maturity in determin-
ing bodily condition. Hence, the struggle to keep
physically young with increasing years, if properly
conducted, will within limits have its reward.
Mental condition like physical condition under-
goes rapid changes at certain periods. The mental
is usually correlated with the physical so that the
two periods of most profound mental change are
adolescence in boys and girls and menopause in
women. The adolescent period has been the object
of much study, because the time of its occurrence
makes of an educational problem. Then there is
it

the gradual mental development with age. The in-

telligence tests of the psychological laboratory have
disclosed interesting relations between age and men-
tal development, both in the nature of differences
among individuals and in variations in different
functions within the same individual. It has been
found, for instance, that instead of all of the mental
functions developing at the same rate, there is great
variation, even in such functions as rote memory
and logical memory. The laboratory tests have been
 INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 95

limited largely to persons of school age, since for

educational purposes mental growth during this pe-
riod is of most interest.
The accompanying chart some indication will give
of the relative rate of change of a few mental func-
tions. In order to make the data of the different
mental traits comparable, they have been treated
in the same manner as the physical traits described
RATE OF EEVELOPMBrfT
Fnotf 6 to 10 years (in terms of the percent of
the 18 Yt/ili record reached by each year)
Logical Mernory
too
*
-*—p
/
90 /
xnn Subif /
, s ^fftpo
i
v jAe£
60

/
/ i
,3/
TO /
f / of/
;»
(MO 1*
3

*40 / //
/V
taps
tr /
(
//

30
i

20

to

earlier, that is, the records for age 18 have been

taken as the standard and the other ages are repre-
sented in terms of per cent of this 18 year record.
Examination of the chart shows that logical memory
reaches a maximum at 13 years of age with no
96 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
change up to 18 years, while rote memory (measured
by memory span) shows a more gradual increase
with its maximum about 17 years. Certain of the
traits, e. g., word building, indicate an increasing
rate of improvement from 6 to 18 years, while
others, e. g., association, show a decreasing rate of
improvement. The straight line represents the age
change in terms of 18 years as 100, or the standard.
To determine the rate of change of a trait, its curve
should be compared with this age curve.
The figures for the different traits at the age of
18 are given in the accompanying table, together
with the unit of measure for each trait. Each fig-

ure represents the average record for boys and girls.

From these figures and by reference to the curves,

the values for each age may be determined.

Averages op Mental Traits at the Age of Eighteen

Trait Unit of Measure Average Value
Memory Span (Digits) Items 8.6
Logical Memory Items 37.5
Substitution Items 29.5
Cancellation One Minute 22.5
Word Building Five Minutes 19.5
Associations (Common) Per cent 90.0
Form Board Seconds 10.0
Calculation One Minute 58.0

There is even greater disparity between age in

years and mental growth than between the former
and physical growth. If one is physically in his
prime at 25 years of age, he may reach his mental
 INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE 97

zenith at 60 years or older. A great deal of empha-

sis has been given to the disparity between age in
years and mental development by the mental tests of
Binet-Simon and others, and the term "intelligence
coefficient" has been coined to express the relation
between them. From these tests one can assign to
an individual a mental age in years by comparing his
performance with the so-called age norms. Thus,
if a 16-year-old boy makes a record in the tests such
as the average 10-year-old boy makes, his mental
age is 10. The intelligence coefficient is this mental
age divided by the chronological age. A coefficient
of 1.00 would then indicate a person mentally nor-
mal, or one as much developed as the average per-
son of his age, a coefficient of .75 would indicate one
below the average and a coefficient of 1.25 would in-
dicate a person above the average intelligence for
his age. "It by no means uncommon to find seven-
is

year-olds who can do intellectual work at which one

in twenty seventeen-year-olds would fail." And it
is still less uncommon to find a twenty-five year old

person with the mental age of a boy of twelve. Ob-

viously then, for most practical purposes it is mental
age rather than chronological age which is impor-
tant. These age scales for the determination of
mental ability have been devised for the detection of
mental deficiency, and only of late have been modi-
fied to cover ages above twelve years. It may in
time be possible to measure the intelligence of any
adult in terms of an intelligence scale.
 CHAPTER VI
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

I.— Ventilation: Temperature and Humidity.—

The condition of the air in which one lives has
been recognized as a factor in efficiency since the
17th Century. The tragedy of the Black Hole of
Calcutta, more than one hundred and fifty years
ago, has frequently served as an example of the ef-
fect of lack of ventilation. The following is taken
from a recent article in Popular Science Monthly
(1914), upon "Fresh Air."

One of the hottest of the hot nights of British India,

a more than one hundred and fifty years ago, Siraj-
little

Uddaula, a youthful merciless ruler of Bengal, caused to be

confined within a small cell in Fort William, one hundred
and forty-six Englishmen whom he had that day captured
in a siege of the city of Calcutta. The room was large
enough to house comfortably but two persons. Its heavy
door was bolted; its walls were pierced by two windows
barred with iron, through which little air could enter,
The night slowly passed away, and with the advent of the
morning death had come to all but a score of the luck-
less company. A survivor has left an account of the
horrible happenings within the dungeon, of terrible strug-
98
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 99

glings of a steaming mass of sentient human bodies for the

insufficient air.Within a few minutes after entrance every
man was bathed in a wet perspiration and was searching
for ways to escape from the stifling heat. Clothing was
soon stripped off. Breathing became difficult. There were
vain onslaughts on the windows; there were vain efforts
to force the door. Thirst grew intolerable, and there were
ravings for the water which the guards passed in between
the bars, not from feelings of mercy but only to witness
in ghoulish glee the added struggles for impossible relief.
Ungovernable confusion and turmoil and riot soon reigned.
Men became delirious. . All efforts for relief were vain
. .

until at last bodily and mental agony was followed by

stupor.

One need only appeal to his own experiences for

proof that being confined in a crowded, poorly ven-
tilated room produces drowsiness, lassitude, and
even severe headache or fainting. To correct the
evil, it is not enough to blame the bad air, one must —
—
know just why the air is bad, what makes it bad.
Mere opinion and popular prejudice cannot be re-
lied on to discover the cause, but the results of sci-
entific experiments must be sought. Fortunately,
in recent years a great deal of investigation has been
going on to answer this question. The most recent
and comprehensive experiment is that now being
conducted by the New York State Commission on
Ventilation, in their laboratories at the College of
the City of New York. Our conclusions will be
drawn largely from reports of this work.
One of the earliest explanations of the effects of
 100 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
bad air, before chemical analysis of the atmospheric
air had been made, was that the human body ex-
(/•) hausted the aerial sp irit of the air, a substance nec-
(i) essary for the preservation of Another view
life.

was that the human b ody gave off noxious vapors

ffy which poisoned those persons inhaling them. After
the analysis of air into its ch emical co nstituents the
aerial spirit needed to preserve life became oxygen
and the noxious gases became carbon dioxide. The
effects of bad air were then thought to be due to the
decrease of oxygen and the increase of carbon di-
oxide components of the air. This is the view that
is prevalent in the popular mind today. Experi-
mental work, however, does not support this theory.
Pure air contains among other constituents in small
proportions, the following:

oxygen 21 per cent

nitrogen 78 " "
carbon dioxide 0.03 " "

Now most poorly ventilated schools and fac-

in the
tories the oxygen is reduced to only 19% and the
carbon dioxide is increased to only 0.3%. But in
order that any harmful physiological effects can be
demonstrated, the oxygen must be reduced to 14 per
cent and the carbon dioxide increased to 2.4 per
cent. It is clear from such figures that the ill ef-
fects from poorly ventilated rooms cannot then be
attributed to reduction in oxygen nor to increase in
 :

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 101

carbon dioxide, nor even to a combination of both.

The theory of-iicroTC(Lpoison, as it was called,
'
'

next developed and received much support even as

late as 1911. According to this theory organic mat-
ter given off by the lungs and the body surface con-
tained a poison, called anthropotoxin. The odor of
foul air was supposed to be an index of the pres-
ence of this poison. Definite proof of this theory
seemed to be obtained by condensing expired air
and administering the solids and liquids obtained
to guinea pigs. Ill effects thus produced were at-
tributed to the presence of the anthropotoxin. Later
experiments showed that the technique of these tests
was in error and that the conclusions were false.
Moreover, experiment has shown that air is al-
most never responsible for carrying disease germs
of any kind. When transmission by way of dust
particles, by insects, and by actual contact has been
eliminated there is little transmission of disease
germs. Lee, a prominent physiologist, speaks as
follows concerning infection by way of the air

The mere fact that such germs (as tuberculosis, diph-

theria, typhoid fever, dysentery, etc.) have at times been
found (in the air) is of little significance in the matter of
possible aerial infection. They never occur in any con-
siderable numbers, and considerable numbers of germs are
usually necessary to produce disease. It is known that
many bacteria on being cast out into the air from an in-
fected source lose their virulence in the process of drying,
and soon die. Evidence that these disease germs pass
 102 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
through the air from room to room of a house or from a
hospital to its immediate surroundings always breaks down
when examined critically* It is, indeed, not rare now to
treat cases of different infectious diseases within the same
hospital ward. The one place of possible danger is in
the immediate vicinity of a person suffering from a disease
affecting the air passages, the mouth, throat or lungs, such
as a "cold" or tuberculosis. Such a person may give out
the characteristic microbes for a distance of a few feet
from his body, not in quiet expiration, for simple ex-
pired air is sterile, but attached to droplets that may be
expelled in coughing, sneezing or forcible speaking. But
apart from this source, there appears to be little danger
of contracting an infectious disease from germs that float
to us through the medium of the air.

Infection from sewer gas escaping from defective plumb-

ing a negligible quantity in the transmission of disease.
is

Workmen in sewers are notoriously strong, vigorous,

healthy men, with a low death rate among them.

In the work of the ventilation commission thus

far, the only result of the presence of organic sub-
stances in the air has been a slight loss of appetite,
not accompanied by unpleasant feelings or reduc-
tion in work done.
If bad air is not bad on account of its chemical
constitution, low oxygen content, high carbon di-
oxide content, or the presence of toxins, what is the
cause of the indisputable ill effects of poor ventila-
$) tion? Chemical theories have been replaced by
physical theories and the problem is transferred
,

from chemistry to physics. The air is considered as

a radiating medium by which the body may maintain
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 103

a so-called normal temperature, set by nature at

98.6° F. When the temperature rises above this
normal the subject is said to have a fever, or when
' '
it sinks below this normal, he has a chill. Either ' '

condition is destructive to the bodily well-being, the

life of the individual cells depending on a mainte-
nance of this norm.

Fever is accompanied by abnormal chemical changes

within the tissues and the production of toxic substances,
which in turn react upon the tissues, diminishing their
working power, inducing early fatigue, and upsetting the
normal equilibrium of the organism. The result of such
a disturbance of the bodily mechanism, if very pronounced,
is the production of a pathological condition which is called

heat stroke.

The body is constantly producing more heat than *

is necessary for maintaining this normal tempera-
ture, as a result of muscular, nervous and glandu-
lar activity. The excess is given off partly by way
of the warm expired air, but largely by radiation
from the body surface and by evaporation of the
perspiration thrown out upon the skin by the
sweat glands. These two processes of radiation and
evaporation depend not only upon the body and its
condition, but also upon the condition of the air sur-
rounding the body. If, for instance, the tempera-
ture of the air is higher than that of the body, di-
rect radiation from the body to the air would not
occur, but rather the opposite. Further, if the air is
already saturated with moisture, evaporation can-
104 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
not occur. In this state the two most important
factors in maintaining a normal body temperature
are absent, and the body suffers from overheating.
It is this overheating which causes the lassitude,
drowsiness, headache, etc. Thus it may be said that
the two most important conditions of the air in
which one is required to live, which demand atten-
tion, are temperature and humidity, and not chemi-
cal constitution.
Experimental results bear out these statements.
If anumber of individuals are kept in an air-tight
room with the air unchanged for a number of hours,
they show the usual symptoms of poor ventilation.
If they are allowed to breathe fresh air by means of
tubes leading from the outside of the room these
symptoms do not disappear. And if an individual
on the outside of the room is allowed to breathe
the much used air from within the room, by means
of tubes, he does not show the symptoms. Hence the
air breathed is not the cause of the discomfort. The
experiment room, used by the New York Ventila-
tion Commission, is equipped with devices for chang-
ing the air in any fashion,
e. g., temperature, humid-

ity, stagnancy, and the effects of each change

etc.,

may be determined. Any change which will pro- *

duce the necessary radiation of heat from the body
has been found to reduce the unpleasant symptoms.
Thus stirring or disturbing the air with electric
fans, thereby driving the hottest air away from the
skin, will bring relief at once.
 —
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 105

Thus far we have spoken of the feelings of dis-

comfort, etc., resulting from poor ventilation. What
is the effect on efficiency as measured in quantity

and quality of work done? The efficiency tests of

the Ventilation Commission are still in progress, but
the available data show that if temperature and hu-
midity are kept at optimum values, lack of ventila- ,/
tion does not decrease either mental or physical effi-

ciency. If the temperature and humidity are raised,

there is falling off in physical efficiency. For in-

stance, the tests thus far made show that the effi-

ciency at 68° is 37 per cent greater than that at

86° F., and 15 per cent greater than at 75° F. As
for mental work, represented by mental multiplica-
tion, association, addition, typewriting and the like,

thereis no distinct falling off in efficiency, even

when temperature and humidity are considerably

raised. But in this casewhen the subjects were
allowed to follow their own inclinations, the mental
efficiency was perceptibly reduced that is, they were
;

less inclined to work. This probably means that the

tasks were more difficult and unpleasant and con-
sequently required more effort when the tempera-
ture and humidity were high.
Humidity must always be considered in relation
to the temperature. The optimum humidity in- .

creases jis_t]i£_ipmpprRtvire incrpRses-. For as air is /

heated it is capable of holding more moisture and
as it is cooled it will give off some of its moisture
its saturation point is raised or lowered by change
 :

106 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

in temperature. It must be kept in mind that air
which is too low in moisture content is not good, as
it will take more moisture from the body than it can
spare, and dry throat and nasal passages will result.
The following practical conclusions may be drawn
from the foregoing:
1. —Homes and offices should be kept at a tempera-
ture no higher than 70°. The following additional
figures are given by American ventilating engineers

Occupants at Rest Occupants Physically Active

Lecture Halls 61-64 Gymnasium 60

SleepingRooms 54-59 Work Shop 61-64
Bath Rooms 68-72 (moderately active)
Work Shop 50-59
(vigorously active)

With a temperature of 68°, the humidity should

be about 60°. The wet bulb thermometer gives a
record of temperature and humidity combined, and
a reading of 60 on such a thermometer is recom-
mended.
2.—Enclosed air should be kept in motion. This
may be done by fans or by a current of air from
an open window. Driving the overheated air from
the surface of the body promotes evaporation and
reduction of high body temperature.
3. —
Draughts are harmful only when limited to a
small part of the body such as the back of the neck
or the ankles. General changes of temperature are
invigorating and resemble a cold bath in their effect.
 —
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 107

4. —Have plenty of fresh air night and day. With

otherwise poorly ventilated rooms this is the surest
way of keeping the temperature and humidity what
it should be. All enclosed air spaces when occu- *
pied by people rise in temperature and humidity
from body heat and moisture, conditions which can
be counteracted by a free circulation of air from
the outside.
II.— Climate and Season of the Year.— Climates
differ from one another, and seasons likewise, in
four respects; namely, te mperature Tmmidity/haro-
—
*tj
metr ic pressure an d wind. The influence of climate
and season of the year, consequently, reduce largely
to a question of temperature and relative humidity,
and to that extent are covered by the previous dis-
cussion. But some consideration must be given to
the statistical researches upon the influence of cli-

mate and season, if only to corroborate the experi-

mental Aside from differing in the method
results.
of obtaining the data, the two sorts of study, namely,
that on ventilation and that on climatic conditions,
differ in that the latter are concerned with the sup-
posed results of subjection for long periods of time V
to certain atmospheric conditions, and the former
with results for relatively short periods. The fol-
lowing quotations are taken from the writings of E.
G. Dexter who has done a great deal of statistical
work upon the general problem of weather condi-
tions and from that of E. Huntington, who has
studied the effects of climate upon civilization.
108 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
In their effects upon the race varying temperatures
. . .

have been recognized by every student of climatology.

Inhabitants of hot climates are apt to be listless, unin-
ventive, and improvident.
apathetic An equable high
temperature, especially if moist, weakens body and mind.
No long-established lowland tropical people is a conquer-
ing race in the broadest sense of the word. For the in-

habitants of the higher altitudes, even under the tropical

sun, this may not be true ; for as we ascend, the tempera-
ture lessens about 1 degree every 270 feet on an average,
and even at the equator we may have a temperate climate.
The most favorable temperature for health that carries
with it an aggressive energy which is felt, and which has
led the world march of civilization, is about 55 to 70 7
degrees Fahrenheit, on an average, and this is found in the
temperate zones. . The dominant peoples are found be-
. .

tween the latitudes of 25 and 55 degrees. Farther north

the available vital energy seems so largely expended in
furnishing mere body heat and stimulus for the necessary
physiological functions that there is little left for use in
those activities which make leaders. . . . Excessive heat
together with high humidity forms a most deadly combina-
tion for one not acclimated to it, as the mortality on the
west coast of Africa testifies; while in some localities, as

for instance, Western Ireland, the lake region of England,

and the extreme northwestern coast of our own country,
much moisture from a great rainfall without excessive heat
is not particularly unhealthful.

One objection to giving such great importance to

climatic conditions in determining the character of
civilizations has been the changes in the type of
civilization thathave taken place in the course of
centuries in the same locality. To offset this objec-
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 109

tion, however, there is the suggestion, supported by

modern researches, that climatic conditions have
varied from century to century, and that
'
' when the
great countries of antiquity rose to eminence, they
enjoyed a climatic stimulus comparable with that
existing today where the leading nations now dwell.
In other words, where civilization has risen to a y
high level the climate appears to have possessed the
qualities which today are most stimulating."
So far as the behavior of the individual is con-
cerned, climatic conditions which are extreme in
neither direction are conducive to the greatest activ-
ity. That is, in extremely warm and humid climates
and in extremely cold climates, the excess of energy
supply over demand is always slight, and activity of
all kinds is at a minimum. To put the matter an-
other way, so as to relate it to our study of ventila-
tion more closely, any atmospheric conditions which
tend to change the body temperature much above or
below its normal for more than a very short period
of time decrease activity.
It must be remembered that great activity and
large reserves of energy on which the activity de-
pends may be turned to good or bad use. Thus
Dexter attributes the excess of crimes such as mur-
der, assault, etc., in the temperature zone, over that
in the torrid or frigid zone, to this excess of energy
and consequent activity. He also finds a great ex-
cess of such active crimes as assault in the summer
months as compared with the winter months. On
110 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
the other hand, he finds much more drunkenness
which he attributes
in the winter season, a condition
to the low state of energy and the consequent need
for stimulants. The excess of activity seems to find
the readiest escape by way of the emotional states
that lead to fighting.
An interesting fact in connection with the rela-
tion between the curves representing temperature
and those representing frequency of assaults (the
latter being taken as an indication of excess energy),
is that they run parallel except in exceedingly hot ^

weather, i. e., from 90° F. up there is a drop in the

curve, which means a decrease in number of assaults.
This confirms the earlier statement that high tem-
peratures as well as low ones reduce the energy
supply available for activity. Huntington considers
England and the northwest coast of the United
States as approaching the ideal climate. The former,
in the neighborhood of London and Liverpool aver-
ages 38° to 39° F., in winter and 60° to 63° in sum-
mer; the latter (e. g., Seattle) averages 39° in Janu-
ary and 64° in July. He attributes the climatic
excellence of these localities to the fact that ocean
winds from the west blow freely over them. Dexter
measured the effect of season of the year upon in-
tellectual work of a rather specific sort namely, the
;

calculations of bank clerks. The records were in

terms of certain types of errors made. He found
most errors occurring in October, November and
December, and fewest in April, May and September,
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 111

with the number fairly large in the hot summer

months. The last he considers due to the depletion
of energy from excessive heat, the good records, or
few errors, in the spring and autumn due to the
stimulating character of the changes in temperature.
The high error record in the winter months cannot
be attributed to weather conditions solely, as the
whole matter is complicated by increased business,
holiday seasons, etc.

III. Weather.— Weather may be reduced to the

same four conditions as climate, namely, tempera-
ture, humidity, barometric pressure and wind, the
main difference being in the temporary character of
weather conditions as compared with climatic con-
ditions. On account of this variety greater oppor-
tunity is offered for study of various conditions
upon efficiency. Climate is always involved with*"
such a large number of other conditions, among them
racial heredity, that conclusions are uncertain. The
may be studied upon the
influences of the weather
same individuals under environmental conditions
identical except in regard to this one factor.
The following quotations taken from an article
on the "Psychic Effects of the Weather," give a
notion of the common opinions about the effects of
weather conditions:

Nearly all vocations —some, of course, more than others

—are affected by weather. Men of science are often as
much subject to weather as seamen. Some writers must
112 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
have the weather fit the mood, character or scene, and can
do nothing if they are at variance. An adverse tempera-
ture brings them to a dead halt. If one will but read
poetry attentively, he will be surprised to find how much
of it bears weather marks scattered all through it. A
popular writer thinks weather often affects logic, and many
of men's most syllogistic conclusions are varied by heat
and cold. Diverse weather states may be one cause of so
much diversity and even disagreement in thought processes,
usually regarded as scientific. I have collected opinions
of many experienced teachers and nearly all think there
should be modification of both school work and discipline
to correspond with weather. Animals respond to it
promptly and with no restraint, and almost constitute a
sort of weather signal service if observed. . . .

An employer of 3,000 workmen is quoted as saying he

"reckons that a disagreeable day yields about ten per cent
less work than a delightful day," and we thus have to
count this as a factor in our profit and loss account. Acci-
dents are more numerous in factories on bad days. A rail-
road man never proposes changes to his superior if the
weather is not propitious. Some men say that opinions
reached in the best weather states are safest to invest on.

Huntington has studied more than 500 factory

workers in Connecticut and 3,000 to 4,000 opera-
tives from the Southern States. He has examined
the records of 1,700 West Point and Annapolis stu-
dents and correlated their work on various days
with the weather conditions on those days. His
conclusions are as follows:
1. —Changes in barometric pressure have little
effect.
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 118

2. —Humidity possesses a considerable degree of

importance.
3. — Temperature is the most important factor.
The greatest physical activity occurs when the daily
temperature averages 60° to 65° with a noon tem-
Mental activity
perature of about 70°. reaches a
maximum when the outside temperature averages
about 38°, that is, when there are frosts at night.
Moderate temperature changes from day to day are
most conducive to activity, while great uniformity
or sudden great changes are detrimental to good
work.
The measurements by Dexter, mentioned above,
on the effects of the season of the year upon certain
specific mental activities, namely, the calculations
such as bank clerks are called upon to make, and
discriminations, or tests of speed of perception, are
of interest in connection with our discussion of
weather conditions. His results will be briefly
quoted, although must be clear that the conditions
it

now under investi-

studied reduce primarily to those
gation by the ventilation commission. The latter
work done under controlled conditions and with
carefully planned technique should be given rela-
tively great weight in drawing conclusions.
1. —
Increase in temperature causes an increase
in errors, the increase becoming very rapid when
the temperature reaches 85° to 90° F. At this point
the excess reaches 60 per cent over the average.
2. —Increase in barometric pressure increases the
 )

114 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

number of errors. Here the data are not so satis-
factory and the conclusion rather indefinite.
3. —High humidity especially when accompanied
by high temperature causes increase in the number
of clerical errors.
4. —An increasing high wind causes a decrease in
number of errors. Dexter 's explanation of this is
as follows:

It seems to me probable that it is an evidence of the

necessity of ventilation on a large scale, such as is caused
in our large cities through greatmovements of the wind.
Such movements bring fresh air from the surrounding
country to take the place of that which has been deoxy-
genated through combustion of all sorts, and the effects
which we have shown are just what might be expected, for
that oxygen is necessary to mental alertness no one can
doubt. ( Weather Influences, " p. 238.
*
'

5. —The day
effects of the general character of the
are of interest. Cloudy days are accompanied by
greater inaccuracy and rainy days show the same
effect. Answers to a questionnaire led Dexter to
conclude that the best mental work is done on fair
days, while many bank officials are said to have ob-
served an increase of errors in unpleasant weather.
After this consideration of the data, it seems fair

to reduce climatic, seasonal and weather conditions

due to temperature, humidity, barometric pressure
and wind, two conditions of temperature and
to the
humidity. Winds and barometric pressure in its
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 115

causal relation to winds affect the body much as

stirring the air of an enclosed room, by facilitating
evaporation and heat radiation, with the consequent
lowering of the body temperature. Where there is
a tendency toward high body temperature there is
an abnormal burning up of energy-producing mate-
rial, and where there is low body temperature, there

is an automatic increase in physiological activity to

raise the temperature, with the consequent consump-
tion of energy. In either case the energy available
for work is reduced, and this condition may account
for all of the effects of poor ventilation previously
described.
IV. Influence of Daily Rhythm.— The question
of change of efficiency during the course of a day
may be discussed in this connection. Two questions
need to be answered: First, is there a rhythm in
the physiological mechanism, nervous or muscular,
which, independently of work done, would affect the
physical and mental efficiency of an individual?
Second, in the course of continuous activity are there
uniform changes in efficiency as a result of this work
during the course of a day? The latter question
will be touched upon in our later discussion of
fatigue.
1. —To answer the first question many of the bod-
ily processes, such as temperature, pulse, breathing,

etc., have been measured at various times during

the day, and a certain rhythm has been observed.

For instance, temperature, pulse and breathing rate
116 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
are said to be lowest in early morning, 5 A. M., and
increase gradually, reaching a maximum about 5
P. M. The death rate at various periods of the
day has been taken as an indication of changing
vitality or efficiency of the bodily mechanism. It
has been a rather common opinion that death, ex-
cluding accidental death, of course, is most frequent
at the early morning hour, 4 A. M., and conse-
quently it has been assumed that vitality must be
lowest at that time. As a matter of fact careful
study of death statistics shows that the lowest death
rate occurs in the early morning and the highest
rate in the afternoon hours from 2 to 6, just when
the physiological activities seem at their maximum.
Other factors besides the bodily rhythm must there-
fore be sought as the cause of the peculiar distri-
bution of deaths during the day.
motor and mental processes at
Efficiency of the
various periods of the day was studied by Marsh.
In the case of _physical strength not including en-
,

durance, the minimum efficiency occurs at the ex-

tremes of the day, with a point of high efficiency
about 11 A. M. and a point of maximum efficiency
from 3 to 5 P. M. As to rate of movement there
is a gradual increase in efficiency during the course
of the day with the maximum toward night. In
^ccuracyof movement the maximum efficiency occurs
toward noon. Increased nervous state during the
course of the day would account for the increase
of speed and the decrease of accuracy of movement.
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 117

An interesting difference appearswhenever men-

tal activity is involved.Wherever motor activity X
is combined with the mental work as in reaction

time, form board tests, and the like, the course of

efficiency follows that of the motor processes, with
speed reaching a maximum late in the day, and
accuracy in the late morning hours. In the more
strictly ment al activities, such as memory, transla-
tion of foreign languages, attention, discrimination,
mathematical calculation, school examinations, etc.,

the highest efficiency is attained in the morning

hours for both speed and accu racy.
A large number of adult students and authors
were questioned concerning the time of their maxi-
mum efficiency, and the majority considered it to
be in the morning hours. Preference of working
hours, however, may represent largely the influence
of habit, rather than any actual difference in effi-
ciency. Thus students attending classes constantly
during the day may get the habit of working at night
and feel less efficient at any other time. Individual
choice of working hours may be further influenced y
by such factors as age, sex, fatigue, etc.
Such differences of efficiency in the course of a
day if established beyond question would be of con-
siderable value for practical work. Perhaps the
most direct application can be seen in school work,
where mental work would be done best in the morn-V
ing hours and motor activities best in the afternoon
hours. But many applications of the facts might
118 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
be made to industrial activities also. A test of the
output of magazine stitchers whose work is motor,
with speed an important factor, showed that in the
early morning hours the productivity was about 6
per cent below the average for the day, and 10 to
12 per cent below the maximum efficiency for the
day, which occurs toward late afternoon. Thus if
the working day of magazine stitchers were to be
shortened, it should be shortened at the morning
end of the day where efficiency is lowest.
2. —
Is this rhythm of efficiency discussed in the
preceding paragraphs due to the nature of the
physiological mechanism, or is it due to the relation
between the hour of the day and the amount of work
which has been done up to that time? In other
words, is this daily efficiency curve after all only a
work curve?
This leads us to our second question, namely, con-
cerning the course of efficiency during a day of
continuous work. The tests made by Hollingworth
upon ten individuals for a period of ten days, two
days of which consisted of twelve hours, each of
practically continuous work, offer the best material
for answering this question. His general conclusion
is any period of the day depends
that the efficiency at
not on any organic rhythms, but rather upon the
amount of work or activity which has preceded that
period. For when the work begins at 10 :30 A. M.
the same sort of curve of efficiency for the day is
obtained as when it begins at 7:30 A, M., except
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 119

that it is shifted ahead just that much. One could

not suppose that the rhythmic organic processes
independent of work done or fatigue produced could
thus shift. The contrast between the period of
maximum motor and mental activity
efficiency for
appears in Hollingworth 's, as in Marsh's, results.
The data further show that subjects doing work
essentially mental in character and working under
uniform conditions, with a maximum of interest
and incentive, show an average decrease, from the
maximum efficiency, of 10 to 15 per cent in the
course of a day's work. This result appears only
after the possibility of improvement by practice
has been eliminated. The experiment by Holling-
worth is practically the only one of its kind covering
a long period of time which eliminates the compli-
cating factor of practice effect, and consequently,
considerable value must be attached to these conclu-
sions, in comparison with those experiments where
practice was not eliminated.
Although experimental work does not demonstrate
a perfect relation between certain, rhythmic bodily
processes and mental and motor efficiency, it does
show that mental work reaches its maximum in the
morning hours and motor work, including speed and y
strength, exclusive of endurance, reaches its maxi-
mum late in the day. The question of motor accu-
racy, represented by the steadiness of the hand, in
maintaining a given position is still uncertain as the
two experiments quoted differ in their conclusions.
 CHAPTER Vn
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS (Continued)

There is another group of environmental factors

quite as important for personal welfare and effi-

ciency as those discussed in the preceding chapter.

One -of the most important of these conditions is
illumination. The increase in manufacturing and
industrial work requiring close visual control, the
increase in the volume of reading matter and its

accessibility to all people, and the improvement in

the means of artificial lighting all contribute to
increase the importance of illumination as a factor
in efficiency. The improvements in artificial light-
ing devices have not only tended to cause the sub-
stitution of artificial light for daylight but have
tended to increase the amount of night work where
only artificial illumination is possible.
A great variety of problems has been presented
to the illumination expert. Some of them have been
answered by careful experiments and some are still
unanswered. For the psychological aspects of il-
lumination, reference will be made largely to the
work of Ferree, who has conducted many researches
120
 :

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 121

designed to answer such questions as the following

(1) How do daylight and artificial light compare
in value for vision? (2) What are the best daylight
conditions for work? (3) What is the best kind of
artificial lighting? (4) What is the proper location
of lights with relation to the worker? (5) What are
the effects of improper and insufficient illumination?
(6) How shall the relative value of different kinds
of light be measured? (7) Is the best light for the
finest work also the best for less fine but long con-
tinued work? (8) How bright should light be for
the best results? (9) Does colored light have any
practical value as compared with white light?
The most effectual lighting methods are condi-
tioned by certain characteristics of the visual mech-
anism, which are innate and consequently common
to all human beings. A description of these charac-
teristics will clear the way for a discussion of illumi-
nation problems. First among these conditions is>
the instinctive tendency to turn the eyes toward
bright objects in the field of vision, so that the
light shall cast an image upon the center of vision,
which is the region of clearest vision upon the retina.
This turning of the eyes is synonymous with visual
attention it appears soon after birth and is one of
;

the first signs of the infant's attention to its sur-

roundings and its discrimination of objects. Not

only does it appear early, but it is never completely
overcome. The actual movements may be inhibited,
not, however, by a failure of the muscles to contract,
122 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
but as a result of the voluntary contraction of an-
tagonistic muscles. Any attempt, then, to prevent
this instinctive act of attention, if it succeeds at
all, requires extra muscular effort voluntarily con-
trolled, and consumes energy.
The second important characteristic of the visual
mechanism is the nature of the sensitivity of the
retina to light. The main point to be noted in this
y
connection is that the retina differs considerably in
sensitivity in its different parts. It is commonly
supposed that because one can see most distinctly
when looking directly at any object, that the part of
the retina thus concerned, the so-called center of
vision, is also the most sensitive. This, however, is
not the case, for the region around the central one
is much more sensitive to light intensity. The dif-

ference may be best described by saying that the4

peripheral parts of the retina are always adjusted
for dim or weak lights, while the center of the
retina is always adjusted for bright lights. So true
is this that the center of vision with which one sees
best in bright lights is practically blind in dim light,

while the peripheral parts are used for vision in its

place. This rather striking fact may escape our

observation, yet a very simple experiment will at
least give an indication of it. If one watches for
the stars to appear as darkness descends in the
evening, he is surprised to discover them first out
of "the tail of his eye" —that is, he sees them first

in indirect vision, or with the sensitive peripheral

 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 123

region of his retina. What are the consequences of

this adjustment of the peripheral retina for very
weak Everyone knows the unpleasant ef-
lights?
fects experienced upon coming from darkness into
—
a very bright light, a temporary blindness, or if
not that, an uncomfortable glare which rather
quickly disappears. Now the peripheral portions
of the retina are always in this relatively sensitive
state, comparable to that of the central portion of
the retina after fifteen minutes in darkness. Bright
upon the eyes from the side produce
lights falling
an uncomfortable glare.
A third characteristic of the eye is the tendency 3 .

y
of the accommodation mechanism always to adjust
itself so as to see clearly or focus properly upon the
object which is being looked at or attended to. So v
just as there is a tendency to turn the eyes towards
a bright object in the visual field, so is there a
tendency to focus upon it in order to see it clearly.
This an instinctive reaction or it is acquired
is either

extremely early in life, and is almost impossible to

overcome, as anyone knows who has tried to learn

to fixate a given near object while attempting to pay
attention to another more distant object. There is
thus a constant conflict between the tendency to
accommodate for the object of involuntary attention
and the object voluntarily looked at.
A fourth characteristic is the contrast effect pro- y N
duced when neighboring parts of the retina are
stimulated with lights of different intensities or
124 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
colors. For instance, when a dark and a light object
are viewed side by side, the white looks whiter and
the black looks blacker than if seen alone. In a
word, the contrast effect is always in the direction
of the greatest opposites, a white object producing
black contrast, a red object producing a green con-
trast, etc. This phenomenon is especially pro-
nounced upon the peripheral parts of the retina,
hence a bright object seen in an otherwise dark
field has its brightness enhanced and as a result of

this an uncomfortable glare is produced.

From a consideration of these four characteristics
of vision, we can derive one of the most funda-
mental and yet one of the most often violated laws
of illumination, namely, that the whole visual field >

should be as nearly uniformly lighted as possible.

Ifa person is reading in a room with a ceiling light
and unscreened side lights along the walls, each
one of the latter forms a bright image or a glare
spot upon the sensitive peripheral part of the retina.
Contrast effect with the darker background tends
to make this image appear even brighter than it is.

This stimulation arouses the reflex tendency to turn

the eyes toward the light source, and at the same
time the tendency to change the accommodation of
the eye from a near point to a far point. One of *

three effects will be produced: the reflex responses

will occur, with the consequent distraction of the
attention from the book or they
; will be inhibited as
a result of the contraction of antagonistic muscles,
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 125

at the expense of considerable strain and effort ; or

there will be a continual fluctuation in direction of
the eyes and their accommodation from the book
to the distracting light. This muscular strain will
produce pain in the eyes and head, nervousness and
general fatigue, in addition to the discomfort due
directly to the glare.
It is largely the value of uniformity of illumina- \y
tion which makes natural lighting, or daylight, more
than
efficient artificial lighting, because with the
former an even distribution of light is more likely
to be attained without intention. Yet here there
may be a lack of uniform distribution. "Wrong
location of the windows and skylights, incorrect
shade of wall coverings and window shades and the
presence of polished surfaces from which the light
may be reflected may all serve to reduce the value
of natural light. Most of these faults may be cor-
rected by simple means, such as the use of ground
glass in windows, removal of polished objects or
giving them a dull finish, and painting the walls a
soft yellow or gray. For instance, if the walls are
very dark, as with blackboards in schoolrooms, then
there is so much difference in the intensity of
the direct light from the windows and the reflected

light from the walls, that the uniformity of distri-

bution of light is destroyed, and the evil glare effects
of contrasting surfaces appear. The polished nickel

trimmings of a typewriter or its glossy white keys

126 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
are sufficient to add much to the strain and fatigue
of a few hours work.
'

It is with artificial lighting that the most flagrant

disregard of this rule of even distribution occurs.

In lighting from exposed sources it is not infrequent

to find the brightest surface from 1,000,000 to 2,500,000
times as brilliant as the darkest; and from 300,000 to
600,000 times as brilliant as the reading-page. These ex-
tremes of brightness in the field of vision are, our tests
show, very damaging to the eye.

It is naturally more difficult to get uniformity of

illumination where the sources are necessarily so
near, although many of the recent improvements in
lighting tend toward the reduction in the magnitude
of this defect. The so-called semi-indirect electric
and gas lamps are better than the completely
bare light sources, because part of the light is re-

flected from the ceiling and the rest passes through

translucent glass. In this way the brightness of
the light source is reduced, although even here the
translucent globe, if within the range of vision, will
become a source of glare. The one remedy is to
hang the light so high that it will not come within
the range of vision. The indirect method of light-
ing, in which all of the light comes to the eye only
after reflection, the source usually being hidden from
direct view by an opaque bowl, is at present the
nearest approximation to the ideal lighting system.
Although a greater light intensity at the source must
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 127

be maintained than in the other two systems, namely,

the direct and the semi-indirect, on account of loss
through reflection, this is more than compensated
for by the reduction in fatigue and discomfort.
One of the most common and persistent causes
of glare both with natural and artificial illumina-
tion, is the use of highly glazed paper in books and
magazines. Its effect, even where the light source
is out of the direct field of vision, is thus described
by one investigator:

Obviously a child holding a mirror flat upon the

printed page of a book can see the image of a light source
which is well above his head out of the normal visual field.
The result of glazed paper too often used in books is some-
what analogous. Owing to the fact that the image of the
light source is regularly reflected by the" black letters and
the white background with practically equal facility, there-
is a decrease in contrast between the printed matter and

the background, causing difficulty in reading and also a

distracting and harmful effect of the "glare spot/' For
these reasons glazed surfaces have been condemned by the
light specialist.

It is encouraging to note that more and more of

our new books are being printed on unglazed and
rough surface paper. Wherever half-tone cuts and
colored illustrations are used glazed surfaces are
now necessary for satisfactory printing. Doubtless,
a dull surface will be devised which will still take
such illustrations.
The intensity of the illumination has always been
128 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
considered the really vital matter, and devices such
as reflectors and drop lights for increasing the in-
tensity at the working surface are in common use.
It is now known that it is far less important to have
high intensity than evenness of illumination, on
account of the very rapid adaptation of the eye to
different light intensities. Under proper distribu-
tion conditions, a rather wide range of variation in
intensity is possible with no decrease in efficiency.
The emphasis upon high intensity of illumination
has been due, among other reasons, to the use of
the visual acuity or keenness of vision as a test for
light efficiency. This is a momentary test of how
small an object can be perceived at a given distance,
and in such a case the best results can be obtained v
with a strong light. A better and more practical
measure of efficiency, certainly one approximating
everyday conditions more closely, is that of the
onset of fatigue and discomfort. For the former
Ferree has devised a satisfactory measure and for
the latter introspections must be relied upon. When
these two indicators are used, it is found that for
ordinary work a very strong light is not necessary. *
The fact that many persons believe the old type
of oil lamp easier on the eyes than our present
lighting systems is due largely to its low intensity,
and the location of it out of the range of direct
vision. Wherever high acuity of vision is demanded,
as in drafting and similar fine work, high light in-
tensity is necessary, but in all other cases much less
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 129

light is required for comfort over a long period than f

is generally supposed. For instance, Ferree found
that the light intensity recommended in 1912 by the
Illuminating Engineering Society was about double
that shown to be the most efficient by the fatigue
test.

While evenly distributed illumination such as is

produced by daylight and by indirect artificial light
properly installed gives the best results, it is worth
while to consider how the system of direct lighting
may be made least offensive. This will be especially
valuable if it gives to the individual a means of
protecting himself against lighting conditions over
which he has no control. Three possibilities present
themselves : First, to lower the intensity of the light
at its source, thereby reducing somewhat the un-
evenness of the general illumination. It is evident
that this remedy can be applied only within limits,
and that as long as there is enough light for distinct
vision, the bare light source will have all of the dis-
advantages previously mentioned. Second, by shad-
ing the eyes from the direct effect of the light. This
is commonly done and does decrease the discomfort

somewhat. It has been found from tests that if

eye shades are to be used, they should preferably
be opaque rather than translucent and lined with
white next to the face rather than with dark mate-
rial. Unfortunately, most of the eye shades that
are on the market are provided with a dark under
surface. Eeference to the four characteristics of
130 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
vision as described at the beginning of the chapter
will show that the dark lining of an eye shade will
decrease the evenness of illumination and produce
glare by contrast between the dark surface of the
shade and the light from the lamp. Moreover, the
edge of the shade, being dark against the light, will

serve as an object, tending to attract the attention

away from the real source of interest, and at the
same time tend to produce visual accommodation
for this extremely near point, with eye fatigue as a
result. The translucent eye shades are usually green
and are good only as they approximate the opaque,
but still having the disadvantage of being dark.
The third possible correction for the defects of
direct lighting consists in putting shades directly
upon the light. This is generally preferable to the
use of eye shades and good to the extent that it
is

hides the bright light sourceand approximates the

effect produced by indirect lighting and daylight.
It will always be, however, only a makeshift and
less efficient than the indirect lighting systems.
Concerning the value of different color qualities
in illumination little is known. In most of the ex- v
periments which have been performed visual acuity
was taken as the measure of efficiency, and these
show the greatest acuity with white light. The
few fatigue tests which have been made indicate
that white light such as comes from the ordinary
tungsten lamp is more efficient than any kind of
colored light. The restful effects attributed to the
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 131

carbon lamps and the lamps are doubtless due

oil

to their relatively low intensity, with its advantages

wherever direct lighting is used. The question of
color therapy, or the use of colored lights for the
treatment of diseases, mental and physical, has at-
tracted attention at various times. Quite a body
of tradition has accumulated concerning the efficacy
of certain colors, especially in the treatment of nerv-
ous affections. Space will not permit a discussion
of the curative powers which colors are supposed
to have; moreover, no scientific data concerning
them is available. The use of colored spectacles,
such as amber, rose and smoked glass is mainly to
reduce the intensity of the light, although special
properties have at various times been attributed to
certain colors. Here, too, experimental data is al-
most entirely lacking.
Distractions.— If the average person were to be
asked whether or not distractions of any sort are
advantageous, his reply would most likely be that
they are not, for the term distraction implies an
interference or disturbance. Evidence could be ad-
duced of the disturbing effects upon efficient work
of an aching corn, an itching nose, an ill-fitting
collar, a broken finger nail, the hum of conversation

or the rattle of a typewriter. Still, there is the

opposite view popularly put into the saying that

1
a dog without fleas would die, and the testimony
' '
'

of persons who seem either entirely unaffected or

even benefited by a limited amount of distraction.
132 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
At the present time when a search is being made
for causes of inefficiency, and when business offices
are filled with the clicking of typewriters, when in-
dustrial plants are resounding with the noise of
huge machines, and most of all when the terrific
roar of the battlefields is driving men mad, the ques-
tion of the real effect of distractions, is worthy of
careful study. Whether the distractions be great
or small, the problem remains the same —namely,
are distractions harmful and if so, why?
Little aid has been given thus far by experimental
studies of distraction and its effects, although the
tendency has been to minimize the influence of most
kinds of distraotion. This conclusion has been
reached by comparative measurements of the
amount and quality of work done under conditions
distracting and free from distraction. Now, it is
a matter of common knowledge that when conditions
are made more difficult an individual will usually
rise to the occasion and overcome the difficulty. Ex-
perimental evidence supports this belief. One prac-
tically never exerts himself to the limit, either men-
a reserve supply
tally or physically, so that there is
of energy which may be drawn upon to overcome
difficulties. We have discussed in a previous chap-
ter the value of incentives to action, whether it be
memorizing a poem or acquiring an act of skill.
Now it happens that disturbances in one's environ-
ment may serve as a stimulus or incentive to greater ^
effort in order to overcome them, and hence give
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 133

the impression of increased efficiency. Experi-

ments recently performed have shown that if told
to do his best, one will do equally well an easy and
a hard task, or the same task equally well in an
environment free from or filled with disturbances.
For instance, Morgan found that when a person was
instructed to do his best in every case, an increase
of 300 per cent in the difficulty of the task produced
a decrease in output of only 16.3 per cent.
It has been shown, also, that a reflex action, e. g.,
the knee jerk, which normally occurs when the knee
is struck a light blow, will be more violent if a beam

of light is allowed to fall upon the eye or a sound

to strike the ear at just the proper moment. This
' '
reenforcement is called ' dynamogenesis. ' It is

found not only in reflexes but in voluntary reactions,

such as that of lifting the finger when a beam of
light strikes the eye. For example, if a loud sound
occurs at the right moment the finger reaction to
the light stimulus will be quickened. Strength, as
measured upon the dynamometer is likewise sub-
ject to increase through dynamogenesis. It is to

be noted, however, that the facilitation occurs only^

when the additional stimulus is given at exactly the
right moment, otherwise a retardation will result.
The average person judges of the effects of dis-
traction in terms of discomfort and feelings of
fatigue, while the experimental measures have been
in terms of the quantity or quality of the work done.
What should be the ultimate measure of the effects
134 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
of distraction? The fundamental question in all
activity reduces to that of energy and its conserva-
tion. From this point of view, a distracting noise
that one can disregard by an added effort so as to
keep up to the normal is still detrimental, because
it is using additional energy and will lead to an

early fatigue. One of themain evils of the direct

lighting systems, as compared with the indirect, we
have just said, consists in its tendency to cause
distractions such as turning the eyes toward the
lightand accommodating for it; while inhibiting
thesemovements means discomfort and fatigue.
Measurement of distraction effects directly in
terms of energy consumption is not possible except
under the most elaborate experimental conditions,
but it is possible to approach the problem in an-
other way. overcoming distractions means using
If
additional energy, how is this energy used? The
extra work must consist either in the activity of
mechanisms antagonistic to those acting as a result
of the distraction, thus inhibiting a response, or in
the increased activity of other mechanisms. For
example, in a recent investigation Morgan found
that in the case of an activity somewhat like type-

writing, noises of various kinds caused almost no

change in speed or accuracy of the work, but he did
find markedly greater intensity of the strokes upon
the keys and articulation of the letters to be written.
Both sorts of movement represent the expendi-
ture of additional energy. These were the only
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 135

movements recorded in the experiment, so that there

is a possibility that much more of the body muscula-
ture took part in resisting the noise distractions.
This is not a mere assumption —resisting a distrac-
tion may be said to consist in forced attention to
the task in hand. And forced attention is known
to be accompanied by increased reactions of the
adjusting muscles of the sense organs, by a general
reaction of the voluntary muscles, producing a more
or less fixed posture of the body, and by increased
activity of the involuntary muscles, indicated in
respiratory and circulatory changes, all of which
consume bodily energy.
The practical rule would seem to be, from this
survey of distraction, that where work of high qual-
ity or in large quantity is to be done, the environ-
ment should be as free as possiblefrom distractions
of all sorts. In certain industries where efficiency
methods have been introduced, not only such simple
distractions as lights and sounds, uncomfortable and
ill-suited clothing have been eliminated, but more
complex mental distractions such as fear of acci-
dent have been removed by safety appliances, fear
of sickness by introduction of methods of sanita-
tion, fear of leaving dependents unprovided for by
the introduction of insurance schemes. If the re-
ports are to be accepted, efficiency is increased by
this means. The rule will apply not only to highly
organized industries, but the individual may find
means of eliminating from his environment many
136 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
apparently slight distractions, which in the course
of weeks or months would make a considerable drain
upon his energy.
Monotony.— Very closely related to the question
of distractions and their elimination is that of mo-
notony and its possible effects. "Will the removal
of all distractions from one's environment produce
monotony, in the commonly accepted meaning of
the term? The hypnotist is aided in his work by
a monotonous environment, a darkened room, a
rhythmically beating metronome, or a gentle strok-
ing of the arm or forehead. A person prepares for
sleep by darkening the room, closing the doors to
shut out disturbing sounds, by removing restricting
garments. Many times when students are placed
in an environment as free as possible from distrac-
tions, such as a dark, sound-proof room, they com-
plain of inability to do as good work as when they
are in more natural surroundings. Factory opera-
tives prefer to work in groups and seem to accom-
plish more in spite of the distractions which such
an arrangement entails. Considerable objection has
been raised against the modern efficiency methods
of functionalization, in that they force workmen
into a monotonous routine, a repetition, day after
day, of a few simple and unvarying movements.
On the other hand there is the recognized neces-
sity for the elimination of distractions in reading
rooms and libraries, indicated by prohibition of
by the presence of alcoves for individual
talking,
 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 137

readers, and by the use of sound deadening floor

coverings. The reader can doubtless supply many
other instances where simplicity of the environment
is considered necessary for efficient work.
Monotony from the psychological point of view
is due to the state of mind rather than to the state

of the environment. The same environment may

be extremely monotonous for one person and quite
stimulating for another. It is less a matter of pres-
ence or absence of distractions, of uniformity in
the environment, than of the presence or absence of
incentive and interest. The mathematician does
not find the observation of a point monotonous, be-
cause it serves as the starting point for much think-
ing; the geologist is interested in examining rocks,
monotonously uniform according to ordinary ob-
servers ; the factory inspector of ball bearings finds
a sufficiently varied task in the search for lack of
perfection in all its possible forms.
Consequently, the practical problem is not so
much that of attempting to avoid monotony as it

is to create interest in whatapparently a simple,

is

uniform task. The proper use of incentives, as

discussed in an earlier chapter, will serve to arouse
interest in most persons, where it would not natu-
rally be present, and cause monotony to disappear.
We find, then, in the phenomena of monotony no
argument for allowing potential distractions of the
attention, of whatever sort they may be, to be pres-
ent in the environment of the efficient worker.
 ;

CHAPTEK Vin
WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP

"We have had occasion to speak of the importance

of fatigue in connection with earlier topics. Among
other things we have found that fatigability is
given as one important difference between the sexes
and that the quality of one's learning at any time de-
pends upon the influence of fatigue that it is more
;

economical to divide time available for learning into

a number of periods in order to avoid fatigue, rather
than spend it in continuous study. And we shall
find one of the most vital questions in all practical
work to be how to eliminate, avoid or recover from
fatigue. The answer to these questions and many
others requires that we shall understand the phe-
nomena of fatigue, both physical and mental, and
especially that we shall be able to detect the real
symptoms of fatigue.
Work and Fatigue.— Fatigue is usually defined
as a decreased capacity for work, which may be
determined by measurement of production; or it
may be defined as a mass of sensations and feelings,
producing a state of consciousness usually unpleas-
138
 WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 139

be measured directly by introspection alone.

ant, to
These two meanings of fatigue must be kept dis-
tinct, for they are not necessarily interchangeable.
A person may have a very pronounced fatigue con-
sciousness, may feel fatigued, and yet show no re-
duction in capacity for work, no reduced output;
while on the other hand, he may no fatigue at
feel
all, when greatly aroused, and yet be near the point

of exhaustion. Which, then, is the correct measure

—
of fatigue feelings, or the amount of work done
per unit of time, or a combination of both feelings
and work done? This question can be answered
only after an examination of the facts of fatigue and
its conditions.
There are two possible sources of fatigue, each
of which needs a brief description:
First, fatigue may be the result of the consump-
tion of energy-producing material as a result of
activity, very much as the production of energy in
the steam engine requires the burning of coal. A
state of absolute fatigue would result from a total
consumption of energy-producing material, after
which work would be impossible until a new stock
of material was provided. This kind of fatigue
is demonstrated in the case of muscular activity.

The energy-producing substance in the muscle is

glycogen, a chemical substance manufactured in the
liver and in the muscles, from material taken from
the blood stream. Energy is set free when the
oxygen of the blood unites with this glycogen in the
140 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
muscle. In strenuous muscular activity the glycogen
is used more rapidly than it can be supplied and
consequently the supply is depleted. Fatigue from
lack of fuel would occur rather rapidly if it were
not for the fact that the liver serves as a reserve
storehouse for glycogen and throws off into the
blood stream a quantity sufficient to keep the mus-
cles supplied in ordinary muscular work. But in
cases of extreme and prolonged muscular activity
even this reserve of glycogen may be exhausted and
complete fatigue may result.
Second, complete fatigue from exhaustion of
glycogen, except under extreme conditions, does not
occur because activity is stopped from another cause
before that danger point is reached. The consump-
tion of the energy-producing material leaves cer-
tain by-products, among them being carbon dioxide
and lactic acid, which act as poisons to the tissues
and when permitted to accumulate in sufficient quan-
tities may clog the muscle and retard or inhibit its

action. Under ordinary circumstances these waste

products are eliminated about as rapidly as they
are produced, but under prolonged activity they
accumulate faster than they can be removed. It is

the presence of these poisons which in most cases is

responsible for our fatigue states rather than the

actual exhaustion of the combustible material, gly-
cogen. It is significant that these poisons do not
remain in the active muscle, but are poured into the
blood stream. When carried by the blood in great
 WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 141

quantities they may produce fatigue conditions in

inactive portions of the musculature and in the body
as a whole. The classical demonstration of this so-
called transferred fatigue consists in transferring
fatigue-poisoned blood into unfatigued animals, and
fresh blood into fatigued ones, thereby producing
symptoms of fatigue in the former and recovery
from fatigue in the latter.
Thus far we have spoken only of muscular fatigue
and its causes. Is the nervous system susceptible
to fatigue in the same way and to the same extent
as is the muscular mechanism? Or can nervous
fatigue be separated from muscular fatigue?
Fatigue of the nervous system due to the depletion
of energy-producing material has been questioned
by some and by all others is considered
authorities,
slight in amount compared to that of muscle. His-
tological examination of nerve tissues gives some
evidence of such fatigue after prolonged work, espe-
cially in the nerve cell bodies. Recently some evi-
dence has been adduced to indicate the presence of
fatigue products also in the nerve fibers. It is rea-

sonable to suppose that there would be a consump-

tion of energy, even in nervous activity, although
the amount may be and the rate of repair
small,
rather rapid. If this be true, therewould be the
possibility of nervous exhaustion as well as muscu-
lar exhaustion in extreme cases. Such fatigue is
considered by Crile to be the basis of surgical shock,
resulting from the violent stimulation of parts of
142 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
the central nervous system in an individual who is
under an anesthetic. But nerve fatigue as the result
of the transference of fatigue products from the>
muscles by way of the blood to the nerve tissues, is
quite possible, and is generally recognized as the
cause of the mental lassitude following upon severe
and long continued muscular work. Since fatigue
results from both of the above mentioned causes,
namely, the reduction of energy-producing material
and the accumulation of poisons, it is not possible
to separate nerve fatigue from muscle fatigue, ex-
cept under experimental conditions, for the one
would involve the other.
Granting the validity of muscle and nerve fatigue,
one question still remains, namely: Is there such
condition as mental fatigue? Needless to say, this
problem is an involved one, since nervous activity
always parallels mental activity and a certain
amount of muscular activity almost always paral-
lels it. For instance, "mental multiplication," or
the multiplication of numbers without the aid of
visual or written aids, comes near to being purely
mental work and yet the extreme state of attention
;

necessary is accompanied by sense organ adjust-

ment and tension of much of the bodily muscula-
ture. Consequently, mental fatigue may be attrib-
uted to loss of energy-producing material and to the
accumulation of poisonous by-products of nerve and
muscle activity. Since mental action is correlated
with nerve action, and fatigue of this mechanism is
 WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 143

sliglit compared with that of the muscular mechan-

ism, with recuperation probably very rapid, the
reality of mental fatigue has sometimes been ques-
tioned. Under ordinary working conditions, such
as those of the child in school or the student at his
desk, it is not the onset of fatigue which affects
efficiency so much as lack of interest and incentive.
Proof of this lies in the fact that where fatigue is

apparently present, an increased incentive will alone

suffice to bring the output of work up to normal.

But that fatigue in the sense of reduced capacity

for work does follow intense and long continued
mental activity, is indicated by a recent report of
an experiment in mental multiplication. In this
case the same procedure was followed as is com-
monly used in such tests, and complete inability to
work resulted after many hours.
To ask whether mental fatigue, independent of
nerve or muscle fatigue, is possible, appears to be
a purely theoretical question, since so far as we
are aware it is impossible to have mental activity
independent of nerve and muscle activity.
Since fatigue of whatever sort is a real physio-
logical phenomenon, and extreme fatigue states are
dangerous, it is important to know, first What are :

reliable symptoms of genuine fatigue? and second:

How may fatigue be best and most quickly over-
come? The second question will be discussed under
Rest and Sleep. What then are the symptoms of
fatigue and how shall fatigue be measured? The
144 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
most direct means of measuring fatigue would be to
measure the metabolic changes of the mechanism in
action in terms of energy-producing material con-
sumed and by-products eliminated. Such a method,
however, is impossible except under the most elabo-
rate experimental conditions, so more indirect cri-
teria must be sought in most cases.The following
criteria of fatigue have been suggested:
1. —Feeling tired, loss of interest, inability to fix
the attention, headache and many other conscious
states have been suggested as valid signs of fatigue.
Certainly, they are the symptoms by which most
persons regulate their activity, and they constitute
fatigue according to the second of the definitions
stated at the beginning of this chapter. These con-
scious states are by no means infallible signs of
decreased capacity for work. For instance, feelings
of discomfort and distaste for work may be present
and have a tendency to inhibit action when objective
measures of actual production show the individual
to be at maximum efficiency. One has only to recall
the feelings akin to fatigue which he often experi-
ences in beginning a hard task after a long period
of rest. And then, too, these conscious symptoms
may be absent, in states of great excitement or
where unusual incentives act as a driving force,
although the physiological changes ap- may be
proaching their limit. For most persons feelings
of fatigue would be very inefficient indicators of
capacity to work.
 WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 145

2. —A number of conditions resulting from de-

creased sensitivity of the nervous system, have been
suggested as indicators of fatigue, such as sense
organ sensitivity, the change in the two-point
threshold of the skin between two
(the distance
points touching the skin just great enough that two
points may be felt), speed of reaction and muscular
strength measured by the dynamometer. But ex-
perimental tests show that there is no direct relation
between these indicators and the actual efficiency
measured by the capacity for work. The difficulty

probably is that these tasks involve so many other

conditions that the effects of fatigue can not show
themselves consistently. For instance, the two-
point threshold as a measure of fatigue is unsatis-
factory because fluctuations of attention occurring
during the course of a few minutes, are likely to
cause as great changes in the threshold as a day's
work in the school room. The degree of sensitivity
of all of the sense organs depends so much upon
fluctuations of attention that it seems poorly
adapted for measurement of the more slowly devel-
oping fatigue.
3. —For practical purposes the proper measure
would naturally seem to be the quality and quantity
of work produced in a given unit of time. If a
man is shoveling dirt and the amount shoveled per
hour at the end of the day is only two-thirds of that
shoveled in the early part of the day, he has fatigued
about one-third of his capacity. But one's actual
146 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
output is depend on many other factors,
known to
besides actual capacity to work, among them being
incentive and interest. It has been found that a
laborer paid by the day gradually decreases his
output during the course of the day, while the same
one paid by the piece or the task may even increase
his output toward the close of the working hours.
4. —
What, then, shall be taken as a measure of
fatigue if these criteria fail? It has been suggested
that each individual must work out for himself and
from his own experience, what his limits of safety
are, and the rule has been offered that the safe
limit for fatigue is that degree of it which can be
recovered from in one normal night's sleep. Such
criteria each one probably does work out for him-
self, but the great shortcoming is that many persons
who are never forced to do real intensive work do
not discover their maximum efficiency, and conse-
quently live on a much more inefficient plane than
necessary. The rule would apply only where a
person is trying to find his limit of normal fatigue.
Measurement in terms of output or production,
in which each person learns to interpret certain
conscious signs as indicative of his safe limit, is,

then, about the only rule that can be laid down, in

our present inability to measure the physiological
changes without difficult and elaborate procedure.
In industrial work where certain uniform demands
are made, the personal differences must be taken
into account, e. g., that some persons tire quickly,
 :

WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 147

others slowly, that some work at high pressure for

a short time, others work more slowly and steadily,
and a standard must be set which will approximate
a fair maximumfor the majority of people working
at a given task.The establishment of fatigue stand-
ards for various kinds of work is one of the most
important problems which efficiency engineers are

attempting to solve.
Rest and Sleep.— How may fatigue be best and
most quickly overcome? Theoretically our problem
is to find the best means of eliminating fatigue

poisons and supplying energy-producing material.

Fatigue is sometimes described as unnecessary and
necessary, the former being the result of useless
and wrong movements in attaining an end, the lat-

ter being the result of necessary movements. This

discussion deals only with the latter sort of fatigue,
since the elimination of wrong and useless move-
ments was discussed in Chapter IV. The meta-
bolic processes of waste and repair, or fatigue and
recovery are continually occurring within the body,
but our discussion will be limited to cumulative
fatigue, that which is not compensated for from
moment to moment. Numerous questions arise con-
cerning recovery from fatigue, and the conditions
of rest. A few of the most important of these
follow
1. —Is change of occupation a rest, or must there
be complete inactivity?
148 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
2. —What should be the relation between work
periods and rest periods?
3. —Does sleep provide complete rest and the only-
complete rest?
4. —How much sleep is required and how shall
one know his requirements?
5. —Does recuperation take place equally through-
out the whole sleep period, or are some portions of
more valuable than others?
it

6.
—"What is the source of the energy-producing
material? What is the importance of such matters
as food supply, character of the air breathed, etc.,

on the general bodily condition ?

1. —
There are two answers possible to the ques-
tion as to whether a change of occupation is a rest.
If fatigue is due to the local exhaustion of energy-
producing material or is due to the local accumula-
tion of fatigue poisons, then fatigue itself can be
considered a local condition, and a change of occu-
pation requiring the use of other mechanisms than
those affected by the previous activity, would con-
stitute a rest. If, on the other hand, activity causes
a general reduction in the supply of material by
drawing from the blood stream the necessary con-
stituents, and general poisoning by throwing into
the blood stream the poisonous by-products of activ-
ity, which are then circulated through the body,

change from one occupation to another requiring

equal activity would not constitute a rest. Prac-
tically every case of activity of a limited sort pro-
 WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 149

duces both a local and a less pronounced general

transferred fatigue. The supply of material does
not immediately follow the demand, hence other
parts than those which have been acting may be
relatively fresher. But the total amount of fatigue
is not reduced by the shift of activity.
When the second task is easier than the first, that
is, requires the consumption of less energy, then it

will give rest or relief when compared with the

effects of a continuation of the original work. It
would be better to say that there is in such a case
a relative reduction in the amount of energy con-
sumed. Usually the changes of occupation which
we make when tired are toward the easier and
more pleasurable tasks. One's own inclination
seems to take care of that, so that the common
impression is likely to be that changes of occupation
are a distinct rest.
2. —The close relation between the length of a
work period and the required rest period is evident.
The most economical work period must be deter-
mined in relation to the onset of fatigue in every
kind of work. This relation between work and
fatigue has received considerable attention in con-
nection with school work and hours of study and
has lately been studied in connection with industrial
and the regulation of the length of the
efficiency
working day. The questions, especially those con-
cerning the optimum length of the working day,
have already been discussed, but it may be said
150 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
here that the tendency toward shorter working days
isgrowing and that in the majority of cases there
is an increase in total work done rather than a
decrease such as might be expected. It is simply
a demonstration of the fact that a certain balance
between work and rest can be obtained which will
give the maximum efficiency. This balance must be
measured for each different task and kind of work-
ing condition, but certain general principles may
be pointed out which will hold for all conditions.

Fatigue, in need not be harmful, so that the

itself,

first signs of fatigue do not indicate the end of the

optimum working period. Theoretically, the work

period should end where the reduction due to the
onset of fatigue becomes enough greater than the
improvement due to practice or adaptation, that
further production costs too much in energy for the
results obtained. It is a well known characteristic
of the work curve (a graphic representation of work
done), that it first rises, indicating that the efficiency
increases gradually for a time; a level is then
reached which may be maintained for a certain
period; this is followed by a decline in the curve,
which indicates that the efficiency is being reduced.
The initial rise in the curve, is usually called the
"warming up period," and is familiar in most
curves of mental and muscular work. Just as it is

inefficient to continue work after the curve has de-

scended beyond a certain point, so is it inefficient

to stop work too soon, for in that case one does not
 WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 151

get the full advantage of the initial warming up,

and needs to get adapted anew each time the task
is begun.
The length of the rest period required depends
upon the nature of the work and upon the length
of the work period. The rests should be just long
enough to permit recovery from fatigue without
losing further time or momentum. Such a schedule
has been prepared for the work of folding handker-
chiefs. Each hour of the working day is divided
into six' minute periods, and for each five minutes
of work there is one minute of rest. Although one-
sixth of the day is spent in rest, the more intense
work possible during the other five-sixths results in
about three times as much work from each employee.
Schedules for other sorts of work have been pre-
pared with equal increase in efficiency. A five min-
ute rest period for each hour of work is a good
schedule for mental work.
3. —
Does sleep provide complete rest? If a
change of occupation does not provide complete rest,
when does one rest? Eest must be looked upon as
a state which we can only approximate, but never
obtain, since our minds are active during all of our
waking hours, and many of our muscles are active,
even if in no other way than in supporting part of
the body weight. Consequently, all rest might be
conceived as a change of occupation in which the
second activity approaches more or less a state of
complete inactivity. Even during sleep there is not
 '

152 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

perfect rest, as the mind may be active in dreams
and the body may move. But it must be granted
that normal sleep approaches more nearly the ideal
rest conditions than the waking state.
Practically all of the physiological theories of
sleep attribute its onset to either a diminution of
energy-producing material or an accumulation of
fatigue by-products. These conditions in one way
or another, differing according to different theories,
produce the state of unconsciousness called sleep.
Although there is much doubt about just what sort
of circulatory changes take place in the sleep state,
evidence is not lacking to show an increased rate of
repair. For instance, the most recent work upon
brain circulation during sleep shows that, contrary
to the prevailing belief, the amount of blood in the
cerebral vessels increases during sleep. J. F. Shep-
ard, who performed these experiments, says, ".If
any special utility is to be assigned to this fact (in-
creased blood supply to the brain during sleep), it
may be that the effective building up of energy-giv-
ing substance in the brain requires greater circula-
tion than is demanded by other parts.
'

4. —How much sleep is required and how shall one

know his requirements? One hears occasionally of
persons who need either no sleep at all or else very
little. The majority of such persons substitute a
waking state of complete relaxation or rest of both
body and mind for ordinary sleep. If one can do
this, there is no reason why sleep strictly speaking
 WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 153

should not be dispensed with. It makes compara-

tively little difference whether one undergoes the
rebuilding process in sleep or in a state of relaxa-
tion, the fundamental need is a state of relative inac-
tivity.

Besides individuals who substitute relaxed states

for sleep, there are a few other remarkable persons
who seem to require neither. Thus Thomas A. Edi-
son quoted as calling sleep an absurdity, a bad
is

habit which ought to be overcome, and must be

overcome by the human race. To support this view,
an experiment by Mr. Edison and eight of his men
is cited, in which the group worked from 145 to 150

hours a week for five weeks. That is equivalent to

more than twenty-one hours a day. It is said that
every man gained weight during the five weeks and
felt perfectly well.Mr. Edison believes that the
average man who day
sleeps seven or eight hours a
suffers from lassitude, while if he slept only four or
five hours he would feel clear as a bell, and al-

ways wake up full of energy. There is always dan-

ger, however, in setting up standards attained by a
few unusual individuals to be followed by people as
a whole.
If sleep results from fatigue and constitutes a
process of repair, then, obviously, the amount of
sleep must depend on the amount of cumulative
fatigue. This not only differs for various kinds of
work, physical and mental, but differs widely with
the individual. Some persons seem to preserve the
154 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
balance between waste and repair more perfectly
than others, hence have less cumulative fatigue and
need less sleep. If the rate of waste and repair for
a given type of activity can be equalized, the knowl-
edge of the means would be of immense value. An
approximation to this balance is obtained by the
adoption of rest periods in the midst of work. There
is no doubt that the proper regulation of work pe-
riods and rest periods will domuch toward the elimi-
nation of cumulative fatigue.
The exact amount of sleep required will always
remain a problem to be solved for each individual
case. It must be sufficient to keep him in a state of
physical and mental efficiency, this to be determined
by the amount and quality of work done over a long
period of time. In no case should the tests be lim-
ited to periods as short as a week or two weeks, for
cumulative effects might be harmful and not show
themselves in this time.
5. —The question whether recuperation takes place
uniformly throughout the whole period of sleep is

one that can be answered only indirectly. Many

measurements have been made of the depth of sleep
and there is general agreement that the deepest sleep
occurs during the hour and then gradually de-
first

creases during the remaining hours. But whether

recuperation occurs more rapidly in the period of
deepest sleep or not is uncertain. The belief that
only the deepest sleep is beneficial has been current
at different times, and many ingenious schemes have
 WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 155

been used to prevent sleep after the deepest stage

has passed. One of these consisted in sleeping upon
a very narrow board, so that as soon as any move-
ment, indicative of light sleep, occurred, the sleeper
would fall off of the board and be wakened. Shep-
ard, quoted above, says that sleep becomes lighter
probably because of the elimination of a quantity of
waste products. However, the slight benefit obtained
from sleep broken into short periods has suggested
that the real anabolic processes do not become very
effective until after this period of deep sleep has
passed.
6. —The energy-producing material for muscle and
nerve, as well as the material needed for structural
growth, is supplied from food and air, —the glycogen
from the food and the oxygen from the air. Con-
sequently, the quantity and the quality of the food
consumed and the air breathed are factors not to
be neglected in the production of efficiency. The
latter factor has been discussed in an earlier chapter
in connection with the broader question of the influ-

ence of climate and atmospheric conditions upon ef-

ficiency.

The efficiency value of foods for the upbuilding of

the body has received much attention of late, espe-
cially on account of economic pressure and the high
cost of living.The evaluation of foods of all kinds
as body builders has been taken up seriously by the
Federal Department of Agriculture, and valuable
156 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
bulletins concerning their findings may be had for
the asking.
Mr. Edison, who is said to require little sleep, also
eats comparatively little food. He believes in a plain
workingman's diet, and that the greatest economic
gain for the world lies in the prevention of over-
eating.

On the average, men would get on better if they reduced

their food consumption by two-thirds. They do the work
of three horse-power engines and consume the fuel which
should operate fifty horse-power engines. . . . Any man
engaged at hard physical labor . could get on perfectly
. .

well with eight or ten ounces to a meal, although he might

find achievement of the habit difficult.

The above may be considered as an extreme view,

but there is much truth in it. The ideas recently ex-
pressed in an article in the Scientific Monthly by a
member of the United States Department of Agri-
culture may be taken as more conservative and more
generally applicable. Much of what follows is taken
from this source. People may be divided into three
groups on the basis of their eating : First, there is
the extreme in which palatability or pleasure in eat-
ing alone regulates the diet in quality and quantity.
This group represents the majority of people. Sec-
ond, there is the opposite extreme in which all of the
fads and fantastic statements about diet are heeded.
And there have been many of these fads in recent
years. One's common sense can usually be relied on
 WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 157

to warn him that if such doctrines were true and im-

portant, the race could hardly have survived its
dietary indiscretions. Fortunately, between these
extremes, there is a constantly increasing third
group including those people who are learning .the
fundamental principles of dietetics. Perhaps the
most fundamental of all of these principles is that
food "must supply a great variety of chemical sub-
stances combined in different ways for the struc-
tural needs of the body,and also must supply it with
energy-yielding substances with which it may per-
form external and internal work. It seems apparent
that a varied diet, reasonably generous in amount,
is more likely to meet the body needs than one re-

stricted or unvarying in its make-up or scant in

quantity. The more knowledge and judgment used
in its selection, the better the diet is likely to be."
The kind of food, the amount taken at a meal and
the number of meals per day are largely a matter of
custom. But fortunately the number of meals per
day and the relative size of them does not greatly
influence the total amount of food consumed per
day, "for the man who goes without his breakfast
is very likely to make up for it at dinner or sup-

per, while the man who eats an early breakfast and

then a second breakfast will be likely to take a mod-
erate lunch or a light dinner."
Space will not permit a discussion of the value of
specific foods in terms of energy units, and their
proper combination into menus suitable for different
 : '

158 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

individuals. Obviously, the food requirements differ
with difference in size, age and occupation. Tables
of food requirements have been computed for "a
man in the period of full vigor, weighing 150 pounds
and engaged in moderate to active muscular work. '

Means of computing the needs for those varying

from this standard have also been worked out. Such
facts in convenient form are available elsewhere.
Certain matters of broad application may be men-
tioned. Foods may be grouped roughly into five
classes

(1) Flesh foods, including milk, cheese, eggs and certain

meat substitutes such as nuts, beans, peas, etc. (2) Starchy
foods. (3) Fat foods. (4) Watery fruits and vegetables.
(5) Sweets. And it may be taken as a general rule that
each one of these classes of food should be represented,
if not at every meal, at least once a day, and that if an
excessive number of food materials from any one group
are used in the course of a day the result is likely to be
unsatisfactory from the standpoint of rational dietetics or
of taste.

Finally, meals constructed upon the above broad

basis may be one of two types, the "restaurant"
type or the "family" type. In the first, the prin-
cipal dish is a meat by potatoes,
order, supported
a green vegetable, bread and butter and a dessert.
In the second, the meat is relatively less important,
with a much larger quantity and variety of vege-
tables, bread, butter and a dessert.
 WORK, FATIGUE, REST AND SLEEP 159

If we follow the rapidly gaining theory that foods like

meat, which yield an acid residue when assimilated, should
be accompanied by a generous amount of foods like vege-
tables and fruits, which yield a distinctly alkaline residue
when assimilated, the wisdom of the so-called household
type of meal is apparent. We shall find also, if we con-
sider its chemical composition and energy value, that it is
more likely than the other type to supply in reasonable
proportion the necessary building and repair material and
the energy-yielding substances required.

We may take it as a safe guide that our food

should be of good quality, varied in character, with
meats well balanced by vegetables and fruits, ample
in quantity, the exact amount depending on the na-
ture of the individual's activities. Whether these
conditions are fulfilled may be measured by the state
of the health, maintenance of a standard weight, and
a standard efficiency measured in terms of produc-
tivity.
In any consideration of food values it is well to
remember that the important fact is not how much
food and what kind is consumed, but what propor-
tion of it is actually transformed into tissue and
fuel within the body. This assimilation of food
for body needs depends most directly upon the
proper functioning of the digestive mechanism. Re-
cent studies, moreover, have shown that the state of
mind has much to do with the proper digestion and
assimilation of food. Everyone knows that great
fear will cause the tongue to cleave to the roof of
160 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
the mouth from inhibition of the flow of saliva, and
that the mere sight of a lemon will cause a copious
flow of saliva. Not only this, but the other diges-
tive juices are affected in the same way. Experi-
ments upon man and animals have further shown
that the rhythmic movements of the stomach and in-
testines which normally occur during digestion and
are a necessary part of the process, may be com-
pletely inhibited as a result of emotional disturb-
ances. "Whether food shall be made available for
body needs depends, then, among other factors,upon
whether we are cheerful or sad, fearful, angry or
calm, tired or rested. It behooves us for purely
economical reasons to make the most use of the men-
tal control over digestion. Variety in the prepara-
tion of foods, with the use of sauces and flavors,
esthetic effects in its presentation through clean
linen, pretty dishes, decorative devices and every
other appeal to the appetite is in the end an econ-
omy. Likewise, sociability, music, pleasant sur-
roundings, freedom from fatigue and worry and
other means of producing good cheer are aids to di-
gestion not to be overlooked.
 CHAPTER IX
DRUGS AND STIMULANTS

The real effects of drugs and stimulants upon hu-

man activity must be determined from the most care-
ful and scientific procedure as opposed to the un-
checked opinion and prejudice which are responsiyff~
for the common popular impressions. There is no^
field of psychological investigation more and
difficult

involved than this one of the effects of drugs and

stimulants. The difficulties of experimental proce-
dure are largely due to the suggestibility of peo-
ple who have a knowledge of the effects to be ex-
pected. Much of the experimental work has failed
to eliminate the possibility of suggestion and the
results are questionable on that account. A fur-
ther source of error in many tests has been the lack
of control subjects, or persons who are treated in
every way identical with the others, except that the
drug or stimulant in question is not administered
to them. Control groups serve as a check against
interpreting as drug effects results which are due
to other factors, affecting both groups alike. The
first difficulty, that of suggestibility, can be avoided
only by preventing persons from knowing what
161
162 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
drugs they are taking, and when they are taking
them. The drugs must be disguised, usually by hav-
ing them placed in a neutral substance of some kind,
which may be given regularly, sometimes containing
the drug and sometimes not. In some cases the ful-
fillment of these conditions is extremely difficult and
in others practically impossible.
There isa further serious difficulty in this type
of investigation, which, however, is not limited to
drug experiments exclusively, namely, the measure-
ment of the effect. Shall it be measured in terms
of work done, an objective measure, or shall it be
measured in terms of feelings, a purely subjective
measure. Both indicators seem partially inadequate
in this work. The effects of a drug are likely to con-
sist in an increased difficulty of a given task, a
greater inertia which must be overcome. But it can
be overcome by increased effort, hence the objec-
tive measure may remain unchanged. In such a case
it might appear that the feelings of effort would be

a more accurate measure than the objective record,

except for the known unreliability of the subjective
criteria of efficiency. Consequently, a third measure
has been suggested, a direct measure of the energy
consumed in work, under drug conditions as com-
pared with normal conditions, The measurement of
energy consumption is such an elaborate and tech-
nical task that it is practically excluded from the
majority of the experimental tests. Most of the ex-
periments upon which our discussions are based
 DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 163

have used objective records of one kind or another

to determine drug effects, emphasis being placed
where possible upon the selection of forms of be-
havior for measurement which are partially inde-
pendent of voluntary control.
One further difficulty may be mentioned, viz., that
the experiments devised for testing the effects of
drugs and stimulants are quite short in duration
compared with the long periods over which they may
be used in actual practice. Consequently, conclusions
from such experiments must be limited to condi-
tions tested and not made to cover cases of long con-
tinued use. This error is not peculiar to psychologi-
cal tests alone. The same criticism, for instance,
may be lodged against the tests of the physiological
effects of benzoate of soda, which established it as
harmless when taken in extremely small quantities.
Has the possibility of cumulative effect from long
continued use been sufficiently taken into account?
Our discussion will cover the effect of only the
more common drugs and stimulants, such as are
real factors in the problem of personal efficiency.
They will be considered in the following four
groups: (1) Tobacco, especially when smoked. (2)
Alcohol, in the various forms in which it is com-
monly taken. (3) Caffeine, which is the drug ap-
pearing in coffee, tea and some soda fountain drinks.
(4) Such less common drugs as cocaine, strychnine,
morphine, etc.

Tobacco.— Statistical studies of the influence of

164 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
tobacco smoKing, such as the number of inmates of
penal institutions who use tobacco, and the influ-
ence of tobacco on growth as determined by the rela-
tive number and short persons who used to-
of tall
bacco during the growth period, are complex to say
the least. In this regard they remind one of the
figures representing the effects of weather condi-
tions upon efficiency. The humorous remark that a
'
' drop of nicotine on the tongue of a cat will kill the
strongest man," illustrates fairly well the character
of the data usually brought to bear on the question.
From the experimental point of view the investi-
gation of tobacco and especially smoking, the most
common form in which it is used, is subject to all
of the difficulties mentioned above as peculiar to
drug problems. Especially important and almost
impossible to eliminate is the factor of suggestion.
At least it never has been eliminated in any of the
studies thus far made. And in all cases the experi-
ments fall short of actual conditions in that they
cover relatively brief periods of time. Most of the
experiments report the effects following immedi-
ately after smoking, the indulgence being limited
usually to one cigar, cigarette or the like.

Tobacco is commonly said to reduce efficiency by

introducing a poison into the system, and this poison
is generally believed to be nicotine. Consequently,
nicotine has been given in experimental doses and
the effects produced are interpreted as indicative
of the effects of tobacco smoking. The proportion
 :

DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 165

of nicotine carried in smoke ranges, according to

diffq(0U authorities, from seven to seventy per cent
of that contained in the tobacco. As a matter of fact
recent chemical analyses tend to show that it is ex-
ceptional to find any nicotine at all in tobacco smoke.
(It does occur in small quantities in the smoke of
rapidly burning cigarettes.) The nicotine in the
burning is decomposed into l^yj^Jine and other sub-
stances. It may seem to make little difference
whether the toxic factor be called nicotine or pyra-
dine, except for the fact that pyradine is only about
one-twentieth as poisonous as nicotine. The physio^,
logical effects of nicotine introduced into the body
tErough smoking are said to be moderate constric-
tion of blood vessels, rise in blood pressure during
the smoking period with a rapid fall immediately
afterward, primary slowing of the heart action fol-

lowed by a secondary quickening and increase in

the rate and amplitude of breathing.
Numerous statistical studies of the effects of to-
bacco smoking have been reported and the follow-
ing cases may be taken as representative of them.
Meylan examined the scholarship records of over
two hundred Columbia University students, of whom
115 were smokers and 108 were non-smokers. The
academic records were as follows

Average Average Failures

Entrance Marks 1st 2 yrs. 1st 2 yrs.

115 smokers 89 62 10%

108 non-smokers ... .91 69 4%
166 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Javlor studied the average grades of 500 boys of
a private school as compared with their l^icco
habits and presents the following statistics:

Age of students 12 13 14 15 16 17
Per cent of smokers 15 20 38 29 57 71
Grades of smokers 73 75 73 75 75 68
Grades of non-smokers 83 90 89 84 87 85

Clark found that of smokers in Clark College, 18.3

per cent won academic honors, while of non-smokers,
68.5 per cent won academic honors.
These statistical results are not unequivocal, for
there are fundamental sources of error that cannot
be eliminated. Can it be said that smoking is such
a handicap to performance as the figures suggest,
or that smoking is an indicator or symptom of in-
tellectual inferiority? The reader may choose be-
tween these two alternatives for the present, or ac-
cept neither.
Experimental studies of this problem are not lack-
ing, although there are few that satisfy the funda-
mental requirements of experimental technique.
Most of the experiments concerning the influence
of tobacco upon physical efficiency have been made
with the e rgograph measuring the physical endur-
,

ance of a limited number of muscles, in terms of

amount of work done in a series of muscular con-
tractions; or by the dynam ometer^ measuring the
strength or force of single muscular contractions.
M^Lomhaxd found that a single cigar of moderate
 DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 167

strength reduced muscular strength from 10.4 to 2.1

kilo^^nmeters (a unit of measure, meaning the
work done in lifting a weight of one kilogram to
the height of one meter) or a decrease in efficiency
of 80 per cent. This depression began to disappear
soon after smoking ceased but complete recovery
required more than one hour. The same investiga-
tor found that muscular contractions produced by
electrical stimulation instead of the individual's vo-
lition, were not reduced, and consequently located
the depressing effect somewhere in the central ner-
vous system. Fere found cigarette smoking to
induce a state of depression, after an interval of
fifteen minutes, showing itself in reduced capacity
for work.
All investigators have not found such striking re-
sults, among them being River s, Vaughan and Har-
leyand Hough. Their reports show a change after
smoking no greater than that which occurs normally
at different periods of a day, while one of them
seems to find a slower fatigue rate after smoking
than occurs normally. Rivers' explanation of the
slight decrease in efficiency found in his own tests
is interesting. The circumstances surrounding the
act of s moking_are sliiiuilatiiig, fhpt is, t^ A s^g^y
stimulation from the odor and the ta s te of to bacco
are in themselves causes of increased efficiency.

Consequently, the small decrease in efficiency from

smoking when compared with the ex-
is significant

pected increase from the sensory stimulation. This

168 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
serves as an illustration of the complicated character
of the whole experimental problem, and the neces-
sity for the most careful interpretation of data. The
prohibition of smoking in all persons who are under-
going training for speed, strength and endurance
tests, isa practical application of the belief in the
deleterious effects of tobacco on physical efficiency.
The influence of tobacco on mental efficiency has
been the subject of few important researches, and
none has succeeded in eliminating all sources of
error. It is in this type of work that suggestion
plays its largest part and where the necessity for
control subjects is greatest. This is especially true
because the mental tests of efficiency are almost all

subject toimprovement from practice and often a

great improvement may be noted from one repeti-
tion of the test to another. In the absence of con-
trols, improvement from practice might be wrongly
attributed to the stimulating influence of tobacco, or
might hide a real decrease in mental efficiency.
JBush tested the mental effects of smoking upon
17 students, 15 of whom were regular smokers and 2
were non-smokers. One of the two non-smokers
served as a control subject and the other smoked
only cubeb cigarettes. Six well known mental tests
were used, including speed of perception, free as-
sociation, controlled association, memory, imagery,
and calculation (addition and subtraction). The
tests were first given, then the subjects were allowed
to smoke quietly for fifteen minutes, after which
 DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 169

the tests were repeated. The records for the group

of tobacco smokers, non-smoker and the cubeb
smoker are given in the following table. The figures
represent the difference between the tests before and
after smoking in terms of the per cent of efficiency in
the tests before smoking. Minus signs always indi-
cate a decrease in efficiency after smoking, and plus

signs indicate an increase in efficiency.

Mental Effects of Tobacco Smoking

Tests Smoke Group Control

Tobacco Non-Tobacco
(15 subjects) (1 subject) (1 subject)

Speed of Perception . . . —17.1 — 6.8 + 3.4

Free Association — 8.7 —20.5 + 0.2

Controlled Association . . — 8.0 —16.3 + 1.6

(3 tests) —14.1 + 5.5 + 1.0

—12.4 + 1.9 + 5.4

Memory—Visual — 2.9 0.0 0.0

Auditory .... — 4.3 +1.4 — 4.9*

Imagery —22.2 —14.3 +18.3

Calculation—Addition . . — 9.4 + 9.4 +1.2
Subtraction — 6.7 — 0.8 + 1.0

Average Ability —10.6 — 4.2 + 2.7

The results of the experiment are summarized by

the experimenter about as follows:
1. —Smoking tobacco produces an average loss of
mental efficiency of 10.6 per cent, while smoking ma-
terial with no tobacco content whatever reduces effi-
ciency 4.2 per cent. In the same tests the non-
170 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
smoker gained 2.7 per cent in efficiency. The loss
from smoking supposedly harmless substances like
cubebs is interesting.
2. —The was in the field of
greatest actual loss
imagery, namely 22 per cent. The test measured the
speed with which images appeared when certain
stimulus words were presented.
3. —
Taken together, imagery, perception and as-
sociation represented the greatest loss.
4. —Nicotinewas present in all of the tobaccos
used, but was not found in any of the smoke, except
some of the cigarette smoke. Pyradine was found in
all tobacco smoke and is the toxic factor.
5. —
The greatest loss of efficiency came from ciga-
rette smoke.
6. — Tobaccos differ in their influence upon mental
efficiency, as follows: The least effect comes from
cheap tobacco such as is retailed in 5 and 10 cent tins
and bags; the greatest effect comes from cigarette
tobacco; then follow Turkish tobacco and Havana
tobacco.
The figures are strikingly large in most of the
tests, so that after one makes allowance for possible
disturbing factors not eliminated from the experi-
ment, and for the small number of subjects, there
is still left an indicati on of loss of efficiency b oth .

physical and mental from the effects of tobacco

sSoking: There is ceHamly no sufficient evidence
-

of an increase in efficiency. As a means of enjoy-

ment and bodily comfort it has no claims over other
 DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 171

forms of recreation, so that from the point of view

of efficiency its use cannot be recommended.
Alcohol.— No one question has been the subject
of more controversy over a long period of years
than that of the effects of alcohol in small doses
upon the human body. The numerous experiments
and statistical studies have produced conflicting re-
sults, due in part at least to the inherent sources

of error. Especially important is the factor of sug-

gestion or expectation. Most persons have rather
firmly fixed notions concerning the effects of alco-
holic drinks, and investigators have often been in-

fluenced by their preconceived opinions either as op-

ponents or supporters of the use of alcoholics.
No description of the early studies of alcohol will
be given, because failure to standardize procedure
and eliminate errors has resulted in a great variety
of conflicting conclusions. Rivers was the first in-

vestigator to disguise properly the alcohol in a mix-

ture so that it could not be detected by the person
taking and thus largely eliminated the influence
it,

of suggestion. He found practically no effect upon

muscular work from taking alcohol in doses rang-
ing in size from 5 to 10 cubic centimeters Effects
.

previously found by others from such small doses

he attributes to the sensory stimulation and the ex-
pectation of stimulating effects. Even doses as large
as 40 cubic centimeters did not produce entirely con-
sistent results in all cases. Sometimes there would
be an increase and sometimes a decrease in total
172 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
work done. Wherever an effect was noted, how-
ever, it consisted in a change in endurance or dura-
tion of the work rather than in the quantity of work
done per unit of time. (Measured by the total num-
ber of muscular contractions on the ergograph,
rather than by the extent of the single contractions.)
podge and Benedict, working in the Nutrition
Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute, found that in-
stead of alcohol being a general stimulant as is

commonly supposed, it is really a depressant. In

only one case, namely, the pulse rate, did they find
an acceleration but even this was not an absolute in-
;

crease in rate and represented only the absence of

the gradual decrease in pulse rate in the course of
moderate mental and physical work. In the case
of simple reflex and sensory processes, this depres-
sion expressed in per cent is as follows:

Increase of latent time of the knee jerk .... 10 per cent

Decrease in thickening of the quadriceps
muscle 46
Protective eyelid reflex, latent time in-
creased 7
Extent of eyelid movement decreased 19
Eye reactions, latent time increased 5
Speed of eye movements decreased 11
Sensitivity to electric stimulation decreased. 14
Speed of finger movements (tapping) de-
creased 9

Evidence concerning the influence of long con-

tinued use of alcohol is not experimental in char-
 DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 173

acter, but consists in reports of military campaigns

and the like, in which the whole problem is extremely
complicated, so much so that the inferences concern-
ing endurance under alcohol are of little significance.

The conclusions that have been reached are that

alcohol decre ases_eririnrflnaft and increases suscepti-
bility to fatigue^
Pathological evidence of the effects of alcohol are
more although here extreme cases are usu-
definite,

ally cited.Examination of the tissues of confirmed

drunkards after death shows pathological changes in
stomach, liver, heart and especially in the nervous
—
system, findings which lead to the classification of
alcohol as a tissue poison when its use is immod- u-
erate and continued for long periods.
Concerning the influence of alcohol on mental ef-
ficiency, popular opinion must be clearly distin-
guished from the results of scientific experiment.
Alcohol in small doses is commonly supposed to in-
crease mental activity, and to produce a feeling of
general well-being, effects which quickly disappear
when larger doses are taken. Under careful experi-
mental conditions, Dodge and Benedict found that
memory and associatio n were only slightly affected
and in the dir ection of a decrease in efficiency Other
.

experiments upon mental multiplication of four-

place numbers and upon typewriting show little or
no effect from doses of alcohol varying in size from
5 to 40 cubic centimeters, either in quantity of work
done or in its quality. One other research on atten-
 : —
174 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
tion as measured by the ability to hit a moving tar-
get, indicated that after a dose of 15 cubic centi-
meters of alcohol one person was not at all affected
while the efficiency of the other was slightly reduced.
After reviewing all of the work upon the mental
and motor effects of alcohol, Rivers concludes

In the case of muscular work, w,e

have seen that there is
definite evidence that small doses,varying from 5 to 20 cc.
of absolute alcohol have no effect on the amount or nature
of the work performed with the ergograph, either imme-
diately or within several hours of their administration, the
results previously obtained by other workers being almost
certainly due to defects of experimental method. With
a larger dose of 40 cc, there was evidence in one case at
leastof~an Increase in the amount of work under the in-
fluence of the substance ; but the increase \vas uncertain and
inconstant, and the possibility cannot be excluded that it

was due to disturbing factors. ... In the case ofjguaataJ

wpji, the available evidence points to a decrease in the
amount of work under the influence of alcohol when there
is an but there are vejy-grgatindividual dif-
effect at all ;

ferences, even the large dose of 100 cc. failmg to snow any
effect in some persons.

One further fact in regard to effects of alcohol

may be mentioned, namely, the relation between al-

coholism in the parents and the mentality of off-

spring. Statistics show that the percentage of fee-

ble-minded persons in the families of alcoholics is

much higher than in the families of non-alcoholics

according to Goddjtrd sometimes 35 per cent higher.
Hence, we might conclude that alcoholism almost
 :

DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 175

doubles the number of feeble-minded. But the case

is not perfectly clear, for the alcoholism itself may-
be the result of feeble-mindedness in the parent,
and in that case the feeble-mindedness would be
transmitted directly to the children. The conclu-
sion drawn by Goddar d is significant

Everything seems to indicate that alcoholism itself is

only a symptom, that it for the most part occurs in fam-
ilies where there is some form of neurotic taint, especially

feeble-mindedness. The percentage of our alcoholics that

are also feeble-minded is very great. Indeed, one may say
without fear of dispute, that more people are alcoholic be-
cause they are feeble-minded than vice versa.

A new sort of investigation has been undertaken

recently to determine the influence of alcohol on
mental processes, and it promises valuable results.
Tests are being made of the effects of alcohol on the
intelligence of animals, as indicated by their ability
to learn to find their way out of a maze. It has
been reported that "rats fed on alcohol average a
longer time in the maze and make more errors, both
at the beginning and during the latter part of the
training period than normal rats. Another investi-
'
'

gator finds that a dose of alcohol given to a rat

immediately after a learning period will nullify the
effects of the learning. The value of such work lies
in the amount of control over the subjects,and the
simplicity of the conditions of the experiment.
Practical conclusions are not difficult to draw in
176 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
the case of alcohol and efficiency. Alcohol may pos-
by the
sibly be taken in small quantities with benefit
aged and certain types of invalids, where it may
serve as a food. But over against this is the evi-
dence that it is not a stimulant to increased efficiency
for normals, but rather a depressant. In addition,
alcohol belongs to the class of habit-forming sub-
stances, against indulgence in which the body offers
no check, such as is present in the case of overeating.
Thus there is great likelihood of indulgence until
the body tissues are injured. There is no doubt of
the ill effects of the excessive use of alcohol. Large
industries and railroads are beginning to recognize
the danger from its use and have made abstinence
a necessary qualification for employment. The de-
crease in the use of alcohol as a medicine by physi-
cians is evidence that even in this field it is not in-
dispensable.
Caffeine-containing Substances. — Caffeine as the
active principle of many of the common beverages,
such as coffee, tea and soda fountain drinks, has
been the subject of many investigations. Since it

is so commonly used by persons who shun any other

stimulating drinks, it is important that its real effect

should be known. The popular impression is that

it acts as a stimulus to both muscular and mental
work, especially the latter. There is much evidence
that coffee and tea and other substances containing
caffeine should be called habit-forming drinks. The
person who cannot be deprived of his strong: coffee
 DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 177

or tea without getting a headache, or at least being

incapacitated for work, is a common spectacle. And
an equally familiar case is that of the person who is
kept awake all night by an after-dinner cup of coffee,

or the student who drinks a cup of coffee to enable

him to continue his studies beyond the hours when
he usually retires. Are these popular notions sup-
ported by experimental work?
As drugs studied, most of
in the case of the other
the early work has produced conflicting and incon-
clusive results. With the exception of one or two of
the recent studies, the effect of moderate doses of
caffeine taken in the form of tea or coffee is found
to be a stimulation, producing an increase in the
amount of muscular work done on the ergograph and
the dynamometer. But although the careful work
of Eivers confirmed these findings, his experiments
designed to exclude all mental factors such as sug-
gestion and interest show a much smaller increase
than the earlier experiments. As in his work with
alcohol he attributes this discrepancy to the failure
of these workers to disguise the drug. Great differ-
ences were found by him in the susceptibility of
different persons to the drug, and in the duration
of the effect. The
tests of speed o f movement, motor
coordinatio n and steadine ss, made by Hollingworth

on sixteen subjects over a period of forty days, in

which every known precaution against errors was
taken, show interesting physical effects of caffeine.
It produced an increase in the speed of movement,
178 APPLIED PS1 C tOLOGY I

the amount, which depends on the size of the dose,

being about 4 per cent in a group of 12 persons.
The doses ranged from 2 to 6 grains, the equivalent
of which in terms of coffee and tea may be seen
from the following figures:

Average cup of hot black tea con-

tains 1.5 grains of caffeine
Average after-dinner cup of black
coffee contains 1.5 " " M
Average glass of cold green tea con-
tains 2.0 " " "
Average cup of coffee with milk
contains 2.5 " " "

The effect was noted usually within an hour after

taking and lasted from 1 to 4 hours, according to the
size of the dose. What
perhaps one of the most
is

important findings no secondary depression

is that
followed the stimulation for a period of 72 hours,
when record taking ceased.
The motor coordination test, combining speed and
accuracy of movement, "shows a somewhat different
result. Small d oses. rirorluc£_jstjm ulation. while
larger doses, 4 to>6graina cause a retardation or
T

decrease in efficiency following_a brief initial s timu-

lationT" The greatest retardation noted for five per-

sons averaged only 2.7 per cent. Individual differ-

ences were prominent, with clear evidence that the
magnitude of the effect varies inversely with the
body weight of the person. The steadiness test, de-
 DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 179

signed to give an indication of general nervousness,

showed that doses of 1 to 4 grains produced slight
nervousness, appearing several hours after the drug
was taken. Larger doses of 6 grains produced
greater nervousness, appearing sooner and increas-
ing during a period of several hours.
Fewer have been made of the mental^ eff ects
tests
of caffeine. Only two will be mentioned, jfaver s
found an increase in typewriting speed with no
influence upon accuracy and in the aiming tests men-
tioned earlier he found increased concentration of
attention. Hollingworth used three groups of men-
tal tests: (1) Association tests, including the nam-
ing of simple colors, naming opposites to each of a
series of words, and problems in simple addition.
In this group of tests, doses of every size from
smallest to largest produced a stimulation, which
reached a maximum of 15 per cent in the opposites
test, and varied from this amount to very slight im-

provement in others. The effect lasted from three

to seven hours, with no secondary reaction showing
in any retardation that could be measured. (2)
Choice tests, including the speed of perception and
cancellation of specified characters from a large
group of varied characters, and the speed with which
visual objects could be discriminated and a move-
ment appropriate to each be made. (Reaction by
the right hand when a blue color was seen and by
the left hand when a red color was seen.) In this
group a rather curious effect was noted. Small
180 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
doses produce a retardation with decrease in quality
of work. Larger doses, however, produce a stimula-
tion withintwo hours, which may last until the fol-
lowing day. (3) Typewriting tests, concerning
which H^llinffwo rth says:

The speed of performance in typewriting is quickened

by small doses of caffeine and retarded by large doses. The
quality of the performance, as measured by the number
of errors, both corrected and uncorrected, is superior for
the whole range of caffeine doses to the quality yielded by
the control days. Both types of errors seem to be influ-
enced to about the same degree. The increase in speed
is not gained at the expense of additional errors, but in-
creased speed and decreased number of errors are simul-
taneously present.

These experiments also present evidence of the

on sleep and general health, when
effect of caffeine
rigid experimental conditions are in force. Ex-
tremely large individual differences were discovered.
For most of the subjects, doses of 1 to 4 grains did
not affect the quality or quantity of sleep ; although
there were a few individuals whose sleep was im-
paired. With doses of 6 grains, however, the sleep
of most of the persons was disturbed although
even here there were exceptions. The greatest effect
was always obtained when the drug was taken on
an empty stomach. The most important factor in
producing the individual differences seems to be the
differences in the body weight. As far as general
 :

DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 181

health is concerned, certain effects were manifested

when the doses were larger than 4 grains. Head-
aches, dizziness, feverishness, irritability and the
like were reported, especially by the subjects lightest
in weight.
The experiments described lead to the following
conclusion as stated by Hollingworth

The widespread consumption of caffeinic beverages un-

der circumstances in which and by individuals for whom
the use of other drugs is stringently prohibited or decried
seems to be justified by the results of experiment. But it
should be emphasized that the results of the investigation
here reported bear only on the more or less immediate ef-
fects of caffeine on performance. It is true that the in-
vestigation as a whole covered a period of 40 days, and
that in the intensive experiment the effect of single doses
was traced for a period of 3 days. But the results cannot
be carried over bodily to the question of the continuous
use of the drug. One can only assume that if the constant
use of caffeine in moderate amounts would prove deleteri-
ous, some indication of such effect would have shown itself
in the careful study of performance in tests covering a
wide range of mental and motor processes, a wide range
of doses and of individuals, and of time and conditions of
administration. Nor can anything be said, on the basis of
these results, concerning the physiological or neurological
effect of caffeine, except in so far as integrity of structure
can be inferred from unimpaired function or perform-
ance. ... It should be further pointed out that tea, . . .

coffee, and other caffeinic beverages contain a variety

. . .

of other substances which may be supposed to enhance or

neutralize or otherwise modify the effect of the caffeine con-
tent. Many of the results commonly attributde to these
182 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
beverages undoubtedly come, in so far as they can be dem-
onstrated at all under controlled conditions, from these
non-caffeine ingredients.

Strychnine and Other Drugs.— Our interest has

thus far been limited to the drugs which are well
known and rather commonly used. Strychnine may
not seem to belong to this class. It is prescribed by
physicians as a bitter to stimulate the appetite and
to heighten lowered nervous irritability. But nu-
merous cases have been reported recently where
strychnine has been taken on account of its supposed
stimulating effects upon mental activity, hence
it may rightly be considered as a factor in efficiency.
Early experiments have indicated that strychnine
caused a temporary stimulation followed by a reac-
tion of the opposite type. Poffenberger recently
tested the physical effects, as represented by its in-
fluence on steadiness, accuracy and speed of move-
ment, and muscular work. Doses ranged in size
from 1/30 to 1 20 grain. Xo effects were noted upon
strength and endurance. The tests of speed and
accuracy of movement indicated neither stimulation
nor retardation. Only a slight decrease in steadi-
ness appeared after the larger dose. The same in-
vestigator found neither stimulation nor retardation
in a series of mental tests during the course of the
experiment. As compared with caffeine, strychnine
seems to affect the reflexes and lower centers of the
nervous system, increasing their irritability and
general sensitivity to external stimuli, while the
 DRUGS AND STIMULANTS 183

higher centers involved in mental activity are least

affected ; in the case of caffeine, it is just the higher
centers which seem to be most affected. The physio-
logical studies of these two drugs seem to bear out
the conclusions just stated.
To postpone temporarily the onset of fatigue in
tests of physical endurance, strychnine might be of
service. But where the
in the case of mental work,
higher centers are involved, strychnine would be of
no value. The influence of suggestion where such a
supposedly powerful drug is concerned is tremen-
dous, and if this factor were eliminated, it is likely
that those mental operations and all other processes
where popular opinion attributes such effects to
strychnine, would not be influenced one way or the
other by ordinary doses. How the long-continued
use of large doses would affect efficiency remains to
be discovered, but there are not the slightest indi-
would be beneficial.
cations that the effect
Littleneed be said of the group of drugs including
opium, morphine, cocaine, etc., as there is no ques-
tion of their evil effects from the standpoint of effi-

ciency. Certain experiments with cocaine have

shown most remarkable temporary increases in
strength, sometimes as high as 100 per cent. But
they represent the group of habit forming drugs
with all their demoralizing effects, and no transient
effects would justify their use except under the
direction of a skilled physician.
One of the most striking results of all work on
 184) APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
drugs is the discovery of great individual differences
in response to varying doses, and especially in the
resistance offered to large doses. This is a cir-
cumstance that prevents any recommendation of
their use. The experimental work described in this
chapter forces us to draw the conclusion that in
every case except beverages containing caffeine,
J efficiency forbids their use. And even here, large
doses taken for relatively short periods show dis-
turbances in the general bodily economy of some
individuals.
 CHAPTER X
METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY IN SPECIAL
FIELDS

In the various practical fields there are three

ways in which, in the past, psychological work has
been accomplished. These three methods we may
conveniently designate: (a) application of the psy-
chological attitude ;
(b) application of psychological
knowledge; (c) application of psychological tech-
nique.
The Psychological Attitude.— Especially charac-
teristic of psychology as a science is the attitude
of analysis. Geography and geology are concerned
mainly with the description of their materials, and
neither the geographer nor the geologist commonly
takes a strictly analytic attitude toward these mate-
rials. The botanist and zoologist are mainly engaged
in classification, the physicist mainly in measure-
ment, the physician mainly in effecting changes in
his patients. The psychologist, on the other hand,
especially in the earlier stages of his science, has
been much occupied with the analysis of his mate-
rials into their elements and constituents. Thus he
analyzes an action into its stages, an emotion into
185
186 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
its simpler component feelings, a thought process
into its various aspects.
In practical life the worker commonly fails to
make such an analysis of the materials and tasks
with which he deals. The whole task or the whole
material commonly stands out as a unit or mass,
given once for all in its entirety. But such an un-
analytic attitude of ;n results in inefficient work
and superfluous en savor. Thus the art of educa-
tion made a definite advance when the task of the
teacher was analyzed into the various separate steps
involved in preparing, arranging, presenting, im-
pressing and applying the subject matter of the reci-
tation. Only when such an analysis was made was
it possible to trace to their sources the various
factors and influences which had up to that time re-
mained obscure or refractory. Similarly the work
of the advertising writer is facilitated when he
ceases to think of his task as a single act, ''writing
an advertisement," and realizes that in this act
there is a considerable variety of separate tasks or
processes into which the whole may be analyzed.
The salesman comes in time to realize that "making
a sale," although apparently continuous and simple,
comprises in reality a complex series of steps, such
as those now commonly designated "approach,"
"presentation," "arousal of interest," "argu-
ment," "closing the deal," etc.
Taking such an attitude of analysis toward one's
practical work is then one of the most useful meth-
 :

M iTHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY 187

ods of improving and detecting the sources of

skill

inefficiency. Even so unitary a task as "washing

the dishes," when analyzed into the various distinct
steps which make it up, yields itself to more scien-
tific study. Thus Christine Frederick, in making
such a scientific examination of this household task,
writes
When we say "dishwashing" we commonly think of a
single household task. But when closely analyzed and
made the subject of a time or motion study, we see that
it iscomposed of several parts or steps, each with differ-
ent motions, and generally performed with different tools,
as follows:
1. —Scraping waste from surface of china, agate, or other
kind of dish or utensil.
2. —Stacking or arranging dishes on surface adjacent to
sink preparatory to washing.
3. —Actual washing with water, soap or other cleanser, with
aid of mop, or other mechanical means.
cloth,
4. —Rinsing dishes with clear water.
5. —Wiping dishes with towel or equivalent drying.
6. —Laying away dishes on or in respective shelves and
cupboards.
The whole process of "dishwashing" can
efficiency of the
be improved only by increasing the efficiency of each sepa-
rate step.

By the same type of analysis Gilbrethwas enabled

to treble the work of bricklayers, and various man-
agement experts have been enabled to discover the
sources of loss, waste, fatigue, and accident. Such
work may justly be called psychological, inasmuch
as it involves a special mental attitude, inasmuch aa
188 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
the materials thus analyzed arecommonly human
movements and general behavior, and inasmuch as
the training of the psychological worker seems espe-
cially to prepare him for such an analytic method
of approach.
Applying Psychological Knowledge.— Quite dis-
tinctfrom the attitude of analysis is that procedure
in which one acquires certain established facts or
laws concerning mental processes or behavior, and,
carrying them over into his practical work, applies
them directly to some concrete problem there en-
countered. This we may designate the application
of psychological content or knowledge. Thus in the
work of the printer and typographer, numerous
facts concerning the psychology of reading and the
laws of perception may find direct application. The
appropriate size of type, the length of printed line,

choice of font, spacing of letters and words, use of

borders and ornaments, brightness of paper, color
of ink, amount of white space, plan of indentation
and arrangement and a host of definite problems
of immediately practical value can be solved cor-
rectly only through the application of some badly
understood rule of thumb, or, more intelligently,
through reference to the laws of visual perception.
The case of the pedagogy of reading affords an
interesting instance of this type of application.
Psychological studies revealed the general law that
the process of perceiving a new object and compre-
hending its meaning is an analytic rather than a
 METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY 189

synthetic act. We commonly get first an impression

of the whole, then gradually or on later occasions
discriminate out of this whole or within it the ele-
ments which compose Using words and letters
it.

as objects of experiment, it was found that one could

correctly read words which were so small, so far
away, so out of the line of fixation, or so swiftly
exposed, that the separate letters could not be cor-
rectly identified. The words appeared to be recog-
nized by their characteristic form rather than by
the putting together of the separate letters. So
strong is this tendency to perceive the word as a
whole, by its "word form," that misspellings may
easily fail to be noticed even when one is earnestly
searching them out. Up to this point the facts are
but an interesting bit of psychology. But as soon
as teachers of reading perceived the significance of
these facts, the whole procedure of teaching to read
was revolutionized. No longer was the struggling
pupil required first to learn his dreary A, B, C's,
and then to put the various letters together in the
form of syllables, which in turn must be combined
to form the more interesting and meaningful words.
Instead he was taught much more quickly and much
more interestingly by the "word method," in which
he rapidly became familiar with a variety of words
and phrases and their meanings, and later, by a
much more natural or psychological process, came
to observe the separate syllables and letters of which
each word was composed.
190 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
In numerous practical fields the laws and facts ot
psychology may be thus applied to some practical
end. In salesmanship a knowledge of the laws of
suggestion in advertising, the laws of attention and
;

interest ; in study, the facts of memory ; in manage-

ment, the knowledge of the motives and impulses of
men; in animal training, the laws of learning; in
politics and oratory, the tendencies of crowd forma-
tion and group behavior in the decorative arts, the
;

laws of esthetic reaction ; in literature, the acquain-

tance with the range and complex interrelations of
purpose and emotion in industry, the psychological
;

laws of work and rest, fatigue and inhibition, habit

and distraction in social work, the facts of mental
;

abnormality. In fact there would seem to be no

end to the catalogue of practical fields in which
familiarity with the laws of mental life may be
utilized to direct advantage. Indeed, it is this type
of application which most commonly comes to mind
when ''applied psychology" is mentioned.
Application of Psychological Technique. —Finally
there is the third type of application, which is rap-
idly coming to be even more definitely useful than
the "knowledge of human nature" just described.
This is the type of work in which one does not
necessarily proceed by assuming an attitude of
analysis, nor yet by bringing over bodily some piece
of psychological lore or knowledge. Instead, in this
form, one adapts to the solution of his special prac-
tical problem some method of procedure, some stand-
 METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY 191

ardized technique, or some special form of appara-

tus originally developed in the psychological labora-
tory.
For numerous reasons the psychologist has found
it necessary to devise methods of investigation pe-
culiar to his science. Among these reasons may be
mentioned the variability, complexity and delicacy
of the materials which he studies. Countless sources
of error confront the psychological worker, with
which the other sciences do not have to contend.
Thus, in measuring the expansion of a piece of iron
under the influence of varying temperature it makes
no difference whether the observations are made in
the morning or at midnight, on Monday or on Satur-
day, by a male or female, young person or adult, in
India or in Africa, with the right hand or the left
hand. None of these factors influences the reaction
of the piece of iron. But in even the simplest of
psychological measurements, —whether of the keen-
ness of vision, the flow of images, the sequence of
ideas, —any or all of these and a host of other vari-
ables may In order to take
influence the outcome.
into account these manifold conditions and in order
to detect, underneath all the complex variables, the
direction of the processes uppermost in interest at
the moment, an experimental technique is required
which is more refined and precise than that of any
other branch of science. In many cases also the
apparatus used and the mode of graphic record
employed are particularly delicate. Especially im-
 192 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
portant, however, are the control of conditions, the
7 elimination of sources of error, and the mathemat-
ical and statistical methods of computation.
Consequently in many practical fields, such as
medicine, law, industry, teaching, management, leg-
islation, marketing, where the "human element" is

a conspicuous factor in the success or failure of an

enterprise or an inquiry,it is found useful to carry

over either completely or in a modified form the

technique, procedure, or apparatus originally de-
vised for the solution of the problems of general
psychology. In such cases the results are not always
of value to psychology as a science, although this
may often be the case. In general, however, the
result is a solution of the particular practical prob-
lem in its particular setting, and as such may be of
great concrete value.
Thus, in the general field of medicine the psycho-
logical technique is found to be the only one ade-
quate to answer many questions concerning the
immediate effects of drugs, and of such factors in
the environment as humidity, temperature, fatigue,
posture. In the treatment of various types of dis-
order also, psychological technique is found to be

the most effective. In business the laboratory

methods have been effectively applied to the meas-
urement of advertisements and sales points, pack-
ages, trade-marks, trade names, etc. In industry
the application of "reaction time" technique and
apparatus has become the "motion and time study"
 METHODS OF APPLYING PSYCHOLOGY 193

of the modern workshop. In law the " recognition

method" is coming to be used in the measurement
of infringement and the validity of testimony; the
" methods of mental measurement" are used in the
determination of responsibility; and the "methods
of expression" in the accumulation of evidence and
the discovery of guilt or knowledge.
The utilization of psychological attitude, psycho-
logical knowledge, psychological technique, then,
affords the three principal ways in which psychology
may be " applied" in the various practical fields,
and in which these practical fields may aid in the
development of "applied psychology." These three
methods have not in the past been found equally
serviceable in all the various fields of practice. In
the chapters which follow, certain fields are pre-
sented in which one or more of these methods has
been sufficiently used to make some material con-
tribution either to psychology as a science or to
the concrete practice of daily life.
 CHAPTER XI
PSYCHOLOGY AND. THE EXECUTIVE

From the point of view of one engaged in the

active supervision of industrial and commercial
enterprise the three chief ways in which the atti-
tude, content and technique of psychology may be
put to practical use are (a) in the selection of
employees through a more adequate vocational diag-
nosis of their general mental capacity or their spe-
cial aptitudes; (b) in the organization and manage-
ment of groups of workers through the effective pro-
vision of incentive and reward and through compe-
tent instruction and training; and (c) in the provi-
sion of the most effective environmental conditions.
Selection of Employees.— Since not every kind of
work can be done equally well by any individual,
misfits in vocation are constantly occurring. In-
competents are often placed in responsible positions
or otherwise competent persons placed at tasks for
which they may be found to have either no inclina-
tion, a strong dislike, or perhaps no particular apti-
tude. Unless great care is exercised, therefore, the
employees in large commercial and industrial con-
cerns may easily become a shifting population, aban-
194
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 195

doning their work for want of interest in it or being

dismissed for unsatisfactory service. In many such
cases the " labor turnover," — the number of indi-
viduals who enter the employ of a given firm during
a given period of time, as a year, may amount to
five or even ten times the number actually working
at any one time. This means loss through ineffi-

cient service, through the constant necessity of

training new workers and through the maintenance
of a complicated and busy employment and train-
ing department.
The executive or employer has been so eager to
find some means of reducing this loss that he has
taken up one after the other a variety of aids which
either pretended or seriously attempted to enable
him to fit the worker to his appropriate task. Im-
pressionistic interviews, photographic analysis, let-

ters of recommendation, letters of applicationand

application forms, phrenological and physiognomic
descriptions, and numerous other diagnostic aids
have in turn been tried and found to be either
utterly absurd or manifestly inadequate to deter-
mine either general or specific fitness.
In recent years the interest in the development of
mental tests and scales, primarily for the determi-
nation of general intelligence or for particular school
abilities, has led to the hope that in addition to
such value as these intelligence and product scales
obviously have in vocational selection, specific tests
might be devised which would measure such par-
 .

196 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

ticular aptitudes as might be demanded by a given
type of work. If tests could be provided which
would enable the employer to select, from a list of
applicants, those most likely to be successful at the
work in question, this would greatly decrease the
loss which all the other aids to selection seem unable
to reduce. Even sets of tests which would be inade-
quate for the vocational diagnosis and guidance of
the individual might still be of inestimable use to
the employer.
The most fruitful method of discovering relation-
ships between tests and aptitudes for various kinds
of work seems, from the experience of many con-
cerns who are now utilizing such aids, to be as
follows A group of workers whose relative abilities
:

in the work in question are already fairly well known

and capable of expression in quantitative or at
least in relative terms, is chosen. To these indi-
viduals, good, average and poor, are given as many
forms and varieties of psychological tests as the
patience of the worker, the zeal of the experimenter
or the interest of the employer makes possible.
Ability in each test is then compared with ability
in the work. Certain tests may in this way be found
which serve as indices of occupational capacity, —
good workers perform these tests well, poor workers
do them poorly. Of thirty or forty tests thus tried
out perhaps only four or five will seem to possess
this diagnostic significance, and only these four or
five are retained as tests for the type of ability in
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 197

question. If these results now stand the test of

repeated trial and constantly correlate with the
occupational success or failure, the employer has
secured a valuable instrument which may be used
in the examination and selection of new employees
from lists of applicants.
With these samples as a basis the
successful
psychologist may devise further tests which seem
to involve similar principles or call for similar types
of special proficiency. He will also be interested

in discovering the reasons for this particular corre-

lations,and may thus be able to throw new light both
on business practice and on the work of his science.
By such methods and their elaboration there have
already been devised or selected tentative sets of
occupational tests for a considerable variety of types
of work. Conspicuous in this form of applied psy-
chology is the work of Scott in the formulation of
tests for salesmen and that of Thorndike and his
co-workers in the derivation of tests for various
types of clerical, mechanical and academic work.
Miinsterberg advocated the use of various tests
devised in his laboratory for aid in vocational se-
lection, his own interest lying in the ingenious sug-
gestion of types of test rather than in the careful
determination of their actual validity. Following
the lead of Thorndike, Scott, Miinsterberg and
others there has come to be at the present day a
wide-spread activity in this field. Some of the
teams of tests that have resulted from this type of
198 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
investigation are given in the following Table. The
most part such as are familiar by
tests are for the
name to the psychological worker and no attempt
can be made here either to describe them or to give
standard procedure for their administration. The
practical reader should, however, be cautioned that
psychological tests are of no value unless in their
administration, scoring and weighting the standard
procedure is followed. In each case the figures fol-

lowing the name of the test indicate the actual

degree of correlation between performance in the
test and some objective measure of occupational
proficiency. It may safely be said that all of these
correlations are higher than those between the usual
off-hand or traditional methods of selection and ac-
tual proficiency.

Tests for Vocational Selection

( The tests are indicated by their conventional laboratory

name, and the figures in each case indicate degree of corre-

lation between ability in the test and some objective meas-
ure of ability in the actual work of the vocation. [Data
from Allen, Jones, Lahy, Lough, McComas, Rogers. Scott,
Trabue, and others].)

STENOGRAPHERS TELEGRAPHERS
Naming Opposites 45 Immediate Memory 52
Form Substitution 40 Naming Opposites 51
Following Directions. . . .46 Completion 52
Color Naming 34 Substitution 39
Letter Substitution 82 School Grade „ . 77
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 199

CLERICAL WORKERS MINOR EXECUTTVES

Directions 57 Better Reasons 76
Naming Opposites 55 Absurdities 46
Part-Whole 49 Completion 43
"Whole-Part 65 Mixed Relations 46
Completion 59 Part- Whole 46
Absurdities 36 Opposites 36
Color Naming 46

SPECIALIZED OPERATORS
CORRESPONDENTS
ColorNaming 32
Naming Opposites 40
Form Naming 48
Following Directions. . . .54
Completion 71
Mixed Relations 43
Aiming 62
Color Naming 38
False Statements 67
Action- Agent , . . .35
Absurdities 56
Agent- Action 37
Verb-Object 37

TYPEWRITERS
Number Checking 53 HAND SEWING
Letter Substitution 96 Tapping Rate 34
Color Naming 45 Following Directions. . . .53
Action-Agent 43 Naming Opposites 41
Verb-Object 55 Color Naming 43
Memory Span 50 Logical Memory 37

LABEL PASTING MACHINE STITCHING

Knox Cube .73 Mixed Relations 58
Card Sorting 42 LogicalMemory 36
Substitution 50 Accuracy of Aim 44
Naming Opposites 41 Naming Opposites 44
Color Naming 51 Color Naming 36
Following Directions. . . .50 Following Directions. . . .38
 :

200 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

ENGINEERS
Completion 63
Card Sorting 47
Construction 35
Invention 66
Omnibus 66
Imagination 66

The degree of correspondence between such men-

tal tests and success in a definite type of work is
shown by the following instance: Fifty salesmen,
engaged in selling all manner of commodities in all
manner of ways, ranging in age from twenty to fifty
years, and of course having had varying amounts
of experience, were examined by means of three
sets of selected mental tests. In the case of each
individual his present salary was divided by the
.number of years of selling that had enabled him to
attain that salary. This measure of success as a
salesman is admittedly a rough one, but no more
satisfactory measure could be devised for compar-
ing the members of so heterogeneous a group. The
individuals were then arranged in four groups in
the case of each of the sets of tests, according to
the score attained, giving groups which might be
designated as superior, good, fair and poor. Then
the average salary per year of experience was com-
puted for each of these groups. The results are
given in the following table
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE SOI

Comparison of Ability in Tests with Ability in

Salesmanship

Salary per Number

year of Probable of
Test Series Score
Experi- Error Individ-
ence uals

Series I, Tests Over 550 $765 $170 11

for Judgment, 400-550 968 168 15
Comprehension, 250-400 934 138 19
etc. Under 250 612 111 5

Series II, Tests Over 230 1085 197 8

for Perception, 215-230 845 157 9
Discrimination, 200-215 829 91 21
etc. Under 200 674 80 12

Series III, A Over 40 1161 256 10

Test for Gen- 30-40 833 108 19
eral Intelli- 20-30 822 113 17
gence. Under 20 492 106 4

The mental tests, although their administration

required only thirty-five minutes, are seen to divide
the salesmen in a fairly reliable way into groups
of superior, good, fairand poor earning power, and
to this extent would seem to be of genuine value in
differentiating the members of the group on the
basis of their proficiency in selling.
Organization, Management and the Psychological
Attitude,— In the intensive study of methods of in-
202 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
dustrial organization and management that has been
going on in recent years the psychological factors
have been found to be as important as the mechan-
ical, technical, accounting or distributing machin-
ery. "Experience has clearly demonstrated," says
Gilbreth, "that the emphasis in successful manage-
ment lies on the man, not on the work that efficiency
;

is best secured by placing the emphasis on the man

and modifying the equipment, materials and meth-

ods to make the most of the man. It has further
recognized that the man's mind is a controlling
factor in his efficiency, and has, by teaching, enabled
the man to make the most of his powers. In order
to understand this teaching element that is such a
large part of management, a knowledge of psychol-
ogy is imperative." It should also be said that
the problems of management constitute an inviting
field of research for psychology, as well as an imme-

diate field of application.

The value of the attitude of analysis is clearly
shown in the various attempts to reduce the work
of management into its "elements" or "principles."
The well-known Taylor system of management
stressed nine chief factors as making up the work
of management, thus taking a psychological atti-
tude toward what might otherwise have been con-
sidered as a single task. Once such an analysis had
been satisfactorily made it was possible to apply it
to the most varied institutions and organizations.
The management of a factory, a hospital, a kitchen,
 ;

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 203

an army, an athletic team, a newspaper office, or

even the human body, was found to be greatly facili-
tated, ordered and improved by the mere act of con-
sidering it from this analytic point of view.
Furthermore every one of these elementary phases
of management is seen at once to involve the appli-
cation of the laws of human behavior, or through
its problems to call for the utilization of the tech-

nique of psychological research. It may be profit-

able to consider some of the ''elements" of modern
systems of management for the sake of indicating
the psychological problems and principles which
they suggest. Under one such system, for example,
the —
"elements" are stated to be, individuality,
functionalization, measurement, analysis and syn-
thesis, standardization, records and programs,
teaching, incentives, welfare.
Individuality and Differential Psychology.— Un-
der the traditional forms of management the
"gang" was the unit of operation, record, remun-
eration and teaching. There was but little effort

made to select or adapt the individual according to

his idiosyncrasies, to instruct him individually or
individually to record or reward his work. Under
modern systems of management the psychology of
individual differences is important, and the indi-
vidualization of management takes its place in his-
tory with the individualization of pedagogy and the
individualization of punishment. Thus Grilbreth
writes
 '

204 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

Under management the individual is the unit
scientific
to be measured. based upon utilizing
Functionalization ii?

the particular powers and special abilities of each man.

Measurement is of the individual man and his work. An-
alysis and synthesis build up methods by which the indi-
vidual can best do his work. Standards are of the work of
an individual, a standard man, and the task is always for
an individual, being that percentage of the standard man's
task that the particular individual can do. Records are of
individuals and are made in order to show and reward in-
dividual effort. Specific individuals are taught those things
that they individually require. Incentives are individual,
both in the cases of rewards and punishments, and finally,
it is the welfare of the individual worker that is consid-

ered, without the sacrifice of any for the good of the whole.

Still more recently, under such terms as "indus-

trial democracy, '
the plan of organization is such
that the 'workers constitute their own management,
or have a decisive voice in determining the general
policies covering such matters as hours of work,
method of remuneration, selection of foremen, or
through ownership of stock or some form of profit-
sharing system, become virtual partners in the en-
terprise.
Functionalization and Its Mental Effects.— By
this process is meant (a) the analysis of the work
into its primary elements or tasks, such as planning,

recording, repairing, teaching, supervision, etc.;

and (b) worker by assigning him

specializing the
to that task in the industry for which his particu-
lar capacities, whether as laborer, foreman, teacher,
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 305

executive, best qualify him, and thereby (c) reduc-

ing his functions or intensifying them. Thus one
—
of Taylor's stated principles was, "Each man
from the assistant superintendent down shall have
as few functions as possible to perform." Innu-
merable psychological problems are involved in this
—
principle, not only those of adequately determin-
ing the special qualifications and interests of the
individual, but, supposing this to be accomplished,
the problem of determining the effect of such re-
upon the worker himself, the
striction of activity
educational advantages and defects of unvaried per-
formance, problems of ennui, monotony, interest
and general mental attitude. It is obvious that the
psychological effects of management systems are as
important and concrete as are the psychological
factors involved in their application.
Measurement and Psychological Technique.—
Inasmuch as both individual recognition and spe-
cialization depend on the determination of the
qualifications, success and performance of each per-
son concerned, measurement of human factors is
one of the important aspects of modern manage-
ment. The effects of variables in environment, tools,
and methods of work must be accurately made out,
and this calls for the development of special tech-
nique. Since most of the measurement is of human
reactions, practice, skill, adaptation, fatigue, im-
provement, etc., the graphic and statistical methods
long used in the psychological laboratory are find-
206 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ing a place in the industrial laboratory as well.
They are receiving there, in the hands of skillful
and zealous investigators, various forms of modifi-
cation, elaboration and refinement which may well
be expected to enhance their value for direct psy-
chological and educational research. Furthermore,
it isbeing found that for the accurate measurement
of industrial products it is in many cases necessary
to devise scales of measurement, similar to those
which psychologists have devised for the measure-
ment of such school products as writing, drawing,
composition, etc. Such measurement is especially
necessary when the industrial product may vary
in quality as well as in amount. An example would
be found in the formation of a graded scale for the
measurement of hand sewing in which the successive
steps would be represented by actual specimens,
arranged, by a special laboratory technique, in order
of ascending value, and so chosen that the steps
from one sample to another are in all cases equally
perceptible.
Analysis, Synthesis and the Instinct of Work-
—
manship. Under this head comes the interesting
problem of the psychology of workmanship. Most
important is the fact that the testimony of the
experienced executive seems to contradict the asser-
tions of many who have been interested in recording
the original tendencies of human beings. According
to Veblen, "Efficient use of the means at hand and
adequate management of the resources available
 '

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 207

for the purposes of life is itself an end of endeavor,

and accomplishment of this kind is a source of grat-
ification.
'
' This proclivity for workmanship is said
to be " chief among those instinctive dispositions
that conduce directly to the material well-being of
the race," and comparable in its influence and
is

urgency with the "parental bent." "The instinct

of workmanship brought the life of mankind from
the brute to the human plane," etc.

On the other hand, those actively engaged in the

work of management are found to insist that one

of the greatest evils of industry is the original

tendency to "soldier" or "loaf on the job," to
follow old rule of thumb methods of work, and to
resent any effort to introduce more effective and
' '
productive technique. ' This loafing or soldiering,
says Taylor, "proceeds from two causes. First,
from a natural instinct and tendency of men to take
it easy, which may
be called natural soldiering.
Second, from more intricate second thought and
reasoning, caused by their relations with other men,
which may be called systematic soldiering."
Whether or not the survival of ineffective methods
in all forms of work results from present economic,
social and managerial conditions, or whether the
"instinct of workmanship" must needs be aban-
doned as an original tendency in human nature is
in itself a psychological problem of no little inter-
est. But of more immediate consequence is a fact
on which managers and teachers commonly agree.
208 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
This fact was well stated by Taylor in the follow-
ing words:

In practically all of the mechanic arts the science which

underlies each workman's act is so great and amounts to
so much that the workman who is best suited to actually
doing the work is incapable, either through lack of educa-
tion or through insufficient mental capacity, of understand-
ing this science.

The incompetence of the worker to understand

the science underlying the operations in which he
is individually makes necessary the
engaged
analysis of these operations by some more expert
observer, and the synthesis of their elements into
a procedure which is scientifically ordered. This
at once involves the next principle, that of stand-
ardization.
Standardization and the Psychology of Habit.—
Standardization depends on the psychology of habit.
The beginner at any type of skilled work, as type-
writing, inevitably adopts a method which, though
it may give the greatest immediate return, is not
in the long run calculated to be most effective.
Practice in such an ineffective work method estab-
lishes a habit of performance which not only delays
the formation of more appropriate habits, but may
positively interfere with their development when
an effort is made to acquire them. Faulty habits,
whether in holding a violin, in mastering a key-
board, in handwriting, in the use of words, in brick-
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 209

laying, shingling, carrying loads, cutting metals or

in handling simple or complicated tools or machin-
ery, mean personal, industrial and professional
waste.
An important function of management in its
scientific form consists in supplying the results of
analysis, synthesis and expert study to the work
in the form of standards of practice. Standards
of practice mean, in this sense, habits of work which
expert study shows to be ultimately, though perhaps
not immediately, best calculated to promote the effi-
ciency of the worker.
Standardization goes even farther than the pre-
scription of the most effective attitude and method
on the part of the worker. Not only is there a
standard method of ultimately mastering the key-
board of a typewriter that keyboard is itself standi
;

ardized in such a way that when the operator passes

from one machine or office to another the effective
habits that have been once acquired will fit the new
circumstances as well. Just as in the more strictly
engineering features of industry it is found neces-

sary to standardize such things as the size of nails

and screws, the dimensions of bearings, pipes,
wheels, tires, rails, etc., so the tools of the human
worker, — the keyboards, the signals, the filing sys-
tems, the sales slips, etc., should be standardized
so as to fit the established habits of the worker.
But still further, when work habits and tools are
thus standardized, it becomes possible to standard-
210 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ize performance itself in such a way that the worker
who achieves, falls below, or exceeds the standard
performance may be readily identified, rewarded
and promoted. In this way the formation of stand-
ards, which may often seem, in the beginning, to
constitute a violation of the principle of individual-
ity, may be in the outcome a necessary means of
attaining that end.
Records, Programs and Educational Psychology.
—"A man's social use," says James, "is the recog-
nition which he gets from his mates. We are not
only gregarious animals, liking to be liked in the
sight of our fellows, but we have an innate pro-
pensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favor-
ably,by our kind. Such recognition the worker is
'
'

afforded by the keeping of accurate records, by their

publication or posting, their use in the assignment
of reward or bonus, in the formulation of programs
and schedules, and as a means of self-stimulation.
The competitive social impulse may show itself in
wholesome rivalry. In so far as this is possible
it is more psychologically sound for the worker to

keep his own records, inasmuch as this facilitates

a direct comparison of achievement with his per-
sonal experiences and effort, and especially since
it encourages that most psychological of all forms

of rivalry, —competition with one's own record.

The actual graphic representation of such records
by the worker or by the management from time to
time, in the form of curves of learning, curves of
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 211

work, curves of diurnal variation, curves of fatigue,

accident curves, etc., is one of the most effective
ways of stimulating and encouraging un-
initiative
derstanding. Practice without knowledge of results
is much inferior, as a pedagogical procedure, to

practice accompanied by constant awareness of the

quality of one's performance.
An interesting and practically important trait
of human nature is the desire for some symbol

whereby one's status may be socially established

and declared. Not only do men work for wages and
salaries, —they may also be effectively rewarded by
titles, honors, badges, buttons, privileges, or by any

simple device which facilitates or establishes social

recognition. One of the most potent devices of our
childhood, however artificial it may have been, was
the "reward of merit" card, which was a sufficient
inducement to stimulate us to earnest though wage-
less work in arithmetic and geography. Profes-
sional, administrative, political and military work-
ers not infrequently prefer change of title to ad-
vance in salary. The college student puts high value
on his pins, letters, and similar emblems. The im-
portance of the symbol as a type of reward finds
just recognition in the organization, training and
management of groups of operatives, salesmen, and
similar workers.
Incentives, Welfare and Social Psychology.—
Under this heading come a host of managerial and
executive problems in which human nature plays
 :

212 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

an important role. Much of the literature on the
various types of compensation or wage systems
takes its stand on one or another characteristic of
human instinct, desire, satisfaction, responsiveness,
expectation, assurance, incentive or failing. The
most striking feature of the various modern systems
of management has been their discarding of the
traditional incentives of fear, punishment, and com-
pulsion, and the placing of emphasis on such factors
as initiative, mental attitude, cooperation, loyalty,
professional pride, etc. In one of the most recent
movements the slogan, " industrial democracy"
means simply that the worker takes a responsible
part in his own management, and that the "direct"
incentives, such as ambition, pride, fairness, love
of the game, loyalty and social recognition take the
place of the "indirect" incentives of wages, punish-
ment, discharge and necessity.
There is no more familiar fact of psychology than
that the presence of an incentive or motive, arising,
if possible, and personal way, is
in a spontaneous
a more important condition of effective work than
any number of environmental details. Taylor, in
referring to the influence of the "gang" on the
individual worker, says

As an illustration of the value of a scientific study of the

motives which influence workmen in their daily work, the
loss of ambition and initiative will be cited, which takes
place in workmen when they are herded into gangs in-
stead of being treated as separate individuals.
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 213

He then points out that under such circumstances

the characteristic result is for the individual effi-

ciency of each man to fall to or below the level of

the poorest worker in the gang.
On the other hand, it is well known that if an
element of contest can be introduced, and one group,
composed of workers who are bound by some physi-
cal, social, religious or political sympathy is put in

competition with another group, the gang spirit

may work in just the reverse direction. Thus Gil-
breth found that with teams of bricklayers extra
zeal and effectiveness was produced by putting tall
men on one job and short ones on a competing task.
Such oppositions as married vs. single men, eastern
vs. western men, and national groupings, were
equally effective. There are plenty of illustrations
in anyone's experience to show that working in
company does not necessarily level down efficiency
to the basis of the least effective worker. Com-
panionship, friendliness, the consciousness of
mutual endeavor, may easily work to increase the
average level. The important point is whether the
individual, in company, receives due recognition as
an individual, either on his own responsibility or
as a member of a ''team" rather than of a "gang."
Psychological Influence of the Environment.—
In a previous chapter, in connection with the con-
ditions of personal efficiency, a variety of factors
are discussed with which the scientific executive or
manager should be familiar. Of particular impor-
214 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
tance in the local management of v/orkers are snch
factors as illumination, ventilation, posture, fa-
tigue eliminating devices, rhythm, etc. Not only
do the environmental factors in many cases exert
a demonstrable influence on effectiveness of work,
but the worker in turn acquires work habits with
respect to these environmental factors. These work
habits may be as important as the external influ-

ences themselves.
In many cases the arrangement, elevation and
slope of the benches, work tables, chairs, etc., make
the posture of the worker a feature that cannot be
neglected. The fact that posture has a genuine
influence on the effectiveness of work is -not only a
matter of common experience, but the degree of this
influence is susceptible of quantitative measurement.
One psychological investigator, impressed with the
prevalent tendency on the part of acquaintances in
a college dormitory to do their studying with their
feet perched on a table or shelf, higher than the
head, conducted a series of experiments on the
effect of posture. Inquiry among men of eminence
revealed the fact that there was a widespread pref-
erence for a horizontal posture in the performance
of mental work. The investigator put these matters
to scientific test by arranging a tilt board on which
an individual could be placed and tipped at angles
ranging from the vertical or erect to the horizontal
position.
Tests were then conducted in which the individ-
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 215

ual's ability was measured in the horizontal and

vertical positions. The tests included measures of
ability in visual memory, discrimination of pitch,
tactual perception, auditory memory, mathematical
calculation, fatigue, speed of movement and
strength of grip. In the case of the abilities which
may be described as mental rather than muscular,
the horizontal position was clearly superior, not
only in the averages but consistently with different
individuals. In the case of the more muscular
activities the vertical position was found to be most
favorable. Clearly even such apparently trivial
factors as the position of the body, as determined
by the apparatus and paraphernalia of work, the
disposition of furniture and materials, may be of
as much practical importance as the care and oiling
of machinery or the promptness and punctuality of
employees.
The importance of lighting systems and of effi-

cient illumination has already been pointed out.

Tests of visual acuity, which indicate the ability of
the eye to see correctly and to discriminate finely,
show that so simple an error as that of having a
light directly in the field of view may decrease the
worker's visual efficiency from 25 to 30 per cent.
It is, moreover, certain that various forms of eye
strain, aggravated in many cases by imperfect
illuminating systems, are among the important
causes of nervousness, headache, drowsiness and
216 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
fatigue, which may in many cases contribute toward
the production of industrial accidents.
Recent studies of the effect of various factors in
the ventilation of the workshop seem to indicate
that these factors do not operate in a direct physical
or physiological way, but, in so far as they are
a psychological manner, by do-
effective, largely in
ing violence to the worker's customary working
habits, by distracting his attention, or by decreasing
the comfort or satisfyingness of his work, rather
than by decreasing his actual ability. Such investi-
gations as those of the New York Ventilation Com-
mission are of great scientific as well as practical
value, especially since they seem to indicate that
even such striking environmental factors as tem-
perature, humidity, circulation of air, carbon diox-
ide, etc., exert their chief influence on working
capacity indirectly, through their psychological
effects, rather than physiologically or physically.
Eecent inquiries into the causes of industrial acci-
dents indicate that at least 80 per cent of them are
not due to faults in machinery or to unavoidable
physical catastrophe, but to the failure of the human
mechanism, either of the sufferer or of a fellow
worker. In the efforts to discover the precise nature
of these human sources of danger, various sugges-
tions have been made. The most common explana-
tion is that which attributes such accidents to care-
lessness. But the fact that such accidents are not
distributed uniformly through the working hours
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 217

suggests that if carelessness is the responsible fac-

tor there must be sought some further reason why
carelessness asserts itself so much more danger-
ously at some hours than at others. Some investi-
gators have suggested fatigue as the responsible
factor. But the curve of accidents through the day
does not follow the course of fatigue, as measured
during a day 's work. The greater numbers of acci-
dents do not come at the hours when the worker,
since fatigued, is less efficient. On the contrary,
they come at precisely those hours when the speed
of production is the greatest and the workers doing
their most effective work. Hence the suggestion has
also been offered that accidents are likely to result
at such times, because the worker's attention is
drawn to the machinery and materials rather than
toward his own body, and the protective reactions
fail which would be more operative at a slower rate

of work. It has also been shown that even during

a short period, such as twenty minutes, of work
similar in character to that which the machine oper-
ator in a highly specialized industry would perform,
there is a clear tendency for accidents or failures
and errors to be more frequent in the latter half
of the period than in the earlier half. When one
observes the extremely simple and automatic char-
acter of the movements involved in these factory
operations it is not surprising to be told that the
monotony of the work suffices in a few moments to
induce wandering attention and absent-mindedness
 "

218 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

in the operator. Simple as the operations are, it
is nevertheless true in many cases that an exceed-
ingly small error in movement may involve the
worker in serious accident. Whatever ultimate con-
clusions may be reached as to the factors under-
lying human carelessness in industry, it is clear that
they will be found to be factors studied by the
psychologist rather than by the mechanic or
engineer.
Finally among the environmental factors may be
enumerated a variety of influences which, because
of their power to stimulate effort or efficiently or-
ganize work,have been called " dynamogenic.
Perhaps the most familiar of these is rhythm. The
writer recalls having seen, in a foreign city, a group
of laborers tamping in the cobblestones of a pave-
ment with special blocks of iron attached to a
handle. These implements were alternately raised
into the air a foot or so and then brought down on
top of a refractory cobblestone, which was thereby
driven into place. But the workmen were not tamp-
ing away, each at his own indiscriminate rate.
Along the curb walked a foreman who beat with
an iron bar a rhythmic series of strokes, which was
followed in unison by the workers on the cobble.
In this way they proceeded merrily and efficiently
up the street. It appeared that the management
found it more effective for one man to do nothing
but beat the rhythm, than for all workers indiscrim-
inately to wield their implements. The rhythm of
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE 219

work songs, sea songs, college yells, drum beats

and the marching tune demonstrably so organize
the individual's movements that they proceed more
harmoniously, more regularly, more effectively and
with less Teachers find that in the class
effort.

room, in conducting drills, or in various types of

practice exercises, much may be gained by the im-
position of more or less artificial rhythms which
are in no particular way related to the habits being
formed.

In drill on column addition successful work is done by

placing the problem on the board and following through
the combinations by pointing the pointer and making a
tap on the board as one proceeds through the column.
Concert work of this sort seems to have the effect of speed-
ing up those who would ordinarily lag, even though they
might get the right result. The most skillful teachers of
typewriting count or clap their hands or use the phono-
graph for the sake of speeding up their students. They
have discovered that the same amount of time devoted to
typewriting practice will produce anywhere from twenty-
five to one hundred per cent more speed under such arti-
ficial stimulation than they were in the habit of getting
1
merely by asking the students to practice.

Not only does rhythm thus organize the work of

the individual, but it also organizes the individuals
into a more effective group, inspirits effort and gives
swing, drive and purpose to otherwise monotonous
and wearisome work. In this sense it may with
1
Strayer and Norsworthy, "How to Teach," p. 205.
220 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
perfect right be called *
' dynamogenic, '
' and may
be in many ways put to both practical and interest-
ing uses. In a similar or related way such external
factors as color, odor, scenery, clothing, novelty,
friendliness and cordial associations have their stim-
ulating and practically dynamogenic influences.
In this chapter we have by no means attempted
to give a complete picture of the importance of
psychology for the executive. But from what it

has been possible to present in so limited a discus-

sion it should be clear that, not only in the selection
of workers but in their management as well, the
types of psychological application and the settings
of psychological problems are both varied and
numerous. In the analysis of management into its

elements the psychological attitude and point of

view are conspicuous. In the concrete managerial
duties and in the provision of favorable environ-
mental conditions psychological knowledge is found
to be indispensable. The experienced executive can
narrate a wealth of incidents in which the discern-
ment of some simple law of feeling, motive, or think-
ing contained the solution of a difficulty. Finally,
in the selection of workers, and in the solution of
numerous problems growing out of the managerial
analysis, psychological technique and apparatus are
becoming increasingly useful.
 CHAPTER XII

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP

In the preceding chapter we have considered some

of the ways in which the psychological factors enter
into the work of organization and management. In
the case of the worker himself, his methods, atti-
tudes, modes of attack, distribution of effort, choice
and arrangement of
of tools, routing of operations
materials, the laws of mental and motor effective-
ness are no less important.
Mental Set and Shift.— A concrete illustration of

the influence of these mental factors is to be found

in the case of what is known in the psychological
laboratory as the maintenance of mental set. A
simple experiment will make clear the meaning of
this term. Arrange a series of given words for
which both synonyms and antonyms may be found,
— words of similar meaning and words of opposite
meaning. The experiment is as follows: First go
down the column, calling aloud an acceptable oppo-
site for each word, letting someone record the time

required to complete the series. Then go down the

column again, but this time calling out synonyms
instead of opposites, and again recording the time
required. In the third case go down the column
221
222 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
again, calling out an opposite for the first word, a
synonym for the second, an opposite for the third,
a synonym for the fourth, and so on down the list,
alternately. Eecord the time as before, and also
notice whether this time the work seems more or
less difficult than in the first two times. The results
may be still clearer if the experiment is repeated
several times, thus giving each method a fairer
measurement.
In the case of columns of numbers the reader may
perform a similar experiment by first adding 17
and subtracting 17 adding 17 in
alternately, then
each case, then subtracting 17 in each case. Here
again the experiment should be performed several
times and the results averaged, so that greater
difficulty does not attach to one method simply
because it was the first one tried. Quite uniformly
it will be found that the mixed series is felt to be
more difficult and actually requires more time than
either of the other two.
In general found that shifting back and forth
it is

from one mental set, one attitude or task to another

is a relatively ineffective mode of work. This prin-
ciple has many applications in the workshop. House
cleaning has been shown by actual trial to move
more expeditiously if one first sweeps all rooms,
then dusts all rooms, then polishes all furniture,
then arranges all contents, than by the more com-
monly observed method of sweeping a room, then
shifting to the task and tools of dusting, then pol-
 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 223

ishing, then arranging, and then repeating this se-

ries of shifts for each room. Dishwashing obviously
proceeds more efficiently when the collecting task,
then the scraping task, then the washing task, then
the drying and then the replacing are each continu-
ously maintained. Similarly, in constructing even
such simple objects as window screens, it is more
effective to do all sawing first, then all planing, then
all sandpapering, then all joining, then all screen
cutting, then all stretching and tacking, then all
finishing and trimming, and finally all painting, than
it is to make each screen complete, changing from
set to set, task to task, tool to tool and place to
place for each case.
This simple principle of the maintenance of set
should find application in innumerable types of
work. It should scarcely be necessary to point out
that any such principle should be applied, not blindly
and inflexibly, but always with due regard for the
circumstances and for other principles which may
be equally important. Thus, in the case of the win-
dow screens, it would be a mistake to insist on doing
first all screen stretching, then all tacking, since
this would involve a complete rehandling of every
screen, although the tools employed would be the
same in both cases. Moreover, such simple facts
as that monotony and lack of variety in one's occu-
pation may make for inattention, mind wandering,
accident and ennui, thus incapacitating the worker,
cannot be ignored.
224 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Effective Distribution of Effort.— Such principles
as that of the effective distribution of work and
rest, in such way that the worker may escape the
disastrous results of over fatigue and yet not lose
the advantages arising from being already "warmed
up" and in action, find application in any kind of
work, from studying geography to mowing grass.
Taylor found that in so simple a task as that of
carrying chunks of iron from one place to another
there was a definite law covering the ratio of the
time the worker should be under load to the time he
should be at rest. He found by actual experiment
that a man carrying chunks of iron weighing 92
pounds should be under load only 42 per cent of
the day, being without load, either returning or rest-
ing, for 58 per cent of the time. When workers were
placed on such a schedule they were found to load
47 tons each daily, instead of the 12.5 tons which had
been the average record when the worker observed
no such principle. The individual's inclinations,
and feelings of fatigue were no
intuition, traditions
reliable index of the effectiveness of his work
method, and the new method seemed no more diffi-
cult nor fatiguing than the old haphazard one.
In some kinds of work the "load" or amount of
energy required at each act or moment may be so
varied and adjusted to the general laws of work,
fatigue and individual difference that personal
comfort and effectiveness of effort may both be
increased. Thus when the optimum load for such
 :

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 225

work as shoveling lias been determined, the size

of the shovel may be systematically adjusted or

varied with the heaviness of the substance being
handled, instead of using a traditional shovel and
varying the amount lifted in a random way or not
at all. By such methods the work of gangs of shov-
elers has been increased three or four fold, and
each man's daily earnings increased, if not propor-
tionately, at least considerably.
Organizing the Path of Movement.— Closely re-
lated to this subject of the effective distribution of
work and rest is that of the routing of operations.
The paths followed by the worker in moving from
one part of the plant to another, from materials or
storehouse to bench, from bench to tool chest and
back, from bench to warerooms, etc., may also play
a large part in his working capacity. No better
illustration need be given of the importance of a
systematic organization of the worker's movements
than Christine Frederick's account 1 of the organiza-
tion of the worker's path in the case of a kitchen.
She writes

I recall a young bride who recently showed me her new

kitchen. "Isn't it a beauty ?" she exclaimed. It certainly
had modern appliances of every kind. But her stove was
in a recess of the kitchen at one end. Her pantry was
twenty feet away at the opposite end. Every time she wanted
to use a frying pan she had to walk twenty feet to get it,
and, after using it, she had to walk twenty feet to put it
1
Christine Frederick, "The New Housekeeping," p. 46.
 '

226 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

away. I know blocks and blocks of houses in a city over
100,000 population which are all built that way. "When I
see such a kitchen I am reminded of the barker I once
heard outside of a country circus. "Ladies and gentle-
men," he was calling, "come in and see the great African
crocodile. It measures 18 feet from the tip of its nose to
the tip of and 18
its tail, from the tip of its tail to the
feet
tip of its nose, making in and gentlemen, a grand
all, ladies
total of 36 feet." How many women are "making a grand
'
total of thirty-six steps every time they hang up the egg-
'

beater ?

She then gives side by side a diagram of a kitchen

"showing badly arranged equipment, which mates
confused intersecting chains of steps, in either pre-
paring or clearing away a meal, '
' and also the same
kitchen properly routed, so that the steps involved
in either process are simple and few.
Time and Motion Study.— The general importance
of routing or organization of paths leads naturally
more simple movements
to the intensive study of the
—
of the worker, the movements of arms, hands, feet,
head and trunk. Under the name of motion study '
'
'

such work has received considerable attention from

industrial engineers and managers, and represents
an elaboration and application of work begun years
ago in the psychological laboratory on such prob-
lems as reaction time, habit formation, practice,
acquisition of skill, fatigue, etc. By recording
accurately the separate movements which comprise
the worker's activities, discovering useless steps
and delays, interferences and faulty coordinations,
 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 227

a plan of movement is arrived at which is best cal-

culated to accomplish all the work in the quickest
possible time and with a minimum of effort. Gil-

breth and his co-workers have done extensive work

in this field and have perfected many devices for
recording even the swiftest, most complicated and
delicate movements, such as those of the expert type-
writer, the pianist and surgeon. Various special
devices have also been constructed whereby the
movement and superior, may
paths, both inferior
be graphically, stereoscopically, by motion pictures
or otherwise demonstrated to the worker and thus
by him in the perfection of his handicraft.
utilized
Sometimes the changes made are not in the path
of movement itself but rather in the arrangement
of the worker's body, his materials, tools or equip-
ment. Thus in Gilbreth's classical study of brick-
laying operations, the changes made were mainly in
the disposition of materials and in the routing of
the work, but these changes brought up the average
number from the traditional
of bricks laid per hour
standard of 120 to 350 per man, and reduced the
number of movements involved in laying a brick
from 18 to 4. In almost any workshop, factory,
office or home, simple changes in the height of chairs
or benches, the elevation of tables, sinks and desks,
the position of tools, filing cabinets, drain boards,
show that this type of study of human
sinks, etc.,
behavior and the conditions of its effectiveness is
both interesting and valuable.
228 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
This type of observation and study may be profit-
ably undertaken by anyone interested who is at all

familiar with the psychological methods of measur-

ing work. One student of applied psychology found
that a few minutes of such observation enabled her
to save ten minutes of the half hour usually required
in making a cake. Another found herself dressing
in half the traditional time; another saved several
hours of time each month by routing and reorganiz-
ing the processes of bathing and shaving. Two
students, studying the distribution of movements
in typewriting on an ordinary machine with a given
type of keyboard found that, out of 37,356 move-
ments, 21,301 were struck by the less efficient left
hand and only 16,055 by the more efficient right
hand, thus disclosing an ineffective arrangement of
the letters on this particular keyboard. A slight
change in the height and slope of the work table
enabled girls engaged in sorting and filing records
to increase their output by 50 per cent. In another
factory a motion study led to the making of several
small alterations in the operation and arrangement
of the machinery, with the result that seven girls,
working eight and one-half hours, were able to ac-
complish what had previously required thirteen
girls working ten hours, a reduction from 130 to
59.5 total hours. The literature of scientific man-
agement and efficiency engineering is replete with
such instances.
Psychological Reaction of the Worker.— Of equal
 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 229

importance, though more recent in its development,

is the question of the psychological effect of such
methods on the worker. Do these methods tend to
destroy his spontaneity and individuality and re-
duce him to an automaton by prescribing for him
a routine plan of work? Do they decrease his
initiative, surround him with monotony, and over-
specialize his activity and training? Or do they
release his attention for more profitable activity,
enable him to capitalize and to derive the greatest
possible advantage from such special aptitudes as
he may chance to possess, improve his health, in-
crease his interest and observation, stimulate his
own analytic and scientific ability, prevent accident
and strain and promote stability, long tenure and
years of productivity? In the solution of these
questions, as well as in the adaptationand develop-
ment of the industrial methods which raise them to
consciousness, the applied psychologist finds an in-
viting and valuable field of research.
As a final illustration of the various applications
of psychology in the workshop we may instance the
influence of the worker's mental condition, attitude,
expectation and purpose on the quality and quan-
tity of his In a previous chapter the influence
work.
of such factors on learning and on the acquisition
of skill have been pointed out. In the present con-
nection may be given a concrete instance of the
practical importance of these factors in the work-
shop. In tabulating the census returns, in a very
230 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
elaborate manner, it a new
was necessary to use
machine and a complex series of punching and let-
tering symbols to correspond to such items as age,
sex, color, nationality, occupation, education, lan-
guage, etc. After a very careful preliminary train-
ing and practice, covering some five weeks, in the
use of the machinery, studying the schedules, and
memorizing the symbols, the operators, who had
begun with the express idea that the work was
exceedingly difficult, fatiguing and called for excep-
tional ability and skill, were able to complete, on
the average, some 500 cards per day. But this
record seemed to call for such feverish effort that
protests were made and no further publication of
records by way of stimulation was allowed.

After the work was well under way about 200 new
clerks were put into one room and scattered through the
force already at work. They had no experience with the
schedules and knew nothing of the symbols and had never
seen the machines. They saw those around them working
easilyand rapidly, and in three days several of them had
done 500, in a week nearly every one, while the general
average was rising. There was no longer any question of
nervous strain. 2

In fact one day before the work was over one

of these new operators, who had not had the pre-
paratory five weeks of training in mastering the

2 Quoted by Jastrow in "Fact and Fable in Psychology," from

Mrs. May Cole Baker.
 PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORKSHOP 231

schedules and memorizing the symbols, broke the

record achievement by completing 2,230 cards.

It is thus demonstrated that an unskilled clerk, with

the environment proving the possibility of a task and sug-
gesting its easy accomplishment, can in three days suc-

ceed in doing what a skilled clerk, with preliminary ac-

quaintance of five weeks with the symbol to be used could
only do after two weeks' practice, and this because the
latter, doubtless not a whit inferior in ability, had been led
3
to regard the task as difficult.
8
Ibid.
 CHAPTEE Xin
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET

—
Psychology of the Consumer. The market exists
primarily because the consumer exists, and the
refinements of marketing methods depend chiefly
on the fact that the consumer must be dealt with
as a psychological individual, as well as an organic,
economic or political unit. The commodities of the
market are there because the consumer has certain
needs, values, habits or desires which those commod-
ities may satisfy. The original needs of human
beings, the requirements of food, shelter, clothing
and defense are by no means his sole wants. Equally
urgent are his much more distinctively human
demands for comfort, cleanliness, recreation, dis-
and society. Still less instinctive
play, decoration
and in large degree educationally and socially
acquired are his desires for tools, knowledge, power,
prestige, insurance, property, sport and art.
The activities of the manufacturer must either
be directed solely by the existing needs of the con-
sumer or else he must, by some art of compulsion
or education, modify the prevailing wants or stimu-
late novel demands. Under a competitive system
232
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 233

of supplying the market it is still further necessary

or expedient to take into account the established
habits of seeking satisfaction for these needs, to
adapt the commodity, the container, the price or
the sales method to these habits, or to redirect and
educate these consumer habits into specific forms
and directions. All this involves the considera-
tion of the consumer from a psychological point of
view.
In serious discussions of manufacturing and mar-
keting problems the psychology of the consumer is
'
always in the foreground, and such phrases as con- '

sumer defenses," "buying habits," "effective ap-

peal," "the sales attack,"etc., form part of the mod-

ern business man's working vocabulary. In recent

books on the modern methods of marketing we find
explicit recognition given to "the consumer's de-
fenses," partial enumeration and illustration of
them, and suggestions as to various devices, proce-
dures and tactics for "breaking down" or evading
these defenses. Conspicuous among these resist-
ances are the limitation of spending power by earn-
ing capacity, the strength of the savings instinct,
the standard of living, social expectation of expen-
diture, the habit ofpaying conventional or particular
prices for certain commodities, habits of buying par-
ticular things at particular places, in particular
amounts or forms, etc. Thus the manufacture and
sale of automobiles and talking machines encoun-
ter the limitation of spending power and the sav-
234 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ings instinct. The marketing of fashionable ap-
parel, travel, and education encounters standards
of living that must be catered to or raised. The
sale of collars, hats, patent medicines, toilet articles
and household wares that do not fall into a con-
ventional price category must reckon with a definite
psychological resistance. An attempt to market
bread through the stationer or soap through the
laundry would find established buying habits strong-
ly entrenched. The introduction of safety razors,
while it promised abundant satisfaction of existing
needs, is still resisted by the shaving habits of many
prosperous consumers. Paper dishes, however sani-
tary, economical and expeditious, do not find ready
adoption. Mail order methods meet with definite
and familiar psychological resistance on the part of
many members of a local community.
In the same way the more general and extra-com-
mercial tendencies of human nature go far toward
determining the form and pattern of various market-
ing institutions. A neat example of such a tendency
is that ancient and universal human demand for a
concrete symbol of any general object or abstract
service, institution or principle. Political parties

cannot exist abstractly, —each must have its name,

its slogan, its totemistic symbol of beast, bird or

fish. Colleges must be known by their seals or

colors, states by their flags or hymns, societies by
their badges, professions by their sartorial or ton-
sorial styles, and the principle of Justice, the con-
 :

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 235

dition of Peace, the concept of Power, must each

have its concrete sign and symbol. In much the
same way the early artisans and shopkeepers soon
learned the advantages of trade symbols, barbers' —
poles, butchers' horns, golden balls, colored bottles,
wooden Indians, etc.
For similar reasons the modern manufacturer,
jobber and dealer find that complicated psycholog-
ical and social demands require that crackers, eggs,

tea, clothespins, chewing gum, automobiles, pianos,

furniture, insurance companies and international en-
terprises must each and all be christened, marked
with a recognizable symbol, encased in a distinctive
package, or indicated by special devices in the form
of brand, color, marking, emblem or stationery.
Says Graham Wallas
The actual tea leaves in the world are as varied and un-
stable as the actual political opinions of mankind. Every
leaf in every teagarden is different from every other leaf,
and a week of damp weather may change the whole stock
in any warehouse. What therefore should the advertiser
do to create a commercial "entity," a "tea" which men
— —
can think and feel about? Nowadays he would choose
some term, say "Paramatta Tea," which would produce
in most men a vague suggestion of the tropical East, com-
bined with the subconscious memory of a geography lesson
on Australia. He would then proceed to create in connec-
tion with the word an automatic picture-image having pre-
vious emotional associations of its own. By the time that
a hundred thousand pounds had been cleverly spent, no
one in England would be able to see the word "Paramatta"
on a parcel without a vague impulse to buy, founded on a
236 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
day-dream recollection of his grandmother, or of the Brit-
ish fleet, or of a pretty young English matron, or any other
subject that the advertiser had chosen for its association
with the emotions of trust and affection. 1

In recent years the manufacturer has found the

methods of the psychological laboratory of distinct
service in ascertaining beforehand the relative ef-
fectiveness, impressiveness, interest and attention
value of various packages, slogans, emblems, and
trade-marks. In modern scientific business the selec-
tion of any such marketing aid takes place only
after preliminary measurements of these thoroughly
psychological properties and attributes. Thus in a
recent case the name, the packages and the slogan
of a new commodity were by psycholog-
all selected

ical measurement, even to such minute details as

typography, color, shape, and position of details.

Only when all these factors had been determined by
actual experiments on prospective consumers was
the commodity placed on the market.
The multiplication of these symbolic devices in-
evitably leads to frequent resemblance and confu-
sion among them, and then arise questions of in-
fringement which again involve problems which are
psychological in their nature.
An interesting illustration of this field of applied
psychology is to be found in the investigations re-

1
Graham Wallas. "Human Nature in Politics."
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 237

ported by Paynter. 2 Through a carefully planned

technique, this investigator arranged situations
in which observers were required
indicate to
whether or not the members of a series of trade-
names, presented one at a time, were identical with
names which had been seen on a previous occasion.
In some cases the names were really identical while
in other cases similar names, imitations or infringe-
ments, were substituted for the originals.The de-
gree of confusion which the names occasioned was
measured in terms of the number of cases in which
the were mistaken for the originals.
substitutes
Some of the pairs represented cases on which legal
decisions had already been passed, ranking them
either as infringements or as non-infringements.
The direction of the legal decisions may thus be com-
pared with the actual tendency to confusion shown
under the experimental conditions. The following
table gives some of the pairs of trade-names, the
per cent of confusion in each case, and the direction
of the legal decision.
Per Cent Legal
Original Imitation Confusion Decision

Sozodont Kalodont 28 Non-infringement

Nox-all Non-X-Ell 28 Infringement
Club Chancellor Club 35 Infringement
Bestyette Veribest 35 Non-infringement

2 A Psychological Study of Confusion Between Word Trade-

Marks, Richard H. Paynter, in Bulletin of United States Trade-
Mark Association, May, 1915.
 :

238 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

Per Cent Legal
Original Imitation Confusi on Decision

Mother's Grand-Ma's 38 Non-infringement

Au-to-do Autola 40 Infringement
Peptenzyme Pinozyme 43 Non-infringement
Green River Green Ribbon 50 Infringement
Ceresota Cressota 63 Infringement
3
Eef erring to these and similar results Paynter
remarks
If the legal decisions were all accurate, the non-infringe-
ments would show lower degrees of confusion than the in-
fringements. That the decisions are not all accurate may
be seen from the overlapping of the scores of the infringe-
ments and non-infringements. According to the per cent
of confusion only two infringements are more confusing
than the most confusing of the non-infringements. The —
fact that the difference of the averages of the infringe-
ments and non-infringements is so small compared to the
great differences within the groups of infringements and
non-infringements shows the results of judicial decisions
in this field to be quite unreliable. —
It would manifestly
be a great saving in time, money and energy to determine
the degree of likelihood of confusion between word trade-
marks by psychological experiment. The writer is devising
a scale of similarity on which will appear actual word
trade-marks and imitations thereof ranging from those
showing very little confusion to those which show absolute
confusion. Each trade-mark will have two ratings, one
indicating the percentage of confusion and the other the
grade of the marks with respect to relative confusion. If
3
Those interested in further developments of this type of work
should consult Paynter's monograph, published in the Archives
of Psychology, entitled, "A Psychological Study of Trade-Mark
Infringements."
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 239

a standard degree of confusion constituting infringement

could be agreed upon, the average position which a number
of competent individuals independently assigned to the
mark and the imitation involved in a specific case would
determine whether the imitation was an infringement or a
non-infringement, according to whether it fell above or be-
low the degree of confusion agreed upon as the standard.

In all the foregoing discussion the employment of

psychological attitude, knowledge and technique has
throughout been attributed to the manufacturer or
upon the consumer. The
the distributer in his attack
consumer himself has shown little demand for the
development of a science of resistance to the ad-
vances of the salesman and advertiser, although it
has often been suggested that he would profit by such,
instruction. Perhaps it would be sufficient if the
consumer would take a psychological attitude toward
what is happening to him, taking stock on the one
hand of his various defenses, comprehending the
nature of the weapons of the market place, and
especially familiarizing himself with that extraor-
dinary influence which the advertising writer knows
as "the power of print." "It is written" was once
the final seal of truth and the guide to conscience
and conduct. To have "seen it in a book" or "read
it in the paper," or to have absorbed it from a
thousand bill boards, posters, car cards and circulars
is still to the average consumer the final test of
expedience and determiner of desire and value.
The Psychology of Advertising.— Next to educa-
240 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
tion, the field of advertising has received more wide-
spread and detailed attention from the applied psy-
chologist than has any other practical enterprise.
As early as 1750, Addison and Johnson wrote essays
in The Tatter, The Idler and The Spectator, point-

ing out the psychological interest of the advertise-

ments then appearing in the public prints. It was
pointed out that the advertisement not only relied
on certain mental principles but also afforded
glimpses of human nature which the social philoso-
pher could not afford to ignore. A recent book on
"The Advertisements of the Spectator" discusses
in detail the social and historical value of such docu-
ments as advertisements, as well as their general
human interest.
Certain it is that he who traces the history of
advertising from its most primitive forms in the
courtship of animals, the display of vendable prow-
ess and skill in joust and tournament, the develop-
ment and dress, to the subtle
of ceremony, heraldry,
forms of personal publicity adopted by the modern
statesman, clergyman, or debutante, it seems to con-
stituteno mean proportion of the activities of indi-
vidual, family and social life. Or on its more com-
mercial side, as one traces the methods and technique
of marketing from the display of wares on a blanket
by the highway, the formation of fairs and bazaars,
the development and organization of public and
private criers, the introduction of trade and profes-
sional symbols, through the invention of printing,
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 241

the circulation of placards and posters, the construc-

tion of "news books" and " intelligencers," the rise
of the periodic magazine and newspaper, to the
elaborate systems, devices and implements of mod-
ern advertising, one comes to feel that the history
of advertising would in itself be a valuable com-
pendium of the economic, social, educational and
scientific progress of mankind. Each of these steps
arose on the basis of a definite psychological and
social background, and each in turn exerted a defi-
nite psychological and social influence.
But the explicit introduction of psychological
technique into the now complex science of advertis-
ing belongs to very recent years. In 1900 Harlow
Gale published a series of brief articles, reporting
the results of laboratory experiments on the legi-
bility, attention value and interest of printed adver-
tisements. He even went so far as to break up the
complete advertisement and use its elements in the
laboratory in the place of the lights, sounds, rec-
tangles, weights and other paraphernalia with which
the psychologist had heretofore experimented. Thus
he suggested the possibility of measuring the impor-
tance and value for practical purposes of such fac-
tors as illustration (relevant and irrelevant), text,
size of type, content of the argument, etc.

In 1903 Scott published under the title "The

Theory of Advertising" a very suggestive exposi-
tion of the application in the art of advertising, of
the laws of memory, association, feeling, choice, etc.
U2 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
He began the use of questionnaire methods in
also
the investigation of advertising problems conducted
;

various experimental inquiries into such factors as

the size of advertisements, the reading habits of the
public, etc.; and in 1908 issued a second book on
'
' The Psychology of Advertising, now familiar to
'
'

every student of the subject.

In 1909 Hollingworth began a series of investiga-
tions in cooperation with the Advertising Men's
League of New York, and after several years of
such round-table labor in the analysis, experimental
measurement and psychological interpretation of
the media, varieties, tasks, technique and principles
of advertising, the results were embodied in his book
on "Advertising and Selling."
Since this time similar and supplementary studies
and volumes have been presented by Strong, Starch,
Breitwieser, Brown, Adams and others. Courses of
instruction, research fellowships, lectures and labo-
ratory work on the psychology of advertising have
been introduced into a score of schools, colleges and
universities, and dissertations for the highest aca-
demic degrees have been presented in this field. Along
with the artist, writer, printer, industrial investi-

gator, statisticianand technical advertising expert,

the psychologist may be found working in the mod-
ern advertising agency or in the publicity and promo-
tion department of large manufacturing concerns.
To present in any detail the numerous ways in
which the attitude, content or technique of psychol-
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 243

ogy may be applied in the field of advertising would

take us far beyond the limits of this chapter. It

must suffice to indicate by an outline arrangement

the leading features of these applications as they
are now to be found. The inquiring reader may be
referred to the many available manuals for more
detailed account of these interesting points of con-
tact between psychology and the market.

Outline Suggesting the Varied Applications op Psy-

chology in Advertising

I.—APPLYING PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTITUDE

1. —In analysis of tasks and psychological basis of sales

appeal.
2. —Analysis of types and varieties of appeal.
sales
3. —Analysis of special devices used in each task and
type.
4. —Analysis of returns and results of campaigns.
II.—APPLYING PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTENT
1. —
To appropriate selection of media and types of ap-
peal.
2. —Adjustment of appeal to audience, purpose, com-
modity.
3. —Laws of attention, perception, interest, memory,
association, feeling, emotion, suggestion, choice,
action, in framing the appeal.
4. —Principles of feeling and laws of esthetics, in the
arrangement, design, display, ornament and
lay-out.
5. —Laws of reading and perception, for the printer,
typographer and illustrator.
244 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
III.—APPLYING PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUE
1. — Recognition method, tachistoscope, etc., in the
measurement of attention value, legibility, etc.
2. —Methods of impression, in determining the effec-
tiveness of colors, design, arrangement of ad-
vertisement, the atmosphere of packages, names,
etc.
3. —Method of relative position, in measurement of the
persuasiveness of appeals, reader reactions to
copy, consumer preferences for slogans, names,
packages, illustrations, commodities, etc.
4. — Statistical technique of mental and social measure-
ment in field investigation, analysis of circula-
tions, comparison of media, and in the deriva-
tion of scales and tables of measurement.
5. — Genetic method in studying the evolution of de-
vices, historical changes and tendencies.

The Psychology of Salesmanship.— The materials

of advertising lend themselves with special readiness
to the analysis and experimental methods of the
laboratory. Printed appeals may be collected, pre-
sented, handled, dissected, preserved and studied
over long periods of time and nnder constant or
known conditions. But the oral appeal of the per-
sonal salesman offers problems of far greater com-
plexity. From its very nature the sales talk repre-
sents a continuous process of which the printed ad-
vertisement is but a cross section. Once the adver-
tisement is presented its influence is determined once
for all, and it is either relatively successful or rela-
tively futile. But the oral salesman, working at
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 215

close range and face to face with his customer, may

choose his appeal, vary it, repeat it or supplement
it according- to the ' " yn rasy of the
r i

customer and according to the time a:: 1 circum-

stance of the interview.
The oral sales talk is to the printed advertisement
what the motion picture film is to the simple lantern
slide, the drama to the tableau, or the kaleidoscope
to the frozen frost pattern. The sales talk is a
whole advertising campaign condensed into a few
moments and adjusted and adapted to the present
responses of the audience. It is not restricted to

its verbal dress, but is reenforced, emphasized, or

otherwise modified by the personality of the sales-
man, his appearance, voice, dress, bearing, expres-
sion, intonation and gesture. Once it is finished It

may never occur again in precisely the same form

or under precisely the same conditions.
The advertisement on the other hand in addition
must in the nature
to the frailties already indicated,
of its work be addressed not to a single individual
nor in general even to individuals of the same type
and interest under circumstances which are even
momentarily common. It must address itself with-
average individual or stand-
in certain limits to the
ard person of a group, an individual who, as thus
defined, has no concrete existence.
For these and other reasons, while much refer-
ence has been made to the psychology of salesman-
ship, there cannot be said to exist any body of facts,
246 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
principles or methods in any way comparable to the
established laws, results, and technique of the psy-
chology of advertising. There is, to be sure, reason
to believe that the principles of successful salesman-
ship are no different from those underlying the suc-
cessful advertisement, sales letter, or window dis-
play. But their operation in any given instance is

obviously much more obscure and complex.

Consequently the psychology of salesmanship,
when it does not degenerate into a collection of
bromidic maxims or a brisk and stimulating bit of
''ginger talk," consists for the most part of the
general facts of human nature, and is relatively
restricted therefore to what we have called the
''content" of psychology as distinguished from its

attitude and technique.

The salesman, to be sure, no longer looks upon
the act of selling as a single event. He is accus-
tomed in his own preparation, in sales instruction,
and to greater or less degree in actual performance,
to analyze the process into various elements, steps
or stages, such as preparation, approach, presenta-
tion, argument, closing the deal, etc. And in so far
as psychological measurement is able to specify the
relative strength or persuasiveness of various sales
points or bases of appeal, he may with profit utilize
the results of such methods. For the most part,
however, as matters now stand, the salesman can
best profit from psychology by familiarizing himself
in an expert way with the original and acquired
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET 247

tendencies of human mechanisms of con-

beings, the
duct, thought and feeling, the range of individual
differences in interest, values, motive and tempera-
ment, the general lore and doctrine of expression,
emotion, belief and reflection, and especially with
the laws of cogent reasoning, the fallacies of argu-
ment, and the instinctive promptings underlying
such factors as suggestion, resistance, conflict and
decision.
An interesting venture in the applied psychology
of our own day looks forward to the possibility of
diagnosing, by the various means of mental meas-
urement, the personal characteristics which combine
to characterize the successful salesman. It further
contemplates the possibility of determining to what
degree such particular qualities or aptitudes, if such
there be, are original and temperamental traits, and
to what degree they may be acquired by adequate
effort and practice or communicated by competent
instruction. In this type of research into the voca-
tional psychology of salesmanship may perhaps be
found in time the field of application of psychological
analysis and experimental method, as distinguished
from the more cultural application of psychological
knowledge.
 CHAPTER XIV
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW

The work of the law arises out of the attempt to

control conduct and this task at once involves the
whole range of such topics as incentive, impulse,
choice, action, value, thought and feeling, the whole
arc of appeal and response, the intensive study of
which constitutes the problem of psychology. More-
over, in its evidential, administrative and judicial
aspects, the law implies the acquisition, evaluation
and interpretation of the testimony of witnesses and
the assignment of more or less specific responsibility
for acts or for failures to act. All of these matters
again are, from a point of view other than that of
control, subject matter of psychological study. It

is apparent then that the general importance of

psychology in legal, criminal and penological affairs
cannot be presented in a comprehensive way in a
single chapter. It will be possible only to point out
and illustrate four chief directions in which psychol-
ogy has at least endeavored to be of definite service
to the formulators and administrators of the law.
248
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 249

These four directions may be conveniently desig-

—
nated, The Accumulation of Evidence, The Evalu-
ation of Testimony, The Determination of Responsi-
bility and The Adaptation of Corrective Measures.
The Accumulation of Evidence.— Two illustrations
will indicate the nature of the efforts made in this
direction. The first is the "free association
method," that form of psycho-analysis which is
employed in the so-called "Tatbestandsdiagnostik"
experiments. This experiment has come to be a
favorite form of demonstration in many labora-
tories, and in one of its forms is usually conducted
in the following way. Three members of the class
are sent out of the room in charge of an assistant,
who selects one of the three to play the role of
"criminal" in the test which is to follow. This
person is put through some experience in which the
two remaining students do not participate, is —
shown a picture, read a story, instructed to perform
some more or less exciting act, etc. The three stu-
dents are then brought into the class room one at
a time and required to give free association re-
sponses, as quickly as possible, to a selected list of
stimulus words. This list contains some words
which are called '
' critical.
'
' They are words closely
related to the experience through which one of the
three students has just passed. The association re-
sponses are recorded and in each case the time is

measured which has elapsed between the response

and the presentation of the stimulus word. The
 :

250 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

series is then gone through again, in reverse order,
and the original reactions called for. In this man-
ner all three of the students are examined and the
instructor or the class judges, on the basis of the
test results, which of the three "suspects" is
—
"guilty," which one possesses the special knowl-
edge or experiences the special emotions produced
by this knowledge.
The indications that the "guilty" individual will
be likely to give in such an examination are
1. —Significant reactions to critical words.
2. —Eetarded reactions to critical words or to in-
different words following closely upon them.
3. — Changed reactions to critical words when the
reverse series is given.
4. —Undue number of stereotyped or reverberat-
ing reactions.
When skillfully conducted the experiment in this
form seldom fails. The procedure has been sug-
gested as a means of indirectly securing evidence
which the direct interrogatory, cross examination,
or "third degree" might fail to reveal, and the ap-
plication of the method in police and court procedure
has been enthusiastically advocated by some psy-
chologists. The writer has seen the method used
in the case of a suspected thief, whose guilt was
not only satisfactorily demonstrated but whose
actions subsequent to the theft were also partially
disclosed. Confronted with the evidence of the ex-
perimental results, the man confessed, and told a
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 251

story of the crime which confirmed the indications

of the experiment. Jung, Miinsterberg, Peterson,
Scripture, Crane and others have used the method
with varying degrees of success. Its practical merits
and ultimate possibilities are still open to discussion.
It should, however, be noted that in the form here
described the problem is only that of determining
which of a number of individuals is guilty, whereas
the practical problem, that of determining the guilt
or innocence of a given individual is a much more
difficult matter.
A second method of securing evidence may be
briefly illustrated in connection with such an experi-
ment as that just described. Psycho-analysis pro-
ceeds on the assumption that emotionally toned
experiences in one way or another determine the
flow of ideas. This second method, the method of
expression, as it is called in psychology, proceeds on
the assumption that emotions are attended by char-
acteristic motor reactions, among which are included
gross external muscular innervations, changes in
respiration and heart beat, vascular adaptations and
variations in the secretion of various glands, such
as the salivary or the sweat glands. By the use
of appropriate recording apparatus, sphygmo-
graphs, pneumographs, plethysmographs, galvano-
meters, etc., the organic changes which occur during
such an examination as that of the preceding experi-
ment may be registered, and these may offer signifi-
cant suggestions. Thus Benussi reports that the
252 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
truth or falsity of an oral statement can be detected
by noting the ratio of length of inhalation to length
of exhalation before and after the statement. In
the case of what has come to be known as the psycho-
galvanic reflex, changes in the secretion of the sweat
glands incident to the arousal of an emotion may be
indirectly observed through the use of the galvan-
ometer. But up method of
to the present time the
expression has been able only to indicate that some
emotion or excitement is present. The character of
the emotion, its basis and deep-seated significance,
cannot be inferred from the records. As for both
these methods of securing indirect evidence, whether
or not they may constitute a genuine contribution to
legal and criminal procedure remains for their fu-
ture elaboration and application to determine.
The Evaluation of Testimony.— Innumerable prob-
lems arise under this heading, chiefly because the
testimony of witnesses in the courts is usually based
on ''incidental memory," the bystander at an event
having observed it not with the intention of accu-
rately reporting the details, but more often with
attention fixed mainly on the dramatic aspects of
the episode. Even when one sets out with the delib-
erate intention of observing, remembering and re-
porting what takes place before him, innumerable
sources of error disqualify much of the testimony.
When the observation is incidental these sources of
error are multiplied beyond any possibility of sys-
tematic description. Let the reader at this moment
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 253

write down, without present observation, the number

of buttons on his coat, the character of the weather
one week ago today, the number of windows in a
particular class room, the contents and arrangement
of a certain room visited yesterday, the number and
color of the books on some familiar shelf, the way
in which the sixth hour is indicated on the dial of
his watch, the color of the eyes or of the cravat of
the last person with whom
he talked, or the size,
shape and number of the columns before some
public building. He will at once realize that the
testimony of bystanders with respect to any detail
except the major topic of attention is indeed un-
reliable.
The ancients were sufficiently interested in this

matter to enumerate various illusions of perception

to which observers are liable. Especially during the
past 100 years there have appeared from the hands
of jurists, lawyers, and psychologists a great variety
of treatises, discussions and reports bearing on what
Bentham in 1800 called "the psychological causes of
correctness and completeness in testimony. In fact
'
'

the nature of perception, its tendencies, determi-

nants, characteristics, accuracy and individuality
bulks large in every textbook of psychology and in
every consideration of "judicial evidence." The
newspaper account of almost any trial in which sin-
cere witnesses independently report their version
of an event will disclose in a most instructive way
the importance to judge, lawyer and jury of a knowl-
254 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
edge of the psychology of attention, perception,
memory, imagination, suggestion and belief.
In recent years numerous investigations, initially
suggested by the work of Cattell, Binet, Stern and
others, have endeavored to go beyond the general
exposition of the psychological tendencies involved,
and to secure precise measurement of them. Setting
out from the well known fact that observation,
memory and report are all liable to error, —error
on the part of the observer, error in the processes
of recollection and memory, difficulties in the process
of communication, and errors of interpretation on
the part of the listener, they have attempted to de-
termine by exact experimental methods the nature,
degree and causes of these errors and their depend-
ence on such factors as individual difference, age,
sex, practice, intelligence, time interval, mode of re-
port, degree of suggestion, suggestive question, etc.
Thus it has long been recognized that the way in
which a question is asked has an important influence
on the actual correctness of the answers made to it.
By various details of its construction the question
may convey implications, suggest replies, or elimi-
nate alternatives. In legal procedure the "leading
question" has long been regarded as a possible
source of fallacious testimony, but not until recently
has there been an attempt to clearly discriminate
the various types and degrees of leading question
from each other. Recently, in France, Germany
and England, experiments have been made in order
 ?

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 255

to measure the reliability of answers as conditioned

by the form of question.
Muscio's investigation may be referred to by way
of illustration. Using moving pictures as material
for observation, he asked questions, all of them of a
leading character, and tried to measure the influence
of different question forms. He used eight different
question forms, as given in the following table.
Careful examination of the questions as here given
will disclose their varying degrees of suggestive-
ness. The figures indicating the type of answer
indicate the per cent of correct, wrong, and uncertain
replies, when the results of several experiments, in
which all the questions in the table related to actual
occurrences, were combined.

Uncer-
Times
Form of Question Right Wrong tain
Asked

a—Did you see a 171 12 2 81

b—Did you the —
see 95 31 7 62
c—Didn you a —
't see 102 23 3 74
d—Didn you 't the —
see ? 81 16 1 83
e—Was there a '

173 32 25 43
f—Wasn there a
't 167 38 28 34
g—Was the (K) m or n— 137 36 28 36
n—Was the (K) m — 136 23 44 33

The were found to vary with a number of

results
circumstances which cannot be considered here. In
general, however, the following conclusions were
256 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
suggested. By using the definite article (the) in-
stead of the indefinite (a) the suggestiveness, cau-
tion and reliability were all decreased. Introducing
the negative (not) into the question decreased cau-
tion and reliability and increased suggestiveness.
By asking whether certain things were present or
occurred, rather than whether they were seen or
heard, suggestiveness, caution and reliability were
all decreased. By asking concerning the presence
or occurrence and also including the negative, sug-
gestiveness and caution were decreased. Including
both the definite article and the negative gave more
complicated results. The so-called "implicative"
question, "Was the (K) m?" was found to be "lower
than all the other question forms investigated, for
suggestiveness, caution, and reliability." The "in-
complete disjunctive" form, "Was the (K)morn?"
was found to possess "a relatively high suggestive-
ness, a relatively low caution, and a relatively low re-
liability. In general and with certain qualifications
'
'

the investigator concluded that the most reliable

form of question was that which related to the actual
seeing or hearing of an item, using neither the
negative nor the definite article. 1
As representative of another type of investigation
2
in this field the experiments of Breukink will serve.

1 Bernard Museio, "The Influence of the Form of a Question,"

British Journal of Psychology, Sept., 1916.
2
"Ueber die Erziebarkeit der Aussage," Zeitschrift fur Ange-
wandte Psychologie, Band III, Heft. 1 and 2, June, 1909, 32-88.
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 257

He was especially interested in the influence of prac-

tice on the fidelity of testimony. He used three dif-
ferent pictures on occasions a week apart, with the
same group of observers. The reports were always
written, the first narrative being supplemented by a
series of questions. He found that if the individ-
ual's report was divided into sections, the earlier
parts were more reliable than the later parts, show-
ing that the items first coming to mind were more
likely to be correctly reported. Reliability also in-
creased with practice, the third picture being more
reliably reported than the second, and the second
than the first. This increase was especially pro-
nounced in the interrogatory and in the ability to

resist suggestive questions. Practice also increased

the reliability of oath. He found that his educated
subjects mentioned two or three times as many
items as the uneducated, and the practice effects
were more conspicuous with the educated group than
with the uneducated. The uneducated would take
oath to three times as many answers to suggestive
questions as would the educated. No consistent sex
differences were found in fidelity of report, except
that the women were found to be more reliable than
the men in their testimony concerning colors.
Special journals have been founded in which such
reports may be recorded, and the accumulated litera-
ture in this field is so considerable that no brief sum-
mary can do justice to its range and practical sug-
258 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
gestiveness. 3 The chief problems for the immediate
future lie in the correlation of these experimental
results with the necessities of practical life and in
the suitable adaptation of the methods and of the
various coefficients of measurement to the require-
ments and purposes of court procedure.
Determination of Responsibility.— This third topic
may be very briefly presented. That type of psy-
chology which is interested in criminal natures, per-
versions, exaggerated instincts, insanities, the rela-
tion between original nature and environment in the
production of criminal tendencies, the curve of dis-
tribution of mental and moral traits, the problems
of the inheritance of nervous dispositions, eugenics,
the detection and treatment of feeble-mindedness,
the behavior of mobs, the sources and demands of
social control, and a variety of kindred topics, is
coming to have more and more importance in mod-
ern life, and must work hand in hand with legal and
criminal institutions and investigators. It is at
present impossible to say in which direction the
contribution will be greater.
No better example can be cited of the usefulness
of psychology in the determination of responsibility
than the work of the clinical psychologists with cases
brought to the Juvenile Courts. In one instance
100 cases, sufficiently serious to warrant detention,
3
Interested readers will find a summary of the experimental
methods and results in the chapter on "Fidelity of Report," in
Whipple's "Manual of Mental and Physical Tests/' Vol. II.
 : :

PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 259

were examined by means of standard scales for the

measurement of intellectual age. The misdemeanors
—
had been various, such as stealing, immorality, in-
corrigibility, etc. The ninety-seventh child tested
was found to be normal, all the rest of the hun-
dred being shown to be mentally defective. Only
thirty-four were less than four years backward, and
this is suggested as the extreme limit for possible
responsibility and normality. Sixty-six cases were
feeble-minded, from four to eight years backward.
The average chronological age of the group of one
hundred was 13.8 years; the average mental age,
according to the tests, was 9.2 years.
In another case fifty-six inmates of a girls' re-

formatory were similarly tested. The ages ranged

from 14 to 20, averaging 18.5. According to the
tests for intellectual age, they measured as follows

Number Intellectual Age Chronological Age

1 8 An average of
12 9 18.5 years.
14 10
14 11
11 12
4 13

Goddard, the investigator reporting these results,

remarks in discussing their significance

As the tests for 13 years have been demonstrated to be

much more difficult than that age would indicate, we ma.v
260 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
say that four out of the fifty-six are not feeble-minded, as
we usually define feeble-mindedness. The rest are clearly
mental defectives.

The importance of this type of investigation for

the practical determination of responsibility under
the law is at once obvious. The results, the develop-
ment and perfection and the increased
of the tests,
possibility of their application by trained psycholo-
gists should be of great interest to the legislator and
magistrate as well as to society at large. Eespon-
sibility is a mental function, not a physical one, and
its determination a psychological, not a medical task.
So important is the psychological status and condi-
tion, the mental health or disease of the individual
accused or convicted of a criminal act, that no just
verdict of his degree of responsibility, no intelligent
recommendation for his immediate care, and no
socially motivated prescription for his ultimate
treatment or disposal can be made except on the
basis of a thoroughand scientifically conceived men-
tal So widely has this recognition now
examination.
become established that no criminal or police court,
no department of justice, charities or correction, no
modern reformatory, prison or similar institution
for the handling of human derelicts or malefactors
is now considered adequately equipped or manned
unless a psychological laboratory is part of its or-

ganization and a clinical psychologist a member of

its staff, or unless a psychological clinic on some
other foundation is readily accessible.
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 261

Here as in so many other places, it may be pointed

ont that the chief actual contribution on the part
of psychology is methodological in character. It

consists principally in the development, standard-

ization and application of methods of measuring
mental traits and capacities.
The Adaptation of Corrective Measures.— The
foregoing problem of the determination of respon-
sibility is closely related to the final one in this field,

—that of the adaptation of corrective measures. In

so far as the criminal is found to be intellectually
deficient, the corrective or remedial or protective
social measures must be adapted to the degree of his
defect. Capital punishment, torture, prolonged soli-
tary confinement, hard labor, moral suasion and edu-
cational efforts will none of them avail to change the
mental status and the irresponsibility of the defec-
tive. Nor can they render more moral the quality
of his acts, except in so far as they serve to remove
him from social situations, or by segregation or
sterilization, to prevent the propagation of his kind.
The sooner this is recognized the more quickly will

the medieval attitude disappear from our penal

administration.
In so far as the malefactor is mentally sick, nerv-
ously degenerate or psychologically maladjusted to
the conditions of social life, the individualization of
corrective measures must keep pace with the indi-
vidualization of pedagogy and of industry and man-
agement. In so far as the criminal act issues not
262 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
from intellectual defect, instability or abnormality
and the criminal represents one whose instinctive
propensities, moral restraints and impulses and
social reactions are more or less independently
vicious or refractory, his treatment also involves
problems of a psychological character, except in so
far as it represents merely the reaction of revenge
or follows the simple ameliorative policy of elimi-
nation.
What are the possibilities of modifying human
nature by education, example, or other superinduced
processes? What is the relative efficacy of reward
and punishment, the relative strength of the various
instinctive tendencies and of the various proposed
deterrents of crime? Which is the strongest de-
terrent to criminal conduct on the part of the intel-
lectually normal, —the threat of punishment of great
severity or magnitude, under conditions of com-
plaint and prosecution which yield a very small
percentage of detections and convictions or, on the
;

other hand, the prospect of punishment, relatively

small in magnitude or severity, but under conditions
of complaint and prosecution which make detection
and conviction extremely probable? Which is the
more effective deterrent, a seldom inflicted penalty
of life imprisonment or the inevitability of a day in
jail? All these questions may be legitimately pro-
pounded to psychology, and whatever answer psy-
chology may be able to offer, either now or in the
future, will constitute genuine contribution.
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 263

The following experiment will suggest some of

the ways in which a psychological study of questions
of this type may be approached. The experiment
itself is but a tentative one, and the results, even
for the circumstances indicated, are of a very pre-
liminary character. They suggest, however, the
possibility of submitting to experimental inquiry a
variety of related problems which are usually
approached only through vague interpretation of
ambiguous historical results or through biased opin-
ions based on incidental and uncontrolled individual
experience.

Instructions

Imagine yourself to be on the point of committing

some act which is socially and legally regarded as
a crime, but which you are determined to perform
because of the intense personal satisfaction it will
bring you. The only deterrents are the chance of
detection and conviction, the magnitude of punish-
ment, and the social stigma incurred.
Assume that the penalty in all the different states
is a period of imprisonment, which is, however, con-
siderably different in amount in the different states,
and that some states are more or less lax in their
prosecution of the given offense, while others are
exceedingly stringent in their methods of detection
and conviction.
Suppose that the nature of the crime permits its
264 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
commission in any one of these several states, with
equal ease and facility so far as you are concerned.
AVhich of these states would you choose first as the
place in which you would commit the crime ! If you
could not select this state, for unavoidable reason,
which would be your next choice? Place the ten
states in an order of merit on this basis, —
placing
first the one you would select first, second the one

you would next choose, and so on, until the state

in which you would be least likely to commit the
crime is at the bottom of the list.

Kansas. —Imprisonment for life. Almost absolute

certainty of escape. Only 10 cases out of every 1,000
are detected and convicted.
Idaho. —16 years imprisonment. Chances enor-
mously in favor of escape. Only 30 cases out of every
1,000 are detected and convicted.
—
Montana. 8 years imprisonment. Chances of
escape very high. Only 60 cases out of every 1,000
are detected and convicted.
Wyoming. — 4 years imprisonment. Abundant
chances of escape. Only 120 out of 1,000 cases are
detected and convicted.
Arizona. —2 years imprisonment. Considerable
chance of escape. Only 250 out of every 1,000 cases
are detected and convicted.
Utah. —1 year imprisonment. Chances of escape
and punishment are even. 500 out of every 1,000
cases are detected and convicted.
—
Colorado. 6 months imprisonment. Fair possi-
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 265

bilities of escape. 660 out of every 1,000 cases are

detected and convicted.
Oregon. —3 months imprisonment. Slight possi-
bility of escape. 750 out of every 1,000 cases are
detected and convicted.
Nevada. —1 month imprisonment. Bare possi-
bility of escape. 900 out of every 1,000 cases are
detected and convicted.
Arkansas. —10 days imprisonment. Absolute cer-
tainty of punishment. Not a single case escapes
detection and conviction.
It will have been observed that in a general way
the certainty of conviction increases as the magni-
tude of the penalty decreases. The reader should
perform the experiment, making his own arrange-
ment of the various alternatives and recording them,
before reading further. The results which are about
to be given should not be allowed to influence his
personal reactions.
The following shows the way in
table of results
which fifty college students (twenty-five men and
twenty-five women) arranged the various situations.
In the column on the left are given the various com-
binations of magnitude of penalty and certainty of
conviction. Along the horizontal headline are in-

dicated the various possible positions, ranging from

1 to 10. For a situation to be placed under 10 would
mean that the particular combination represented
was felt to constitute the strongest deterrent in the
series, the strength of deterrence decreasing from
266 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
10 to 1. The figures in the various columns indicate
the per cent of all the observers who placed the
given situation at the point indicated. Thus in the
case of the one year penalty, 10 per cent placed it

in first place, 8 per cent in second place, 10 per cent

in third, 14 per cent in fourth, 24 per cent in fifth,
28 per cent in sixth, 2 per cent each in seventh,
eighth and ninth, and none in tenth.

Table of Results

Penalty Distribution of Judgments

~1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

10 Days
1000 certain. 16 2 6 6 18 14 4 4 12 18
1 month
900 certain.. 8 26 4 8 4 8 6 10 24 2
3 months
750 certain.. 2 6 30 10 6 10 6 26 2 2
6 months
660 certain.. 8 14 10 22 16 28 2
1 year
500 certain.. 10 8 10 14 24 28 2 2 2
2 years
250 certain.. 8 4 12 8 32 28 2 6
4 years
120 certain.. 6 12 4 24 8 6 32 4 4
8 years
60 certain...
16 years
86 18 26884220
30 certain... 1 18 2 2 2 8 10 4 46 2
Life
10 certain... 16 42424226 58
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 267

In general these fifty people are seen to be made

up of two different groups. The small penalties,
with high certainties, tend to be placed more often
either very high or very low.The larger the penalty
and smaller the certainty the more the situation
tends to be shifted toward the middle of the range,
until the medium penalties (1 and 2 years) are
reached. When this medium point is passed the
lines divide again, and the larger numbers occur
closer and closer to the extreme positions.
Now if the various situations were equally deter-
rent, we might have expected the same distribution
of positions in all cases. If for all members of the
group the larger penalties and the larger certainties
were more deterrent we might have expected a sin-
gle line, shifting from one extreme toward the cen-
ter, then back again. If only penalty or only cer-
tainty were the crucial determinant, we might have
expected one line of plurality choices, marching
either one or the other way across the table.
But none of these results occurs. Instead, there
is one group of people for whom the penalty is the
determining factor and another for whom the cer-
tainty is the chief deterrent. For both groups the
average penalties and average certainties have only
average deterrent strength. One group is inclined
to take the large chances of escape, risking the large
penalty. The other group shows no inclination to
gamble, preferring to accept the high probability of
a small penalty. WTiat individuals comprise these
268 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
two groups the table does not show. The reader
who may suggest that the men make up one group
and the women the other is, however, in the wrong.
The men and women react in the same way, and
both show the division into two rather distinct
groups, with small numbers of individuals occupy-
ing the gaps between.
If each time a situation is placed in 10th, 9th, 8th,
7th, etc., position it be credited with 10, 9, 8, 7, etc.,

points respectively, and the computed

total points

for each situation, the following values result. The

larger the score the greater will be the judged de-
terrent effect on the total group of observers.

Order of
Situation Score Strength

10 days, 1000 certain 292 3

1 month, 900 certain 265 5
3 months, 750 certain 261 6
6 months, 660 certain 223 10
1 year, 500 certain 224 9
2 years, 250 certain 244 8
4 years, 120 certain 253 7
8 years, 60 certain 285 4
16 years, 30 certain 331 2
Life, 10 certain 372 1

These results show that the extremes, either of

penalty or of certainty, are judged to have the
stronger deterrent effect on the group as a whole,
the average degrees of each being relatively weak.
 PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW 269

Penalties of 8 years or more, even with high proba-

bilities of escape, are definitely judged more deter-
rent than penalties of 3 months or less, with almost
absolute certainty of conviction.
No one realizes more than the one who planned
and conducted this little investigation the numerous
difficulties, complications, objections and sources of
error which beset such inquiries in legal and crimi-
nal psychology. These need not be rehearsed here,
although the inquiring student may well consider
them, inasmuch as each but raises to consciousness
a further problem, which might itself be investi-
gated by some such procedure as that here followed.
In this field as in many others the mere raising of
problems to consciousness and their preliminary
attack by methods however inadequate may consti-
tute significant contribution.
 CHAPTER XV
PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER

The Causes ofMisery.— In the case of social work

there is afforded the best possible example of a field
in which the contribution of psychology is essentially
in the form of content or knowledge, rather than by
way of attitude or technique. The probation officer,

social visitor, charities investigator, eugenic field

worker, child-placing agent or settlement organizer
who attempts to pursue such work without an ade-
quate knowledge of the characteristics, types and
variations of human nature, a clear understanding
of the original tendencies of mankind, some degree
of acquaintance with the psycho-biological facts of
heredity,and especially a familiarity with the vari-
ous signs and consequences of mental deviation and
abnormality, must work blindly.
However important, among the causes of misery,
the economic institutions, industrial forms of or-
ganization, and environmental inequalities may be,
most conspicuous of all are those traits of human
nature which classify their possessor as incompe-
tent, irresponsible, stupid, neurotic, feeble-minded or
insane. Studies of vagrants and of hoboes in large
270
PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 271

cities have revealed the fact that by actual mental

examination a very large proportion are of a grade
of mental capacity less than that of a ten-year-old
child, although they are physically and chronologi-
cally adult. In the light of such facts, while one
may still be concerned for the regeneration of the
hobo, his "wanderlust" assumes a very different
aspect from that which the romances of gypsy life

commonly emphasize.
During a recent winter the vast number of the
" unemployed applying for food, clothing and shel-
'
'

ter led to a careful investigation of a large number

of such applicants, chosen at random from the large
number. Of those so examined one out of every
seven adult men was found to have an intelligence
coefficient of less than 70 per cent, that is, to be
definitely feeble-minded or worse. In the population
at large, however, only about one in every 200 has
such low mentality. The frequency of mental de-
fectiveness among these unemployed was thus about
thirty times as great as among the general popula-
tion. Moreover, for such a group to contain so
large a proportion of such low grade cases implies
that the great majority of the group stood just above
the border line of mental defectiveness. And these
considerations do not take into account a very large
proportion of the men, who although not of orig-
inally feeble mind, were chronically alcoholic or
possessed of other vicious habits which were men-
tally and physically incapacitating in their effects.
272 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
No matter how one seeks to explain or interpret
these striking results, it is still true that mental in-
competence was in great measure if not entirely re-
sponsible for the fact that these "unemployables"
became a burden on public and private philanthropy.
Attempts to remedy the effects without understand-
ing the cause merely involve the worker in an end-
less task. The social worker engaged in the actual
handling of these cases of misery, or in the ameliora-
tion of such social or economic conditions as may
have aided in the revelation of incompetence should
above all things be able, in dealing with the cases
as individuals, to recognize the signs and symptoms
of mental abnormality and to be alert to their sig-
nificance if present.Eeformers interested in modify-
ing legislation toward economic readjustment in the
interests of the miserable can no more safely ignore
the mentality of their clientele than can the bridge
builder ignore the base on which his piers are built.
The large body of psychological knowledge re-
lating to the nature, varieties and treatment of men-
tal deviation can by no means be even outlined in
such a chapter as this. Nor can space be given to
any presentation of such socially important matters
as the physical, social or hereditary influences in
part responsible for the incidence of mental dis-
order. In the study of psychopathology and espe-
cially in the study of mental hygiene and the rapidly
growing body of experience relating to the impor-
tance of psychogenic and functional influences and
PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 273

mechanisms on the integrity of feeling, thought and

conduct, the social worker finds a major occupation.
The psychology of habit formation and adaptation
is no less important. When not dependent on a
background of physical and mental incapacity, mis-
ery often results from the formation of vicious
habits, — such as those of idleness, gambling, the use
of drugs, gang life, sexual irregularity, etc. One
familiar with the psychology of habit and learning
readily realizes the hopelessness of attempting to
change destructive habits through mere exhortation,
instruction or the infliction of penalty. The break-
ing up of an established habit can be best accom-
plished by the formation of a counter tendency of
greater strength. But the formation of new habits
cannot be verbally impressed. The new habit, if
it is to be well grounded, must issue on the back-

ground of spontaneous purpose, desire and determi-

nation. No amount of petition, reproach or ridicule
can take the place of the "will to learn." In train-
ing animals it is found that repeatedly putting the
creature's limbs through the series of movements he
is expected to perform does not lead to his acquiring
such a motor habit. Much more effective are his own
spontaneous and random efforts to achieve some
desired end or reward, if perchance this reward can
be secured only through the accidental stumbling
upon the appropriate course of conduct. The reform
of the social derelict must in much the same way
come from within rather than from without, and
 .
.

274 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

comprehension of the laws of habit and adaptation
may save the social worker not only much time and
energy but also much chagrin and self-reproach.
Delinquency and Deficiency. Equally important —
are the existence, diagnosis and consequences of
mental deficiency and abnormality for the probation
officer, the truant officer, and those in charge of
orphanages, refuges, homes for the delinquent, and
organizations for the placing of homeless children.
The following shows the proportion of the in-
table *

mates of various reformatories and refuges who are

by actual examination found to be mentally deficient.

Per cent
Institution Defective
St. Cloud, Minnesota, Reformatory 54 per cent
Rahway, New Jersey, Reformatory 46
Bedford, New York, Reformatory 80
Lancaster, Mass., Girls' Reformatory 60
Lancaster, Mass., Paroled Girls 82
Westboro, Mass., Lyman School for Boys. . 28
Pentonville, 111., Juveniles 40
Massachusetts Reformatory, Concord 52
Newark, New Jersey, Juvenile Court 66
Elmira, New York, Reformatory 70
Geneva, 111 89
Ohio Boys' School 70
Ohio Girls' School 70
Virginia, three reformatories 79
New Jersey State Home for Girls 75
Glenn Mills Schools, Pennsylvania, Girls . 72
1 Above summary taken from Goddard, "Feeble-Mindedness,
Its Causes and Consequences."
 :

PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 275

In the long run it would seem safe to say that at

least half of the inmates of such reform institutions
are mentally incompetent. Precisely how close a
relation this indicates between juvenile delinquency
and mental deficiency it is not easy to say, since in
these cases we are dealing only with those delin-
quents whose low intelligence did not enable them
to escape or to cover up their delinquency. It is at
least clear that those delinquents with whom the
social worker comes in contact should always be
approached in the light of their known mental status.
In a recent investigation of truancy, one hundred
and fifty cases, including boys and girls, were men-
tally examined by approved psychological methods.
"Of all the truants, 43% were actually feeble-minded
and 8% were border line cases." Concerning these
the investigator, Miss Elizabeth Irwin, writes

Legally these cases do not belong to the attendance offi-

cer and it is simply because their true difficulty is unde-
tected that 43% of the 150 cases were on the truant lists

at all. If 43% of the actual number are mentally defec-

tive, surely a much larger proportion than 43% of the at-
tendance officer's time is spent on these cases, for they are
the hardest and most hopeless and the least improvable of
all the cases with which he has to deal. Every effort made
by the attendance officer on these cases is an effort to push

a square peg into a round hole.

In institutions such as reformatories and prisons

in which various forms of self-governing and honor
276 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
systems of control and management have been insti-
tuted it is found that a disregard of the presence
of the mental defective means inevitably the break-
down of the system and consequent major or minor
local disaster as well as general penological impedi-
ment.
Especially in the case of women and girls is men-
tal deficiency likely to involve some catastrophe
which labels the unfortunate person as a delinquent.
Prostitution, abandonment of children, illegitimate
parenthood, cruelty, vagrancy, are all of them de-
pendent to considerable degree on the feeble-minded-
ness of the women and girls involved, and the con-
sequent ease with which they are preyed on by un-
scrupulous or equally feeble-minded men and boys.
The feeble-minded woman is a particularly
girl or
grave social problem for various reasons. The non-
competitive character of the work into which women
traditionally drift means a small likelihood of the
detection of feeble-mindedness except under condi-
tions of special attention or catastrophe. Further,
we are now coming to realize that feeble-minded
parents mean feeble-minded offspring.
It would be unpsychological indeed to assert that
all delinquency results from mental deficiency, in-
stability or disorder. The important point is that
these factors are so frequently the responsible ones
that no social worker, however earnest and zealous,
can be of maximum service without more or less
familiarity with the facts of mental abnormality and
PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 277

the methods or agencies in the nse of which its diag-

nosis may be made.
By way of illustration may be given the results
of a study of 1,000 consecutive cases brought to
the Clearing House for Mental Defectives of New
York Of these 1,000 cases, 568 were males and
City.
432 females. The following table shows the rela-
tion between mental age and actual age at the time
of examination, for each sex separately.

Showing the Relation Between Mental Age and Ac-

tual Age at the Time op Examination

Mental
Age, Actual Age When Brought to the Clearing House

Yrs. Males Females

(Binet) Average A.D. Cases Average A.D. Cases

0-4 7.1 3.2 92 8.1 3.8 65

4-5 9.2 2.4 29 11.4 4.3 16
5-6 12.6 4.2 25 13.2 4.3 32
6-7 11.4 2.9 42 15.8 6.0 40
7-8 13.5 2.9 76 15.0 4.6 45
8-9 12.9 2.5 82 17.2 5.1 56
9-10 14.0 2.7 70 17.3 4.3 53
10-11 15.2 2.7 57 18.5 5.4 46
11-12 14.2 1.0 20 17.7 2.5 27
12+ 13.0 0.0 4 16.8 2.9 6

The facts are as follows:

1. —More males than females are brought to the
Clearing House in a ratio of about 1.3 to 1.0.
278 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
2. —At the age of 1-2 years the frequency for
males and females is equal. From the age of 2 to
the age of 16 there is a very marked preponderance
of males. At the age of 16 the curves cross and from
that point on there is a very marked preponderance
of females.
3. —
Females survive in the social milieu till be-
yond the age of 16 years twice as frequently as do
males; females survive in the social milieu till be-
yond the age of 30 years three times as frequently
as males.
4. — The Binet measuring scale shows that for all

mental ages the average actual age at examination is

older for girls than for boys —this difference be-

coming very marked after the mental age of 6
years.
The figures show, for instance, that a female with
a mental age of 6 years survives in society about
as well as a male with a mental age of 10 or 11
years.
5. —The average deviations from the above aver-
ages are greater in all cases for girls than for boys,
indicating that any male much more certain to
is

be brought to the Clearing House at a given average

age than is a female of the same degree of defective-
ness.
6. —Of the 159 women over 16 years of age, the
majority had found a more or less secure economic
basis for survival either in housework or in pros-
titution.
 : ;

PSYCHOLOGY FOR 1 HE SOCIAL WORKER 279

Commenting on the significance of these facts, the

2
investigator writes as follows

These facts are interesting and significant for all who

are immediately or remotely concerned with social prob-
lems. To interpret them we have but to reflect on our
social organization. Women are not a competitive class.
Their work housework, performed in isolation and not
is

in competition with others for a wage. Moreover, in our

social organization, sex as such may easily become a com-
mercial asset to women, and opens to them ways wherein
they can survive without much regard to mental deficiency.
Men, on the other hand, form a highly competitive class,
working together in competition, for a wage. The boy who
cannot compete mentally becomes at an early age an object
of concern to relatives, is brought to the clinic and is di-
rected toward an institution. The girl who cannot com-
pete mentally not so often recognized as definitely defec-
is

not unnatural for her to drop into the isola-

tive, since it is

tion of the home where she can "take care of" small chil-
dren, peel potatoes, scrub, etc. If physically passable, as is

often the case, she may marry, thus fastening herself to

economic support or she may become a prostitute, to which
;

economic pursuit feeble mentality is no barrier. Thus they

survive outside of institutions. Our data here reveal how
accidental are the causes which finally bring them after
thirty years to the Clearing House. The writer has fre-
quently questioned those who accompany them when they
come. Answers like these are typical Her husband has
:
'
'

just died " " She got rheumatism and can scrub no more
'

; '

'
She was a prostitute, but physical illness has driven her
'

from the street." No one can doubt that there are scores
2 "The Frequency of Amentia as Related to Sex," Dr. Leta S.

Hollingworth, Medical Eeeord, Oct. 25, 1913.

280 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
of feeble-minded women at large to whom these accidents
have not happened.

The Nature Abnormality.— The history of the

of
agencies of social amelioration from the middle ages
to a very recent epoch is marred by the persistent
failure to understand the nature of mental abnor-
mality. Bodily disorders were readily handed over
to the medicine man or the doctor. But mental ab-
normality until very recent years was looked on
with superstitious ignorance as a token of some sort
or degree of social crime, religious punishment or
astrological disaster. The mentally abnormal, far
from being treated as sick bodies or sick souls, were
imprisoned in dungeons, beaten, scourged, tortured,
burned or turned loose to die in desert or wilder-
ness. Even in our own generation the failure to
comprehend the nature of mental abnormality has
led to methods of social treatment and restraint in
which the imbecile, the epileptic, the insane, the
pauper and the criminal were huddled together in
jail, without occupation, exercise, segregation or
proper nursing. The failure to realize the heredi-
tary character of at least some forms of mental dis-
order has led to the multiplication of family strains
which no amount of social zeal can easily eliminate.
One of the most useful concepts that the social
worker in any branch of service can acquire is that
of the curve of distribution of mental traits. By
this is meant the fact that human beings do not fall
PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 281

into sharply separated types or species such as the

normal, the feeble-minded, the insane, etc. Instead,
in any single trait that might be measured the human
family would be found to constitute but a single
species, —
to fall into the limits of a normal curve
of distribution. Such a curve of frequency means
(a) that all degrees of any trait or characteristic
will be found to occur ;
(b) that certain degrees of it,

the median, modal or average degrees occur most

frequently, so that (c) those individuals possessing
this median degree of the trait constitute the normal
or typical, while (d) as one goes above or below this
region of normality the individuals become fewer
and fewer.
The stupid, the feeble-minded, the imbecile, the
idiotic, are thus in no sense distinct or peculiar
types, but represent the lower degrees of capacity,
just as the competent, the talented, the distinguished
and the individuals of genius represent the extreme
degrees in the more desirable direction. The dis-
tinctions are practical, social, statistical, rather than
qualitative and psychological. Similarly in the case
of the insane no unique nor novel characteristics are
present. The symptoms that lead to classification
are but the exaggeration or the reduction, to greater
or less degree, of characteristics, reactions, mechan-
isms and tendencies possessed by all mankind. Nor-
mal and abnormal are then mainly differences in
degree. Insanity is more a type of character than
it is a definite disease entity, and in the various clin-
282 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ical pictures one sees "normal" human nature as
through a telescope. Between the '
' normal '
' and the
"abnormal" come the "border line cases," less fre-
quent than the normal but more frequent than the
obviously abnormal, and of equal or even greater
social significance.
The Abstraction Fallacy.— The foregoing facts
concerning the nature of mental variation and the
distribution of human traits should also be of special
significance to the social worker who more inter-
is

ested in the contemplation of the social program

than in actual participation in its events. The social
philosopher has until very recent times been misled
by the very common and hence natural fallacy of
conceptualizing the descriptive facts of history and
then treating them as if they were active agents
rather than convenient abstractions. The result has
been that in social discussions and program-making
the concrete and varying individuals who make up
the population have frequently been neglected in
favor of such inactive abstractions or words as
"labor," "capital," "the state," "the family,"
"custom," "public opinion," etc. It has been espe-
cially difficult for the social philosopher to realize
that "people in general" are not "general people,"
and that similarity of conduct does not imply iden-
tity or singleness of motive.
Thus when a wave of coughing passes through a
multitude, the social philosopher deftly dismisses the
phenomenon as a case of "imitation," the fact being
PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER 283

that each single individual coughs for his own par-

ticular individual reason, just as he coughs in his
own particular individual larynx. The descriptive
fact of
'
' similarity,
'
' while it may serve the purpose
of historical record and generalization, can by no
means be conceptualized into such an active and
' '
explanatory agent as imitation. Similarly social
' '

resemblances are not caused by "custom," but in

themselves constitute what is meant descriptively
or historically by that term. In so far as this is

true, the "individualization of sociology" and of the

point of view of the social worker (in time perhaps
of the social philosopher as well) may happily result
as a useful application of the psychology of indi-
vidual differences.
 —

CHAPTER XVI
PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE

General Relations.— In considering the relations of

psychology and medicine it is obvious that one does
not have in mind that type of psychology which
limits itself to the introspective analysis of the ele-
ments of consciousness and the forms and patterns
of their combination. The psychology which admits
of practical application in any field is that larger
science which occupies itself with the behavior of
organisms in so far as that behavior is at one time or
another paralleled by consciousness or is directly
conditioned by the modifiable activity of the nervous
system. Two forms of behavior are to be distin-
guished in the subject matter of this psychology,
the one constituted by the behavior of mental proc-
esses and the mechanisms of consciousness the other
;

by the motor behavior of the body and the mechan-

isms of activity. Under the first we study such func-
tions as sensation, imagery, association, feeling,
emotion, motivation, meaning, impulse; under the
second such topics as habit, instinct, attention, fa-
tigue, learning, work, practice, reaction, etc. Of
 PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 285

course most of these topics are, as a matter of fact,

interesting from both points of view.
It is necessary to consider in this connection not
only such work as professional psychologists have
accomplished, but all work that can properly be
called psychology in the light of the definition we
have just given. Much psychological work has been
done by medical investigators, but their work, in so
far as it is valid, is none the less psychological be-
cause of the mere fact of their medical training.
Lester Ward was an eminent botanist, but his many
valuable contributions to sociology are not for that
reason to be credited to the science of botany.
A science on the one hand, a more or less
is,

unique method or set of methods of controlling or

examining phenomena. On the other hand, it is a
more or less systematic array of facts, data and laws,
acquired or established by the use of some such
methodology. The incidental applications of the
science may be based on the methodology, or on the
resultant knowledge or on both. In a discussion of
the extrinsic usefulness of any given science it is
well to bear this in mind, and any attempt to extend
the application of such science should be supported
by discernment of the direction in which the possi-
bilities are conceived to lie. A mere ardor to be of

service is bound to prove either inadequate or mysti-

fying.
From method and from the
the point of view of
point of view of content, then, what have been the
286 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
contributions of psychology to medicine, and what
further serviceableness may we reasonably expect?
It may be said at once that in so far as medicine
has profited from its utilization of psychology, this
profit has been mainly by way of methodology and
technique. In so far as there has been any inter-
change of content, psychology has been far more
Medical
blessed in its receiving than in its giving.
clinics and medical practices have been drawn on
freely for data, problems, suggestionsand illustra-
and psychology still shows, in many quarters,
tions,
pronounced anatomical, physiological and clinical
leanings.
The affiliation of psychology with medicine is of
necessity a most intimate one, and this has long been
recognized. Lotze's " Medicinische Psychologic" on
the one hand and Tuke 's Dictionary of Psycholog-
'
'

ical Medicine" on the other bear testimony to this

affiliation. Or we may pair off in much the same
way the various textbooks of physiological psychol-
ogy, writtenby psychologists, and the books on ab-
normal psychology written for the most part by med-
ical men. The Vienna and Zurich schools of psy-
chiatry make much use of psycho-analysis, which in
its various forms is but an elaboration of classical
experiments of the psychological laboratory. On
the other hand men and women whose chief interests
are psychological are seeking and being appointed
to research positions in connection with many of our
leading hospitals. All of these facts indicate that
 :

PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 287

psychology and medicine are, in part at least, joint

tenants of some common ground of content or of

method.
The contributions or relations of psychology to
medicine may be presented under six chief headings.
We shall briefly point out these six directions, illus-
trate them, and indicate whether the contribution is

chiefly of content or of method.

Psychological Researches on Patients.— Three sub-
divisions may be pointed out here
(a) The mental and motor behavior of patients, as
studied by psychological methods, may reflect their
organic condition. Knowledge of this condition may
be useful to the physician, particularly if a nervous
disorder is involved. An illustration of this type of
work is to be found in the recent studies by Dr. F. L.
Wells, on the behavior of manic-depressive patients,
in such performances as speed of tapping, speed and
quality of association, sensory discrimination, dis-
traction, etc. Interesting correlations are found be-
tween performance in the tests and organic condi-
tion at various times in the history of the case.
(b) Knowledge of the normal types and range of
variation in mental processes may prove of great
assistance in diagnosis of supposedly abnormal
cases, and may be of general use in clinical pro-
cedure. The work of Kent and Eosanoff on the
association reactions of normal and abnormal indi-
viduals may be cited as an illustration in this field.
A list of 100 test words was arranged, and the free
288 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
associations to these 100 stimulus words, in the case
of 1,000 normal people, were experimentally deter-
mined. When the character of these associates was
studied, it was found possible to make out normal
tendencies in the case of each stimulus word, and
also anormal range of variability within this tend-
ency. When these associations were classified ac-
cording to quality, under such headings as rime,
neologism, perseveration, individual reactions, etc.,

the association types of normal people could be

made out.
The same test words were given to 247 patients,
suffering from the various forms of insanit) and r
,

these associations similarly studied. Comparison

of these results with the results secured from nor-
mal subjects enabled the investigators to draw such
conclusions as the following:

With the aid of the frequency tables and the appendix,

normal reactions, with a very few exceptions, can be sharply
distinguished from pathological ones. The separation
. . simplifies the task of analysis and makes possible
.

the application of a classification based on objective cri-

teria. ... In dementia pr&cox, some paranoiac conditions,
manic-depressive insanity, general paresis, and epileptic
dementia the test reveals some characteristic, though not
pathognomonic associational tendencies.

Further studies of this sort are in progress ; they

are at once thoroughly psychological and medically
useful.
 PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 289

(c) Psychological examination may often be val-

uable in measuring or demonstrating the efficacy of
various treatments for abnormal physical condition.
By way of example the psychological examination of
hookworm patients recently made by Strong may be
given. By a series of tests this psychologist meas-
ured the mental alertness and capacity of children
who were about to be placed under treatment. At
the same time he examined in the same way a con-
trolgroup of healthy children living under the same
general condition, and also a group of hookworm
infected children who were not submitted to treat-
ment. After the treatment the various groups were
reexamined by the psychological tests and deter-
mination made of such changes in mental condition
as may
be produced in the normal and untreated
groups by mere repetition and growth, and in the
treated group by these factors plus medical treat-
ment for the disease.
The results of this investigation enabled the in-
vestigators to draw the following conclusions:

The
figures show, then, that hookworm disease unmis-
takably affects mental development. Treatment alleviates
this condition to some extent but it does not, immediately
at least, permit the child to gain as he would if he had
not had the disease. And the figures apparently further
show that prolonged infection may produce prolonged ef-
fects upon mentality —
effects from which the individual
may never entirely recover.
This investigation by psychologists bears out the claims
290 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
advanced but not measured by physicians and zoologists
that the effect of hookworm infection may result in seri-
ous delay in development of mental activities of children
and of communities, and may therefore have a seriously in-
hibitive effect upon the school problems and even upon the
economic development of hookworm communities.
It emphasizes more than does any previous study the ad-
visability of prompt medical treatment even of light cases,
for the benefit of the children themselves and collectively
1
for the better development of the community.

In this field then snch contribution as psychology

may be making to medicine is both by way of tech-
nique and by way of information. But the informa-
tion is itself used by the medical man not for its

psychological value alone, but largely to reenforce

or supplement his own methods and technique.
Researches on the Immediate Effects of Drugs.—
Here medicine must be said to owe a great deal to
psychology, and the chief contribution has been by
way of perfected methods. By way of illustration
one need only compare the unreliable, roughly made
experiments of Kraepelin and his earlier students
with certain rigorously controlled investigations
which have been carried on in psychological labora-
tories by Rivers, Dodge, Wells, the writers, and
others. The trouble with the earlier workers was
that they knew too little about psychological laws,
psychological sources of error, and the technical
cautions which must be observed in conducting cru-

1
Strong, "The Effects of Hookworm Disease."
 PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 291

cial experiments on mental and motor reactions.

Later workers have been more familiar with these
factors, and they have drawn their knowledge not
at all from the field of pharmacology but directly
from the psychological laboratory. Four points may
be noted as especially important in the improvement
of scientific technique in drug experimentation.
The Importance of Controlled Conditions. This —
is of course a most obvious factor. However, in
many sciences the general conditions are so stable
and uniform that many of them may be practically
disregarded for the purposes of simple experiment.
Thus the temperature of the room, the day of the
week, the noonday menu, the sex of the operator,
and a hundred other conditions are irrelevant to the
outcome of an experiment in physics, chemistry or
botany. But in a psychological experiment these
factors may play an important role. Nevertheless
one need go back only so far as the time of Kraepe-
lin'sdrug experiments to find men investigating the
influence of tea and coffee in the evenings of days
on which the subjects of the experiments had taken
both strychnin and alcohol, experimentally, at an
earlier hour. We now know, and partly as a result
ofwork done in psychological laboratories, that the
primary influence of so mild a drug as caffeine may
persist for twenty-four hours or more.
Importance of Control Groups. —A second impor-
tant point in technique, the recognition of which is
>at least in part due to the influence of psychological
292 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
methods, is the necessity of a control squad. The
account of the control group of normal children in
the case of the hookworm experiments may be re-
called in this connection. In the case of recent ex-
periments on the influence of caffeine, a control
squad ran through the entire experiment, covering
a period of six weeks, taking daily doses along with
the other subjects. But these doses, although this
was known only to the director of the experiment,
consisted of nothing but sugar of milk.
This is of course only another point under the
general one of controlling the conditions, and it

enables the investigator to compare his drug records

with records of undrugged subjects, acting under
the same conditions of practice, excitement, sugges-
tion, interest, expectation, ennui, fatigue and diur-
nal variation. a most obvious point,
This again is

yet only a few years ago a medical expert of repute

was heard to assert that a certain drug produced
congestion of the cerebral blood vessels, because an
animal which had been fed this drug was found to be
in this condition after having been killed by a blow
on the head. A control animal, which should be
struck on the head but not fed the drug, seemed not
tohave been even considered, although the experi-
ment was deliberately performed and in an impor-
tant connection.
The Importance of Control Doses. This may also—
be pointed out. The medical experiments on drugs,
until within quite recent years, proceeded by ad-
 PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 293

ministering, at a known time, a known drug, to a

subject who had his own prejudices and opinions,
who was aware of the whole situation, was open
to all manner of suggestion, and who was at any
rate more or less interested in the outcome of the
test,and perhaps excited at the thought of taking
the drug in question. Yet any change in perform-
ance under these gross conditions was likely to be
attributed to the direct action of the drug. It was
not until Fere, a psychologist, demonstrated the
stimulating effect of the mere act of swallowing, or
indeed of simply holding in the mouth, a drink of
whiskey, thus getting odor, taste, and any conceiv-
able amount of suggestion, excitement, etc.; and
until Rivers, another psychologist, wrote his illum-
inating paragraphs on the technique of drug experi-
mentation, that medical experimenters came to real-
ize the importance of the two factors of sensory
stimulation and suggestion.
The Standardisation of Tests. —This constitutes
a fourth point in such technique. Many of the tasks
set the subjects of drug experiments before the psy-
chologists addressed themselves to the standardiza-
tion of series of tests for definite functions or proc-
esses, measured processes which varied not only
from individual to individual but even from moment
to moment or from day to day with a single indi-
vidual. The much used cancellation test is an in-
stance of such an ambiguous task. It must be said
that a great deal remains to be done in the way of
294 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
standardization of tests, but the point to be made
here is that work which must be done by the
it is

psychologist, and which when done will represent a

valuable contribution to the equipment of medical
workers.
The Use of Psychological Agents.— This third gen-
eral topic is one on which the psychologist might be
expected to dilate at great length. It is the one
about which most has been written and which is

quite commonly supposed to constitute the most im-

portant direction in which psychology may contrib-
ute to medicine. Suggestion, hypnotism, reeduca-
tion, synthesis, clarification of complexes, catharsis,
association and dissociation are the words that
come
to mind in this connection. That some of them are
psychological words there can be no doubt. That
they represent genuine mental processes, states or
functions, and that psychologists are interested in
discovering and formulating their laws, must be
granted. But it is equally certain that no little ob-
fuscation has been caused by pseudo-scientific
writers who have attempted to arouse dramatic in-
terest in certain phenomena of fatigue, automatism,
drowsiness and hysteria, and have drawn into their
service in this attempt the occult suggestions which
formerly emanated from the words suggestion and
hypnotism. As for the terms reeducation and syn-
thesis, they are not, properly speaking, psychological
terms at all, but represent large and practical proc-
esses, with little attempt at psychological analysis,
 PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 295

description or formulation. And as for the last two

processes, association and dissociation, psychology
has done little more than incorporate in its own lit-
erature fragmentary clinical pictures and various
medical speculations. The processes intended by the
words suggestion, reeducation, synthesis, etc., in the
manuals on psychotherapy really move on the same
plane, psychologically, as do such expressions as
1
lend a helping hand, " " set a good example, "" give
'

direction and advice," "provide an incentive,"

"give encouragement," "take a little exercise,"
"arrange for new surroundings," "jog the mem-
ory," etc. All these phrases, it is true, emphasize
the mental functions of a psychophysical organism
rather than its physiological processes. This em-
phasis is perhaps responsible for the first two sylla-
bles of the word "psychotherapy." And it follows,
of course, that acquaintance with the laws of mental
and motor behavior and with the elements, attri-
butes, genesis and patterns of mental processes is
favorable to satisfactory work on this plane, as it is
also in teaching children, hunting wild beasts and
selling goods. The point is that the use of these
psychological agents does not require any very pro-
found knowledge of the refinements of modern psy-
chology, but rather a sympathetic acquaintance with
and toleration for human nature. The contribution
of psychology at this point is not specific in char-
acter but is rather a general, cultural contribution.
It seems well to add that the contribution here will
296 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
become more and more when psychology
specific
begins to occupy itself still more with the way in
which mind works, and less with what is in the mind
at the moment of its operation.
One of the recent psychological tendencies in med-
ical practiceand medical speculation may deserve
special attention at this point, —
that form of psy-
chotherapy known as psycho-analysis. The psycho-
analysts proceed on the assumption that emotional
experiences and complexes which persist in an un-
clear or subconscious way, —fears, wishes, etc. —are
nevertheless active determinants of action, thought
and feeling.They act chiefly as disturbers; they
disturb our sleep by dreams they disturb our daily
;

life by producing phobias, obsessions, dissociations,

amnesias, slips of hand and tongue, etc. Further-

more, it is claimed that by some form of the simple
association experiment, skillfully conducted by an
experienced analyst, these complexes may be dis-
covered, brought into clear consciousness, dissipated,
and the sufferer thereby relieved. The work of
Freud, Jung, Adler, Brill, Jones and others, may be
cited here.
It must be said that psychologists are by no means
unanimous in their reactions toward the claims, evi-
dence, and interpretations of the psycho-analysts.
But the lack of unanimity of individual psycholo-
gists is one of the things that makes the science
interesting. We must say at least that in so far as
psycho-analysis throws genuine light on the causes,
 PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 297

conditions and prognosis of functional disorders,

and in so far as its technique affords relief which
ordinary therapeutic measures fail to give, it repre-
sents a real contribution to medical science. How
far this may be remains for the future to determine.
It should, however, be pointed out that the mere
therapeutic success of a technique in no way con-
stitutes a proof of such speculation as the practi-
tioner may incidentally indulge in, nor does it by
itself validate the fundamental assumptions and
hypotheses underlying the technique.
The Determination of the Organic Conditions of
Efficiency.— This constitutes a fourth general field
in which psychology may make specific contribu-
tion to medicine. The contribution here is peculiar
in that it may often appear to be but a contradic-
tion of the deliveries of medical science. We may
call attention to but two subdivisions of this general
topic, —Fatigue and periodicity.
Fatigue.—The investigation of muscular fatigue
is so near the border line of physiology and psy-

chology that little need be said of it here. Perhaps

the one important point is the fact that psycho-
logical studies tend constantly to emphasize the
importance of purely mental factors in the produc-
tion of supposedly muscular inefficiency ; —such fac-
tors as ennui, loss of interest, the inhibitory action
of sensations of strain, work habits, and the cus-
tomary or traditional level of fatigue sensation. The
distinction between actual exhaustion and mere ces-
298 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
sation of work because of psychic inhibition, a dis-
tinction constantly exemplified during psychological
investigations of fatigue and work, would seem to
be important in medical diagnosis and therapeutics.
[With respect to mental fatigue, the net outcome of
psychological studies up to date is that the more
muscular fatigue is eliminated from a given task
the more unfatiguable does the process become. This
is often expressed by saying that purely mental
fatigue has never been satisfactorily demonstrated.
Of course it is also true that no purely mental proc-
ess has ever been isolated. There seems to be little
doubt that by the cooperation of medical science with
psychological investigation, information may ulti-
mately be secured concerning the nature and causes
of fatigue which will be of service to both fields of
work.
Periodicity. —But nowhere is psychology more at
variance with medical science than on the question
of the relation between organic periodicity and
psychomotor efficiency. By way of illustration of
this variance we may refer to the declarations of
the periodic inefficiency of women, —declarations in
which medical and semi-medical books abound. It
is not necessary to entertain the reader with the

many available quotations from general writers, but

two or three statements may be presented direct
from the pens of eminent medical men, by way of
showing their contrast with the results of carefully
 :

PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 299

controlled psychological experiment and measure-

ment.
Max Runge, a gynecologist of Gottingen, wrote in
1900:

An experienced observer will be able to note many in-

teresting phases in the mental changes of women at men-
struation. Even though scientific experiments are as
yet lacking, it may nevertheless be stated that a very great
number of healthy women are mentally different during
this period. —All demands on her strength must be remit-
ted. —For several days she is enfeebled.

Icard, writing in 1890, concludes

The psychical and physical state of woman during the

menstrual period seems to me to constitute one of the chief
reasons why she should not administer public affairs. In-
deed one cannot depend on a health so fragile and so often
disturbed ; the errors of judgment and the false evaluations
so often made at that time prove that women are unable
to undertake comfortably and successfully that which
should be the exclusive lot of the strong sex. The men-
strual function may, especially in the case of the predis-
posed, induce sympathetically a mental state varying from
a slight psychosis—to absolute irresponsibility. Such is

the proposition which I lay down and which I shall en-

deavor to demonstrate.—I shall in support of my thesis
cite
the opinions of the most famous authors. From time to 2

time shall
I the ancients speak. — have consulted
let I dis-
tinguished alienists, father confessors, the directors of con-
vents, superintendents of boarding schools, and homes of

2
Meaning the romantic novelists.
 ! :

300 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

refuge, midwives,women of the world I can do no better —
than to resay badly in prose what Alfred de Musset has
said so well in verse. . . .

And authors writing as late as 1909 refer to

Icard's' work as the most authentic and reliable

discussion of the subject

Ellis writes on the basis of considerable familiar-
ity with medical literature, as follows

It is but the outward manifestation of a monthly physio-

logical cycle which influences throughout the month the
whole of a woman 's physical and psychic organism. What-
ever organic activities we investigate with any precision,
we find traces of this rhythm. While a man may be said
at all events relatively to live on a plane, a woman always
lives on the upward or downward slope of a curve. This is
a fact of the very first importance in the study of the physi-

ological or psychological phenomena in women. Unless we

always bear itmind we cannot attain to any true knowl-
in
edge of the physical, mental or moral life of women.

Mosher's experiments on blood pressure are often

cited in evidence of this periodicity. But the
writers who quote Mosher seem not to have observed
that the investigator also studied blood pressure in
men and states in the original report, "The daily
records of the blood pressure ... onmen and
women under similar condition of life and occupa-
tion give curves apparently indistinguishable in
character.
'
' Here again we see the value and indis-

pensability of the control squad.

 PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 301

In striking contrast with these assertions of

periodic psychical changes dependent on organic
rhythms are the results of a recently reported elabo-
rate experimental study
3
of the facts. The investi-

gator tested, under controlled conditions, twenty-

three women for a considerable period of time, meas-
uring constantly the efficiency with which various
mental and motor tasks were performed. The tests
included measures of steadiness, speed of movement,
fatigue, rate and accuracy of perception, swiftness
and correctness of association, and ease of learn-
ing. Men subjects were used as a control group.
The results are described as follows:
1. — Careful and exact measurement does not re-
veal a periodic mental or motor inefficiency in nor-
mal women.
2. —
The variability of performance is not affected
by physiological periodicity.
3. —No regularly recurring period of maximum
efficiency within each month is discernible. The
"cycle" referred to by Ellis and others is not dis-
covered by methods of precision.
4. —No agreement is established between curves
previously platted for pulse, blood pressure, tem-
perature, caloric radiation, etc., and the curves of
work for the mental and motor traits here tested.

We need not attempt in this connection to settle

the dispute over the question of periodicity in men-

tal and motor capacity as dependent on organic
3
L. S. Hollingworth, "Functional Periodicity."
302 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
rhythms. Nor shall we consider the reliability of
other alleged rhythms, diurnal variations in effi-

ciency, periodicity in men, etc. The important point

is that the findings of modern experimental psy-

chology, based on examination of normal people, are
on many of these points much at variance with the
generalized clinical findings and anecdotes of med-
ical men.
The Psychological Clinic— An important develop-
ment of applied psychology in recent years has been
the psychological clinic. In such clinics individuals
are examined by various methods and scales of men-
tal measurement. By these means it is possible, to
a degree of accuracy and completeness never before
attained, to determine the mental condition and
status. Such determination in these days of indi-
vidualized pedagogy, individualized punishment and
industrial emphasis on the individual worker is a
highly desirable procedure for educational, crimino-
logical and vocational diagnosis.
The contact of psychology with medicine at this
point arises from the fact that the determination of
mental status has in times past, for rather obscure
and complex reasons, been assigned to the medical
man, rather than to the educator, lawyer, clergyman
or psychologist. Commitment for lunacy, invalida-
tion of wills, evaluation of testimony, appointment
of guardians and determination of legal or criminal
responsibility are still in many parts of the country
dependent on the verdict of physicians whose chief
 PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 803

practice may be in surgery or obstetrics. This has

been the case although in only two or three medical
schools is the prospective physician required to give
any appreciable amount of his time to the study of
mental normality or disorder. Even the work of
institutional administration and superintendence has
traditionally been that of the physician, when men-
tal deviates and were
their care in consideration.
In recent years two movements have developed,
both calculated to remedy this obviously unsatis-
factory tradition. On the one hand there has arisen
a group of specialists in nervous and mental dis-
eases, the psychiatrists. These are usually men or
women with the ordinary medical training, who after
their medical course have taken occasion, largely
through interneship or special practice and observa-
tion, to familiarize themselves in more or less ade-
quate ways with normal and abnormal psychology.
On the other hand a group of psychopathologists or
clinical psychologists has arisen, taking their point
of departure mainly from the psychological labora-
tory, and familiarizing themselves more or less ade-
quately with such branches of science as neurology,
physiology, biological chemistry, etc.

In the psychological clinic of today as well as

in the progressive hospital for the mentally dis-
ordered and defective, both psychiatrists and clin-

ical psychologists will commonly be found applying

to the concrete problems of education, charity, jus-
tice, industry and social administration, such of the
304 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
content and technique of medical and psychological
may be found serviceable.
science as
Psychology and the Medical School. —Our general
conclusion is then that the chief contribution which
psychology has made and may be expected to con-
tinue to make to medical science is methodological
in character. There seem to be two principal rea-
sons for this:
In the first place, the experience and training of
the medical student are largely clinical. This means
that his observation is for the most part of patho-
logical conditions. He may easily fail to acquire
sufficient information concerning normal types, and
the direction, conditions and range of normal vari-
ability. Such knowledge, which might well be par-
tially furnished by adequate psychological training,
might at least warn him of the fallacies of general-
izing clinical findings.
In the second place, the medical course as it is now
offered seems to provide little training in exact and
purposive experimentation. An excessive propor-
tion of the student's time seems to be occupied with
the memorizing of anatomical minutiae, the most of
which are straightway forgotten, the disciplinary
value of which is at least questionable, and the con-
tent of which is always accessible in the manuals.
It seems for these reasons that one of the most
fruitful contributions which psychology may yet
make to medicine may be a rigorous, specially adapt-
ed, full year course in experimental psychology,
 PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE 805

which should be incorporated at an early point in

the curriculum of the medical schools. In such a
course much stress should be laid on methods and
technique of arriving at experimental certainty,
avoiding logical fallacies and inductive errors, and
of adequately controlling the grounds of inference
under circumstances in which very slight factors
may play important roles.
 CHAPTER XVn
PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION

The field of education represents the first prac-

tical activity in which the applications of psychology
were made in any systematic way. So numerous
and so varied have these applications become that
a working knowledge of psychology is now quite
generally required of all teachers. In training
schools for teachers the courses in general, experi-
mental, genetic, abnormal and differential psychol-
ogy constitute an important part of the curriculum.
Books on the principles of teaching quite commonly
begin with some such statement as, "The art of
teaching is based primarily on the science of psy-
chology." Not only have certain facts and princi-
ples of psychology become systematized into a body
of "educational psychology," but the individual and
group methods of the laboratory have been adapted
to special educational problems under the name of
"experimental pedagogy" or "experimental educa-
tion."
Between these two psychology and educa-
fields,

tion, the cooperation has been so long established

306
 PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 307

and so cordial that the content of general psychology-

has been much enriched through investigations, the
primary problems of which were educational. Since
these things are true, a chapter on the relations of
psychology to education can only indicate the main
directions of application and give suggestive illus-
trations of each. This may perhaps best be done
by adhering to our familiar classification of appli-
cations under attitude, content and technique.
The Psychological Attitude in Education.— The
attitude of analysis and its practical value is seen
in everymodern attempt to discuss the nature or
purpose of education. At an early time we find
such definitions to consist of large generalities, in
which the concept of education is more or less
treated as if it were some single, unitary process,
and its function maintained to be "training the
mind," "molding character," "giving culture." A
real step, however inadequate we may now consider
it,was taken when "the mind" was analyzed into
distinguishable and nameable "faculties" and the
effectiveness of teaching regarded from the point of
view of these "faculties" and their separate treat-
ment. Still more wholesome and influential was the
further step in analysis in which these "faculties"
(such as memory, instinct, imitation, perception,
attention, will) were realized to be but convenient
and artificial names given to various groups of spe-
cific habits and tendencies. With these steps went
the breaking up of "learning" or "culture" into
308 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
more elementary and constituent aspects, the delib-
erate separation of school subjectsfrom each other,
and attempts to correlate them in the curriculum in
such a manner that each set or group of tendencies
or habits would be given adequate attention, exer-
cise or inhibition.
In time this same analytic process led to the dis-
covery that a "school subject," such as arithmetic,
is by no means a unitary enterprise on the part of
teacher or student, but in itself involves a consid-
erable variety of more elementary processes, each
of which must be considered in detail if the whole is
to be adequately and economically mastered. Thus
in arithmetic the ideas of amount, of units, of se-
quence and position, of counting, of grouping, and
of manipulating, familiarity with the symbols, com-
prehension of the operations and meanings which
the symbols denote, must all be recognized. Ques-
tions at once arise concerning the most "psycho-
logical" sequence and organization of these various
functions and processes. In a similar way in the
subject of drawing, the various tendencies and fea-
tures of ornament, symbolic portrayal, pictorial rep-
resentation, diagraming, and finally mechanical
drawing are distinguished. Other "subjects" re-
ceive, at the hands of the educational psychologist,
the same type of detailed analysis.
Not only is the school subject thus reduced to its
constituent processes, but each operation in one of
these processes is ultimately analyzed into a group
 PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 309

of still more specific acts and habits. Thus in such

a simple operation as adding a column of numbers
"investigation seems to give evidence that . . .

eight or nine distinct functions are involved, each of

which involves the use of several bonds. Besides
these positive connections, a child in learning (to
add) must inhibit other connections which are in-
correct, and these must often outnumber the cor-
rect ones. And yet column addition has always
(heretofore) been treated as a simple habit —with
perhaps one element of complexity when carrying
is involved. It is evident that if the habit concerned
does involve eight or nine different functions, a child
might go astray in any one. His difficulty in form-
ing the habit might be in connection with one or
several of the processes involved. Knowledge on the
part of the teacher of these different steps of the
habit, and appreciation by him of the possibilities
o'f making errors, are the prerequisites of efficient
teaching of habits."
The foregoing quotation, from Strayer and Nors-
worthy's "How to Teach," emphasizes precisely
that value of analysis which we have already had
occasion to consider in such diverse fields as brick-
laying, dishwashing, housecleaning, writing an ad-
vertisement, selling insurance, managing a fac-
life

tory, or making window screens. Improvement of

the whole comes only through discernment of the
parts, and such discernment involves that special
310 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
mental attitude of analysis which we have found to
be so characteristic of psychology.
The attitude of analysis in education is important
not only for an understanding of the true nature of
school materials, but is equally valuable in the solu-
tion of other educational problems. Thus in mod-
ern administration and supervision there is to be
seen a definite tendency away from the vague char-
acterization of a teacher as "a good teacher,"
a "fair" one or a "poor" one, toward a thorough
analysis of "teaching ability" into its elements.
Moral influence, social activity, discipline, leader-
ship, instruction, etc., come to receive independent
recognition and evaluation. Indeed each of these
is realized to be complex and the task of "teaching
a class," from the point of view of instruction alone,
is analyzed into such distinguishable though by no

means unrelated steps or stages as "preparation,"

"presentation," "comparison and abstraction,"
"generalization," "application," and "drill or re-
view." "Faulty instruction" can thus be under-
stood or remedied only by the analysis of one of the
qualifications of a teacher into still more elementary
aspects.
In a similar way such a concept as that of the
child's "will" has been clarified only by analyzing
it into the and emotional
constituent instinctive
trends; these instinctive trends understood only by
the enumeration of the specific bonds and reactions
which the "instinct" includes; and the emotions
 —
PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 311

comprehended only by breaking them up into the

elementary feelings and their combinations. These
changes have clearly paralleled the analyses of
physiological psychology, from the conception of the
unitary brain as the organ of mind, through the
' '
' '

reduction of this unit into areas " or " regions of

' '
' '

"regions" into
localization, the analysis of these
"arcs" and "pathways," and finally to the "neu-
rone theory" and the consideration of particular
conduction units, synapses, conditions of prepared-
ness and readiness, inhibition, facilitation and in-
tegration.
The Content of Psychology in Education.— Per-
haps the earliest contributions of psychology to edu-
cation were in the form of facts or laws of mental
life. Indeed long before psychology became recog-
nized as an independent field of scientific inquiry
writers on educational subjects were mainly occu-
pied with discussions concerning the nature of the
child's mind, the sources of his interest, the varie-
ties of his powers and the modifiability of his ca-
pacities. The work of education Came to be con-
ceived as that of effecting changes in the behavior
or feeling of the individual who was taught. The
possibility of these changes was, of course, seen to
depend not only on their social or parental desir-
ability but most of all on the materials afforded,
the fund of traits and tendencies with which the
individual is originally equipped, and the degree,
permanence or modifiability of these traits.
312 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
The '
' original nature of man, '
' his inborn tenden-
cies to attend, react and retain, his predispositions,
the range and limits of his capacities, the rate at
which these mature, the conditions of their effective
activity, their transitoriness, their mutual inhibi-
tions and reinforcements, the teacher is compelled,
either beforehand or through painful experience,
to learn. For these original traits are given only
in the form of certain large and vague tendencies and
the task of education consists in so working with
these vague original tendencies as to make the indi-
vidual most effective in the circumstances and for
the purposes for which he is to live. Some of these
tendencies must be inhibited if the individual is to
be socially adapted, as, for example, his tendencies
to take what he sees, to strike when injured or
affronted. Other tendencies must be selectively
trained, stimulated and specialized, as his tendencies
to vocal utterance, to motor activity, to construc-
tion. Still other tendencies must be directed, modi-
fied and transformed, as those to inquisitiveness, to
collection of objects, to play and to hunt. In such
processes it is important to know in some detail
the ways in which original tendencies may be modi-
fied, the consequences of their enforced suppression,
their futility unless directed. Punishment, disuse
and substitution may all be employed in this process,
but by no means all of them with equal success or
on all occasions.
Still further reaction tendencies in the form of
 PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 313

feeling, conduct or knowledge, not provided by orig-

inal nature, must be impressed on the individual in
the form of habits. Talking, reading, writing, using
a machine, the multiplication table, and a thousand
habits, simple and complex, must all be individually
acquired. It is the task of education to see that
these habits are most adequately, economically and
permanently acquired. Here then all the laws of
learning, all the studies of memory, all the facts and
principles of habit formation, interference, forget-
ting, association, etc., are of vital importance in the
operations of the classroom, the laboratory and the
textbook. Studies of animal learning yield prin-
ciples which may be directly utilized in teaching the
human being. The advantages of spontaneous ef-
fort over mechanical repetition, the relative ef-
fectiveness of reward and punishment, the influence
of motive and incentive, the inadequacy of imitation,
the importance of pleasure in success, the expecta-
tion of a systematic curve of learning, the meaning
of plateaus, the value of determining tendencies, in-
tentions and purposes, the value of problem or
project, the character of play tendencies and their
possibility of useful organization and direction, the
specific nature of habits, the absence of any consider-

able transfer from one field to another, the signifi-

cance of identical elements in materials, work habits
or general attitudes, all these are but random selec-
tions from an endless list of principles which it is
314 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
the business of psychology to study and the business
of the teacher to apply.
No less important than for the social worker, the
judge, the manager and the physician are the facts
of differential or individual psychology for the
teacher. The knowledge of the ways in which indi-
viduals differ from each other, the degrees and di-
rections of this variation, its causes and educational
consequences is the foundation on which must be
based all discipline, all differentiation of studies, all

guidance and advice, all appointment and control.

Every teacher of experience can narrate, from ear-
lier years of work, case after case in which labor,
worry and were entailed by the failure to
sacrifice
recognize, in the "problem," a mentally defective
boy, an adolescent girl, a neurotic parent, a paranoid
superintendent or a senile member of the board.
Many a microcephalic child, with his irremediable
mental limitations, has caused the teacher sleepless
nights, and many a pupil has in turn been seriously
impeded through life because of the principal's fail-
ure to understand the true nature of a speech defect,
a choreic tic, or a proclivity for day-dreaming.
The individualization of pedagogy has set the key
note for the individualization of most diverse fields
of human activity, in spite of the institutional, ad-
ministrative and financial obstacles which it has
encountered. Especially characteristic of modern
education is the study of individual differences in
mental constitution, and the attempt to recognize
 PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 315

these differences in classification, discipline and

teaching. The traditional classification on the basis
of physical age has given way to the recognition of
mental level and the possibility of its determination
in education long before it will disappear from law
and social custom.
Modern psychological experiments and investiga-

tions must be taken into account in any effort to

adjust the educational program to such differences

as may be due to race and ancestry. The provision
of equal and identical educational and professional
opportunity and encouragement now rapidly being
extended to all individuals regardless of sex is in

part due to, and throughout justified by, the demon-

strations of experimental science that in no measur-
able respect, whether in type, degree, or variability,
is mental capacity originally conditioned by the bio-
logical accident of sex.
In the modern school not only are efforts made
to adjust the curriculum and the extra academic
activities to the individual differences of the pupils,
but special -classes and methods are adapted to the
particular needs of the feeble-minded, the backward,
the precocious, the normal, the sick, the crippled, the
blind and the deaf. Even special classes for those
to whom spelling or arithmetic present special diffi-

culties are by no means uncommon. The poor speller,

the truant, the blockhead, the prodigy, instead of

being sources of worry, prayer and administra-
316 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
tive despair, are fast becoming the subject-matter of
zealous and scientific research.
In the study of the original equipment of the race,
of the ways in which individuals differ, of the proc-
esses of learning and retention, of the special men-
tal processes involved in mastering the school sub-
jects, and in the organization of the school program,
the work method of the classroom,
of the day, the
and the arrangement of the curriculum, in these and
in many other ways the content of psychology is of
indispensable service in education.
Psychological Technique and Education.— The
various applications of psychological procedure,
apparatus and methods range from the use of clas-
sical psychological experiments in the demonstration
of the laws of learning, practice, fatigue, etc., to the
derivation and employment of scales for the meas-
urement of school products. They include, between
these limits of academic and practical extremes, such
further applications as are involved in the employ-
ment of psychological experiment for the solution
of educational problems, and the use of scales of
mental measurement for educational classification
and guidance. These various forms of application
may best be presented in the form of concrete
examples.
A familiar experiment of the psychological labo-
ratory consists in the observation and recording of
the processes gone through in acquiring some new
habit or act of skill. An animal may be placed in
 PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 817

a cage from which can escape only by performing

it

some simple or complex set of movements, after

which it may be rewarded by food. Or a human
being is given some new task to learn, such as solv-
ing a puzzle, acquiring dexterity in some muscular
feat, orbecoming proficient in the use of some in-
strument, some set of symbols, some type of judg-
ment. Records of the modes of attack, variations
in method, types of errors, rate of learning, condi-
tions of improvement, degree and ease of retention,
tendency to distraction and interference, effects of
disturbance, introspections of the worker, and simi-
lar facts, enable the experimenter not only to pic-
ture in a graphic way the course of the act of learn-
ing, but also to formulate various general principles
concerning the relative effectiveness of different
methods and the differences between individuals.
The work of the teacher consists mainly in super-
vising the formation of habits of these and related
types. found useful for the teacher
It is therefore
to become familiar, through performing such ex-
periments in the laboratory or observing them in
the demonstration, with the tendencies and princi-
ples underlying the learning process. In a similar
way the classical experiments in memory, percep-
tion, attention, etc., all have their technical and pro-
fessional value in picturing in concrete and sys-
tematic form the psychology of the pupil. It would
be difficult to find a classical psychological experi-
318 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
ment that does not, at some point or other, admit of
practical application in education.
If now, for the more or less artificial materials
and acts of the laboratory, the mastering of actual
school subjects and operations be substituted, the
laboratory technique leads to a genuine experiment
in education, especially if the experiment be per-
formed on such individuals as comprise the school
population. In this way the value of various meth-
ods of instruction, arrangements of material,
amounts of drill, distributions of practice, propor-
tions of study, rest and recitation, lengths of class
period, etc., may be accurately and quantitatively
determined. In such cases the laboratory technique
is employed not merely by way of illustration, but
as an instrument of educational research.
By way of illustration the oft-quoted studies of
Rice, Stone, Chapman, Courtis, Kirby, White and
others may be cited. By such experimental methods,
for example, one investigator was able to measure
the arithmetical abilities of pupils in several grades
in a number of schools. He found that the results
varied greatly from school to school, the capacity
in each school appearing consistently in all of its
grades. By comparing these data with the amount
of time given to arithmetic in the school programs,
the size of the classes, the age of the pupils, and the
conditions of their home life, it was shown that none
of these factors was responsible for the differences
in arithmetical ability. It is hence suggested that
 PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 319

variations in methods of teaching and supervision

are perhaps the responsible factors. The influence
of these factors may be measured in the same ex-
perimental way.
By a somewhat similar procedure Kirby was able
to show that in the case of practice in arithmetic
under ordinary school conditions, "the greatest
gains were made by the groups which had their
practice in the shortest periods." Thirty-nine
classes, comprising in all 1,350 school children,

served as subjects of these experiments, practicing

in addition and division. In the case of addition
all classes practiced for the same total time, 75 min-
utes. But this total time was divided and distrib-

uted in different ways with different groups. In all

cases there was an initial and a final period, of 15

minutes each. The intervening 45 minutes of prac-
tice were distributed in four different ways, over

different periods of time. One group had two pe-

riods of 22.5 minutes, another, three periods of 15
minutes, another, seven 6-minute periods and one
3-minute period, and the fourth 21 2-minute periods
and one 3-minute period. In these groups, then,
the intervening practice periods are of different
length but amount to the same total time. In the
case of division three groups practiced for 60 min-
utes. In all cases there was an initial and a final

period of 10 minutes, the intervening periods being

broken up into smaller periods of 20 minutes, 10
320 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
minutes and 2 minutes in the three groups, respec-
tively.

The results of these experiments were as follows In ad-

:

dition the gains from practice in 22.5 minute, 15 minute,

6 minute and 2 minute periods, respectively, were in the
relation 100, 121, 101 and 146.5. In division, the gains
from practice in 20 minute, 10 minute and 2 minute pe-
riods, respectively, were in the relation 100, 110.5 and 177.
These experiments were made from the practical point of
view, from which it is immaterial how much the children
study the matter that is being practiced outside of school
hours. If we assume that they did so as much when the
practice periods were distributed in many short periods as
when they were distributed in few long periods, the results
show that the shorter practice periods, especially the 2 min-
ute periods, are much more advantageous.

The derivation of scales for the measurement of

intellectual level was originally prompted by the
urgent need for such measures in school supervision
and administration. In the comparative experi-
ments of pedagogy it is desirable, if possible, to
select the pupils to be tested in such a way that
groups of equal native capacity be submitted to the
conditions of the experiment. In the consideration
of an individual pupil and his educational difficulties
it is first of all important to know whether he brings
a normal intelligence to bear on these difficulties or
whether he is originally inferior or superior in men-
tal equipment. His disposition and treatment, his
classification and direction must be random unless
 PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 321

these facts be ascertainable. Scales of mental meas-

urement make possible the prediction, long before-
hand, of the most probable quality of the pupil's
later academic and vocational achievement, thus in
many instances saving waste to society, accident to
industry, expense and worry to parents, and fruit-
less effort to teachersand supervisors. The individ-
ualization of pedagogy is made more completely pos-
sible by the construction and elaboration, by psycho-
logical investigators, of the various types of scales
for mental measurement and intellectual diagnosis.
Through the intelligent use of these products of the
laboratory the selective work which the test of the
school curriculum has traditionally required years
to accomplish may often be effected in a single hour.
Growing out of the development of scales for the
measurement of general mental level and closely re-
lated to this movement in method and purpose, is
the recent work on the derivation of scales for the
measurement of special school products. By meth-
ods originally devised for the measurement of expe-
riences and materials whose values could be serially
arranged but not quantitatively expressed, the qual-
ities of such products as handwriting, literary com-

position, drawing, spelling, arithmetic, reading, lan-

guage ability, mechanical construction, etc., can now
be compared. Such comparison enables the formu-
lation of scales for the measurement of these school
products, which may be used to advantage in the
elementary subjects, in the place of the traditional
322 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
"examination" with its manifest unreliabilities in
type of question, relative difficulty of answer and
solution, assignment of grades, and standards of
achievement.
By the use of such scales the pupil himself is

enabled to observe in a definite way the progress of

his learning. The teacher is enabled to check up
her methods of instruction and drill, since such
scales make possible direct comparison of one class
with another. The supervisor may from time to
time determine in exact ways the relative effective-
ness of the instruction of different teachers, so far
as the value of this instruction depends on the
character of the children's work. Standards of
performance may be laid down for the various school
grades and uniformity of practice and demand de-
veloped in different parts of the school system.
Statements of individual capacity in school subjects
may assume quantitative form, and the assignment
of grades and marks loses much of its variability
and unreliability. The work of one school system
may be compared with another, and the work of
surveys thus extended beyond the consideration of
buildings and grounds, ventilation and salaries, so
as to include the actual psychological products of
the classroom.
Among the product scales that have been devised
for such educational purposes the following are es-
pecially well known: Woody
Arithmetic Scale,
Courtis Arithmetic Tests, Thorndike Handwriting,
 PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 323

Beading and Drawing and Harvard-

Scales, Hillegas
Newton Composition Scales,Ayres Penmanship and
Spelling Scales, Trabue Language Scales, and Kelly
Eeading Scale. The student of applied psychology
should be interested in becoming acquainted with
one or more of these instruments, with the technique
of their formulation and application and the nature
of their results. Such scales are now being widely
employed in the classroom, in educational research
and in school surveys, and constitute perhaps the
most material contribution of psychological tech-
nique to education.
 CHAPTEE XVin
THE FUTURE OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

Objections have sometimes been made to the use

of the term "applied psychology," on the ground
that the work commonly designated by that term is
not in the strict sense psychological, —not calculated
to enlarge the boundaries of psychology as a science.
It has been suggested, for example, that some such
terms as "human engineering" or '
psychotech-'

nics" would more properly apply. Whatever may

be the cogency of such objections, the term has come
to have a definite meaning in its present form, and
one which in no way conflicts with any other usage
of these words. Applied psychology, both as a term
and as a technical type of interest and pursuit, has
apparently come to stay. More important than a
dispute over its name is the problem of setting it
well and legitimately upon its way, guarding it from
extravagant claim and charlatanry, and establishing
it upon a foundation of valid and trustworthy data

and methods.
In the application of any science to the concrete
purposes of practical life some adjustment of exist-
ing machinery or the development of some appro-
priate institution or professional avenue must al-
324
THE FUTURE OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 325

ways be made. The practical worker, whether judge,

employer, teacher, physician, salesman, executive or
reformer cannot at the same time devote himself
entirely to his practical work and also master a
science. Nor can the scientist at once and indis-
criminately carry over his knowledge or his methods
to the solution of practical problems without giving
heed to the manifold conditions and circumstances
in which those problems occur. In ordinary circum-
stances he cannot even become clearly aware of the
nature of the problems. Some method is always
necessary whereby the science may be made avail-
able to the practical worker, and the scientific worker
informed of the nature and particular circumstances
of the practical problems.
In the case of the different sciences which have
made practical contribution in modern life various
methods of meeting this demand have arisen. Thus
in the case of chemistry the method has been estab-
lished of placing the scientifically equipped worker
in the midst of the industrial plant, providing him
with adequate means of research and definitely set-
ting for him the nature of the problem with which
his research is to deal. The chemist makes little
pretense of mastering the details of industry, and
the manufacturer does not pretend to understand
the technique nor even the vocabulary of the chemist.
Each is a specialist in his own
field and each accepts
the problems or results of the other with full co-
operation.
326 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
In the case of physics a rather different solution
has been found. In place of the industrial labora-
tory of physical research there has developed an
entirely new professional group, the engineers, who
may neither profess to further physical research nor
to occupy themselves with the business details of
contracting, supplying or manufacture. For their
training there have developed special and highly
technical forms of instruction and practice, in which
the known principles and technique of the physical
laboratory are demonstrated in the construction and
planning of buildings, machinery, roads, bridges,
canals, vehicles, etc. The lines of division are of
course not rigidly drawn, and an engineer may by
his technical advances afford new problems or new
knowledge of a scientific kind or he may identify
himself more closely with the business enterprises
within his field.

In the case of psychology neither of these two

methods of adjustment has yet been widely adopted,
although tendencies in both directions may be ob-
served. In general three other types of adjustment
or reaction seem to have been attempted, with by
no means completely satisfactory results in any case.
In educational organization, supervision and
teaching the method generally followed has been
that of giving the practical worker, the superin-
tendent or teacher, such psychological knowledge
and training as can be incidentally inserted into the
course of study in the training school. Thus mea-
THE FUTURE OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 327

gerly equipped the practical worker has attempted

to apply this knowledge or technique, in the form of
principles, methods of measurement, etc., in concrete
class work, discipline, formulation of a curriculum,
selection of methods of instruction, etc. This is
much same method that would be followed by the
the
manufacturer who had taken courses in chemistry
during his college career and then tried in his occa-
sional hours of leisure or moments of emergency to
conduct the chemical investigations for his estab-
lishment. Only in very recent years have cases
occurred in which the psychological expert as such
is called into the school system, for the conduct of
special types of survey, diagnosis, or research, in
much the same way that the chemist is placed in a
modern manufacturing industry.
In the case of business a rather different method
has been followed. Here the practical worker has
been very slow to appropriate such psychological
knowledge and technique as may have been avail-
able. Instead, the psychologist, occupied mainly
with the work of teaching and research, has been
compelled to acquaint himself in a more or less ama-
teurish way with the problems of business, market-
ing and management, working in many cases in the
face of discouragement or half-hearted cooperation.
In education the practical worker laid claim to psy-
chological knowledge; in business the psychologist
was compelled to pretend or to acquire familiarity
with commerce and manufacture. In fact only
328 APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
within the last ten years have there been evidences
of enthusiastic cooperation, support and consulta-
tion on the part of the most enterprising executives,
manufacturers and agencies.
The third unsatisfactory form of reaction is to be
found in that border line of psychology and medi-
cine known as psychopathology or clinical psychol-
ogy. In the determination of mental status, condi-
tion and responsibility, in the diagnosis of mental
defect, in the grading and classification of retarded
school children, in the acceptance of applicants to
charitable institutions, the admission of immigrants
and the disposal of various cases that come before
the courts or in the reformatories or prisons, there
has not been so much an adjustment, but rather an
undesirable sort of rivalry and professional jealousy
between the psychologists and the doctors. Old-
fashioned physicians, lacking the modern psychiatric
and psychological knowledge and technique have
contended for the field of work with academically
trained and clinically ignorant psychologists. The
ideal worker in this field, the psychopathologist, with
complete psychological and neurological training
and practical medical knowledge has consequently
been much retarded in development.
Of all these five modes of adjustment the three that
have been most characteristic of psychology in the
past would seem to be the most undesirable as final
solutions, from all points of view. Rivalry and pro-
fessional jealousy mean waste and inefficiency. The
THE FUTURE OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY 329

investigator and teacher in general psychology or

even in its special fields cannot, except under very
exceptional circumstances, well do justice to his
science while also endeavoring to acquire a business
vocabulary and an expert familiarity with com-
merce, industry and management. For the practical
worker in these fields to acquire in an incidental way
the requisite expert knowledge of psychology is
equally hopeless. For the development of the
'
' psy-
'
chotechnic engineer, ' types of instruction, practice,
and experience are necessary which under the pres-
ent organization of our university departments can-
not easily be provided.
It would seem then that the solution of the imme-
diate future in applied psychology will be similar
to that commonly adopted in the case of the applied
chemists, bacteriologists, etc. It is to be expected,
however, that in time the rapid development now
going on in applied psychology will make necessary
the engineering type of psychotechnic expert, the
consulting psychologist.
 APPENDIX
SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
The following list of selected references is given as
a guide to further reading and as a supplement to the
book when used as a class text. It is of course very
far from being a complete bibliography of Applied
Psychology, for a complete list would now include many
hundreds of references. The list limits itself in the
main to books and articles in English, and to sources
which are readily accessible in almost any college and
university library. In many of these references will be
found more complete bibliographies relating to the spe-
cial topics therein discussed. The references given will,
however, serve to introduce the reader and student to
the numerous and wide fields of practical application
which are necessarily presented in the textbook in very
abbreviated fashion.

CHAPTER I
EFFICIENCY AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Munsterberg, H. Psychology, General and
D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1914.
Thorndike, E. L. Individuality. Houghton, Mifflin
Co.,Boston, 1911.
Watson, J. B. Objective Psychology.
Lippincott Co.,
Philadelphia, 1919.
Woodworth, R. S. Dynamic Psychology. Columbia
University Press, 1918.

CHAPTER II
INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY UPON ACHIEVE-
MENT
Boas, F. The Mind of Primitive Man. Macmillan Co.,
New York, 1913.
331
332 APPENDIX
Dewey, J. Interest and Effort in Education. Hough-
ton, Mifflin Co.. Boston, 1913.
James, W., Principles of Psvcholoerv, Vol. 2, C. 24.
Henry Holt & Co.. New York, 1890.
Mayo, M. J. The Mental Capacity of the Negro.
Archives of Psychology. 1915, No. 33. Science
New York.
Press.
McDougall. W. An Introduction to Social Psychology.
Luce & Co.. Boston, 1917.
Tead. O. Instinct in Industry. Houghton, Mifflin Co.,
Boston, 1918.
Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology. Briefer
Course. Part I. Teachers College, Columbia Uni-
versity. 1915.
Woodworth, R. S. Racial Differences in Mental Traits.
Science, N. S., 1910. Vol. 31, pages 171-186.
CHAPTER III

FAMILY INHERITANCE
Davenport. C. B. Hereditv in Relation to Eugenics.
H. Holt & Co., New York, 1911.
Goddard. H. H. The Kallikak Family. Macmillan
Co.. New York. 1912.
Smith, S., Wilkinson, M. W. and Wagoner, L. G. A
Summary of the Laws of the Several States Gov-
erning Marriage and Divorce of the Feeble Minded,
etc. Bulletin of the University of Washington,
1914. No. 82.
Thorndike, E. L. The Measurement of Twins. Sci-
ence Press. New York, 1905.
Thompson. J. A. Heredity. Putnam, New York. 1908.
Walter, H. E. An Introduction to the Study of Hered-
ity. Macmillan Co., New York, 1913.
Winship, A. E. Jukes-Edwards. A Study in Education
and Hereditv. R. L. Myers & Co., Harrisburg.
1900.
Woods. F. A. Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty.
H. Holt & Co., New York. 1906.
Yerkes and LaRue. An Outline of the Study of the
Self. Harvard LT niversity Press. Cambridge, 1914.
 APPENDIX 333

CHAPTER IV
EFFICIENCY AND LEARNING
Book. W. F. The Psychology of Skill. University of
Montana Publications. Missoula. 1908.
Bryan and Barter. Studies in the Physiology and
Psychology of the Telegraphic Language. Psy-
chological Review. 1S97. Vol. 4. pages 27-53.
Colvin. S. S. The Learning Process. Macmillan Co.,
New York, 1911.
Culler. A. J. Interference and Adaptability. Arch-
ives of Psychology, 1912. No. 24.
Ebbinghaus. Memory. (Trans.) Teachers College,
Columbia Lniversity, 1913.
Galton. F. Inquiries into Human Faculty. Dutton &
Co., New York.
Hollingworth, H. L. Individual Differences Before.
During and After Practice. Psychological Review,
Vol. 21. pages 1-8.
1914.
James. On Vital Reserves. Henry Holt & Co.,
W.
New York, 1911.
James. W. Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1, C. 4.
Henry Holt & Co., 1890.
Kirby. T. Practice in the Case of School Children.
J.
Teachers College, Columbia Lniversity, 1913.
Kitson. H. D. How to L'se Your Mind. Lippincott,
Philadelphia. 1916.
Myers. G. C. Incidental Memory. Archives of Psy-
chology, 1913, No. 26.
Poffenberger, A. T. The Influence of Improvement in
One Simple Mental Process Upon Other Related
Processes. Journal of Educational Psychology.
1915, Vol. 6. pp. 459ff.
Rusrer. H. A.
^~
The Psychology of Efficiency. Archives
of Psychology, 1910, No. 15.
Thorndike. E. L. Educational Psychology, Briefer
Course, Part II. Teachers College, Columbia Uni-
versity, 1915.
334 APPENDIX
CHAPTER V
INFLUENCE OF SEX AND AGE ON EFFICIENCY
Binet and Simon. The Development of Intelligence
in Children, 1916, pp. 182-274. Training School,
Vineland, N. J.
Castle, C. S. A Statistical Studv of Eminent Women.
Archives of Psychology, 1913, No. 27.
Ellis, H. Man and Woman. Scribners, New York,
1914.
Gates, A. I. Experiments on the Relative Efficiency
of Men and Women in Memory and Reasoning.
Psychological Review, 1917. Vol. 24, pp. 139-146.
Hall, G. S. Adolescence. Appleton & Co., New York,
1904.
Goldmark, J. Fatigue and Efficiency. Russell Sage
Foundation, New York, 1913.
Hollingworth, L. S. Variability as Related to Sex dif-
ferences in Achievement. American Journal of
Sociology, 1914. Vol. 19, pp. 139-146.
Hollingworth and Montague. Comparative Variability
of the Sexes at Birth. American Journal of Soci-
ology, 1914. Vol. 19.
Howell, W. H. Textbook of Physiology, 1918. pp.
1017ff. W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia.
Starch, D. Educational Psychology, 1919. pp. 63-73.
Macmillan Co., New York.
Terman, L. M. The Measurement of Intelligence.
Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston, 1916.
Thompson, H. The Mental Traits of Sex. Chicago
University Press, Chicago, 1903.
Thomdike, E. L. Educational Psychology, Briefer
Course, 1915, pp 340-354, and 369-376. Teachers
College, New York.
Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Tests.
Warwick & York, Baltimore, 1914.
 APPENDIX 335

CHAPTER VI
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
Dexter, E. G. Weather Influences. Macmillan Co.,
New York, 1914.
Gates, A. I. Diurnal Variations in Memory and As-
sociation. University of California Publications
in Psychology, 1916. Vol. 1, pp. 323-344. Berke-
ley, California.
Gates, A. I..Variations in Efficiency During the Day,
etc. University of California Publications in Psy-
chology, 1916. Vol. 2, pp. 1-156. Berkeley, Cali-
fornia.
Heck, W. H. The Efficiency of Grammar School Pupils
in Reasoning Tests in Arithmetic at Different
periods of the School Day. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 1914. Vol. 5, pp. 92-95.
Hollingworth, H. L. Variations in Efficiency During
the Working Day. Psychological Review, 1914.
Vol. 21, pp. 473-491.
Huntington, E. Civilization and Climate. Yale Uni-
versity Press, New Haven, Conn., 1915.
Lee, F. S. Fresh Air. Popular Science Monthly, 1914.
Vol. 84, pp. 313ff. Science Press, New York.
Lee, F. S. Recent Progress in Our Knowledge of the
Physiological Action of Atmospheric Conditions,
Science, 1916. Vol. 44, pp. 183-190. Science
Press, New York.
Marsh, H. W. The Diurnal Course of Efficiency.
Science Press, New York, 1906.
Stecher, L.I. The Effects of Humidity and Nervous-
ness on General Efficiency. Archives of Psy-
chology, 1916. No. 38.
Thorndike, McCall and Chapman. Ventilation in Rela-
tion to Mental Work. Teachers College, Columbia
Contributions to Education, 1916. No. 78. Teach-
ers College, New York.
336 APPENDIX

CHAPTER VII
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS (Continued)
Ferree and Hand. The Efficiency of the Eye Under
Different Conditions of Lighting. Transactions of
the Illuminating Engineering Society, 1915. Vol.
10, pp. 407-501, and 1097-1170.
Ferree and Rand. The Power of the Eye to Sustain
Clear Seeing Under Different Conditions of Light-
ing. Journal of Educational Psychology, 1917.
Vol. 8, pp. 451-468.
Ferree and Rand. Some Experiments on the Eye with
Pendant Reflectors of Different Densities. Trans-
actions of the Illuminating Engineering Society,
1916. Vol. 11, pp. 1111-1136, and 1917, Vol. 12,
pp. 464-487.
Luckeish, M. Safeguarding the Eyesight of School
Children. Transactions of the Illuminating Engi-
neering Society, 1915. Vol. 10, pp. 181ff.
Luckeish, M. Light and Shade and' Their Applications.
Van Nostrand Co., New York, 1916.
Morgan, J. J. B. The Effects of Sound Distraction
Upon Memory. American Journal of Psychology,
1917. Vol. 28, pp. 191-208.
Morgan, J. J. B. The Overcoming of Distraction and
Other Resistances. Archives of Psychology, 1916.
No. 35.

CHAPTER VIII
WORK, REST, FATIGUE AND SLEEP
Arai T. Mental Fatigue. Columbia Contributions to
Education, 1912. No. 54. Teachers College.
Gilbreth, F. B. Fatigue Study. Sturgis & Walton
Co., New York, 1916.
Goldmark, J. Fatigue and Efficiency. Russell Sage
Foundation, New York, 1913.
Lee, F. S. The Human Machine and Industrial Effi-
ciency. Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1918.
 APPENDIX 337

Lee, F. S. The Nature of Fatigue. Popular Science

Monthly, 1910. Vol. 76, pp. 182-195.
Lusk, G. The Fundamental Basis of Nutrition. Yale
University Press, New Haven, 1914.
Patrick, G. T. W. The Psychology of Relaxation.
Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston, 1916.
Thorndike, E. L. Mental Fatigue. Psychological Re-
view, 1900. Vol. 7, pp. 466-489 and 574-579.
Thorndike, E. L. Mental Fatigue. Journal of Educa-
tional Psychology, 1911. Vol. 2, pp. 61-80.

CHAPTER IX
DRUGS AND STIMULANTS
Bush, A. D. Tobacco Smoking and Mental Efficiency.
New York Medical Journal, 1914. Vol. 99, pp.
519-527.
Dodge, R., and Benedict, F. G. Psychological Effects
of Alcohol. Carnegie Institute of Washington,
D. C, 1915.
Hollingworth, H. L. The Influence of Caffeine on
Efficiency. Archives of Psychology, 1912. No. 22.
Poffenberger, A. T. The Effects of Strychnine on
Mental and Motor Efficiency. American Journal of
Psychology, 1914. Vol. 25, pp. 82-120.
Rivers, W. H. R. The Influence of Alcohol and Other
Drugs on Fatigue. Arnold, London, 1908.

CHAPTER XI
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE EXECUTIVE
Bulletin 221.U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hours,
Fatigue and Health in British Munition Factories,
1917.
Gilbreth, L. M. Psychology of Management. Sturgis
& Walton, New York, 1914.
Hollingworth, H. L. Vocational Psychology. Apple-
ton, New York, 1916.
Jones, Elmer E. The Influence of Bodily Posture on
Mental Activities. Science Press, New York, 1907.
338 APPENDIX
Link, Henry C. Employment Psychology. Macmillan,
New York, 1919.
Miinsterberg, Hugo. Psychology and Industrial Effi-
ciency. Houghton, Mifflin, Boston and New York,
1913.
Oschrin, Elsie. Vocational Tests for Retail Sales-
women. Journal of Applied Psychology, June,
1918. Vol. II, pp. 148-155.
Personnel System of the United States Army. Super-
intendent of Documents, War Department, Wash-
ington, 1919.
Rogers, Herbert W. Psychological Tests for Stenog-
raphers and Typewriters. Journal of Applied Psy-
chology, Sept., 1917. Vol. I, pp. 268-274.
Scott, Walter D. Increasing Human Efficiency in Busi-
ness. Macmillan C, New York, 1911.
Taylor, Frederick W. Shop Management. Harpers,
New York, 1911.
Tead, Ordway. Instinct in Industry. Houghton, Mif-
flin, Boston, 1918.
Veblen, Thorstein. The Instinct of Workmanship. Mac-
millan, New York, 1914.

CHAPTER XII
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE WORKSHOP
Culler, A. J. Interference and Adaptability. Science
Press, New
York, 1912.
Drury. Scientific Management. Columbia University
Press, New York, 1915.
Frederick, Christine. The New Housekeeping. Double-
day, Page, New York, 1913.
Gilbreth, F. B. Motion Study. Sturgis & Walton, New
York, 1911.
Miinsterberg, Hugo. Psychology and Industrial Effi-
ciency. Houghton, Mifflin, Boston and New York,
1913.
Taylor, Frederick W. Principles of Scientific Manage-
ment. Harpers, New York, 1915.
 APPENDIX 339

CHAPTER XIII
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE MARKET
Adams, Henry F. Advertising and Its Mental Laws.
Macmillan, New York. 1916.
Brisco, Norris A. Fundamentals of Salesmanship. Ap-
pleton, New York, 1916.
Hollingworth, H. L. Advertising and Selling. Apple-
ton, New York, 1912.
Paynter, Kichard. Psychological Study of Confusion
Between Word Trade-Marks. Bulletin U. S. Trade
Mark Association, May, 1915.
Scott, Walter D. Theory of Advertising. Small, May-
nard & Co., Boston, 1913.
Scott, Walter D. Psychology of Advertising. Small,
Maynard & Co., Boston, 1908.
Walter D. Influencing
Scott, Men in Business. Ronald,
New York, 1911.
Starch, Daniel. Advertising. Scott, Foresman & Co.,
Chicago, 1914.
Strong, E. K. Relative Merits of Advertisements. Sci-
ence Press, New York, 1911.
Tipper, Hotchkiss, Hollingworth and Parsons. Adver-
tising, Principles and Practice. Ronald Press Co.,
New York, Second Edition, 1919.
Whitehead, Harold. Principles of Salesmanship. Ron-
ald Press, New York, 1917.

CHAPTER XIV
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE LAW
Crane, Harry. A
Study in Association Reaction, Psy-
chological Review. Princeton, 1915.
Ferris. The Psychology of Punishment.
Goddard, H. The Criminal Imbecile. Macmillan, New
York, 1915.
Gross, Hans. Criminal Psychology. Little, Brown,
& Co., Boston, 1911.
Healy, Wm. The Individual Delinquent. Little, Brown
& Co., Boston, 1915.
340 APPENDIX
Munsterberg, Hugo. On the Witness Stand. Double-
day, Page, New York, 1908.
Muscio, Bernard. The Influence of the Form of a Ques-
tion. British Journal of Psychology, September,
1916.
Myers, Garry C. A Study in Incidental Memory. Sci-
ence Press, New York, 1913.
Stern, Wm. Beitrage zur Psychologie der Aussage.
Leipsic, 1903-1906.
Wells and Forbes. Electrical Process in the Human
Body. Science Press, New York, 1911.
Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Tests.
Vol. II, C. viii. Warwick & York, Baltimore, 1915.

CHAPTER XV
PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SOCIAL WORKER
Freud, S. Psychopathology of Everyday Life. Mac-
New York, 1914.
millan,
Goddard, H. H. Feeblemindedness, Its Causes and Con-
sequences. Macmillan, New York, 1914.
Hart, Bernard. The Psychology of Insanity. Putnam's,
New York, 1912.
Healy, Wm. Mental Conflicts and Misconduct. Little,
Brown & Co., Boston, 1917.
McDougall, Wm. Social Psychology. Luce, Boston,
1918.
Pintner and Toops. Mental Tests of Unemployed Men.
Journal of Applied Psychology, March, 1918. Vol.
n, pp. 15-25.
Rosanoff-Defursac. Manual of Psychiatry (5th ed.).
Wiley, New York, 1919.
Thorndike, E. L. Original Nature of Man. Teachers
College, New York, 1913.
Woodworth, R. S. Dynamic Psychology. Columbia
University Press, 1918.

CHAPTER XVI
PSYCHOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Brill, A. A. Psychoanalysis, Saunders, Philadelphia,
1912.
 APPENDIX 341

Dodge and Benedict. Psychological Effects of Alcohol.

Carnegie Institution, Washington, 1915.
Dubois. Psychic Treatment of Nervous Disorders.
Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1908.
Hollingworth, L. S. Functional periodicity. Teachers
College, New York, 1914.
Holmes. The Conservation of the Child. Lippincott,
Philadelphia, 1912.
Janet, P. Major Symptoms of Hysteria. Macmillan,
New York, 1907.
Prince, et al. Psychotherapeutics. Badger, Boston,
1909.
Rivers, W. H. R. Influence of Alcohol and Other Drugs
on Fatigue. Arnold, London, 1908.
Strong, E. K. Effects of Hookworm Disease. Rocke-
feller Foundation, 1916.
Terman, L. M. The Measurement of Intelligence.
Houghton, Mifflin, Boston, 1916.
Wallin, J. E. Mental Health of the School Child. Yale
University Press, New Haven, 1916.
Wells, F. L. Mental Adjustments. Appleton's, New
York, 1917.

CHAPTER XVn
PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION
Bronner, Augusta. Psychology of Special Abilities and
Disabilities. Brown & Co., Boston, 1917.
Little,
Colvin, S. S. The Learning Process. Macmillan Co.,
New York, 1911.
Freeman, F. N. Psychology of the Common Branches.
Houghton, Mifflin, Boston.
Gordon, Kate. Holt, New
Educational Psychology.
York, 1917.
Hollingworth, L. S. Psychology of Special Disability
in Spelling. Teachers College, New York, 1917.
Hollingworth, L. S. Psychology of Subnormal Children.
Macmillan, New York, 1919.
Huey, E. B. Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading.
Macmillan, New York, 1918.
342 APPENDIX
Judd. Psychology of High School Subjects. Ginn &
Co., 1915.
Monroe, DeVoss and Kelly. Educational Tests and
Measurements. Houghton, Mifflin, Boston, 1917.
Norsworthy and Whitley. Psychology of Childhood.
Macmillan, New York, 1918.
Starch, Daniel. Educational Measurement. Macmillan,
New York, 1916.
Strayer and Norsworthy. How to Teach. Macmillan,
New York, 1917.
Terman, L. M. Intelligence of School Children. Hough-
ton, Mifflin, Boston.
Thorndike, E. L. Educational Psychology. Teachers
College, New York,
 INDEX
Abstraction, fallacy of, 282 Arithmetic, psychology of, 309
Accidents, causes of, 236 Asexualization, 48
Acquisition of skill, efficiency Association test, 7, 249, 289
in,54 Attention, and industrial acci-
Adams, 242 dents, 217
Addison, 240 inheritance of, 27
Adler, 296 Attitude, influence of, 229
Advertising, history of, 240 of psychology, 185
psychology of, 239
Age, and efficiency, 78, 88 Behavior, study of, 4
mental changes with, 94 Benedict, 172, 173
physical and physiological Benussi, 251
changes with, 90 Bentham, 253
Alcohol, and efficiency, 171 Binet, 254
and mental deficiency, 174 Binet-Simon, 96
mental effects of, 173 Breitwieser, 242
pathological effects of, 173 Breukink, 256
Analysis, attitude of, 185, 208 Bricklaying, study of, 227
in education, 307 Brill, 296
in advertising, 243 Brown, 242
Applied Psychology, adjust- Bush, 168
ments in, 325
definition and scope of, 8 Caffeine, influence of, 176, 180
difficulties and limitations of, Carpentry, 223
18 Cattell, 254
future of, 324 Census, tabulation of, 230
history of, 10 Clark, 166
methods of, 185, 324 Climate, influence of, on effi-

objections to, 324. ciency, 107

Arithmetic, methods of drilling, Clinical psychology, 258, 302,
319 328
343
844 INDEX
Collecting instinct, 31 Drug effects, individual differ-
Colored lights, value of, 130 ences in, 183
Consumer, psychology of, 232 Drug experiments, difficulties

Content, of psychology, 243 of,161

Control doses, 292 Drugs and stimulants, 161
groups, 291 Dynamogeny, 218
of conditions, 291
of marriage, 48 Earle, 44
Competition, effects of, 210, 213 Edison, 53, 156
Corrective measures, adaptation Education, function of, 307,
of, 261 312
Crane, 251 and psychology, 306
Crile, 141 and psychological content,
Crime, and season of the year, 311
109 and psychological technique,
Curiosity, instinct of, 31 316
Curve of forgetting, 68 Educational psychology, 210,
Custom, nature of, 283 306
and alcohol, 171
Efficiency,

Daily rhythm, influence on effi- and applied psychology, 1

ciency, 115 and caffeine-containing sub-
Deficiency, and delinquency, stances, 176
274 and daily rhythm, 115
and responsibility, 259 and distraction, 131
and unemployment, 271 and food, 155
Dexter, 107, 113, 114 and illumination, 120
Differential psychology, 203, and learning, 52
314 and monotony, 136
Disease, inheritance of, 46 and 298
sex, 78,

Dishwashing, analysis of, 187 and strychnine, 182

Distraction, influence on effi- and tobacco, 164
ciency, 131 and ventilation, 97
measurement of, 134 dependence on age, 88
Distribution, curve of, 280 dependence on rest and Bleep,
of practice, 319 147
of traits, 280 influence of age on, 78
Dodge, 172, 290 influence of sex on, 78, 298
Drawing, analysis of, 308 in memory, 64
 INDEX 345

Efficiency, influence of work Gilbreth, 187, 227

and fatigue on, 138 Glare, causes and effects of,
organic conditions of, 297 127
Effort, distribution of, 224 Goddard, 45, 174, 259
Ellis, 43, 300 Guilt, detection, 249
Employees, selection of, 194
Environment, influence of, 213 Habit and education, 309
Evidence, accumulation of, 249 and social work, 273
Experimental education, 306 formation of, 54
Expression, method of, 251 psychology of, 273
Eye shades, use of, 129 Harlet, 167
Heredity, influence of, 21
Fallacy, of abstraction, 282
Higher units, formation of,
Falsehood, detection of, 252
59
Fatigue, causes of, 139
History, of applied psychology,
definition of, 139
10
and accidents, 217
of psychology, 2
muscular, nervous and men-
Hollingworth, H. L., 75, 177,
tal, 139
180, 242, 118
recovery from, 155
Hollingworth, L. S., 279, 301
study of, 297
Hookworm, effects of, 289
symptoms of, 144
Hough, 167
Feeble-mi n dedness, importance
Housecleaning, 222
of, 271
Howell, 91
inheritance of, 45
Humidity, influence on effi-
nature of, 281
ciency, 97
feeling tone, inheritance of,
relation to temperature, 195
28
Huntington, lOn, 112
Fere, 167, 293
Ferree, 120, 129
Icard, 299
Food, influence on efficiency,
Illumination, and physiology of
155
the eye, 121
Frederick, 187, 225
efficiency of, 120, 215
Freud, 296
means for improving, 129
Functionalization, mental ef-
measures of efficiency of, 128
fects of, 204
problems in, 121
Gale, 241 types of artificial, 126
Galton, 37, 71 Imagery, function of, 70
346 INDEX
Imitation, instinct of, 34 Instinct, collecting, 31
Incentive, and learning, 60 importance of, 25
effects of, 212 of curiosity, 31
study of, 248 of imitation, 34
Individual differences, impor- of pugnacity, 32
tance of, 17 of self-preservation, 30
Individualization, of industry, of sociability, 33
203 of workmanship, 207
of pedagogy, 314 racial, 35
of punishment, 258 Intelligence, coefficient of, 96

social work, 280 Irwin, 275

Inheritance, and control of
marriage, 48 James, 30, 63, 210
and prenatal influence, 46 Johnson, 240
bodily seat of, 22 Jones, 296
common to the human spe- Jung, 251, 296
cies, 21
common to particular races, Kent, 287
21, 35 Kirby, 61, 319
family, 40 Kraepelin, 290
in families, 21
of attention, 27 Law, psychology and, 248
of deafness, 42 Learning, distribution of time
of feeble-mindedness, 45 in, 67
of feeling tone, 28 imagery and, 70
of habits and diseases, 46 laws of, 56, 64
of insanity, 46 mass and sectional method of,

of instincts, 24 66
of reflexes, 23 permanence of, 68
of sensitivity, 27 psychology of, 316
of spelling ability, 44 Lee, 101
mechanism of, 22 Lombard, 166
mental, 42
physical, 40 Man, original nature of, 312
Insanity, inheritance of, 46 Management, and psychology
nature of, 281 of, 201
study of, 287 Market, psychology of, 232
Instinct, characteristics of, 24 Marsh, 116
 INDEX 347

Mayo, 37 Monotony, analysis of, 137

Measurement, and management, effects of, 136, 228

205 Morgan, 133

in education, 316 Mosher, 300
of accuracy of observation, Motion study, 226
254 Motor effects of tobacco, 165
of advertising, 241 Mott, 46
of deterrents, 263 Movements, organization of,
of drug effects, 290 225
of infringement, 237 study of, 226
of products, 206 Munsterberg, 5, 8, 197, 251
of salesmen, 201, 247 Muscio, 255
of school products, 321
Medical training, and psychol- Natural lighting, 125
ogy, 304 Norsworthy, 309
Medicine, and psychology, 284
Memory, efficiency in, 64 Paynter, 236
reliability of, 252 Pearson, 86
types of, 64 Pedagogy, and psychology, 188
Menstruation, influence of, 298 Periodicity, effects of, 298
Mental abnormality, tests of, 7 Peterson, 251
Mental age, 259, 277 Posture, influence of, 214
scales for, 96 Physical inheritance, 40
Mental deficiency, frequency of, Physiological limit, 63, 70
277 Pillsbury, 54
importance of, 271 Poffenberger, 182
influence of alcohol on, 174 Practice, distribution of, 319
nature of, 280 influence upon variability, 74
of the sexes, 87 method in learning, 61
Mental effects of tobacco, 168 Prenatal influence, 46
Mental inheritance, 42 Printing and psychology, 188
Mental set, maintenance of, 221 Product scales, 322
Methods, of psychology, 190 Psychiatry, 303, 328
of work, 224 Psychoanalysis, assumptions of,
Meylan, 165 251
Misery, causes of, 270 practice of, 296
Modern tendencies in psychol- Psychology, and advertising,
ogy, 1 239
 848 INDEX
Psychology, and education, 306 Rest, relation between work
and law, 248 and, 149
and management, 201 and sleep, 151
and medicine, 284 Retentiveness, inheritance of, 29
and the executive, 194 Reward, psychology of, 211
and, the market, 232 Rhythm, 214, 218
and the medical school, 304 Rice, 318
and salesmanship, 244 Rivers, 167, 171, 174, 177, 290,
and social work, 270 293
and vocational selection, 196 Rosanoff, 287
attitude of, 185 Routing, 225
content of, 243 Runge, 299
future of, 324 Russel Sage Foundation, report
history of, 2 of, 80

modern tendencies in,

technique of, 190, 205 Salesmanship, psychology of,
varieties of, 284 244
Psychological clinic, 302 Salesmen, selection of, 200
Psychological technique, 244 Season of the year, influence of,
Psychopathology, and educa- 107, 109
tion, 314 Selection of salesman, 247
Psychotherapy, 294 Self-preservation, instinct of,
Pugnacity, instinct of, 32 30
Punishment, psychology of, Sensitivity, inheritance of, 27
262 Sex differences, in general in-
telligence, 82
Question, form of, 254 in instincts, 81
in mental deficiency, 87
Reaction, of worker, 228 in social demands, 277
Reading, psychology of, 189 in variability, 85
Records, 210 mental, 81
Reflexes, characteristics of, 23 physical, 79
Research, on drugs, 290 Scott, 197, 241
on patients, 287 Scripture, 251
Responsibility, determination Shepard, 151
of, 258 Sleep, amount required, 152
Rest, conditions for, 147 influence of caffeine on, 180
distribution of, 224 Sociability, instinct of, 33
 INDEX 349

Social psychology, 211 Transfer, experiments in, 72

Social work, and psychology, law of transfer, 73
270 of training, 72
Soldiering, 206 Training, transfer of, 72
Special classes, 315 Trial and error, learning by,
Standardization, and habit, 209 54
nature of, 209 Truancy, psychology of, 275
of tests, 293 Typewriting, analysis of, 228
Starch, 242
Stern, 254 Unemployment, psychology of,

Strayer, 309 271

Strong, 242, 289
Strychnine, influence of, 182 Variability, influence of prac-
Suggestion, influence of, 255, tice upon, 74
293 sex differences in, 85
Vaughn, 167
Taylor, C. K., 166 Veblin, 206
Taylor, F. A., 202, 207, 212, Ventilation, effects of defective,
224 99
Teaching, analysis of, 310 influence of, 216
Technique, of psychology, 190 physical theories of, 102
in education, 316 rules for, 106
Temperature, influence of, 97 theories of, 100
Testimony, evaluation of, 252
Tests, association, 7 Wallas, 235
for vocations, 196 Weather, influence of, on effi-

Thorndike, 38, 41, 44, 54, 75, ciency, 111

81, 84, 197 Wells, 287, 290

Tobacco, influence on efficiency, Will to learn, influence of, 69
164 Woods, 43
mental effects of, 168 Woodworth, 36
motor effects of, 165 Work, and fatigue, 138
Trade symbols, infringement of, relation of rest to, 149
237 Workshop, psychology in the,
psychology of, 235 221

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