The psychology of learning / by Edward L. Thorndike.

  • Edward Thorndike
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychology of learning / by Edward L. Thorndike. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    untrained man or even than the man with a narrow education in any other field.” [Pillsbury, ’08, p. 26 f.] “We may conclude, then, that there is something- which may be called formal discipline, and that it may be more or less general in character. It consists in the establishment of habitual reactions that correspond to the form of situations. These reactions foster adjustments, attitudes, and ideas that favor the successful dealing with the emergencies that rouse them. On the other hand, both the form that we can learn to deal with more effectively, and the reactions that we associate with it, are definite. There is no general training of the powers or faculties, so far as we can determine.” [Hender- son, To, p. 307 f.] “It is agreed that wherever practice in one exercise leads to improvement in another, certain specific elements in both are identical and call forth identical responses which promote 'success in both exercises. The identical elements that are thus distinguished may be divided into two groups, those of content and those of form. As examples of content elements we may mention sounds, colors, letters, nonsense syllables, words, objects, kinds of geometrical figures, standards of measurement, ideas, etc. As one grows familiar with such elements, the power to remember them and to attend to them when they appear in new situations and to do what they sug- gest increases. The elements of form may be said to consist of the characteristics that the various situations present as problems for the attacking mind. Thus we recognize one situation as a problem of memorizing where from the nature of the material a particular method of committing to memory may be especially useful. Again, we recognize the need of particular adjustments of perception, such as movements which we have already practiced. All situations demand adjust- ments of attention, some of which may invariably be necessary, while others may suit especially specific kinds of material. “We observe that elements of form and elements of con- tent are equally specific, equally capable of definition. More- over, both are capable of generalization—that is, both are capable of appearing in a variety of settings. The problem of general training is, then, quite as much one of discipline in content as it is one of discipline in form. A better division of mental discipline for our purposes would be into two phases
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