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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    to duty are among- the most valuable assets which the school- boy acquires.” [Bolton, To, p. 757 ff., passim] “In any event it is desirable that the teacher should rid him- self of the notion that ‘thinking-’ is a simple unalterable faculty; that he should recognize that it is a term denoting the various ways in which things acquire significance. It is desirable to expel also the kindred notion that some sub- jects are inherently ‘intellectual,’ and hence possessed of an almost magical power to train the faculty of thought. Think- ing is specific in that different things suggest their own appropriate meanings, tell their own unique stories, and in that they do this in very different ways with different persons. As the growth of the body is through the assimilation of food, so the growth of mind is through the local organization of subject-matter. Thinking is not like a sausage machine which reduces all materials indifferently to one marketable commodity, but it is a power of following up and linking together the specific suggestions that specific things arouse.” [Dewey, To, p. 38 f.] “Three points will show the possibilities of benefit from special training beyond the specific line of reaction subjected to practice. 1. The habit pathways may altogether or in part be common to two or to many operations perhaps externally very different ... 2. The method of procedure in a special habit may evidently be applicable to a much larger field . . . 3. Mental attitudes or ideals tend by chance variation and by suggestion to extend their sphere of action.” [Rowe, ’09, pp. 243-246, passim] “Knowledge and training are not merely specific in their application, but they also have a general value. Their value arises through the factor of identical elements, of which there are at least three types [aim, method and content], and it declines rapidly as the similarity of the material of instruction of training decreases.” [Ruediger, To, p. 116] “Now no small part of the discipline which comes from the effortful use of attention in any direction or on any topic is to be found in the habituation which is afforded in neglecting or otherwise suppressing unpleasant or distracting sensations. We learn to ‘stand it’ in short. . . . The actual mental mechanism by which this intellectual and moral ac- climatization is secured, is extremely interesting but we can-
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