Obliviscence and reminiscence / by Philip Boswood Ballard.

  • Philip Boswood Ballard
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obliviscence and reminiscence / by Philip Boswood Ballard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    subject learns a passage of poetry and is tested immediately, then again on the next day, and again on the following day, etc. for a week; but it indicates what happens when the subject is tested immediately after learning, and is not tested again until a week has elapsed. Improvement varies with the Poem memorised. The results obtained by using “The Ancient Mariner” were not so striking as those obtained with poems which made a stronger appeal to the pupil’s interest. Further experiments were made with “'The Wreck of the Hesperus,” or, where any of the children were familiar with that ballad, some other poem of similar interest and difficulty. The time allowed was ten minutes. Taking the results as a whole the average number of lines reproduced immediately after memorising was 15. While the children could not learn “'The Ancient Mariner ” quite at the rate of a line per minute, they were able to learn “The Wreck of the Hesperus” at the rate of a line and a half per minute. Fewer classes were taken for this supplementary test, but they were chosen as representing children of normal ability in general school work. The results were as follow: For an interval of 1 day there was a gain of 11 _ per cent. Ae A. 2 days Ss 2 17-2 re - a 3 ‘ ‘. 35 125 se 99 2? 4 99 9 39 11°9 99 99 99 5 9? 9 99 tit - 9 5 M; 6 5 + loss of 1 a 9 99 ff 99 9 99 6°3 © ed It will be clearly seen by looking at Chart 1 how the curve for “The Wreck of the Hesperus” compares with that for “The Ancient Mariner.” The curve is considerably broader and higher, although it preserves nearly the same shape. One reason for its increased height is to be found in the fact that there was a wider margin for improvement among the best memorisers. Only 34 lines of “The Ancient Mariner” were set, and 15 minutes allowed. Some few children memorised the whole and were able to reproduce it correctly. This afforded no room for improvement: any change that took place would necessarily be deterioration. “The Wreck of the Hesperus” on the other hand contains 72 lines, and nobody was able to learn the whole in the 10 minutes allowed ; although one boy learnt 46 lines, which he increased to 49 after two days, and another boy improved from 44 to 50. But this only partly accounts for the difference, for the number of children who reached
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