Mental Equipment Research Articles

Measurable Outcomes of Two Methods of Teaching Experimental Geometry

To determine scientifically how the lecture demonstration method compares with the individual-laboratory method of teaching, when geometric material is presented as a laboratory science, is the problem. The pro cedure consisted of forming two parallel groups of pupils which were nearly alike in mental equipment as measured by those factors which were considered likely deter minants for successful achievement in school subjects, and which were about at the same point on the learning curve in terms of achievement in geometry. The group which was taught by the lecture-demonstration method was designated the control group and the one taught by the individual-laboratory method was designated the experimental group.

THE CASE FOR SUBJECTS IN THE CURRICULUM*

needs at least one modern language not his own in his mental equipment. It is probably true that linguistic study has occupied too great a share of the time of the secondary school. Including the study of the native language, many students have hitherto brought to college from eleven to thirteen out of the sixteen-year units, into which the four-year high-school course has been divided, of linguistic study. History and science have been the chief sufferers, and doubtless this situation should be corrected by a more equitable division of the time of the student.

The Effectiveness of Protective Adaptations in the Hive Bee, illustrated by Experiments on the Feeding Reactions, Habit Formation, and Memory of the Common Toad (Bufo bufo bufo)

Summary A series of experiments on the feeding reactions of the common toad are described and discussed. These experiments represent an attempt (1) to furnish reliable experimental proof of the effectiveness of the protective adaptations of hive‐bees in relation to predatory attack by toads; and (2) to throw some light on the feeding reactions, powers of association, and memory in the toad (Bufo bufo bufo). In Experiment I. 34 toads (after a week's fast) were offered hive‐bees, but no other food, twice daily on seven consecutive days. The daily records of acceptance are as follows:–(1) number of bees eaten, 45, 41, 18, 10, 8, 3, 0; (2) number of toads * eating bees, 25, 16, 10, 6, 5, 3, 0. No fewer than ten toads learned to avoid bees entirely after a single trial acceptance; in nine of these cases a single bee was eaten at the toads' first visit to the hive. By the seventh day the slowest individuals had learned the lesson of avoidance. On this day no bee was touched by any of the thirty‐three toads which completed the tests. In Experiment II., which was carried out as a memory test, the trials were repeated, as before, after a fortnight's fast with eighteen toads which had previously learned to avoid bees in Experiment I. Results showed a marked total reduction (1) in the number of toads which accepted bees (from 16 to 9); (2) in the number of bees eaten (from 87 to 36); and (3) an increase in the number of toads refusing bees throughout the respective experiments (from 2 to 9). A comparison of the rate of learning by individual toads in the two experiments respectively, as indicated by the number of trial acceptances necessary to establish complete avoidance, reveals (1) that in no single case is there an increase in the number of bees eaten; (2) that in fifteen out of eighteen toads there is a definite improvement; and (3) that in several cases the improvement is marked (as from 6 to 1, from 7 to 1, from 17 to 6, and from 12 to 5). It is concluded from these facts (1) that acceptance or refusal of hive‐bees depends largely upon the acquired individual experience of the toads; (2) that inexperienced toads readily accept bees as food; (3) that even under starvation conditions these animals learn in a few trials to refuse and to avoid bees entirely, though other insects (mealworms offered as a test‐feed after the experiments) are readily accepted; (4) that the lesson of avoidance, once learned, is wholly or partially remembered for at least a fortnight; and (5) that hive‐bees are highly distasteful to, and in general well‐defended against, predatory attack by toads. The foregoing experimental results strongly support earlier conclusions based upon the examination of stomach‐contents of tree‐frogs*: namely, (1) that these animals exercise discrimination in the choice of food; (2) that they learn by experience in nature to recognize and to avoid unpalatable prey; and (3) that the mental equipment and feeding reactions of Anura are such as to suggest that the animals have played a part with birds and other insectivorous vertebrates in the evolution, through natural selection, of Warning Colours and Mimicry.

Miscellany

MR. COLIN TOLLY'S budget of sonnets calls for notice in these pages, as poetry inspired or influenced by science will become more and more common as the ideas of science are gradually absorbed and form part of our ordinary mental equipment. This process is going on all the time, and we have often noticed it before. At the moment the due expression of these ideas is peculiarly difficult for two main reasons. One is the extraordinary spate of new discoveries and theories; the other, the prevailing unrest and dissatisfaction with the general state of the world in which these ideas are shooting up. Both these contemporary features find a striking demonstration in Mr. Tolly's verse. He is at grips with all kinds of problems and mysteries as well as the simpler but dominating thoughts of evolution and death which haunt him throughout. Often there are quite moving and common human emotions; more often one is tortured by doubts and mystical longings for a state of joyous peace beyond the whirl of atoms and of bewildering problems. Janus-Man in Starry Night By Colin Tolly. Pp. viii + 101. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1935.) 5s.

Geography as mental equipment

Geography as mental equipment

The Influence of Civilization on the Insect Fauna of Forests

Man is a peculiar animal and most inconsistent. He thinks that he is fundamentally superior and sets himself apart from other animals, then he proceeds to respond to stimuli just as the others do. Regardless of his supposedly superior mental equipment, he acts as the need of the moment dictates, with almost no thought of consequences. As an individual he plans for the future welfare of himself and family, but so do the beaver, the carpenter ant, and the mudwasp. He has learned that it is to his advantage to band together with others of his kind for companionship, mutual protection, or aggression, but so have the sheep, the bison, the ant, and the hornet. He ruthlessly destroys that which he will need in order to satisfy his immediate whim, and thoughtlessly wastes that which he never can replace. So do other animals when the opportunity offers. He compliments himself upon his superior mental prowess, and still as a group he has never been able to order himself in a really intelligent manner. Occasionally some individual or small grotip of individuals have whipped the rest into line and forced them to act in a logical way, but such efforts have been relatively short lived.

25. The Zoological Society's Expedition to the Zambesi, 1927: No. 4. On the Ecology of Tree‐Frogs in the Lower Zambesi Valley, with special reference to Predatory Habits considered in relation to the Theory of Warning Colours and Mimicry.

25. The Zoological Society's Expedition to the Zambesi, 1927: No. 4. On the Ecology of Tree‐Frogs in the Lower Zambesi Valley, with special reference to Predatory Habits considered in relation to the Theory of Warning Colours and Mimicry.

An Argument for a Correlated Course in Science and Algebra

The first-year course in algebra can be the most interesting subject in the curriculum. It would be if it were not devitalized by some of these logical minded college professors who write our texts. Any student sufficiently endowed with mental equipment to enable him to do successfully sixth grade arithmetic would encounter no difficulty in mastering most of the material in the first year algebra if it were properly presented. Yet the percentage failure of algebra students exceeds that for all other subjects in most high schools, and in addition to this it is the exceptional student who at the end of the course in June can demonstrate any true mathematical power. By mathematical power I mean ability to apply mathematical methods to new situations, possession of confidence in one's results, etc. By the following September nearly all the skills in manipulation and most of the problem work have apparently been forgotten.

An Approach to the Psychology of Religion.

The author conceives of religion as a means of escape for the mind of the human being in times of frustration. He presents numerous definitions of religion and an analysis of the mechanism of religious response. He then describes the religion of the Winnebago Indians and the Peyote cult. A chapter on George Fox, founder of Quakerism, is a consideration of a cultist leader and of the mysticism associated with such leaderships. A chapter on conversion indicates the author's view that it represents the response to need for discriminations which are in excess of mental equipment. A chapter on psychopathology and religion, religion and prehistory and several appendixes complete the volume.

PATHOLOGY OF GOITER

Attempts have frequently been made to formulate a classification of goiters which should provide a separate group for all the various pathological and clinical entities. The more I study goiters the more I am convinced that the goiterous disease is a more or less continuous process, and the various pictures declare the state of development rather than a pathological or clinical entity. We should speak of the stages of goiters rather than of kinds. One does not have the proper mental equipment for the study of goiters unless he knows the life history of patients who run their course without treatment. Practicing in one community for a lifetime, I have been able to trace repeatedly the process from the adolescent colloid to the bossilated masses of middle life, and finally the cardiac decompensation and evidence of dysthyroidism. One of the chief difficulties lies in the proper interpretation of the clinical picture. The patients must be considered aside from the goiter in order that irrelevant symptoms may...

The Political and Social Theory of Michael Bakunin

In the course of the nineteenth century the breach between the Russian government and the intelligentsia grew steadily wider, until it would scarcely have been credible that the relations between them had once been those of patron and client. This had been in the brighter and more hopeful days of enlightened despotism, under Catherine II, and in some measure also under Alexander I. Now, however, other men were ruling, still despotic but no longer enlightened. The consequence was that the less tractable of the intellectuals became either voluntary or compulsory exiles. Much of nineteenth-century Russian history centers about these exiles, who huddled together in colonies wherever they were tolerated: in Zurich, in Paris, and in London. They constituted the principal bond, both physical and cultural, between Russia and the western world.By tradition and training these exiles possessed a bent for cosmopolitan living; in their mental equipment they were decidedly eclectic. Now more than ever they were exposed to the diversity of intellectual influences in which western Europe was more than commonly rich in this post-revolutionary period. Detached from their own foundations, they yielded themselves the more readily to the new currents of thought. Hegelianism, Darwinism, positivism, socialism—wave after wave of “isms” passed over them. They absorbed something of each and tried to make a blending of all.

Histoire des sciences exactes et naturelles dans l'antiquité gréco-romaine: exposé sommaire des écoles et des principes

PROF. ARNOLD REYMOND has for many years given a course of lectures on the history of science at the University of Neuchatel. This course is attended by students in the Faculty of Letters as well as by those in the Faculty of Science, a practice which is worthy of the notice of university authorities in Great Britain and elsewhere. The present book represents that part of the course which deals with the development of mathematics, the natural sciences, and medicine in Greco-Roman antiquity. It is very well written, and shows that its author has not only a complete command of his subject, but also a ready appreciation of the requirements and mental equipment of his audiences. Whilst avoiding a parade of learning, Prof. Reymond gives full references to his authorities for any statement of importance, and the book will thus appeal to all students of the history of science, especially those whose main interests do not lie in this particular field. It is of course very difficult to deal adequately with such a large subject in the space of 230 pages, and detail has had to be cut down to a minimum. Nevertheless, Prof. Reymond has contrived to be readable, and as a bird's -eye view of the scientific knowledge of the ancient world his book may be heartily recommended. The increasing interest in the history of science which is manifesting itself in Great Britain suggests that an English translation might be well worth publishing. No other book of the size treats the subject with the same skill. Histoire des sciences exactes et naturelles dans l'antiquité gréco-romaine: exposé sommaire des écoles et des principes. Par Prof. Arnold Reymond. Pp. viii + 238. (Paris: Albert Blanchard, 1924). 12 francs.

A Theory of Rural Attitudes

It is quite generally recognized that, on the average, peopl have certain psycho-social characteristics more fully or less full, developed, as the case may be, than has the general run of the urbai population. Occasionally we find these traits referred to collec tively as the rural mind. A careful distinction should be madi here. In general mental equipment the farmer is not differenl from other people. He possesses the same fundamental processe, and powers of thinking and has, so far as we know, the same genera neural organization. It is not, therefore, his mind which is different in any fundamental or inherent sense of method. It is in his judgments and which he has built out of experienc( and training that he departs from the standards and viewpoints oi others. His psychical differentiation is in the last analysis a socia] rather than a biological one. For this reason we refer to these collective traits as attitudes rather than as mind, because ol the more inclusive reference of the former term. The origin and causation of these differences in attitude may properly be considered from a number of standpoints. If we appeal to hereditary differences, it is obvious that there are no distinctions of this sort between ruralite and urbanite sufficient to account for the differences in attitudinal traits. Traditions and customs, especially of occupational and associational sorts, may well account for a larger number of differences in attitude. Conventions become localized and persist within the limits of certain types of environment. But if we are considering an occupational class or group as a whole, we must account for the origin even of the conventions themselves, which are perpetuated and which continue to influence the culture and of the people. The explanation of

Higher Education for Business Pursuits and Manufacturing

This subject, as formulated, assumes the need and value of training for business and industrial pursuits. No argument is necessary to establish this fact. It is just as true that suitable training is required for a business career as that suitable training is required for the professions, so called. It is equally true that, until a comparatively recent period, no direct provision has been made in our educational systems for a preparation for business. Two theories of education are held: one that the proper method is the development of the faculties of the student without reference to ulterior pursuits, and the other that the course of study should be informing and directed to the proper mental equipment. We cannot deny the value of general culture. It is true that the properly trained mind can adapt itself to requirements of every description; but this view assumes what may not be admitted that both culture and training cannot be effected in a properly selected curriculum. Who shall say that the study of the natural sciences is not as valuable for purposes of culture as the study of metaphysics, or that the study of mathematics in their application to mechanical principles is not more effective for culture than their study in the abstract? Can it be maintained that the study of modern history and commercial geography is less effective in promoting the training of the faculties than the study of ancient history and archaeology? It is the discipline of difficulty which counts; and if the subjects on which the faculties are exercised are such as may prove valuable and informing for future use, there is no ground for their condemnation. If, then, these two theories of education can be harmonized, the solution of the problem is at hand. Our subject requires the consideration of the relative position in any curriculum, of special training and, incidentally, of the time [II5]

Melancthon's “Synergism.”

The problems of anthropology depend for their solution in an unusually large degree upon psychology. While the evangelical church looks to the Bible for the materials of its theology, it still depends upon the use of human reason in the interpretation and adjustment of the materials there presented. Especially is this true in the matter of conversion and related doctrines. The language of the Bible is general, rhetorical, theological, practical, or popular, as you may choose to call it, but not strict, philosophical, theoretical, or scientific. The ultimate facts of the doctrine may be perfectly clear to the biblical student, but the adjustment of those facts in a dogmatic system will depend largely upon his ability as a thinker to see in the facts what the biblical writers have not thought fit to utter in express terms, and this upon his mental equipment for his task, or, in other words, upon his knowledge of the constitution and operations of the human mind, within which the process of conversion goes on. The history of Melancthon's “synergism” brings this peculiarity of the subject before us in a very interesting way, for clearer ideas as to the nature of the soul went, in his case, hand in hand with the alterations of the theological system; and thus his efforts to arrive at a statement of the process of conversion which should be at once true to the Scriptures and to the consciousness and the moral necessities of man, are not only interesting as the mental history of a great mind, but throw light upon the interrelations of anthropology and psychology, give us many suggestions as to the interpretation to be put upon the Reformation theology at the present day, and may serve to reveal the lines upon which all progress in respect to these questions is to be sought.

Unconscious Memory, &c

MR. BUTLER is already known to the public as the author of two or three books which display a certain amount of literary ability. So long therefore as he aimed only at entertaining his readers by such works as “Erewhon,” or “Life and Habit,” he was acting in a suitable sphere. But of late his ambition seems to have prompted him to other labours; for in his “Evolution, Old and New,” as well as in the work we are about to consider, he formally enters the arena of philosophical discussion. To this arena, however, he is in no way adapted, either by mental stature or mental equipment; and therefore makes so sorry an exhibition that Mr. Darwin may well be glad that his enemy has written a book. But while we may smile at the vanity which has induced so incapable and ill-informed a man gravely to pose before the world as a philosopher, we should not on this account have deemed “Unconscious Memory” worth reviewing. On the contrary, as a hasty glance would have been sufficient to show that the book is bad in philosophy, bad in judgment, bad in taste, and, in fact, that the only good thing in it is the writer's own opinion of himself—with all that was bad we should not have troubled ourselves, and that which was good we should not have inflicted on our readers. The case, however, is changed when we meet, as we do, with a vile and abusive attack upon the personal character of a man in the position of Mr. Darwin; for however preposterous, and indeed ridiculous, the charges may be, the petty malice which appears to underlie them deserves to be duly repudiated. We shall therefore do our duty in this respect, and at the same time take the opportunity of pointing out the nonsense that Mr. Butler has been writing, both about the philosophy of evolution and the history of biological thought. Unconscious Memory, &c. By Samuel Butler. Op. 5. (London: David Bogue, 1880.)