302 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The after-image streak of the other object then disappears progressively in 

 the direction opposite to its real movement, and gives the appearance of 

 an object moving in one direction while covering distance in the other 

 direction if at all. 



Professor MacDougall said in abstract: The adaptive responses of 

 organisms differ in complexity, immediacy and persistence. The lower 

 form makes simple, direct responses involving few determinants; the 

 higher are characterized by sustained and complex reactions based upon 

 intricate processes of apprehension. The introduction of a system of 

 ideas between stimulus and reaction serves the furtherance of adaptation 

 in two ways; it supplements the nature of the presented stimulus by a 

 representation of its significant associates, and it increases selective dis- 

 crimination in the choice of reactions. Representative thought is thus, 

 from the biological point of view, a device by which economy of action 

 is attained through the elimination of unfit alternatives at the level of imag- 

 ination instead of at that of movement. When divorced from association 

 with immediate practical results, thought still preserves this function in 

 the economy of life. The plastic imagination is occupied with the repre- 

 sentation of events and situations for which it constructs a series of ideal 

 solutions. Adaptive reaction is rendered more efficient by the organic 

 exercise which imagination thus provides. Through the freeing of thought 

 from its practical relations an independent value is secured to all its mani- 

 festations. This element of absolute worth is embodied in each of the 

 two forms of thought to which the primitive discriminative reaction has 

 given origin, namely, to productive imagination and to analytic reflection. 

 The former is a free treatment of the concrete situations of life according 

 to principles prescribed by esthetic motives, and gives rise to the system of 

 arts ; the latter is a thoroughgoing exploration of the stimuli to action under 

 a logical motive, and gives rise to the system of sciences. 



Brother Chrysostom, in his paper, emphasized particularly the great 

 difference between the mistakes in spelling of good and of bad spellers, 

 and the consequent need of treating the two classes differently in teaching. 

 This led him to urge the importance to education of organized and authori- 

 tative promulgation by psychological associations of the facts and laws of 

 psychology that bear on the problems of teaching. 



The Section then adjourned. 



R. S. WOODWORTH, 



Secretary. 



