PREFACE 



once that he purposely leaves his research students alone for some 

 time to give them an opportunity to find their own feet. Such a 

 policy may have its advantages in selecting those that are worth- 

 while, on a sink or swim principle, but to-day there are better 

 methods of teaching swimming than the primitive one of throw- 

 ing the child into water. 



There is a widely held opinion that most people's powers of 

 originahty begin to decline at an early age. The most creative 

 years may have already passed by the time the scientist, if he 

 is left to find out for himself, understands how best to conduct 

 research, assuming that he will do so eventually. Therefore, if in 

 fact it is possible by instruction in research methods to reduce his 

 non-productive probationary period, not only will that amount 

 of time in training be saved, but he may become a more pro- 

 ductive worker than he would ever have become by the slower 

 method. This is only a conjecture but its potential importance 

 makes it worth considering. Another consideration is the risk that 

 the increasing amount of formal education regarded as necessary 

 for the intending research worker may curtail his most creative 

 years. Possibly any such adverse effect could be offset by instruc- 

 tion along the lines proposed. 



It is probably inevitable that any book which attempts to deal 

 with such a wide and complex subject will have many defects. 

 I hope the shortcomings of this book may provoke others whose 

 achievements and experience are greater than mine to write about 

 this subject and so build up a greater body of organised know- 

 ledge than is available in the literature at present. Perhaps I have 

 been rash in trying to deal with psychological aspects of research 

 without having had any formal training in psychology; but I 

 have been emboldened by the thought that a biologist venturing 

 into psychology may be in no more danger of going seriously 

 astray than would a psychologist or logician writing about bio- 

 logical research. Most books on the scientific method treat it from 

 the logical or philosophical aspect. This one is more concerned 

 with the psychology and practice of research. 



I have had difficulty in arranging in a logical sequence the 

 many diverse topics which are discussed. The order of the chapters 

 on chance, hypothesis, imagination, intuition, reason and observa- 

 tion is quite arbitrary. The procedure of an investigation is 



