HABIT FORMATION AND FEELING QUALITIES 291 



gradually faded out and finally shot together into larger ones 

 embracing twelve to fourteen movements. The limits of these 

 larger groups were fixed for a time by the return of the queens, 

 by the consequent radical change in the system of movements in 

 the first half of the cards and by the return of the 5 of H and 5 of C 

 in the last half being due to the difficulty of these movements. 

 Consult diagram 2, plan I, third and fourth. 13's, to see the 

 difficulties involved. The breaks at the Q of D (Q of S) and 5 

 of H were the largest and were finally bridged by the movement 

 to the Q of D fading out, followed later by the 5 of H movement 

 in a similar fate. By the seventy-fifth distribution one subject 

 claimed to " sense" the whole process as one, the beginning and 

 the end were well nigh in the same concept. 



Only two subjects of the eleven made any considerable use of 

 visual imagery in anticipating grouped-movements in this stage. 

 While their descriptions do not show that they regarded it of 

 doubtful value, their errors, hold-ups and speed records point 

 in that direction. Attention is directed here to the functional 

 value of imagery in learning, because it is called in question. 

 Dr. Fernald (16) in a general discussion of the problem inclines 

 to the affirmative view. My own results indicate that its value 

 depends on the individual, so that the problem is one to be 

 settled by individual rather than by general psychology. 



Subjects who attained the higher records and worked easily 

 in the automatic stage revealed two things: (1) That the final 

 stage was made not merely because they were able to control 

 attention and direct it to the proper objects involved in the 

 distribution, but because they had also attended at the proper 

 time to a number of accessories that furnished a substantial 

 basis and framework out of which and on which the higher 

 achievements were developed. (2) That rapid delivery developed 

 difficulties, revealed hard and easy places and aroused feeling 

 qualities not experienced in the lower stages. 



It is in these two stages, the conscious group and the automatic, 

 and particularly the former, that reliable evidence on the relation 

 between feeling tones and the acquisition of skill is to be secured. 

 These results are further considered in connection with the 

 learning curves. 



