HELEN B. HUBBERT 



2 ,;:;;, 



Gain in jirst 5 tests: 



Adults 16 seconds Children 34 seconds 



Gain in second 5 tests: 



gl Adults 5 seconds Children 14 seconds 



It would appear from these results, that, if the rate of improve- 

 ment is the question considered, children learn about twice as 

 fast as adults. 



Turning to the field of animal behavior we find a somewhat 

 larger amount of experimental work on the matter under dis- 

 cussion, although practically all of it occurs as a side issue to 

 some other problem. Slonaker 2 undertook a study of the nor- 

 mal activity of the white rat at different ages, hoping to " ascer- 

 tain how the age of greatest activity compared with that at 

 which the rats were most capable of education." His con- 

 clusions which relate particularly to the subject of this discus- 

 sion are as follows: 



1. " White rats of different ages show a marked difference. 

 in their activity. 



2. " The very young rat and the very old rat are each notice- 

 ably inactive. 



3. " These experiments indicate that the age of greatest activ- 

 ity ranges between 87 and 120 days. 



4. "From these preliminary experiments no correlation can 

 be made between the age at which they are most active and 

 the age at which they learn most rapidly." 



In a later paper 3 he places the age of greatest activity for the 

 males at three hundred days, and for the females at three hun- 

 dred and seventy-five days. 4 The daily activity increases with 

 the advance in age until a certain age is reached, after which 

 there is a gradual reduction till death occurs. 5 " The female 

 is much more active than the male." 6 There is seen to be a 



2 Slonaker, J. R. The Normal Activity of the White Rat at Different Ages. 

 Journ. Comp. Neur. and Psych., 17 ('07), 342-59. 



3 Slonaker, J. R. The Normal Activity of the Albino Rat from Birth to Nat- 

 ural Death, etc. Journ. Animal Behav., II ('12), 20-42. 



4 Op. cit., p. 30. 

 6 Op. cit., p. 26. 

 6 Op. cit., p. 42. 



