HELEN B. HUBBERT 



Gain in first 5 tests: 



Adults 16 seconds Children 34 seconds 



Gain in second 5 tests: 



& 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. 8 " 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. 



