22 Hairy K. Wolfe, 



It will doubtless be inferred that the mistakes in naming 

 such common colors as black and white are the results of 

 inattention. It seems almost incredible that children with 

 sufficiently good eyesight to attend the public schools should 

 be unable to recognize white and black. Scarcely less sur- 

 prising is it that children could be found, who, though able 

 to read, are incapable of associating the words white and 

 black with the corresponding surfaces. In this connection 

 several things are to be remembered if we would avoid false 

 conclusions. This paper has nothing to do with the color- 

 perception of the children examined. The answers of those 

 found deficient in the sense of color are excluded from the 

 tables. I do not believe it even possible that any child rep- 

 resented in the tables would have hesitated an instant if 

 black and green, for example, had been placed before him at 

 the same time with the request that black be pointed out. 

 The fault does not lie in the ability to discriminate present 

 sensations. It exists rather in the process of association. 

 The bond of association between sensation and name is so 

 weak that the former fails to call up the latter. Hence also 

 the false name fails to recall its corresponding sensation ; 

 thus the only opportunity of correction is wanting. If we 

 seek a remoter cause of these results, it would doubtless be 

 found in the nature of color-impressions. An approximate 

 idea of what I mean may be gained by trying to determine 

 from memory the difference between lilac and lavender. 

 Unless specially experienced in colors and their names, we 

 should find our conception of this difference quite vague. It 

 is a vagueness in reproduced sensations that causes so great 

 uncertainty in naming. This, in turn, is caused by the indis- 

 tinctness of accustomed perceptions ; the whole depending, 

 of course, upon the habitual want of attention to sensations. 

 The habit of indifference to simple sensations during early 

 life, I believe, tends toward the formation of indefinite ideas 

 on more complex subjects. It would be an interesting ques- 

 tion for future investigation to determine whether all ideas 

 of school children are as indistinct. The question might 



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