700 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I 



Moral sense and its perversions, Hyper-conscientiousness, Romanticism, 

 Untruthfulness, Dishonesty, unprincipled conduct, and experversions. 



Devolutionary conclilions. Juvenile General Paralysis of the Insane. 

 Dementia prsecox. Suicide. 



2. Therapeutic Re-edii-cation. By Dr. Jessie Murray. 



3. Some Effecta of Training Children's Powers of Observation. 

 By Miss I. B. Saxby. 



In a little book called ' Methods of Mind Training ' Miss C. Aiken describes 

 a number of exercises in quick observation which are intended to develop in 

 children the power of ' keeping the mind on the alert and holding the attention 

 steadily.' She gave these exercises about twenty minutes a day and was much 

 impressed by the improvement they produced, especially in the case of 

 unintelligent children. 



For the purpose of my experiment the exercises were given regularly fifteen 

 minutes a day on four days of every week for a period of twelve weeks, and 

 in connection with them an attempt was made to create a real desire to become 

 more observant in the children who had these special lessons. The effect of 

 this training was measured by means of four tests, of which three were given 

 respectively at the beginning, middle, and end of the period of training, the 

 fourth after a further period of four months. The material used in these tests 

 consisted in (1) memory drawings of well-known objects, (2) reproduction of a 

 story read to the class once only, and (3) reproduction of a list of ten numbers 

 shown to the class for thirty seconds. The experiment was conducted in four 

 elementary schools, and for the sake of comparison the tests were repeated at 

 another set of four elementary schools where no special training was given. 



The results obtained in this way can be summarised as follows : 



(1) Under suitable conditions a well-marked and effective desire can be 



developed in this way, but the improvement produced is not in general 

 permanent. In Test 4 the difference between the trained and the non- 

 trained is no longer significant for the class as a whole. 



(2) If the training in observation is conducted by means of prestige sug- 

 gestion only the more intelligent tend to improve more rapidly than 

 the less intelligent, but the reverse is the case if prestige suggestion 

 is used in connection with the special exercises in quick observation. 



(3) In questions testing the amount of knowledge acquired during the 

 period of training the more suggestible tend to improve more rapidly 

 than the less suggestible, but the reverse is the case when the task 

 consists in reproducing material memorised in a limited amount of time 

 in the presence of the experimenter. 



(4) As a suggestive force the effect of the exercises is negative rather than 

 positive. 



(5) The improvement in the work of the trained classes was in the main 

 due to the development of a desire to become more observant. ' 



The effect produced by the special exercises was almost nil. 



(a) The more intelligent children derived no benefit from them either 

 during the period of training or afterwards. 



(6) The less intelligent children did derive benefit from them during the 

 actual period of training, but a twelve weeks' course of lessons was 

 found to be insufficient to produce a permanent improvement of anj 

 sifrnificance. 



4. The Role of Specific Mental Factors in Imagery. By E. Gleaves. 



