776 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 



there Iiave appeared at least four distinctive 

 procedures for the rendering of first aid to the 

 psychology inquisitive. Professor Sanford's 

 voliune was early in the field and adopted the 

 orthodox laboratory-manual method of fur- 

 nishing a large range of small experiments, 

 each for the most part devoted to the illustra- 

 tion of a principle or minor factor in a care- 

 fully presented and elaborated scheme. Pro- 

 fessor Titehener's apparatus is the most elab- 

 orate and the most advanced. He introduced 

 the tvcofold division of a manual for the stu- 

 dent and another for the instructor, and again 

 divided the procedures into the qualitative 

 and the quantitative type. Four sturdy vol- 

 umes thus compose the basis for a course in 

 experimental psychology. Moreover, the prin- 

 ciple of the Titchener series is to select rela- 

 tively few problems in the several fields and 

 give to each a thorough and painstaking treat- 

 ment, sufficient in many cases to yield a defi- 

 nite result in quantitative form. What is 

 thus gained is a considerable training in the 

 research methods of psychology — the pro- 

 cedures by which the standard results have 

 been reached — or at least a worthy prolegom- 

 ena thereto; what is sacrificed is the dem- 

 onstration of a large range of phenomena 

 almost equally important and certainly equally 

 valid as illustrations of psychological prin- 

 ciples with which the psychologist, amateur 

 or professional, wiU have to deal. A third 

 type of manual is that by Professor Witmer, 

 which though a single volume of text, yet 

 carries with it an experimental flavor by in- 

 cluding a collection of all manner of devices 

 by whiqh paper and print may serve the ex- 

 perimentalist's purposes, and by an insistent 

 use of questions and set exercises which the 

 student may (if sufficiently urged) carry on 

 to his own benefit. The fourth member is 

 that now added by Professor Judd. 



There is much to be said for each of these 

 procedures; and the variety of pedagogical 

 principles and practical experiences will de- 

 termine the preference or expediency of each. 

 Professor Sanford's idea was in the main that 

 of letting each instructor choose his own text 

 (or furnish it by lectures) and find in the 



manual a large enough range of illustrative 

 material so that by choosing, omitting, in- 

 truding and transposing, he may build up an 

 experimental course. Such a plan is of per- 

 manent value, is more nearly that which has 

 found favor in other laboratory sciences and 

 will always be preferred by a considerable pro- 

 portion of the teaching psychologists. It is 

 greatly to be regretted that Professor Sanford 

 has not completed his scheme by writing the 

 second part of his manual, which at this stage 

 (with a revision of the first part) would serve 

 the purposes of quite a number of courses now 

 given in colleges. The great emphasis on 

 illustrations of principles, the covering of a 

 large range of observations, the furtherance 

 of direct speaking relations between the stu- 

 dent and the common mass of psychological 

 data: these are the points that commend such 

 a method, as well as the adaptability of the 

 course to the perspective or even the preju- 

 dices of the instructor. Professor Titehener's 

 plan, equally distinctive, equally legitimate as 

 an ideal, and more suitable to the graduate 

 student, yet inevitably is limited to a smaller 

 and more professionally interested clientele. 

 The work is authoritative in its own field and 

 indispensable to any one engaged in the ex- 

 perimental enlightenment of students. Tet the 

 attitude and the interest fostered by the Titch- 

 ener volumes will fail to appeal to a consider- 

 able number of worthy students, whose ambi- 

 tion to become familiar with the spirit of the 

 experimental inquiry in psychology deserves 

 recognition. Professor Witmer's volume has 

 the largest popular appeal; it aims to satisfy 

 a less persistent type of interest and does so 

 with skill and success; it is wholly free from 

 the unfortunate type of popularization char- 

 acterizing Professor Scripture's volume (in 

 construction a very able book), while yet it 

 pretends to be nothing other than what it is. 

 It may be characterized without disparage- 

 ment as a good simimer-school course in psy- 

 chology. Professor Judd's series occupies the 

 middle ground in the group. It forms a sys- 

 tem of text and experimentation, though with 

 a possible independent use of each; like the 

 Titchener series, it gives practical laboratory 



