JANTJABY 6, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



35 



In this volume Dr. Arnold presents the re- 

 sults of a study of the practical aspect of his 

 problem. " The present essay on the psychol- 

 ogy of Attention and Interest," says the 

 writer, " is an attempt to classify and ar- 

 range the many facts that have been brought 

 to light by numerous experiments in the psy- 

 chological laboratories." In order to allow of 

 the fullest review of such facts the conception 

 of attention has been made as simple as pos- 

 sible; as developed in the Introduction, at- 

 tention is the correlative of the development 

 of an " object " in consciousness. The appear- 

 ance of such an object of consciousness is not 

 incidental to mental activity; in all developed 

 consciousness it is its characteristic form. 

 The problem of the essay is an inquiry into 

 the history and values of this characteristic 

 activity of mind. Attention and interest are 

 therefore considered in their intrinsic rela- 

 tions as systems of ideal elements, in their 

 conditions as phases of a teleological existence, 

 and in their relation to concomitant or conse- 

 quent physical changes. 



The writer's interest is thus not in giving a 

 logical formulation to the conception of these 

 phases of mental activity, nor in seeking the 

 inner distinctions upon which their separa- 

 tion as ideal forms is based. He therefore 

 systematically subordinates the guiding con- 

 ceptions which may have lain back of an in- 

 dividual investigation and ignores the theo- 

 retical formulation to which it may have led, 

 in order to utilize all established facts in the 

 given field. "I have felt myself bound," Dr. 

 Arnold says, " not to uphold any special 

 theory or school, but to present the facts as 

 they seem to be." With reference to all purely 

 psychological problems the book may there- 

 fore be called selective ; it represents a sifting 

 of the literature with a view to presenting in 

 a succinct review the ascertained facts con- 

 cerning attention and interest, in their mani- 

 fold connections, which are of importance to 

 the teacher. As the writer's motive is not 

 critical but practical, and as the aim is to 

 make the reader acquainted with those special 

 aspects of the subject which are of value in 

 connection with the problems of the school- 



room, the discussion falls into two parts, first, 

 the presentation of the results of experimenta- 

 tion, and second, the application of these re- 

 sults to school-room practise. The resume of 

 literature is given separately for each of the 

 two topics, but the applications are consid- 

 ered in a single discussion. The book thus 

 falls into three parts: (I.) Attention, (II.) 

 Interest, (III.) Education. In dealing with 

 each topic the writer simplifies the discussion 

 by separating his description of the facts from 

 their explanatory, developmental and illustra- 

 tive treatments, which are considered in sepa- 

 rate sections. 



By its aim the book disarms criticism for 

 any lack of rigid psychological criteria in the 

 matters of definition and limitation of dis- 

 cussion, since it is a summary of results de- 

 termined primarily by the needs of the 

 teacher. Though the psychologist may rightly 

 demand a definition of attention, or of inter- 

 est, in such terms as to limit the view to phe- 

 nomena of consciousness alone, the teacher 

 must take into account the whole psychophys- 

 ical situation in which the child is placed if 

 he aspires to stimulate his attention or direct 

 his interest. He must study the eifects of 

 extraneous stimulation, fatigue, nutritive con- 

 dition and motor control, as well as those of 

 practise, rest, age, mental development and 

 the like. The mind's activities are both 

 physically and historically conditioned, and 

 their supplementation or ideal control is made 

 possible by this correlation alone. From the 

 teacher's standpoint it is just these extrinsic 

 features of attention and interest — with which 

 Dr. Arnold's book so largely deals — which are 

 of real importance. The analysis of inner 

 distinctions and correlations in the ideal 

 systems themselves which may be called their 

 intrinsic features are, as Herbart long ago 

 pointed out, least of all to be considered in 

 such a connection, though they may consti- 

 tute the primary phenomenon for the intro- 

 spective psychologist. Dr. Arnold's summary 

 of these objective stimuli to interest, and of 

 the physical conditions and manifestations of 

 attention is full and well presented. In the 

 opinion of the reviewer it is here that the 



