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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 533 



from those which Binet reached by Prayer's method. For ex- 

 ample, Preyer's child identified yellow better than any other 

 color, a result which no one has confirmed. 



The further objection that colors might be distinguished before 

 the word association is established at all, is also seen by Binet, and 

 his attempt to eliminate that source of error constitutes what we 

 may call the third stage in the statement of the problem. He 

 adopts the methode de reconnaissance as preferable to the methode 

 d' appellation. This consisted, in his experiments, in showing to 

 a child a colored counter, and then asking the child to pick out 

 the same color from a number of different colored counters. 



This reduces the question to the second of the four I have named 

 above. It is the usual method of testing for color-blindness. It 

 answers very well for color-blindness; for what we really want 

 to learn in the case of a sailor or a signal-man is whether be can 

 recognize a determined color when it is repeated ; that is, does he 

 know green or red to be the same as his former experience of 

 green or red. But it is evident that there is still a more funda- 

 mental question in the matter — the real question of color per- 

 ception. It is quite possible a child might not recognize an iso- 

 lated color quality when he could really very well distinguish 

 color qualities side by side. It is the question just now coming 

 to the front, the question of absolute vs. relative recognition, or 

 immediate vs. mediate recognition. The last question is this: 

 When does the child get the different color sensations (not recog- 

 nitions) and in what order ? 



A further point of criticism of Binet'sresultsserves to illustrate 

 my argument. Binet rules out the influence of the word mem- 

 ories which were necessary to Preyer's results by his methode de 

 reconnaissance. The child recognizes again the color just seen. 

 Now any one svho has followed the course of recent discussions 

 of recognition must know that the mediation of word associations 

 is not ruled out in these cases in children of 3 to 5 years old or 

 even younger. Lehmann finds colored wools are recognized 

 when the colors are those whose names are known (Benennung's 

 association), and that shades which have not peculiar names, or 

 whose names are not known, are not recognized. Scripture has 

 shown that an unobserved or unintelligible element — a Nebenvor- 

 stellung — may serve as the link of recognition without rising 

 again to clear consciousness a second time. It is, of course, use- 

 less, if these results be trustworthy, to attempt to gel recognitions 

 clear of word memories after color names ba?e once been learned 

 by the child. It vvould seem that the question ought to be taken up 

 with younger children. Binet's experiments were in the interval 

 between the child's 32d and 40th weeks. It is perhaps a con- 

 firmation of Lehmann's position, that the colors least recognized 

 in Binet's list are shades whosenaaies are less familiar to children : 

 his list, in order of certainty of recognition, is red, blue, green, 

 rose, maroon, violet, and yellow by the methode d' appellation ; 

 and, by both methods together, red, blue, orange, maroon, rose, 

 violet, green, white, and yellow.' 



This color question may suffice to make clear the essentials of 

 a true experimental method. Only when we catch the motor re- 

 sponse in its simplicity is it a true index of the sensory stimulus 

 in its simplicity. I have accordingly attempted to reach a method 

 of child study which would yield a series of experiments whose 

 results would be in terms of the most fundamental motor reac- 

 tions of the infant, which could be easily and pleasantly con- 

 ducted, and which would be of wide application. The child's 

 hand- movements are, I think, the most nearly ideal in this re- 

 spect. The hand reflects the first stimulations, the most stimu- 

 lations, and, becoming the most mobile and executive organ of 

 volition, attains the most varied and interesting olEces of utility. 

 We have spontaneous arm and hand movements, reflex move- 

 ments, reaching-out movements, grasping movements, imitating 

 movements, manipulating movements, and voluntary efforts — all 

 these, in order, reflecting the development of the mind. The 

 organs of speech are only later brought into use, and their use for 

 speech involves an already high development of mind, hence the 

 error in Preyer's results. It has accordingly seemed to me worth 

 while to find whether a child's reaching movements would reflect 



' Caloulated from Blnei'3 detailed results (Revue PhllosopHlque, 1890,11., 

 582 ft.) by Mr. F.Tracy. 



with any degree of regularity the modifications of its sensibility, 

 and, if so, how far this could be made a method of experimenting 

 with young children. 



Before speaking, however, of applications, I may adduce one 

 or two other considerations which tend to show that some sueh 

 dynamogenic method is theoretically valid. Fere showed that 

 sensory stimulations of all kinds increase the maximum hand- 

 preseure. Colors (seen) have regular and each its peculiar effect 

 upon movement. Tones have similar influence. The ticking of 

 a watch is more clearly perceived if a sound is heard at the same 

 time. Further, the reaction-time of hand-movements is shorter 

 if the stimulus (sound, etc.) be more intense. There is an en- 

 largement of the hand, through increased blood-pressure, when a 

 loud sound is heard. These, and a variety of other facts upon 

 which the law of dynamogenesis rests, seem to afford justification 

 for the view that the infant's hand-movements (say) in reaching 

 and grasping will be an index of the kind and intensity of its 

 sensory experiences. Magendie" long ago suggested measuring 

 changes in sensibility by the corresponding changes in blood- 

 pressure. 



Further, it is not necessary to embarrass ourselves with the 

 question whether the hand-movements are voluntary or not. 

 However we may differ as to the circumstances of the rise of vo- 

 lition, it is still true that after its rise the child's reactions are for 

 a long time quite under the lead of its sensory life. It lives so 

 fully in the immediate present and so closely in touch with its 

 environment, that the influences which lead to movement can be 

 detected with great regularity. In this case the sensations, which 

 are movement-stimuli, become what we may call "effort-stimuli," 

 and the child's hand-efforts become our indications of the rela- 

 tive degree of discrimination, attractiveness, etc., of the different 

 sensations. 



Suppose we hang a piece of meat up over Carlo's head and tell 

 him to jump for it. His first jump falls short of the meat. He 

 jumps again and clears a greater distance. Why does he jump 

 farther the second time ? Not because he argues tha t a harder jump 

 is necessary to secure the meat, but because by the first jump he 

 got more smell, blood-color, and appetite-stimulus from the meat. 

 Now suppose it be a red rag instead of meat, and Carlo refuse 

 to jump a second time. This is not because he concludes the 

 rag would choke him, but because he gets a kind of sensation 

 which takes away what appetite-stimulus he already had. The 

 thing is a thing of sensational dynamogeny or "suggestion," and 

 the child-state up to his 24th month (more or less) is just about 

 the same. 



The following questions, I think, might be taken up by this 

 method: — 



1. The presence of different color-sensations as shown by the 

 number and persistence of the child's effort to grasp the color. 



2. The relative attractiveness of different colors measured in 

 the same way. 



3. The relative attractiveness of different color combinations. 



4. Tlie relative exactness of distance-estimation as shown by 

 the child's efforts to reach over distances for objects. 



5. The relative attractiveness of different visual outlines (stars, 

 circles, etc.) cut in the same attractive color, etc. 



6. The relative use of right, left, and both hands. 



7. The rise of imitative movements. 



8. The rise of voluntary moverhents. 



I am quite aware of the meagreness of this list; but one has 

 only to remember the fact that there is no such thing yet as 

 a psycho-physics of the active life, that this side of psychol- 

 ogy is terra incognita to the experimentalist.' If the method 

 proves reliable in one-half of these questions, then so much gain. 

 I have applied it to questions 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7 with results, 

 some of which I have already published in this journal. Other 

 papers will be devoted to these detailed applications. 



' FerS, "Sensation et Movement," p. 66. 



3 I see no reason that a method could not be devised for testing the motive 

 influences of presentations in terms of the time elapsed since their experience- 

 I have announced elsewhere {Proceedings of Congress for Exper. Psychology, 

 London, 1892), the first results of a research conducted upon adults by such a 

 method. 



