Interference and adaptability : an experimental study of their relation with special reference to individual differences / by Arthur Jerome Culler.

  • Culler, Arthur J. (Arthur Jerome), 1883-1946.
Date:
1912
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Interference and adaptability : an experimental study of their relation with special reference to individual differences / by Arthur Jerome Culler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    four trial method of Group III. are the best. Nothing new is yielded by the eight arrangement method except that the interference is not much more, if any, with eight than with four repetitions, and that it is sooner overcome. The four-trial method seems to be the best employed by the writer. 2. Relation of Interference to Practise Effect The specific problem with which Bergstrom was concerned in his second report on interference effect was its relation to the practise effect, as to whether it was greater, equal to, or less than the practise effect. His conclusion was that the interference effect was equal to the practise effect.3 He also says that if the experiment had been taken at the same stage of practise as the one he previously per- formed the interference effect might have been greater than the practise effect. He thinks that the previous and opposing associa- tions are not effaced because they have the same effect on a third arrangement as they have on each other. Bair finds no such large amount of interference and thinks a large part of Bergstrom’s is due to indisposition on the part of the subject.4 Bergstrom had only one arrangement, that of alternating, and conducted it for just eight repetitions, which is included in one day of my experiment. He might use the same cards after several weeks for another similar series but was sure that at that time no practise effect remained over. Then in the second place he used only one sub- ject. With only one subject for such a.short time he could hardly draw his strong conclusion, for several of my subjects did not show improvement until the second day, and had they been all used for just one day there would have been little improvement. All of the twenty-six subjects in the present experiment show interference effect. Immediately they show more than Bergstrom’s for the sortings were only 30 seconds apart. This is not a matter of indisposition or laziness but interference. The hardest work of the subjects was done right after the change and just when the interfer- ence showed most. Except when a record was to be broken the sub- jects worked hard to keep their time from increasing. Only one subject did not do this and he showed laxness of interest at several points. In spite of hardest work at such times every individual shows immediate interference, and those showing most improvement often show greatest immediate interference. But the interference is overcome and the two associations become 3 Bergstrom, loc. cit., pp. 440, 441.