Fundamentals of child study ; a discussion of instincts and other factors in human development, with practical applications / by Edwin A. Kirkpatrick.

  • Kirkpatrick, Edwin A. (Edwin Asbury), 1862-1937.
Date:
1912 [©1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fundamentals of child study ; a discussion of instincts and other factors in human development, with practical applications / by Edwin A. Kirkpatrick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    third, from the age of eight or nine to eighteen. As the reproduction is immediate, it is not so much a matter of memory proper as of mental grasp. The cause of this increase in mental grasp with age is probably the same as that which makes it possible for us to hold in mind a long description of a route to be taken among familiar objects; while a short descrip- tion of a route among unfamiliar objects cannot be kept in mind long enough perhaps to get started right. The same cause makes it easy for a skilful chess or checker player to see at once many more results of a move than he could when he began, or for an experienced musician to play with both hands, work the pedals, perceive the notes, and sing the words of a song all at the same time. In other words, ideas, or a series of ideas, and even com- binations of several series of ideas that have become definite and well established, are easily held in mind, while indefinite and newly formed ideas can be kept in consciousness only in limited numbers and with effort. The ideas of the child are largely new, while those of the adult are oftener old or connected with old ideas; hence the adult's mental grasp is greater chiefly because of knowledge and experience. The effect of knowledge | on mental grasp is well shown by a series of experi- ments in which first-grade children and adults repro- duce ordinary letters, Greek letters, and familiar sentences. The adults have little advantage in the 1 case of Greek letters, a great deal in ordinary letters,/ I and are almost infinitely better in reproducing the let-j j ters making a sentence. Evidently the difference is t due to greater familiarity and increased mental grasp.