The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-15
GOODS ARE SOLD BY
 PRINTED SALESMANSHIP
SCIENCE WHICH AMERICANS SPEND 100000 AYEAR-sWARTHMoRE AND MANY STATE COLLEGES NOW TEACH ADVERTISING AND sALEsMANsHIP ALONG ACADEMIC" sUsJEcTs-IMPoRTANT
 OF PSYCHOLOGY IN "H YPNoTlzING" BUYERS
 TYPE WHITE PAPER.

how the critical scientist reduces to ab- solute laws the vague impressions that every reader has had, though very likely he does not realize that he has had them until they are explained to him in this way.
 There is no question of the importance of advertising in these days when conn petition is so keen and when the news papers and magazines have become tho real marketplaces of the country. Dr. Scott describes the purpose of advertising as being to attract attention to goods in such way that he who reads will de- sire to possess them, and the first requi- site of good advertising is, therefore, that it shall attract and fix the readers mind That this is not so easy to do as one might think is evident when you con- slider how narrow our attention is. Psy- chologsts have determined by great va riety of exact tests that practically mo- body can attend to more than four visual objects at once; about four letters, four simple pictures, four geometrical figures, four easy words, or what not. are as much as the mind will take in together.
 The power with which one thing att tracts the eye depends largely on the ab- sence of counter attra ctions. Dr. Scott points out. Whether the counter attrac- tions are in other advertisements or are all within the individual advertisers own space, each will do something to distract attention from the rest unless it is care fully placed-the lesson from which IS that too much display used indiscrlni- nately is almost worse than none at all. Beyond that, the power of an object to attract attention depends upon the in- tensity of the sensation it arouses; on the contrast 1t forms to objects presented with it; on the ease with which we are able to comprehend it; and on the frequency with which it Is put before us.
 In a chapter on the association of ideas Dr. Scott discusses how the advertiser is affected by the three laws of habit based on repetition, of recency, and of vividness or intensity. We think first of what we are accustomed to do, we no- tice first what we are accustomed to see or hear Next we observe most quickly what is made prominent in our mind by our having previously observed it only a short time before After that our thoughts will be directed among thousand ob- jects to the one with which they have been most vividly associated in the past. The mention of cameras, for instance, suggests the name of but one make to great many people, because for years the name of that make has confronted them in nearly every publication they have looked at and has been heard almost ev- cry time cameras have been talked about, until 1t has become practically synony- nous with "camera" in their minds. If you want to buy package of breakfast food you think first of getting the last thing you saw advertised. If you are considering taking pleasure trip there will come into your mind for earliest con sideration the resort or the line of trans portation the attractions of which have been most wildly set before you. There fore the aim of the wise advertiser should be, Dr. Scott points out. to make his name or brand the habitual. recent and vivid association with his class of goods in the