The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1910-02-04

me- Inls is great advantage in abstract thinking It
is however distinct hindrance in annreciaon Of cl
ture and art If wish to train our children to think
accurately and abstractly must train them as tba
schools evidently are now training them in the direc-
ton OF verbal imagery. If, however we wish to de-
veop artists poets of letters inventors and those
with technical skill In the various professions we must
see TO 1t that this concrete imagery is ost
this loss taxes place will tremendous waste and
disaster for many.
The experiments further showed that those children
who thought IN visual terms were best able to mem
orze material with visual content and that those who
thought in auditory motor were best able to
learn material with auditory motor content This
of course means as far the application results to
school work is that the material which the
child learns must be in way adapted his idea
donal type, II the best results to be accomplished
This, perhaps is not vital fact with the average
child who has many ways it may be- in which he
imagine his experience but there always in every
schooroom numbers of exceptional children who are
slow to get in certain fields and who neverthe-
less are far from being mental detectives To take
concrete illustration there children who great
difficulty in learning to read and yet who often
bright in other school subjects 1t is probable that such
children have not developed the type of verbavsual
imagery. The printed word fails carry proper
significance. Such child obviously must be treated
differently from the average individual. In the first
place, he may be helped in his reading by being in
structed to spell and pronounce words The method
of showing him words and having him grasp them
visual signs will be hopeless method of procedure in
his case. Further, the child may be aided by sys-
tematic attempt to strengthen his verbavsual imagery
There is ample evidence that children can be trained
in type of imagery and is the business of
ton to that those who defective in essential
type trained to overcome this defect.
We cannot think for a moment of demanding the
sort of thing from the child whose eyesgh is
that demand from the child of normal acuty
1t just foolish to expect the child who is defective
in certain ideatonal type to do the of
child it is expect the child who is defective
visual sensbiity to accomplish the results
the same conditions that the child of sensiby
accomplishes
Another important problem which has been under
taken by the psychological laboratory the university
is to discover the most advantageous conditions besides
those relating the ideational type under which
the outset of such investigation the psychologist is
confronted with the difficulty of selecting the sort of
material for memorizing which will be sufficiently uni
form to be tried many children and the child
at various times 1t is quite evident that if the
ordinary materials of the schoolroom such the child
has had in his reading, geography and history
that this material will not be of the uniformity desired
1t avoid this difficulty that the psychologist Eb
binghaus, nearly 25 years ago. tried memory expert
ment in which he used for material syabes,
that is syabes which could be pronounced
which yet had significance; sylables, example
like necdoz-hux. Here have a relatively uniform
material that has, for the most part little no sgnf-
Using this kind of material several thousand school