Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-02-03

service to the state in which it is situated and to which
it owes its support, it should be able to show how the
theoretical work of the laboratory can be applied to
the lettering of human conditions.
The agricultural and the engineering experiment sta
lions at the university have been attempting to give the
practical men of the state information in regard to the
best means of preventing wastes and Of obtaining the
greatest efficiency in the various fields Of their endeavor.
A similar attempt is being made by the department of
psychology of the university to show to the schoolmen
of the state how they can save time and how they can
so regulate the environment Of the school as to get the
greatest results with the least possible expenditure Of
energy.
All knowledge is based fundamentally upon memory
and it is quite obvious that if the most economical meth
DDS of learning are discovered and applied tremendous
wastes in the schoolroom will be saved. 1t is a striking
fact that most students who come to the university do
not know how to properly memorize their material. They
lose a very large amount of time that might be saved
greatly to their advantage, if they had the simple knowl-
edge of how to go about their work before them. What
is true of the university student is undoubtedly true
even to a greater degree of the pupils in the public
schools. 1t is clear that If the teachers knew what was
the best method by which the pupil could memorize a
certain material and could train that pupil in such meth
DDS of memory highly beneficial results would be accom-
plished.
Working along this line, some years ago the depart
ment of psychology at Illinois instituted a series of
experiments to determine as far as possible the exact
facts concerning what is technically know as the idea
tional types of school children and the relation of these
types TO the m0mOrlZlng OF QlHerenL KINGS OIL material.
By the ideational type the psychologist understands the
sort of mental imagery in which a person thinks-for
example, if a child recalls in imagination a bird he may
do SO by having a mental picture of the bird as a Wis
ible object or he may recall the bird in terms of the
song that 1t sings. 1t is further possible that he may
not, in thinking of the bird, see 1t mentally or recall its
song, but that he may merely see the word, bird, written
or hear 1t spoken, or attempt to pronounce it himself.
If he actually sees the bird In his minds eye he is said
to have concrete visual imagery. If he hears the song
that it sings mentally, he is said to have concrete audi
tory imagery. If he sees not the bird but the word, he
is said to have verbalvisionary imagery, and If instead
of seeing the word or hearing 1t he simply has the men-
tai imagery of pronouncing the word, he is said to have
verbalmotor imagery.
1t is then possible for the person in his ordinary
recalls the actual object as presented through some of
case he does not recall the object at all, but in which
visual, auditory or motor terms. 1t is possible also to
have not only concrete visual and auditory imagery but
to have concrete motor imagery as well. A person, for
example, in mentally recalling a foot race, may think
of the runner as he appears ready for the starting sig
nal, or he may think of the starting signal, or, finally,
he may think Of the muscular sensations which come in
running the race. In this latter case he would think of
the runner in terms Of concrete motor imagery.
Probably the football player, in recalling the expert
ences Of the game in which he has taken a part, does
not see the plays as the spectator does from the grand.
stand, but recalls them in terms of the movements
which he makes In executing them.