Psychology, Robert S. Woodworth [android based ebook reader .txt] 📗

value" dies away; and if my observation of the connection of the two facts was a vivid experience, or intense reaction, then, also, the linkage between them is strong. If these three factors of advantage work together in favor of the same response, then that response is sure to occur; but if the three factors pull different ways, we should have to figure out the balance of advantage before we could predict which of the possible responses would actually be made. Naturally enough, even the skilful psychologist is often unable to strike the balance between the three factors. He does know, however, and all of us know in a practical way, that strong recency value offsets a lot of frequency; so that a mere vague allusion to a very recent topic of conversation can be depended on to recall the right facts to the hearer's mind, even though they lie outside of his habitual line of interest. "James", by virtue of frequency, means your brother or friend; but after the lecturer has been talking about the psychologist James, repetition of this name infallibly recalls the psychologist to mind.

Besides frequency, recency and intensity, there is, indeed, another factor to be taken into account; and that is the {380} present state of the subject's mind. If he is unhappy, unpleasant associations have the advantage; if happy, pleasant. If he is absorbed in a given matter, facts related to that matter have the advantage. Frequency, recency and intensity summarize the history of associations, and measure their strength as dependent on their history; but the present state of mind is an additional directive factor, and when it has much to do with recall, we speak of directed or controlled association.

Before we pass to the topic of controlled association, however, there is another form of free association, quite different from revery, to be examined. There is an experiment, called the free association test, in which the subject is given a series of words as stimuli, and is asked to respond to each word by speaking some other word, the first that is recalled by the stimulus. No special kind of word need be given in response, but simply the first word recalled. Though this is called free association, it is controlled to the extent that the response must be a word, and the result is very different from revery. Instead of the recall of concrete facts from past experience, there is recall of words. If you give the subject the stimulus word, "table", his response is "chair" or "dinner", etc., and often he does not think of any particular table, but simply of the word. Words are so often linked one with another that it is no wonder that one recalls another automatically. What particular word shall be recalled depends on the frequency, recency and intensity of past linkage.

Though this form of test seems so simple as almost to be silly, it is of use in several ways. When a large number of stimulus words are used, and the responses classified, some persons are found to favor linkages that have a personal significance--"egocentric responses", these are called--while other persons run to connections that are {381} impersonal and objective. Thus the test throws some light on the individual's habits of attention. The test has also a "detective" use, based upon the great efficacy of the factor of recency; you may be able by it to tell whether an individual has recently had a certain matter in mind. If he happens to be an individual who has recently committed some crime, properly selected stimulus words will lead him to recall the scene of the crime, and thus to make responses that betray him, unless he checks them and so arouses suspicion by his hesitation. Another use of the test is for unearthing a person's emotional "complexes", which of course possess a high intensity value. If the subject shows hesitation and embarrassment in responding to words referring to money, the indication is that he is emotionally disturbed over the state of his finances. One person who consulted a doctor for nervousness made peculiar responses to stimulus words relating to the family, and was discovered to be much disturbed over his family's opposition to his projected marriage. The free association test is useful rather as giving the experienced psychologist hints to be followed up than as furnishing sure proof of the contents of the subject's mind.

Controlled Association

There is a controlled association test conducted like this one in free association, except that the subject is required to respond to each stimulus word by a word standing in a specified relation to it. To one series of words he must respond by saying their opposites; to another, by mentioning a part of each object named; to another series, consisting of names of countries, he must respond by naming as quickly as possible the capital of each country named; and there are many tests of this sort, each dealing with some class of relationships which, being often observed, are easily handled {382} by a person of normal intelligence. The intelligent subject makes few errors in such a test, and responds in very quick time. Indeed, the remarkable fact is that he takes less time to respond in an easy controlled association test than in the free association test; which shows that the "control" acts not simply to limit the response, but also to facilitate it.

The "control" here is often called by the name of "mental set". It is a good example of a "reaction tendency". On being told you are to give opposites, you somehow set or adjust your mental machinery for making this type of response. The mental set thus thrown into action facilitates responses of the required type, while inhibiting other responses that would readily occur in the absence of any directive tendency. If the word "good" came as a stimulus word in a free association test, it might easily arouse the responses, "good day", "good night", "good boy", "good better", and many besides, since all of these combinations have been frequently used in the past; and the balance of frequency, recency and intensity might favor any one of these responses. But when the subject is set for opposites, the balance of these factors has little force as against the mental set. The mental set for opposites favors the revival of such combinations as "new--old", "good--bad", and such others of this class as have been noted and used in the subject's past experience.

Mental set is a selective factor, a factor of advantage. It does not supersede the previously formed associations, or work independently of them, but selects from among them the one which fits the present task. Does it get in its work after recall has done its part, or before? Does it wait till recall has brought up a number of responses, and then pick out the one that fills the bill? No, it often works much too quickly for that, giving the right response instantly; and introspection is often perfectly clear that none but the right {383} response is recalled at all. The selective influence of the mental set is exerted before recall; it facilitates the right recall and inhibits recall of any but the right response.

In controlled association, as in free association, only one of the facts previously linked with the stimulus is recalled at a time; but while in free association the factors of frequency, recency and intensity of past linkage determine which of the many possible facts shall be recalled, in controlled association the additional factor of mental set is present and has a controlling influence in determining which fact shall be recalled. Thus, in an opposites test, the stimulus word "good" promptly calls up the pair "good--bad", because the mental set for opposites gives this response a great advantage over "good night" and other responses which may have a very strong linkage with the stimulus word.

The mental set is itself a response to a stimulus. It is an inner response thrown into activity by some stimulus, such as the stimulus of being asked to give the opposites of a series of words that are presently to be shown or spoken. This inner response of getting ready for the task can be introspectively observed by a person who is new to this type of test. It may take the form of mentally running over examples of opposites--or whatever kind of responses are to be called for--or it may take the form of calling up some image or diagram or gesture that symbolizes the task. A visual image of the nose on the face may serve as a symbol of the part-whole relationship, a small circle inside a larger one may symbolize the relation of an object to a class of objects, and gesturing first to the right and then to the left may symbolize the relationship of opposites. But as the subject grows accustomed to a given task, these conscious symbols fade away, and nothing remains except a general "feeling of readiness" or of "knowing what you are {384} about". The mental set remains in force, however, and is no less efficient for becoming almost unconscious.

Examples of Controlled Association

Dwelling so long on the test for controlled association may have created the impression that this is a rather artificial and unusual type of mental performance; but in reality controlled association is a very representative mental process, and enters very largely into all forms of mental work. This is true in arithmetical work, for example. A pair of numbers, such as 8 and 3, has been linked in past experience with several responses; it means 83, it means 11, it means 5, and it means 24. But if you are adding, it means 11, and no other response occurs; if you are multiplying, it means 24, and only that response occurs. The mental set for multiplying facilitates the responses of the multiplication table and inhibits those of the addition table, while the mental set for adding does the reverse. Rapid adding or multiplying would be impossible without an efficient mental set. Thus in arithmetic, as in the tests, the mental set is an inner response to the task.

In reading, there is a mental set which is an inner response to the context, and which determines which of the several well-known meanings of a word shall actually be called to mind when the word is read. Presented alone, a word may call up any of its meanings, according to frequency, etc.; but in context it usually brings to mind just the one meaning that fits the context. The same is true of conversation.

The objective situation arouses a mental set that controls both thought and action. The situation of being in church, for example, determines the meanings that are got from the words heard, and controls the motor behavior to {385} fit the occasion. The subject, observing the situation, adjusts himself to it, perhaps without any conscious effort, and his adjustment facilitates appropriate mental and motor reactions, while inhibiting others.

A problem arouses a mental set directed towards solution of the problem. A difficult problem, however, differs from a context or familiar task or situation in this important respect, that the appropriate response has not been previously linked with the present stimulus, so that, in spite of ever so good a mental set, the right response cannot immediately be recalled. One must search for the right response. Still, the mental set is useful here, in directing the search, and keeping it from degenerating into an aimless running hither and thither. Problem solution is so different a process from smooth-running controlled association that it deserves separate treatment, which will be given it a few chapters further on, under the caption of reasoning.

{386}

EXERCISES

1. Outline the chapter. 2. The rating of images belonging under different senses. Try to call up the images prescribed below, and rate each image according to the following