Memory span: a review of the literatureBlankenship, A. B.
doi: 10.1037/h0061086pmid: N/A
Memory span may be defined functionally as "the ability of an individual to reproduce immediately, after one presentation, a series of discrete stimuli in their original order." A structural definition is more difficult since memory span involves processes of attention, associability, imagery, and memory. Variation in memory span with material and sense organ may result from inaccuracies in methods used to study a general ability or from specificity of memory span. Memory span is influenced by extrinsic factors (characteristics of the material used, rhythm of presentation, rate of presentation, method of scoring the responses, fatigue, time of day, attitude, distraction, practice, subjective grouping of the units, temporary pathological condition, effect of drugs) and intrinsic factors (age, sex, race, permanent pathological condition). Extrinsic factors can be controlled carefully enough for memory span tests to show high reliability. The relation between memory span and intelligence has led to its use as a clinical test.
The new status of experimental studies on the relationship of feeling to memoryGilbert, G. M.
doi: 10.1037/h0061128pmid: N/A
This review strongly supports the psychoanalytic principle that pleasant memories tend to perseverate while unpleasant ones are censored and repressed. Of the 20 experiments published since 1929, 13 support the hypothesis of hedonistic selectivity in memory, 4 deny it, and 3 give ambiguous results. If the experiments are considered in terms of three criticisms (use of immediate recall to test hypothesis, age of subjects, and unequal affective decrement of recalled experiences) then 11 support the hypothesis and none opposes it.
Review of 'The Definition of Psychology'McGoech, John A.
doi: 10.1037/h0052946pmid: N/A
Reviews the book "The Definition of Psychology," by F. S. Keller . This small volume is really a brief survey, using the method of the sample, of the main contentions of structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism and Gestalt psychology. There is an introductory chapter on the beginnings of psychology, and a concluding one presenting some of the conclusions or tentative suggestions developing out of the survey. The chapter on functionalism shows clearly enough that there never was such a system of psychology, but instead mainly a group of unrelated expostulations. The brief survey reveals how difficult it is to find anything except a vague attitude as characteristic of this movement in American psychology.
Review of 'General Psychology'McGoech, John A.
doi: 10.1037/h0051484pmid: N/A
Reviews the book "General Psychology," by D. B. Klein . The author begins conventionally enough with a discussion of the nature of psychology, but fears that the student will be confused by a series of definitions. Illustrations of the psychological content of familiar situations are substituted for formal definitions. The author chooses to begin his own exposition with motivation and conation. This is followed by chapters on emotion, learning, thinking, perceiving, and individual differences. Conation and symbolism are the major themes about which much of the discussion revolves. As a whole, the book shows evidences of wide reading and a philosophic background. The book will probably have the greatest appeal to those who plan to major in psychology, and to those interested in the social sciences, because of the emphasis on conation.
Review of 'Sinn und Geschichte'McGoech, John A.
doi: 10.1037/h0050149pmid: N/A
Reviews the book "Sinn und Geschichte," by Paul Hofmann (1937). In this book the author provides the answer to his own conviction that an entirely new foundation of philosophy is necessary if we are to understand the spirit of history. The author begins with a systematic introduction, relating meaning to philosophy and culture. From this he returns to narrate the meaning of cognition and its history. The second part of the volume follows logically in explaining the meaning of life as the problem of ethics. Although frankly written to answer the need of critical times for a "new" philosophy, the book appears to have no direct relation to contemporary German affairs.
Review of 'The Idealism of Giovanni Gentile'McGoech, John A.
doi: 10.1037/h0051377pmid: N/A
Reviews the book "The Idealism of Giovanni Gentile," by R. W. Holmes . This book, which psychologists will appreciate as an interesting exhibit of intellectual behavior, consists primarily of placing the Nihil Obstat upon Gentile's Actual Idealism. Actual idealism is Gentile's well-known superessential spiritualism in which the true Ego and objective Logos are revealed, as well as the really Real which natural science cannot even approach from a distance.
Review of 'Des réflexes conditionelles'McGoech, John A.
doi: 10.1037/h0051440pmid: N/A
Reviews the book "Des reflexes conditioners," by G. Marinesco and A. Kreindler (1935). This book brings together the results of studies of conditioned reflexes of human infants, children, and adults done at the Bucharest Hospital. Its expressed aim is to show the value of such studies for neuropsychiatry. Neurologists and psychiatrists will probably be little impressed by the extent of the contribution of this field to the clarification of their problems, but the book has considerable potential interest for students of the conditioned reflex. In the reviewer's opinion the virtues of this book are overbalanced by its defects. First among these is the uncritical application of Pavlov's theories of the cerebral mechanics of behavior to all aspects of behavior. The second major class of defects pertains to their methodology. Sweeping generalizations are in most cases drawn from experiments with wholly inadequate numbers of subjects. This difficulty is aggravated by the heterogeneity of subjects within the experimental groups.
Review of 'Aptitudes and Aptitude Testing'McGoech, John A.
doi: 10.1037/h0051763pmid: N/A
Reviews the book "Aptitudes and Aptitude Testing," by W. V. Bingham . The first major section of the book shows aptitude measurement to be a measuring of present performance as symptomatic of potentiality and suitability, with predictions to be made only in terms of probability. Later chapters in this section are concerned with the nature of individual differences and with intelligence tests, interest tests, and achievement tests as measures of aptitude. In the second section, after an introductory chapter, the author reviews a half-dozen major categories of occupations, beginning with manual occupations and concluding with the professions. The concluding section of the volume is devoted to the practice of testing.
Review of 'La psychologie de la forme'McGoech, John A.
doi: 10.1037/h0049804pmid: N/A
Reviews the book "La psychologie de la forme," by Paul Guillaume (1937). In this book the achievements of Gestalt psychology do not appear as the result of individual ambitions and personal rivalries, but as the outcome of a rational process unfolding itself gradually in the actual theoretical and experimental work of research students. The first chapter, on the origin of the Gestalt idea, gives a superb survey of the ideas among and against which the Gestalt concept was formed. Another chapter gives an excellent introduction to the psychology of perception, illustrated by selections from the most important experimental papers. A very short chapter on memory shows how Gestalt conceptions have not only influenced the theoretical interpretation of memory and its functions, but have also led to a new kind of experimental approach in this field. Another chapter on intelligence treats in different sections the perception of relations, inventions by animals and children, and higher forms of intellectual invention.
Review of 'Yoga: A scientific Evaluation'McGoech, John A.
doi: 10.1037/h0053460pmid: N/A
Reviews the book "Yoga: A Scientific Evaluation," by K. T. Behanan . Students of philosophy as well as readers with a penchant toward the occult and the mystical will enjoy the study, which is written in an easy semi-popular style. Yoga was one of the six classical systems of philosophy evolved from the upanishadic teachings. In the first seven chapters, the author outlines the cosmology and doctrines concerning evolution of mind and matter which were borrowed with minor modifications from another system, Samkhya. He gives accounts of the three gunas which are at the basis of the universe, and the buddhi, which is the basis of the empirical ego.