piper

how to STUDY

HARRY MADDOX
 CONDITIONS OF SALE
This book shall not be lent, re-sold, hired out
or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in
any form of binding or cover other than that
in which it is published.

"
A PAN ORIGINAL
 itis 3 a oes”,

First published 1963 by

PAN BOOKS LTD
8 Headfort Place, London, $.W.1

2nd Printing 1963

3rd Printing 1964
4th Printing 1965

© Harry Maddox 1963

Printed in Great Britain by

Cox & Wyman Ltd., London, Fakenham and Reading
7 heNeed to Learn Methods of Study
_ Plansof ‘Time-tables
 if

Pa,
~

;
he + chy *
Sad oo

wees veter eit wsF:

2
nl
hae z
 FOREWORD

writing this book I originally intended to cover only those

aspectsof the psychology of learning which are useful to
students. But I found that, although many students know
_ pretty well what they ought to do, they don’t do it. So I was led
_ to include chapters on goals and motives, and, also on more
_ general questions of mental and physical health. And I in-
_ cluded, for good measure, chapters on writing English and
_ elementary mathematics. This extensive coverage led me out-
side my own special field of competence. I have therefore sub-
mitted various chapters to colleagues who are experts in those
fields in which I have no special training or experience. Dr Ruth
Beard read and commented on the chapter on mathematics,
and Dr A. Wilkinson on the chapter on writing English. On
_ the various aspects of physical health I have benefited from
_ many discussions with Dr J. N. Oliver.* The chapter on Group
Work owes its presence to Professor O. A. Oeser and Dr S. B.
- Hammond of Melbourne University, who first demonstrated
to me the possibilities of the less didactic methods of education.
Iam also indebted to Mr K. J. McAdam, who made detailed
and valuable criticisms of parts of the manuscript, and to the
ublishers for their advice and encouragement when the book
as in its early stages. For such defects as remain I am of course
solely responsible.
__ Ihave benefited from the honest and unvarnished descrip-
tions of their study habits made by my three children, one at
the primary, one at the secondary and one at the tertiary stage
_ ofeducation. Discussions with them have, I hope, helped me to
void some of the academic absurdities which any man who
‘shuts himself-up in his study occasionally perpetrates. And I
“owe most to my wife, for maintaining that domestic order and
comfort which facilitate the labours of writing a book.
A number of publishers and authors have kindly given per-
mission for extracts from their works to be included in the
ook. Specific acknowledgements are made in the text.
For the chapter on Mental Health I acknowledge with thanks the kind
ermission of Professor L. J. Cronbach and his publishers to use an extract
; 1 Educational Psychology.
 ae
payi ©)Agi
myPy “,

ee
tee
 CHAPTER ONE

_ THE NEED TO LEARN METHODS

| OF STUDY
Much are the precious hours of youth misspent
In climbing learning’s rugged, steep ascent.
; CHURCHILL

WY Ou may think that study is an individual matter; that

methods which suit some individuals will not suit others;
nd that different methods are appropriate to different subjects.
this is true. Study remains an art. The best methods of -
earning medieval history will not necessarily be the best
hods of learning chemical engineering. But, whatever
bject you are studying, there are nevertheless certain general
meiples which you should know about, and which should
nable you to work out your own personal methods and schemes
study more effectively, and with less trial and error.
SUCCES: in stud depends not only on ability and hard wo
but also on effective methods of study. Some students can do
Tore 5 work in a given time than others, and do it more easily.
_ This is largely a matter of ability, no doubt, but ability is by no
_ means the only factor. Very roughly the differences between
ndividuals iin their capacity for work and study are determined’

telligence and special abilities 50-60 per cent

2) industry, effort and effective study methods 30-40 per cent
hance and environmental factors 10-15 per cent
Ability, of course, you must have in order to succeed in
higher learning, but ability alone is not enough. Many highly
intelligent students fail, particularly in science subjects, because
y do insufficient work, or because they have never learned
yw to study effectively.
il s such as note-taking, revising, and
10 HOW TO STUDY

yet very few students get any systematic instruction in FEN

matters. Most have to rely on the study techniques which they
learned at school, or to proceed by personal trial and error.
Even the most gifted students can seldom discover unaided the
most effective ways of studying. Most never improve their
methods of work much, either because they fail to realize that
it can be done, or because they are not interested in improve-
ment.
Yet a substantial body of knowledge exists on the best ways
of studying. This knowledge is derived from a number of
sources, among them:
(1) Research investigations which contrast the study habits of
good and poor students.
(2) The experimental psychology of learning.
(3) Actual empirical studies of the relative effectiveness of
different methods of study.
(4) Industrial studies of the conditions of work efficiency.
(5) Common sense and logic, and a certain. consensus among
students of the learning process that some methods are more
effective than others.

Applying Research Findings to Your Own Study Methods

Take a question which must concern all students: What is the
most effective method of learning from textbooks? Several
methods are possible, e.g::
(1) simple reading and re-reading.
(2) underlining the main points and important details in the text.
(2) reading and then making brief outline notes.
Actual research studies of the effectiveness of these methods,
as judged by examination success, have in fact been done on
quite a large scale. Method (3) turned out to be best, but only if
the text was read over first in order to get the general sense, and
if the notes were made in the student’s own words. Without
some practice and training in note-taking, method (3) was
actually inferior to method (1).
Now it is true that this research was done on American High
School students, the subject being history. You may wonder, ©
and with some reason, whether these findings. can. be applied to
Hore advanced students and to subjects other than history. But
 AN MEZHODS OF STUDY He Mie ies
Cif you are Goneeined with this question, you should
w of this research. For it does suggest that, in the absence
of‘contrary evidence, method (3) is likely to be the most prom-
; ising one for you to try out. In other words, although no one
can tell you exactly how you should study your particular
subjects, you should be able to work out your own methods
_ more intelligently if you know something of the relevant research
findings. Even good students do not usually know enough about.
study methods, and could improve their performance by
thinking about, and applying to their own work, the research
findings which are set out in this book.

_ Regular Class Attendance

:_ There have not been many British investigations of the differences
_ in study habits which distinguish good students from poor
_ students. One careful study did find the following differences
» between successful and failing students:

Successful Failing
_ Students Students
Average classroom hours
per week 27 18
Percentage of total work time
devoted to a regular pro-
gramme XE 49
Fullness of lecture notes
- (100=notes written out in full) 64 47
Percentage revising notes the
same day 21 8

Fig. 1. Differences in the Study Habits of

successful and failing students

q The better students put in more classroom hours, and worked

_ to a more regular programme.-They took fuller lecture notes,
and were more likely to revise their notes the same day.
It is clear that the failing students must have cut some of their
classes. Failure to attend classes is one obvious cause of poor
ance, In another investigation, carried out im an
See college, the number of times each student had been
‘absent from class was plotted against his subsequent marks.
»
 There was a definite fekattonitg between cl
marks obtained. .
Those who frequently cut classes were less likely to
1 get high
marks than those who were regular in their attendance. Atten-
dance requirements differ a great deal from one institution to
another. The ancient seminaries of learning seldom require
attendance at lectures. The newer institutions place more
emphasis on training, and usually insist on class attendance.
In general, requirements in science departments aré more rigid
than in arts.

ABSENCES
NUMBER
FROM
OF
CLASS GRADE OF MARKS
Fig. 2. The influence of class absences on marks obtained

Many college teachers do not call a roll or enforce attendance

at their lectures, but you would be unwise to conclude from this
that you need not go to them, and even more unwise to conclude
that you can stay away from practical classes or tutorials.
Although reading a textbook may sometimes be an adequate
substitute for attending a lecture, there is no substitute for
practical work or tutorials. Moreover, there are many subjects.
in which continuity of treatment is essential. In order to progress,
~ the lecturer assumes that you have mastered the material and
“methods which he dealt with the previous week. It isannoying
for him to have-to retrace his steps and repeat explanations for
the benefit of those who have been absent without good cause.
 truants, and ‘marks esis down in esageittashne. Some
rs even regard repeated absence from their classes as a
sonal slight. In any case, you should find out what the local
customs are. In most places you will find that it is politic to
logize to your teachers for any unavoidable absences.
Not all the research evidence is equally valuable, it has to be
ifessed. The attempt to locate the study habits which differen-
ate between good and poor students has not been very
iecessful, because the results which hold good for one college
‘university seldom seem to apply outside that particular
‘college or university. However, here are some questionnaire
‘items which have been found to hold good on more than one
American student population. If you check through the list it
will give you some idea of how you compare with the ‘official
version’ of what a good student should do.

QUESTIONNAIRE
“How Goop A STUDENT ARE You?
Preferred
q ane iasaad Answer
1. Do you have a plan of work for each day? Yes ¥
. If so, do you stick to it? ~ Yes ¥
. Do you have trouble settling down to work at the
_ beginning of a study period? . ! i
Do you get your work in on time?
. Do you find your work interesting?
. -Do you participate in class discussions?
. Do you try to sit towards the back of the classroom?
. When you have trouble with your work do you talk
over the matter with your teacher?
9; Do you make a preliminary survey before reading a
chapter in detail?
(0. Do you skip tables and graphs in your reading?
. Do you keep your notes for one subject all together?
. Do you usually take your lecture notes in outline
form?
. Do you make ‘simple charts, diagrams oro tables of
- your own to summarize material in your reading? Yes KY
‘Do you have difficulty in expressing yourself in
_ writing? No 6"
Ifan examination is given unexpectedly do you ae or.
get |alow mark? No
 14 c “- HOW TO STUDY
16. Do you sit up late preparing for an examination? = No
17. Do you do most of your revision for a course the
night before the examination? 2 No 4—
_18. Do you get enough sleep? Yesa——
19. Do you have certain hours that you regularly spend
in recreation? Yes tan
20. On your study desk is there a clear unlittered space ‘
about 2 feet by 4 feet? Yes X

How to Improve
m ient person.
and manage other aspects of your life in a sensible fashion.
This means planning your finances, living arrangements, diet,
dress and exercise, and all the other details of your personal life,
as well as attending your classes regularly, being punctual and
getting your work done at the right time.
To improve your general efficiency you can:
(1) increase your mental vigour, by improving your general
Ith
alt! .
i improve the direction and method of work by planning and
: alae vaio your studyin an efficient manner.
(3) d he forces which MRE arock bydeveloping interest
an oe
(4) relieve worry and excitement by resolving personal conflicts.
Factual advice is much easier to give on the first two lines of
attack than on the third and fourth. You can readily learn the
technique of effective study. It is much harder to work up
interest in a subject which you find uninteresting, althouges even —
here, some practical advice can be given.
If you are to work effectively on your own you must ine a
sustained interest in your work, and learn to use your time —
wisely. The main difference between studying at school and
studying after you leave school lies in the closeness of super-
vision. At school for every two hours of work in the classroom
there will be about an hour of homework or private study; in
college, for every hour of work in the classroom, one or two ~
hours of private study. In college there are no set hours for
ptivate study, and you can do as you please in the free hours ©
between classes, or even stay away from your lectures and o
classes altogether. You will seldom be set work which you have 4 —
t
 xe) ‘ EAR L METHODS OF STUDY 15
Fepare foe the- next meeting of the class, but instead will be
given a few larger assignments to be done in the course of the
term. There will very seldom be-any class time set aside for
feyision, the assumption being that you can look after this
yourself. Mn-general. itislefttoyou todecide-how much work,
you. do and when you_do it, and the day of reckoning, in the
shape of an examination, may not come until the end of the
academic year. u_ must ily towards
‘s
d
tatherdistant goals To do this you must be interested in wha’
4 you are doing, and be able to arrange for yourself many aspects
‘
of your work which you may previously have taken for granted,
and not thought about very much. Research, in fact, shows that
the main difficulties in beginning a course of, higher studies are:
me) dgeting time, and ‘coul K
-Q) Inco ili ethods of work.
You should, therefore, see the need for learning all you can
_ about the skills and techniques which make for efficient study.
Tf you can work out for yourself an efficient system of study you
_ will be able to do your work better with less effort, and in less
time.
i Efficient methods of study are worth learning not only for
- your immediate purposes of study, but because your habits of
-~ work will stay with you all your life. Those who do well in
academic work usually do equally well afterwards in business
_ or in the professions. No doubt the same abilities and personality
characteristics underlie both study and later work, but efficient
methods of work also contribute to success in both fields.

_ Is Advice on How to Study Effective?

' Many American colleges run courses on how to study. Most of
_ the investigations of the effectiveness of such courses have
_ shown that they do produce positive results. At first these
courses were given only to students who were in difficulty, but
_ it subsequently appeared that allstudents benefited from them —
_ in fact the better students improved more than the poor students.
_ These courses usually involve lectures, discussions and
individual tuition. Lectures on how to study generally turn out
to be rather ineffective. They are ineffective because the advice
given may not be accepted, or because the student cannot see
“stto apply the.information to his own particular case. A book
 on how to study weesome advantages ov A
is always available for reference. It is, moreover, often e:
accept advice from an impersonal source. |
No one has ever proved experimentally that ao aSheek &
_ on how to study leads to improvement, but those students who —
have read such books usually say that they found them helpful. —
The crucial question is whether you put into practice the advice —
given. There is_a big difference between knowing what vou
should do and actually doing it. Many students know that they —
ld work regularly, revise their notes, etc., but they don’t do —
these things. For this reason this book starts out with chapters
on how to plan your time and how to acquire habits of work.

Motives for Study «+

It is much easier to work in a sustained and systematic fashion —
. if you have a defirttte vocational goal or a aeore Interest i
your subject. In an investigation at London University, mental —
tests were given to students on entry, and their test scores —
compared with subsequent examination marks. By this means it
was possible to identify a group of over-achievers (who did
well although their test scores were below average) and a group —
of under-achievers (who failed although their test scores were —
above average). Nearly half the under-achievers were found to
have weak or unsatisfactory motives, whereas most of the ©
over-achievérs had a definite vocational goal or strong intellectual be
interest in their course: A

Definite vocational goal | Weak or unsatisfactory |

or intellectual interest motives per cent
per cent :
Over-achievers 88 2
Under-achievers 37 4B

ee 3. The motives of over-achievers and

under-achievers Ease:

Thus lack of adequate motivation is ani 2ortant

In the same investigation it was found that about a quarte
of the under-achievers, but very few of the over-achievers, had
job aspirations which were incompatible with theirsre
 n és.take itup becauseitseems the only course open
ause allalternative courses are disliked.

y older people look ack on their lives, and regret that they
did not obtain some good vocational guidance when they were
out 16 years of age. Is there any way of deciding whether you
we chosen a suitable course of study? There is no simple
wer to this question. But if you enjoy your work, are interested
in it, and are not strongly attracted by other professions and
courses of training, you have probably chosen reasonably well.
is, of course, very common to have doubts, and to consider
ternative courses, in the early years of higher study. In some
- colleges as many as 40 per cent of students change their voca- -
mal choice in the course of their studfes. In a sample of
eminent men, it was found that only one-third had chosen their
profession on leaving school.
Probably it should be made easier than it is at present to
transfer from one course of study to another. The hard factis,
wever, that this nearly always means at least an extra year of
tudy. Radical changes are therefore not to be lightly undertaken.

ferice’ = until you get there.

The difficulty confronting most young people of good general

“training anyway, are not specific to particular occupations, and

or an inadequate basis for vocational choice.

le and interest at this age are very insecurenese of

. The relation between school marks in any subject and
went performance in | that subject is not very high. Often
osed. aptitude is as much a matter os accident or teaching
18 HOW TO arene Pen

method as of any permanent ability, and interests in adolescence

are notoriously unstable.
Choosing higher courses of study solely on the basis of school
subject performance has two consequences:

(1) Higher courses in ‘school’ subjects such as English, French,

geography, physics and chemistry tend to be overcrowded,
while the applied and social sciences find it hard to recruit
enough students of quality.
(2) Many students take courses of higher study without ade-
quately considering whether they will lead to congenial work.
This is particularly true of the older seats of learning, and
their newer offshoots, which still offer an education designed
for the priestly and leisure classes of previous centuries.

The ‘reality’ factors concerning occupations which tend to be

overlooked at the age at which choice is made are:
The nature of the duties involved
Earnings
Hours and regularity of employment
Typical places of employment
The probable need for workers in the occupation

The Meaning of Efficiency ¢

This book contains a great deal of advice. Some of it you will,
I hope, accept. Some of it you will regard as good practice, but
impracticable in your own case: Some of it you will disagree
with and reject. But at least you should be led to think about
your own methods of study, and to attempt to improve them.
If the advice given seems occasionally earnest and moralistic, I
can only say that it is very hard to avoid a high moral tone in a
book of this sort.
The key word hout ook is efficiency, a word
ch is often suspect because it connotes time and motion
study, the rationalization of work procedure, and the rather
dreary fractionization of tasks into simple repetitive sequences,
which characterizes much of modern industrial work. As all
forms of higher learning depend on self-education and on.
self-sustained effort, study procedures cannot and should not
be reduced to an excessively mechanical routine. :
By efficiency I shall mean getting the maximum learning and

2
 _ THE NEED TO LEARN METHODS OF STUDY 19
retention for the least expenditure of energy and effort. Human
efficiency is, of course, an extremely complex problem. It is
impossible to treat the human individual in the same way that
an engineer treats an engine, in terms of the amount of work
done in relation to the energy consumed. As the human in-
: dividual works he expends energy and effort, but he may also
_ become fatigued or bored with his task. He may wish he was
2 doing something else and feel irritated and frustrated. On the
4 positive side he may enjoy his work and obtain satisfaction
_ when a task has been well done. Many factors have to be
_ considered in assessing the ‘cost’ of work to the individual.
In spite of the complexity of the matter, however, you should
‘benefit from stepping back and taking a detached view of
yourself and your efforts. Each person doubtless is unique, but
there are also great similarities between persons, particularly
ibetween those who have been moulded by the same kind of
' social training and education. fittest oi
and ismembering apply to all human organisms. ‘Therefore
_ should be able to apply some of then’ to your own case.
___ This book starts with some advice on how to make plans and
_ time-tables. Many students have difficulty in allocating their
_ time sensibly among the many activities which make some call
_ on them. Some students say they are happier when they feel
' free to work as the mood takes them. They would probably
_ be happier still doing no work at all. The fact is that a certain
, vance ae and regularity are demanded by any extended
- course of study.
_ Effort can only be sustained over a period of some years by
_ developing regular habits, and by having goals and motives
appropriate to the task. The next chapter should give you some
‘understanding of how habits are set up, and what you can do to
develop motives.
: The following chapters deal with a series of study skills. A
~ well known ‘system’ of study is explained, and chapters follow
on reading, note-taking, and taking examinations, on thinking
- and group work. Basic skills in English and Mathematics are
presented so that you may brush up your knowledge of these
3 subjects if you feel the need. Finally there are three chapters on.
;‘the general conditions governing health, both physical and
; mental. Each chapter can be read separately, as you feel the
need to learn more about each topic. But you are advised to
 The many American Books inlaee:
Bennett, M.E. College and Life.

| Bird, C. and Bird, Learning More

DM. by Effective
Study...
Morgan, C.T. and How to Study.
Deese, J.
‘Robinson, F.P. Effective Study.
 CHAPTER TWO

PLANS AND TIME-TABLES

In studies, whatsoever a man commandeth upon himself, let

him set hours for it.
BACON

L. pot
. B: far the most common idl in study is simple failure
to get down to beg coicouineles wor This difficulty is:
tmuch greater for those who do not work to a plan and have no
regular routine of study. Many students muddle along, doing a
it of this subject or that, as the mood takes them, or letting
their set work pile up until the last possible moment.
_ Few students work to a set time- They say that if they
cons a emselves they would not keep
to it, or would have to alter it constantly, since they can never
redict from one day to the next what their activities will be.
No doubt some temperaments take much more kindly to a
regular routine than others. There are many who shy away
_ from the self-regimentation of a weekly time-table, and dislike
being tied down to a definite programme of work. Many able
‘students claim that they work in cycles. When they become
terested in a topic they work on it intensively for three or four
days at a time. On other days they avoid work completely. It
has to be confessed that we do not fully understand
the com-
lexities of the motivation to work. Most people over about
25 years of age have become conditioned to a work routine,
d the majority of really productive workers set aside regular
urs for the more important aspects of their work. The ‘tough-
nded’ school of workers is usually very contemptuous of the
dea that good | work can only be done spontaneously, under the

the man who works wichhis imagination should allow himself

i wait till voce moves him. When I have heard such
22 : HOW TO STUDY ae

Not many people are gifted with Trollope’s greatth st deal,

physical strength, but he was undoubtedly right in declaring
that a person can always do the work for which he is fitted if he
will give himself the habit of regarding regular daily work as a
normal condition of his life. Many creative writers have in fact
disciplined themselves to perform a daily stint. The great
Italian dramatist, Alfieri, even made his servant tie him to his
study table.
Those who believe that they need only work and study as the
fit takes them have a mistaken belief either in their own talent
or in the value of ‘freedom’. Freedom from restraint and
discipline leads to unhappiness rather than to ‘self-expression’
or ‘personality development’. Our society insists on regular
habits, time-keeping and punctuality, and whether we like it or
not, if we mean to make our way in society we have to comply
with its demands. We need not stick too rigidly to plans and
Nine-tables, but poe HSS HUST GeOISERS SOS Wate
‘Ane Time Te Urippled away TO-110 pirpose. A sensible routine of
work, so far from destroying spontaneity or creativity, should
in fact, by reducing to a minimum the effort of coping with the
humdrum activities of life, actually foster the best conditions
for creative work.
The other obstacles to the regular planning of study are the
many distractions of student life: new sports and activities,
novel surroundings, friendships and love affairs, organizations,
clubs, societies and sometimes excesses of conviviality.
need to find a sensible balance pean = is competing
ANS ODeVOUL time. Lo ao yi E “clear
about your goal. The primary ne of any nan of higher study
must be scholarship and professional qualification. The other
things, friendship, sports, societies, discussions on the nature of
the Universe, and having a good time, are no doubt important
and traditional parts of student life; but they are secondary to
your primary goal of study.

The Advantages of a Time-table

than to others because, outside the classroom, he is free, wi

limits, to do what he will. Farmers, businessmen, lawyers,
doctors and professional men of all kinds must work to a time-
table and plan the best use of their time, but their times are
 eer ae eens
PLANS “AND TIME-TABLES 23
ty ‘decided by factors over which they have no control. A
student’s work is not so closely controlled by external circum-
aces, and for that very reason, set hours of work should be
arranged so that study does not become spasmodic.
4 The advantages of a time-table are the savings in time and
effort, and the efficiency which results from taking an overalf
ae of your total work load. Without a time-table you are
likely to spend much time in indecision-—in making up your
: mind when and what to study, iin getting together the necessary
books and materials and in getting into the appropriate frame
of mind for productive work. Much mental energy is needlessly
‘consumed in trying to choose between alternatives and in
“screwing up your resolution to work. According to William
James: “There is no more miserable human being than one in
“whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the
lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the times of
‘Tising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every
bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.’ To
avoid this unhappy state we should make automatic and habitual
as many useful actions as we can. Handing over the details of
our daily life to habit frees the higher powers of mind for their
proper work.
The second advantage is in the proper use of time. [{is fatally
yy to dribble time away. If you do not impose set hours on
SSO aE Teen likely to spend the time when you
should be studying in watching T.V., reading a magazine,
conversing idly over the tea- and coffee-cups, or in doing any of
those hundred and one things which weak students are ready
to do rather than get down to work. If you have a time-
table and mean to stick to it, it has all the force of a law which
“must not be disobeyed, and in time adherence to it becomes
effortless, and you begin to regard it as a natural part of your
pte
» But perhaps the biggest saving comes from intelligently.
E ovetailing your various activities; in making sure that you do
each piece of work at the best possible time; and, eventually,
“in the confidence and sense of competence which comes
from regular daily work. As Trollope said, ‘A small daily task,
if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic

= Sm apnlatity: then, iis the ideal that you should aim at. Even if

4
you decide not to work to a detailed time ble, houl:
least set aside certain hours for study and plan to do cert
quantity of work each week.
k

Examination of your Present Routine — Tae a

Before you begin to plan out your work, however, you need to
know in detail exactly how you'do spend your time. For this
purpose you should keep a minute account of your waking
activities for one or two working days or, better still, for a
week. Do not regard this as trivial or as a waste of time. Nothing
is unimportant if you are compelled to attend to it every day
of your life, such as dressing, washing, eating breakfast and
‘getting to your place of work. It is highly unlikely that you
know with any exactitude just how you do spend your time—
in a typical day. Therefore keep a careful record, such as this
if
Tumse wrastaceMONDAY
Action Uniil Duration
Sleep 7.00 8.00
Lie in bed 7.30 30
Shave 7.40. : 10
Read newspaper 8.00 20
Dress 9 Oo ae ror le a amie oe
Breakfast 8.30 15
Read newspaper 8.40 10
Toilet 8.50 ie 10.
Search for notebook 9.00 ic aie 10
Walk to bus 9.05 5
Wait for bus 9.15 10: :
Travel to work 9.45 Pane) reais:
Talk to friends 10.00 15
Attend lecture 11.00 60 ete.
(This sample record, by no means unusual, howe aee poor
organization of time. The person is awake at 7. “a.m.,» but three
hours elapse before he does any work.) aes

When you have kept the record for some ‘ee you may like
to try and classify your waking activities and to i ue thetime
— under each heading.
 Wed. Thurs. Fri.

From the totals you can then calculate the percentage of

our time spent under each heading.. The questions you will
F turally ask yourself are:
w Does the overall distribution of time correspond to my
needs and purposes?
(2) Is enough time spent on study?
@) Is any particular action taking up too much time?
(4) Do I waste too much time, and when and how does this
occur?

i ono Terms Plans and Weekly Time-tables

Tn tackling any course of study you should make for yourself
»)aelous.isamn oo embracing the year’s work, pena even
further when necessary and (2) a aucek! y time-table,
constructed afresh each week.
_ For the long-term plan you must find out all about the
ious syllabuses you will have to cover, the textbooks which
- you must read and learn, the practical work and other require-
ments which you have to fulfil. Set yourself ‘deadlines’ for
mmpleting important pieces of work, such as essays, practical
notebooks or investigations. Always plan ahead as far as you
ossibly can — lengthen your time perspective and don’t live
om hand to mouth. Of course these long-term plans may have
to be revised from time to time, but you should have a broad
eneral picture of your year’s work. You may not be able to
aborate these long-term plans until you have had some weeks’
xperience of your courses, but do not neglect them. More than
ny other factor they distinguish the good student from the bad.
ood asad
' aaa their students with sai of their
 es anes
26 - wow To sTUDY ~
courses at the outset, so that they ‘know where they are going’.
If any of your teachers fail to do this, site should tactfully ask
them to do so.
A detailed time-table needs to be nate out at the Geldiariitig
of each week, in keeping with the changing requirements of
your courses, and in the light of your experience. The weekly
time-table allows flexibility but at the same time ensures that
you will be prepared to do each piece of work at the best possible
time. Many students intend to study on set evenings, but are
only too ready to cancel or postpone their work on a small
pretext. If you have a definite time-table you will be less likely —
to procrastinate.

a STRSTR Tesaemae ETE Erase pra

o make a realistic and effective time-table needs a certain

“of work that you are never likely to be ableto put into effect.
Usually you need only time-table your set classes and private
study time. Your other activities can be left to themselves,
provided that you leave a reasonable amount of time for
exercise, sport and social and cultural activities. To try and
plan every hour of your life would be pedantic and unworkable.

The Amount of Study Needed

As regards the total amount of study time, it is useful to know
roughly how much work mest students actually do. The average
study time is about 40 hours a week. Arts students generally
have about 15 classroom hours week,
a and spend about 25 in.
private study — reading, writing essays, etc. Science students
spend up to 30 hours a week in the classroom and laboratories, .
but usually do not do more than 15 hours of private study.
These are only average figures of course. Within the general
framework each person has to determine for himself how much
time to spend in private study, but almost certainly your total
hours should lie within the range 30-50 hours. Clever students
work faster than those of less ability, but two equally clever
students may spend very different amounts of time in study.
One, satisfied with just getting by, may average only a few hours
a week; the other, driven by intellectual curiosity or a desire to
excel, may read widely and do far more than the minimum -
requirements.
It should be said that ost students overate theysaaad-o
work and the amount that they can accomplish in a set time.
we Mitte ee
 PLANS” AND- TIME-TABLES 27
“Hence it is good practice to allow a few extra hours as a ‘safety
factor’. At the same time your hours of work should not be
_ excessive. Industrial studies show that if excessively long hours
are worked over a long period, output actually declines and
becomes less than the output that could be achieved in shorter
hours. Your total working hours will have to exceed about 70
' a week, howeyer, before you,need start worrying about this!
a hot more Ae oy i Be
The Common Pattern of Working Hours
If you are a full-time student, the pattern of set classes into
' which you must fit your private study periods is usually some-
thing like this: from Monday to Friday you will have set classes
for most of the morning hours, with occasional free periods
between the lectures and classes. The afternoons will be taken
E up with practical or laboratory periods in Science, and left
_ rather more free in Arts. There is a period each day from about
- 4.0-—7.0 p.m. when not a great deal of work is done - this is
the usual time for teas and social gatherings, clubs and societies.
If you usually start going to bed around 11.0 p.m. this means
_ that the greater part of your private study will have to be done
_ in the weekday evenings between about 7.0 and 11.0p.m.
' Saturday mornings are worked by many Science but by few
a Arts departments. Saturday afternoons are, by custom, set
'- aside for sport and entertainment; Sundays for thought,
relaxation, outings into the country or for religious observance.
It follows that the most natural arrangement for Arts students
is to plan their 25 hours of study time to fall in the afternoons
(4x2 hours) and evenings (4x3 hours) on Mondays, Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Fridays, finding the odd five hours in free
morning periods or at week-ends. Science students will plan
their 15 hours of study (assuming they are fully occupied with
practical work in the afternoons) to fall in the evenings (4x
3 hours) on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays,
making up the rest at odd morning hours or at the week-end.
Unless you are an exceptional individual, you will be wise
not to depart too far from this general pattern of hours. It is
usually a mistake to set yourself a strenuous programme of
eeee
aS
_ work on Saturday evenings, for example, when the rest of the
pvord
: is
1 out for enjoyment. ull o te -atiracti
_ , be greater.and more energy will be consume con ating
3 On yo k, Conversely, eep to common pattern 0
they are doing so, facilitates your ownae

‘e Hours
A common departure from this sensible arrangement isi to start |
work late, possibly after a round of social activities, and to
work through until the early hours of the morning. Some ©
students claim that they can do their best work late at night,
undistracted, while others sleep. If these late hours become —
habitual, however, it is clearly not very easy to get up and be ~
alert and attentive at a lecture at 9.0 a.m. next morning, unless .
indeed you also take a siesta each afternoon. Often a false —
glamour attaches to this working into the night and performing —
a prodigious amount of labour. Work done under the af
oil often fails to stand up to the co an
s1on: technique for ¢ ing some big tas working into a
the night may be all very well, but most regular classes, where —
much of the important instruction is given, take place in the —
mornings; and to be fresh and alert in the mr you must
have had a good night’s sleep.

Diurnal Variations in Efficiency

Most people believe that they work best at certain hours of the
day. There is some truth in this, but it is still possible to work
effectively at any hour. Studies of industrial output show that,
where an eight-hour day is worked, production rises to a
maximum during both morning and afternoon, tailing off
slightly in the morning and more markedly in the late afternoon.

OUTPUT
WORK

MORNING HOURS AFTERNOON HOURS 2s

Fig. 4. Hourly Performance “Curve in a Metal working ‘
- Plant. Limit of Efficiency (100) x Highest output: attains a e
able PW
 there is a “warming up period’ before full
- output iistained. The diurnal variation in output is, however,
' quite small. Factory work is different from study, of course,
and you should not think that there is a ‘typical’’curve of daily
work which will resemble exactly the course ef your own daily
~ working efficiency.
_ The decline in mental work towards i end of the day is
certainly less than the decline in manual work. In one well-known
experiment a student worked continuously for twelve hours a
day doing mental multiplication of four-figure numbers by
four-figure numbers, such as 7,241 2,818. The experiment
continued for four days. The rate of work did become slower
- towards the end of the twelve-hour day, but the work was
continued uninterrupted for twelve hours each day, the work
- on the fourth day being better than the work on the first day.
_ Work curves do suggest, however, that morning output is
higher than afternoon, and certainly schools, colleges and
_ universities all put their most strenuous and demanding work
into the mornings. Hence it is only sensible to ensure that you
are fit and alert for morning work. If you are not, examine
_ your habits of sleep, diet and exercise, to see if you cannot
_ become an early riser. In other words, if you are sluggish in the
‘mornings, don’t regard this as the result of some inherent
defect in your physiology, but look for the causes and try and
_ alter them. In my view the morning hours are easily the most
s valuable, and, for most people, the best time for serious work.
' Therefore it is worth making every effort to see that your
morning hours are not frittered away. Don’t do minor chores
_ inthe mornings that can just as easily be done later in the day.
If.necessary, organize yourself so as to make an early start as.

een before, etc., not ti save time in fe early morning, but

enable you to get through the necessary preliminaries to the
working day with less effort and hurry.
oS you retire to bed often enables you to make a

arly -a) you find that you become tired and sleepy in
ther the afternoons or the evenings, try and find the cause —
which must be either inyou or in your environment. Often it is
too heavy a meal at the wrong time of day or lack of exercise,
 St RE
3 P
rire
¢
Ie per
“2
Tee ee bei
ee “

30 HOW TO STUDY
or sitting for too long in a warm and stuffy room. Remember,
too, that alcohol depresses brain action. If you are unwise
enough to take several pints of beer on your study nights, —
your condition is bound to be unfavourable for work.* i
Your aim should be, then, never to be the slave of the slight
diurnal variations in efficiency to which we are all subject. By
all means do‘asmueh-important work as you can in the mornings,
but take practical steps to overcome the conditions which
promote fatigue il is largely subjective) at other times of
the day.

Filling in the Time-table

The next questions which arise concern how best to apportion
your various tasks within the periods of time which you have
set aside for study, to decide on the best length for individual
‘units’ of study, on rest intervals, and on the amount of time to
allocate to each subject.
Since you cannot at first be quite sure how much time to
allocate to the various subjects of your course, you must make
the best guesses you can. If you find some particular subject
difficult allot more time to it than the others. Do not neglect
it in favour of another subject which you find easier or more
interesting. Make_a fi at the begi of each
k.
TE ating ote rr cmc =
as soon as possible after the even
ou have to keep a practical —
—“HORbovk-for-exmMPIE
TeisaGood rule to write it up the same
day, when the material is fresh in your mind. If you set it aside _
it will only take you longer to do in the end. Likewise the pest
time for (3s first revision gtyour lecture notes is immediately
ter the lecture, or at least On the same day. Res
ee ET ad
PO eR Sg NATO gS BATE,

The Length of Individual Study ‘ Units’

The length of your individual study ‘units’ deserves serious
thought. The most efficient arrangement depends on:
(1) the complexity and size of the task. soe h ee
(2) the characteristics of the individual learner. »
If you have a large task such as writing a long essay, it may
be uneconomic to work on it for half an hour or even for an
* The effect of the diet and exercise is dealt with more fullyinChapter 12.
 "PLANS. AND TIME- TABLES Bh
10ur ataifims. Time is needed for you to assemble your materials
and your thoughts, and to ‘warm up’ to the task. By the time
you have got your ideas straight it may be time to stop — before
you have made any tangible progress.
_ Usually, therefore, if you have an experiment to report or an
essay to write, it is best to complete it at a single sitting, once
_ you have assembled all the necessary materials, provided that
it can be done in a total of 2 or 3 hours.
Individuals differ in the ease to which they can take up a
fresh task, work on it, and then turn to something else. If you
find it easy to switch from one subject to another, you will be
able to work efficiently in smaller ‘units’ than those who not

|
only take a long time to get started on a task, but also find it
hard to stop thinking about it afterwards.
-A very common difficulty, not only for such ‘perseverators’,
but for everyone, is to find enough long uninterrupted periods
in which to perform those tasks which cannot be completed in
a single hour.
The single hour is the common unit of instruction for lectures

|
and tutorials, and may well be as long as most people care to
work on a single subject, without an intervening rest period.
For practical work, on the other hand, 2- or 3-hour sessions are
_ usual. Probably for many tasks and for most people, a working
period of about an hour, followed by a few minutes’ rest or
oar relaxation is quite effective. Some individuals much prefer to
, ' switch to a different task after about an hour. As a general

.
- rule, for reading, note-taking and learning from beoks, an hour
is a sui e work unit; but, particularly as you advance to the
i
more complex and tifficult aspects of a subject, larger work
units may be more ¢ffective. Most university students prefer
work periods of Bours for many forms of private study.

Value of Rest Periods hott ho we) "5

Optimum periods of work and rest for every task and
for every individual. Paaine conissaal study pest pesiodermen
‘Say Although e€ speed and accuracy of mental work
esrereactually declines very little, boredom, distractability and
' dissatisfaction with the task tend to set in after about two
Shours; if there is no break. During a session of continuous work
on the same task, rest periods should be short in relation to
_ the work period- of the order of 5 minutes or so, If longer
rests are taken momentum will be ea and possibly ex bl
effort may be required before you become warmed up to th
task again. A rest should be taken whenever you feel that ou
are slowing down and making errors. wi on a .
Tor some tins,4BOWING GNENe TO!it occurs, together ath |
f
an increasing desire to stop work altogether. But if you resolve,
instead of doing this, to rest and relax for 10 minutes and then ©
to get back to work, the desire to get down to the. task again
often returns and you get your ‘second wind’.
A change in activity or posture during the rest are desirable,
such as walking around the room, stretching your arms, etc.
Rest intervals between different tasks may well be longer—
about 10 or 15 minutes. Then a short, brisk walk outside, or
some light refreshment, often serve to restore your energies to ©
their former level. In manual work 5 or 10 minutes’ rest each
hour is beneficial, and you should not need to break off much —
more frequently than this. Remember that much of menial
fatigue springs from boredom or lack of interest rather a
any real inability to continue with the task.
In general, then, it is sensible to take 15 -minute ieee, at
convenient times between tasks, and smaller breaks of a few
minutes in the course of a task. It is much better to take a —
definite rest interval and then get back to hard work, than to.
work half-heartedly for too long.

Holidays ee
In most colleges and institutions of higher education the session
extends over only about seven or eight months of the year: —
or it may be even less, most of the real work being done in the”
autumn and spring terms. The student often has a month at —
Christmas, a month at Easter, and three months in the summer _
free of set work. What is the best way of using this free time?
These long*holidays derive in part’ from the days when higher
education was for the well-to-do. Students were supposed te —
supplement their studies by wide and extensive reading, par-
ticularly in the long vacation. Nowadays many students find it
necessary to work in the holidays in order to make énoug
money to live on. The first question that arises, then, is should:
_
you take paid work in the vacations?
Although some authorities think that students shai study
in the vacation, and not fake on peat outside iia
 San inthe curators: In my view pra is everything to be
for working in the vacations, particularly if the work
‘some relation to study: engineers and chemists should
: ork in industry, technicians on farms, social workers as
“nurses, language students abroad, etc. Academic learning is
; - one sort of learning: students and their teachers are
always in danger of getting out of touch with the larger world
of industry, trade and agriculture. Everyone should explore
the society in which he lives, and get first-hand knowledge of
how people live in social classes other than his own. There is °
no evidence to show that those who take paid employment in
ie vacations do any worse at their studies than those who do
not. On the contrary, American research shows that students
tho take part-time employment are more earnest and more
purposeful, and better students than those who do not.
_ There is substantial agreement that people who take longish
days away from their work are more productive workers
n those who do not. Certainly many businessmen claim that
ey can do twelve months’ work in nine months, but not in
welve months. Work should not become an obsession. At the
ame time my view 1s that the sort oi idle seaside which
Y suit a tired factory worker is not the best sort of holiday
ra student. Something more active and purposeful is required,
uch as walking, mountaineering, eas: expeditions and
field studies.
Tn general, the common advice to ‘get away from it all’ and
make a complete break from your work seems to be good
advice. You should, however, set aside a part of the long
yacation for revision and for going over parts of your work
t you may have fallen behind with.

Distribution of Practice
g a-long view, and considering the course _ of learning
ver a period of weeks or months, spaced (or ‘distributed’)
ning sessions are more effective than ‘massed’ practice.
oth long-term retention and understanding will be better if
spread out your learning, rather than try and cram it into
ingle session. For instance, if you have a total of three hours
in Ww meto learn about a topic, it will usually be better to
oo aapa Ulin.
study it, say, for an hour on one evening, for a further hour a
few days later, and for a third time a week or ten days later,
than to work on it for three hours in one evening and then do no
further work on it. In distributed learning each learning session
serves to revise and to reinforce your knowledge, and you have -
more time to think about it and organize it. There is a limit to
the amount of information that can be properly assimilated at
any one time: time is needed for thinking and for consolidating —
your knowledge. —The—worst-foumof Termine both from the
point of view of understanding and of long-term retention,_is,
~sramming before examinations you merely fill your head with
a ill-digested
mass of facts w are very soon forgotten. The
evils of cramming are dealt with at greater length in the chapter
on preparing for examination.

Summary
By now it should be clear that you can construct a flexible
time-table which will not tie you to a rigid, routine, will save
you time and effort, and enable you to keep pace with the
requirements of your study. The thought and planning involved
in constructing a good workable time-table are repaid many
times over. Here are the main steps again: »
(1) Detailed examination of all your waking activities. Analysis
of your daily routine, to ensure that the necessary ‘main-
tenance’ activities such as meals, travel, shopping, etc., do
not take up too much of your time.
(2)Planning as far ahead as possible, so that you have a general
picture of what lies before you.
(3) Decision on the total amount of weekly study time you need
to perform. Your total hours of wor cluding classes,
should be around 40, and should almost certainly not lie
outside the range of 30-50 hours.
(4) Decisio hen to c out your private study. Conform
you can to the common pattern of working hours: do -
your important work in the mornings, study for four evenings
each week and leave the week-ends relatively free. But
don’t think that there are certain hours of the day when.
you can’t work. Fatigue is mostly subjective and diurnal
variations in efficiency are small.
(5) At the Pooaning of each week, plan your study times for
eee eet “a Bek 25 * ope
 fo} Bn piece of ork at ie best time. Go over your
lecture notes the same day. Write up experiments when |
- they are still fresh in your mind.
ag Try and discover the best length of study period for
your various tasks. A sizeable task is often best tackled
in a single 2- or 3-hour session.
(© Plan for rest periods between tasks, and shorter rest
intervals in the course of a task.

Keep a Diary or Journal

t is useful practice to keep a diary or journal. This is best done
a large exercise ‘book — pocket diaries are useless for this
ose. Keeping a daily record will only take. five or ten
utes a day; and in summing up each day’s activities, you
@ a permanent record of your plans in action. You will
that you have good days and bad days, victories and
failures. On one day you may be buoyed up with hopes on the
same grounds that give you cause for anxiety on the next.
fe are all subject to these ebbs and flows of feeling, so it is as
ell to recognize it, and to determine to stick doggedly to our
If-appointed tasks, even when we appear to be making little
rOpress.
 CHAPTER THREE

MOTIVES AND HABITS |

Continuity of thought upon one single thing, and the sup-
|
pression of every source of distraction, multiply in an
extraordinary way the value of time.
hema

| in fact it is pointless to put in hours of study ey are not

effective. We all know we can accomplish more in an hour of
concentrated work than in a whole evening spent dawdling
over a textbook, without any real effort and intention to learn,
How can your concentration be improved? Basically you
must be interested in the course you are taking, have the ability
to do it, and preferably have definite long-term goals as regards
vocation and eventual work in life (Ch. 1), Interest, ability and
purpose result in a strong desire and intention toPonce:

Motives
ti are among the strongest influences on performance.
A motive is any factor which determines the amount of effort
which you put into a task. Motives derive their strength and
driving force from the general fund of energy at your disposal,
but the direction of activity is determined by your goals, aspira-
tions and values. That is, motives vary in both strength and
direction, and can be considered as vectors.
Effort, as seen from the inside, seems to depend on “will-
power’ or resolution. Unfortunately merely resolving to work
harder is usually ineffective. You can usually do more to
improve your work output by changing those features of your
environment’ which are interfering with your work than by
making good resolutions to work more. Although it is not easy
to control the strength and direction of your motives there are
some possible. lines of action: B

(1) Clarify your vocational aims, first-hand experience of

 re, and odeaas your time perspective.
rou can, regularly obtain information about your progress,
find out exactly the nature of your errors and omissions.
Read the history of your subject, learn something of the
“methods of work of eminent men, and think about the
social impact of the disciplines that you study.
_ The first line of action has already been discussed in Chapter 1.
he second involves the control of attention.

p acentration iis not a ‘faculty’ of the mind, but depends on the

trol of attention. At any one moment, information is being
d into the brain through all our sensory channels, but usually
> are only aware of a small part of it, such as a certain shape
sound. Other bodily sensations do not enter consciousness.
study we have to attend to the verbal and other symbols
efore us, and their associated meanings and thought-processes,
d to neglect all the irrelevant noises, etc., that are going on
the same time. Novel, intense, and sudden stimuli tend to
ce themselves on our attention. Hence, the working environ-
at should not include novel, intense, and sudden stimuli.
how difficult it is to sit down and work in a strange place,
Ow distracting loud discontinuous noise is, or any stimulus
ich appeals to strong interests — such as favourite music, or
mversation on some subject on which we regard ourselves
experts. It is only sense, then, to try and make the working
i esa contain as few distracting stimuli as possible.
e distracting stimuli can include not only noises, con-
sations, television, etc., but also those arising in ourselves, as
eelings of hunger or thirst or pain and discomfort. Much can
done to control all these sources of distraction by controlling
physical surroundings: having a quiet, habitual place for
dy (Ch 13). ee
ually any particular stimulus is satpunided to for Jess than a
ad. Even if you consciously try to hold an idea in the focus
seconds before some other idea breaks i in. Becstes attention is.
i
constantly fluctuating in this fashion, it inevitably wanders off |
to irrelevant things when we are working slowly and without ©
much purpose. One remedy for inattention, then, is rapid work.
Many authors have found, for example, that if they lay a watch
by their side, and force themselves to write a page every fifteen ©
minutes, the very speed of the work cures any tendencyto —
wool-gathering. Moreover, work done against firm time limits _
is by no means always the least effective. Try and accustom ~
yourself, therefore, to working as rapidly as you reasonably —
can. This is a sure cure for day-dreaming. )
Everyone, at times, has trouble in getting down to work. ©
Sometimes it is hard to make a start, as though a certain inertia _
has to be overcome. Once a start has been made, however, —
work is often self-sustaining, and exerts a traction on the worker 4
until the task is completed. In order to get ‘over the initial —
barrier, students are often advised to keep their books and ~
materials laid out to hand in a familiar place, and to pick up a
pen and start writing. This is certainly a less effortful procedure ©
than having to gather the necessary work materials together, —
at the same time screwing up resolve to working pitch. This is, —
however, a very simplified account of how concentrated work :
is done.
First, there must be a motive or driving-force impelling you ~
to undertake and complete the task, and we have seen that the—
most powerful motives arise from goals and interests rather
than from external compulsion. Secondly, sustained effort on a
‘task means freedom from distractions and irrelevant trains of -
thought.
Difficulty in starting and sustaining work can arisee from:
(1) lack of motivation, disinterest or fatigue.
(2) conflict with other activities, desires to be doing sonieHing’a
else, or the carry-over and perseveration of prior eetivitiesghe
and trains of thought. ee
(3) various kinds of emotional upsets. ie
Some advice has already been given about motivation and,
more is given below in the Sections on goals and aspirations
 oa
netions of the brain is the suppression ‘of much of the sensory
input eens on a task means suppressing and not
at nding to unwanted sensory input, and, more important,
fescue the impulse to other activities. Each day there are
great many things to be done, so that it is often hard to decide
“which to do first and how to fit in all that has to be done. One
fl owerful argument for having a time-table is that it does away
_ with much of the conflict and indecision about the use of time.
But, even with a good time-table, it is not easy to concentrate
3 on the work when you are aware of other tasks to be done;
_ and when these other tasks keep intruding themselves into your
thoughts.
Imagine a man settling down to work on a summer’s morning.
He thinks first that the strawberries in the garden will have to
be netted soon against the birds, that the engine of his car
_ badly needs overhaul, that the local education authority has
allocated his daughter to an unsuitable school and that he will«
have to try and do something about it, that there are several
letters that he ought to write, that there is a scientific paper
which he hasto finish by the end of the week, that he badly
' needs a haircut, and that tomorrow is his wedding anniversary.
' Writing the scientific paper, he decides, is the job he must get
on with and he gives this first priority. Thinking about the other
oblems in order, he makes a note to buy a garden net on his
y home that night, decides to call in at a garage on his way
home to get an estimate of the cost of repairs to the car, decides
at the problem. of his daughter’s education will continue to
orry him unless he takes action, and telephones her head-
istress who promises to do what she can; he then decides
at the letters can wait until next day and also the haircut,
but that he had better sit down after lunch and do something
about the wedding anniversary.
Almost everyone has to plan the daily round in this fashion.
Systematic people usually list the things they have to do, decide
what is possible, and make a note to carry out later what they
‘cannot do at once. The point is that having made a note, and
decided on future action, you can then dismiss the matter from
mind and get immersed in the main task. Politicians, and
others who handle a large volume of business, often commence
their day with a period of quiet planning and meditation.
uch planning is even more necessary in study because the
abc of about some hour dusatone The best work ¢ .
be done when you have the right ‘mental set’ and have rekindled
the appropriate system of ideas. f
If you know that there are certain actives which tend to.
start trains of thought that interfere with study, don’t let these —
activities get started. Conversations and arguments, for instance, —
may reverberate in some people’s heads for hours afterwards,
and prevent them from getting on with their set work. This is
true of any prior activity that is uncompleted, leaving the —
participant in a state of tension.
Even more disturbing are the distractions arising from i
emotional conflicts and inner disturbances. All that needs to be —
said here is that you should face up to any personal difficulties, »
and try to solve them. If you cannot do much to alleviate them, —
try to accept what cannot be changed. 4s
Goals and Aspirations :
Effort is closely related to goals and aspirations. ‘Aspiration iis.
a function of:
(1) your past experience of successes and failures.
(2) your estimate of your chances of success.
SS
RE
ci
A
The experience of success makes people aim high. If, on the
other hand, they think that certain levels of performance are
beyond them, they tend to lower their sights.
If a task is too easy or too difficult it presents no ace Es
our aspirations are not involved in tasks which are too easy or
too difficult. No one experiences feelings of success in per- q
forming a very easy task, or feelings of failure when unable to 4
—
perform one which is much too difficult. For Rye aan

in four gtesetne as such a time would clearly be pace

capacity. There is an intermediate zone of difficulty in any tas!
which represents the zone of the individual's capacity, anc M2
 e Ana is not judged in isolation from that of others.
formally a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ performance is good or bad in
tion to the performance of others. Usually the standard of
comparison or ‘reference scale’ is set by your status equals,
- that is by other students on the course. Aspirations are a function
“of how you perceive your position on a reference scale, and the
forces that act on’ you in that position. For example, the refer-
mee scale of a schoolboy in assessing his marks will usually be
set by his rank in the class and by the relation of his marks to
the marks of others in his class. A champion sheep-shearer or
an efficient shorthand typist will take as reference scales the
Known rates of work or output of other sheep-shearers or
shorthand typists.
_ The forces acting on the individual in his perceived position
in the reference scale will depend on the ‘social climate’. Very
often in schools and elsewhere this climate is competitive, so
‘that the individual is under constant pressure to improve his
score in relation to that of others. In other cases performance
much above the mean of others may be regarded as socially
_ undesirable, as sometimes happens among industrial workers
_ on piece work, or in schools and universities where it is ‘bad
form’ to work too hard. Here there may be definite social
‘pressures on the more productive workers to slow down their
tate of work.
From ree 2. eoataing work on aspirations it can be said

1) Where success is defined as attaining a self-set goal, success

Z usually leads to raising aspirations.
3@ Shifts iin aspiration reflect changes in the subject’s confidence
in his ability to attain his goals.
_ (3) The effects of failure are more variable than the effects of
success. Repeated failure often causes the individual to give
up trying altogether. This occurs when the highest level of
performance of which he is capable lags so badly behind
_ that of others, or occupies such a low place on his reference
_ scale, that it has no value for him. If on the other hand he
~ wants very much to succeed, and believes that he can,
_ failure may cause him to redouble his efforts.
47” HOW TO STUDY
Most people are realistic and tie their aspirations very closely
to the level of their past performance. Usually it is placed a —
little higher than the level previously attained, and thus provides —
a spur to effort, but not too great a disappointment if failure —
results. Psychologists usually think that those who set their
aspirations at absurdly high levels would do better to be more
realistic. The goals that you set yourself should be goals that —
you can, with effort, reasonab expect to attain.

Knowledge of Results
In the course of learning it is helpful to have some measure of
your progress, at regular intervals. If you have a weekly test or
examination, for instance, you can chart your progress, and
compete against yourself, by constantly trying to improve on
your last performance. In most colleges, however, regular
assessments of work are not made, so that students have some
difficulty in knowing whether they are doing enough work or
not, and whether they are on the right lines in what they are
doing.
Many experiments show the advantages of obtaining im-—
mediate and precise information about the outcome of your
efforts. (One of the reasons why the new teaching machines are -
successful is that they give the learner immediate information
.about the nature of his successes and failures.)
A simple way to demonstrate the importance of knowledge —
of results is to get two subjects to draw straight lines freehand,
with instructions to make them three inches long. Each line
should be covered up as it is drawn so that it cannot serve as a
copy for the next. Give one subject no information about the —
accuracy of his performance, and he will not improve. Give
the other subject exact information about each line that he
draws, telling him by how much it is too short or too long.
After a few tries he will be able to draw a three-inch line very —
accurately. Many other experiments yield essentially similar
results. In order to improve the learner needs to know whether |
his responses are correct or not. a
The graph on page 43 shows the average number of additions
performed in a minute by a group who were allowed to count :
up how many additions they had completed after each trial,
compared with the performance of a group who did not know
what their score was. sate
 WITH KNOWLEDGE OF ScoRE
-——— WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE OF SCORE

NUMBER OF
ADDITIONS
COMPLETED
PER MINUTE
50

SUCCESSIVE TRIALS
Fig. 5. The influence of knowledge of score on
: performance

The importance of ‘feedback’ to the learner of the results

efforts is most obvious in the learning of physical skills:

at the learner knows at once whether he has made an adequate

_ Tesponse or not. In piano-playing, for example, there is auditory
‘feedback; in typing the typed paper record gives immediate
sual information about errors. In many games, however, such
swimming, tennis, cricket, or golf, it is much more difficult
for the learner to get a clear idea of the results of his efforts.
ence the need for coaches and instructors. In skilled per-
rmances, such as shooting at a distant target, if no knowledge
‘results is given to the learner, no improvement is possible.
atever can be done to help the learner to assess his own
rts is helpful. Practice before a mirror is useful for dancing
id golf. Athletes are helped by slow-motion photography of
 dicie action: Graphic spate aeof the foot bees ore:i
a skilled industrial process helped trainees to masterthe skill.
i Interest and motivation in a task are enhanced when th
i worker can see the results of his efforts. In mowing a lawn, {
} or in writing an essay, for example he can look proudly back ©
on the visible results of his efforts. une 4
_In study, motivation sometimes $s because n itati
measure Of progress 1 liable. At school the half-term mark
sheet, however unreliable, provides some tangible evidence of ©
performance. At college the student often has to pes to appraisei
and regulate his own progress.
|

Extending Your Knowledge é

i
Finally a good way of generating interest in your work is to
read widely, to study its history and methods, its social impact —4i
hi on: society, and its relation to other similar disciplines. The #
ts more you learn about a subject the easier it becomes. This point ©
needs stressing because there are some students, with peculiar
ideas of brain physiology, who think they must not overtax 4
their memories with facts. They think that each fact ‘occupies’
one brain cell, and as they only have a limited number of brain ©;
cells, they must restrict themselves to a limited number of facts.f—
Nothing could be further from the truth. Facts are not stored é
in this simple mechanical way. The brain is rather a vast inter- —
connecting network, and the more complex and interconnected ©
it becomes the more efficiently it works. Most people of fertile —
intelligence read widely, and get fresh insights into their par- —
ticular subjects by the constant effort to encompass new sets of
facts. ;

Changing Habits
If you mean to work to.a plan and to become a more effective +
worker, you will have to change some of your habits, possibly
some habits of long standing. This is the most difficult step of
all. Nearly everyone realizes that he could work a lot mor )
effectively, but is unable to bring about the requisite changes in —
behaviour. It is not easy to change long-standing habits, bu
behaviour does change with changes in the environment. Think
of the changes that take place on holiday, in a foreign country.
on marriage, in a new job, on being conscripted into the arme:
forces, on leaving home and becoming independent of parents.
 st : you cannotnehines your ways
you can change them by altering your —

sr, ifyou'ccan ‘trace back any behaviour to its cause you

i be able to alter it.
ell

st your difficulties, It may be all or any of these things:

n the work itself and your relation to it.
_ Disinterest and boredom - you can’t see the use of the
subject, or relate it to your purposes.
‘Difficulty of the subject — possibly you lack a groundwork
in the subject which is taken for granted - or you weally
have no aptitude for the subject.
_ Fear of failure- a fear that whatever efforts you make they
will not be successful.
The work takes you too long - you become tired and
- listless, and make no progress.
‘Lack of the necessary books and materials.
Conflict with other activities.
Desire to be doing something other than study.
_ Invitations from friends, and interruptions.
Taking on too many extra-curricular activities.
Distractions in the immediate environment.
_ Noises, music, television.
Room too hot or too cold.
Sofas or easy chairs — inviting somnolence.
(4) Worry about personal affairs.
Having made your analysis, consider what remedial action
needs to be taken, and work out in detail how you propose
to chia your habits.

vated by a motive, come into play in familiar situations.

tpFo ‘example, when confronted by a difficult intellectual problem
 ” fa We

the past led to success or satisfaction or to the resolutionof —

the difficulty. Habit systems are fixated and reinforced when
they lead to success, relief from tension, etc. *
In the simplest case, the acquisition of a conditioned res- —
ponse, the strength of the habit-is a positive growth function of
the number of previous occasions on which the habit has been
performed, and has led to satisfying consequences, The general

CONDITIONED
STRENGTH
OF
RESPONSE NUMBER OF REPETITIONS
OF THE CONDITIONING SEQUENCE
Fig. 6. Strength of a conditioned response during the
course of conditioning

rule, then, is that habits are fixed by the consequences that they —
lead to. Actions which lead to satisfying consequences are
repeated and become habitual; actions which lead to failure or —
to dissatisfaction are dropped. Ai
This rule underlines the need for early success: the new habit —
which you are trying to establish should lead fairly soon to —
satisfaction of some kind. The satisfaction may be of many —
kinds — self-satisfaction because work has been well done, ©
praise from others, or even some small material indulgence,
self-administered, as a reward. Habits of regular work tend to |7
bring their own reward, in the shape of feelings of conscious
virtue or in a sense of attainment, but external rewards are also —
useful in keeping the new habit going in its early stages.
 it Formation and Change
What are the best ways of breaking undesirable habits and
‘orming good ones? For advice on this topic we still have to
;turn to writers of the last century. Before Darwin’s day, habit
was regarded as all-powerful. Nineteenth-century moralists
earnestly advised young people to develop habits of sobriety,
_ industry and perseverance. Cobbett, for example, advised
- young men who wished to master English grammar to acquire
- the habit of perseverance.
_ *When you find weariness approaching, rouse yourself, and
remember, that, if you give up, all that you have done has been
_ done in vain.... Ifreason interfere and bid you overcome the fits of
_ lassitude, and almost mechanically to go on without the stimulus
of hope, the buoyant fit speedily returns; you congratulate
_ yourself that you did not yield to the temptation to abandon
your pursuit, and you proceed with more vigour, than ever.
Five or six triumphs over temptation to indolence or despair
lay the foundation of certain success; and what is of still more
importance, fix in you the habit of perseverance.’
_ Cobbett’s account is an anticipation of the modern doctrine
that habit strength builds up as a function of repetition and
4 reinforcement. The notion of perseverance as a habit that can
_ be acquired is supported by modern theories of conditioning
andlearning. ~
Nowadays people are, however, somewhat sceptical of
_ schemes for self-improvement. But the advice of the older
_writers is still worth looking at. The Scottish philosopher Bain
(1859) saw morals and habits of regular work as opposed to
appetites and indulgences. In childhood and youth there is
_ inevitably conflict between desires and moral behaviour, but,
_ with proper training, desires are overcome with less and less
- effort, until the well-trained adult feels no temptations. Appetites
;are only tamed, however, by long habit backed by some kind of
compulsion or by the good example of others. Habits running
acounter to strong appetites can only be set up if we launch
ourselves on a new course of action with a strong initiative
and never allow any backslidings to occur. The strongest
_ motive is external compulsion; next comes the example and
"persuasion of others; the weakest motive is our own determina-
c.tionand ‘will power’.
 Take the practice of regular eae ri i
workers rise at 6.0 a.m. with mechanical punctuality ge entire
indifference, because since early youth they have had to be
out of bed each morning at six o’clock to go to work. With |
them, external compulsion and an unbroken series of eit
risings enable them to rise early without chon

Three Maxims
Following up Bain’s account, William James ponerforsnilated 4
three oft-quoted maxims:
‘The first maxim is that in the acquisition of a new habit, or -
the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ~
ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as posites |
Accumulate alli the possible circumstances which shall re-enforce
the new way; make engagements incompatible with the old; —
take a public pledge, if the case allows; in short, envelope your —
resolution with every aid you know. . 4
‘The second maxim is: Never suffer an exception ‘to occur”
till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Bach lapse is {
like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully —
winding up; a single slip undoes more than a great many turns —
will wind again.. j
“The need for securing success_at the outset - imperative. 3
Failure at first is apt fo damp the energy of a at-
tempts, whereas past experiences of success nerve one to future
~ vigour..
‘The question of “‘tapering-off” in abandoning such habits:
as drink and opium-indulgence comes in here, andis a question —
about which experts differ within certain limits, and in regard ~
to what may be best for the individual case. In the main, how- —
ever, all expert opinion would agree that abrupt acquisition of ©
the new habit is the best way, if there be a real possibility of —
carrying it out . . . provided one can stand it, a sharp period of
suffering, and then a free time, is the best thing to aim at,
whether in giving up a habit like that of opium, or in simply —
changing one’s hours of rising or of work. It is surprising how ~
soon a desire will die of inanition if it is never fed.
‘A third maxim may be added to the preceding pair: Seize -
the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution
you make, and on every emotional prompting you may ex-
perience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain. It is
 ducing motor effects, that cokes and aspirations com-
cate a new “‘set” to the brain.. i
‘No matter how full a reservoir of‘maxims one may possess,
d no matter how good one’s sentiments may be, if one has
ot taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act,
me’s character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.
ith mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paved.’
In general James’s advice is still good today. If you want to
_ change your habits, make a clean break with the old behaviour.
If periods of indulgence are admitted to break into the career
_ of the learner, effortless performance of the desired change will
never be attained.
-An example of an organization which puts many of these
maxims into practice is Alcoholics Anonymous. This movement
-has had some striking successes in reclaiming alcoholics when
all other methods have failed, The sufferer signs the pledge -—
there is a sharp break with former habits. He makes a public a :
_ pledge of his intentions. He meets fellow-sufferers who are in
_ process of, conquering their addiction. Members of the society
' give each other support and advice, and reinforce each other’s
_ purpose and resolution. The organization also provides other
activities, such as meetings where non-alcoholic drinks are
supplied, which can replace the dependence on alcohol. Your
task in setting up desirable habits of work is, of course, very
different from overcoming a physiological addiction. But the
_ same general principles apply both to setting up new habits
and to changing old ones.

The Power of Group Decision

Strength can be given to your determination if you can enter
into a compact with friends to do more work or to work more
systematically. The force of group decision is greater than the
force of individual decision — it is more likely to lead to action.
Reading a book or going to a lecture on how to study may set
up in you the right intentions. Intentions alone, however, if
_ they rely on individual ‘will power’, are often not sufficient to
‘lead to change. The link between intention and action can
often be provided by group decision. Group decision is effective
‘because a commitment’ to friends and other members of the
‘group. -
Bsn * ie ae 2 bie iis. Fitts & iad
- HOW TO sTUDY

Summary i ret i
_ _Merely resolving to work harder is usually ineffective. But you
can enhance your motivation by setting yourself both short-term’
and long-term goals, by controlling sources of distraction, by —
charting your progress, and by immersing yourself in your
studies.
Rapid work is one cure for difficulty in concentrating. Another.
aid is the technique ol suppression. Since ieee to
settle down to study is often the result of a wish to be doing
something else, you need to suppress the impulse to other
activities. This is best achieved by allocating a sensible amount
of time to other intruding tasks and activities, and having made
a plan, dismissing them from conciousness.
Effort and aspiration are influenced by your past history the.of :
orsuscess-is-
successes and failures. Some-kind ofreward
best spur to effort. But your goals and aspirations should be
ee and attainable.
If you decide to try and change habits of long standing, you
should declare your intentions to others, allow no backsliding,
achieve some success at the outset, and strengthen your resolve
by incurring obligations to others.

Ser,
 CHAPTER FOUR

LEARNING AND REMEMBERING

; Small have continuous plodders ever won

Save base authority from others’ books.
SHAKESPEARE

The ’Cotirse of Learning

‘OST subjects of study are too complex to yield a curve of -
learning in which a quantitative measure of progress is
plotted against the amount of practice. But such curves can
readily be derived for physical skills such as typewriting. If we
plot the number of strokes that can be made per minute against
_ the amount of practice, we get a curve of learning. One such

areal
curve might be:

Saceree LEVEL OF PLATEAU

130

No

Bet
70
PER
‘STROKES
MINUTE
0,20 40. 60 8&0 100. 120 140 160 180
. DAYS OF PRACTICE
Fig. 7. Learning curve for typewriting
itt finds his way about the task. If you take up an entirely
new subject there is bound to be a period of small progress, as
you learn to deal with new concepts and a new technical vocabu- 4
lary; (2) a period of rapid progress as you begin to ‘see the —
light’ and are spurred on by the interest and novelty of the task;
(3) a ‘plateau’ or period of slow progress, as a result of flagging
interest and the increased difficulty of the task; and. finally (4)
a slower climb to the upper limit of skill.
Not all learning curves of course will be of this form and
there will be irregularities and short-term fluctuations in the
individual case. The important point to note is that See
takes tim = and that there are often periods of little obviow
progress. The moral is not to become discouraged when you ~
seem to be stuck on a ‘plateau’. As you accumulate experience
difficulties often seem to disappear. In all learning, advances
tend to come irregularly and in bursts, as you gain fresh insights
into the subject.

The Importance of Understanding

In order to obtain these insights you must thoroughly under-
stand what you are studying. If you really understand a subject’
not only do you remember it easily, but you can apply your
knowledge in new situations. The important thing is not what
you know, but what you can do with what you know. The
extra effort involved in getting a firm grounding in the essentials
of a subject is repaid many times in later study.
How are you to achieve understanding? Understanding
involves (1) linking new knowledge to the old and (2) organizing
it and remembering it in a systematic fashion.
To retain and make sense of any new concept or fact it ‘must
be linked in as many ways as possible to your existing body of
knowledge. All good introductory textbooks are constantly
giving familiar examples, or using analogies, or appealing to —
common experience. In setting out the differences between
daylight vision and twilight vision, for example, most writers
point out that as twilight falls in the garden, blue flowers remain
blue for some time after red blossoms appear black, illustrating, .
by appeal to common experience, that under dim illumination —
the colours of the blue end of the spectrum become relatively —
brighter than those of the red end. Or again, to illustrate that —
 cular lectronGong ‘the passage oF
e ic current is only a few centimetres per second, although
velocity of the current is extremely great, the analogy is
ten used of a truck run into the end of a long line of trucks
nD shunting yard, a corresponding truck being rapidly ejected
from the far end. Linking new information to familiar ex-
perience in this fashion always helps understanding.
In order to tie the new information to your stock of know-
ledge with as many links as possible, you must reflect on it, and
_ try and relate it to what you already know. Thinking the matter
over by yourself, writing out summaries of the main points,
and talking to other students about it, are all valuable for
‘e fixing it more clearly in your mind.
- In the words of William James: ‘The more other facts a
-fact is associated with in the mind, the better possession of it
_ OUr memory retains. Each of its associates becomes a hook to
Y
a
Which it hangs, a means to fish it up by when sunk beneath the

3 surface.... Of two men with the same outward experiences

_ and the same amount of mere natural tenacity, the one who
thinks over his experiences most, and weaves them into system-
atic relations with each other, will be the one with the best
memory. ... The college athlete who remains a dunce at his
books will astonish you by his knowledge of men’s “records”
ih: in various feats and games, and will be a walking dictionary of
sporting statistics. The reason is that he is constantly going
over these things in his mind, and comparing and making
, seriesof them.’

A System of Study: SO3R

- Anaid to systematic study which has proved of value in American
Colleges and Universities is the system called SQ3R.* The
ae stands for:
Survey
Question
Read
Recite
Revise
o Survey. In brief, this means that instead of picking up a
Cea!SAS Robinson. Effective Study, New York: Harper and Brothers,
ON Rae ot er PRE EEN Oley
ee eee
Zi Pos oeeeas 4 a
54. HOW TO STUDY7- 7 bye
textbook and reading one of its chapters- over and over, ‘you ”
should first ‘survey’: that is find out all you can about the
aims and purpose of the book, read the author’s preface, study
the table of contents and the index, read the chapter summaries
(if there are summaries) and skim your way rapidly through
the book. Keep in mind your own purpose in study, the syllabus
you are trying to cover, and the relevance of the book to your
own special interests. And if the book does not suit your pur-
pose, if it is not well written, and at the right level of difficulty,
search around until you find a better one. In other words,
make a reconnaissance before you start your main work, and
Bet an over-all perspective of a lies before you.
(2) Question. The second preparatory step — asking questions —
is also important. This entails going rapidly through the chapters
of the book which you are going to tackle, and jotting down
such questions as occur to you. This is useful because it motivates
you and gives you a purpose: it forces you to think and to
marshal such knowledge as you already have. Many good
authors help the reader by clearly stating a problem in their
introductory sentences or specifically confronting the reader
with questions. And if you persist inmaintaining a questioning
attitude, you will in time come to read books critically: you
will ask what evidence the author has for his statements and
whether what he is saying is consistent with what you already
know or believe. No intelligent person merely reads a book. He
cannot help dwelling on particular points as he reads, and
contrasting or uniting them with other points that he has just
grasped.
(3) Reading. Next comes reading proper. The fipstreading of
a textbook chapter usually needs to be rather slow and thorough.
If you are a voracious reader of novels or detective stories ¥
must not carry over to textbooks your habit of rapid reading for
entertainment. Most good textbook chapters have a structure of
headings and sub-headings which you need to keep in the back
of your mind as you read. Often you must turn back to previous
pages to remind yourself of some fact or argument. If the
subject is illustrated by graphs or by diagrams, you will often
be well advised to copy them out or elaborate them. Complex
arguments and masses of information can often be presented .
briefly and neatly in a table or graph. Hence, if you are foolish
enough to skip the graphs or tables you will often miss the
 LEARNING AND REMEMBERING 55

‘major eis that the author is. trying to make. Moreover,

oe people will find, if they will take the trouble to master
them, that graphs and diagrams are much more easily remem-
pered than long verbal. statements, and serve as convenient
_ foundations around which to build a structure of knowledge.
(4) Recitation. A Smee reading is never su even though
_ you read actively with intent to remember. The next stage in
study is therefore recitation. Bacon said: ‘If you read anything
over twenty times you will not learn it by heart so easily as if
' you were to read it only ten, trying to repeat it between whiles,
and when memory failed looking at the book.’
i Recitation is certainly an old-fashioned method, and to
_ many it suggests classes in the infant school — learning off,
parrot-fashion, the multiplication table or a verse by Sir Walter
Scott. The last thing we want is that our learning should be
e and meaningless.
By recitation is meant here not word-for-word repetition, or
~ learning by heart, but outlining the substance of a passage.
_ The outline provides the framework into which more details
can be fitted in subsequent recitation.
Literal word-for-word recitation is only applicable when
formulae or foreign language vocabularies or anatomical facts
have to be memorized, and, on such materials, it is of advantage
- to use about three-quarters of the available time in recitation.
_ But nothing should ever be learnt as an isolated, meaningless
unit. Formulae can be derived from first principles, foreign
- language words can be understood by studying their roots and
derivations, and anatomical facts can be memorized better by
_ starting with simplified diagrams to which detail is added.
- Sometimes, however, things have to be taken as given and they
_ have to be committed to memory. Then recitation is of great
- help. With more meaningful material, recitation must not
' degenerate into rote learning and become a substitute for
- thought; and it may be of little usein the early stages of learning.
So recitation is of most value in learning those things which
_ have to be got off by heart, such as the multiplication table and
the alphabet; but it is still good practice, after reading each
“major section of a chapter, to lay the book on one side and try
and recall what you have been reading. This simple procedure
is often revealing. Sometimes you can recall very little and
'¥ must conclude that your learning is in a very immature stage.
E

- °

ES .
Ze,
gaps in your Cede which you must go bac
Certainly the procedure cures that habit, often a relic of schiool a
days, of thinking that because you have read through a chapter, —
you have ‘done it’ and know it. In my experience, four or five ©
readings and recitations are usually required before textbook —
materials of average difficulty can be mastered. Repetition of —
itself is of no value, but each repetition, if you are reading —
actively and alertly, should add to your insight into the material. ~

C:PROSE D:NONSENSE SYLLABLES

e
eee
i
q
11

RETAINED
PERCENTAGE

DAYS SINCE LEARNING

Fig. 8. Curves of forgetting for different types of material e

e
PE

(5) Revision. The final step of SQ3R is Revision. Revision cl

should not be regarded as something to be undertaken just
before examinations. One of the most practical results of
memory experiments is that material that has to be retained —
over Jong periods should be studied and re-studied. Memories
become stronger and stronger with each re-learning, and for-
getting proceeds more slowly. Let us examine the curve of :
forgetting. Material into which there is real insight is not
forgotten. For all other materials forgetting isat —_ Sid -
rapid and then becomes slower. f
 or Cosmsiry. or pes and you will probably find that
unless you have been recently using or practising a subject, the
“greater part of it will have been forgotten. American studies
see graph) suggest that typically, after two years, the average
tudent scores only about 30 per cent of the perfect score 6n a
test of factual knowledge. General principles and general

A: CHEMISTRY emia

100

ANG HHH
Z

POSSIBLE
PERCENTAGE
OF
SCORE
TOTAL
a E 0022 4°68. 8 lo 14 16 18 20 22 24
MONTHS AFTER LEARNING

g Fig. 9, Recall scores for College Subjects

“understandings, on the other hand, are retained for much longer.

Common experience suggests that the details of what we
learn fade very quickly, often within the first hour or.so. Indeed,
in listening to an hour’s lecture much of the early part of the
lecture may have been forgotten well before the end - so that
xperienced teachers repeat and recapitulate the important
oints of their lectures at the end. To prevent the sudden and
atastrophic loss which takes place so early, early revision is
58 if ihe ee
required. That means going over the lecture or piece of work
again as soon as possible afterwards, thinking about it, or —
discussing it with others or applying the facts and knowledge ~
in some practical exercise. You should certainly go over your
notes of lectures, work periods and experiments the very samé ~
day — even if it 1s only for a few minutes.
te cractical SaMICO TCSSRIS CaTEe out, I fancy, because,
having taken down some written record, you have a misplaced
confidence that you will be able to recreate the original at any
future date. Alas! this seldom turns out to be true. As the time
of examination draws near only too often you will not be able
to make head or tail of those lecture notes which you took
down six months ago and have not looked at since —- nor
remember some crucial detail of that experiment which you
omitted to write up on the day.
If you feel that merely going over the work again is too —
tedious an exercise, read another account of the same subject
in a textbook, expanding your notes by additions and comments: —
for this purpose write your notes on one side of the paper only, —
to leave room for these additions.
The first revision, then, should take place as soon as possible
after the original learning. Further revisions are often necessary
before the final revision which precedes examinations. Consider
Those courses, like medicine and surgery, where mastery of the :
subject matter is literally a matter of life and death, and the -
pass mark may have to be set at 100 per cent. Nearly all medical
schools give tests and examinations every few weeks, so that
the students are continually revising their knowledge. In this
way recall becomes mechanical and automatic. Such auto-
mation may be unnecessary or even undesirable in arts subjects,
but there are probably aspects of most subjects, such as the
grammar of foreign languages, or statistical formulae, which
can well be so practised that their use becomes second nature ~
to the subject. This is even.more markedly true of physical ©
skills such as typewriting or driving a car or swimming or —
hitting a golf ball, where the essence of skilled performance
consists of reducing the skill to an automatic level. We take it —
for granted that physical skills develop gradually and demand
repeated practice for their perfection. The same is true of some —
aspects of study. ;
In revision before examinations you should pay particular
 ion to the earlier material you have learnt, as more of it
ve been forgotten. You should Jeaye yourself time to go
ver all the material you have covered. Studies have shown tha
byective estimates of Strengths and’ weaknesses are often at
ault. You are often weak on material which you are confident
_ you know well. Active revision, and a few attempts at answering
old examination questions should give you a better idea of
_ where your true strengths and weaknesses lie.
- You will realize that the amount of time that you give to
_ each of the steps of the SQ3R study technique will depend on
the subjects you are studying. The natural sciences, the social
sciences, the arts, and practical and vocational subjects differ
in their aims and methods. The wide and discursive reading
_ which is expected of students of English literature, for example,
is not required in an applied science, where there is a basic
core of facts and techniques which must be mastered before
elementary competence can be reached. The S$O3R_ method
can, however, be applied in principle to all fields of study. It is
very like the famous steps of instruction of the ninetéett> g)
3 century German educationist, Herbart: preparation, presenta-
tion. association, generalization and a cation. Preparation
includes our first two steps of survey and question, in which
the aims of study are set out, and the learner is encouraged to
-marshal his present stock of knowledge. Presentation and
association include the reading and recitation stages, rather
more stress being put by Herbart on thinking and reflection
_ than on sheer recitation as a means of uniting the new knowledge
_with the old. Herbart’s final steps of generalization, that is the
_ drawing of general truths and principles, and the application of
_ knowledge to practice, need to be added to the SQ3R formula.
_ If you are concerned, as you should be, not only to pass examina-
tions, but to retain your knowledge for a working lifetime,
and to put it to good use, you must attempt to reduce it to
_ general principles, and to apply it in practice.

_ Rote Learning and Insightful Learning

_ To emphasize once again that your learning must be meaningful,
_ let us consider the difference between rote learning and insightful
‘learning. Rote learning means learning isolated and meaningless
bits of knowledge. Insightful learning means organizing your
_ knowledge into meaningful units. Grouping materials according
*
 demonstrate the value of pono the following number
were presented to groups of students: Pro ees
2°93 3°73 6 4°04 a
S825
POSS od oO eee
One group was given three minutes to discover the principle ©
involved. Other groups spent the same time in memorizing the ©
figures. After three weeks 23 per cent of the principle-seekers ©
could still reproduce the figures correctly, but none of the
memorizers could. ?
See if you can find the principle on which the two rows of —
figures are constructed.
Why are principles better retained than material learntby
rote? Usually eee
In this example the principle-
seekers only had to remember the first figures in each line (29 and —
5) and how the series was constructed (by adding alternately 3 ;
and 4). Instead of having to remember 24 separate digits they
had only to remember 3 items.
This example should bring home to you the great economy —
of learning general rules and principles rather than a mass of E
facts.
‘To convince yourself still further that meaningful materials
can be learnt and retained much more easily than disconnected
matter, such as nonsense syllables or lists of unrelated words,—
try the following experiment. Read the list of 12 nonsense
syllables below three times, with the intention of reproducing
them in order. Then close the book and see how many you can
¢
write down.
bep, tev, wib, kuj, jid, paf, seb, zih, fiw, nuy, leb, ruw.
Next, read the 12 words below three times, trying to memorize
the words in order, and then try to reproduce them:
a house, field, brook, bridge, fish, swim, duck, water, dusk,_
cup, saucer, plate. :

You will have much more success with the!word list—

_ with the nonsense list, partly because of familiarity with common
words, and partly because the words present a sequence of
ideas, or chain of associations, which facilitates memorizing.
 follows that you should fit items to be remembered into a
haga of ideas. Often making a chart or diagram or table will

‘Organizing and Memorizing

_ Actively organizing what we learn has another advantage.
_ The form in which material is learnt partly determines the
- form in which it will be recalled. There are three processes in
learning and remembering: (1) original learning or imprinting,
Os , (3) retrieval. Often the culty in remembering
not so much iin storing information as in retrieving
aeitjustfin we want it. This usually means that it has been
wee
Pecored away poorly or untidily. An analogy is helpful here.
_ Think of your memory as a large storehouse containing many
_ storage shelves, situated on a multitude of interconnecting
_ paths. Information is fed into the store, and the storeman has
_ the job of storing it away in labelled jars and containers on
_ appropriate shelves. Much of the incoming information the
_ storeman rejects as worthless or very unlikely to be needed, and
' either he doesn’t take it in at all or else stores it away in some
‘dim inner recess. The incoming information which seems to him
useful and important and likely to be required again soon, he
stores in some handy accessible shelf. Moreover, a good store-
‘man doesn’t store information away in a random fashion. His
shelves and containers are classified and labelled, and new
items are filed away systematically in the class to which they
belong, and near other similar materials. Then when the owner
of the storehouse is faced with a problem which may be anything
from choosing a summer holiday, mixing cement, solving a
mathematical equation or writing an examination answer, the
televant information comes to hand: the person has a good

_ The analogy must not be pressed too far of course. No one

“knows how the brain stores information, but it is probably an
electro-chemical process rather than a mechanical one. The
int of the analogy is to bring home to you that recall is much
‘better when learned materials are committed to the memory
re in an orderly and structured fashion. If you have filed
*
away your facts carelessly, you may not be able to retrieve
them when you want them. Often, in discussing examination —
papers, students insist that they knew the answer to the question”
but did not realize what sort of answer was required; or the ©
wording of the question was such that it did not connect with —
their store of information. When this happens it usually means —
that they have failed to organize their learning materials, have —
tried to memorize isolated facts, failed to think, or failed to
achieve the right grasp of the materials at the outset.
How can you best organize your materials? For the purpose
of passing written examinations the most efficient procedure
is to file your facts away in the form in which you will need
them. Teachers who are determined to get as many pupils as
they can through their examinations often give them systematic —
notes — such as: What were the causes of the French Revolution?
(1) The existing system of government.
(2) Influence of the philosophers.
(3) Example of American Revolution.
(4) Character of Louis and Marie Antoinette.
(5) Bankruptcy of government.
(6) Famine, cold and mobs.
Then, providing that the pupil can memorize these six points
about the causes of the French Revolution, he is in a good
position to write an acceptable answer on that topic. Such —
summaries are useful because they enable large quantities of —
information to be stored in systematic form. The list of points
can serve as a framework around which a full knowledge of the
subject can be acquired. Similarly in taking notes, it is good
practice to number or letter your major headings and sub-
divide the major paragraphs: 1(a), (b), (c) or A@), Gi), Gii).
All such devices are helpful, provided that the structure suits —
the material and provided that the material is not learnt in ~
parrot-fashion. The danger of such mnemonic devices is that
they do lend themselves to ‘spoon-feeding’, and to the mech-
anical reproduction of material without much understanding.
They can become substitutes for thought, effort and under- ©
standing. It is far better for you to impose your own structure.F
on the material than to take over the structure which someone
else has imposed on it. If you take over the structure from your
Paonel teacher, he will be able to expand and build on the -
’
 PEM,arious ee and. cribs which purport to sum-
marize the essentials of a subject are usually worthless, and
_ purchased mainly by those who have neglected their studies
_to such an extent that they fall back in desperation on this
potted information.
Memory and Memory Systems
Almost everyone would like to be able to improve his memory.
_ Unfortunately no one can improve his general retentiveness —
memory is not an entity like a muscle that can be improved by
exercise, But you can certainly improve ways of remembering
particular subjects. Former generations of schoolboys had to
_ learn large portions of Paradise Lost or the Iliad in order to
improve the ‘faculty’ of memory. The fallacy of this ‘memory-
‘training’ was demonstrated by William James. He and his
students memorized a poem by Hugo, timing themselves to
see how long the learning took. They then ‘exercised’ their
memories by learning other poems every day for a month.
Finally they timed themselves as they memorized a new poem
‘by Hugo. The improvement resulting from all this practice was
so small that James concluded that no amount of training
would improve general retentiveness. The way to improve
memory is to learn more about the subject matter and to try
_and understand it better. ;
to memoriz j d, not by lengthy practice
.in ‘memorizing, but b ri bering.
_ These methods have been found useful:
(1) Use of active self-testing or recitation.
_Q) Use of grouping and rhythm (the multiplication table is
Often taught in a kind of sing-song).
_ 3) Attention to meaning and the use of associations (developing
___a§ many associations as possible).
-@) Alertness and concentration (a strong intention to learn).
_ There are a number of memory systems, out of which quacks
and pseudo-psychologists still make a. living, which claim to
improve memory. They mostly depend on developing ingenious
and artificial associations between otherwise disconnected facts.
.You: can learn the value of = to the 13th decimal place by
memorizing:
 ‘How Dahl some oe i
of circle round
“La the exact relation
ae Archimedes found.
Put down the number of letters in nach word and.you have:
=3-1415926535895
A commonly used device is the ‘figure-alphabet’ for remem- 4
bering dates and numbers. The numbers are translated into ‘
letters which are then combined in some word. The word is —
more easily remembered. For example, the following figure —
alphabet (which omits vowels) may be used: 4
oe 19-34 56 7 Soe
£0 %p Omer ot. She” er ae
d 4j Key p c
che Z §
g qu ;

First the figure alphabet must be memorized. Then to re-

member that your friend lives at house number 947, b r and g ©
e are the letters required. A vowel is included to make a word |
he such as brag, and you can then ‘brag’ that you can tecreniber
your friend’s number.
Feats of memory can also be performed by learning;
one is a bun Sart mranaaee
two is a shoe ;
three is a tree
four is a door
five is-a hive
six are sticks
seven is heaven
eight is a gate
nine is a line, and
ten is a hen

Then to remember a series of ten objects or events in onan4

you form an association between each and the appropriate :
word in the above list. a
These systems are, however, so artificial that you ahaa be
able to do much better by developing real and logical associa-
 some system. The success of any of the commercial ‘systems’
its more from the stimulus that they give to the learner’s
forts than from any other cause. Any intelligent person can do
tter on his own, provided he gives his attention to the task.
Usually it is easy to find an intermediate idea or association
h will link two ideas together.

erlearning
Let us look at learning from another aspect. When you learn
something, and remember it, some kind of a memory trace is
laid down in the brain. Whether you are able to retain a given
fact will depend on two things: (1) the strength of the memory
trace —which will depend on how thorough your learning has
been, and (2) the strength of interfering factors which work to
destroy or weaken the trace.
_ You can increase the strength of your memory traces by
ver-learning your lessons, taking precautions against subse-
quent interference, and by distributing your practice over a
period of time.
_ Material is underlearned when it has not been studied long
10ugh for you to be able to recall it 100 per cent correctly.
t is overlearned when you continue to practice it after you can
tecall it 100 per cent correctly. For instance, it might take you
10 minutes to learn a vocabulary of 20 foreign words. If you
then carry on learning and reciting with the same close attention
‘as before you are overlearning the material. Another 5 minutes
would represent 50 per cent overlearning, another 10 minutes
100 per cent. Overlearning strengthens the memory trace.
Things which neatly evewone TaeOvSTeaTaed would Tela
the alphabet, the multiplication table and nursery rhymes. We
“are never likely to forget these as long as we live. Motor skills
a also overlearned: you don’t forget how to ride a bicycle or
‘to typeor swim after a long period of disuse. This suggests that
to remember something for a | uld

le erick shows you that sheer memorizing of meaningless

terials is helped by overlearning. An overlearned list is
ined better than one badly learnt, but diminishing returns
 66

A: 100% OVERLEARNING
B: 50% OVERLEARNING
C: 0% OVERLEARNING

RECALLED
PERCENTAGE

2 PEPER Se
024 ms 8 fe) 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28

DAYS SINCE LEARNING

Fig. 10. Recall of word lists after varying amounts of

overlearning Qi

soon set in, and you will see that the difference between the
50 per cent and 100 per cent curves is less than that between the:
50 per cent and 0 per cent curve. The graph should serve to
. convince you once again of how inefficient rote learning is.
Even with 100 per cent overlearning rather less than 10 per cent
is retained after 28 days, when there has been no further practice”
between learning and recall. Certainly your original learning
should be thorough, but it is more important to organize and
understand the material than to go on saying it over to yourself
mechanically. |
Interference 4
To deal now with the factors that destroy or weaken the memo
trace. It seems to take time for the traces to become consoli-
dated, so that if your learning is followed immediately by some!
‘other form of strenuous mental work this will interfere with the,
retention of the original learning. Very often forgetting occurs’
when one set of ideas has got mixed up with another. If you
begin to learn two similar foreign aii at the same basis.
 - LEARNING AND REMEMBERING 67
for instance, such as Italian and French, you will recall words
in one language while trying to speak the other; the French
word may ‘block’ the Italian, and vice versa.
This kind of interference is greatest-in the early stages of
learning, before you completely learn or understand the material,
and the more similar the two sets of material the greater will be
the interference. It occurs most obviously in spelling foreign
words and in mathematics. If you learn on one day that (2x) (3y)
= 6xy and on the next day that (¥*) (x2) = X® you may be
uncertain on the third day how to deal with (2X*) (3X%) unless
you are quite clear on the distinction between coefficient and
an exponent. Or if you learn in one hour that the French for
book is ‘livre’ and in the next hour that the Italian for book is
‘libro,’ confusion may ensue.
If you can distinguish clearly between the two situations you
are unlikely to go wrong; and thorough learning of either the
first or the second lesson reduces the chances of interference.
Once again all that is known in this subject emphasizes the
importance of meaningful learning. Jf tou really understand
What you are learning you will not suffer irom interterence. _
One imiportan.itpractical =n that follows from this discussior
is thatin the early stages of learning you should make sure that
you cover the ground thoroughly, even if this means that progress
will seem slow.
Tf forgetting is caused by interference from new learning,
retention should be best if you relax completely after learning,
or better still, go to sleep. It is actually true that rote and
meaningless materials are better remembered after sleep than
after a period awake.
Memory for connected and logical materials is, however,
very little affected by the normal sequence of waking activities.
So you must not conclude that the time just before you go to
sleep is the best time to memorize. You will probably be too
tired to concentrate properly, or-you will find that an active
period of study prior to going to bed will make it hard for you
to get to sleep.

Storing Information
We now turn to a fascinating topic —the changes that go on
spontaneously in
i your memory. Consider yourself for a moment
asa peoine machine. First you receive information (learning).
 Sisdnd you store the information away5 Cane “a finally
you retrieve and reproduce it (recall). This process is by no
means mechanical. Much of the information which strikes our
sense organs is never even registered, and much is immediately |
forgotten. It is as well that this is so, otherwise the sheer task of |
registering and storing information would be colossal. Instead,
we usually only notice and remember those things which are
relevant to our purposes. From the first, perception is selective.
When you are listening to a lecture you are usually not aware
of extraneous sights and sounds, but concentrate (or should do!)
on what the speaker is saying. Even so, you probably miss a
good deal of what is being said, by allowing your attention to”
lapse or starting off on thought-trails of your own; or you are
busy getting some notes down and the lecturer gets ahead of |
you. So if a hundred people listen to a lecture each will have
got a slightly different version of it, The same thing applies to
the reading of textbooks. As you read there will be lapses of
attention or you will start thinking of something else as your
eyes continue to scan the letters. All this is inevitable, and must
be allowed for: we have to select from the available ‘mass of
information which is constantly stimulating our sense organs.
A human being is very quick at taking in familiar material. |
You can recognize a short sentence in ~th of a second. Even
so there is a limit to the amount of a complicated scene that
you can take in in a given time. 4
Once any idea has registered or entered our consciousness, it
will be stored much better if we deliberately try to remember it.
Again there are limits to the rate at which you can store infor-
mation. The immediate memory span of even very intelligent
adults is limited to about nine digits: that is to say very few.
people can repeat more than nine digits which have been said
over to them at the rate of one per second, as 3-7-1 -8-2-6-4-9
—5. This means that no one can hold in mind more than about
nine disconnected symbols even for a very short time, and
when the symbols are very familiar. A sentence of about el
words can, however, be repeated in this fashion, showing that,
when ‘the items to be remembered make sense and are linked
together, memory span is much greater. This should suggest to.
you that connected: meaningful material is easier tostore away
and remember than meaningless material.
When we consider recall after a time interval, we can sec
 se: present year is 1962 you might subtract nine from it and
askyourself what you were doing in 1953. You remember that
t was the year that you moved to London and had to stay
with your parents. Your brother, the boy’s father, was also
staying there then, and his son had not yet been born. So you
conclude your nephew must be eight and not nine. You have
_Teconstructed this fact from your memories of the past. (There
are many people, incidentally, in whose minds the past is very
poorly organized: it is very easy to confuse the temporal series
of events.) So in reconstructing the past you make the best
sense of it that you can, in the light of a few events and land-
ieowl that stand out in your memory.
There are two processes at work on memories — on the
one hand those that make them fade and disintegrate; on the
other hand those that sharpen them, but often by changing
them and simplifying them so that they fit in with the rest of
your knowledge, and prejudices. The memory traces that you
have to search among when answering examination questions
si
will have altered from the traces laid-down in your original

i
T Recall usually has to be made in words. Language habits are
another source of- distortion and modification. People tend to
remember in terms of clichés and common phrases. Vocabularies
are not unlimited. The report of the original experience is
altered to conform to our everyday ways of thinking and
talking.
urces of Error .
ou can see, therefore, that in the threefold process of
ning, storage and retrieval, errors can occur at any of the
three stages. (1) There may be errors of observation, such as
overlooking, misapprehending, overestimating; (2) errors of
memory, such as forgetting, confusion of items, and assimilation
a existing ideas; (3) errors in the recall stage, such as filling in
gaps, amplification or elaboration of the facts, blending of
imagined experiences into the one reported, and using a form
of pwords pent is eae.
 70 HOW TO STUDY
information in the process of comminioasioas Allport and‘
Postman* quote the following: ;
Dr G.G. Simpson of the American Museum of Natural
History published an account of the geology and palaeontology
of a region in central Montana. A rigidly correct summary of
the report was issued to the Press. The account of the fossil
fauna included a description of some small mammals, the oldest
known primates, which were @bout the same size as rats and
mice. The report emphasized that these were not in the direct
line of descent of modern primates or man, but very ancient
representatives of the same broad group of mammals.
About a hundred newspapers published versions of the
report, but few had reports that were not seriously wrong
scientifically. Typical headlines were:
Monkey Father of Man? Nope a Mouse.
Four-Inch Tree Animal seen as Man’s Ancestor.
One account began: ‘Man instead of having descended from
the monkey probably ascended from a four-inch-long tree-
dwelling animal which was the ancient grand-daddy of all the
mammals on earth today.’
A recurrent theme of rats and mice arose because the report.
said that some of the early mammals were as small as rats and
“mice. These small vertebrates were made to appear as the
direct ancestors of man. The linguistic cliché, ‘the missing
link’, was bound.to find its way into a story about evolution.
While scientific accuracy is hardly to be expected in popular
newspapers, their garbled versions of this scientific report
illustrate the distortion and modification that can occur through
assimilation to an inadequate framework of ideas: So let the
student beware of over-simplifying and distorting ideas to fit
in with a stock of set ideas and prejudices. You should be aware
of the defects of human beings as recording machines, and i
and correct the known sources of error.
As we all know, the testimony of first-hand observersiis oftes!
at fault. Although persons and concrete objects are reported
with 85-90 per cent accuracy, other features, especially quan-
tities and colours only have 40-50 per cent accuracy. Errors of
reporting are most frequent with colour, next with Positions
next with size and least with shape. c
* Allport, G.W. and Postman, L. The Psychology of Rumor. ; “9
 71
Reports are distorted to eenfonns to what witnesses regard
as the natural course of events. The kernel of an episode is
"emphasized. and details are omitted. When a verbal report is
_tepeated several times the effect is (1) to establish and reinforce
the information, whether true or false and (2) to cause the later
reports to be based more on the memory of verbal statements
of earlier reports than on the original experience itself. This
means that your note-taking must be precise and accurate.
‘Otherwise you will be reinforcing and rehearsing error as you
learn and relearn your notes.
In any branch of study, error creeps in as you get further
and further away from original records or experimental reports.
Sometimes textbooks are at fault in perpetuating errors. Authors
of textbooks are not always able to consult original reports, but
‘Tepeat what is said in other texts. Lecturers who work from the
“same outline notes year after year may introduce inaccuracies
and distort their materials to fit in with afew main ideas. All
good scholars, therefore, constantly refresh their knowledge
from the source and beware of all second-hand accounts.
The students who fail. examinations are those who lack a
‘sound framework in which to reconstruct their memories.
Having forgotten some of the facts, they have to reconstruct
their ideas as best they can with limited information — that is
they have to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. Given a sound
_basic knowledge this can often be done, but if some significant
part of the framework is wrong or has‘ been forgotten, the
reconstruction will be wrong. Mistakes often spring from some
basic misunderstanding. If basic facts are well understood this
‘kind of error cannot be made. Once again you can see that the
;best method of avoiding error in recall is to make sure that you
roughly understand in the first place.
(a eS ict leaen bad

The Emotional Component in Learning

_Learning and remembering are not only matters of the intellect:
“motives and feelings are involved as well. At school pupils
usually like some subjects, and dislike others. Often liking for
the teacher and liking for the subject go together. Thus there is
an emotional component in learning. If you like the teacher
and the subject, you are likely to work hard at it and try to
excel at it. In time, as your studies become more ore ;
you. tend to build up a picture of yourself, a ‘self-concept’,
72 HOW. ‘Fo sTUDY
someone who is, say, good at languages, or. poor at ene
matics, or hopeless at metalwork, or any kind of manual craft.
If you see yourself as a good linguist, you become ‘involved’
in the study of languages, are hurt by any criticism of your
linguistic ability, and work particularly hard at your languages.
Thus the self-concept becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: you
really do become much better at languages than at other subjects.
’ Yet, if you are of good average intelligence, you should
beware of having too fixed ideas of what you can and what you
cannot do. Certainly some people have specific aptitudes for
particular subjects, such as mathematics, music or art, but
often these aptitudes derive in part from training or from the
happy accident of having had a good teacher and the experience’
of success. If therefore you dislike or have difficulty with some
part of your work, ask yourself whether the source of your
difficulty is not in part your emotional attitude to the subject
or to the teacher.
It has often been shown that controversial material is more
readily learnt if it fits in with existing beliefs and attitudes.
For example, pro-communist students learnt more readily than
anti-communist students a list of statements favourable to the
U.S.S.R. That material is most easily learnt which conforms to
existing opinions. The recall of controversial material may also
be selective: for instance theistic students remembered better
than atheistic students statements favourable to religion and
vice versa. This suggests some resistance to learning and re-
taining material which is not acceptable to us. Conversely we
are very ready to learn from certain sources to which we are
favourably inclined, such as a political weekly or a particular
author whose work we admire. Even in factual subjects, in
which there may not se@m to be much room for controversy,
there may be some parts of the subject which you regard as’
old-fashioned or dead wood. Once you begin to develop
enthusiasms for certain approaches to your subject, as every
active and spirited person does, it becomes rather too easy to
dismiss other approaches as worthless and not to bother to
learn about them. The hard fact is, however, that if you have
to cover a syllabus, you probably cannot afford to neglect any
part of it because you think “it is unimportant or because you
rae like the way it is taught. Some teachers may welcome
dissenting opinions on controversial subjects, but onesaes
 ive version. pee many aadeute ate able enough to do
this. Most are probably better advised to develop some tolerance
x Shortcomings in their teachers and their courses.

"theSQHR system of study is recommended :

1) Survey *
2) Asking ain

improve your methods of memorizing, especially by recitation,

attention to meaning, and alertness and concentration. Artificial

interferen are of more assist-

learning.
In the threefold process of learning, storage and retrieval,
errors can occur at any of the three stages. Make sure that your ~
initial intake of information is precise and accurate, otherwise
yo may perpetuate errors as you learn and relearn your notes.
- There is an emotional component in learning and remembering.
Try not to neglect those aspects of your subjects which you
i oid and, if necessary, cones tolerance for your teachers.

For further reading:

Hovland, C. I.,‘Human Learning and Retention’, in Stevens, S.
Ss.Ed.) Handbook of Experimental Psychology. New York. Wiley,
1951.
Gagné, R. M, and Bolles, R.C., A Review of the Factors in
Learning Efficiency in Automatic Teaching. Galanter, E. (Ed.)
York. boil ai
 CHAPTER FIVE

READING |

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

STEELE

REAPING Isthe most upportent per

glish or History perhaps
single skill instudy, In
cent of private study
time is taken up in reading. It is known that there are big
differences between individuals in their rates of reading and
comprehension. Clearly if you can speedu
you will save ooks and articles, of course,
ty and in clarity of presentation. And, what is difficult
for some to read is easy for others. Rate of reading dependson
the difficulty of the material and on the purpose of the reading.
But there are some students who read even straightforward
prese abnormally slowly, and this is certainly a handicap in
study. Later in the chapter there is a test of reading speed
which will give you some idea of how your reading rate com-_
pares with that of others. _ pete be aieeie Ne Le ed

Kinds of Reading
First let us consider the different kinds of purposes in reading ail
We can distinguish:
(1) Reading to master information and content, penniesneces-
sarily careful, slow and repeated.
(2) Exploratory reading, as in skimming through a book in
order to get a general view of it.
(3) Revision reading, as in reading rapidly hivouads a| book
with which you are already familiar, in order to confirm ~
knowledge.
(4) Reading in order to search for‘specific information or 40 f
_answer a specific question.
(5) Critical reading, as in reading a book for review.
(6) Reading for enjoyment, as a novel.
 715
(1) Proof-reading, when meticulous attention is paid to
spelling, punctuation and sentence structure. \
_ A good reader will vary his rate of reading accordin his
a Movel may be read very quickly, perhaps at 750
per minute or more, if the reader has no intent to re-
pace but merely wants to know the fate of the hero or
heroine.
A single paragraph or diagram in a textbook, on the other
hand, may have to be read through slowly four or five times
_ before it is fully comprehended.

The Nature of Reading

Reading is a very complex process, as is obvious if you think
of how long it takes to learn to read. It is useful to think of it as
(i) a process of sensory reception, involving skilled eye-move-
_ ments and (2) as a brain process, in which the meaning of the
' printed symbols is elaborated.
__ As. the eye moves from left to right across the line of print
(or from right to left in Arabic, or from top to bottom in
Chinese) it progresses in jerks and pauses, then swings from the
extreme right to the extreme left to start the next line of reading.
Accurate recording of eye movements demands a camera or
an electronic amplifier to record the eye muscle potentials, but
you can study them by watching someone else read. Make a
small hole in the middle of the page of a newspaper or magazine
and watch a friend’s eye movements through this hole, as he
reads on the other side. Alternatively you can look over the
Ly top of a book held vertically by your subject. Since the move-
ment of both eyes is pretty closely co-ordinated you need only
watch one eye. Fix your attention on the outer part of the
iris —where the coloured zone joins the white. Try and observe
the number of pauses per line, and regressions or backward
movements in the course of reading a line, the return sweep at
_ the end of a line, and the rhythm and uniformity of progression.
_ Try and observe also the eye movements of a seven or eight-
year-old child in reading.
In reading a line of print about 4 inches long, most adults
= :make five orsix fixations per line, if the reading matter is easy,
but more if it is difficult. About two words per fixation are seen.
The eye movements between fixations are very quick, and only
 - HOW TO STUDY.
take up about 10 per cent of ‘the total time, ‘ati about 90
per cent of the time for intake of information in the pauses.
This skill isthe result of many ee of desi as the Ls aie
graph illustrates:-. a a Te
E

Btpo3
fs a

2 eeLN ies
a 8
Sy ease 200
> 2 eed 100
BRR Pies ene eee wes
6 +, bs) La10he i213 4 1546 sare
YEARS OF AGE TIME
MILLISECON
FIXATION
MEAN
IN
Fig. 11. Increase in reading skill wake age

The number of fixations per line ‘or type. decease from

fifteen to twenty at age 6 to five or six in educated adults, The
length of a fixation decreases from about half a second to about 4
a quarter of a second. The number of regressive movements (as
the reader looks back to. words previously fixated) decreases
from five to less than one.
Here is an illustration of a student’s fixations in a line of
reading;
1 Lp: 3 470° 15 ; Ho96 10
A common| violation of this rule is illustrated by| the sentence
| 4
20 24 20-24-16 -24-24-36- 16 +12 i
é
The lines represent the fixations, the ene above the
L
.

lines their order, and the figures below their duration in seconds.
In this record progress is regular until the word ‘the’ is
reached, then the eye turns back and wanders over the word ’
zi
 fe . Probably, the alent ‘was not very familiar with
y llustrated’ in this context.

Improving your Reading

“Will training iin making more adequate eye movements help to
- increase your speed of reading? We certainly could take in
formation at a faster rate. Considering the eye alone, the |
amount you can take in depends on your visual span; and on
the duration of the fixation. How wide.is your span? If you
_ Maintain your fixation constant on the first word of a line of
print, how many words can you see to the right of it without
moving the eye? Most people can see about two words distinctly,
together with a vague impression of one or two more, That is
they can see about three’ words at a glance. As there will be
only ten or twelve words in a four-inch line of print it should
~ be possible to cover it, therefore, in three or four fixations,
_ instead of the five or six that are usual. It is also known from
experiments that the eye can take in three or four connected.
words in much less than -25 of a second. If the illumination is
good, the actual time required for recognitionis only -1--15
second. Therefore, considering the eye alone, and making
allowance for the times between fixations, it should be possible
for most people to increase the speed of reading.
We must remember, however, that we read not only with
our eyes but with out brains. Fast reading is only possible
when we are already very familiar with the language and its
content. A familiar word is read as a whole, not by spelling out
its letters, and the same is true of common phrases and sen-
_ tences —they are reacted to as units by adults who are very
familiar with them. The printed word thus triggers off speech
habits. The rules and grammatical sequences of language
” enable us to anticipate what iscoming. The start of a sentence
| like ‘He picked up his knife and fork and started . . .’ strongly
suggests an ending like ‘to eat his dinner’. In the fast reading of
a novel or a newspaper the skilled reader does not bother to
read every word, or even every sentence or paragraph. A great
deal of the matter may be skipped and yet, recognizing phrases
here and there, the experienced reader is able to put together a
_ connected story which is half supplied by the printed page and
half by his past experience.
© can see then that speed of reading depends just as much
78 HOW TO STUDY
on familiarity and experience, as on the mechanics of eye move- —
ments. If long fixations occur it usually means that a word of
obscure meaning has been met. Formulae will be fixated for
long intervals, as they embody condensed information. Foreign
languages are read more slowly. A modern foreign language,
such as French, can be read without regressive eye movements.
A language like Latin, on the other hand, is not read, but
deciphered, with many regressive movements, because of the
different order of words in Latin sentences.
There are, therefore, two main sorts of difficulties in reading:
(1) Slow or faulty eye movements.
(2) Difficulties in understanding, arising from a poor vocabu-
lary, or lack of familiarity with the material.
The specific defects found in younger readers include excessive
word analysis and word-by-word reading, lip movements and
subvocal movements, difficulties with the return sweep, regres-
sions back along the line, and slowness in word recognition.
These defects are not very common or severe in older students.
You can find out if you are slow in word recognition by the
use of a tachistoscope - an instrument for exposing material
for controlled times-of very short duration. A good tachistoscope
will present material for controlled exposures ranging from
about 10 milliseconds (-01 second) up to about 500 milliseconds
(:5 second) in 10 millisecond steps.
You can get an approximate idea of your speed of word
recognition by getting another person to print in capitals, four
or five common six or seven letter words in a line on a 6 X 4°
card. The letters should be about a quarter of an inch high.
(You must not know what the words are.) The card is then
covered with a blank card and you are shown the words for a
fraction of a second, by getting someone to slide the cover card
upwards and then quickly downwards again. You should be
able to recognize at least two words during this brief exposure.

Individual Differences in Reading Rates

There are certainly great differences’in reading rates between
individuals, whether these result from differences in the eye or
in the brain or in both. The speed of twenty students in silent
reading of an interesting novel was measured. The mean words
read per minute were 336, but the range from the slowest to the
¢
 ir is
READ ING 719

‘ fastest ares was 150 to 600 words per minute — that is the
_ fastest reader read four times as fast as the slowest. The existence
of these great differences does suggest that if you are a really
slow reader, you may well be able to read faster with practice
and training. To get some idea of your pesformance, two short
selections are given below.
Get a watch with a second hand and see how long it takes
you to read each passage. Read as fast as you can, but do not
read so fast that you fail to understand what you are reading.
_ At the end of each passage is a comprehension test which you
_ must answer. If you do not get most of the questions right in
the test, you have not read carefully enough.

Worried Merseyside
The Merseyside aréa is among the worst in England for
unemployment generally :3-6 per cent of the working popula-
- tion are out of a job, compared with a national unemployment
level of 1:5 per cent. In Liverpool itself, 4:2 per cent of adult
males are out of work ; but only 1:2 per cent of those under
18 are in this position in this last lean year before the school-
leaving bulge arrives.
This might look as though the prospects for young people
there are better than for their elders: but there are two
_ depressing factors. First, there is a tendency to hire juveniles
to do the unskilled jobs, and then sack them when they grow
- old enough to qualify for adult wages. Secondly, the bulge
will soon hit Liverpool especially hard. The real hardship
then is likely to fall on the boys. There are plenty of jobs for
girls in the city; indeed, female clerical wages are claimed to
be higher than anywhere in the country except London.
In richer cities than Liverpool the problem of youth employ-
ment is often simply one of finding jobs with a future. But
an estimate of employment prospects for juveniles, prepared
in 1958 by the Merseyside Development Committee, suggested
that in 1962 there would be 5,319 more school-leavers than
jobs of any kind for them — and that in 1964 there would be
a shortage of 9,187 jobs. This forecast deals solely with
_ youths under 18, so that in 1964 many of those unemployed
in 1962 might still have found no work on Merseyside, but
not be included in the survey.
This forecast was prepared before the car-manufacturing
 firms were persuaded to move into the.area:’ they _would,
according to their estimate, be providing 33,000 jobs by
1965. While the money they would bring into the area would
obviously increase activity in the service industries and other
trades, it is unlikely that they will by then be prepared to
take on many apprentices. There will be some, but too few,
openings for the talented boy leaving school at 15 in the new
factories on the industrial estates around Liverpool. Nation-
ally, the ratio of jobs offering training to unskilled jobs for
juveniles is 35 to 65: in Liverpool there are only 26 jobs with
training to 74 without.
The Merseyside Development Committee’s report was
forced to propose such radical measures as the replacement
of older workers by juveniles, a massive increase in day-.
release courses for young people (thus making room for
firms to take on still more juveniles), an increase in the ratio
of apprentices to production workers, the promotion of
emigration, and even a recruitment campaign for the armed
forces.
Meanwhile, the local education department has considered
ways in which unemployed people could be given something
to do by a sort of extended general education course. The
real fear of people on Merseyside now is that the recession
in the car industry may lead to a cut-back in its plans for the
area. If this happens they might be left with those 9,000 —
young people idle on their hands in 1964—as well as who —
knows how many adults.
(From The Economist of 3rd December, 1960. Reprinted by 3
permission of the Editor of The Economist.)

Test of comprehension to be answered after Teading the

passage. Answer each question TRUE Or FALSE.
H Bi
(1) 3-6 of the working population of Merseyside are out of work.a
(2) More of those under 18 than adults are out of work. —
(3) Juveniles are given apprenticeships, but dismissed before
they complete their training;
(4) There are plenty of jobs for girlsin the city.
(5) It was estimated that in 1962 there would te see 9,000 i
more school leavers than jobs, in 1964 about 5,000. . ’
by1965,
(6) Car sso oa firms could provide 33,000Jobs
 e 81
pool the ratio of
f jobs bieane training to unskilled _
jobs ismuch less than the national average.
(8) The Development Committee suggested that shipping com-
ae panies should employ more local boys.
9) The local education department suggested that unemployed
people should be given some extended general education.
Correct answers: et 2 Se 2 Se . .

abeAe should have got at least 6/9 questions correct — otherwise

“you must have been reading too hurriedly.

Control of Television Advertising

The Television Act enjoins the Independent Television -
Authority to heed the recommendations of the Advertising
_ Advisory Committee (which the authority itself. appoints)
_ unless these conflict with the authority’s other duties. The
_ committee approves the IT'A’s ‘principles’; it is made up of
twelve people, drawn from the professional bodies to do with
Medicine and pharmacy, from advertising agencies, news-
- papers, the Retail Trading Standards Association, and the
like, but not (as advertising critics complain) from teachers
and consumers’ organizations. In the last few years the
weight of criticism has led the ITA to appoint as well an
Official concerned with advertising control.
_ The Act chiefly concerns itself with ensuring that nothing is
allowed even to suggest the sponsorship of programmes by
advertisers. It says that advertising time must ‘not be so
great as to detract from the value of the programmes’ (this
once controversial phrase now means an average of six and a
- maximum of seven minutes an hour). It rules out ‘unreason-
_ able discrimination’ against or in favour of any one advertiser.
' Finally, it forbids advertisements to do with industrial dis-
‘putes or directed to political or religious ends; this has been
held by the ITA to forbid advertisements for family planning.
(Contraceptives are banned on separate grounds of taste.)
‘The ITA ‘principles’ say that besides being legal, advertise-
- ments must be ‘clean, honest and truthful’. They must not
mislead. This is the nub of the matter. The ITA does not
mind comparisons between products if these can be sub-
‘stantiated and do not amount to ‘knocking’; thus it allowed
 ope

82 - HOW TO STUDY
the makers of an electric kettle to say- haiit came to. ‘be boil©
faster than any other — for the few months that it took other
manufacturers to catch up and increase the power of their own:
kettles. The great exception is detergents: since the Brand X
fracas they are no longer allowed to make more than the
vaguest comparative claims. The reason in theory is that
detergents are too much alike, in practice that the business
of claim and counterclaim has come to be more than the
ITA and its advisory committee could manage. Detergent
advertisements are now also spaced out to avoid irritating _
viewers.
Some goods and services may not be advertised at all,
however factually. In drawing up its black-list the ITA must
‘consult’ the Postmaster-General. It includes fortune-tellers,
undertakers, smoking cures, and cures for piles. The res-
trictions on financial and mail order advertisements are much
the same as those in reputable newspapers. On medicines and
treatments, too, the ITA uses the British Code of Standards, |
which is common to many publications. Advertisements are
also submitted to independent consultants. This code has not
prevented an impression from growing up among many
viewers that advertisements make loose claims for cures of
the common cold and the like. According to the Medical —
Correspondent of The Guardian, however, ITV is certainly
no worse than most of the popular press; the real trouble is —
in the law, which is far more lax about descriptions and claims
than the American Pure Food and Drug Acts. ;
A special case is hard liquor: this is not advertised on ©
television because of a ‘self-denying ordinance by the dis-~
tillers. What would happen if they changed their minds is —
doubtful. The ITA would certainly worry about its many
nonconformist viewers, especially in Scotland and Wales, —
even though they seem to swallow beer and wine advertise-
ments. ;
(From an article by John Rosselli in The Guardian, 27th
December, 1961). (Reprinted by permission of the Editor of —
The Guardian.)

Test of Comprehension
(1) The Advisory Committee is made up of ten people.dria |
from professional bodies. :
ee
pt

7
 : , READING °\ ~ ee
2
‘eachers and consumer organizations are also represented
~ on the Committee.
(3) Nothing is allowed to detract from the sponsorship of
__ programmes by advertisers.
-@ The Act is now interpreted to mean that advertising is
_ allowed for an average of six and a maximum of seven
» Minutes an hour.
(5) The Act forbids advertisements to do with industrial dis-
+ putes or directed to political or religious ends.
(6) The ITA forbids comparisons between products.
(7) Comparative claims for detergents are allowed, however,
provided they do not irritate viewers.
(8) The black list includes fortune tellers, undertakers, and
_ cures for the common cold.
(8) On medicines and treatments the ITA uses the American
Pure Food and Drug Acts.
_(10) Hard liquor is not advertised because of a self-denying
ordinance by the distillers.
Correct answers: (1) (2) (3) (4) G) ©) (D) (8) @) (10)
12) 2a)gtd DANI) Gol Da Sa) Deke! sleal b
You should have answered at least 7/10 correctly.
a You can get an idea of your speed of reading by comparing
-your time with the times of a sample of university students,
_ Which are given below: ;

Passage 1 (530 words) Passage 2 (570 words)

Fastest 10 percent 1 mih. 30secs.andless 1 min. 50 secs. and less

Average 2 mins. 15 secs, 2 mins. 49 secs.

- Slowest : 3 mins. 30 secs. and
10 per cent 3 mins. and more more
i]y

|Methods of Improving Reading

‘If you think that you are a slow reader, what can you do to
improve your speed? First you should ask yourself why you do
read slowly— the causes may be: talking to yourself as you
_Tead, an inadequate vocabulary, an inability to vary your rate
 of reading to suit the material and your purpose, or just a
habit of reading slowly. Some people, of course, are tempera-_
mentally more cautious than others, and like to proceed slowly —
and thoughtfully in all things, including reading. Some slow
readers may be good readers, and some fast readers poor >
readers — it is how much you can understand and remember —
that counts. It is no good trying to read faster than you. can
assimilate idéas. Nevertheless if your reading speed for easy
“material is less than about 200 words per minute, you would be
. well advised to learn to read more quickly. It is of little use to
attempt to control your eye movements directly — the attention
that you will have to payto your eyes will distract you from the
task of reading proper. The most useful procedure is just to
practice reading faster.
If you move your lips in reading you are bound to be a slow
reader. No one can speak at more than about 125 words a
minute, whereas you should be able to read two or three times ©
as fast. The best cure for lip- movements and other small ac-
companying movements of the vocal organs is to read so fast
that such movements are impossible.
In order to develop speed, a daily period of systematic practice
is necessary, extending over at least three or four weeks. Arrange
to spend 15 or 20 minutes each day on this task. As you must —
be absolutely constant in your practice, it is best to choose a
time at which you will seldom be interrupted, such as the time —
immediately before going to bed each night. nd
The best materials to start on are fairly short easy sietioua :
such as you may find in your daily newspaper or in some
magazines. Short articles of the kind found in many of the©
weeklies, are very suitable. :
Read each article through as quickly as you can without
sacrificing comprehension. Time yourself accurately for each |
article. Estimate the number of words in the article by multiplying ~
the number of lines by the average number of words per line. ©
Work out your rate of reading in words per minute. ; :,
Keep a chart or a graph of your reading rate. After about a
fortnight of such practice you should have both increased your :
rate, and stabilized it on the new higher level.
Look at the sample record. You will see that there is fluctua-
tion from day to day —as is only to be expected since the
material read will differ in difficulty. Over the whole period,
Bae de
 ee
READING
WORDS
IN
PER
RATE
DAYS OF PRACTICE
ag Fig. 12. Improvement in speed of reading with daily
periods of timed practice .
Next you should start practising on harder material, such as
your textbooks. You must now be doubly careful not to read
so fast that you fail to get the meaning. Remember that technical
_
books may have to be read relatively slowly, whereas texts in
English or History may usually be read at a faster rate. Thus
you will need to keep separate records for literary and for
technical materials. Continue your practice until you flatten
out on a new higher level of performance, and then carry on
until the higher rate is fully established and consolidated.
Methods for Increasing Reading Speed
Seveeral mechanical methods of controlling the rate of reading
have been developed, especially iin America. In one such method, -
¢ material to be read is placed on a revolving drum and
=
posed one line at a time through an aperture. Another method
 LN esee eel Nese whale ND A, |

86 HOW TO STUDY
involves the use of special films. A page of realing'isreoeaad’
on to a screen, and one phrase after another stands out brightly
from the rest of the page. The rate of projection can be slowed -
down or speeded up to meet the needs of the trainees. Mechanical
devices are, however, in no way superior to the method of timed
practice described above, at least for mature students. The
success of any method in fact results largely from the interest
and motivation engendered. Any mechanical method of speeding
up rate of reading can be only partially successful if the slow
reading results from a poor vocabulary or poor understanding.
Eye movements in fact are symptoms, rather than causes of
difficulty in reading. It may be more sensible, therefore, to
increase your reading rate indirectly by improving yo us vocab. :
ary and
See ee
methods |
of reading. .

Improving your Vocabulary

There are immense individual differences in size of Gecabeatuny:
In common speech only about 3,000 words are used with any
great frequency. Academic texts, however, and particularly
scientific texts, use terms which are not ordinarily employed
in common speech. Apart from the technical vocabulary
common to each separate discipline, there are many words and
phrases which occur very frequently in textbooks. Many-are of
Greek or Latin origin. Here is a sample of 150 recurring words;
nearly all of Greek or Latin origin. How many do you know
the meaning of? Mark each word either Yes, No, or Doubtful.
abstraction = achromatic afferent
affective o- agent «— aggregate 4——
ambiguous #” anthropomorphic antecedent
-—
antithesis atrophy avocation ©
bevel binary e-—— binaural
binocular g— bureaucracya.—— é
calibrate casuistry category gu |
causal ge - cognition g— complementarye—
concept g— concomitant contiguity
corollary . ;
- decrement ) differentiate a discontinuous #~—
discrepant ¢—~ discrete ¢=— doctrinaire
ductile dynamic @—— &
 - READING 87
endogenous. environmen
-equivalente—— equivocal
‘ergonomics | extrapolate extrinsic <<
facilitate o- fiducial fluorescent*————
fractionate functional <—
- genetic gradationg gradient é——
heuristic hierarchy
_ homogeneous hortatory hypothesis
ideology impairment implicit e—
inhibit e— insidious integration ta

__ interpolate — intrinsic «<< invariant

inverse
_kinaesthesis kinetic
labile . labyrinth lacuna
_ laminated latency linear
malleable mastication medial
_ metamorphosis minuscule modulate dc
‘monotonic motive eq
_hativism neologism nosology
Pall Cn

— oblique em occlude ogive

_ olfaction ontogenetic optimal
B cicasie
palliative palpable paradigm
:_ paradox parameter peripheral
phylogeny _ postulate pragmatism
presumptive
2—— probability g— ~ prognostic
putative ig
_ qualitative
4— quantitativee——
is yh
rarefaction ratiocination
reciprocal replicate

satiation«=——~ semantic
sinusoidal somatic
 soporific oe)
sudorific synchronizes— syndrome
tactual tangential <— tangiblee—_
teleology temporal ¢—~ tentative <——~
therapy &— topology toxicity
trophism : Z

ubiquitous undulationgsue unilateral

utilitariang—
vascular variable veridical
visceral: volition
hie

xenophobia |
You should know the meaning of at least 100 of the 150
words if you are to read textbooks, particularly scientific.
textbooks, without difficulty.
The best way of improving your vocabulary is i to read widely
in your field of study. In a new-field of study, read some of the
excellent introductory texts which are now increasingly becoming
available as paperbacks. Make summaries or abstracts of parts
that interest you, and try and use new words in your own
writing and speech. .

Word Derivation rs
. Since so many academic words come from Latin and Greek, it
may help you to systematize your knowledge of their roots.
The following sample list, comprising eight Latin and three
Greek words, provides the roots for over 2,000 Wess.words: |
Derivatives a
venio (I come) contravention, intervention, subvent,
advent.
dico d say) diction, interdict, dictaphone, diction-
ary. e
duco di lead) ductile, induct, indugive
facio d make) fact, satisfaction,. manufacture, fac-
simile.
mitto (I send) intermittent, missile, emit, ‘emissary.
plico dl fold) replica, duplicate, Papen com-
plicate. Mk Ye c
 | ‘tension, tendon, subtend, tensile.
- @look) spectator, spectrum, inspect, aspect.
- @ write) — graph, graphic, graphology, telegraph.
(word) '- logic, biology, geology, logarithm.
(f look) microscope, telescope, scope.

Even without.a knowledge of Latin you will be able to make

a pretty good guess at word meanings if you know (a) some of
the more common roots like those given above and (b) com-
monly used prefixes and suffixes.

Some Common Prefixes

(Latin ab) =from, as avert, absolve.
. @atin ad) =to, as ascend, adhere.
(Greek a) =not, as achromatic.
(Latin: bi) =two, as bichloride, binocular.
(Latincom) =together, with, as co-author, com-
mittee.
(Latin de) +from, down, as depart, descend.
(Latin dis) . =apart, as disintegrate, dissect.
(Latin in) _ =as enfold, engrave.
(Greek epi) =upon, as epidermis, epicyclic.
(Greek hyper) =over, as hyperbola, hypercritical.
(Greek hypo) =under, as hypodermic, hypochon-
dria
atin ‘i =not, as inability, inoperative.
ae iLim, ir. as illiberal, immodest, irreverent.
(Latin pre) =before, as predetermine, prejudge.
(Latin or =forward, for, in favour of, as
- Greek pro) project, proconsul, pro-German.
(Latin re) =back, again, as regress, re-read.
-. (Latin sub) =under, as submarine, subdivide.
(Latin trans) =across, through, as transit, trans-
3 Rane parent.

Some Common Suffixes

=tending to, able to, as friable
readable.
=pertaining ‘to, as musical, personal.
=in the process of doing, as militant,
respondent.
 )
90 HOW TO STUDY
-ise or ize =to make, cause to resemble, as
socialize, anglicize.
-ive =having the character of, as festive,
cognitive.
-ment = denoting result or action, as achieve-
ment, fulfilment.
-ous =presence of a quality in abundance,
as verminous, studious.
-ule =diminutive, as granule, module.
From a knowledge of roots, prefixes and suffixes, you will
often be able to dissect new and unfamiliar words. Real under- —
standing of word usage, however, only comes after seeing words
used in a variety of contexts. Hence extensive reading is always
desirable.
Other things you can do to improve your vocabulary are:
(1) Use a good dictionary. Look up any words of which you
are unsure at once.
(2) Use new words in your own speech and writing.
(3) Get a glossary of the technical terms used in your fields of ©
study. Several such glossaries are available as paperbacks, —
in such fields as anatomy, psychology, etc.
(4) If you want to be really systematic, use a card system.
Write down important new words, singly, on small (3 x 5 —
inches) cards. Include definitions, synonyms and derivations.
File the cards alphabetically and look through them at—
intervals.

Methods of Reading
You should remind yourself here of the SQ3R method. Re-
member the advice to get a general view of a chapter of a
textbook before studying it in detail. Particular topics can then —
be seen in their proper perspective, and it is easier to judge the |
relative importance of each.
As you read, make sure that you can pick out the main ideas —
expressed in each paragraph. In textbooks, many authors begin ©
a paragraph by first setting out the main idea, and then ex-
plaining it, producing supporting evidence, and ending with a —
sunimary sentence. Often a summary of each chapter is included
at the end. If you are in any doubt about the main points the
author is trying to make, concentrate on the summary first,
 2 a eee Bars hel te

READING : feces tek 91

Be tsthe th aaas later. Or try jotting down the main facts or
ideas included in each paragraph.
_ If you have a real interest in your subjects you will soon
develop opinions of your own. A definite ‘line’ is often a great
“stimulus to study. Reading becomes much more critical and
you ask: ‘Does this agree with what I already know?’ ‘Is this a
‘suitable procedure?’ ‘What evidence has the author for this
Statement?’ “Has the author selected among his facts in order
_to build up a case?’ ‘Can the facts be interpreted in another
way?’
At the same 2 time beware of rashly pursuing certain favourite
“views to the neglect of all else. In many long-standing con-
-troversies, such as the relative importance of heredity and
environment, advances in knowledge are made by reconciling
opposing statements, rather than by hotly pushing one extreme
‘position and militantly opposing the opposite one.

Buy the Books you Need

It should hardly be necessary to say that it is useless to improve
your methods of reading unless you own the textbooks which
‘are necessary for your work. Yet in my experience there are
many students who will not buy even the basic textbooks for
their courses, and many more who are poor buyers of books.
- It is absolute folly not to buy at least basic textbooks. Books
are to the student what tools are to the tradesman — it is im-
possible to do any useful work without them. To maintain a
student at a college or university costs about a thousand pounds
a year, yet sometimes this expenditure is nullified because the
student will not spend fifteen or twenty pounds per annum on
the requisite books.
Few things distinguish more sharply between good and poor
‘students than the ownership of books. A serious student is
always prepared to make the necessary financial sacrifice to
‘obtain the books he requires; the weak student thinks he cannot
afford them. True, many texts, pafticularly American scientific
texts, are expensive, and for this reason you should look through
‘them before buying them to make sure that they are suitable
‘in content and in level of difficulty. This applies even to ‘ officially’
‘recommended texts. Teachers sometimes recommend texts
which are too difficult. Sometimes the official list of books has
not been revised and brought up to date. Usually alternative
 texts are available. Therefore das the matter caref if
your teachers, and make sure you buy the best books for your
purpose.
In many subjects a great many new books come out each
year, very few of which are either well written or of any per-
manent value. Your teachers will be your best guides to this
mass of new literature, but usually you will be well advised to
confine your first purchases to standard texts, and to build up
a small library of well-tried works.

Use of the Library

Knowing where to find information when you need it is almost
as important as learning itself. Therefore you should spend a
day or more thoroughly familiarizing yourself with your library
and its resources.
Make sure of the location of the card catalogue, iccane
books, bound and unbound journals, and of the shelves and
stacks that contain the books in your own subject.
Most libraries use the Dewey Decimal system of classification.
There are nine main classes, and a tenth class designated O for
general words and encyclopaedias:
000-099 General works
100-199 Philosophy and Peychaloay?
200-299 Religion
300-399 Sociology
400-499 Philology
500-599 Science
600-699 Useful Aris
700-799 Fine Arts
800-899 Literature
900-999 History
The first digit gives the general classification or major division.
The second digit permits ten further subdivisions, etc., so. that
together with the use of decimals, minute discriminations
between fields is possible, and all books on specific topics can
be shelved next to each other.
The Library of Congress system is also widely uscd icstd
twenty-six main divisions, denoted by an initial letter. A “further
letter permits subdivision, and the letters are then followedhi
-humerals.: ;
 __Encyclopaedias and reference books,
Philosophy, Psychology, Religion.
Antiquities, Biography.
History.
|ia American History.
Geography, Anthropology. .
Social Sciences, Economics, Sociology.
Political Science.
Education.
Music.
Fine Arts.
Language and Literature.
Science,
Medicine.
Agriculture and Veterinary Science.
Technology.
Military Science.
Naval Science.
pe Books and Libraries, Bibliographies.
The main divisions are subdivided thus:
Q Science, QA Mathematics, QB Astronomy, QC Physics,
| QD Chemistry, QE Geology, QH Natural History, QK
_ Botany, QL Zoology, QM Anatomy, QP Physiology,
: QR Bacteriology.

All libraries are extensively indexed by author, by title and

_ by subject. The author index is the most commonly used. In a
library of any size you will find it essential to have the initials
of the author as well as the surname. Get into the habit of
noting down the titles of books in standard form as:
‘ - Miller, G. re Language and Communication, New York.
McGraw Hill Book Co., 1951.

i Machin, 1
K. Ey ineaneducers: , in Donaldson, P. E. K. (Ed.)
i skeen ‘\\Blectronic Apparatus for Biolowical Research,
London, Butterworth, 1958. _
i Journal references should also be taken down in standard
form:
94 HOW TO STUDY Nir Sn
Bruner, J. S., ‘The Act of Discovery’, Hatiard Educational
Review, 31, 1961, 21-32.
If you always note down author, title, journal, vel num-
ber, year and page numbers in this fashion, you will save much
time in consulting and quoting references.
In nearly all fields of study some hundreds of new books and
thousands of articles appear each year. How is it possible to
keep abreast of this vast literature? In many subjects, regular
abstracts of the literature are published, as Chemical Abstracts,
Biological Abstracts, etc., which give short summaries of pub-
lished articles, classified under different headings. Even more
valuable, particularly to research students, are the annual
reviews now published in some subjects, in which experts in
various fields, summarize, review and criticize recent publica-
tions.

Broaden your Knowledge

Nowadays there is too much specialization and departmentalism
of knowledge. Few people can master fully more than one
specialized field, but the best students do not confine their
reading too narrowly to their special subjects. An educated
person used to be expected to know something of History,
Current Affairs and Politics, Literature and Fine Arts, Philo-
sophy and Religion. It is now becoming increasingly necessary
that he should also know something of Science and Scientific
Method, and of Mathematics and Statistics.

Summary
Reading is the most important skill in study. Good readers
learn to vary their rate of reading to suit their purposes.
Reading involves making complicated patterns of eye move-
ments, as well as understanding what you read. You should
observe the eye movements made in reading— the jumps,
fixations, regressions and sweeps.
Difficulties in reading may be the result of faulty eye move-
ments, or of a poor vocabulary or lack of understanding. If you
think your reading of easy prose materials is slow you can speed
your rate by regular periods of timed practice, charting your
progress on a graph. This method is just as “ as mechanical
methods of speeding up reading.
general plan of what you are reading, an
deas from the details.
 CHAPTER SIX Be

NOTES AND LECTURES | Sahat sia Fete po

The palest ink is better than the most retentive memory,

PROVERB

AKING notes at lectures and other classes willbe dealt with

first, and then the making of notes and outlines from books.
Some students may need to be convinced that they should take
lecture notes at all. The reasons for taking notes are:
(1) A permanent record is constructed which is invaluable for
revision and subsequent relearning.
(2) The permanent record helps to overcome. our limitations in
recording and storing information. Although a careful and
intelligent listener may be able to recall the general structure
and arguments of a lecture immediately afterwards, much of
. the detail fades very rapidly. This is particularly true of factual
expository lectures, which include tables, figures and formulae.
Our memory span, even for familiar material, cannot cope
with a mass of factual detail even for a short period, and since
education is concerned with long-term retention, a written
record is essential,
(3) Note-taking itself, as it involves vision and muscular and—
kinesthetic senses, as well as hearing, may facilitate learning.
Although it may appear that note-taking necessarily distracts
the attention of the listener from the speaker’s words — note-
takers are always ‘lagging’ behind the speaker, that is writing —
down what he has just said, while listening to what he isnow
saying — writing and listening are not really incompatible. It
is possible to do two things at once, provided that one of the.
things has been reduced to the level of an automatic skill. So
it is possible to keep your thoughts with the lecturer while —
writing down enough of what he has said to be able to recon-
struct it later.
(4) To clinch the argument, research studies show that note-
takers do a lot better in tests and examinations than those who ~
Fi
;
.5
 had eee able to go over and rehearse their notes in “Abs
interim, while the others had only their remote memories to
rely on.
_ Notebooks
_ The technique of note-taking is dealt with at length later. First we
' must consider different kinds of notebooks and filing systems.
_ Not manystudents give enough time and thought to these rather
mundane matters, which are, nevertheless, of the first importance.
”_ Consider that, in whatever branch of study you are engaged, you
Aa
must learn to deal in an orderly fashion with a mass of books and
papers. Some time each day necessarily has to be spent in sorting
and classifying notes and papers, even if you find this activity
trivial and distasteful. I fancy that there are some who scorn to
‘stoop to the mechanical contrivances which suggest shop and
. Office and business routine. These mechanical devices have, how-
ever, been devised to minimize effort in this humdrum sphere.
Besides there are times in the day when we are all at a low ebb of
_ neural potency, when a little routine activity may be desirable.
AL notebook on any subject should not be something in which
_ you take lecture notes only, but a depository of information on
the subject from all sources. You should fill out your lecture notes
_ from your textbook reading, and add thoughts and critical com-
ments of your own, together with illustrations, other evidence,
_ etc. This means that the notebook has to be a certain size and that
you must leave plenty of room for the comments, diagrams or
illustrations which may be added later. A notebook should be at
least quarto size (8 x 10 inches), and may well be foolscap size
(8 x 13 inches). Never try to economize on paper.
__ The problem which has to be solved is something like this. You
_ have to take notes in perhaps ten or twelve separate courses and
to have these notes readily available both at your workplace and
at your residence, which means transporting them frequently
between workplace and residence.
One possible solution is to buy a set of bound exercise books,
one for each course or topic. Exercise books, however, usually
turn out to be insufficiently flexible. Additions to the notes on a
giventopic may” be some pages away from the original, so that a
3 7
bos. 's wow To sTUD
logical sequence is hard to preserve and the student has to leaf a
backwards and forwards to reread a single topic. This difficulty
may be overcome by writing lecture notes on one side of the paper
only, and leaving plenty of space for subsequent additions, but
even so the system is, by general consent, too rigid and clumsy —
and may entail transporting six or eight separate exercise books
each day; and if you should forget the appropriate book there is
no easy way of adding to it the new notes you have taken.
Some kind of loose-leaf system is better. The most common
system includes a loose-leaf notebook with rings. The notebook is
set up with tabular dividers, one for each of the subjects you are
taking. A pad of fresh paper, with holes ready punched, is kept at
the rear of the notebook. You take your notes on the pad, begin-
ning a fresh sheet for each topic, and then file under the appro-
priate tab within the body of the notebook. At intervals, or at the
conclusion of a course, you can take out the notes on each topic
and file them away in a wallet or binder of some kind.
This is quite a sensible system. The same loose-leaf notebook
can be used for all your classes, and you only have to transport
one notebook between your workplace and residence. The disad-
vantage of the system is that if you lose the notebook (as some-
times happens) you lose the accumulated work of weeks or
months. A safer practice is to take out notes from the notebook
every few days and file these away, each topic in its separate
binder or wallet. Another disadvantage of the ring system is that
it does not stand normal wear and tear. The paper around the
holes becomes torn, sheets come adrift from the notebook, lead-
ing to untidiness and confusion. The remedy is to stick small
reinforcing circles round the holes in the paper — a tedious and
unnecessary task. i
A loose-leaf system, which does not rely on rings and punched
holes is neater and less time-consuming. Perhaps the best proce-
dure is to have a quarto or foolscap folder with an easily manipu-
lated clip which holds a good supply of fresh paper. Notes are
made in this folder in the classroom. Every few days the notes are
taken out and filed away in wallets or spring-back binders. The
only disadvantage of the system is that you may have to transport
your files from residence to workplace if you want to consult
recent notes.
At all events any system is better than no system. Some students
take no ks of envelopes.

ie
 ‘hese are dion’ ae AP
or folded into their pockets and may be
t Or forgotten. Eventually, as examinations approach, some |
. effort may be made to reduce the available scraps to order, usually
_ with very little success. Such lack of system is really carrying the
amateur tradition too far.
Whatever system you decide on, it is worth going to a good
commercial stationer and examining the notebooks, filing systems
and other aids, and thinking about how the available equipment
can be adapted to your needs. Think also of how you are going to
—
; transport books and papers from residence to workplace. The
conventional brief-case is usually far too small for the purpose —
particularly if you have to transport one or two large textbooks.
A small suitcase, or rucksack or large leather bag may be desir-
able. Don’t be deterred from taking around with you the books
and papers that you need by the mere physical difficulties of
_ carrying them.

Lectures
Most lectures are frankly expository, that is, their purpose is to
convey information, subject-matter or techniques. You may think
that this can often be done better by a textbook. In reading a book
you can go back over difficult passages and proceed at your own
_ pace; in a lecture you cannot go back, and must habituate your-
self to the rate at which the lecturer presents his material.
Lectures are sometimes criticized as a passive form of learning:
_, the lecturer speaks, the class listen, and make notes. Normally the
_ lecturer is not interrupted or asked questions, but proceeds at a
uniform pace, and does not know whether he is being fully under-
stood or not. Sometimes questions and discussion may be invited,
but normally verbal communication is one way. Most lecturers,
however, unless they are socially very obtuse, are aware of their
_. audience’s reactions, and realize when they need to repeat them-
selves, recapitulate, or supply fresh illustrations or examples.
Listening to a lecture need not be a passive affair, in which the
a
lecturer’s utterance is patiently recorded, a process much more
_ efficiently done by a tape recorder. The lecturer’s words should be
i
"s generating thought processes in you. You should be thinking
_ about what he is saying, making personal examples and applica-
‘tions, reacting in a critical fashion or trying to link up the dis-
course with your existing body of knowledge.
* The impact of a lecture is usually greater than that of a book,
 - because enthusiasms and attitudes are m
cated in the personal situation. Lecturers usually
one textbook (unless it is their own) covers the wulsjeekadequately 4
and that they can give a better and more detailed account of
particular topics than any book. Important experiments may be —
hidden away in inaccessible journals, for example, and it may be
necessary to quote the procedure and findings in some detail, in
order to illustrate some general principle or law. Moreover, a good —
lecturer can organize and integrate the various aspects of a sub-
ject more effectively than a book, and give a treatment more
adapted to the needs of a particular audience. In some subjects
new knowledge comes in rapidly, and there is inevitably a time-
lag of a few years before this new knowledge becomes sufficiently
established to be incorporated in textbooks. In new fields a lecture
can be nearer to recent research than a textbook.
In educational methods research, lectures usually turn out to be
just as effective as other teaching methods, judged by examination
results, and since a lecturer can address 200 students almost as
easily as two, it is likely to continue as one of the principal
methods of instruction. There is, moreover, anadvantage in a
whole class being subjected to the same instruction at the same
time: their common experience gives a basis for subsequent —
discussion. And even when you go to a lecture and understand
very little of it, at least you are becoming aware of deficiencies in
your knowledge. I have attended lectures which'l believe very few
- of the audience fully understood, but at least they became aware
of areas of ignorance and were able to take down enough notes to
help them to make a start in tackling the subject.

Where to Sit
In many lecture theatres the acoustics are bad, so that if you sit at
the back it may be a strain to hear the lecturer, and your attention
may become intermittent. Moreover, you may be distracted by ©
having the rest of the audience in your field of view. The best
place to sit is in the middle towards the front, where you can see
and hear easily. Believe it or not, those who sit in this position
usually do better than those who sit at the back. This is partly the
result of the physical advantage of being reasonably near to the -
lecturer, and to the blackboard, and partly the result of subtle -
psychological factors. Those sitting towards the front are usually —
keen students who quite enjoy going to the lecture; those at the .
ite
ats
 aici ee to Take
ere is no simple answer to the question of how full your notes
“should be. Lecture notes range all the way from the verbatim
account to the barest of outlines. Note-taking usually lies some-
where between these extremes. The amount you need to take
down will depend on:
(1) The content of the lecture — a very factual expository lecture
may necessitate a great quantity of notes.
(2) Whether or not you are familiar with the topic — the jess
familiar you are with the subject the fuller your notes will need
to be.
3) Whether the information iis readily available in a textbook or
_ elsewhere— if no other source is readily available, notes may
have to be full.
: In taking notes there are, then, three courses open to you: (1)
_ you can take down as much of the lecture as possible, (2) you can
take outline notes, including, in more detail, definitions, tables of
:figures, graphs etc., as may seem necessary, (3) you can take a
skeleton outline only — or no notes at all. The middle course (2)
is generally recommended, but let us examine the pros and cons

d) To take down every word is impossible unless you are a short-

hand writer, since most speakers utter about 130 words a
minute. But it is possible to take very full notes, since most
_ lecturers have occasional pauses, or clean the blackboard or
"use visual aids. All but the most factual lectures, however,
include redundant material in the form of introductory re-
marks, repetition and re-emphasis, multiple illustrations, and
occasional stories and anecdotes, and other ‘connective tissue’.
_. There is no point in taking down these things at any great
~ length, even if you hold the (mistaken) belief that lecturers,
- being also examiners, ~ to get their own words and phrases
hack.. y
zs Those who take notes:at very ae length usually do so as
a kind of safety measure, when they cannot fully understand
102°
the lecture and so cannot discriminate the important from
the unimportant. Everyone may occasionally find himself in
this difficulty, and it is then reasonable to take full notes, and
to try and clarify the matter after the lecture. The chief argu-
ment against habitually taking very full notes is that the hectic
scribbler has no time to think and follow the general argu-
ment, and so may lose the meaning of the lecture as a whole.
Moreover, when he comes to revise and relearn the notes,
many pages of continuous writing are hard to organize and to
commit to memory. Points stand out, and are much more
easily visualized in memory, when notes are indented,
numbered or labelled, well spaced out and interspersed with
diagrams. This is very well understood by the writers of intro-
ductory textbooks, who break up their text with sub-headings,
diagrams, ‘boxes’, and tables. The same kind of variety of
visual pattern is desirable in your notes: pages of unrelieved
handwriting present a visual field which is too homogeneous
to be readily organized and memorized. 5
(2) Outline notes have this very advantage which full notes lack:
they are much more readily visualized and reconstructed in
memory. Since the student is not writing all the time, he can
listen more intelligently, and think about what the lecturer is
saying. You must, in fact, be able to understand a lecture ir
order to make good outline notes. If you merely put dowr
each striking phrase or interesting point as it occurs th:
resulting notes may be very disjointed.
At the very least you should ensure that the transition fron
one topic to the next is well emphasized in the spacing of you:
notes. Use headings and sub-headings, and leave plenty o
room for elaboration or expansion after the lecture. In takin;
notes, often a single word will be enough to remind you of at
illustration or example, so that you can re-construct what wa:
said at the end of the lecture or on the same day. A week later
however, you may have forgotten the context or lost the poin
of the illustration. Hence you must go over outline notes ot
the same day. This does not mean re-copying, which would bi
a terrible waste of time, but running rapidly through the notes
making sure that their meaning is clear, adding an additiona
word or phrase here and there, and clearing up any points you
may have been unsure about. Sometimes it may be possible t
do this in the last ten minutes of a lecture, when some lecturer:
 1D LECTURES
ielene s summarize the main points they have bos trying
_ to make and invite questions. More often you will have to do
£4: it later in the same day.
Q) The third course is to take no notes at all, or only the barest
outline. This is obvious folly in an expository lecture which is
crammed with facts — unless the same facts are available in a
textbook. It may be a sensible procedure in a literary or
philosophical or inspirational lecture which is designed to
stimulate rather than to instruct. If you already have an exten-
sive background of knowledge in a subject, it may appear ‘The
“te

more important to follow the argument closely, and to think

about it, than to take notes. But impressions fade very quickly,
so that some kind of skeleton outline is required even here.
And since writing is, after all, an automatic process, brief
notes need not distract attention from the content and thought
_ of the lecture. In quite a short talk, memories and impressions
crowd in so fast that only a few of the most vivid and recent
impressions are subsequently recalled. Consider the common
sort of ‘tutorial’ discussion, in which someone reads a short
paper for twenty minutes, followed by forty minutes of group
discussion. Unless the speaker or the chairman has made a
careful list of the main topics dealt with, the group nearly
always discusses at length only a small part of the paper, and
entirely neglects some important questions and issues. So it is
in lectures. Unless you take some notes, certain details will
become sharpened and emphasized, others will fade com-
pletely and inaccuracies and over-simplifications will occur.
The experimental psychology of memory has demonstrated in
quite devastating fashion the limitations of human beings as
_recording instruments. You cannot afford not to make notes.
Organization
For an hour’s lecture most lecturers work from about three pages
of notes. They will have a structure of headings and sub-headings,
-and the class, in their turn, have to-discover and reproduce this
structure in their own notes. Some lecturers obligingly read out or
list on the blackboard the main topics with which they intend to
deal, in the belief that they should ‘say what they are going to
say, say it, and then say what they have said’. More often it is
‘left to the audience to discover the structure of the lecture.
- To do this intelligently needs familiarity with the style of
when they pass from one major heading to en
pausing, or by saying ‘Turning now to...” or some
ductory phrase, so that, even if you have had no preview. of the
lecture, there should be little difficulty in micieing outSisalmain ;
headings.
It is rather more difficult to decide what you wet write down,
and what you can omit. Lecturers stress important points by
pauses, by slowing down their rate to dictation speed, by inflec-
tion of the voice, by repetition, by increased loudness and other
forms of emphasis. By watching for these signs you should be
better able to select the important points and to omit the mere
connective tissue, although a really intelligent abstract of a lecture
naturally implies that the listener is following the argument and
can see for himself why some points are more aa than
others.
In fact it is wrong to think that your job in attending a lecture
is confined to constructing a set of notes which will very closely —
resemble the lecturer’s own notes. There are indeed some lecturers
who proceed at almost dictation speed, dictate main headings, |
number all sub-headings serially, and frequently pause to dictate -
definitions and summary sentences. This method ensures that
everyone in the class will have the same cut-and-dried account in
his notebook, and may be appropriate to the introductory stages _
of some subjects. But it is perhaps fortunate that the majority of
lecturers are not so didactic in their methods. They are usually
more concerned to state questions and problems precisely, to
review the evidence, examine its credibility, to reconcile con-
flicting evidence, to draw conclusions and discuss implications. _
It is as well to remember that this is the natural sequence of ideas
in critical argument, and ensure that your notes follow a ie
logical sequence, wherever possible.

Use of Symbols and Abbreviations

Since your notes will usually only be read by Sanh you can
reasonably employ any symbols or shorthand devices which will _
help you to take notes more quickly. Common symbols andabbre- :
viations which are generally useful include: ;
e.g. — for example
ef. -— compare, remember in this context
_ n.b, — note well — this is important
 "— equals — is the same as
_ — does not equal — is not the same as

illeg otsyour Ability to Take Notes

Note-taking is a skill which will improve with practice, but you
will make much more rapid progress if you have some informa-
tion about the nature of your errors and omissions. To get this
information you will need the co-operation of two or three others
who are attending the same course. Form a syndicate with two or
three others, and examine and compare the notes taken on the
same lecture by each individual. Note especially any inaccuracies
and omissions.
In addition see if you can agree on the characteristics which
good notes should possess. These are some of the points you
might look for:
General Form of Notes
Notebook of unsuitable size
Pages over-filled
Notes too spread out
Notes too compact
Handwriting illegible
_ Organization
Not in outline form
Hard to see organization
Insufficient use of headings,
numbers, indentation
Phrasing and Content
Too much detail,
aan Too meagre
iR eee. Wordiness
ar Meaning unclear
Important ideas missed out
Graphs or tables omitted or incorrect
_ When you have agreed on a check list along these lines, each
rery Pees!
 set of notes should be aenedee each individdale cneeae each
of the points which are at fault. When this has been done, you
should have a clearer idea of what you have been doing wrong,
and how you should set about improving your notes.
a

Taking Notes from Books

Outlining, writing summaries and underlining the text are all
practices which can help to reinforce your knowledge of a topic,
the schematic outline which you yourself have constructed being
more readily visualized and assimilated than the text itself. In
order to make outline notes you must analyse and closely attend
to the book: the activity itself involves you in an active process of
learning. For purposes of revision, it is much easier to master your
’ three or four pages of notes than the twenty or thirty pages ofthe
chapter itself.
Written summaries should be supplemented by underaeane and
' writing comments on the text itself. This is a practice which
schools and libraries naturally frown upon, but which is helpful
and efficient in the books which you own yourself. You may of
course be prevented from re-selling the book, since a book with
underlining is useless to anyone except the person who does the
underlining. But don’t let this deter you. The most common fault
is to underline too much. It is seldom necessary to underline the
text horizontally — usually it will suffice to put a vertical line in
the margin to mark important passages. Intelligent underlining
can only be done after you have read the material through as a
whole. Following the SQ3R system, you should first read quickly
through to get the general picture, then, on the second reading,
underline the main ideas and important details. _
Underlining by itself may be a more efficient procedure than
writing summaries, unless the summaries are adequate and accur-
ate. Practice and training are needed for you to become skilled in
outlining. Many students in fact do not make book outlines, and,
assuming that you own a copy of a book, and that the author
provides summaries of each chapter, there may seem little point
in making an outline of your own. The case is different, of course,
if you do not own an important book nor have ready access to it.
Then there is a clear case for making fairly copious notes for later
reference. But it is obviously more efficient to buy all the books .
that you need in order to save yourself the labour of transcription.
Research shows, however, that the best way.to master textbooks
 y train yourself to. tke brief Gulline noes, selecting the
portant points and avoiding inaccuracies. Many textbooks are -
set out with headings and sub-headings, each paragraph begin-
ning with a ‘topic’ sentence. It is relatively easy to construct
systematic summaries of such books.
Important points of technique are:
(1) Don’t make any notes until you have read each section or
paragraph through as a whole.
(2) Use your own words and phrases, rather than slavishly
copying out of the book, but make sure that the meaningis
accurately ‘reproduced. -

Use of Cards
When you have an essay to write or a special subject to investigate,
you will have to find out all you can of what others have written
on the topic. You need some handy way of recording and assem-
bling the relevant information. For some purposes it may be
enough simply to record the page numbers of textbooks on which
you can find information. Some academics are very good at
supplying references on particular topics, and are virtually ‘walk-
_ ing libraries’. Their skill results from wide reading and an orderly
- and retentive memory, but they also use mechanical aids — usually
a card index of some sort.
In approaching the intensive study of a particular topic, you
probably have no clear idea of how you are going to treat it, nor
of the relevance of each piece of information as it comes to hand.
Therefore you need to record each piece of information separ-
ately, so that you can eventually shuffle your notes into any
sequence that will suit your purpose. The best way of doing this
is to make your notes on cards. These are cheap, and available at
any stationers in standard sizes, 3 x 5 inches or 4 X 6 inches.
Put down the source of each note in standard form at the top of
the card, followed by a brief summary of the section or article.
When you have finished your researches, it is then easy to classify
and label the cards, and to make cross-comparisons. Bibliog-
raphies can also be easily listed in alphabetical order.

_ Summary
‘

{
po ttsis essential to take notes. You should think carefully about
the kinds of notebooks and filing systems that are available. Some
*
_ inter aiitavienin factual lectures, Outline otes
readily organized and memorized than pages of unbrol
You should revise and fillin your notes on the same day. A
scheme for assessing and improving your notes is described which
involves the colloboration of two or three other students. —

Bird, C. and Bird, D. M. Learning More by BifectveStud,

- Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1945.
 CHAPTER SEVEN

EXAMINATIONS

‘One ounceof good nervous tone in an examination is worth

many pounds of anxious study for it in advance. If you want
really to do your best in an examination, fling away the books
the day before, say to yourself, ‘I won’t waste another minute
on this miserable thing, and I don’t care an iota whether I
succeed or not.’ Say this sincerely, and feel it, and go out
and play, or go to bed and sleep, and I am sure the results
next day will encourage you to use the method permanently.
WILLIAM JAMES

;_Peamanaions are intended to measure how effectively you

have studied a subject, so the best way of preparing for exam-
_ inations is to develop systematic habits of study. If you follow the
- advice which has already been given about methods of planning,
_ taking notes, and learning effectively, you should have no diffi-
culty with examinations.
ee
ee
There is no way of passing an examination without doing the
- requisite work for it. But you can ensure that you are at peak
_ efficiency for an important examination. This means having a
thorough knowledge of your subject and having it so well organ-
ized and understood that you can write about it from many points
of view. It also means being reasonably calm and confident, and ~
not fatigued or over-anxious.
Taking these things for granted, you. can improve your per-
formance still more by (1) careful preparation and (2) skill in
examination techniques.

_ Preparing for Examinations

The first preparation for an important examination begins at the
very outset of the course. You should get a copy of the syllabus,
if a syllabus is available, and make sure you know what ground
‘¢has to be covered. Compare your textbooks with the syllabus, and
make sure= they cover the ground adequately. Get from your
tes i me oi tia tian rege

Sarge “HOW TO STUDY

teachers an outline of their courses together withbook lists and |
important references.
Sometimes, as a matter of policy, no syllabus is published.
Candidates are expected to be able to deal with all matters falling
within the general confines of their subject. In this case it may be
as well to go over the examination papers which have been set in
the last three or four years and to make a list of the topics on
which questions have been set. Don’t rely too much on this infor-
mation, however. Sometimes new examiners may be appointed
who bring a ‘New Look’ to the subject and to the questions.
Some subjects, particularly in the sciences, may be in a state of
rapid change which may be reflected in the examination papers.
You should certainly find out all you can about the conditions
of the examination ;how many papers you have to sit, how long
each paper is, how many questions you have to answer, and what
choice of questions is usually given; also on what basis marks are
allocated — whether each question or section is equally weighted,
or whether more marks are given for some parts than for others.
Teachers understandably deplore the ‘mark-grubbing’ towards
which my remarks seem to be tending. Examinations should not
interfere with the ordinary course of learning, nor the treatment
of a subject be distorted by the examination. In a competitive
examination, however, you have to be concerned with getting as
many marks as possible. The ordinary terminal or class examina<
tion tends to be more of the pass-fail variety, and not to entail
much special preparation. In final examinations, in which the
candidates are classed or placed in a rank order, it is usually
desirable to carry out some six to eight weeks of revision, and to
make a close study of the examination itself.

Revision
As a major examination draws near, the student’s problem is to
distribute his revision time in such a way that study does not
become a hectic fatiguing rush to deal with a great amount of
material at the last minute. The sheer amount that has to be learnt
necessitates regular work over the whole period, together with a
period of some weeks’ final revision.
Certain principles are helpful in deciding at what times and
how often you should carry out revision in the course of the year.
One of the most practical results of memory experiments is that
material that has to be retained over long periods should be
 and re-studied. ee te is ks nade we and less rapid by
repeated learning of the same material (Fig. 13). The diagram
shows the number of repetitions required to re-learn some stanzas
of poetry on successive days. Memory traces become sharper with
each repetition. Material which has already been gone over a .
number of times needs very little revision to restore it to the level
of 100 per cent retention. It follows from this that the more

RETAINED
PERCENTACE
TRIALS
NEEDED
OF -LISTS
NUMBER
WORD
RELEARN
TO

DAYS OF PRACTICE
Fig. 13. Daily relearning of word lists. On each day the
lists were recited to the point of one perfect recitation.
Dotted lines represent curves of forgetting. The vertical
lines with the arrows represent the number of trials
required to relearn

revision that you do in the course of the year, the more easily you
‘can perfect your knowledge at examination time.
_ The great advantage of learning by understanding rather than
learning by rote has already been stressed. Theoretically, you do
not forget what has been understood and organized in terms of
general principles. But often it is only by constant repetition that
insights are gained, particularly in difficult subjects. Able students
| continuously go back over their work, think about it and integrate
it. One of ie benefits of taking examinations is in fact that you
you normally 28to take eaece viewssand to pe
ships of the parts to the whole.
Research shows that fairly frequent revisions, tests
inations improve performance in final examinations. This is partly
because frequent tests force students to work more regularly and
spread their work more evenly over the year, and partly because
much less effort is required to re-learn what has aleeey been
revised.
So unless already provided for in the shape of tests andterminal

150
AMOUNT OF y REVISION AFTER 2 DAYS
DELAYED )

‘eal (REVISION AFTER 7 DAYS :

AS 100
PERCENTAGE
OF IMMEDIATE SK REVISION
RECALL

0 10 ee Bshity <(9/
DAYS SINCE ORIGINAL LEARNING
Fig. 14. Amounts of a historical pense recalled after 10
days and after 21 days, under three conditions: (A)
revision after 2 days (B) revision after 7 Ks and (C) ea
: revision
examinations, some intermediate revisions are deticabls betweer
original learning and final revision. Revision is probably most
effective either (a) soon after the original learning or (6) not lons
before the examination itself, the research evidence suggesting
that (a) is more effective. At least this is known to’ be true ove!
fairly short periods (Fig. 14).
-. Over longer periods the effectiveness of revision is a joint func
tion of the distance in time from the original learning and the dis
tance in time from the final reproduction : thatis, revision at atims
equidistant between original learning and final reproduction wil
be less effective than either early or late revision, although zo)
course still much more effective usa no revision at all. Early
 terial is
i Frcs jin‘your lea you can run over it again
oer ane with less effort than if you leave it until

_callreanrnate memoriess just before they are needed.

- If you are to be examined on the work of the previous year or
_ of the previous two years, a continuous process of revision and
_ consolidation is desirable. There are four stsak in such long-term
_ learning and retention:
| (1) The original learning.
- Q) Early revision — on the same day or within a few days of the
original learning.
_ @) Intermediate revision — especially when the work is spread
| over two years.
(4) Final revision, some six to eight weeks before the final exam-
‘ination.
_ There are many subjects, such as some branches of mathematics,
| in which the treatment is continuous, and earlier notions are in-
- volved, and therefore indirectly revised, in the later and more
_ complicated aspects of the subject. In many subjects, knowledge
_ advances in bursts, as you obtain insights and higher order con-
_ cepts which enable you to organize your work more effectively.
But, even in these subjects, systematic periods of intermediate
_ revision are desirable.
_. The most common fault is to omit steps (2) and (3) above (and
_ sometimes indeed to omit step (1)). When the original learning is
- imperfect, and is never consolidated by subsequent revision, the
_ result is a hectic period of ‘cramming’ before examinations. The
_ coiimon practice of cramming on the night before examinations
"may generate some memory traces which are fresh the next day.
Butit usually means a last despairing effort to tackle the work
_ which should have been done long before.-Cramming is likely to
confuse the student, to dishearten him, and to leave him tired and
_ below par on the day of the examination itself. And even if cram-
ming enables the student to pass the examination, much of what
he learns is very quickly forgotten and unlikely to be retained in
the long run.
_ Revision on the night before an examination should be quite a
different thing. If you have worked systematically throughout the
ear your final revision should not need to: be more than one or
two hours in order to revive and strengthen your impressions. —
But this limited amount of last-minute revision should not be
omitted. You probably do not need to be told this, but occasion-
ally students are advised to relax completely before examinations
and to do no work at all. The research evidence suggests that even
the student who is already well prepared benefits from an hour’s
revision just before the examination. There are some who even
get up at 5.0 a.m. on the morning of an examination so as to
perfect their detailed knowledge of some topic. But the usual
advice, at any rate before a three-hour written examination, is to
adhere to normal routine so as to be in the pink of condition in
the examination room.

Methods of Revision
In your revision you should not need to re-read your textbooks
extensively. Re-reading should be kept to a minimum. Thisiswhy
a set of well-kept notes is so useful: instead of having to cover
hundreds of pages of text you should have an outline in your
notebook. Of course you may, in your final revision, find some
exciting new book which gives new and helpful facts and princi-
ples. But unless it is absolutely relevant to your purposes, it is
probably as well not to try to master much new material in the
final revision, particularly if it necessitates a reorganization of
your knowledge.
Recitation is effective because it resembles the activity of the
examination room — recall without any direct stimulation from
books or notes. After going over each section of your notes, set
them aside and try and recall what you have been reading. Then
check your recall against the notes. Any such active method of
learning is better than mere passive reading of the notes.
In the same way that you give point to your work in SQ3R by
asking questions, so in revision you should try and predict exam-
ination questions. Ask yourself as you go through your notes,
what sort of questions might be set on the various topics.
This does not mean going through old examination papers and
listing likely questions and their probability of occurrence. It is of
course no secret that it is possible to predict questions by attending
closely to hints dropped by teachers and lecturers. If a good deal
of time has been devoted to a topic, or it has been given particular
emphasis, you may guess that it will appear on the examination
paper. Sometimes it will, but often it will not. It is rather doubtful —
 “EXAMINATIONS

; whether eiencive attempts at question prediction can ever be

_ successful. But whenever any situation in human affairs is sur-
rounded by uncertainty and anxiety, there are always some who
will grasp at any straw.
Some cramming institutions actually list the probability of
occurrence of various questions. In any examination there is in
fact a limited number of topics on which questions can be asked.
By studying the cycles and sequences of questions in old examina-
tion papers students sometimes think they can out-guess the
examiners. But, with examinations, the past is not a good guaran-
tee for the future, and you would be very unwise to rely too much
- on predictions from old papers. Examiners usually are not very
much concerned about the relation of the current paper to those
of past years. They are much more concerned to set a paper which
is representative of the syllabus, and which can be tackled by the
average candidate with a fair prospect of success.
How thoroughly you decide to cover the syllabus may depend
in part on whether a wide choice of questions is given. If no choice
is allowed you must omit nothing. If you only have to do half the
questions on the paper it is reasonable to make a special study of
those parts of the subject that interest you. But do not conclude
that since you only have to do half the questions on the paper you
need only cover half the syllabus.
Old papers are best used to provide practice in answering
questions. To some extent writing examination answers is a learned
‘skill, and as such, needs practice. Rather than merely glancing
over old papers and saying to yourself ‘I could do 1, 3, 4 and 6,
but not 2 or 5’, you should work out some of the answers, at least
in note form: that is, take sample questions and list the points
- that should be included in a good answer. Show your efforts to
other students and discuss the question with them. If you think’
that you need practice in writing answers in full, take one or two
questions and tackle them as you would in the examination proper.
Working old papers also enables you to form a truer assess- _
ment of what you do know and what you don’t. Research shows
that in essay-type examinations where there is a choice of ques-
tions, students do not always select those questions which they
can do best: not having been put tothe test, they do not know
accurately their own strengths and weaknesses. Actual practice at
writing answers gives more objective information.
* You should make a careful time-table for your final revision.
The revision for each ae dnsais be divide
to a number of sessions, which should be well spaced out.
out the revision sessions is useful because it gives practice in recalls
at the beginning of each session there will be recall of what was
done at the previous session. Then you should include some time
near the examination itself for an overall MeriReS review
of each subject.
It is worth making a special effort to get the bulk of your revision
completed about a week before the examinations commence. You
can then devote the last few days to quick, summary refreshers.
There should be no last-minute rush nor late-night sittings drink-
ing strong coffee and wearing wet towels round the head. It is
always a mistake to try and ingest a great quantity of material at
this stage. If you have got behind with your work it is usually
better to concentrate on essentials, and to make sure you fully
understand at least some of the groundwork, rather than to —
attempt to master the whole and to be left with a confused and
only partially understood mass of ideas.

Avoiding Anxiety
A mild degree of stress enhances performance, but a high degree
of stress and anxiety is disruptive, and interferes with perform- —
ance. This is true of many activities such as running a race, making
a public speech, solving a problem or taking an examination. A.
certain amount of anxiety prior to examinations is a desirable
spur to effort. But when the anxiety becomes excessive and is not
channelled into productive work, it leads to a general inhibition
of mental processes. P
You may feel that this is a subject on which it is not verypractic- —
able to give advice. It is all very well to tell people to try and be
relaxed and confident, but the advicé is not often effective. Let us _
consider, however, the causes of anxiety. Anxiety stems from the —
fear of failure. Often there will be good grounds for this fear, when
the student has done little work and realizes, too late, that the day
of reckoning is at hand. The remedy for this kind of objectively
based anxiety is obviously regular work and adequate preparation.
High anxiety does afflict others, however, when there appears —
to be no real grounds for it. In these cases it usually results from —
the conflict between a high level of drive or aspiration and the —
fear of failure, or of not attaining the high, self-set, goal. In the
same sae‘that a bicycle chain can be too taut”so— _ co)a
 \otivation pai De iniesnc on an easy and simple task. But
in a difficult task, where alternative methods of attack are possible,
careful and systematic exploration of the problem is required.
_ The excessively motivated person acts too impulsively and then
becomes confused when he sees he has gone wrong. As the exces-
_ Sive motivation interferes with performance, the student becomes
_ aware of this, worries about it, and anxiety builds up in a cumula-
. tive fashion. An excessive drive level makes for rigid and inefficient
_ problem-solving. Try the following little experiment with a series
of problems.
“In each problem there are three water jars, a, b and c, of varying
sizes, and an unlimited supply of water. The problem is to arrive
at exactly the specified quantity o water by manipulating the
_ three jars. i
a b c to get
AG aes 20 8 100 52
Ze 3 5 18 anal
eat 12. 7 42 11
Bi ie Biqeod 12 154 123
_The first three problems constitute a practice set, and all are sol-
_ ubleby the formula c— b— 2a. Thefourth problem, however, cannot
be solved by this formula, or by any combination of the three
jars, but quite simply by c—a. The first three problems thus give a
_*set” which is actually a hindrance in solving problem 4.
Try the problems out on a friend, and create as high a level of
"motivation as you can. Tell him it is an intelligence test, that he
_ is to work as fast as possible, and that you will time him in seconds
on each problem. These conditions nearly always make problem 4
' difficult or even insoluble, because the subject is working under
stress, and in his hurry, misses the simple solution.
_ Similarly, in examinations, questions can be misread, and
obvious solutions overlooked because the candidate is too eager
and in too much of a hurry to give them careful thought.
The best way of avoiding stress is to leave time for exercise,
sport and recreation, to discuss your work with others, and gener-
ally to lead a normal life. Anxiety tends to be worst in those who
hut themselves away from social contacts and try and study all
and vate of the night. There is nothing like an afternoon’s
 HOW TO STUDY m
sport or physical activity, in the presence of congenial compan- —
ions, for getting a more relaxed and balanced view of work and
its problems.
The other line of attack on anxiety is to generate confidence in
your ability to cope with examinations. This is partly a matter of
familiarity with examinations and prior success in them, and
partly a matter of having a plan of attack. In war, and in emer-
gencies, those who know what to do and have a definite task to
perform seldom panic or lose their heads. Similarly if you are
systematically working to a programme of revision, confidence
should be generated as you make progress. A chart of your
progress towards the goal should supply you with grounds for —
rational self-confidence.

Examination Technique
Much of the advice that follows may seem elementary to those
who already have extensive experience of examinations. These
points of technique are important, however, and even if you have
already been well trained in taking examinations you may benefit
from glancing through the following ten recommendations, and
comparing them with your own experience.
(1) First, you should get a normal night’s sleep before the exam-
ination. There are always some students who will brag that if
they had not worked until the early hours of the morning they
would not have been able to answer some of the questions. No
doubt this sometimes happens, but often the answers produced-
by such students are muddled and irrelevant. It is better to
have a clear head than a few extra facts got up the night before.
Get ready the night before the materials you will need in the
examination room, pens, ink, a watch, and any instruments,
tables etc., you may be allowed to take in.
(2) When you get in the examination room read the whole paper
through carefully, noting all the instructions given about the
number and choice of questions, alternatives, etc.
The first sight of the paper is always a little disconcerting,
even to those who are well prepared. Some questions which
had been confidently expected will nowhere appear, while
some that do appear may seem impossibly difficult. Therefore
it is as well to take a little time to consider the paper as a whole
’ before developing your plan of attack.
(3) The next step is to make a rough time budget. Note whether
 all: questions: carry ‘equal weight and decide how long you
should give to each question.
(4) If you have a choice of questions, select and mark those ques-
tions you feel quite sure that you can do. This seems obvious
advice, but students sometimes tackle questions because they
seem to be important, or because they seem difficult. They
think that the examiner will be impressed by their efforts to
deal with a difficult question. This is nearly always a mistake.
It is better to attempt the easy questions, in which you are not
likely to make errors, than to tackle difficult questions because
you think they will give you a chance to shine.
(5) Before you start on any particular question read it through
very carefully, and make quite sure that you interpret the
question correctly. Look for the ‘Key’ words in each question
such as ‘Discuss’, ‘Summarize’, ‘Compare’, ‘Outline’, and
make sure that you know exactly what the wording means.
Some of the terms which are frequently used in questions
are listed below. Make sure that you are quite clear about the
precise meaning of each of them: '
Compare
Look for similarities and differences between.
Contrast
Set in opposition in order to bring out differences.
Criticize
Give your judgement about the merit of theories or opinions
or about the truth of facts, and back your judgement by a
discussion of the evidence.
Define
’-Set down the precise meaning of a word or phrase. Show that
the distinctions implied in the definition are necessary.
Describe f
Give a detailed or graphic account of.
Discuss :
Investigate or examine by argument, sift and debate, giving
reasons pro and con.
Evaluate
Make an appraisal of the worth of something, in the light of
its truth of utility ; include to a lesser degree, your personal
a
ianeoy
 0,

‘Exon

Illustrate :
Use a figure or diagram to explain or catty,or
Servi clear
by the use of concrete examples. as
Interpret ie pie “
Expound the meaning of; make clear and explicit; usually
giving your own judgement also. Na J
Justify ;
Show adequate grounds for decisions or conclusions.
Outline
Give the main features or general principles of a subject,
omitting minor details, and emphasizing structure and
arrangement. :
Relate Tes
{ (a) To narrate. More usually, in examinations:
i (6) Show how things are connected to each other, and to skp
i extent they are alike, or affect each other,
Review
To make a survey of, examining the subject critically,
| State
‘ Present in brief, clear, form. pits

Summarize
Give a concise account of the chief oie or substance ofa4
matter, omitting details and examples. J
Trace 4;
‘
Follow the development or history of a topic from some pont :E
of origin. F
(This list is adapted from that given by Bird, to andae :
D. M., Learning More Effective Study, New York. Appleton- ‘
Céntury=Chorts 1945, pp. 195-8.) aa
3
(6) In essay-type examinations make an outtite of sie mean porate
you intend to include in each answer. If you start writing down —
the first idea that comes in your head and then continue with —
. whatever ideas come to mind next, your answer is
ririays Sued be*4
 place. Pincus tend to Rent im-
Pp
patient withlong rambling accounts, and to welcome clear
fi well-organized |answers.
Avoid writing at excessive length on the easy questions that
you know a great deal about. There is, of course, a correlation
between the length of answer and the mark awarded. But don’t
-be-‘carried away’ so that you write at unnecessary length.
Keep the wording of the question always in your mind, and
don’t include irrelevancies. You must edit your material and
ee
Ee
et ‘select what is relevant from your available fund of knowledge.
As much as 50 per cent of some candidates’ answers would be
better omitted.
Often the sort of introductory paragraph that some students
write could be omitted. As part of the ‘warming-up’ process,
they include a few very general remarks, which may no doubt
help them to get started on the answer proper, but are strictly
a waste of time in an examination when you must to some
extent be working against the clock.
(8) If you do write too much on some questions you will not have
enough time for others. You should never do less than the
required number of answers. If you can see that you are not
going to have enough time to do all the questions, it is better
to leave an answer unfinished and to go on to another, than to
hand in less than the required number. If you find that you
have no time to do the last question, at least write some notes
about it in summary form.
The reason for this advice is that two half-answers will
usually get more marks than one full answer, however well
it is done, The overall mark is nearly always based on the
Straight arithmetic sum of the marks for each question, so that
excellence in one answer cannot compensate for the omission
of another.
_ (9) Try to write reasonably legibly throughout the examination.
You are very likely to be penalized if the examiner has diffi-
culty in deciphering your handwriting.
Ina well-known experiment, the same examiners marked the -
same set of papers twice, once when they were difficult to read,
and once when they were clearly written. Although they had
__ been instructed not to be influenced by legibility, higher marks -
_ were in fact given to a paper when it was clearly legible than
. when it was not. Suggestions for improving your handwriting
 # od

122 HOW: TO"STUDY) |<) eres

¥ cant
are given in Chapter 10. You will, of course, have to start prac- —
tising to write fast and legibly well before the time of the
examination.
(10) Finally leave time, if you can, to re-read your paper before
you hand it in. Many students do not bother to do this. If the
examination has been something of an ordeal for them, they
seem to want to escape from the examination room as soon as
possible. Consider, however, that mistakes occur ineveryone’s
writing. A negative may be omitted, making nonsense of a
sentence. Plural nouns will be disgraced with singular verbs,
and there will be often minor infelicities of expression which
can easily be rectified on re-reading.
Pay attention also to punctuation and spelling. Errors in
spelling, in particular, always create a bad impression.
In mathematics papers more serious errors may be detected,
in computation, for example or in copying out figures from
the paper. In such subjects it is better to check each answer as
it is done.

Making Use of Returned Papers

When examination papers are returned to you with the examiners’
comments, you should try and learn all you can from them, Much
can be learnt by correcting mistakes, and by putting out more
effort where it is required. Yet many students, once the examina-
tion is over, seem to dismiss it from their minds, and think no
more about it, particularly if they have not done well in it: By ©
going through your paper carefully you should be able to see your
errors of commission and omission. Your teachers may be pre-
pared to outline to you the points which should have been covered
in a good answer to a particular question. You can then ask your-
self why you may have failed to produce such an answer yourself.
It may have been the result of lack of knowledge, of interpreting
the question wrongly, or just not recalling the right facts in the
context of the question. By analysis of this sort, you may be able
to diagnose faults in your methods of study and then proceed to
remedy them.

Summary
Preparations for examinations should begin at the outset of a
course of study, in the sense that you should study the syllabus

“alles
 ‘Fairly ae teatswt revision are desirable. Little effort is
required to re-learn for an important examination what has
_ already been gone over a number of times. To be most effective,
_ revision should follow closely on the original learning. For long-
_ term retention intermediate periods of revision are also desirable.
The final revision preceding important examinations should be
_ carefully planned to a time-table, to avoid any last-minute rush.
Examination anxiety can be avoided by regular work, careful
planning, and a normal routine which allows for exercise and
recreation.
Ten points of examination technique are suggested.
 CHAPTER EIGHT: 49/809,
THINKING

If I have succeeded in my inquiries, more than others, I

owe it less to any superior strength ofmind, than to a habit -
of patient thinking.
NEWTON

Vor may choose your life’s work, your place of residence,

or your attitude to the political issues of the day, either by
careful thought about the relevant facts, or by careless decision,
ignorant of the important facts. The same is true of more
minor issues such as what to wear, or what to eat or how to
cultivate your garden, or where to go on holiday. Thoughtful ©
people make their decisions after carefully assembling as much
information as possible, checking its reliability, using con-
trolled imagination to draw inferences from the information,
and carefully weighing the probable consequences of the alter-
natives before them. Others make their decisions impulsively
on. fragmentary information, hearsay, or the unsupported
advice of others. In many everyday matters, of course, the ~
decisions may be of little consequence, and there is seldom
time to give lengthy thought to minor issues. But study de-
mands that you should be capable of rational thought, and the
‘ability to think’ is often given as the main purpose of education.
This chapter is written in the belief that advice about thinking
and reasoning is both necessary and possible. It is necessary
because although everyone can ‘think’ after a fashion, much.
‘thinking’ is irrational, the irrationality of the mass of the
population being fostered by advertisers and others for their —
own private gain. Everyone can be taught to think better. At
least he can be taught to define crucial terms carefully and to
think ‘about their meaning, to assess how reliable information
is and how it has been derived, to avoid wishful thinking, and
to look for the hidden assumptions in arguments. Many of the
other skills-in thinking can only be learnt in specific subjects.
 1g can best Peart by ane eroplens
d Reasoning about social issues can only be de-

rrnineics can only be tackled by those ‘who are well versed in

hemistry or physics. Really effective thinking and problem-
‘solving presuppose not only possession of the relevant facts but
‘a good understanding of them, and facility in their application
and use. It is obvious that you cannot play chess or solve chess
problems unless you are familiar with the moves and openings
of the game. To think well you must have the information that
the problem calls for, or know where to find it. But, assuming
that you have the information, it is natural to look for general
principles of thinking which can be applied to all kinds of
problems. Training in handling words and numbers especially,
is likely to help in many different sorts of problems because ;
‘most problems can be reduced to verbal or mathematical form.

The Nature of Thinking

In much learning, excessive concern with conscious processes
may actually be a handicap. This does not apply to thinking.
Before you can improve your thinking you must observe and
analyse your own thought processes. An account will first be
given, therefore, of the nature of thinking, before any advice
is given about techniques for the solution of problems.
“In thinking there is some kind of representation of objects
and events which are not immediately present to the senses.
As a simple example, a child sees a toy placed under one of
‘three boxes, and, after an interval, is told to find the toy. If he
consistently chooses the right box first time he must be aided
‘by some kind of a ‘representation’ or memory,in common
‘speech we say he can remember under which of the three boxes
the saw the toy placed. If he is able to talk, he may say to him-
‘self, ‘It’s under the middle box,’ or he may have a visual image
of the toy being placed under the middle box. This ability to
‘think of objects and events in their absence is the first requisite
of all the more complex forms of thinking.
- The more complex forms of thinking are not very easy to
“observe by introspection. Most thinking involves imagery. If
you think of what you had for breakfast this morning, you may
-haye visual imagery of the meal on your plate, and also images
of|sous; smells and tastes, together with some feelings about
126 OW TOs T BIW e hay 5
whether the breakfast was pleasant or not; or you may re-
member in more abstract and symbolic fashion, merely that you
had ‘egg and bacon!’ People differ in the vividness of their
imagery and in the modality of the imagery. Sir Francis Galton,
who first investigated individual differences in imagery, had
strong visual imagery. He was astonished to find that many
scientists seemed to employ no visual imagery at all. Those who
have been long in intellectual work, may tend to think more in
symbols and abstractions than in images of concrete things.
Generally, we can say that the vehicles of thought are im-
ages, words and other symbols. Sometimes, however, thought
seems to occur without much in the way of observable content
at all.
Several kinds of thinking can be distinguished. In study we
are naturally more concerned with reasoning and problem-
solving than with ‘day-dreaming’ and reverie. That is, we are
interested in controlled and directed thinking rather than in
free association.

The Development of Thinking

Thinking can be better understood by considering its develop-
ment in children.
Thinking in the early years tends to be dominated by what
is actually present to the senses. For example, a 6-year-old
puts the same number of beads into two beakers, A and B,
which are identical in size and shape. If the beads in A are then
emptied into a taller, thinner glass, he will say that the number
of beads has changed because the container looks higher and
thinner. Dominant perceptual features influence children’s
reasoning. That a quantity can stay unchanged in spite of
differences in its appearance is something that has to be learnt.
Similarly the adult notion that objects stay the same in spite of
changes in their appearance, as they are seen at different times
and from different angles, has to be learnt through lengthy exper-
ience. Many ideas which adults take for granted, ideas of causa-
tion, of time and of space and distance, are constructions which
are, as it were, imposed on experience.
At the junior school stage thinking begins to overcome its
dependence on concrete particular situations. Children can now
manipulate ideas about objects, but only ideas about concrete
objects, not about abstractions. Arithmetic operations, fot
 4127
example, are readily carried out with counters or concrete
objects, but the same operations are not understood when they
are presented in verbal or symbolic form.
Children are usually unable to manipulate ideas about ideas
until they reach the age of 11-12: it is only then that they
become fully capable of forming abstract concepts, reversing
temporal sequences in thought, and dealing with space, time
and number as systems abstracted from sensory experience.
As thinking becomes more adult and more complicated, there
is less and less reliance on directly observed events, and an
increasing tendency to abstraction.
Parallel with this tendency to abstraction is a decrease iin the
motor activity which accompanies thought. Some not very
intelligent individuals (and at times quite intelligent ones) can
be heard to talk to themselves or to mutter their thoughts out
loud, as though some activity of the speech mechanism is a
necessary accompaniment of thought. When people are asked
to imagine bending their right arm, small muscle potentials are
actually produced in the right arm. When they are asked to
imagine looking up at the Eiffel Tower recordings from the eye
muscles resemble those actually made by moving the eyes
upwards. In imagining rhythmic activities such as using a
hammer, rhythmic bursts of nervous activity are produced.
Such facts have suggested that thinking involves not only the
brain but the whole body. Moreover, complete relaxation of the
musculature results in cessation of all conscious mental activities.
The actual bodily activity accompanying thought is important
in children and in animals. Some dogs can make visual dis-
criminations much better when they are free to move about
than when they are still. This does not mean, however, that
adult subjects need to be bodily active in order to think effect-
ively. As thinking becomes more abstract and more symbolic, it
becomes more purely a brain process in the mature person. The
less intelligent show greater motor potentials during thought
than more intelligent people. =
The great advantage of thought is that it allows implicit
manipulation of the environment. Moreover, it allows you to
reverse natural sequences of events, or to deal with theoretical
or even impossible events. It enables you to anticipate future
events, and consequences. As an everyday example, suppose
peut get into your motor-car, switch on the ignition, and the
 the electrical system. Suppose that the dashboar.
but that when the starter is operated no sound comes from the
starter motor. This suggests that current is not getting through
to the starter motor, and so on. Assuming that the driver has a
little relevant knowledge, a rough map of the electrical system
of the car, he can infer at once, by mentally going over or by
mentally reversing the processes that normally occur in starting
the car, where the fault is likely to be. True there may be equally
likely alternative explanations of the fault, and only actual trial
will decide which is the correct explanation.
Elementary fault tracing of this kind supplies a useful model
for a great deal of thinking and problem-solving, First the
thinker must have a cognitive ‘map’ or ‘model’ to guide him
in his thinking. Secondly, from his knowledge of what “ought
to’ happen, based on past observations, he can infer the prob-
able cause of a difficulty and suggest remedies. But, thirdly,
his deductions will have to be tested in practice, and often there
will be no way of deciding between alternatives exceptby actual
trial and error. Thought can save a great deal of trial and error —
that is its main purpose — but actual practice and observation
are also necessary to verify thinking. You should not regard
thinking as mere contemplation. Often the best parr ac-
companies activity and observation.

Concepts
All human thinking is based on concepts. A concept is defined
as a common response (usually verbal) to a class of objects or
events. Concepts are used at many levels of abstraction, from
the simpler concepts of young children in naming and identi-
fying common objects such as plates, dolls and bottles, to the
highly abstract motives, such as ‘force’ used by scientists.
Before a concept can be formed there must be abstraction and
generalization. As an example, a child of eighteen months may
reach out for a burning candle, attracted by its brightness. On
being burnt or mildly scorched, the child quickly withdraws his
hand. If he is then confronted with a lighted electric bulb, a
tentative movement to reach out and touch the bulb is likely to be
- quickly followed by a withdrawal movement. The identical
element of ‘luminosity’ has been abstracted from these two
 the child has made the igeseralization that facia
a, and withdraws his hand.
-is a more complicated problem in abstraction and ©
enéralization’ for you to work out. What is it that the aero-
planes 1, 4 and 5 have in common, which the other aeroplanes
do not have?
When you have noticed the common characteristics shared by
1, 4 and 5, you have in fact identified a class of aircraft, and
could give it name, and recognize fresh instances as either
belonging to the class or not.
Classifying objects and events in this fashion serves to reduce
the complexity of the environment. Once an object has been

ttt
classified and labelled, further inferences can be made about it.
A wriggling object about two feet long is seen to be a snake,

ett t Fig. 15. Aircraft silhouettes

Fancl further, since it has a central zigzag line down its back, it
is inferred to be an adder and therefore poisonous. Similarly
a man may be introduced to you as a teacher, and hence other
properties which are associated with the class of teachers may
be inferred, as that he is a sober responsible citizen, more
concerned with social welfare than with making money, etc.
There are thus two aspects of concept formation:
(1) An act of classification on the basis of observed properties.
x) A set of associations or inference as to unobserved prop-
erties.
Objects are classed together because they are similar or have
attributes in common. If you are to abstract the common
slements, you must have experience of an array of instances
 ass } ane : 2 MEADS

130 HOW TO STUDY

: ees }
which have some common and some different features. Ifone
feature or element is common and recurrent, while others vary,
the common element will tend to be noticed and abstracted. If
you see a red lampstand, a red dress, and a red face in close
juxtaposition, the common element of redness will tend to be
abstracted. Generally if a property A occurs now with B, C, D,
now with C, F, H, and again with E, G, B, the property A
tends to be abstracted and recognized by itself, apart from
particular bodies. In this way class concepts are formed — in
the example above the concept of ‘redness’.
The kinds of abstraction which are made are determined by
language and culture. Indo-European language embody con-
cepts and abstractions of higher degree than those of more
primitive languages.
‘The class of prime numbers, animal species, the large range
of colours included in the category “‘blue’’, squares and circles:
all of these are inventions.... They do not ‘“‘exist” in the
environment. The objects of the environment, provide the cues
or features on which our grouping may be based, but they
provide cues that could serve for many groupings other than
the ones we make.’*
The Development of Concepts
The process by which a young child acquires words and con-
cepts was described by C. L. Hull as follows:
‘A young child finds himself in a certain situation, reaches to
it by approach, say, and hears it called ““dog”’. After an indeter--
minate intervening period he finds himself in a somewhat
different situation and hears that called “dog”. ... Thus the
process continues. The “‘dog’’ experiences appear at irregular
intervals. The appearances are thus unanticipated. They appear
with no obvious label as to their essential nature. This precipi-
tates at each new appearance a more or less acute problem as to
the proper reaction. ... Meanwhile the intervals between the
dog experiences are filled with all sorts of other absorbing
experiences which are contributing to the formation of other
concepts. At length the time arrives when the child has a
“meaning” for the word dog. Upon examination this meaning
is found to be actually a characteristic more or less common to
* J, S. Bruner et al, A Study of Thinking, London, Chapman & Hall,
1957. pee ;
 dogs and not common 1 to0 cats, dolls and teddy bears. But to
the child the process of arriving at this meaning or concept has
been largely unconscious.”*
Thus when a child can name dogs accurately and distinguish
them from non-dogs, he has attained the concept of ‘dog’ and
must be able to recognize the essential (defining) attributes
which are constantly present along with varying concomitants.
Luckily the child’s task is made easier by redundancy in nature;
dogs have many things in common— a tail, a hairy coat, a foul
smell and a bark (as well as the filthy habits and abject fawning
which characterize the species) — so that the possession of some
of these attributes is a fair guarantee of the others being present
also.
Meaningful and useful concepts can only be developed after
experience of many instances of the class. Farmers for example
can form some idea of the economic utility of a cow by ob-
serving the conformation of the udder. An experienced dairy
farmer has developed the concept of a. ‘good udder’ from
observation of many hundreds of cows.
Likewise professional wine-tasters develop remarkable dis-
crimination in tasting wines, and have their own special vocabu-
lary and concepts. If new concepts are to have meaning, ex-
perience of a considerable array of instances is usually required.
This is one reason why practical work is so important in many
subjects. The person who has made a wireless set is in a much
better position to study electronics than someone who has not.
Music cannot be studied intelligently by those who have never
played a musical instrument. But mere experience is not enough.
Explicit statements of principle are also required. This is more
obviously true of concepts such as kilowatt, or motive, which
are not directly observable. Here explicit verbal definition is
required, and also appeal to relevant experience.

The Dangers of Categorization

Conceptual thinking reduces the complexity of the environment,
enables objects to be identified, does away with the necessity for
constant learning and provides a framework of categories for
the ordering of objects and events. But the categories can
become too rigid and can over-simplify experience. It has been
* C,L. Hull, Quantitative Aspectsof the Evolution of Concepts. Psychol.
Monographs No. 123, 1920.

ees
 individual differences amongst Negroes. Once
dividual is classed as Negro or coloured, further
him is impeded. Similarly young men may classify girls as maetiy
and not pretty, and fail to observe the eugenic characteristics
which would provide a more serviceable classification. Concepts
cam actually be a hindrance to clear thinking. ‘The traditional
distinction between ‘spending’ and ‘saving’, for instance, can
be too rigidly applied. Spending may be an investment when
money is spent on education or health, and saving pointless if
mousey is accumulated in a biscuit-tin until the death of the
owner. Ordinary language makes us put things into separate
categories, as clever or stupid, normal or abnormal, when the
underlying attributes are spread out on a continuum which can-
not properly be split into two separate categories.
Errors are made in the act of classification itself, but even
more markedly in the inferences that are made about unobserved
properties, on the basis of the classification. Once you have
classed a person as bearded or a dog-lover or a member of the
working-class, a blue-stocking or a supporter of the Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament you are likely to endow that person
with other attributes which you know or believe to be associated -
with the class. This is going beyond the evidence, but life would
be intolerably complicated if probable inferences were not
made at every turn. In scientific thinking, on the other hand,
you need to know precisely how much trust can be put in these
: inferences. For the sake of example someone might state that |
all who eat pudding with only a spoon are of plebeian hepsapaet
An empirical study might show:

Eats pudding - Eats pudding

with spoon with spoon
only and fork ]
Father employed :
in manual work 800 200 1,000.

Father not employed

in manual work
 ssociat on between anehabitand sea origin would be.
‘so small, that you clearly would not be justified in making any
inferences from one to the other.
In the inferences made in daily life precise information of this
kind is seldom available, and you are seldom able to validate
~ the inferences made: if you are a fisherman you may believe
that the fish in a certain stream will rise to one type of fly more
than to others. In fact the fish rise readily to almost any fly on
some occasions, are more selective on others, and sometimes
refuse to rise at all. The fisherman has no chance of making
a controlled statistical study of how many fish will rise to
various kinds of fly. But as he must use something, he will f
make probable inferences on necessarily inadequate experience. *
The same is true of all situations where the outcomes are Ns
influenced by many factors, but only one or two can be
controlled. You decide that vitamin pills will do you good,
or that a fertilizer will do your garden good, but are never
able to isolate the effect of their treatments from the effects of
other factors. :
The point to remember is that the associations which are
built up around your concepts are often based on inadequate He
evidence. The associations contained in many bits of folk-lore
are patently untrue, as that country-dwellers are slow-minded,
that professors are absent-minded, that atheists are immoral,
that alcohol is a stimulant, that lunatics are violent, etc. In the
same way some of your more personal-sets of associations may
be mistaken. To think clearly, some dissociation of existing
ideas may be necessary; the French writer Remy de Gourmont
wrote a book advocating the dissociation of ideas.
Yet thought can only proceed because ideas are associated.
The common associations which often determine the order of
- thoughts in idle reverie are not haphazard. The first ideas that
come into most people’s heads when confronted with the
word ‘needle’ are ‘thread’ or ‘pins’; ‘hammer’ suggests ‘nail’,
and ‘lamo’ suggests ‘light’; ‘table’ suggests ‘chair’, etc. Certain
associations are very common; they depend on verbal habits.
_ Extending this observation from single words to more complex
sequences of thought, much commonplace thinking falls into
customary sequences and the stream of thought flows in well-
worn channels. Conformity with conventional thought-patterns
ia isroua -<ehbouniiiaein passing the more elementary forms of
fourPr Roe ue Re . , Na
v

134° HOW TO STU

examinations. A more critical attitude is required
branches of higher learning.

Fallacies
The irrationality of everyday thinking has beat much be-
laboured, and with good reason. There is seldom time to achieve
full analysis and description of everyday problems. Thinking
often starts from vague or incorrect definitions of the problem,
and proceeds with essential elements lost. In many daily activities
there is no time to think: action is called for. There is no time
“for the diligent collection of evidence, sifting of arguments and
balancing of rival testimonies that any complex decision really
. demands. Instead civilization advances by handing over its
more complex thinking to special groups such as accountants,
mathematicians and research workers.
The determining factors in everyday thinking are often
subconscious. Most people could not put their thoughts and
feelings into words, but are content to dismiss what they don’t
like as ‘bosh’, ‘tripe’, or ‘nonsense’. Many feel or intuit the
consequences of intended action, but can give no explicit
formulation of the grounds of their feelings. Since the time of
Machiavelli, many unscrupulous propagandists, including
modern advertisers, have believed that nothing is to be gained
by appealing to the intellect. And thinking is notoriously
influenced by hopes, fears, and prejudices. On politics, religion
and sex, rational discussion is always difficult because on these
subjects everyone has established systems of belief which are
associated with strong emotions.
It is less easy to detect fallacies in arguments which support
your own views than in arguments which are in opposition to
them. A ‘butter-bloc’ senator in the United States is said to have
argued:
In China people don’t eat butter,
In China babies are born with slant eyes.
Do you want your children to have slant eyes?
This argument appears preposterous and absurd, but is no |
different in form from: 4
Shop stewards belong to Trade Unions. men
Shop stewards are trouble makers.
.”. Frade Unionists are trouble makers, 5
_ which is believedby many Tories, or
Business men belong to the Tory party.
Business men live on tax evasion and expense accounts.
_ .”.Tories live on tax evasion and expense accounts,
which is believed by many Labour supporters.
(This is the logical fallacy of the ‘undistributed middle’).
Common habits of thought which you should be careful not
to carry over into academic work include:
(1) Selection of evidence to fit in with pre-existing ideas.
(2) Assuming that one event is the cause of another without
adequate evidence.
(3) Overgeneralizing on the basis of small samples or limited
experience.
G) Personal bias leads to the selective treatment of evidence,
those facts which support a favoured view being stressed, but
those which oppose it being ignored. If you are attracted by a
job, a political party or by someone of the opposite sex, you
inevitably tend to see all the ‘pros’ but to be blind to some of
the ‘cons’. In the life of action and decision, of course, you
cannot sit on the fence endlessly weighing the pros and cons.
A slightly more favourable view of things than the facts really
warrant supplies that enthusiasm without which nothing
would ever get done. But in study you must be more objective,
and pay special attention to the negative instances and
exceptions which upset all general statements. Many dis-
coyeries have been made when the research worker attends
to some awkward fact which is upsetting the beautiful picture
which he thinks he ought to be able to see.
(ii) Science proceeds by experiment. Typically before one
eyent can be said to be the cause of another there must be an
experiment of the type: ~
Before treatment After treatment

Experimental group Xy DG

Control group Xx’; X’s

If the effects of any treatment are to be assessed there should
be an experimental group and a control, and measure-
ments or observations both before and after treatment. The
 difference (X,— X2) =44is then compared wi ie
(X",—X’.) =d’, and only if (d—d’) is of significant size can
the effect of the treatment be assessed. This is true if you are
trying to assess the effect of a teaching method in learning,
the effect of an article of diet on growth, the effect of changes
in the law or the frequency of murders etc. In everyday
observations a control group is seldom available. Sometimes
indeed only. one cell in the above table, X,, is available.
When some new educational measure is instituted, for example,
interested parties will come out with the opinion that it is
‘working well’, although they have no control group and no
measure of initial performance. Reliance on opinion or
authority iis no substitute for evidence.
Gii) To give personal iimpressions the status of general laws is
a natural tendency in human thinking, most obvious in those
who are both sincere and narrow-minded. This is tantamount
to drawing big conclusions from small samples, which every-
one has to do in daily life. In academic work you must be
more chary of doing so, and more aware of the complexities ;
of nature.

Problem Solving
Problems are of many different kinds, including scientific
problems dealing with explanations and discovery, and practical
problems about what sort of action to take in everyday affairs.
Some people are much more resourceful than others when
confronted with a problem, not only because they are more
intelligent but also because they adopt better procedures.
Most of the information on this topic comes from experiments
in which the subjects have been told to think out loud while
solving problems. Among the many experimental problems
used have been mechanical puzzles, mathematical problems,
problems involving the construction of apparatus, anda great —
, number of puzzles and problems in verbal form. In this section
we shall survey experiments using mechanical puzzles, apparatus
problems, and abstract verbal problems. Laboratory problems
differ from problems in everyday life in that the subject is usually
given all the relevant information required, and the problem —
does admit a definite solution. In many everyday problems, on —
the other hand, you may not have all the neces Feats:ane
the problem may be insoluble.
 on xperim (aithiosubjects were given nee
anical puzzles, such as two interlinked rings which had to be
se olution was first reached by random manipulation,
the subject having little idea of how he reached it. But he
noticed the place or part of the puzzle in which success was
reached, and was able to use hindsight, that is to reverse the
order of operationsin thought, working back from the solution.
Eventually he was able to analyse the successful procedure into
a series of steps. The first attempts at analysis are perceptual,
as the subject notices things while actually looking at the puzzle
and manipulating it. In later analysis the subject can formulate
_the procedure in words, and understands the principle involved.
When given other puzzles of the same general kind, nearly all
improvement results from conscious analysis of the principles
involved. In other words, a sudden ‘flash of insight’ into a
problem is not enough. It is necessary to go on and to formulate
the solution precisely in words or symbols. Only when the
‘solution has been precisely stated can it be verified or com-
municated to others. Suppose you are asked to prove that the
opposite angles in diagram A are equal.*

Fis.16. The oes is to prove that angles a and 6 are

‘ : equal

If the angles are drawn in as in diagram B there is an immediate

flash of insight. But the solution still needs to. be Formulated
Soe a a
a= 180°-c
b= 180°-c
aD
. Thepoint isthat, in thought, the solution is
i seen in an instant,
FS.* This illustration is taken from: Miller, G. A., Language and Com-
munication, McGraw-Hill, 1951, p. 235.
 ae Oe
at Ata el weg -

“+138 ’ > - HOW TO. oroDe.

because several relationships can be Pla. almost: Gane.
neously. But the language in which solutions must be encoded
only allows of successive statements, so the elements of the
solution must be sorted out and put into a sequence.
The importance of understanding preliminary instructions,
avoiding false assumptions, and getting the right ‘direction’
were illustrated in an experiment by Maier.* His subjects were
given four wooden rods, two lengths of wire, eight’ pieces of
lead tubing, a C-lamp, two burette clamps, several pieces of
chalk, and a heavy table which was not to be moved.
In addition there were the walls and low ceiling of the room.
The problem was to construct two pendulums, each of which
would swing over a designated point on the floor, and so con-
structed that they would have a piece of chalk fastened to them
which would mark the floor at the point designated.
The correct solution was to wedge a rod against the ceiling
and hang the pendulum from the ends of the rod.
One group was given the problem with no additional in- —
structions.
Another group was shown the component parts of the solu-
tion: how to make a plumb-line, how to make a long rod out
of two shorter lengths and a clamp, and how to hold a rod
against the vertical edge of a doorway by wedging another rod
against it.
Another group was told that the problem would be simple if
the pendulums could be hung from the ceiling.
A further group was given both the components of the
solution and the hint about the ceiling.
In the fourth group eight out of twenty-two subjects solved
the problem.
In the first three groups only one subject out of sixty-two was
successful.
From these findings it appears:
(1) Knowledge of the component parts of a solution is not
enough. The components have to be seen in their relation-
ship to each other.
(2) There must be a correct ‘set’ or direction 6 guide the
attempts at solution, in this case the use of the ceiling. If
* Maier, N.R.F., ‘Reasoning in Humans’, Journals of Comparative
Psychology. 1930, 10, 115-143.
 gutless started offwith ‘the wrong direction, or made false
assumptions, the problem became virtually insoluble.
Some experiments by Duncker* provide good examples of
the processes involved in more complex and abstract problems.
Duncker gave his subjects difficult technical problems in verbal
form. One such problem was: ‘Given a human being with an
inoperable stomach tumour, and rays which destroy organic
tissue at sufficient intensity, by what procedure can one free him
of the tumour by these rays and at the same time avoid des-
tro the healthy tissue which surrounds it?’
One subject reasoned as follows:
(1) Send rays through the esophagus. (2) Desensitize the healthy
tissue by means of a chemical injection. (3) Expose the tumour
by operating. (4) One ought to decrease the intensity of the
rays on their way; for example — would this work? - turn the
rays on at full strength only after the tumour has been reachéd.
(5) One should swallow something inorganic (which could not
allow passage of rays) to protect the healthy stomach walls.
(© Either the rays must enter the body or the tumour must
come out. Perhaps one could alter the location of the tumour —
but how? Through pressure? No. . . (11) Adaptation of the
healthy tissues by previous application of weak rays. (Ex-
perimenter: How can it be brought about that the rays destroy
only the region of the tumour?) (12) I see no tore than two
possibilities: either to protect the body or to take the rays
harmless. (Experimenter: How could one deciease the in-
tensity of the rays en route?) (13) Somehow divert. . diffuse
rays ... disperse ... stop! Send a broad and weak bundle of
rays through a jens iin such a way that the tumour lies at the
focal point and thus receives intensive radiation.
(The best solution is to cross several bundles of rays of low
intensity at the site of the tumour.)
From such attempts at solution it can be concluded:
(1) The final solution is reached only after a series of inter-
mediate attempted solutions, each attempted solution serves
to reformulate the problem. When the subject thought
‘decrease the intensity of the rays on the way’ the problem
appeared in a new light and a new set of hypotheses was
suggested.
xo Oe K., On Problem-Solving. Psychological Monographs, 58.
(3) Solutions are transposable to a wide eactel? of other ec
lems only if the subject understands the principles involved.
‘Blind’ solutions are restricted to the specific problems on
which they happen to work. .
(4) The solution was hindered because the subjects took for
granted that they had to deal with a single bundle of rays of
constant intensity, whereas the solution demanded a con-
centration of several bundles of weak intensity.
Summatizing the results of these three very different kinds -
of experiment, it can be said that:
(1) There is an initial period of exploration.
(2) The solution may be reached either by trial and error plus
hindsight, as in the mechanical puzzles, or by successive
reformulations of the problem as in Duncker’s experiment.
(3) It is not enough to have the separate components of the
solution available. They must be interpreted in the fashion
that the problem demands. :
(4) After a solution has been reached, it needs to be precisely
formulated if it is to be fully understood and transposed to
new problems.
Research on how college students set about solving pebices
in verbal forms revealed these differences between the successful ;
and the unsuccessful :
Successful Unsuccessful
Understand directions. Misinterpret directions. -
Choose a point of attack. Confused approach to the
problems.
Bring relevant knowledge to Unable to apply knowledge
bear on the problem. (although they often have
the relevant knowledge).
' Manipulate and reformulate Failure to reformulate prob-
the problem. jemiea
Carry their reasoning through Give up unless ‘they «
‘can see
to the conclusion. the answer atonce. =
‘Objective attitude to the prob- Distracted by personal and
lem. emotional considerations.
 a of reasoning.ees of them did not believe in
_feasoning—either they knew the answer at once or they gave
up. They had a subjective attitude to the problems — that is
their beliefs interfered with logic.
_ In a wider context there are many factors which can impede
discovery, __
_ Hindrances ‘to the Mstsiion of problems listed by Leeper*
jactnile:
(1) The separation in time of cause and effect — which hindered,
for example, the discovery that mosquito bites were the
cause of malaria.
(2) Perceptual incongruities or unexpected changes: for many
centuries it was not realized that maggots turn into flies.
(3) Existing habits of thought may block solutions. Scientists
were long in discovering that beri-beri was caused by
vitamin deficiencies, because they were looking for bacteria
as the probable cause.
(4) Interdependent causes: for example both calcium and
vitamin D are necessary to prevent rickets.
(S) Intangibility or difficulty in observing causes, such as wind
» resistance to the speed of trains.
(6) Emotional factors, as when physicians refused to believe that
_ childbed fever was transmitted by the physicians themselves.

Logic
Logic provides rules by which the truth or. falsity of con-
clusions can be tested, but is not very helpful in the actual
process of reasoning. Most reflective or critical thinking can be
pictured as taking place in these steps:
1. Definition of the problem. ~
2. Formulation of hypotheses and iiesiole solutions.
3. The search for evidence and relevant facts.
TTD
iy
LS
eR
4. Drawing inferences from the facts.
3s Drawing conclusions and verifying them.
Logic iis of some oP withAysiegeae ae the rules of evidence and
inference.
_ * Leeper, R., ‘Cognitive Processes’, in Sievens: S. S., Handbook of -
‘Experimental Psychology. New York, Wiley, 1951.
Definitions 3 Bice 9 aki
In study you are constantly advised to define your terms, and
to make sure that you are quite clear about the meaning of the
words that you use. In practice the meaning of words depends
on their context, and it is not always helpful to give mere
dictionary-derived synonyms. To define many words is often
pedantic and unnecessary. The need for definition does arise:
(a) when a word has more than one meaning and is therefore
ambiguous;
(6) when it only has a vague meaning, and greater precision is
desirable ;
(c) when you are using a word in an unusual sense, or inventing
a new word as an abbreviatory convenience.
Perhaps the real point of definition is to make sure that you
yourself know what your terms mean, It is easy to use such
words as ‘income’ or ‘adolescent’ or ‘neurotic’ without being
very clear yourself what they mean.

Evidence
Questions about which facts and evidence cannot be assembled,
such as the existence of God, are matters of belief, not matters
of knowledge. But in all empirical work you must always be
asking yourself ‘What are the facts?’ Facts are obtained:
(a) through direct experience, that is through the sense organs.
Nearly everyone regards the evidence of their own eyes and
ears as better than any other sort of evidence; yet the
evidence of our. senses is notoriously fallible — certainly
witnesses invariably disagree in a court of law.
(6) by reading instruments of precision, such as rulers, ther-
mometers, electric meters, speedometers etc., which may
record variations and produce a continuous record.
(c) through experiment or controlled observation, as in most
branches of science.
(d) from printed sources, such as textbooks, statistical eels
historical records, newspapers, etc.
(e) from other media such as radio and television.
(f) from other persons, who range all the way from seepae!
witnesses to plain liars.
Printed sources are the main source of facts in study. Television
is one of the major sources of facts in everyday life. Most —
 ieiioobke are accurate anddetabie, newspapers and television
far less so. Popular newspapers distort the facts by selective
treatment, and sometimes print statements in direct defiance of
the facts.
Facts are strong when:
(a) Independent observers agree about them.
(6) The evidence on which they are based can be verified.
Experimental findings, for example, should be capable of
duplication by others.
(c) When many observations of the fact in question have been
made.
(d) When the fact is in agreement with the general bedy of
knowledge.
You should be aware that opinions and beliefs are poor
substitutes for facts. The experience of a single individual as
represented in his beliefs and opinions, is often trivial as com-
pared with the accumulated knowledge of mankind. Un-
educated people tend to accept their personal experience as
final, and resent any questioning of its adequacy.

Inference
Inference means going beyond a particular set of fos. and
concluding that they imply other facts. When a wife sees lipstick
on her husband’s handkerchief, she will make certain inferences.
When a motorist sees a patch of oil underneath his car, he
infers that it is leaking from some part of his engine. A physician
infers a disease from the patient’s symptoms. This is the in-
ductive ‘leap’ from facts to their explanation, from the known
to the unknown. As has already been described in the account
of concepts, classifying by known properties enables further
inference about unknown properties to be made.
The laws of logic are used to determine the validity of the
inferences from given premises. A statement or proposition may
be affirmative or negative and it may be an all- or a some-
statement. Thus there are four types of propositions:
(1) All X is Y.
(2) No X is Y.
(3) Some X is Y.
(4) Some X is not Y.
ordinary speech used in these four types of statemeent’
biguous. The diagrams of the Swiss mathematician Euler
this clear. These diagrams are based on the relations ahine lusion
and exclusion: pai "

CheFig. 17. Euler’s Diagrams |

a: X and Y coincide b: X is included in Y
c: Y is included in X d: X and Y OER
e: X and Y are mutually exclusive ihe

If you think of the meaning of the four pes of snieciennoe

you can see that type 2 unambiguously corresponds to diagram
(e), but that type 1 could mean either diagram (a) or (b), type3
could mean any one of the diagrams (b), (c), or (d) and type 4
could mean any one of diagrams (c), (d) or (€). This should ©
serve to convince you that ordinary speech can hamper clear
thinking, and that it may be necessary to use phic ae
in order to hoes clearly.

Improving Your Thinking 4 Ss ee ae :

The rather lengtlyy account of thinking andproblem-solving :
 about Ow you. can ‘improve your own pon Ba You can
; cultivate. an attitude of thoughtfulness, but the general advice
‘Think !’ is not very effective.
_ Here are some specific suggestions for improving thinking:
-(@) Make sure that you understand quite clearly what the
problem is. —
(2) Where the problem is complex, write it down, or put it into
some sort of graphic form. In complex problems the difficulty
is to keep all the aspects of the problem in mind at once.
Group your data so that it is not beyond the span of atten-
tion.
There are many devices for doing this, most of which are
of the nature of visual aids. Counting, balance sheets,
graphs, diagrams and check lists all help to summarize
complicated material. In everyday problems involving
choice, it often helps to list the pros and cons, and to give
each factor some kind of numerical weight.
Translation into mathematical symbols is of great ad-
vantage, because of the great possibilities of manipulating
mathematical symbols.
Putting the essentials of a problem into graphic form
enables you to take a synoptic view of the problem instead
of having to deal with each part successively.
mo) Look at problems from different angles, and actively try to |
Manipulate the material. You should not become so fixated
on any. one attempted solution that you neglect other
possibilities. You must be flexible in your thinking. The .
simple advice ‘Don’t be blind!’ is often effective, if it leads
- you to examine your assumptions.
Remember that habits of thought which have been
successful in the past are sometimes a hindrance in new
problems. Poor thinkers are typically rigid in their approach.
So if one approach fails, get it completely out of your mind
and look for a new method of attack.
Of course it is easy to say ‘Be flexible’, but flexibility in
thinking is not so easily attained. Sometimes it may help to
drop the problem for a while, to talk to others about it, to
* go for a walk, drink coffee, etc., and then to return to work.
@ If you ty to anticipate the form of the solution, you may
 ee
ms ees Lele? we WO

146° “HOW TO STUDY

. ih
be able to narrow the range of possible solutions. Ifyou Gale 8
yourself ‘What will the answer look like?’, you will already
have a goal at which to aim.
(5) Finally remember that no problem can be solved without .
mastery of the relevant facts, skills and techniques. Lack of —
familiarity with the materials probably accounts for most
failures.
Take an elementary problem like getting a nut, which
has rusted on to a bolt, off the bolt-—a problem which
often defeats the amateur mechanic, but offers no difficulty
to a trained mechanic. The trained mechanic will usually
have a better and more varied assortment of spanners, and
more confidence in his ability to shift the nut. In difficulty
he will put penetrating oil on the bolt, or heat it up, or
simply cut through the bolt with a hacksaw and use a new
one. It is a problem which hardly generates thought at all
in a skilled mechanic, because of his better armoury of
techniques.
In all specialized fields there are sande procedures for
overcoming common difficulties, so that the necessity for agree
does not arise.
Creative Thinking
The combination of realistic and imaginative thinking is com-
monly referred to as creative thinking. Creative thinking occurs
not only in the work of scientists and artists, but in everyday
life whenever a problem arises for which there is no predeter-
mined answer. Creative thinking can be involved in planting a —
garden, rebuilding a car, writing an essay, painting a picture, etc.
Graham Wallas singled out four stages of creative thought:
(1) Preparation (2) Incubation (3) Illumination (4) Verification. F

In the first stage there is a period of initial exploration, when

you find out all you can about the relevant facts, theories and
techniques. The problem is defined and sharpened, but no
further progress made. Next comes a stage of rest, when the
problem is dismissed from your mind for a while. In the third
stage, illumination, solutions may occur in a sudden and un-
expected manner. Finally the solutions are worked over,
criticized, and elaborated, and their correctness is checked.
Further observations and experiments have shown that these ’

s
 A arab cd

THINKING © } 147
im stages do not occur in any clear-cut sequence. In most problems
there is not a single ‘illumination’ but a series of illuminations.
It is true that these illuminations sometimes do occur at odd
_ moments when no conscious effort is being given to the problem.
But there is continuous interplay between the four stages.
Creative thought is hindered by rigid habits of thought and
~ overconformity to established routines. It is often said, for
example, that spontaneity is destroyed by overformal teaching
in which proper forms and techniques are taught, but in which
the student is seldom required to make discoveries himself or to
develop his intellectual curiosity. Education which stresses the
mere accumulation of information kills imagination and spon-
taneity. You should be aware of this danger, and ensure that
you do not lose independence of thought by following your
textbooks and your teachers’ ideas too closely.

Summary
In early life thought tends to be dominated by what is im-
mediately present to the senses. Later it becomes increasingly
abstract and symbolic. There is a corresponding decrease in the
motor activity accompanying thought.
For any sort of productive thinking a cognitive map or model
is required, as well as observation, inference and the testing of
deductions. The most effective thought is often not contem-
plative, but accompanies activity and experiment.
Concepts involve (1) an act of classification as to observed
| properties and (2) a set of associations as to unobserved prop-
erties. Experience of an array of instances is necessary if
meaningful concepts are to be attained, together with explicit
statements of principle.
Errors are often made in the act of classification, but even
more markedly in making the unwarranted associations which
occur in ‘stereotypes’.
Everyday thinking is contaminated by emotion, by the
selection of evidence to fit preconceived ideas, and by over-
generalization from small samples and limited evidence.
From experiments on problem-solving it appears that the
following steps are involved; initial exploration, successive
reformulation of the problem, seeing the components of the
solution in their proper relation, and precise formulation of the
solution in symbols.
 Logic helps iinpie definition
evidence, and the drawing of w.
From the practical point of view the
are made about how to improve aici
For atten reading:
 CHAPTER NINE

‘GROUP. DISCUSSION AND GROUP WORK

Among the ordinary English ... the habit of not speaking

to others, nor much even to themselves, about the things in
which they do feel interest, causes both their feelings and
_ their intellectual faculties to remain undeveloped, reducing
them, considered as ‘spiritual beings, to a kind of negative
existence.
7 J. S. MILL

TUDY is often thought of as a private activity :the learner shuts

himself up with his books and masters the subject-matter alone:
and it is true that the greater part of study is best carried out in
this fashion. But books supply only the.raw materials of learning.
After facts have been taken in, they need to be interpreted, to be
referred to previous knowledge, and to be reduced to order and
system. In this process of organizing your knowledge, sifting it,
seeing the parts in relation to the whole, and distinguishing the
important from the unimportant, discussion with others is invalu-
able. Discussing your work with other students often helps to
remove misconceptions, and frequently provides a solution to
some nagging difficulty which has been holding you up. It can ©
give you a fresh viewpoint and a fresh impetus to study. And the
mere act of communicating and explaining your work to others
‘can serve to clarify your own thoughts. :
Yet in my experience discussion and group work are rare among
British students. Americans or Australians seem much readier to
talk to others about their work and their problems. No doubt it
_is admirable to solve your difficulties without help from others,
but an unwillingness to discuss ‘shop’ with others is one of our
less desirable national characteristics. The tradition of individual
work is strong in our educational system. In grammar schools,
especially, all the more serious work is done in preparation for
examinations. In the interests of classroom discipline, work is
: usually done in silence, and students are not encouraged to talk
to0 each ee or to work together. It is not until the sixth-form
 stage is reached that discussion methods begin to bs employed to
any great extent. Moreover, at school, each individual is in com- —
petition with others for marks or position, so that some become —
secretive about their work. In general the individual is expected —
to learn to rise or fall by his own unaided efforts, and is not —
required to co-operate with others or to help them. So it comes .
about that many people leave school without much experience of
group discussion or of co-operative work.
In the traditional ‘lesson’ the teacher or lecturer speaks and the

TEACHER

STUDENTS

Fig. 18. Diagram of the social situation in the lecture ‘

class listens. They talk back very little, and do not communicate —
* with each other. 7
The diagram indicates that communication is all one way, and 4
that there is a sharp distinction, indicated by the horizontal line, ©
between teacher and students. Over-reliance on this method of —
instruction, although it enables students to pass examinations, —
*.This analysis of learning situations is taken, by permission, from
Oeser, O. A. (Ed.) Teacher, Pupil and Task: Elements of Socialsini agai
applied to Education. Tavistock Publications Ltd., 1955. 3
 151
tends to result in boredom and lack of interest. Information which
is presented in too cut-and-drieda fashion allows no room for -
critical argument and discussion. It is the business of this chapter
to set out methods of learning in which the learner has more
scope for active participation. If you think that all that matters in
learning is that you personally should work hard, and that your
important relation is with your subject matter not with your fellow
. students or teachers, you should remind yourself that all learning
in fact takes place in a social context. From childhood we have all
become accustomed to learning from others and to imitating
others. The very ideas that we have built up about ourselves are
largely the result of how other people have behaved towards us.
We should learn very little in a condition of social isolation. You
need only reflect on what it would be like to be on a desert island,
or to be a member of some primitive tribe or, indeed, to be a
member of a different social or occupational class, to realize that
learning and motives for learning are closely determined by the
standards and example of others. The ancient proverb says ‘Show
me a man’s companions and I will tell you what the man is.’
This is true, not only because we all tend to select as companions
those who are somewhat like ourselves, but also because values,
goals and working tempo are strongly influenced by the groups
that we belong to. »

The Effect of the Presence of Others on Work Output

As already stated in Chapter 3, when you are at work alongside
others, speed of work tends to increase, at least in easy repetitive
work. When the work is more difficult and more intellectually
demanding, the presence of others may be distracting. But in
simpler activities group work usually has a strong ‘pacing’ effect
‘on the slower workers.
In one experiment the subjects were required to put a stroke
through the letters a, e and m, in a passage of prose, working for
five successive one-minute trials. Five subjects worked individu-
ally, adding up their score at the end of each work period. And
five subjects worked in a group, their scores at the end of each
work period being displayed on a blackboard. The graph presents
the results obtained for ie five individuals and for the group of
five. —
Note that although ‘ee Soe tended to improve their
score with practice, there was more variation in their rate of work
 ”

CANCELLATIONS
OF
NUMBER

TRIALS TRIALS
INDIVIDUAL WORK ‘GROUP WORK
Fig. 19. The effect of rivalry and knowledge of others’
results on performance. The three individuals A, B, and C
knew only their own scores on each trial. The three individ-
uals D, E, and F knew each other’s scores after each trial.

at the end of the experiment than at the beginning. The scores of

the group, on the other hand, lie much closer together. After the _a
first trial the slower workers all speeded up their rate of work so
as to come up to the level of the others. In all trials after the first ;
there is very little variation between individuals in rate of work.
A group standard of performance was set up to which all the —
group members conformed. From this experiment you can see ~
that the quantity of work done is influenced by the example and —
the known performance of others. This is a fairly general truth.
If you work with a group of others whose work standards are
high, social pressures will impei you to keep up with them. This is
one reason why somie colleges produce better results than others:
they are able to maintain standards of work which influence all —
their students. One obvious way of maintaining your performance
at a high level is to associate with others who also work hard.

The Advantages of Group Discussion and Group Work eae

Group discussion and group work are often to be preferred to ~
private work. eke a
(1) They stimulate motives and interests. Interest in work ismore
readily sustained by working and talking with others than by
 sities we gad sioadoton: This is true, although there are
- manifestly some individuals who prefer to work alone, and
_ others who prefer to work with others.
(2) Some tasks are carried out more naturally and more efficiently -
by more than one person. Obvious examples are tasks such as
carrying a ladder, checking a list, and a wide variety of every-
day jobs. Here the co-operative effort of two or more individ-
uals is much greater than their separate efforts would be.
Possibly there are few study tasks which demand co-operative
effort, but in the laboratory or workshop small groups are
usually more efficient than individuals. A division of labour
allows each person to perform that part of the task for which
he is best fitted.
(3) In study, group discussion is useful not so much as a method
of solving problems as in enabling facts and theories to be
brought into perspective. In some branches of higher study
you may be confronted with very extensive reading lists, and.a
vast syllabus. You may be presented with more material than
you can possibly learn. Your problem is to know which parts
of the subject are of real importance, and to what depth and
into what detail you should proceed. Unless you are able to
distinguish the important from the unimportant, you may
spend too much time on parts of the work that do not matter
very much. Group discussion, with a tutor present, should
help you to see which parts of the course are basic, and which
are of only secondary importance.
Referring back to the division of learning into two stages,
first the intake of information, and second its subsequent
organization and use, we can say that group discussion is of
- most value at the second stage. Actual substance learning is
usually best done alone, and there are other study tasks, such
as writing reports and essays, where, although the individual
can well take counsel in the planning stage, he must rely on
his own judgement in the stage of execution.
(4) Group work and group discussion are desirable in themselves.
All the world’s work is done by co-operative effort, and con-
sultation and discussion are part of the democratic way of life.
Much research work, to take only one example, is now done
in teams, many questions being too large for individuals to
tackle alone. In group discussion we learn to accept criticism,
and to become more tolerant and less extreme in our opinions.
 This does not mean of course that you always
agree with others. Conflict and disagreement withothersare
often stimulating.
As mentioned in Chapter 4, there is an emotional component
in learning. Group methods of work are of especial interest when
the object is not only to transmit information, but also toinfluence
the attitudes and motives of the participants. In America, indeed,
group work has come to be regarded as a method of * personality-
adjustment’.
t

Sociometry
Behaviour in small groups has been intensively studied by the
method of ‘sociometry’. Sociometric tests are designed to study
the network of friendships in a group. Each person is asked to
state those he likes most and least — or those he would most like -
to work with. This provides a measure of the individual’s accep- —
tance or rejection by the other group members, and enables .a
picture of the friendship structure of the group to be put together.
For example, in a group of six the friendship structure might be
pictured like this, the arrows showing direction of choice.
Sociometry, which has become something ofa cult,assumes that
|
:

Cla.
yo
f

:
|
4
|

z el
r)
(F) |
|
Fig. 20. The social structure of a group of six individuals,
The arrows represent friendship choices’ YN tig,
4
E
 SC ISSION AND GROUP WORK 155
both the group and the individuals in it are most effective when
the members spontaneously accept each other as collaborators,
_ and that therefore reciprocal acceptance and much social inter-
action are desirable in themselves.
Although many people would probably be more effective, both
as people and as workers, if they were more sociable, research has
_ shown that those who are the most popular are not always the
best-adjusted nor the natural leaders of a group. Any individual
_ who asserts himself, tends to meet with some opposition and
' rejection; leaders have to be able to tolerate hostility.
The sociometric method, although it overemphasized the factor
_ Of mutual choice, led to much further research on groups. It led
K, Lewin and his collaborators to their well-known experimental
study of autocratic and democratic groups. They compared the
behaviour of boys and girls in artificially created democratic and
~ autocratic atmospheres. In the democracy all policies were decided
_ by group discussion and members were free to work with whoever
_ they chose. In the autocracy the leader decided all policies and
- told each member what to do, and with whom to work. These
_ different atmospheres produced very different behaviour in the
_ children. In the democracy spontaneous work groups formed, the
_ children were co-operative and praised each other’s efforts. In
_ the autocracy the children were much more hostile and critical to
_ each other, although submissive to the leader. They grouped to-
_ gether against one of the children and treated him so badly that
he ceased coming to the”meetings. According to Lewin, under
autocratic treatment ‘a friendly, open and co-operative group,
full of life, became within a short half-hour a rather apathetic-
looking gathering without initiative’.
Such experiments have emphasized the general truth that people
_are most interested in their work when they are consulted about
itand actively participate in it, than when they are merely ordered
‘to do things by others. You should, therefore, participate as
_ actively as you can in your courses of study. If you look back on
_ your schooldays and try and recall two or three vivid memories
_ of your schoolwork, you will usually find that your most vivid
_ tMemories are of occasions on which you were an active partici-

ionshould be based on the interests and life experiences of the

mer. Their views have been influential in the junior schools and
 in secondary modern schools, but not to a |
schools. In higher learning there have been efforts rom
from teacher-dominated methods such as the lecture, 1
more discussion and project methods. ay
Types of Discussion Groups ne .
A common example is the practical class or science laboratory in
i
which students usually work in small groups, may have to plan —
and design their own work, and are encouraged to discuss their

TEACHER

Fig. 21. The social situation in a practical class or science

laboratory
i Sola

bape mote Diagrammatically this situation is represented

in Fig.2
There need be no status or authority barrier econ teacher
and student. The leader in his role as expert is freely consulted,
but does not instruct the students in detail in what they are
doing. The ‘social climate’ is permissive and co-operative. G
Another example is the seminar or discussion group Cig. 22).
Here the teacher is re only in the role ofa wise aaa

OS
Ne
Seg
ee
 fart oe

EXPERT

7
ij { I ! { i 1 |ane
Smee
nt
ote
eames
wont
Ae
r | | | | ! | |

/
———

*
r| | | ] | ! ! | | | | | | [ | ] I | | |

@ The lecture or forum which is just an ordinary lecture, but

time is left at the end for the class to ask questions.
The /ecture-discussion includes perhaps thirty or forty minutes’
lecture, followed by discussion. In the lecture period know-
ledge is built up and the attention of the class directed to the
- topic. The ensuing discussion then serves to involve the
audience more actively, often leading to more interest and
_better retention than the straight lecture.
) The brains-trust or panel, in which a group of experts discuss
d debate a question, with some audience participation.
)The directed or tutorial discussion, probably the most common
form of discussion group in colleges and universities, in which
teacher or leaderis present in the role of expert, who has
ge and authority not shared vitthe other group
 HOW TO STUDY
(5) The seminar or round-table discussion, a which advanced %
students or research workers meet for mutual help and discus-
sion. Usually such groups are small, and tend to be confined
to those who are working on common problems.
(6) Informal discussion groups which tend to arise spontaneously
in any student body in which thereis a keen interest in the
work. wie

Whatever you personally believe to be the merits of discussion

classes — and some people who have been brought up on didactic
methods are likely to go on preferring didactic methods — there
is no doubt that they are more enjoyable than more formal
methods, and should certainly find a place in most schemes of
instruction.
Unfortunately they are not always used as fully as they might
be, because they demand a high staff-student ratio, and cost more
than lecture methods. But even if discussion classes are not ade-
quately provided for you, you can still get together with other
students to discuss your work. Most students naturally do discuss
together some parts of their work, such as essays, translations and
the problems and exercises which they are set. But to sit down to
intellectual work with three or four others may be a novel experi-
ence for many.
First it may be as well to deal with possible difficulties. There —
are some who dislike any form of group work because they think
that it brings into the open inequalities in ability. For no two
people can talk together for five minutes without the superiority —
of one over the other becoming apparent, at least in such respects —
as verbal fluency and the ability to express ideas. But this does not —
matter, unless the participants are trying to compete with each ©
other. The best discussions take place in a friendly permissive ©
{
atmosphere, where the participants do not feel on trial. If some |
of them dislike each other they will tend to remain silent. There — |

are many people who will refuse to speak, even among friends, if _ i

a stranger or some person that they dislike is also present. The |

presence of superiors similarly has an inhibiting effect on many: ||
if they think their performance is being assessed by a superior |}
|
they are afraid to speak. In organized tutorial discussions the ‘
result is often that a few ‘stars’ tend to monopolize the discussion,
while many are content to remain silent unknowns.
Discussion methods are of little use unless at least some of thoreg
a
7 al

eM
f
ie
=> oe
 present are oa me Peoines: about the topic being dis-
cussed. There must be at least some present who can make state-
ments that are based on evidence — otherwise the discussion may
_ remain at the level of anecdote and unsupported opinion, and be
no more instructive than an argument in a bar-parlour. It foliows
that useful discussion is only obtained when the participants have
put in some preparatory work and thinking.
Others who have tried informal group discussions complain
_ that they often degenerate into trivial talk and gossip, and this is
indeed more likely to happen when the participants are close
friends. The remedy is to introduce some small note of formality
t into the proceedings. One speaker may take responsibility for
opening the discussion, a chairman may be elected, visitors may
be invited, etc.

Practical Rules for the Conduct of Discussion Groups

_ From the foregoing considerations a set of practical rules for the
_ conduct of discussions can be deduced:
(1) First the group should be small enough to give everyone a
chance to speak, but large enough to include a range and
% variety of knowledge and opinion. For most purposes there
|s should be between four and eight members.
a) Tn order to encourage free discussion the members should all
be equal in status, and no one should be present who is ina
position of power or authority over the others. The members
should be reasonably friendly disposed to each other — at
___ least there should be no sharp antagonism in the group.
_ (3) One or more members should take it in turn to open the dis-
cussion, but all must do some preparatory reading and think-
ing.
(4) The proceedings should not be too informal. A chairman
should be elected to keep the discussion on the right lines.
- Some students may feel that, in the absence of the teacher or
_expert, their knowledge is insufficient for any real progress to be
' made, but this attitude only reveals the overdependence on the
sah of the teacher of which progressive educators rightly
build up. The members must have time to get to know ch olen
and to lose their first shyness. Those who have studied the be-
haviour of small groups find that in time different ‘roles’ arise.
There is the ‘energizer’, who impels the group into action, the
‘information-seeker’, and the ‘information-giver’, the ‘initiator-
contributor’, who puts forward new ideas, the ‘elaborator’, who
supplies examples and points out implications, the ‘opinion-
giver’ who states his own views of the question, and the ‘critic’,
who points out the flaws in what others say or assesses the value
of others’ contributions. Other roles are directed more to the
maintenance of group solidarity. There is the “harmonizer’, who
attempts to reconcile disagreements, the ‘expediter’, and the
‘encourager’, who praises others’ statements and states his agree-
ment with them. *
These roles are not, of course, the monopoly of any one person.
At times each person may take any one of them, but as a result of
differences in knowledge and in personality, it is only to be 4
expected that some will be more vocal than others. In a really
effective group, however, there will be no silent members. A good
chairman will see to it that at some stage each person is asked for
his opinion, and will.not allow the less capable members to be ~
exposed to ridicule.

Problem-Solving by Groups and by Individuals

A consideration of the roles enumerated above should suggest to g |
you that for some purposes, a group is likely to be more efficient —
than the same individuals working alone, for the individual work-
ing alone has to take all these roles himself. In many kinds of q
problem-solving, groups are superior to individuals. In one experi-
ment, which contrasted the performance of groups of four andthe ~
performance of individuals, the problems were of this type: ‘On —
one side of a river are three wives and their husbands. All the —
men but none of the women can row. Get them across to the other ©
side of the river by means of a boat which will carry only three at ©
a time. No man will allow his wife to be in the presence of another |
man unless he is also there.’ (Counters to represent the husbands |
and wives were provided.) The groups took just as long as individ- ||
* Benne, K. D. and Sheats, P. ‘Functional Roles of eee? Members’
Journal of Social Issues, 1948, 4, 41-49.
 olutions, butoaey he a sae higher
atage of correct solutions. —
‘solving problems, then, groups are: more accurate than
iduals. What are the reasons for this superior accuracy?
_ First, groups not only make many more.suggestions than individ-
- uals, but also are quicker to reject incorrect suggestions. They
“reject the incorrect ideas which escape the notice of individuals
_ working alone. Most people are quicker to see flaws in others’
_ suggestions than in their own. A group clearly supplies both a
_ greater range of ideas and a greater range of critical viewpoints.
_ Often it seems that the mere knowledge that the judgement of
Others isvery different from your own is sufficient to make you
_ revise and improve your own judgements. In experimental prob-
lems, for example, such as guessing the number of beans in a
_ bottle, or estimating the time interval between two taps upon a
- desk, individuals improve their judgements if they are informed
_ Of the full diversity of others’ judgements, but not if they remain
ignorant of how others differ from themselves. It is salut'ary to be
- confronted with judgements and opinions which are very different
_ from your own.
_ Group work is likewise effective not only because of the wealth
_of suggestions put forward — it is not just a question of many
heads being better than one — but because those members of the
group who hold the more correct or accurate views have more
‘confidence in their position, and are able to swing others round
to it. The other members, if they are rational, will be prepared to
“accept others’ views, and to revise their own, if it can be demon-
strated to them, by logic or by evidence, that their previous views
were wrong and others’ views were right. In matters of opinion,
on the other hand, when the question cannot be decided by logic
xrby evidence, there is a tendency for the majority opinion to
carry the day, or for the members to be influenced by loyalties and
8 friendships in giving their opinion or vote. Unless we have very

fe This is a source of weakness in group discussion, and in com-

littee work of all kinds. Some members may side with their

h they judge that their private opinion is very different from

at of hepumaority, they may keep silent from fear of giving
 5:3 Fasip vs i

ie wow TO sTUDY
way, subordinates are often unwilling to express their real opin-
ions in the presence of their superiors if they think that their
opinions will be unwelcome. That is why the best discussions take
place among equals, and why a student discussion group can be
more effective than an official tutorial.

Summary
Group work is little emphasized in schools, but is desirable in
higher learning because it stimulates interest, helps to clarify
ideas, and teaches individuals to co-operate.
. Work output is influenced by the presence of others. Group
work has a strong ‘pacing’ effect on the slower workers. If you
mean to work hard, you should associate with others who also
work hard.
The various forms of group work lead to more active participa-
tion in study. Active participation not only generates interest, but
leads to better long-term retention.
Several kinds of discussion groups are described and analysed,
and practical rules for the conduct of informal discussion groups
are suggested.
In problem-solving, groups are more accurate than individuals
because they make more suggestions, and are quicker to reject
incorrect ideas. It is salutary for the individual to realize the
diversity of others’ judgements.

For further reading:

Oeser, O. A., Teacher, Pupil and Task, Tavistock Publications,
London, 1955.
Strang, Ruth, Group Work in Education, Harper and Brothers,
New York, 1958.
 CHAPTER TEN

WRITING ENGLISH
Never write about any matter that you do not well under-
stand.
COBBETT

Te be able to write clear and simple English is perhaps the most

generally useful of all educational skills. Whatever your pro-
_ fession, you will need at some time to write reports, to present
technical information or to compile statements and memoranda.
_ The influence that you have in the world will depend very much
' on your ability to put your thoughts on paper. More immediately,
_ in writing essays and examination answers, you need to be able to
_ write clearly and intelligibly.
_ The purpose of this chapter is to suggest to you ways of improv-
_ ing your written English. It will deal with the choice of words, the
construction of sentences, the linking of sentences into paragraphs,
and the organization of ideas; and it will also include some hints
‘on smaller matters such as spelling, punctuation and handwriting.
_ It does not pretend to deal with writing of a literary or aesthetic
kind, but only with simple, functional English.
Before you can write you must have something to say, of course,
_ and you must be able to impose some sort of order on your
_ thoughts as you write. Crudely, the stages in writing are:
) You have certain ideas or facts in mind which you wish to
communicate.
(2) These ideas have to be put into words and phrases, and
> written down.
®) The words and phrases have to be run together into sentences,
which must be grammatically correct and follow accepted
usage.
)‘The sentences themselves must follow on naturally one from
_the other, mirroring the order of logical thought.
As you write you must also keep in mind the impact that your
writing is likely to have on those who will read it.
From this analysis it follows that faultsin writing can ar
or all of these stages. The author may be ‘madd in own
thoughts, or not have anything worth saying in the first place. His |
vocabulary may be inadequate for the expression of his thoughts. —
His sentences may puzzle the reader because they are badly con-
structed or defy accepted usage. The transition from one sentence
to the next may be too abrupt, and the sequence of the argument
may follow an illogical order. Lastly, the author may write ata —
level of abstraction inappropriate to his readers. —
More positively, the analysis also suggests ways in which writ-
ing can be improved.
(1) You can attempt to clarify your thoughts before you start
writing.
(2) You can enlarge your stock of words and phrases by reading
good authors and ‘newspapers of quality, and by engaging in —
talk and discussion of a more intellectual order than that
which confines itself to sport, weather, and the price of things
in the shops. i
(3) You can familiarize yourself with grammar.
(4) Last, and most obviously, you can practise writing.

Enlarging your vocabulary

The Oxford English Dictionary contains about half a million —
words. The average college student can recognize about 150,000 —
words, but the number of words he actually uses in speech or in er
writing is, of course, much smaller. In telephone conversations ~
only about 5,000 different words are used, and about half of
colloquial speech is made up of clichés and ready-made phrases —
such as ‘How are you?’ ‘Raining again !’ ‘What’s on the telly?’ —
etc. Thus a comparatively small number of words and phrases are —
used over and over again in ordinary everyday speech. This —
means that the actual speaking vocabulary of many people is —
small. This is most obvious in those who lead solitary lives. Henry —
Lawson has an amusing story about an Australian bushman, —
whose tongue has ‘got rusty’, and who replies to everything that —
is said to him with ‘My oath!Y Even in cities many people spend —
much of their time in commuting, queuing, and in routine tasks -
which preclude conversation. The point is that in daily living it is -
possible to get by with a vocabulary limited to a few thousand —
words. The popular Press and the organs of mass entertainment —
A a A a
 yas WRITING ENGLISH | 165
deliberately confine themselves to familiar words and to hack-
neyed phrases. So, if youwish to develop a more adequate vocabu-
lary you will have to read more widely and converse more deeply
than the general-run of people.
The authors whose work is most admired for its plain and un-
adorned style include Swift, Defoe, Cobbett, Trollope in his non-
fictional works, Samuel Butler and George Orwell. Most.of them
wrote rapidly and fluently without any self-consciousness about
style, and without striving for effect. Much of the language of the
older writers is archaic, however, and their subject matter of little
interest today. You may find that it is worth trying to read them,
in the hope that you may acquire some of their skill. But there
may be little effect on your own writing unless you pay special
attention to how their sentences are constructed and joined
together. If your own written English is to benefit from your read- .
ing, you need to direct your attention to syntax, and probably to
re-read books several times. At the same time, everyone does pick
up words and phrases from reading, and is unconsciously influ-
enced in his own writing by what he has read. If a group of
students who read only The Times were compared with a group
who read only The Guardian, there would be detectable differ-
ences in their literary productions. Those who have, over a period
_ of years, read a great deal of good prose will develop a better
vocabulary than those who read only tabloid newspapers. and
pulp novels.
The next step in improving your English isi to master the essen-
' tials of grammar. Formal grammar is out of fashion, and is not
| much taught in schools. The chief argument against it is that it
| does not help children to improve their written English. ‘Gram-
" mar’ and ‘composition’ tended to be taught as separate subjects,
| and often there was little transfer between the two. Empirical
| Studies on schoolchildren have led to the curious conclusion that
| kearning grammar helps the learning of foreign languages, but not
_ the writing of English.
| The other arguments against grammar are that native speakers
_ do not need it because they know without thinking, from long
t what is correct and what is not; that grammar merely
derives from the speech-habits of the previous generation and may
_ be out of touch with current usage; that many eminent authors
violate the grammarians’ rules; and that it is based on artificial
‘categories that suit Latin but not English. These objections to
grammar really reduce to two: that it is too difficult anddhstract a
for children to understand and use; and that, as traditionally
taught, it is too formal and rigid. But neither of these is an
argument against adults learning some of the more useful parts
of grammar. Many good writers doubtless never had a lesson in
formal grammar in their lives - but they might have been even
better writers had they done so. And there is the striking example
of Cobbett, who taught himself grammar with great labour, and
then went on to become one of the most lucid of writers. There
is no doubt that one important way of improving written English
is to attend to grammar and syntax.
Grammar is outside the scope of this book. You should read
such books as The King’s English by H. W.-and F. G. Fowler, or
Good English by G. H. Vallins. The best English Syntax, if you
are prepared to take time to master the grammarians’ terms, and
are interested in the history of language, is still C. T. Onions’
Advanced English Syntax.

The Choice of Words

Many authors say that you should not think too much of the
words that you write. Cobbett wrote : ‘Never stop to make choice
of words. Put down your thought in words just as they come. .. .
Use the first words that occur to you, and never attempt to alter
a thought: for, that which has come of itself into your mind is
likely to pass into that of another more readily and with more
effect than anything which you can, by reflection, invent.’ In
similar vein Trollope wrote: ‘A man who thinks much of his —
words as he writes them will generally leave behind him work that
smells of oil.’ Talented and experienced writers may be able to
write quickly and fluently, without searching for words, but most
of us find that our thoughts do not translate themselves into
acceptable prose so readily.
Each person has several overlapping, but not identical, vocabu-
laries. The scientist does not talk to his wife and children in the
same words which he addresses to his colleagues. Each person, as
he moves from place to place and from one group to another,
learns a good deal of local idiom and slang, and something of the |
technical vocabulary of special groups such as engineers, sailors, —
farmers etc. And on the continent of Europe it is not unusual to
find people who talk Dutch at home, French at work and German
to visitors.
 ING ENGLISH _
Be VC Desert dosinakeindiscriminate use of these different vocabu-
aries in your writing. In everyday conversation we overwork a
small number of words which rightly find an important place in
all speech and writing. But we also use a great deal of slang,
_ colloguialisms, and stock phrases. These should not be used in
_ academic writing, because they are usually inaccurate, and sug-
gest a lack of thought and care on the part of the writer. In
ordinary speech and conversation clichés and familiar phrases
have their place. At a noisy cocktail party, where silence is rude
but conversation impossible to hear, communication has to be
Carried on in customary, prefabricated phrases, which have some
chance of getting through the general din. Redundant words and
repetition are often necessary in the interests of clarity. There is a
limit to the amount of information that can be taken in in a given
| time. So in casual speech and writing the superfluous. words are
' not altogether wasted. But in academic writing language has to
be more accurate and more concise.

_ ‘Exercises
-@ Compare the editorial from a popular newspaper with an
4editorial on the same subject from one of the ‘quality’ news-
papers, paying special attention to differences in vocabulary.
'f _ Q) Look up jargon and cliché in a good dictionary. Make a list of
ae ten clichés. Political speeches, letters to local newspapers, and
the sports pages of popular newspapers are good sources.

Use familiar words

As a general rule you should use short familiar words in prefer-
ence to the long and unfamiliar. The Fowlers give these rules:
_ Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched.
_ Prefer the concrete word to the abstract.
_ Prefer the single word to the circumlocution.
__ Prefer the short word to the long.
_ Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance.
;om _As an example, the phrase ‘in the contemplated eventuality’
is at once unfamiliar, abstract, circumlocutory long and Latin-

n fact, the five rules can be summarized in the first rule: prefer
the familiar word. For the most commonly
concrete and of Anglo-Saxon derivation. 2
American social scientists have carried out empirical studies of
the ‘readability’ of prose. All their studies agree that short,
familiar words make prose easy to read, and that long, unfamiliar -
words make it difficult. (The other factors which determine —
‘readability’ are sentence length and human interest.)
Sir Ernest Gowers in his Plain Words gives three rules which
are in basic agreement with these empirical findings:
(1) Use no more words than are necessary to express your
meaning. ...
(2) Use familiar words rather than the far-fetched. ...
(3) Use words with a precise meaning . .. and, in particular, pre--
fer concrete words to abstract. ...
As a set of working rules, this advice is sound. Most people’s
writing would be easier read if it were put into more familiar,
shorter and more concrete words. But different kinds of writing
require different vocabularies. And a certain variety of words is
necessary in all kinds of writing. Familiar words are not always
adequate to express complex thoughts or subtle shades of mean- -
ing. There are always slight differences in the meaning of so-called
synonymous words. There are supposed to be only two true
synonyms in the English language: ‘furze’ and ‘gorse’. To take —
the argument to its extreme, it would obviously be ludicrous to ~
attempt to re-write the great works of English Literature in the
850 words of Basic English. It is said that in Basic English ‘beef- —
steak’ becomes ‘a cut from the back end of a male cow kept on ~
the fire long enough’. In the same way, too small a vocabulary —
leads to awkwardness, circumlocutions and inaccuracy. There is —
a context in which each one of the half million words in the ~
dictionary would be the single best word to use. So, even whena ~
short familiar word exists side by side with a longer, less familiar —
word, you should choose the longer word if it suits your meaning X
better. :
- ‘Readability’, in fact, is a criterion more suited to advertising
copywriters and to popular journalists than to more serious ~
writers. Scientists, to take one example, could not write about —
their work at all if they were restricted to the use of familiar —
words, and any writer who used only the shortest possible words —
would produce very monotonous prose, In serious bai it is. 4
 _ WRITING ENGLISH 169
reasonable to assume that the reader is prepared to make some
mental effort, but an increase in the size of vocabulary will always
_ meana decrease in the number of readers.
If you write on technical subjects you must use a technical
_yocabulary. People who have had a purely literary training area
_little too ready to condemn specialist words as ‘jargon’. Every
'department of science and every special subject have their own
~ vocabularies, which the novice has to learn. The vocabularies are
necessary not only to refer to objects and events which are un-
_ known in ordinary discourse, such as ‘hydrogen-ion concentra-
' tions’, but also because they stand for concepts which do not
"exist in ordinary everyday thinking. Of course, technical words
:Such as ‘feedback’ from electronics or ‘conditioning’ from
" psychology, creep into everyday speech, and their originally pre-
cise meaning often becomes debased in the process. But learning
_ a Science is more than learning a technical vocabulary: it is also
_ learning new ways of thinking; and scientific concepts are often
" enlightening when applied outside the special field in which they
_ Were first elaborated— particularly in the social sciences. Special-
b ‘ist words are therefore continually passing into common language.
| Academic writers do have their own stock of vague phrases and
_ Circumlocutions, however, which can rightly be called ‘jargon’.
These phrases are centred round such blanket words as factors,
_situation, conditions, circumstances and relationships, and in-
‘such awkward expressions as ‘due to the fact that’, ‘an
important factor with regard to the influence of’, ‘from the point
view of’, ‘in so far as . .. isconcerned’ etc.
_ As an exercise, try re-writing these sentences in less clumsy

~ ‘Toa great extent the conviction that we possess as to the per-

manence of objects is due to the fact that we perceive them in a
table relation to the spatial background.’
‘The question to be considered here is whether an infra-human
al is able to abstract from a number of somewhat similar
situations an element or several elements to which it will learn to
ike a reaction in such a way that if it is presented with a new
tion containing these elements, it will react as it did in the
_ training Situations.’
For many centuries there have been outcries against new words
introduced into the language and against others being over-
Many writers have constructed an index of forbidden
words. In the eighteenth Sealey Swift ecndanane ae banter,
mob and bully, and Johnson condemned funand stingy. Writingin
1878, Nichol protested against the use of concept, scientist, fic-
tional and recuperation. As all these words have now been
accepted into the language, it is clear that such Protests against
the introduction of new words are made in vain.
But the case against overworking common words is stronger.
The American historian Barzun’s (1957) list of 50 forbidden
words includes: (
Jargon Feeble connectives Affectations
Basic However Devastating
Context In view of Formulate (=say)
Evaluate While (apart from time relation) Sensitive
Motivate With (as a universal joint) State (=say)
Advertisers’ words Journalese and Textbookish
Accent Background
Angle Crucial .
Highlight Emphasize
Pinpoint Factors
Slant Key (adjective) -
These words, he says, are mostly good words which have been
spoiled by careless or excessive use until they no longer mean
much,
You may find it is worth constructing an index expurgatorius
of your own. Constructing such a list of words and forbidding
yourself to use them will force you to think about the meaning of
words and should help you to develop more direct and accurate
expressions. .
The Construction of Sentences
A word standing alone has little meaning. The Oxford Dietionart |
lists 317 meanings of the word ‘take’. The meaning of a word is
variable, and depends on its context. We learn how words are put
together from speech and writing, not from dictionaries.
The following rules about the construction of sentences are not
meant to be too rigidly followed. They are meant to suggest a
general pattern that you will adapt to your own purposes. |
-() In every sentence there ought to be one main assertion. Place
the main thought in the main clause.
Two distinct assertions should form two separate sentences,
 ihould not be esas Seni together into one lengthy
tence by such connectives as ‘and’, ‘or’, etc.
a: ‘Your sentences should never become so lengthy and in-
- volved that the reader loses his way in them.
@
s The normal order of a single English sentence is Subject — verb
— object or complement.
‘The man drove the car too fast.’
In a complex sentence the modifying or qualifying phrase
regularly follows its subject:
Subject — modifying clause ~ verb - object.
‘The man, who had just quarrelled with his wife, drove the
car too fast.’
Modifying clauses should, as a rule, follow straight after their
subject, otherwise ambiguity may result.
_ ‘The room in the hostel which I preferred had already been
taken.”
In this sentence it is not clear whether it was the room or the
hostel which was preferred. If it is the room which was
preferred,
‘In the hostel the room which I preferred. >
would
remove the ambiguity.
x) Qualifying words such as adjectives or adverbs should be
placed as near as possible to the words which they qualify.
Adverbs and adverbial clauses can be moved about fairly
freely, but often give rise to confusion. The rule is that adverbs
should come if possible immediately in front of the word they
- - qualify.
fe ah you write :
_ ‘Girls are to appear on the sports ground only iin running
ey SHOES*;
a someone will pretend that this means naked except for running
_ Shoes. ‘. . only on the sports ground in running shoes’ is
N clearer, «orr ‘The only place where girls are allowed to wear
running shoes is on the sports ground’.
You should never write a pronoun without considering to
_ which noun it will appear to the reader to relate. In casual
conversation you may say:
oeBee prose beat Tal when he was worldsecre but unless
 ‘I have seen the advertisement
for
not like it’,
‘it’ is ambiguous. :
P You should repeat the subject of the sentenceifthe meaning
requires it.
‘He often writes to his old colleague who is now in Australia
and sends him reports of his work.’
This sentence should be rewritten either: i
‘He often writes to his old colleague, who is now in Austra-
lia, and he sends him reports of his work’,
or
“He often writes to his old colleague who is now inAustralia
and who sends him reports of his work’,
depending on the meaning which you mean to convey.
Similarly you should repeat the principal verb, or substitute
: for it the appropriate form of the verb ‘do’, where clearness
i demands it:
aaa “The Americans distrust the Russians more than the Mestishy
(do)’.
te (5) Prefer the active voice to the passive. ‘The dog bit the post-
man’ is shorter and more direct than ‘The —— was bitten
by the dog’.
If you use many abstract and passive verbs your writing
will lack force and vividness. Compare
‘Consideration was given by the meeting to the ae of
the prohibition of stiletto heels’,
and |
‘The meeting considered whether to ban stiletto heels’.
To prefer the active is the general rule, provided that you
are saying that someone is doing something. If on the other
hand you merely want to say that something is being done, the
passive is more natural. ‘An election is being held,’ for
example. Moreover, it is not easy to say that something is
being done by people in general without using the passive. It
is better to write ‘Hops are grown in Kent’ than to manufac-
ture a subject for the sentence and write: ‘The farmers Brow
hops in Kent’. ‘
(6) The first and the last words of a sentence get more attention
than those in the middle. Therefore you should place the
phrases that you wish to emphasize either at i —s or
at the end of the sentence.
 lesssemphasis.on the phrase ‘as everyone knows’ than if you
ite:
-*Rules are dead to be broken, as everyone knows.’
) Do not introduce too many qualifying phrases into a sentence.
Academic writers tend to over-qualify their statements in their
_ conscientious attempts to be accurate. Their sentences are full
_ of such phrases as ‘usually’, ‘to a certain extent’, ‘under cer-
tain conditions’, ‘other things being equal’, etc. The excessive
use of such phrases makes for a turgid style. Qualifications can‘
be avoided by avoiding afterthoughts and by trusting to the
- general good sense of the reader.
_@) The more briefly a thought is expressed the more clearly it is
‘conveyed. Sentences should be free from redundant words.
The grammatical means of securing brevity include:
@ using the shortest words that will serve your purpose;
@ using a noun as an adjective, instead of a phrase or clause:
:as hotel room, Government publications, etc.
-Gii) using adjectives instead of phrases:
*An experiment carefully carried out would show .atts
‘might be written ‘A careful experiment would show.
@y) avoiding circumlocutions such as ‘in the majority ofiin-
stances’ (most), ‘to a considerable extent’, etc.
(¥) avoiding the use of two nouns that mean the same thing,
“as ‘intents and purposes’, ‘satisfaction and happiness’, etc.
“You should be sparing in your use of adjectives. One adjec-
tive which expresses your meaning is better than two. A com-
mon error is to attempt to strengthen an adjective by putting
‘an adverb before it, as ‘excessively’, ‘immensely’, ‘vastly’,
. Such exaggeration is usually ineffective,
Although brevity is desirable, you must not pack so much
ormation into a sentence that the reader cannot take it in.
the rate at which information is presented can be excessive.
riting can be too concise: ‘The pulverized fuel is gravity-fed
a point where it meets the forced draught through a twelve-
armed spider rotating rapidly to break up any lumps of coal
at may have formed due to the coal particles adhering
her.’ Kapp, who quotes this sentence in his book, The
sentation ofTechnical Information, remarks that it would
174 HOW TO sTuDY
not help the author of this sentence to tell himthat iefaust be
concise; and that he should be taught to force some extré
words and a few full stops into his sentences.

Connecting Sentences Together

Sentences have to be linked together intelligibly if the reader is tc
follow the sequence of thought. This linking is more a matter o}
presenting your thoughts in the right order than a matter o
grammar, but it will help you to make easy transitions from on«
thought to the next if you study the various conjunctions anc
linking phrases which are usually treated under the heading o
‘grammar’.
The grammatical means of transition include:
(1) Conjunctions such as and, but, although, for.
(2) Adverbs and adverbial phrases such as however, moreover.
for example, since this is so, as we shall see, nevertheless, yet
therefore etc.
(3) Pronouns and articles — when you begin a sentence with ‘he
or ‘the’ it refers back to a person or thing already defined,
(4) Repetitions of parts of the previous sentence.
Conjunctions such as ‘and’ and ‘but’ come first in the sentence
(Incidentally there is no rule against beginning sentences wit
‘and’ or ‘but’.) The adverbs can be placed almost anywhere it
the sentence, even at the end. It is said that ‘however’ should no
come at the beginning or at the end of the sentence. Even this rul
may be broken, however.
You should take care when you-use ‘but’, ‘therefore’, or any
other connective word that the sense of the sentences does requir:
the connective to be used. Therefore, for example, means ‘conse
quently’, ‘for that reason’, ‘But’, as a conjunction, always intro
duces a contrast or a reason to the contrary. It is never a synonyn
for ‘and’. ‘And’ adds something like what has gone before, ‘but
adds something different.
No definite rule can be laid down as to how closely sentence:
should be linked together. A rambling string of sentences is a
irritating as a rambling incoherent speech. But linking can b
overdone. For instance, in this passage:
‘Speculators and property-sharks have taken over the houses
These houses used to be let at moderate rents. The rents have noy
been raised so high that many of the tenants cannot afford them

:
cea
In .. your sentences you can leave the reader to do some of
+ the work. ©
Paragraphs mark larger transitions. Each paragraph normally
_ begins with a topic sentence, which announces what it is going to
contain. Since each paragraph should be a unit, you should be
_able to give the reader, at the outset, a summary idea of what to
expect. You need not, however, try too hard to construct a topic
sentence. In narrative, particularly, there may be a number of
intertwined events contained in a paragraph, so that no single
event can be regarded as the core of the paragraph.
_ Writers are sometimes advised to vary sentence length within
- the paragraph. A long sentence followed by a shorter sentence is
often effective, where the shorter sentence summarizes the points
_ Which have been amplified in the long one. Certainly an unbroken
_ Sequence of long sentences is tiresome, and a sequence of short
ones disrupts the flow of ideas. But usually the length of your
_ sentences will be varied enough without conscious effort on your
oe
‘The average number of syllables per sentence varies from about
BSVeteht iin comic strips to about sixty in some eighteenth-century
prose. An average figure for modern prose is about twenty syllables
per sentence (as in this sentence). Academic authors average
about thirty syllables per sentence.

The Organization of Written Materials

~ In any sort of technical exposition or reasoned argument presen-
tation must follow a logical sequence. Before you begin to writé
- On any factual topic you need to make an outline of the subject-
dmatter before you start.
:me ‘Any large task needs to be broken into manageable units; and
_you need to think carefully about the order of presentation of
these units and how they are to be linked together. This task is
most arduous in the review type of essay or article, in which you
hhave to piece together evidence from many different sources on a
number of complicated issues. Sub-headings and sub-divisions
ould always be used in essays and articles of any length, not
only because they assist the reader, but.also because they impose
useful discipline on the writer himself, and keep him from
‘wandering away from the point.
reading, and to amass materials. It hes alrea 2
that it is best to use cards to record each separate piece of infor-
mation as it comes to hand. You must then think, decide on your
main themes, and begin to select among your materials and reduce
them to order.
This preparation inevitably takes more time than the writing
itself, but it is a mistake to start writing before you have a definite
plan and before you have thought matters out. Some of the most
effective writers never set pen to paper until they have clear in
their heads the entire scheme of what they mean to say. Others
find a detailed written outline too constricting, and prefer to
elaborate their ideas in the process of writing. It is true that many
new ideas tend to occur in the course of writing, so that writing
which has not been too rigidly planned may appear more spon-
taneous than that which follows a preformed scheme. The danger
is that the new ideas may be irrelevant, and may lead you away
from your main theme. An outline of some sort is therefore
desirable in the interests of form and unity.

Re-writing
It has to be said that many writers find it so hard to express adel
selves clearly and logically that they expect to have to re-write
their material several times. They arrive at their final draft by a
series of approximations. First a rough draft is made, and this
is then written over, re-phrased, and re-ordered with scissors
and paste, until something like ‘the desired product begins to
emerge.
This procedure is, however, both a confession of literary failure
and a waste of time. If you have ordinary literary talents you
should be able to learn to write clearly and acceptably without
the necessity of constant re-writing. Of course, much practice, and
much attention in the early stages to the mechanics of writing and
composition, are needed before you can develop a lucid style. But
in time you should be able to reach the stage where you do not
have to think too much of words as you write, andyour first draft
can also be the final one.

Questions to Ask on Re-reading

You should, then, learn to write in such a way that.excnsive Te-
writing can be avoided. But this does not mean that you should
 Took
enit again,i. sn such Guesticas as these:
)Have I kept to my main themes? Or have I inserted padding
and irrelevancies?
(2) Is each paragraph a natural unit? Is the transition from one
topic to the next too abrupt? Are some topics left hanging in
the air, inconclusively?
(3) Are any of my sentences too lengthy and involved? Is their
sense always clear? Have I used any pronouns whose antece-
dents are unclear?
_ @) Could I give the exact meaning of each word I have used?
- Have I used, as far as possible, concrete familiar words, and
avoided vague words and pet, meaningless phrases?
_ OJ Is the general effect of my writing what I had intended? Is it
’ too dull and heavy? Are there any passages which I am
____ particularly proud of? (if so, strike them out, or subject them
to severe criticism.)
_ ©) Have I consulted the convenience of the reader? Could I have
| -done more to make his task easy by giving examples and
illustrations?

_ Punctuation
_ Punctuation shows which words are to be taken together as units,
and which are mere continuations of preceding words. Full stops,
_ commas, ¢tc., are substitutes for the pauses and intonations of
_ speech. They assist the eye in reading by holding together words
_ in units corresponding to thoughts. A few hundred years ago —
_ punctuation was much fuller than it is now because books were
then often read aloud.
pl) The full-stop marks the end of a sentence. The only advice that
needs to be given is that you should use it plentifully.
ee The comma is more difficult. The modern tendency is not to
_ use it too liberally. If in doubt leave the comma out.
- Commas should be used:
(@) to set off words, phrases and clauses which do not form
an essential part of the sentence or which interrupt the
sequence of thought, e.g.:
‘The town,. far from the smoke of industry, is healthy.’
_ ‘Tobe frank, we don’t like the new neighbours.’
 SEE
178 HOW TO STUDY
(b) to separate a series of words, phrases and clauses, e.g.
‘He was brought up on Latin, Greek and Ancient History.’
‘He said that the pay was poor, that the work was hard, and
that promotion was impossible.’
(c) to separate clauses joined by conjunctions such as ‘and’,
‘but’, ‘for’, ‘or’, from the main part of the sentence. The
comma is only necessary, however, if the subordinate clause is
long, or if the subject of the sentence is changed:
‘The sun is shining, but I have to stay in.’ -
‘The sun is shining but it won’t shine for long.’
Sometimes a sentence with a comma omitted may be obscure
or ludicrous, e.g.
‘While the keepers were eating the elephant got out.’
If the meaning of a sentence depends on a comma, it is
better to reconstruct the sentence.
(3) Semi-colons represent a longer pause than a comma, but less
than a full stop. They are useful if a sentence is getting too
long. Some modern authors seldom use them, but there is no
reason to be afraid of doing so.
(4) The colon is now little used, except to precede an explanation,
or set of instructions. A colon with a dash after it is used to
introduce a quotation or example. ,
(5) The long dash (—) is thought to be slovenly and incorrect
by some, but may be used when a part of a sentence needs to be
separated from the main body more strongly than by a comma.

Spelling Mistakes
It is important to avoid spelling mistakes. In the first place their
odd appearance distracts the reader’s attention; in the second
place they tend to be regarded as evidence of illiteracy and lack of
a proper education.
Some people are poor spellers because they were taught as
children to read in whole words and phrases, and have never
learnt to analyse words into their constituents.
Certain words are notoriously difficult to spell. Some 100 words
account for about a third of all misspellings. Usually the errors
are confined to one or two letters in the word.
If you know that you tend to misspell certain words, keep a list
of them. Then take each word in turn and try to project it men-
tally, in every detail, on to a flat surface in front of you. If you
are unable to visualize clearly every part of the word, look it up.
 179

~ Common misspellings include:

. Misspelling
achieve, believe acheive, beleive
- Yeceive, deceive ; recieve, decieve
_ The rule us: i before e, except after c, but there are common
exceptions such as weigh, science.
Note that the final e is dropped before adding a suffix beginning
with a vowel.
Misspelt
coming, using. comeing, useing.
‘Longish words with double letters in
i the middle are frequently
misspelt:
Misspelt
_. accommodate accomodate or acommodate
embarrassment embarassment or embarrasment
occurrence occurence
Many misspellings arise from writing words as they are sounded
ESB
Misspelt
- definite igh Ss: definate
dependent (adj.) dependant
_ privilege priviledge
separate seperate
_ medicine medecine
_ Avoid confusing principle (noun) and principal (adjective) ; prac-
tice (noun) and practise (verb); and, of course, there and their,
and two, to and too.
Handwriting
’ There is evidence that the handwriting of college students is worse
than that of 14-year olds at school. At college notes often have to
_ be taken quickly, and there is some danger that handwriting will
_ deteriorate under the pressure for speed. Research has already
- been quoted to show that poorly written examination answers
tend to be marked down. On this ground alone it is worth trying
' to improve your handwriting. Samuel Butler claimed that he
4 improved the clarity of his thought when he took pains to write
i clearly.
Rd
fl
PS
ie
 culty is forming a letter in such a way that it looks ikeanother :
letter, e.g. writing r like an undotted i, or d like el or klikeh.
It is quite easy to locate the defects in your handwriting.
(1) Give a typical specimen of your handwriting, about 500 words —
long, to two other students. Ask them to read through the
specimen quickly and to put a mark under any letters or com-
bination of letters which are at all difficult to read.
(2) Get your readers to tell you exactly which features of your
writing caused trouble at each marked place.
(3) Tabulate your errors on a chart like the one given below.
Total up the errors, and determine your most frequent illegi-
bilities.
Handwriting Chart
a likeu h like 1 t likei
8.5516 i dot misplaced £5); Dea ae ese
De setold k like h s indistinct (final s)
Crs) 6 1 closed. s like r
ra ihmtid ol 1 too short ter
e closed m like w t cross omitied
e too high Bye u like a
Sway Dean Vii oo
He Gaal On iad Wis, oar
h » b o.closed
Words crowded - too little space between words.
Words broken — breaks between syllables.
Words joined — failure to take pen off paper between words. sing—bb
Loops too long — so that they reach down into the line below —
or up into the line above.
Writing too slanted.
Having tabulated your most frequent illegibilities, you will
probably find that a few letters are causing most of the difficulties. ©
Take particular care in forming these letters until you form the —
habit of writing them legibly.
; Summary
Ways of improving your writing include antene your vocabu-
lary by extensive reading, and learning the principles of grammar —
of syntax, which are now seldom formally taughtin schools.
 ut in writing on technical piaeiers the appro-
hnical |vocabulary has to be used. Avoid jargon and
is whose meaning has been debased.
meosm rules are given for the construction of sentences

A ‘ore tackling any large piece of writing an outline plan is

betel You should avoid the necessity of rewriting, but criti-

f “Some advice is given about punctuation and spelling, and a

cheme for improving handwriting is suggested.

further reading :
pp, R. O., The Presentation of Technical Information, Constable
and Co. London, 1948.
wers, Sir Ernest, Plain Words, H.M.S.O., London, 1948.
 CHAPTER ELEVEN

SIMPLE MATHEMATICS

isPe chapter is not intended for mathematical specialists, but

for those who have perhaps done little mathematics for
some yéars, and wish to renew their knowledge of elementary
mathematical operations.
The ability to do mathematics is often thought of as rather a
special skill - there are many otherwise able people who have
special difficulty with it. And it is true that mathematics comes
much more easily to some than to others. Many people whose
training has been on the arts side decide that they are no good
at it, and some develop a dislike and even a fear of the subject
quite early in their school careers. °
But in all the natural and social sciences, competence in
elementary mathematics is becoming increasingly important.
This chapter therefore sets out the elementary rules and prin-
ciples of arithmetic and algebraic operations. Ignorance of these
rules probably accounts for more of the difficulties in mathe-
matics than any other cause.
Symbols
+, —, + and x refer to addition, subtraction, division and
multiplication. Parentheses and brackets are also used to
indicate multiplication; e.g. (6) (7) means 6 x 7.
If no multiplication sign is needed, the product of a and 5 is
written ab.
Division is usually indicated not by ~ but by a bar: —
a divided by 6 is written a/b or -
Other symbols are:
= is equal to.
= is identically equal to.
= is approximately equal to.
< is less than.
> is greater than.
Sis less than or equal to.
 E MATHEMATICS _ 183
2 is greater than or equal to.
is not equal to.
+ plus or minus.
_ a~ bmeans the difference between a and b.
The omission of terms in a sequence is shown by dots:
1, 2, 3, 4... 100 means all integers from 1 to 100, and
X, + X, + X3 ... X19 means the sum of all the 10 terms
from X, to Xo.
A vertical line is used to mean ‘when’ or ‘if’:
x =5| y = 6 means x is 5 when y is 6.
A small figure written above and to the right of a symbol is
called an index or exponent:
PETES ISS APES AO
— a? b? = aabbb.
r Small figures and letters used as subscripts have no numerical
Significance. e.g. m, +m. merely serves to distinguish one
number or group or sample n, from another n,.

_ The Order of Operations

_ The rules about the order in which arithmetic operations,
_ (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) are per- _
formed are as follows:
(1) The order inwhich numbers are added or multiplied does —
not affect the result.
24+344=44+3+4+2=9.2x3x*4=4x3x2=24.
mee @3b+c=—c+b-+a. abe = cba.
- () When both multiplication and addition (or subtraction) are
involved, the multiplication should be performed first
unless brackets indicate otherwise:
130 — 20 x 5 = 30 but (130 — 20) x 5 = 550.
(3) When both division and addition (or subtraction) are
involved, the division should be performed first, unless
brackets indicate otherwise:
~ 130. + 20 = 10= 132 but (130 + 20) ~ 10= 15.
.é When both multiplication and division are involved, brackets
- must be used to indicate the order of operations:
12 +@ x 3)=2.
mo) ace and parentheses are used to show that the terms
enclosed within them should be treated as a single number:
— 512 — 2)= 5(10) = 50 or 5(12 — 2) = 60 — 10= 50 and
x(at+b+o=xa+xb-+ xe...
 Sern Ae Mer
184
Note that the niulapleaton is distri
the brackets.
(6) The expression under a radical sign is likewisetreatedas a |
single number:
V/20 — 3 = V17.
That is, the operations underneath the radical are carried ©
out before the root is taken:
V16 +9 =V25=5
But V16+V9 =44+3=7..
(7) In fractions, the numerator is treated as a single ta
and the denominator as a single number.

$48 = ord + 6/5 +5) = 10/10

Operations with Zero and One

The product of zero and any other number is zero:
(9) (0) = 0.
Regardless of the size of the divisor 0/a = 0.
Division by zero is not permissible.
The product of a number, a, by 1 is a: (2) (I) =a.
The quotient of a number, a, divided by 1 is a: a/1 =a.
Bee 3 i a {
The quotient of a number, a, divided by itself is 1, ras 1, except —
when a = O. From this it follows that 1 can be transformed
into any fraction having the same numerator and denominator:
coe bo Oe oe ab
anys) @ + 2ab — B.

Positive and Negative Numbers

Numbers can be both positive and negative. On any scale, the
numbers above any reference point may be treated as positive —
and those below as negative. Examples are degrees above and ~
below freezing-point on a thermometer or scores above and B
below a mean score.
(1) If all numbers have the same sign, they are see aged
and the sum given the common sign:
(-2)+(-4 + (-9 =-12
 4 Na (-8) = 3
To add several numbers with unlike signs, the positive and
a, negative numbers are added separately. The difference
between the two sums is then taken and the sign of the
He larger sum is attached: °
. 2-—4+5-13=-—- 10 d
rc) In subtracting positive and negative numbers the sign of the
_ subtrahend (aumber to be subtracted) is changed and
- addition is performed as above:
; 4—(-6) =
—4-—(-8)=
ae —4-(4+8=-12
_ @) In multiplication, numbers with like signs yield positive pro-
a duets ; numbers with unlike signs yield negative products:
4x -—-4=— 16
-—-4x -—-4=16
(6) The division of numbers with like signs yields positive
_ quotients; the division of numbers with unlike signs negative
- quotients:
—-12+~-4=3
12+-4=-3

) Multiplying or dividing both the numerator and denominator

by the same number (other than zero) does not change the
value of a fraction.
Complicated fractions can thus be reduced to more simple
“ones:
BOG Bl Ol ods 2ahs se
900° 9 -04°4 4ax” 2x
| But adding or subtracting the same number in both numer-
ator and denominator does, ee change the value of the
fraction. _
In adding and Subtracting fractions you must obtain a
common denominator and then add the numerators:
A A eeWas 2
as 16-0 1S 1s
 In general:
a’, > ad Oe ad+be os
bd bd’ bd bd ae
(3) To multiply fractions you simply multiply the numerators
and multiply the denominators:
Ge 2.AP
| ae ies
In general:
aie! ae
bd bd
(4) To divide fractions you invert the divisor and multiply:
SUR eel Rptnssibs fies)
FTL Ni aga
In general:
DE eee
Bit Geos Peace
(5) If 1 is divided by any number 7, this fraction is the reciprocal
of n. Thus 1/5 is the reciprocal of 5.
Division by a number is equivalent to multiplication by
the reciprocal of the ae
i
59 = 7 X 5g = (09)=
a-=aq Be
ee
—

n n

In using calculating machines, it is often quicker to

multiply by the reciprocal than to divide.

Decimals
In adding and subtracting decimals make sure that you keep
the decimal points in line, and that the decimal point in the ©
answer lies directly under the decimal points of the figures —
added or subtracted:
2°38 7-084
AOOL Lb as
3-381
3-381. 5:954_
5-954
In multiplying decimals, multiply aas with whole pate. ‘
Then begin at the right-hand end of the product, and point off ©
 are ‘SIMPLE HEMATICS | ; 187
many decimal places as there are in the multiplier and multi-
_ plicand together:
‘03 Both multiplier and multiplicand have 2
x :09 decimal places so their product must have 4.

120 Here the multiplicand has no decimal places.

x -02 The multiplier has 2. Their product there-
2:40 fore has (0 + 2) = 2 decimal places.
Before you start dividing one decimal by another you should
_ drop any zeros to the right of the decimal, e.g. for -:25000
© write :25.
Then make the divisor into a whole number by moving the
decimal point to the right the appropriate number of places.
_ As you must treat both the numerator and denominator of a
fraction in the same way, you must now move the decimal
_ point of the dividend by the same number of places. Then
* perform ordinary long division:
0-03 3
.. ai fectany
Other examples:
; 42 20
pena ote
007 ——0-7

_ Proportions and Percentages

If you wish to find what proportion of a sum or total number
a given number is, divide the number by the sum or total, e.g.
if 75 out of 600 urban households keep a dog, and you wish to
know what proportion of the total 600 keep a dog, divide 75
by 600 to obtain the answer, -125. ;
_ To express.a proportion as a percentage multiply the pro-
portion by 100. In the above example, for instance, the per-
' centage of households keeping dogs is:
-125 x 100 = 12:5 per cent.
' Conversely to translate
a percentage into a proportion,
__ divide the percentage by 100.
b - Reyersing these operations, if you are given a proportion or
percentage, and wish to convert it to the actual 1 which
the proportion or percentage represents, multiply
the proportion _
by the total number.
+125 x 600 = 75 Shr he
or multiply the percentage by the total number and divide by 100.
12:5 x 600 _ 75
100 ‘
Note that it is misleading to give figures in percentages when
the sum total of observations is less than 100.

Speed and Accuracy in Computation

In work such as adding long columns of digits it is as well to
work as rapidly as possible. In this kind of operation speed and
accuracy go together. If you work slowly your attention will
fluctuate and errors will arise. In a group of students the fastest
will usually be able to add at four or five times the rate of the
slowest, and more accurately.
Facility in computation is mostly the result of practice. If
you wish to become skilled in mental arithmetic, you must
practise doing sums in your head. Get into the habit of making
estimates of such problems as the number of times a car wheel
revolves each minute when the car is travelling at 60 m.p.h.,
etc.
Before performing any calculation, the best safeguard against
gross error is to estimate the answer in advance. If you divide
314 by 26, for example, it should be obvious that the answer
will be approximately 300/25 = 12. In dividing decimals it
helps to move the decimal points the same number of places in
divisor and dividend, so as to approximate familiar, manageable
numbers:
56 + 069 = 56/7= 8
3:97). 31:93 ie 4/2= 2
In estimating the answers to multiplications it sometimes
helps to move the decimal point in the two numbers to be |
multiplied the same number of places in opposite directions: .
051, X 2400) ==)5-iK 2425 x25 25
18:39 x 297-6 = 2 x 3,000 = 6,000
A slide rule is one of the best checks against gross blunders —
in arithmetic. Learning to use a slide rule is in fact one of the —
best disciplines in computation, because the slide rule forces —
 In finding the average oe a set of fairly similar numbers,
arithmetic can be saved by coding the scores. If you have 10
cores — 206, 217, 224, 227, 228, 231, 236, 241, 245, 258, you
can obviously subtract 200 from each score, the mean being
200 +- 313/10 = 231-3. Thus in calculating a mean it is always
ossible to subtract a constant from the scores, in order to save
arithmetic. This amounts to taking an arbitrary figure for the
mean and working in deviations from this arbitrary mean.
_ When the arbitrary mean is M+, the deviations from it x1, and
in ‘eanumber of scores

= the sum of) In the above example X = 200 ass

es
Such coding of scores is commonly used in eats where
large numbers of scores are involved.
Indices
a” means ‘a to the nth power’ or ‘a to the nth’.
The number n is the index or exponent and the number a is the
e. Thus a? is a squared or a raised to the power of 2, ora X a.
‘is a raised to the fourth power or a X a X a X a. Indices
eed not be whole numbers. a**> would lie somewhere between
and a’. ;
dices can have fractional values. These are then roots.
=a
ree ee
190

Operations with Indices

Addition (a™) (a”) =qmntn

e.g. (2?) (2%) = 28

(2-*) (2°) = 2?
Subtraction qm
= qim=—n)
qv

e.g. 2°

Bo At
23

ja
Multiplication aq'™n = qin

e.g. (23)2 = 26
(2-2)2 = 2-4

Division 4/ qm an

e.g. V2 =22 =22

Vy =2%
Note also that:
(i) (ab)” = (a")(b")
e.g. CXS y= 23a 5?

ss
(ii)
b bn
e.g. BN 2?
5 er)
ii) a° ea
a? =qn=— = 1

Logarithms
Logarithms can-be used for multiplication, division, and for .
extracting roots, and raising to a power. |

Common logarithms use the base 10. A logarithm of a Cae 4

to the base 10 is the exponent of 10 which equals the number,
Some simple examples of numbers and their logarithms are:
 PS : LE MATHEMATICS

Number Exponent of 10 Logarithm

1000 10? 3-0000
100 10? 2-0000
10 10* 1-0000
5 1 10° 0-0000
_ a 1074 7.0000
4 01 10-2 3.0000
; ~ 10° 3-0000
Most numbers, of course, are not simple multiples of ten. The
logarithm of 5 for example is 0-6990, to four decimal places.
Four-figure tables of logarithms do for most practical purposes,
The logarithm of any positive number has' two parts: an
integer called the characteristic, and a decimal fraction called
the mantissa. The characteristic determines the position of the
ee
te
ee
decimal point. The mantissa determines the sequence of digits.
The log. of 1,000 = 3-0000; 3 is the characteristic, and -0000
the mantissa.
Thus you determine the characteristic by inspection of the
itSEIN
ee
decimal point and get the mantissa from a table of logarithms.
¥ The rule for the characteristic is: when the number is larger
than 1 its characteristic is one less than the number of digits to
the left of the decimal point. When the number is smaller than
1, its characteristic is negative and one more than the number
of zeros between the decimal point and the first non-zero digit.
Get a table of logs, and check that the logarithm of 50 is
1-6990, of 5 0:6990, of 0:5 1:6990, of -05 2:6990.
Note that the mantissa is always positive in sign. The
characteristic can be either positive or negative. When the
characteristic is negative and the mantissa is positive, they must
be treated as two separate numbers. This is important in finding
the square root of a decimal fraction. (See second example
below.)
The rules for computation with logarithms can be described
in a few simple rules:
Computation with numbers Computation with logarithms
AXB : log A + log B
A~=B log A — log B
An n log A
n/A si “log A
 "How os
Example: 7-307 x 0°9742 x 0-478
log 7:°307 =0-8637
log -09742 = 2-9888
log 0-478 = 1-6794

log product = 1:5317

Product = 0:3402
Example: Find 4/0-6742
log 0-6742 = 1-8288
To find the square root the logarithm has to be divided by 2.
This is awkward as the logarithm stands. Since the characteristic
and the mantissa are separate numbers, one negative and the
other positive, you must arrange matters so that the characteristic
is divisible by the divisor. Remembering that
1-8288 = — 1 + -8288
if —1 is added to the characteristic and + 1 is added to the
mantissa, the value will still be the same.
1-8288 = 2 + 1-8288
then dividing by 2, 1-9144
= 0-8211
Example: Find W/4-785 x 7-347
t log 4-785 = 4 of 0:6799 Or
$ log. -347 = $(— 3 + 2-5403) =

Sum‘ 1-9828 = -9612

Square Roots
The most practical ways of finding square roots are bylogarithms
or by a table of squares and square roots. The method using
logarithms is described under that head.
If you have to do much statistical work you should have —
Barlow’s Table of Squares, Cubes, Square Roots, Cube Roots
and Reciprocals, which gives values for all numbers up to —
12,500.
’ Many textbooks carry tables of squares from 1 to 1,000. y
To find the square root of a number you should first point off _
the number in pairs, on either side of the decimal point. Thus
4023-07 becomes 40 23 - 07
 id, add a zero:
292-4 becomes 02 92- 40
quare root will have one figure for every pair in the number,
pointed off. For example:
4/0292 + 40 =1771
(since there are two pairs to the left and one pair to the right of
ie decimal point).
Note that the square root of any number less than 1 is always
greater than the number itself.
eg. /:49 =-7
To multiply two roots or radicals, multiply their radicands (ice.
the number enclosed by the root sign).
VavVb = Vab
To divide one radical by another radical divide the radicand of
j iidfirst by the radicand of the second:
Val
b = Valb
A radicand can be factorized into two numbers, as an aid to
%‘computation:
3 eg. ~V/810=V81 V10 =9vV/10
: VB =VE V2 =wW?
a VIS =VB V3 =5V3
‘Equations
- You should be able to rearrange the form of a simple equation,
or to change the subject of a formula.
_ The simple rule is that whatever is done to one side of an
3equation must also be done to the other side:
j @ The same number can be added to each side.
_. Gi) The same number can be subtracted from each side.
(These two rules mean that, when a term is removed from one
side of an equation, it appears on the other side with its sign
hanged.) a
(iii) Each side can be multiplied by the same number.
. (iy) Each side can be divided by the same number.
_ Also, ingeneral, the root may be taken of each side, or each
may be raised to the same power.
194
The rules for solving a simple equation are: — ;
(1) Clear the equation of fractions by multiplying both sides by ©
the least common denominator.
(2) Get all the terms containing the unknown on one side, and
all the other terms on the other.
(3) Combine the terms containing the unknown.
(4) Divide both sides by the coefficient of the unknown.
Example 1. Solve * “ fares y: fen

(multiply both sides by 6)

4a — 3x + 6a = 24
— 3x + 10a = 24
— 3x = 24-— 10a (10a subtracted from
both sides)
__ 10a — 24 (Divide both sides by -
3 — 3)
Example 2. Solve 15 “ig oeat 5
for a
ee
15 —a) = a —a)—2a +5) (multiply both —
sides by
21 —a)
15—15a = 8—8a—2a—10
15—15a = —10a—2
a i,
_
Gee
Example 3. Solve a= db = 7 for d

ae os (squaring both sides), ;

cC—

a(c—d) = bx (multiply both sides a

(c-
bx :
' (c-d) ="a~ (both sides dividediby a) 4
_q —2* _. subtracted from both
a’ sides)
ses es rash (both sides a by
a pet =
 Graphs :
Graphs are used to indicate the relationship between two
variables. The horizontal scale of a graph is called the abscissa
and the vertical scale the ordinate. By convention independent
_ variables are designated ‘x’ variables, and laid out along the
abscissa; dependent variables are designated ‘y’ variables and
~ laid out along the ordinate. In a plot of the amount remembered
after various time intervals, for example, the amount remembered
“is dependent on the time which has passed since the original
learning. The amount remembered is therefore the dependent
variable, set out along the ordinate; the time since learning is
the independent variable, set out along the abscissa. As another
example, we might have gain in weight in pounds on the or-
dinate as the dependent variable, plotted against amount of
food consumed on the abscissa.

ee
ee,
YS
ie (Y)
POUNDS
IN
GAIN
WEIGHT
POUNDS OF FEED EATEN (Xx)
Fig. 23. epHeaionship of amount of feed eaten by pigs
. to gain in weight

To read this graph you locate a value for food consumed

on the abscissa then erect an imaginary line from that point
upward until it meets the line; and then run an imaginary line
horizontally to the ordinate to find the gain in weight.
In this case the line is straight: gain in weight is approxi-
' mately a linear function of food consumed. The line in fact
represents an equation:
y = :26x—22
 A.Y=+5X
B.Y=":5X +8

Fig. 24. Examples of linear functions

In Fig. 24 a number of linear equations are plotted:

Line A represents the equation y = -5x ?
Line By = -5x +8
Line B y = -5x + 8 has a slope of -5 and intersects the y
axis at y = 8. The general formula for a straight lineis
y=a+ bx -
where b is the slope of the line and a is the y intercept.
Such functions are useful because they enable many ad-
ditional values to be predicted from the observation of a few.

Trigonometry

In a circle with radius length r the line OP may be imagined as

free to rotate from the horizontal position to the vertical. Let
the angle which the line makes with the horizontal be called0.
: In the horizontal position @ = 0°, in the vertical position
= 90°.
to2 = 0and y increases from y =0 toy =r:
d,since r is is mid of a right triangle, r2 = x2 + y?,

Six ratios are formed by x, y and r. These ratios depend on

ot on the length of r. These are the trigonometric functions ce
Oo: nok th ;

Value when Value when

paren eR
Function 6=0° @ = 90°
_ Ratio

0 1

oO. ro)
198 ‘HOW TO STUDY
Its functions can be obtained from the functions of 6 by inter-
changing x and y in the above ratios:
Value when Value when
= 0° 0 = 90°

= cosine 1 0
r

x
= cotangent oo) 0

r
- cosecant roe) 1
y

For further reading:

Walker, Helen M., Mathematics Essential for Elementary
Statistics, Holt, New York, 1951,
 A ea ee Se aC ilar. t

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

a Far from the higher animals being indifferent to their sur-

roundings, they are on the contrary in close and intimate
relation to them, so that their equilibrium is the result of
compensation established as continually and as exactly as if
by a very sensitive balance.
CLAUDE BERNARD

4 W: now turn to the physical conditions of work, such as light-

| ing, heating and ventilation. You may think that these things
_ are relatively unimportant, or that they may usually be taken for
granted, and, to some extent, this is true. Lighting, heating and -
_ ventilation and their effect on work output used to be the stock-
_ in-trade of industrial psychologists. More recently it has become
a the fashion to decry their importance and lay more emphasis on
_ motivation and attitudes to work. Clearly your motivation is of
_ more importance than the physical conditions of your study room.
_ Yet motivation is complex and difficult to manipulate, whereas it
is quite simple to ensure that you have adequate lighting, for
- example, in your study. Very often your evening work output will
be influenced by such factors as the level of illumination in the
: room, the distance you are sitting from the fire, and the kind of
, chair you are sitting in. Even if these factors only affect your
working efficiency to the extent of 5-10 per cent, it is worth paying
" attention to them, since faults can fairly easily be set right.
_ Lighting
_The general level of illumination in your study room should be
adequate, the light should be well distributed, and there should not
be glare or sharp contrasts of light and shade. These requirements
4 sound simple enough, but freedom from glare is not always easy
to attain.
The general level of illumination is measured in foot-candles,
or in lumens per square foot (the two units are identical). A 100-
;watt lamp gives about 10 foot-candles at a distance of 52 inches
and 25 foot-candles at 34 inches. a general, fine work dem:
high level of illumination. You need more light to read small
print or Greek or algebra comfortably than you need for ordinary
10-point type. Performance, such as reading speed, typically in-
creases up to a certain critical level of illumination, after which
there is little improvement even if the light is greatly increased.
This critical level is between 4 and 6 foot-candles for ordinary
reading, and about 20 foot-candles for threading a needle or
making lace. It is easy enough to obtain these levels with ordinary
100- or 150-watt electric lamps.
Even distribution of light and avoidance of glare are much
more difficult to ensure. There are four main types of shades and
light-fittings :(1) direct, (2) semi-direct, (3) indirect, and @) semi-
indirect.
The direct type is the worst, and probably the most Lomi)
such as a low-hanging ceiling fixture which exposes the eye to
direct glare from the lamp. Consider the glare that arises from the
headlights of oncoming cars when driving at night. The glare
tends to obscure whatever else might be seen in other portions of
the visual field. The bright oncoming headlights cover the rest of
the retina with stray illumination. In the same way, in lesser
degree, your vision will suffer if unshaded light is present in the
periphery or your field of vision. |
An example of the semi-direct is the white glass globe, enclosing
the lamp, which diffuses the light, much of it being reflected from
the ceiling. This type is often used in offices. In indirect lighting
all the light goes to the ceiling and upper walls, whence it is dif-.
fused about the room. A hanging fitting withan opaquecircularre-_
flector below the lamp is an example. In the semi-indirect type the
reflector is translucent and allows some of the light to reach the
working surface direct. You can see from the table that indirect.
lighting is very much to be preferred to the other types of lighting,
Table: Loss in visual efficiency during reading under four types
of illumination.
Type of Percentage loss Percentage loss
illumination after 2 hours after 3 hours
~ Daylight 5 }
Indirect 10 a)
Semi-indirect 34 she
Direct 37 ie SL
(V:igen efficiency was taken as the ratio of clear to blurred vision)
 fae Itis j not usually Bicicable. bowevct, to ob-
n adequate local illumination by this means. Hence some com-
ion of local and general illumination is required. Local light-
alone, as by a desk lamp, causes too much contrast of light
id shade in the room. The retina of the eye adapts to the general
1 of illumination. Moreover, if you have a bright light in the
periphery of your visual field there is a reflex tendency to keep
looking at it, resulting in visual fatigue. The background lighting
d the local lighting should not be too dissimilar, a ratio of
about 1: 3 being desirable.
For practical purposes this means that you should have an in-
direct or semi-indirect light for general illumination, and a stand-
ard lamp or desk lamp directly over your work. The desk lamp
ould not have an opaque shade, as this produces a bright area
of light surrounded by shadows. (Most commercially available
study lamps are of this undesirable type.) An ordinary table lamp
with a semi-transparent shade is better, but the bottom of the
shade should be about 20 inches above the table top so that the
lampshade itself is outside the field of vision.
_ Asa temporary expedient to shield the eyes from glare, you can
an eyeshade of the type worn by tennis players.
_ Nowadays tubular fluorescent lighting is being increasingly
Ed, as it provides a high level of illumination at low cost. This
rm of lighting can be fatiguing, however. There is 50-cycle
flicker at the ends of the tubes, which therefore need to be shaded.
This is not always done in the cheaper forms of shades, and some-
times causes odd stroboscopic effects on rotating machinery in

oS and Heating
How to warm their study rooms at reasonable cost in winter
' is probably the main concern of students in Britain, and this
question ‘will be discussed below. From the point of view of
general efficiency, however, the main requirements are @) pure
ir to breathe and (2) suitable air temperature and air move-
‘ment, so that body temperature can be maintained without dis-
ort. |
In breathing, oxygen is taken into the system and carbon
ioxide iis excreted. The percentage composition of fresh inspired
=: idexpired. air is given in the table:
=
«es 2 HOW TO STUDY “ 7 vata
[4

Inspired air Expired air >

Oxygen 20-96 16:4.
Nitrogen 79 795
Carbon dioxide 0-04 4-1
Thus air that is breathed once loses about 4 per cent of its oxygen
and gains about 4 per cent carbon dioxide.
If a man shuts himself up-in a room with no means of ventila-
tion, the air gradually loses its oxygen and gains a corresponding
volume of carbon dioxide. After a time he feels all the usual effects
of poor ventilation, such as headache and nausea. Allowing him
to breathe fresh air from outside does not relieve these symptoms,
however, and another man outside the chamber can breathe the
foul air from inside without much ill effect. Hence the main
_reason for fresh air is that it is cooler and ventilates the body
surfaces, not that it supplies much more oxygen than stale air.
The oxygen content of air is usually ample, staying remarkably
constant at 20-9 per cent in both city and country. In city fogs the
oxygen percentage may fall slightly, and there are injurious ele-
ments, such as sulphur, in the air in industrial areas. But the
stalest of air in enclosed rooms still usually has an ample content
of oxygen; the physiologists tell us that the oxygen percentage
has to fall to about 14 per cent before signs of anoxia such as
rapid breathing and blueness of the skin become evident. Excess
carbon dioxide in the air is more likely to cause discomfort, as its
effects are to displace oxygen in the blood, producing a kind of
anoxia. About 5-per cent of carbon dioxide produces discomfort
and headache, but even under the most overcrowded conditions
the carbon dioxide percentage is unlikely to rise above about 0:5
per cent. In submarines a limited quantity of air is often breathed
and rebreathed, until after a few hours a light will not burn in it.
Submarines, however, carry devices for removing carbon dioxide
from the air. =f
The temperature and moisture content of the air, then, usually
have a more marked physiological effect than its chemical com-
position. But the chemical purity of the air is important, if only
because stale stagnant air is much more likely to lead to respira-
-tory infections than fresh circulating air. Expired air contains
various organic matters, which although present in minute quan-
tities, may have a harmful effect on the system. Lack of ventilation
in a crowded room also results in many offensive odours. For
 - arated i ee

ICAL ENVIRONMENT. a S903

e reasons good room ventilation, without draughts, is desir-
le, partly to prevent the accumulation of organic impurities and
‘partly to avoid any lack of oxygen and concentration of carbon
dioxide.
_ Air should not contain more than about 0-05 per cent of carbon
‘dioxide. This means that each person needs a room of about 1,000
cubic feet into which about 2,000 cubic feet of fresh air are admit-
ted each hour. The traditional advice to sleep with the window
‘open is still good advice, at least for those in good health. In the
4
waking hours, close and stuffy atmospheres may produce slight
Reanoxia, and thus prevent the brain from working at maximum
i efficiency.
7
Temperature
Body temperature is affected not only by air temperature, but by
the moisture content and rate of movement of the air, and by
tadiationfrom the body to surrounding objects. Roughly speaking,
_ atemperature of 60-70°F. is considered best for mental work.
_ Temperature in fact makes little difference to mental perform-
_ ance, at any rate over short periods, illustrating once again the
_ adaptability of the human organism, but working under conditions
‘of extreme heat or cold certainly involves more effort and more
- discomfort. Those who are accustomed to outdoor work and exer-
_ cise are much less sensitive to heat and cold indoors than others.
_ For study rooms some form of central heating in winter is best,
‘because of the good distribution of heat over the whole room.
Gas or open coal fires help room ventilation, but there is a temp-
_ tation to sit too close to them, with relaxing and soporific effects.
pace heating by electricity tends to be expensive, and also to
use a close, stuffy atmosphere, unless a fan is included in the
jeater. Paraffin heaters are cheap and efficient, but also seem to
enerate a stuffy or smelly atmosphere. Nearly all forms of heat-
ing dry the air, so that the skin and upper air passages lose mois-
- ture and become uncomfortable. Lacking central heating, prob-
: ety an enclosed solid-fuel stove is best, or failing that, an electric

There is everything to be said for habitually studying in the same

place. Books and materials are to hand, and do not have to be
 transported from one place to another.
vides the right atmosphere and stimulus for work. _ k
Unfortunately it is not always easy to find this desirable en- :
vironment. If you have to live in lodgings, you may have to live
with non-students who do not realize that quiet and privacy are
necessary for study; and even if your privacy isrespected, you
may still be distracted by noise or music or by the mere awareness
that others are ‘enjoying themselves’, while you are working.
Often friends and associates are the worst enemies of study, if they
keep dropping in on you for gossip or idle conversation, or try
and tempt you away for a drink, a game of cards, etc. The only
remedy against frittering your time away in this fashion is to be
adamant in keeping set hours for work, and in letting your friends
know what these hours are. At the older colleges, study rooms are
still fitted with two doors, the outer being closed when the student
does not wish to be disturbed. All productive workers are forced
to set aside certain hours for work, and to insist that they must
not be disturbed during these hours by telephone calls, visitors,
etc.
A study, then, is usually the best place for serious work. There
are some students, however, who have a perfectly suitable study
room, but still find it hard to work there. There may be a radio-
gram to turn on, a photograph of a sweetheart to gaze upon, food
and drink temptingly available, etc. Also it is easy to fall ‘into a
daydream. Dr. Johnson wrote:
‘Severe and connected attention is preserved but for a short
time, and when a man shuts himself up in his closet, and bends
his thoughts to the discussion of any abstruse question, he will
find his faculties continually stealing away to more Pleasing enter-
tainment.’
Only those who are strongly motivated are able to you for long
in solitude. Others may find it easier to work in libraries. American
research in fact shows that students who habitually work in
libraries do better than those who do not. The sight of others
working sometimes makes it easier to get down to work; behav-
iour is more disciplined ; there are rules against talking, etc. So if
_ you are a person who is strongly affected by external stimulation
you may find it easier to workiina library or classroom, where
others are also working. iy
 mnofthe Famciilatirs facilitates mental activity. You can do
work sitting upright on a hard chair than slumped in an
sy hair or lying on a bed. ;
If you watch someone who is doing hard mental work you will
tice that their whole body is slightly tensed. Experiments have
shown that a moderate degree of constant pressure on a hand
ynamometer, for example, facilitates learning. Learning was also
facilitated while maintaining a 14 1b. weight against a pulley. Con-
versely, muscular relaxation leads to mental lassitude. °
follows that study is best done while sitting at a desk or table
1d maintaining an erect posture. Since you will sit for many
hours at your desk or table, you should pay attention to their
ieight and dimensions. The desk should be of a certain size, at
least 4 feet by 2 feet, to allow plenty of room for books and
papers. The chair should be of such a height that your feet can be
placed flat on the floor when your knees are at right angles. The
it height of men varies from 17-21 inches, and of women from
6-20 inches. Good office chairs are often adjustable over this
Tange. The seat length from back to front is also important. Since
the distance from the back of the buttocks to the back of the leg
st below the knee varies from about 17-21 inches, a short seat
will leave you with some of your thigh hanging uncomfortably
over the edge of the seat, and a long seat will force you to sit away
from the backrest or leave your legs dangling in the air.
The relation of chair height to height of the desk-top is also
important. As you sit upright in the chair and let your arm hang
vertically by your side the top of the desk should be about level
th your elbow joint. You probably have to take your study
furniture as you find it, but it may be possible to raise a desk that
s too low by tacking wooden battens on the bottom of it, or
ounteracting a chair which is too high by using a footrest.
The advice about sitting tensed and upright does not, of course,
nea that there is anything very wrong about reading a book in
easy chair. But where you have writing to do, or a difficult task
perform, you will do it better and more quickly at a desk than
imped in an easy chair or lying on a bed.
=)Noise and Work | Y
: one who has had to do much intellectual work must at times
been distracted or even maddened. by noise. With the
evergrowing use of the internal combustion engine, noise is on
the increase: bulldozers, aircraft and motor scooters sometimes
seem to be sent to plague those who need quiet for study.
Yet the industrial psychologists tell us that noise has little effect
on performance. Distracting noises at first reduce performance,
but the worker can adjust to the noise fairly easily and return to
his previous level of work. This is only true, however, of industrial
work, and takes no account of the cost to the individual of main-
taining concentration against a background of noise. Loud, dis-
continuous noises are the worst. Luckily we do become habituated
to the lower levels of noise, and are able to shut them out from
consciousness.
A distinction has to be made between ‘meaningless’ noise and
more meaningful sounds such as music or conversation. Mean-
ingful sounds, although of less intensity, can obviously be much
more distracting than sheer noise.
Noise, especially man-made noise, is a problem because little
control over it is possible, short of wearing earplugs. Much de-
pends on your attitude to the source of noise. I work a few
hundred yards from a drop-forge which is seldom silent, and
whose loud discontinuous clanging appals most visitors. But it is
possible to get used to it, and even to regard it with affection, by
regarding it as a symbol of industry and national prosperity. The
noises made by neighbours tend to be more upsetting, because
they often seem to arise from lack of consideration and ignorance
on the part of the neighbours.
In bad cases you may be able to insulate yourself from distract-
ing noise by closing the windows and generating some sounds
yourself, in order to mask the unwelcome noises from outside. A
radiogram, for example, enables you: to play music which you
think is pleasant at intensities great enough to mask unwanted
noises,
On the question of ‘music while you work’ nothing very definite
can be said. Experimental studies tend to show that the effects of
music depend on attitudes to the music. Music can either increase
or decrease performance, depending on whether you believe it to
be an aid or a hindrance to your work. In industry its effect is
greatest on boring and repetitive work. Since study is not usually
either boring or repetitive it is unlikely to be assisted by music. In
fact it is obvious that difficult mental work is best performed
under quiet conditions.
 orm of indirect lighting is best.
_ When studying you should avoid stale and stuffy atmospheres.
ood room ventilation is desirable. Many forms of room heating
it in close conditions and lead to sleepiness.
- You should work ina regular place, with books and materials
hand. But ifyou find it hard to settle to solitary work, working
in libraries may be more effective.
_ Reasonably quiet conditions are desirable. But it is possible to
just to the more moderate levels of noise. Much depends onn the
i id of noise and on your attitude to it.

For further reading:

Ryan, aL A., Work and Effort, Ronald Press, New York, 1947.
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN

HEALTH AND STUDY

Hard students are commonly troubled with gouts, catarrhs,

rheums, cachexia, bradypepsia, bad eyes, stone and colic,
oppilations, vertigo, winds, consumptions, and all such
diseases as come by overmuch sitting.
BURTON

W E can smile at Burton’s catalogue of all the ailments

which afflict ‘hard students’, but he was undoubtedly
correct in thinking that those who live a sedentary life of over-
sedulous study, and neglect bodily exercise, are likely to suffer
from these multiple ailments, with the accompanying melancholy
and discontent.
Without good health life is hardly worth living, and certainly
no one can study effectively over a long period who is fatigued,
sluggish, anaemic or suffering from a succession of minor
ailments. The need for mental health also (by which is meant
freedom from worry and anxiety, a sense of self-worth, the
ability to meet problems sensibly and rationally, the capacity:
for friendship and for enjoying life) demands that you should
pay attention to your habits of exercise, sleep, diet, and to the
physical environment in which you live, in so far as you can
control it.
Youth, of course, is a healthy age, and young people with
strong constitutions can tolerate all kinds of physical neglect.
without much immediate ill effect. Lack of exercise, in the
view of some medical officers, is the most common fault; it
has been estimated that about 40 per cent of men students
and about 70 per cent of women students fail to take enough
exercise.
Consider the physical environment of our industrial cities —
the dirt, the smoke pall, the lack of fresh air and sunlight, the
general lack of playing-grounds and open spaces, and the
ubiquitous bus and car, which relieve us of the necessity of
a
ae
Be citencoss odity and mental ee The brain itself, the
seat of consciousness, is entirely dependent on its blood supply.
It is well supplied with blood vessels, a fine network of blood
vessels actually encircling individual brain cells. The blood
flow through the brain is faster than through most parts of the
body, and the oxygen which the blood supplies is consumed in
large quantities when the brain is active. If a part of the brain is
temporarily deprived of blood, the brain cells are fatally injured
in a few minutes. These facts should convince you that your
wersof thought are likely to suffer when you are not in good
Se
ly catih, and they underline the need for oxygenation of
blood.
he effect of bodily condition on performance was well
illustrated in an experiment by Mackworth at Cambridge. The
aber of mistakes made by two operators in receiving Morse
essages was recorded when they were healthy and when they
d head colds. In the healthy state they made very few mis-
kes. When they had colds their errors increased in consecutive
ges until, by the ninth message received, one made over
0 mistakes and the other over 300.
nts’ Ailments
“more frequent ailments from hich students suffer are
in the table, which may be taken as cat typical:
Dental decay 60-70 per cent
Frequent colds and respiratory in- :
- fections, chronic nasal obstruction 20-30, ,
15-20, »
14-16, »
10-12, »
5-10» =»
+10. »
 : , = f es Wee ts,

210 HOW TO STUDY ogee ee

Some of these ailments may be unavoidable, others can be
avoided, while most will yield to medical and dental treatment.
A thorough medical examination is desirable before entering on
a course of study, and indeed most universities and colleges now
provide this service.
You yourself can practise a little preventive medicine. Dental
decay will yield to regular dental treatment, a sensible diet, the
toothbrush and the apple after meals. Colds can be avoided by
keeping away from stuffy and overcrowded rooms, and by
attending to foci of infection in the nose and throat. Skin
troubles may yield to diet, cleanliness and freedom from worry
and anxiety. Digestive troubles can often be avoided by attention
to diet and exercise. Examination anxiety does not usually
trouble those who work regularly and are in good physical
health.

The Need for Exercise

As has been said, some authorities think that 40 per cent of men
and 70 per cent of women students fail to take sufficient exercise.
It is of course difficult to define ‘sufficient exercise’, and some
individuals do need more or less exercise than others. There
are in fact contrasting views about the value of exercise, and
you should try and clarify your own ideas on this subject.
Is exercise good or can it be harmful? Some people, par-
ticularly those who are in poor physical condition after years of
an inactive urban life, are afraid of the effects of exercise and wish
to avoid unnecessary strain and effort. They think that exercise
will only increase bodily wear and tear, and tell apocryphal
stories of hale and hearty old men whose only exercise consists
in helping to carry the coffins of their more energetic friends.
At the other extreme are those who think that natural selec-
tion, over thousands of years, has fitted the human body for
strenuous activity in agriculture, hunting and war; and that
those who live inactive sedentary lives in modern cities accumu-
late body-fat, lose muscular tone, and often worry excessively.
In other words, muscles will atrophy unless they are used, and
general bodily decay will be the result of inactivity and lack of
exercise. There is, in fact, some medical evidence which suggests
that those in sedentary occupations are less healthy than those
in more active work. Bus conductors on double-decker buses
‘are less likely to get coronary heart disease than the drivers.
 HEALTH AND STUDY 211
alking posicen get less severe heart disease than postal
office workers. Abnormalities of the heart in general are less
common among active than among sedentary workers.
___ So, on purely physical grounds, there is very little doubt that
' some form of exercise, adapted to the needs of the individual, is
beneficial. The real argument for exercise, however, is not that
_ terrible things will happen to you if you don’t take it, but that
itis enjoyable for its own sake, and the best antidote for brooding
and worrying. Jane Austen’s heroines used to take a walk ‘in
order to recover their spirits’. Walking out of doors supplies
novel stimuli for you to perceive and react to, starts new trains
of thought, and the muscular activity itself can often lift one’s
mood. In many games you are forced to attend and react to a
quick succession of stimuli, so that you are quite unable to
think of anything but the immediate present, thus relieving
- you of any current worries or obsessions.
Exercise does not have to be in the form of strenuous com-
petitive games and sports. Not everyone has an aptitude for
_ athletics, and some probably avoid team games because they
_ have never been good at them, or, because they learned to
_ dislike them at school. The range of sports and active recreations
_is wide, however, including such relatively mild activities as
walking, swimming, tennis, badminton, golf, dancing, skating,
etc., so that everyone should be able to find some form of
exercise, suited to his tastes and interests, which will take him
_ away from his studies, and preferably into the open air, for at
least one or two half days each week. At the University of
Birmingham all first year students are required to take part in
- some form of organized physical activity each week. A wide
- choice of activities is offered, and most students, whatever their
_ initial reactions to the scheme, enjoy themselves and learn new
physical skills.
A habit of regular exercise is also desirable because, in the
long run, the inactive tend to become overweight. This is,
perhaps, a greater consideration in middle age than in youth.
‘It seems that since the human body is adapted for activity, the
_ sedentary almost inevitably eat more than they require. The
mechanisms which regulate the intake of food allow an intake
_ sufficient for a good deal of activity. Hence you must choose
_ between activity, obesity, or, if you are determined enough to
_ restrict your diet, feelings of semi-starvation. z
 ‘Tt is common ‘opinion, however, that it is no
weight by taking exercise. The energy value of food is
in terms of calories. (A calorie is the amount of heat required
to raise the temperature of a kilogramme of water one degree
centigrade.) The number of calories a person requires each day .
depends on his size and body weight, and on the amount of ©
muscular work which he performs. A moderately active man
weighing about 150 1b. probably needs about 2,500-3,000 calories
daily. The caloric equivalent of 1 lb. of fat is about 36 hours’
walking or about 10 hours’ playing soccer. This makes it seem
difficult to lose weight through exercise: you must walk for 36
hours in order to lose 1 Ib. of body fat. Yet it is perfectly easy:
to walk for 36 hours in a month, which is still equivalent to a
pound of body fat or to 12 Ib. of body fat in the course of a year. —
The following table will give you some idea of the energy —
cost of various forms of exercise in calories per hour.
Calories Calories
per hour per hour
Walking 3 m.p.h. 250 Soccer 500
Running 800 or more. Rowing (at racing
Cycling 700 speed) 1,000
Horse riding at Swimming 500 or more
the trot 500 Squash 600
Dancing 300 Climbing 800
Golf 300 Wrestling 1,000 —
Tennis 400
The daily food requirement for a person who is moderately
active is 2,500-3,000 calories, but athletes may require up to
twice these amounts. Roughly, 100 calories can be derived from
+ oz. butter, #oz. chocolate, 1 oz. sugar or cheese, from 13 0z.
bread or 4 02z. of boiled potatoes. So you will have to walk for
rather more than an hour to burn up the calories contained in|
20z. of chocolate or 3 thick slices of bread. Nevertheless,
regular exercise over a period is still a very effective aay of:
avoiding obesity. 7
As a final argument, surveys show that on the average, |
‘those who are physically fit do better at their studies than those
who are not: there is a correlation between physical fitness and
academic marks. These results are perhaps what you would
expect. Mental and physical fitness go together. Physical fitness
 Bight | ees of sleep each night are required by the average
son. There is certainly a range of individual differences,
but the vast majority take between six and nine hours’ sleep.
Presumably these figures refer to the hours when you are actually
‘asleep and not to the hours when you are in bed. You probably
we a fair idea from personal experience of how much sleep
you need if you are to be at your best on the following day.
Some are inclined to boast of how little sleep they need, and to
point to the example of famous men, such as Napoleon or
Edison, who apparently needed only a few hours’ sleep each
ight. Scientific evidence, however, suggests that eminent men
id to sleep rather longer than others. Judging by the number
students who find it hard to get to early morning classes on
time, there are many who either go to bed late or else spend
- more than eight hours in bed. Many individuals in fact work
best on nine hours’ sleep. Certainly there is no truth in the idea
tha only the first few hours of sleep are beneficial, and that the
is wasted. At the same time most people do feel sluggish
lazy after oversleeping. Most feel at their best after a night’s
1p which is no longer and no shorter than usual.
_ Sleep enables the body to eliminate the toxic products which
e accumulated during the day, to repair damage to the
ues, and to store up energy. In sleep there is a decrease in
e heart rate, a fall in blood pressure, and a change in the
bm of the brain waves. The whole body is relaxed and
. in preparation for the next day’s activity. This is per-
not obvious to those who wake in the mornings feeling
ae
‘ out of sorts, and it is a fact that peak efficiency is not
hed for some hours after rising. Consider, however, the
 teat pe ee ee ee eee 2 Ze oa ’

*7 Nee Bes. 5
oo
yo ae
214 HOW TO STUDY
Rather surprisingly, experiments on students kept awake for
up to 100 hours show that little decrement in performance
results on either mental or physical tests. Much more effort —
than usual has to be expended, however, in order to maintain
performance. The students became irritable, found difficulty in
reading and writing, did not remember recent happenings, and -
suffered from headaches and dizziness. They were unable to
maintain their alertness in tasks calling for continuous per-
formance. Any kind of learning became very difficult. Smaller
and lighter individuals generally suffered less than the stronger
and more athletic.
Thus, although the effects of insomnia can be overcome in
the short term by increased effort, in the long run efficiency is
bound to suffer. In spite of the experimental evidence reported
above, most people do feel fatigued after missing their normal
sleep. This may be partly the result of suggestion, but it is
also possible that, if more delicate measurements of the real
cost of work to the individual were available, quite a small
sleep loss could be shown to be detrimental to performance.
It is therefore important to establish regular habits of sleep
and relaxation. Sleep is largely a matter of habit and physio- —
logical rhythm. Undressing, getting into bed, turning off the
light, together with the freedom from noise and other dis-
tractions, constitute the conditioned stimuli for sleep. Their
regular sequence is usually sufficient to ensure sleep when you
are normally tired at the end of the day.
Yet there are times when it is difficult to get to sleep. The
most common causes are unusual worry or excitement; unwise
indulgence in food, coffee or tobacco; indigestion; lack of
exercise; being too hot or too cold; and attempting to wrangle
with intellectual problems too near to bedtime. It is usually
wise to avoid intense mental activity immediately before going
to bed — otherwise confused dreams and restlessness may result.
It is best to relax, and talk or read some light work. Reading in
bed often induces sleep, since it is fatiguing and produces
eyestrain. A
Deep, unbroken sleep is more wholesome and refreshing
than light and fitful sleeping. Is there anything that can be done
to improve the quality of sleep? The type of bed, whether
hard or soft, probably has little to do with the type of sleep. -
‘fhe ideal bed is probably that which allows movement during
 TH ‘AND STUDY 215
; sp. The average sleeper changes his posture every eleven
_ minutes. Men are more mobile than women (as many aggrieved
wives are aware). It seems that no one position.or posture will
_ give maximum rest to all parts of the body. Hence movement is
"necessary to relieve the tensions and cramps which arise in any -
_ particular posture. As many as fifty changes of posture are
_ made in the course of a normal night’s sleep, in order to relax
_ each part of the body in turn. It is said that you can sleep just
~ as soundly on boards or on the ground as on an inner spring
- mattress — provided that you are used to doing so. Sleeping on
boards, however, tends to make certain postures extremely
_ uncomfortable, so there is something to be said for having a
‘bed soft enough to allow you to turn all round during sleep
_ without discomfort.
_ Diet
_ Healthy people do not worry very much about what they eat.
’ But there are many otherwise quite sensible persons who have
_ aversions to such valuable foods as milk, fish, tomatoes, etc.,
-and a fair number of faddists who live on very restricted diets.
Most of us are probably rather too rigid and conservative in
our choice of foods: definite preferences for certain classes of
- food seem to be established in childhood, so that we habitually,
and sometimes unwisely, consume certain foods, and neglect

_ Food provides energy for work and for the vital functions of
_ the body. It helps to make good bodily wear and tear, and it
_ supplies ‘fuel’ for the maintenance of body heat. Few people in
Britain today go short of calories, but the calories may be
' derived from an excessive intake of sugar and processed cereals,
© that other important dietary elements are lacking. The staple
' diet of paupers has always been white bread, sugar and potatoes,
which supply the calories, but not the proteins, minerals and
vitamins essential for health. In order to preserve health, a
diet must contain proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals,
vitamins and water, in proper proportions.
The elements most likely to be deficient in British diets are
calcium and vitamins A and C, and further, in diets containing
a great deal of sugar and processed cereals, protein, iron and
Vitamin B,. Lack of energy and vitality are thought to result
from mild vitamin deficiencies. The following table indicates which
food substances are good sources (althou;
only sources) of the important vitamins anc

Minerals and
Vitamins Good Sources
A Fish liver (cod Eye discomfort
Important in growth liver oil) Poor night vision
Stored in body Some yellow and Poor hearing —
green vegetables Dryness of skin
(e.g. carrots, » Frequent colds ‘
watercress)
Ox and sheep
liver
Butter

By Yeast (Marmite) Loss of appetite

(aneurin) Cereal germs Lack of energy
(Hovis) Constipation
Liver
Egg yolk
By Yeast Rough skin
(riboflavin) Liver _ Cracking of skin at
Milk and cheese corners of mouth —‘
Eggs
Fish roe al

Nicotinic acid Liver Derma: titis ‘i

(Niacin) Yeast Mental depression —
Antipellagra Meat
Wholemeal flour

Cc Rose hips Boils 3 see

(ascorbic acid) Blackcurrants Failure of wounds _
Anti-scurvy Strawberries to heal— ;
Destroyed by Citrus fruits - Fatigue, anaemia ‘
cooking and © Green vegetables
drying especially the
Not stored in body cabbage family
(not lettuce)
Tomatoes p
 . Deficiency —
Symptoms
Rickets
é. Fish liver oils Poor calcification
Herring of bones
Mackerel © Dental decay
Sardines
Eggs

Deficiency
Good Sources Symptoms
_ Sardines Bad teeth
Cheese, cream Nose bleeding
Egg yolk
Celery, beans
Almonds
Dried figs
Watercress
Poor appetite
Loss of weight

- Oatmeal
Beans
Heart, liver Anaemia
Eggs Low vitality
Oatmeal
Blackcurrants
Dried fruits
Cocoa and
chocolate
Fish Low metabolism
Broccoli Susceptibility
Todised salt to infection
218
The effects of vitamins depend on other components in the diet,
and on their inter-relationship. For instance Vitamin D can be
antagonized by an unsatisfactory calcium-phosphorus intake.
An excess of carbohydrate in the diet necessitates an increase in
the intake of Vitamin B,. The vitamin B units are closely inter-
related in their action.
If you pass your eye quickly down the table of vitamins and
minerals you will see that certain foodstuffs appear several
times in the table, and are therefore particularly valuable.
Some of these are eggs, liver, raw green vegetables, tomatoes,
milk, cheese, fish and wholemeal bread.
Since the most likely deficiencies are of Vitamins A and C
and calcium, and possibly Vitamin B, and iron, you should
ensure that you get enough of the foodstuffs mentioned as
good sources of these elements, particularly in the late winter.
As our long and gloomy winter draws on, the vitamin content
of foods declines. Early potatoes may have 8 mg. of vitamin C
per oz., old stored potatoes only 1 mg. per oz. Summer milk
may have 800 international units of vitamin A per pint, winter
milk less than half that amount. Many students have to eat at .
large refectories and canteens in which food may be kept on
hot plates for some hours. This has the effect of destroying
what little vitamin C may be left over from the cooking.
Because of the difficulties of getting enough vitamin C in the
winter diet at a reasonable cost, it may be worth supplementing
your diet with synthetic vitamins, This is best done, however,
by taking a complete supplement, consisting of all the important
vitamins and minerals listed above, not by taking tablets of the
one element you think is missing from your diet. Complete
supplements are readily available commercially. Probably quite
small doses are effective - much smaller than the makers usually
recommend.
There is no evidence that increasing either vitamins B or C
in the diet beyond normal levels improves either the work
performance or the resistance to fatigue of young healthy
adults. But vitamin supplements apparently help to cut down
minor ailments. In a study on a group of aircraft workers in
California in the last world war, an experimental group was
given a vitamin supplement five days a week for a year.
A control group was given ‘placebo’ pills, and a third group no >
treatment at all. The vitamin group proved to be superior to
 other ‘two ous inesis eteoiey over the year. Since
nis was true of California where’ the typical diet includes
auch more fresh fruit than in Britain, it is almost certain that
tamin supplements are of value here. Remember, however,
' that they are only supplements, and in no sense substitutes for
fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, cheese, eggs, liver, fish and
_ other protective foods.
A good diet will include daily:
1. Tomatoes, oranges, raw cabbage or salad — one or more
servings.
. Other vegetables or fruits — one or more servings.
. Meat or fish — one or more servings.
Eggs — one a day.
Cereals and bread — including some wholemeal bread.
. Butter or vitamin enriched margarine.
Cheese — one serving.
. Milk — at least 1 pint.
POIHDAAWN
. Water, or beverages containing water — 23-3 pints.
The best way of ensuring that your diet contains all the
4 necessary vitamins is to eat a good variety of foods. Make sure
that you spend adequate amounts on:
Vegetables and fruit.
Milk and cheese.
Meat, fish and eggs.
_ I shall summarize this discussion by listing those foods that I
- think sedentary workers should eat more of, and those that
they should-eat less of. In the main they should eat less starchy
_ food, and more fruit, vegetables and proteins. Athletes, and
_ those doing heavy muscular work, on the other hand, need to
consume large amounts of carbohydrate to supply fuel for their
muscles.
Foods that sedentary workers Foods that sedentary workers
should eat more of: should eat less of:
Raw shredded cabbage and Sugar
_ grated carrots . Cakes, biscuits and pastries
and other sugary
0 confectionery
ranges and other fresh fruit | Sweets and toffees
and sheep liver ; Processed meats and pies
 y CasBSwheee RL Vere es
aad
ae
SENET
vee Na
sala >
ee oa)
ent. n
220 ni ‘HOW TO S
Foods that sedentary workers Foods that sedent.
should eat more of: should eatless of:
Eggs Made up and rehashed meat
Cheese and dairy products dishes
Fresh herrings, sardines, — Sausages
' cod’s roe Packeted breakfast cereals
Oatmeal Tinned foods
Marmite and yeast extracts The sour yeast and other
Nuts and dried fruits poison put out as ‘beer’ by
large breweries
Finally, a word about how you take your meals, Bacon said:
‘To be free-minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat
. . is one of the best precepts of long lasting.’ Avoid hurry and
anxiety at mealtimes - they interfere with digestion. This may
sound like a counsel of perfection if you are sometimes forced
to take a hasty snack, or to join a long queue for meals, but the —
ideal is to be able to sit relaxed, among friends with whom you
feel at ease.
‘Alcohol
Alcohol depresses all psychological Fonctians and reduces
general efficiency. In spite of the overwhelming scientific evidence —
for this statement, many people nevertheless regard alcohol as a
stimulant. Many habitual drinkers declare that a few drinks
excite rather than fatigue them, and increase their efficiency
rather than depress it. How is this conflict between popular
belief and scientific evidence to be explained? The answer ©
seems to be that even quite small doses of alcohol have a de-
pressant effect on the central nervous system as a whole, in- —
cluding the brain. An important function of the highest centres
of the brain is to inhibit the expression of emotion and impulse,
and to supply intellectual control and self-criticism. One of the
first and most obvious effects of alcohol is to destroy this
intellectual control: after a few drinks there is often a sense of —
well-being, feelings of comradeship towards fellow drinkers, an
increase in self-confidence and loss of timidity. Tongues begin —
to wag, there is much boasting and loud talk, pet hatreds and —
prejudices are freely expressed, and after more drinks, many
are prone to sentimental weepings, outbursts of anger and
uninhibited sexual behaviour, as the primary emotions are
freed from their normal cerebral control.
 Wetton aeae
HEALTH AND STUDY 221
So, although alcoho! sometimes appears to the drinker to be
‘a stimulant because of the loss of self-criticism, its actual effect
' is to depress most bodily and mental functions. Its immediate
effects on the person will vary with body-weight, the state of
' the stomach, the concentration of the alcohol and the rate at
which it is ingested Habitual drinkers build up a tolerance for
_ alcohol, so that they are not as much affected by small amounts
* of alcohol as those who seldom drink. Degree of intoxication
nevertheless largely depends on the amount of alcohol in the
' blood. The usual course of intoxication may be presented
facetiously thus:
Alcohol in Blood:
0:05%or 0:10% 018% 0:22% 032% 04% 05%
less
Dry and Delight- Delin- Dizzy Dazed Dead
decent. edand quent andde- and drunk. Dead.
devilish. and dis- lirious. dejected.
gusting.
It hardly needs to be. said that alcohol, even in small
amounts, is likely to interfere with study. In one experiment
weak beer (2-75 per cent of alcohol) was drunk on certain days,
and beer from which the alcohol had been removed on other
days. Tests were made of physical functions before and after
drinking, and also of speed of adding and speed of learning. All
the psychological tests showed some decrement in performance
after drinking alcohol.
The graph shows a typical result: speed of adding was much
reduced after a few weak beers in the lunch break.
On the physical side, alcohol sends up the pulse rate. The
heart rate increases, not because of any stimulating effect, but
- because alcohol, like nicotine, interferes with the operation of
the vagus nerve, which normally slows down the heart rate.
Alcohol also produces an illusory sensation of warmth. This is
because alcohol causes a relaxation of the walls of the blood
vessels, allowing easy circulation of the blood in the skin areas.
Heat is thus radiated freely from the body, and the actual body
temperature therefore drops.
_ In view of these facts, you may wonder why most human
‘societies use alcohol on social occasions, festivals, birthdays,
weddings and funerals. The reason is that alcohol promotes
 AVERAGE MORNING
PERFORMANCE =100

Ew
|i
22
fer
bs
ee ere
EAg
:

Pe 28:8) ade Slr 6 2 eS er

TIME
COMPLETE
TO
REQUIRED
TEST
ADDING MORNING TESTS AFTERNOON TESTS
Fig. 26. The effect of alcohol on speed of, adding. One
group drank 3-4 bottles of beer at lunchtime. A rise in
the graph indicates poorer performance

what the sociologists call ‘informal social integration’, i.e.

feelings of unity, friendship and solidarity with one’s fellows.
Moreover, a drinking ‘culture’ arises, in learned institutions as
elsewhere, with definite rituals for preparing drinks, imbibing
them, drinking songs, drinking contests, together with their
associated stories and legends. Men students, in particular, may
find that drinking on special occasions is a common way of
cementing friendships, and sometimes a kind of pee and
escape from the hardships of student life.
American studies show that about 80 per cent of men and
60 per cent of women students drink, but that only 20 per cent
of men and 10 per cént of women drink more frequently than
once a week. Probably the figures for British students would not
be very different. For a normal well-balanced person there is
obviously very little harm in taking a few drinks on a Saturday
night. For unstable personalities, on the other hand, alcohol
provides such a ready means of escape from personal difficulties
and limitations that they may be unable to be moderate iin their
use of alcohol.

|
 “HEALTH AND STUDY 223
In summary, to drink even small quantities of alcohol is
\dvised on those days on which you mean to do hard intel-
ectual work. The more difficult and the more ‘creative’ the
task, the worse will be the effect of alcohol. The great German
physiologist, Helmholtz, thought that even tiny amounts of
alcohol ruined his intellectual creativity. Those people who claim
that alcohol helps them to work have built up a tolerance for
it by daily drinking. So unless you wish to build up a tolerance
by regular indulgence, it is clearly much better not to drink on
working days. At the convivial party or special occasion, each
individual probably has to learn from unpleasant experience
_ sensible limits which he should not exceed. At all events it is
stupid to drink so much that hangovers, illness and unfitness
for work follow the next day.

Tobacco
The principal arguments against smoking result from the health
Tisks incurred by heavy smokers. The immediate influence of
smoking on working efficiency is small. The classic research on
this subject was done by C. L. Hull in America. In order to
avoid the effects of suggestion, he blindfolded his subjects and
- gave them, on ‘tobacco’ days, a pipe of tobacco to smoke, and
on ‘tobaccoless days’ an artificial pipe through which warm
Moist air was sucked, tobacco smoke being present in the air.
_ The subjects of the experiment did not suspect that on the
_ tobaccoless days they were not getting an ordinary pipe of
tobacco: they were unable to distinguish between tobacco
smoke and warm moist air. Hull’s results show that there was
"an increase of almost 10 per cent in the heart rate and in hand
— tremor on smoking a pipe of tobacco, and that this effect
persisted for more than an hour. On some tests of working
efficiency, such as speed of adding and speed of learning,
habitual smokers were about 5 per cent more efficient after
‘smoking, but those who did not normally smoke were about
3 per cent less efficient after smoking. On most of the functions
tested, however, the differences were unreliable and inconsistent,
showing that smoking has a negligible effect on work.
The nicotine in tobacco is a poison and makes a very effective
insecticide. Both cigarettes and intravenous injections of nicotine
have the same effects :an increase in heart rate, in blood pressure
and in basal metabolism. Many people put on weight when
they give up smoking, partly pecdias their
slightly reduced, and partly because they eat more. ;
On the positive side smoking is supposed to ‘tlaanxiety and ny
provide relief from tension. It encourages sociability and
provides the idle with an occupation.
As a group, non-smokers are better students than smokers.
This difference in performance, however, probably has nothing
to do with smoking as such. Smokers tend to be more sociable
than non-smokers, and therefore to be rather more likely to
neglect their work than non-smokers.
The now notorious association of heavy smoking not only
with lung cancer, but also with bronchitis and coronary heart
disease, suggests that it is advisable not to exceed ten cigarettes '
a day, to use filters and not to smoke cigarettes down to the
last inch; and better still not to smoke at all. The death rate
from lung cancer in Britain is estimated at 135 per 100,000 per
year for cigarette smokers, 39 per 100,000 for pipe smokers and
10 per 100,000 for non-smokers. These facts have sagan to
many men that a pipe is safer than cigarettes.

Caffeine
The stimulant drug, caffeine, is contained in some form in tea,
coffee and cocoa. A large cup of tea or coffee contains about
4 grains of caffeine. In small and moderate doses (14 grains)
caffeine improves most mental performances. In larger doses
it may have a depressant effect, and, in doses of 6 grains or more
it interferes with sleep. It does not increase ability, but makes the
person more awake, less fatigued and quicker to react.
Tea and coffee are drunk by almost everyone, and if they .
have any harmful or toxic effects on the system, these are not —
obvious. These beverages are, however, habit-forming: many
individuals are difficult to live with until they have had their _
morning cup, and to be deprived of the habitual eleven o’clock —
tea or coffee causes psychological unrest. William Cobbett used
to inveigh against the injurious effects of ‘tea, coffee and other
slop-kettle’. In small doses, however, caffeine does not seem to
produce any harmful effects in the body, other than causing a ~
great increase in tremor and a loss of muscular steadiness, —
while it does make for heightened efficiency, the stimulating —
effect occurring after about 2 hours and lasting until the scone ie
day. :
 205 .
ke tablets of . Gas in1 order to stay awake late
for examinations. This practice is not.to be recom-

es muscular steadiness. It has been successfully used to,

at fatigue in military operations, and iis sometimes given

¢ ome prescription, however, and this is wise since in the

e!long run the loss of sleep resulting from taking the drug would
lower ee ane.

sedentary, and that students who are in good health do better

those in poor health.
though loss of sleep may have little effect on work in the
‘ort term, it is important to establish sound habits of sleep and
elaxation.
itish diets may be deficient in important vitamins and

ma eggs, ia fish and other protective foods.

eg depresses all 5 uwagabees functions ay should be

‘caffeine contained in tea and Coffee, although habit

1 is aPomeless: stimulant.
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN

MENTAL HEALTH

It is too frequently the pride of students to despise those

amusements and recreations which give to the rest of man-
kind strength of limbs and cheerfulness of heart. —
_JOHNSON

UST as you can improve your physical health by attention to

diet, exercise and sleep, so you can improve your mental health
by intelligent self-direction. But the most effective self-direction
is of an indirect sort, and usually means building up friendships
and activities, not ruminating about the self. Lengthy self-
analysis, excessive self-consciousness and over-concern with one’s
own difficulties are morbid activities, and seldom lead to any
personal improvement. The common advice to “leave your mind
alone’, is good advice in the sense that a day’s outdoor exercise
with friends is usually a much better remedy against conflict and
anxiety than a period of solitary brooding.
At the same time all resourceful people think about their ex-
periences, and try and learn from them. Although your personality
is determined by the past - by the complicated interplay of
heredity and social training — you are still free to choose between
courses of action. Although no one can, in a short space of time,
bring about radical changes in his behaviour or overcome personal
limitations — indeed psychologists work on the assumption that
behaviour is determined by past experience — you can at least
learn not to repeat past mistakes. The intelligent person learns to
look at the alternatives before him, to consider their probable
consequences, and to choose those courses of action which are
likely to lead to desirable results.
This final chapter will deal with the achievement motive, with
social participation, with reactions to thwarting, and with sex.
On few of these matters can any definite advice be given, but I
hope that the account given here may give you occasional fresh
insights into your behaviour.

a
 _ MENTAL HEALTH 227

The Achievement Motive

_ Societies like ours, in which careers are supposed to be open to
talent, encourage competitive striving for success. When social
position and advancement depend on effort, parents begin very
early to put pressure on their children to work hard at school. In
_ Britain, striving for success begins in the junior school, and later,
in a whole range of white-collar occupations success depends on
_ passing a series of competitive examinations, and on being pro-
_ moted from one salary level to the next.
: For success in most branches of study you must have definite
_ yoeational aims and high personal ambition. In one research
study the following questionnaire items were found to distinguish
_ between over-achievers (in relation to intelligence) and under-
achievers:
(1) Planning only makes a person unhappy since your plans
hardly ever work out anyhow. (Over-achievers disagree, under-
achievers agree.)
(2) When a man is born, the success he’s going to have is already
in the cards, so he might as well accept it and not fight against
__ it, (Over-achievers disagree, under-achievers agree.)
(3) The best kind of job to have is one where you are part of an
organization allworking together even if you don’t get individ-
ual credit. (Over-achievers disagree, under-achievers agree.)
@) When the time comes for a boy to take a job, he should stay
near his parents, even if it means giving up a good job oppor-
tunity. (Over-achievers disagree, under-achievers agree.)
_G) Its silly for a teenager to put money into a car when the money
eal _
ed 74
could be used to get started in business or for an education.
as (Over-achievers agree, under-achievers disagree.)
oP
: (6) Nowadays, with world conditions what they are, the wise
% person lives for today and lets tomorrow take care of itself.
(Over-achievers disagree, under-achievers agree.)
You can see that the over-achievers believe in planning and
effort and working towards distant goals, that they are prepared

;to move away from home, and that they would prefer jobs in
“which individual merit is recognized. Planning, effort and working
towards long-term goals have been recommended throughout
id peek But you should remember also that an excessively high
SMoioven, success mayrte attained bi
at too
turns into an anxious ‘striver’ in the process. A grim and
exhausting work may lead to public success but to personal failure.
It is only too obvious that many of those who attain high office
have reached their place after labours which have left them no.
time to develop much social or practical intelligence. Worse still,
over-concern with reputation and success blights all relationships
with others, since others are seen as rivals, or are merely manipu-
lated or exploited for personal ends.
The egocentric person, without ordinary human sympathy, is,
in Bacon’s words, ‘a busy mischievous, wretched thing, no better
than a kind of vermin’. Unfortunately the hierarchical organiza-
tion of industrial society tends to reward egocentric strivers after
power, as witness the absurd pretentions and status-consciousness
of almost every ‘Jack-in-office’.

Social Participation
Both the very sociable and the very unsociable make poor stu-
dents. On the one hand those who spend a great part of their time
in convivial parties or in idle conversation fail to do enough work.
On the other hand the social isolates who take no part in student
activities often fail in their work because they lack the stimulus
and help of friends. Some psychologists look upon extent of
social participation as some index of a person’s mental health. It
certainly is some index of the person’s energy and activity, since
friendships are based on some kind of shared activity, in work,
sport or recreation; and the more activities a person engages in,
the more friendships he is likely to make. Since man is a social
animal, he needs good social relations with others. But social
needs are stronger in some than in others. Some people would
sooner have solitude and contemplation than a noisy round of
social life, and there is no evidence that such people need be
‘maladjusted’. There is no virtue in spending a great deal of time
in idle chatter and gossip.
The highest academic honours are sometimes won by those
who are rather unsociable, and more interested in books and
ideas than in other people. There is indeed some evidence that the
labours of an academic course are best tolerated by those who, on
general psychological grounds, might be regarded as having
mildly pathological characteristics, such as social withdrawal, and
rigid control of emotion. This evidence, however, is eae an
 oP
Litt of courses of study which encourage these pathological
=e . Ordinary social competence, on general grounds, is
s important as academic success, and this social competence
sh be achieved by adequate practice in many different

‘cardinal principle is that you should praise and flatter others and
etend an interest in their concerns so that they will like you.
‘Such hypocritical praise and flattery is bound to be seen as false
in the long term, yet this ‘sales’ advice does contain an element of
truth: friends are aware of each other’ S needs and purposes, and

‘interests Sid activities,

These are some of the factors which interfere with the forma-
n of friendships :*

n tricity — A concern with one’s own interests to the extent of

ng insensitive to the welfare and rights of others. The ego-

takean exploitive approach to others. Sometimes deceit extends

to outright lying and stealing, but more commonly shows itself
in the efforts of an ‘operator’ to manipulate people and situa-
tions to his own advantage.
) onformity -An emphasis on getting along with others at
fhe expense of personal integrity, often accompanied by a ten-
dency to be overawed by the authority of those whose good
nion seems important— and, in turn, to be authoritarian
pos wel a those considered inferior.

being “bossed’. Sometimes aoa takes the form of

ting all of society’s mores and manners in an ill-conceived

om Coleman, J. C., Personality Dynamics and Effective Behaviour,

ight Scott, Forsman and Co. Chicago, 1960,
 Fe 2 = 5 hail Ca yt an ee

230 HOW TO STUDY _

for either material aid or emotional support and to rely upon’
them in making decisions. The overdependent person contri-
butes little or nothing to a relationship and usually loses his
self-respect as well as the respect of the other person.
Hostility - A tendency, usually associated with authority prob-
lems, to be antagonistic and suspicious towards others. When
hostility is openly expressed, it creates immediate problems in a
relationship. Equally harmful in the long run are such covert
expressions of hostility as being gossipy or over competitive.
Feelings of Inferiority - A basic lack of self-confidence or self-
esteem, which may be expressed either in over-sensitivity to
‘threat’ or in exaggerated efforts to prove one’s own adequacy
by boasting, showing off and being hypercritical of others.
Emotional Insulation — An inability to make the necessary emo-
tional investment in a relationship for fear of being hurt.

Reactions to Failure
From the earliest days of life everyone has to learn that needs
cannot always be satisfied, and that desires are not always at-
tained. When faced with failures and difficulties there are four
courses of action open to you:
(1) You can repeat the same kind of behaviour which has resulted
in failure, in the hope that next time you will be successful.
(2) You can vary behaviour, using a different method of attack
on the obstacles before you. ;
(3) You can give up trying and take no further action.
(4) You can give up trying to reach your original goal, but work
towards some other goal as a substitute or compensatory
activity.
The traditional precept to ‘keep trying’ does often ensure that
difficulties and obstacles will be overcome. But it is not always the
most intelligent response. It is usually better to analyse the reasons
for failure, and to make a rational appraisal of the four possibili-
ties of action. Each may be the most appropriate reaction, de-
pending on the situation. The following table gives some indica-
tion of the circumstances in which the four kinds of reaction are
desirable and undesirable:
 231
ons to thwarting*
: This action is This action is This action is
likely when— desirable when— undesirable when—

Person expects re- Person re-exam- Personis “forcing”

sponse to suc- ines _ situation without re- _
ceed. before deciding examination.
Person cannot to repeat. Repetition is long
withdraw or re- continued.
interpret, or dis-
likes trying the
more appropri-
Eg ate response.
Altered Person has little The new response New response
_ ‘response faith in his orig- is based on rein- is chosen
inal response. terpretation; the thoughtlessly.
Person has confi- old response is
dence in his abil- given due con-
ity to reinterpret sideration.
and carry out a
new action.
:3Withdrawal Person does not Person has little Person withdraws
expect to suc- chance of suc- when reason-
ceed. ceeding. able effort will
Person finds trying Goal is unimpor- bring success.
unpleasant, or tant.
does not value
the goal.
Substitution Substitnte is
; avail- The new goal satis- Person fails to
able. fies the same satisfy a basic
Other conditions needs as the need, so de-
as in with- original goal. velops in unbal-
drawing The new goal per- anced manner.
mits useful Person must learn
learning. to. cope with
Other conditions original situ-
as in with- ation.
drawing. The substitute un-
dertaking is un-
realistic.

: sexual drive in men is much higher than is necessary for pro-

reation, and it reaches its peak in the adolescent years, well before
ma triage. Most young men therefore have the difficult problem
of dealing with unresolved sexual tensions. The rates of sexual

‘om L. J. Cronbach, Educational Psychology, 2nd Edn., Harcourt,

and World Inc., New York, and cane Hart-Davis, London,
63, p 585.
 Frequency of outlet per week
0 or less than 0:5 fay Mae
0:5 -— 1:0 oe Se oh it
1-5 -2°5 30-9 i
3-0 — 4:5 25:9
5:0 — 7°5 12:2
8-0 and more 2aSee
The median frequency is about two outlets weekly, but there is
a considerable range of individual differences.
In women the sexual drive is less strong, and the nature of
‘outlet’ is less clear, but Kinsey states that only about one third
of women come up to the male average before marriage.
It is possible that the figures for British males would be smaller,
but as no reliable British figures are available, the American
figures may be taken as an estimate. -
The wide range of individual differences is the result of the
interplay of many factors, among which can be distinguished:
(1) Physiological and hormonal factors.
(2) Habits and past experience of sexual activity.
(3) Social rules and restraints.
(4) External stimulation, including the availability of sexual part-
ners.
The highest rates of activity will be found amongst eons who
are endowed with a high degree of sexual vigour, who have built
up habits of indulgence, who are uninfluenced by social controls,
and who have sexual partners readily available. Such are some of
Kinsey’s criminals and ‘underworld’ men.
The lowest rates will be found amongst those who have weal
sexual drives, who have never indulged in much sexual activity,
whose moral and religious beliefs condemn it, and who live in an
environment in which sexual partners are not available. Such
might be celibate priests.
All human societies put some restraints on sexual activity, and
these tend to be most severe in Protestant countries. All Western
societies restrain sexual activity, not only to avoid unwanted
pregnancies and the spread of disease, but also because promis-
- cuity would undermine their forms of marriage and family life.
For the individual, excessive sexual activity usually means the
dissipation of energies which might be devoted to more useful
‘purposes. The demands of work and study are met with ei Po
 on Ee and the Cost neaient of marriage.
ce Sian question is whether the energy which een be

mmon idea that the highest achievements depend on ‘sup-

sressing direct sexual activity and directing energy to higher ends.
But Freud himself thought that-such ‘sublimation’ was found in
_ many people only in slight degree. Kinsey was frankly contemp-
ous of the idea of sublimation, and thought that, apart from
ose who were physically incapable or natively low in sex drive,
re were simply no cases of sublimation in his studies. Similarly
a study of forty healthy young unmarried men at Harvard Univer-
sity, whose character and achievements were of the highest order,
_ showed that all habitually engaged in direct sexual activity of
- some kind. It would appear therefore, that few men are able to
ttain absolute continence, at least in our modern society,in
hich sex tends to be overvalued, commercially exploited, and
tegarded as a desirable activity in itself. This is not to say that the
level of sexual activity cannot be lowered by directing interests
Isewhere, by taking strenuous physical exercise, and by avoiding
those situations which are likely to stimulate sexual activity.
_ This discussion of sex may seem to be too crudely biological to
. justice to the romanticism which surrounds the relationship
Between the sexes, but does nevertheless present the crux of the
tter: that men students in particular have to control their
sexual drives, and since direct heterosexual gratification is seldom
possible, to direct their interests to their work as far as possible,
and to get by with such partial or substitute satisfactions as will
y , least Menieging to their self-respect.

het comes from strong ambitions. But the com-

 newviaad of effort, withdrawal, and substitu a
of situation are outlined in which each of these reaction
appropriate.
Men students, in particular, tend to be faced with the problem
of dealing with unresolved sexual tensions. These should not
cause personal conflict if the individual realizes that hissituation |
is common to most others iin his age group.

For further reading:

Coleman, J. C., Personality Dynamics and Effective Behavior,
Scott, Foresman and Co., Chicago, 1960.

*
 INDEX
breviations, 104 Distractions from study, 22, 23,
hievement motive, 227 37, 38, 45, 206
Alcohol, effects of, 220, 221 elimination of, 37
Drugs as stimulants, 224

Early rising, 48
Efficiency, meaning of, 18
Benzedrine sulphate as stimu- diurnal variations of, 28
mientiant, 225 improvement of, 14
ibliographies, 107 English writing, 163-81
Books for study, 20, 73, 93, 108, brevity in, 173
148, 162, 181, 198, 207, 225 choice of words, 166
ooks, advice on, 91 connecting sentences, 174
construction of sentences, 170
affeine as stimulant, 224 familiar words, use of, 167
lorie, 212 punctuation, 163, 177
ardsfor recording information, re-reading, 176
107 re-writing, 176
STeserizétion, development of, spelling, 163, 178
131 stages of, 163
hoice of study, 17 technical subjects
ice of words, 166 Equations, 193
_ Class attendance, 11-13 Evidence and facts, 142
te omprehension test, 80, 82 Examinations, 109
Computation, speed and accur- avoiding anxiety in, 116
acy, 188 legible writing essential in, 121
centration, 37 papers, terms in, 119, 120
preparing for, 109
returned papers, use of, 122
Connecting sentences, 124 revision for, 110-14
onstruction of sentences, 170 sleep before, 118
technique, 118

Facts, popular, press and, 143

value of, 143
Failure, fear of, 45
reactions to, 230
Fallacies, 134
Feedback, importance of, 43
Filing system, 97
936
Forgetting, causes, 67
Fractions, 185 from textbooks,
Free time, use of, 32 insightful, 59
organizing, 61
_ Graphs in mathematics, 195 resistance to, 72
Group decision, power of, 49 tote, 59 .
Group discussions, 149 Lecturer advantages over text-
advantages of, 152 book, 100
types of, 156 Lectures, 96, 99
Group friendships, 154 notes at, 101
Group work, 149 organization of, 103
advantages of, 152 where to sit, 100 4
Library, value and use of, 92
Habits, 36 Logarithms, 190-2
changing, 44, 47
formation of, 45, 47 Mathematics, 182-98
Handwriting, chart, 180 computation, 188
value of legible, 179 decimals, 186
Health, 208-25 equations, 193
ailments, 209 fractions, 185
alcohol, effects on, 220 graphs, 195
diet, 212 indices, 189
exercise, 208, 210 logarithms, 190-2
mental, 226-34 operations, arithmetic, 183
Holidays, 32 percentages, 187
paid work during, 32 proportions, 187.
square roots, 192
Indices in mathematics, 189 symbols, 182
operations with, 190 Memorizing, interference with, 66
Inference, 143 methods of, 63
Information, storing of, 67 Memory, 63
Insightful learning, 59 systems, 63
Interpersonal relationships, 229 Mental health, 226-34.
Mental vigour, increase of, 14 ~
Journal, keeping a, 35 Methods of study, applying Te
search
Knowledge, broadening, 94 findings to, 10
extending, 44 principles of, 9 3
memorizing, 61, 63 Method of work ae 14
of results, 42 Minerals, 216°
organizing, 61 Motives, 36
retention of, 53
Noise, effects of on study,205EA
Late hours, detrimental, 28 Note books, 97 oe
. Learning, course of, 51 looseleaf, 98 2a ie
 Revision tests,58
before examinations, 58
Rote learning, 59

Sensory input, suppression of,

39
Sentences, connecting, 12
construction of, 170
Sex, 231-3
control of, 233
Sleep, 213-15
before examination, 118
Social participation, effect on
study, 228
Sociometry, 154
ofworry over, 45 Spelling, 178
on environment, 199-207 misspelling, 179
mistakes in, 178
g-term, 25 Square roots, 192
ctice, distribution of, 35 SQ3R System of study, 53-59,
€ 89 se 90, 106
Se ntroutine, examination of, Stimulants, 224-5
; 24 Students, ailments, 209, 210
>roblem solving, 136 attendance at class, 12, 13
an efficient, 13, 14
questionnaire on, 13
Study, amount needed, 25
applying research findings, 10
choice of, 17
difficulties in, 45
habits of students, 11
health and, 208
how to, 13-15
- importance of understanding,
52
main sources, 142
methods of, 9
motives for, 16
noise and, 205
printed sources of, 142
~ regularity of, 23
relax during, 32
self-discipline for, 19
television and, 142
where to, 203
 5) eo ee oe eeeeeSaget Pate
©
238 INDEX

Study units, length of individual, improving, 141

30 nature of, 125 i
Study guides, use of, 63 Tobacco, effects on health, 223°
Study room, 199 Trigonometry, 196
furniture for, 205
heating of, 201-3 Under-achievers, 16
lighting of, 199-200 motives of, 227
temperature of, 203 Understanding, importance of,
ventilation of, 201-3 52
Suffixes, common, 89
Symbols, use of, 104 Vacations, 32
Systematic study, 53 paid work during, 32
Vitamins, 216
Tea as stimulant, 224 Vocabulary, enlarging, 164
Television and study, 142 improving, 86
Textbooks, 10, 55 technical, 169
correct reading of, 54, 55 Vocational ‘choice, 17
Timetable of work,
advantages of, 22 Word derivation, 88
fillingin, 30 Work, distractions from, 38
need of, 21 output, effect of presence
weekly, 25 of others, 151. |
Thinking, 124 Working hours, pattern of, 27
concepts, 128 Writing English, see English
conceptual, 131 writing
creative, 146 Writing legibly, advantages of
determining factors of, 134 121
development of, 136 Written ie organizatior
fallacies, 134 of, 175
Robert H. Thouless
STRAIGHT AND CROOKED
THINKING |
‘This practical book by an eminent psychologist tells you
how to think clearly and avoid muddled reasoning. It
exposes many dishonest tricks that are frequently used in
argument, drawing the examples from controversial subjects
_ which are often discussed today. (3/6)

Charles Barber
THE STORY OF LANGUAGE
_PAN ORIGINAL. A record of the development of human
_ Speech and in particular of the English language. Thorough
and scholarly, it is an excellent account of a subject of
wide interest. (6/-)
W. A. Dinsdale
THE PAN BOOK OF INSURANCE
PAN ORIGINAL. An invaluable guide for every husband,
householder, professional, or business man. Details a wide
_Yange of policies on personal belongings, life, sickness and
accident, and many other risks, with sensible advice on
What insurances each person needs. 3

Gavin Brown
CAREERS FOR BOYS
CAREERS FOR GIRLS
_ PAN ORIGINALS. Two up-to-date handbooks of immense
_ yalue to school-leavers, graduates, parents, and teachers.
Each covers a wide range of opportunities and jobs with full
5
information about exams, prospects, etc. (each 5/-)
:ig
:
4

jooks for the taste of today

 HOW TO DRAW
PAN ORIGINAL. A stimulating, instructive guide by
celebrated artist and TV broadcaster. Chapters cover
spective, composition, drawing people, animals and tr
and copying from photos. Illustrated with eighty h
drawings by the author. “a

Gerald Abrahams
THE PAN BOOK OF CHESS >
PAN ORIGINAL. Written by a leading chess ex
this authoritative book starts off, for the beginner, with t
fundamentals of the game. Gradually the player is guid
into more advanced tactics and strategy, and to a d
appreciation of chess.

TO OUR READERS
A very wide range of PAN best-sellers — the
of the paperbacks — is readily available fr
your bookseller or newsagent, and in the coming
months many exciting new titles will app
Full details are given in our illustrated fou

on request. Please Bess:to:

PAN LIST, PAN BOOKS LTD., _
8 HEADFORT PLACE, LONDON,
S
all c iT

3 Books
oo for the taste of tor
Dr HARRY MADDOX took an successful study
honours degree in Psychology at
University: College, London. He depends not only on ability
has lectured at Melbourne Univer- and industry but on effective
sity, Australia and has done re- methods of working
search in social psychology at Based throughout on the evi-
Liverpool University. He now dence of research, this practi-
lectures in Psychology and the cal book points the way to fully
Psychology of Study at Birming- productive study
ham University
It provides chapters on—
READING
THINKING
LEARNING AND MEMORISING
NOTE-TAKING
PREPARING FOR
EXAMINATIONS
with special sections on—
the writing of good English,
anda revision of basic math-
ematics,
together with ways of increas-
ing mental vigour by interest,
motivation and general health-
improvement
Whether you are studying at uni-
versity, college, evening classes
or school, this essential book will
help you to work without super-
vision and to realise your full
potential
A PAN ORIGINAL

PAN BOOKS
8 HEADFORT PLACE [f fy
LONDON Swi
6/- ausTRALIA
85¢ canapa