have already discussed. The last two stages (but occasionally also the first or learning stage) are usually discussed under the term memory, although the reason for discussing the second or no- practice period under that heading arises from the misconcep- tion that in that stage something mysterious goes on in the ner- vous system — that there is a process of maturation taking place, expression of which is found in such a popular statement as ' ' we learn to skate in summer and to swim in winter. ' ' What Does Go On in Periods of no Practice? — Apparently two things may happen. (1) The more probable thing is that the various muscular and glandular combinations — the part ad- justments in the habit as a whole — begin to function in new habit systems. The adjustment of muscular and glandular ele- ments for specific duties does not stay put like the parts of an inorganic machine. They stay put and function together only so lona' as the situation allows a reasonable amount of exercise in 302 PSYCHOLOGY those specific functions. As soon as the environment changes, so that a given habit cannot be utilized, other habits are put on, and the organism is to a certain extent made over. In the process of making over, certain groups of part activities combined to form the given habit are reincorporated into a new whole. Hence, when the organism is confronted with the old situation the old reaction, while it appears, shows a certain loss in speed and accuracy. In other words, an actual re-learning comparable in all respects to the original acquisition save in that of the total pjnount of time required, must ensue before the same facility in response can be obtained. (2) Oftentimes it happens that in the latter part of the original learning period the subject be- comes " stale" and gives up practice before his physiological limit of skill has been attained. This staleness may be due to one of several things: (a) trying to practice at too fast a rate or under pressure of various kinds: (6) attempting to acquire the habit through a poor distribution of time, that is, the learner practices too long periods and too frequently (page 385); (c) the practice periods utilize so much time that other habit systems have to be thwarted, as happens, for example, when skill is sought rapidly in any particular line: the individual has no time to play, to engage in social functions, to eat and sleep prop- erly, or to adjust his home or business affairs. We may group the results of the effect of all such factors under the term staleness. It may be said that staleness is not an idle concept or hypothetical one. It may be seen to perfection in the training for athletic con- tests. Many a championship game has been lost by staleness. It was such a common phenomenon in the air service during the period of most active training in the recent war that special officers were set aside to cope with the problem.5 If the learner stops B It must be said that the choice of the kind of officers set aside for this purpose was most curious. They were called flight surgeons, and the personnel was composed most largely of otologists. Others composing the group were obstetricians and gynaecologists. Just why this particular assort- ment of physicians was set aside for this particular purpose must be buried in the archives of the Air Medical Service at Washington. The most reason- able selection of men for this purpose would have been, in our opinion, psychopathologists working in conjunction with psychologists, who under- stand the laws connected with the formation and functioning of habit.
EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS 303 during a period of staleuess and has the.opportunity of exercising his normal tendencies it may very well, and sometimes does, hap- pen that the no-practice period proves beneficial, even though the first score in re-learning is not so high as the final score in the original learning (it rarely or never is). Cleveland in his study of chess-playing has brought this out very well. The learner when he begins re-learning has become another individ- ual; he comes back to his task at a higher emotional level, with a reserve strength, with a release from the pressure of thwarted tendencies and set for work. After the first two or three practice periods he may shoot far ahead of any score that he had pre- viously made in the original learning.
Other Connotations of Memory. — Memory as ordinarily used in psychology covers a much larger field than is indicated in our discussion. In the first place it is sometimes used in testing work (page 43) as being co-extensive with organization in gen- eral. In testing defective and psychopathic individuals the abil- ity to read is tried out, the ability to repeat or write the salient and important features of a story that is read to them: impor- tant dates in history are asked for, asi well as the location of im- portant geographical places; their age and date of birth are asked for, the number of children in the family and the like. Such tests while they involve memory in the sense in which we use the term are really random samplings of the patient 's1 general organ- ization. There is no lack of harmony between the use of memory and our own. Memory as we narrowly study it in the laboratory deals usually with a single function in detail and it is presup- posed that we have before us the score made in the original learning, the time consumed in learning and the length of time the function was not exercised, and the re-learning score. When we make random sampling tests on an individual's organization we, of course, have no such data at hand nor do we particularly care to have it: our interest in testing patients centers around the location of their defects in organization and equipment. These data give us a picture more or less complete of the general nature of the types of defects, their number and gravity. In other words, it is a part of the diagnosis. Until it is obtained the patient or defective cannot be intelligently looked after.
304 PSYCHOLOGY For some reason the term memory has become tied up closely with the reinstatement of language activities and especially with the implicit word processes. Both psychological and popular language use the terms "recollection," "recall," "recognition" and a host of similar terms to express facts-' which one can see with such clearness and definiteness in the explicit habits after a period of no practice. Indeed, in the literature of psychology one finds such narrow functions abstracted, set apart and so mag- nified that the non-technical student begins to feel that the whole of psychology is little more than a discussion of such factors. We should be prepared to see by this time that the isolation and magnification of any particular function is wholly out of keep- ing with a psychology which deals with the adjustment of man as a whole to his environment.
The Behaviorist's Definition of Memory. — Memory, then, in our sense is a general term to express the fact that after a period of no practice in certain habits — explicit bodily habits, explicit word habits, implicit word habits — the function is not lost but is retained as a part of the individual's organization, although it may, through disuse, have suffered greater or less impairment. After a period of no practice, given the old stimulus or situation (1) the old reaction rises definitely and sharply; (2) it rises but with undesirable additions (errors); or (3) it rises (if at all) with so great impairment that little organization can be noted— re-learning is as difficult as learning. This formulation of mem- ory fits such explicit habits or functions as hewing a line with an axe or chopping down trees or tennis playing or swimming; such combined explicit and implicit activity as receiving telegraphic messages or typewriting or taking dictation or saying aloud an old poem learned in childhood; such pure implicit habits as are seen in subvocal ( ' ' mental ' ' ) arithmetic or speaking a series of nonsense syllables learned by repeated silent readings twenty-four hours before; or such as those seen finally in naming1 an object, person, place or date after a long interval of time. In the last case men- tioned in order to avoid being misunderstood we hasten to add that memory is not always evidenced by naming or giving ex- pression to a word; often a person confronts us whom we have EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS 305 not seen for some time; the stimulus of his face and figure is not sufficient to call out his name, but it does suffice to reinstate our old attitude toward him and possibly many of our other old reac- tions. We may walk with him and talk with him for some minutes before speaking his name. Not until voice, gesture and old situa- tions reinforce one another are all of the old reactions called out. We become integrated then with respect to this individual, the final group of activities being the words, ' ' Why, of course, John Smith! We used to play baseball together at Jonesville High School." Exactly the same phenomena appear when after a three-year period of disuse we try to use a complicated camera. We are stuck for a moment on the use of the trip which releases the shutter, or the mechanism for changing from time to instan- taneous work, but two or three minutes of manipulation make us letter-perfect in the use of the camera. Just so the "forgot- ten" name, only in that case our manipulation is vocal. We manipulate vocally by running over the names beginning with each succeeding letter of the alphabet, or by saying ' ' black hair, ' ' "blue eyes," "six feet tall," and the like.
Some Results of Experiments. — Possibly some of the factors we have been investigating may be better understood if we take up the results of experiments of laboratory studies upon the memory of skillful acts. W. F. Book has brought out some inter- esting and rather startling results. This investigator taught a number of subjects to typewrite by both the sight and touch methods. Instead of giving his results in number of words writ- ten per minute, he gave them in number of strokes made per minute, since he had the typewriter connected up with a series of levers in such a way that he could record such things as striking the spacer and moving the carriage. The subjects were brought to a respectable speed, and then were given no practice for considerable intervals. The record of one subject is given in some detail below: The last regular practice period yielded 1503 strokes in ten minutes. The machine was not touched again for 135 days. The first practice in re-learning (memory test) yielded 1365 strokes. The typewriter was not touched again for approximately a full 20 PSYCHOLOGY year. After this second period of no practice the first re-learning test yielded 1390 strokes. We see that while there was a slight loss it was exceedingly small.
Usually in making such tests the daily average of the last several days in the learning period is compared with the aver- ages of the first several days in the re-learning period. The fol- lowing table presents these data: Tests i 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Av.
Last Reg. Prac.
1st Memory Test 2d Memory Test If one contrasts the average number of strokes during the last ten practices in learning, 1508, with the average of the ten in the second memory test, 1611, it would appear that instead of a loss there has been an actual gain. Indeed, Book has made this kind of comparison and has advanced the conclusion that, since there is no memory loss, something must go on in the non- practice periods in the way of establishing coordinations. We quote his own conclusions: The increase in score shown by our second memory series was due, so far as we could make out, rather to the disappearance, with the lapse of time, of numerous psycho-physical difficulties, interfering associations, bad habits of attention, incidentally ac- quired in the course of learning, interfering habits and tendencies, which, as they fade, left the more firmly established typewriting associations free to act. (Italics in the text.)
In general, since the so-called " useful" acts in the acquisi- tion of any total act of skill are exercised more frequently as a rule than the useless, there is no theoretical impossibility in accepting the conclusions of Book, but he really has no con- clusive supporting facts to offer. The curve of the original learning is not reproduced here, but the fact is that he stopped practicing on a spurt. Had lie taken records for ten more days his average would probably have been around 1700 strokes per EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS 307 ten minutes instead of 1503. Furthermore, the practice gained from the ten days in June, 1906, was not without marked effect upon the succeeding and final memory tests. Hence, it seems that we need only to conclude that there is a tremendously great and surprising- permanence in the functioning of the typewriting habit, but nothing supernatural in character.
Other investigators find a high degree of permanency, but none that corresponds with that described above. For example, Re jail increased his skill to such a point that he could write at the rate of 25 words per minute with four errors per hundred words copied. After an interval of three and a half years of no practice, he scored in the first five days 18.75 words per minute with eight errors per 100 words, 18.9 with seven and a third errors, 21 with six and two-thirds errors, 22.1 with five errors, and 22.5 with eight and two-thirds errors. In terms of total amount of practice, 30 hours were (originally) required to write 25 words a minute, with 4 errors per 100 words copied. Five hours of re-learning three and a half years later gave him approximately the same degree of skill.
Swift taught his subjects to use one hand in tossing and catching two balls, one ball being caught and thrown while the other was in the air. The number of catches made before a miss occurred gave him a method of scoring, a day 's practice consist- ing in allowing a subject to work until ten misses occurred. Sub- ject "A" began with a score of 4, and in the last six days of 42 days of practice attained average scores of 50, 82, 92, 88, 68 and 105. He was afterwards tested once every thirty days for five months. He attained averages on the five monthly prac- tices respectively of 70, 80, 140, 110, 120. The subject was not retested until the end of 481 days, at which time he attained an average score of 119. He was not again tested until after a period of over four years with no practice. There was a considerable loss. He attained an average score of 5 in ten trials the first day and on successive following days his average scores were 10, 18, 20, 26, 35, 66, 60, 45, 100, 160. ''Eleven days were required to regain the skill which had required 42 days of practice. ' ' It is thus seen that the rate of deterioration in habits such 308 PSYCHOLOGY • as we have considered, while in all cases positive, is very slow indeed. Ordinary observations show that the same is true in regard to swimming, skating, dancing, tennis-playing and skilled mechanical work. We shall see on page 343 that this is in marked contrast to the rapid deterioration observed in habits which belong primarily in the language groups. There the deteriora- tion is so rapid that in some cases, for example, in the learning of a series of nonsense syllables, the organization is lost in from fifteen minutes to half an hour so far as concerns the subject's ability to speak or write the words.
'General Summary of Explicit Habits. — The material we have presented in this chapter shows when we consider the formation of first habits in infants (1) that when the infant is put in a situation to which it is not adjusted, it displays its rep- ertoire of instinctive and reflex movements. By a process which we have considered, the groups of movements necessary to bring about the adjustment finally become connected or associated. Each time the situation is presented after this stage is reached only the movements necessary to bring about the adjustment appear. A habit has been formed. We saw further (2) that when we confront-the adult with a situation to which he is not adjusted, he displays not the infantile, instinctive movements, but those gained from past habit organization. These larger groups in the case of the adult are combined into a new whole apparently by the same process operative in the combination of the infantile instinc- tive and reflex movements. We have found (3) that the memory for explicit habits remains fairly accurate over a considerable stretch of time, and what loss there is can be compensated for after a short period of practice.
One cannot overestimate the importance of the system of explicit bodily habits. On account of their defmiteness and per- manence they become part of man's total organization, and are as essential to him as structural parts. One might contrast our habit systems with the development of a modern factory. A hun- dred years ago the factory for making shoes consisted largely of an old tanbark mill driven by horses and a series of vats dug in the ground filled with water and ground tanbark for curing the EXPLICIT BODILY HABITS 309 hides. The equipment and personnel consisted further of a few wooden forms, iron lasts, needles, sewing-thread, knives and the shoemaker and his helper. As time went on machines were built for every separate operation in the making of a shoe, so that now the article is hardly touched by hand. The human being cannot develop new hands, muscles, glands and fingers to keep pace with civilization, but each new demand made upon him should find him still plastic and still capable of forming the habits necessary to enable him to meet it.
In the following chapter, as has been mentioned, we shall consider the formation and retention of both explicit and implicit language habits and the memory of these. It should be stated in advance that this separation is made purely in the interests of ease and clearness of presentation. The explicit and implicit language habits are formed along with the explicit bodily habits and are bound up with them and become a part of every total unitary action system that the human organism forms. They are present in the simplest types of adjustment that he makes, but it is obvious that if we desire to make a separation for purposes of presentation we can easily do so. We can see the functioning of language habits only slightly in certain activities, as, for example, in swimming, tapping on the table with a pencil, while in certain other types they form an integral part and seem to be as important as arm and hand movement, for example, in typewriting, sending and receiving telegraphic messages. Finally in certain other functions explicit activity seems to drop out almost entirely, as, for example, in subvocal arithmetic. There the explicit factors show only as excess move- ments such as wrinkling the brow, closing the eyes and rubbing the forehead, until the final link in the chain is reached and the answer is written down with the hand. This type of implicit (largely word) adjustment culminates in thinking, where an individual may sit for hours with practically no overt move- ment, finally announcing, * ' I have decided to give up university work and enter commercial life. ' ' CHAPTER IX THE GENESIS AND RETENTION OF EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT LANGUAGE HABITS Introduction. — In many of the preceding chapters we have made reference to explicit and implicit language habits. It re- mains now to examine these functions separately and with some care. Until language activity has been studied and connected up with the other functions we have by no means given a full account of how the human animal performs its various tasks. Man is a social being and almost from birth language activity becomes a part of his every adjustment even though that adjust- ment be made to other than a social situation. Our previous study of instinct, emotion and habit cannot be considered com- plete until we have given language its due place among those activities. The subject of explicit and implicit language pro- cesses and of other implicit but non-language processes connected with thinking is so vast and can be approached from so many angles and points of view that we can give only an extremely meagre account of its main features.
The Anatomical Basis of Language. — Throughout the text we have spoken of laryngeal processes as though they were re- sponsible for all language organization. This manner of speaking was chosen for brevity's sake. We hasten to add now that the anatomical basis of language habits involves, of course, the whole body but specifically the neuro-muscular system in the head, neck and chest segments. A little consideration will show that the following parts cooperate in every spoken word: the dia- phragm, lungs and muscles of the thorax; the extrinsic and in- trinsic muscles of the larynx; the muscles of the pharynx, nose and palate; the cheeks, tongue and lips. The larynx as such when considered merely as a mechanism for controlling' the vocal cords is the least important part of the system. It is quite impor- tant, of course, as a means of speaking aloud, but relatively unimportant from the standpoint of the functioning of the indi- EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT LANGUAGE HABITS 311 FIG. 59. — Showing pharynx and related structures. 1, Qricoid cartilage (cartilage cricoidea); 2, thyroid cartilage, (cartilage thyreoidea); 3, "Adam's apple" (prominentia laryngea); 4, vocal cord (plica vocalis); 5, ventricle (ventriculus laryngis); 6, section of hyoid bone (corn us ossis hyoidei); 7, mylo-hyoid muscle (m. mylohyoideus); 8, gemo- hyoid muscle (m. geniohyo'ideus); 9, genio-glossus muscle (m. genioglossus); 10,' nasal septum (septum nasi); 11, mouth cavity; 12, nasal pharynx (pars nasahs pharyngis); 13, anterior arch of atlas; 14, soft palate (palatum molle); 15, body of axis (corpus epistro- phei); 16, tonsil (tonsilla palatina); 17, epiglottis; 18, laryngeal pharynx (pars laryngea pharyngis); 19, vestibule (vestibulum laryngis); 20, oesophagus; 21, cricoid cartilage (cartilage cricoidea).
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Fia. 60. — Showing the larynx and the muscles of the pharynx, view from behind. As can be inferred, the pharynx has been opened to show the laryngeal mechanism. The mucosa and sub-mucosa have been removed to show the underlying muscular connections. 1, circular muscular fibers of the oesophagus: 2, posterior crico-arytenoid muscle (m. cricoarytsenoideus posterior); 4, cuneiform cartilage (tuberculum cuneiforme (Wrisbergi)); 3, corniculate cartilage (tuberculum corniculatum (Santorini)); 5, vocal cord (plica vocalis); 6, epiglottis; 7, m. pterygoideus internus; 8, tongue; 9, m. stylopharyngeus; 10, m. stylohyoideus; 11, m. digastricus; 12, m. tensor veil palatini; 13, m. levator veli palatini; 14, m. constrictor pharyngis superior; 15, m. salpingo-pharyngeus; 16, uvula; 17, tonsil (tonsilla palatina); 18, m. pharyngo palatinus; 19, plica ventricularis; 20, rima glottidis; 21, m. arytsenoideus obliquus; 22, m. aryepiglotticus; 23, muscular coating of oesophagus (tunica muacularis oesophagi). (The author is indebted to Mr- Paul Curt Richter for making the dissection for this drawing.)
EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT LANGUAGE HABITS 313 victual's word organization. This statement may seem somewhat reactionary since we have seemingly laid so much stress upon the larynx, but we shall soon see that the glottis with its vocal cords may be removed without seriously affecting the subject's ability to use whispered words.
Brief Description of the Larynx and Neighboring Parts. — The anatomy of the neck and upper thorax regions is the most complicated of the whole body. Fig. 59 shows the cavity of the mouth and pharynx with related structures. Attention is called in this figure to the mouth region proper, including the lips, cheeks, tongue, gums, teeth and hard palate; to the pharynx, the nasal portion of which is separated from the mouth region by the overhanging soft palate and uvula. The pharynx extends up- ward to the base of the skull, receiving the posterior opening of the nasal passages and downward to the oesophagus, at which level one finds the larynx. We can divide the pharynx into three parts, nasal, oral and laryngeal. The larynx itself is easy to locate in the male by the presence of the Adam's apple (Fig. 60). This prominent structure is the thyroid cartilage, consisting of two plates' which in the male join at an angle of 90 degrees, in the female at 120 degrees. The larynx is suspended from the tongue and the hyoid bone. Its framework consists of three sym- metrical cartilages (thyroid, cricoid and cartilage of the epiglot- tis) and three paired cartilages (arytenoid, corniculate and cuneiform). Special attention is called to the cartilage of the epiglottis, which is placed in front of the superior opening of the larynx, projecting downward behind the base of the tongue. The epiglottis assists in closing the laryngeal opening during the act of swallowing. Until puberty the larynx is smooth, slight and similar in the male and female. In the female this condition persists, but in the male profound changes occur around the thirteenth year. The larynx becomes prominent, due to the en- largement and thickening of the cartilages. The vocal ligaments likewise become lengthened, thus making a deeper voice possible. The vertical diameter, that is the distance from the upper border of the thyroid cartilage to the lower border of the cricoid, is 4.8 cm. in males, 3.8 cm. in females. The transverse diameter is 'PSYCHOLOGY nearly the same, 4.3 cm. in males and 4.1 cm. in females. The anterior-posterior diameter is 3.6 cm. in males and 2.6 cm. in females. The cavity of the larynx opens upward through the vocal cords into the trachea. The trachea bifurcates into the •A F'Q- 61.— Muscles in the region of the larvnx. 6, Thyroid cartilage (cartilage thyre- oidea): this marks the position of the larynx. In the male the prominent junction of the two plates forming the cartilage is called the Adam's apple (pomum Adami)- 1 m tranenus; 2, thyroid gland (glandular thyreoidea); 3, m. crico thyreoideus; 4, m.'sterm> )ideus; 5. m. thyreohyoideus; 7, m. digastricus; 8, m. mylohvoideus- 9 m. longus j; 10, m. omohyoideus; 11, m. sternocleidomastoideus; 12, m. pectoralis major.
capitis right and left bronchi, which communicate with the two lungs. The vocal cords are shown in Fig. 62 stretched across the mem- branous glottis. Some of the intrinsic and extrinsic muscular connections of the larynx and pharynx are shown in Fig. 61.
EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT LANGUAGE HABITS 315