3. The value of an experience depends upon what has been called the "personal att.i.tude"
sustained during the experience. Three forms of "personal att.i.tudes" have been distinguished and are designated as follows:--
(_a_) The submissive or suggestible att.i.tude.
(_b_) The self-attentive att.i.tude.
(_c_) The objective or the problem att.i.tude.
(_a_) One is likely to be thrown into the submissive att.i.tude when a new situation arises (a business problem), if one knows that he is in the presence of others who could solve the problem with relative ease or accuracy. In such a situation the individual is hampered in his thinking by the presence of those who are more expert than he. His thinking is
therefore futile for the present difficulty and is devoid of educative value.
(_b_) The self-attentive att.i.tude is similar to the submissive att.i.tude, but is not to be confused with it. If when confronted with a difficult problem my attack upon it is weakened by the expectation of a.s.sistance from others, I am in a submissive att.i.tude. If, however, my attack is weakened by my realization that I am on trial,--that what I do with the problem will be observed by others,--then I become self-conscious and am thrown into the self- attentive att.i.tude. If I am conscious that I am being watched, it is quite difficult for me to hit a golf ball, to add a column of figures, or to deliver a lecture on psychology. So long as I am self-attentive my efficiency is reduced; I hit on no improved methods of thought or action, and my experience therefore has no permanent value.
(_c_) So soon as I can forget others and myself and can take the objective, or the problem att.i.tude, the chances of efficient action are greatly increased. I find it relatively easy
to a.s.sume this att.i.tude when I feel that I stand on my own responsibility; that the problem cannot possibly be referred to any higher authority, but that the solution depends upon me alone. My chances of solving the problem would be much reduced, if it were proposed to me at a time when I felt domineered by a superior, or when I felt that he knew much more about it and could settle it much more easily and surely than I. If the problem demanded previous experience and the possession of knowledge which I did not possess, it would be likely to make me self-conscious and hence incapable of utilizing even the experience and the knowledge that I do possess. Past success, the possession of wide experience, and technical instruction keep me from a.s.suming the self-attentive att.i.tude and enable me to take the problem or objective att.i.tude. This is the only att.i.tude consistent with improved form of thought or action, and hence is the att.i.tude essential for valuable experience.
4. That experience is the most valuable that is acquired in dealing with conditions similar
to those in connection with which improvement is sought. Experience in wood-chopping makes one a better chopper but does not necessarily increase his skill in sawing wood. Experience in bookkeeping increases one"s ability in that particular, but does not appreciably increase his ability to handle men. Speed and accuracy of judgment secured in inspecting one sort of goods cannot be depended upon, if a different sort of goods is to be inspected.
The experience secured in responding to one situation will be valuable in responding to a similar situation because of the three following facts:--
(_a_) Two similar conditions may secure identical factors in our activity. Thus school life and the executive"s work secure such identical activities as are involved in reading, in writing, or in arithmetic, and so forth, whether accomplished in the schoolroom or the office.
(_b_) The method developed in one experience may be applied equally well to another activity.
In connection with a course in college, a student may acquire a scientific method of
procedure. At a later time he may (or he may not) apply this same method to the problems arising in his business or industrial life.
(_c_) Ideals developed in one experience may be projected into other experiences. If the ideals of promptness, neatness, accuracy, and honesty are developed in one relationship of life, the probabilities are somewhat increased that the same ideals will be applied to all experiences.
Provided that the four general conditions discussed are secured, we then have the more specific and important question to ask:--
WHAT EXPERIENCES ARE THE MOST VALUABLE?
Only those experiences are valuable that in an appreciable degree modify future action.
One way in which an experience or a series of experiences modifies future action is in the formation of habits.
_Habit Formation_
Habit has a beneficial influence on future action in five particulars:--
(_a_) Habit reduces the necessary time of action. Repeating the twenty-six letters of the alphabet has become so habitual that I can repeat them forward in two seconds. To repeat them in any other than an habitual order, _e.g_. backwards, requires sixty seconds.
(_b_) Habit increases accuracy. I can repeat the alphabet forward without danger of error, but when I try to repeat it backward I am extremely likely to go astray.
(_c_) Habit reduces the attendant exhaustion.
Reading English is for me more habitual than reading French. Hence the latter is the more exhausting process.
(_d_) Habit relieves the mind from the necessity of paying attention to the details of the successive steps of the act. When piano playing has been completely reduced to habit, the finger movement, the reading of the notes, etc., are all carried on successively with the minimum of thought.
(_e_) Habit gives a permanency to experience.
For many years in playing tennis I served the ball in a way that had become for me perfectly
habitual. For an interval of three years I played no tennis, but when I began again I found that I could serve as well as ever. If the manner of service had not been so perfectly reduced to habit, I would have found after an interval of three years that I was completely out of practice, _i.e_. that my previous experience did not have a permanent value.
(The subject of habit formation will be more completely presented in Chapter XIII.)
A second form of experience that is capitalized and so predetermines a man"s capacity to act and to think is the formation of what is known as practical judgments.
_Practical judgments_
By a practical judgment is meant the conscious recall of a concrete past experience and the determination of some action by means of this consciously recalled event. I find that it will be necessary for me to secure a new stenographer.
I solve the problem by consciously recalling how I got one before. Upon the basis of that consciously recalled previous
experience I decide how to act now. This is a practical judgment.
In strictness what is capitalized is not the practical judgment itself but the original concrete experience that is recalled at a later time, and upon the basis of which a practical judgment is formed.
Practical judgments cannot be more comprehensive than one"s previous experience.
The necessary condition for fertility in the formations of practical judgments is therefore richness of previous experience. Indeed one"s practical judgments are much more restricted than one"s actual experiences. A practical judgment is dependent not merely upon having had the necessary experience, but upon the recall of it at the appropriate occasion. The key to a side door of my house was temporarily lost.
After trying scores of keys, I found that a key to a room in the attic would also open the side door. This side-door key was again carried off last week. After much vexation and after trying numerous keys, I again discovered that the key to the room in the attic would open the
side door. I failed to make the necessary practical judgment. If when the key was lost the second time I had recalled my former experience and had taken advantage of it, I would have formed a practical judgment and would have saved myself much inconvenience.
The formation of practical judgments is not a high form of thought. Indeed it is held by many that the animals are capable of some form of practical judgment. A much more effective form of thought is the formation of reflective judgments.
_Reflective judgments_
A practical judgment is based on a single concrete case. A reflective judgment is based on a generalization, an abstraction, or a principle derived from many previous experiences.
Last night a salesman tried to induce me to purchase an interest in an Idaho apple orchard.
Thereupon I recalled an instance of a friend who a year ago had made such a purchase and had found it a profitable investment. If on the basis of this or some other concrete case I
had accepted or rejected his offer, I would have made a practical judgment. As a matter of fact I caused several concrete instances to pa.s.s through my mind, made the generalization that most professional men lose when they invest in distant properties, and upon the basis of this generalization made my reflective judgment and rejected his proposition.
Last week on the golf links I saw a Bohemian peasant woman wearing clothes full of small holes. I tried to figure out how the clothing had become so injured. I recalled seeing a coat that had been left all summer in an attic till it had been eaten to pieces by the moths.
On the basis of that recalled incident I satisfied myself by means of the practical judgment that she was wearing moth-eaten clothing. A few days later I saw three of these women working on one of the greens, and each of them had on clothing full of small holes. I began to reflect as to the cause of the holes. I observed that each woman held a bottle in her hand and was apparently applying the contents of the bottle to the roots of the dandelion
plants. I inferred that the liquid must be an acid. Then of all the qualities of an acid I considered merely its corrosiveness. With that abstraction in mind I made the reflective judgment that the women were working with an acid and that from time to time particles of the acid got on their clothes and corroded them.
A manager of a large manufacturing and selling organization made a study of the conditions affecting the prosperity of his organization.
From his observations he deduced the principle that for him it is more important to increase the loyalty of the men to the organization than to reduce the apparent labor cost.
With this principle in mind he made various reflective judgments in upbuilding his organization.
In these ill.u.s.trations of theoretical or reflective judgments it will be observed that no previous single experience was in the mind of the one forming the judgment but merely a generalization, an abstraction, or principle.
The experience that is really capitalized is
the formation of the generalizations, abstractions, and principles which are thereafter available for reflective judgments and can be applied to a mult.i.tude of novel situations but situations in which the generalization, abstraction, or principle is a factor.
The significance of reflective judgments in increasing human efficiency was manifested in a striking manner by the following experiment.
A group of individuals were tested as to their ability to solve a number of mechanical puzzles. The time required for each individual was recorded. The subjects then described as completely as possible how they had solved the problem (worked the puzzle). In some instances the subjects kept trying blindly, till by accident they hit upon the right method.
In such cases the second and third trials might take as long or even longer than the first trial.
If, however, the subject had in mind the right principle or principles for solving the problems, the time required for succeeding attempts fell abruptly. Curve A of Figure 6 is a graphic representation of the results of A with one of
the puzzles. To solve the problem the first time required 1476 seconds. While solving it this first time A discovered a principle upon which success depended. The second attempt consumed 241 seconds. While solving the problem this second time he discovered a second principle. With these two principles in mind succeeding attempts were rendered rapid and certain.
Another young man, B, in solving his problem.
(Chinese Rings Puzzle) succeeded after working 1678 seconds. At the completion of this successful attempt he had in mind no principle for working it. The second trial was not so successful as the first and lasted 2670 seconds. With succeeding trials he reduced his time but not regularly and was still working "in the dark." His method was one of extreme simplicity and probably not different from the "try, try again" method employed by animals in learning. The results of his first ten trials are graphically shown in Curve B of Figure 6.
A comparison of Figure 6 with the five
{ill.u.s.t. caption = FIG. 6.}