Mental Set and Shift (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Jersild, Arthur Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0260459348 ISBN 13: 9780260459343

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2019

Synopsis

Excerpt from Mental Set and Shift

The fact Of mental set is primary in all conscious activity. The same stimulus may evoke any one of a large number Of responses depending upon the contextual setting in which it is placed. A series Of two-place numbers is being called: to the pupil in an arithmetic class the numbers serve as stimuli for mental addition or multiplication; to the foot-ball player on the field the same numbers serve as signals calling into play certain preparatory muscular reactions; to the man in a trolley car the numbers designate names Of streets. In each case the Objective stimuli are the same, but the response pat terns are widely different.

The significance of mental set as here presented is by no means a _new Observation in psychology. We stress it only to introduce the considerations which follow. For just as all activity is colored and influenced by the predominance Of a mental set, so also it involves an element of constant adjust ment, an element Of shift. The Old laws of span, duration, and fluctuation Of attention bear witness to the fact of peri odic change in the responses made to a homogeneous repertory Of stimuli. The necessity for continued adjustment inheres also in the elements Of a given task taken by itself.

Ordinarily one tends to overlook the fact Of adjustment. Discrete elements within a single task become telescoped and fused through the automatizing influence Of habit. Even the larger units in a person's activity take on the appearance of unified wholes. The fact of adjustment, evidenced by the slow and halting manner in which one goes about to coordinate the elements of a new habit, is gradually masked by practise. Change certain details of the task, combine Old elements in a new way, and the smoothness Of the Operation is temporarily destroyed. The continuity Of function is broken into discrete activities; the fact of shift effects is demonstrated; and the cost Of shift is loss in efficiency.

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About this edition

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0260459348
• ISBN 13: 9780260459343
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 94