As soon as each player has completed the letter L, have him rescramble
the pieces andputthemtogetheragain five times. This time, each player should
keep his own record of the timerequiredto make the letterL.
You will observe:The first time, it will take the longest to assemble theL.
Each timethereafterit will take less time.
This is an example ofthetrial-and-errormethodoflearning. Using this
methodyou improve your ability toperforma given task byrepetition. Babies
learn bytrial-and-error,as do many animals.
ASIMPLE LESSON IN "LEARNING"
Materials:Sharpenedpencils and several sheetsofpaper. Again, you will
wantto include friends in this experiment.
Follow this procedure: Provide each personwho istaking partwith the
following three listsofwords (some"nonsense"and some"sense").
A B c
vip shoe grass
lor tub grows
tup house greener
joz cat where
nem dish the
hab dog soil
maf tag IS
cas school rich
Ask yourcompanionsto read over List A silently three times. Thencover
it with a piece ofpaper,and ask them to write the listofwords on a new piece
ofpaperin thecorrectorder. Do the same for List B and then for List C.
Have eachpersonscore his ownpaperby allowing one credit for eachcorrect
word (in itsproperplace).
You will observe:Scores will bepoorestfor List A. They will bebetter
for List B,butList C will show the highest scores.The"words"in List A are reallynotwords at all,butnonsense syllables.
They will be unfamiliar to your friends and, therefore, very difficult to
remember.
The words in List B are all familiarbuttheorderin which they are listed