Thinking: An Experimental And Social Study

Thinking is a high-level skill in which symbols— words, numbers, shapes, colours, tones— supplement and may take the place of, bodily movements. In recent years great advances have been made in the experimental study of human skilled behaviour, and these have suggested a fresh approach to problems of thinking. Sir Frederic, who has himself initiated so much original experimental work, introduces a number of simple experiments which can all be repeated by anybody who is interested. They show that the thinker is all the time trying to fill up gaps in information that is available to him in such a manner that there is a good prospect that all other thinkers, given the same incomplete information, will agree with him. How, and what are the conditions, under which he does this, are considered and illustrated (a) for formal thinking; (b) for the thinking of the experimental scientist; (c) for ‘everyday’ thinking, and (d) for the thinking of the artist. A great many of the processes used in thinking have been developed at a level of bodily skill, and long before thinking proper becomes possible at all. At the same time, it becomes clear, as the investiga­ tion proceeds, that thinking processes have import­ ant characteristics and rules peculiar to themselves. These also vary according to the fields of information in which the thinker operates. There is no doubt that Sir Frederic’s experimental study is a work of first importance. Thinking Sir Frederic Bartlett G. Allen & Unwin 18s. net by Sir Frederic Bartlett T H E MI N D AT WORK AND P L AY Its illustrations are clear and its language throughout has the simplicity which follows only upon mastery. . . . It is also commended for pure delight to any reader who is prepared to explore the mysteries of the mind at work and play, t h e s c h o o l m a s t e r (George Allen & Unwin) REMEMBERI NG An Experimental and Social Study (Cambridge University Press) THINKING Experimental and SIR FREDERIC BARTLETT C .B .E ., F .R .S . Professor of Experimental Psychology and Director of the Psychological Laboratory University of Cambridge, 1922-1952 Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge Consultant to the M.R.C. Applied Psychology Research Unit, Cambridge Ruskin House GEORGE ALLEN & UNW IN LTD MUSEUM S T R E E T LONDON FIRST PU B L ISH ED IN 1958 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, noportion may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiry should be made to the publisher. © George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1958 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN in 12 point Bell type BY UNWIN BROTHERS LTD WOKING AND LONDON PREFACE As I have indicated in Chapter 8 of this book, it was my purpose, as far back as in 1932, to develop an experimental study of the large variety of processes which people call “thinking.” A beginning was made then, but it had not proceeded very far before the second Great W ar came, and for sufficient reasons my interests, and those of most of my colleagues, were diverted to experiments and reflexions about bodily skill, its basic characters, and the conditions of its acquisition and practice. All the time the possibility of developing experiments upon thinking which would differ from the traditional approaches remained more or less active at the back of my mind. If I had attempted to write this book in the 1930’s it must have included some detailed and critical account of earlier psychological work. Fortunately Professor George Humphrey published his splendid study of the classical experimental psychology of thinking in 1951,1 and there is now no need for me to try to repeat wha