ormerly in favor;
experimental psychology, henceforth emancipated from its origins, has
developed independently. It now relies on purely psychological tests
for its researches, and although it does not exclude the methods
adopted in the laboratory, and the use of such accurate and
trustworthy instruments as the esthesiometer and the ergograph, the
school itself has become the chief field of experiment.

For example: one of the most familiar tests of attention is to give a
printed page to be read over, with directions to strike out every _a_
on the page; the time taken to complete this task is measured by
chronometer.

Counting aloud from one to a hundred, and at the same time carrying on
arithmetical operations in writing, is a measure of the distribution
of the attention, provided the time taken be calculated by the
chronometer, and all errors be noted. To make several persons perform
similar exercises at the same time enables us to study comparative
individual activities. In schools, exercises in dictation which have
been previously determined, may be given to a group of scholars, care
being taken to note the time occupied in performing the exercise and
to compare the errors. This is also an easy and practical means of
obtaining collective results.

These experiments all psychologists agree should be carried out
without interrupting the usual routine of the school. They are to be
regarded as an addition, an _extra_, and may be summed up as a means
of scientific research, throwing light upon the regular psychical
conditions of school studies.

The principal results of such experiments have been: the multiplicity
of mistakes made, and the difficulty of fixing attention; that is to
say, they reveal the weariness, the degree of fatigue, in children.

This gave the alarm! Old-fashioned pedagogy was concerned solely with
what children ought to do. The idea that their nervous energies might
be impaired was first called into being by the warning note of
science.

Researches into the causes of fatigue became more and more frequent,
and coupled with such researches was the less immediate enquiry as to
how fatigue could be "combated" or "alleviated." All the factors
relating to the question were studied: age, sex, the degree of
intelligence, the type of individual, the influence of the seasons,
the influence of the various times of the day, of the various days of
the week, of habit, intervals of relaxation, interest, var