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The latest book by Professor Woodworth is destined to a welcome reception, for it is again testimony to its author's incomparable ability to make dry subjects appear interesting. In this volume most experimentalists will find little to complain of, either as regards the content of the volume or the emphasis placed on the various subjects. The book is furthermore refreshingly free from physiological descriptions and interpretations.
A considerable portion of the work (200 pages) is devoted to memory, learning and associated topics. Another 100 pages is taken up by discussion of feeling and emotion, particularly their bodily expressions. The psychogalvanic reflex is given a generous chapter. Each of the senses is taken up in the conventional manner, but perception of form and perception of visual space are treated separately. There is a chapter on experimental æsthetics and two on psycho-physical methods. The book concludes with chapters on 'problem solving' devoted largely to animal learning and thinking, which include the author's views on imageless thought.
In addition to giving us a thorough exposition of these topics, Professor Woodworth has tried to demonstrate the value of experimental psychology in understanding human behaviour. But in the opinion of the reviewer experimental psychology is far from having demonstrated its ability to fulfil this objective. It has concerned itself little with human beings as such. Its investigations have been restricted for the most part to limited portions of human behaviour under very special conditions—such as the most effective ways of learning nonsense syllables, of estimating distances, discriminating differences in pitch, etc. Most attempts to apply its methods to the broader fields of child development, abnormal and social psychology, have been generally regarded askance by the experimentalist. Professor Woodworth has omitted practically all reference to work done in them because he wished to confine himself 't