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Professor Johnson has presented a wide selection from the various experimental studies in child psychology, and direct observations of children's behavior, made primarily in American child institutes and nursery schools. In the preface, she remarks, "The treatment of child behavior in this book is based upon direct observation of children in self-initiated activities in addition to the results from scientific researches of many investigators upon special topics in child psychology". The initial chapter is devoted to Periods of Growth. "Structural" and "psychological" growth are considered. The author establishes the importance of physical growth in influencing psychological development, and proceeds to a discussion of mental growth. She is quite emphatic in minimizing the changes that occur at adolescence. "It is the association of mating with secondary sex characteristics by the social group that enhances the effect of physical changes at puberty, rather than any marked contrast between the amount of change at that time as compared with earlier rates of growth" (p. 23).
A chapter on learning reports many laboratory experiments and discusses variations in stimulus situations, rates of improvement in learning, practice, and a wide variety of specific problems familiar to the experimental psychologist. The section on motivation, not well supported by experimental evidence, contains excellent comment upon children's motives in learning.
A section on infant responses reports observations on motor responses and reactions to sensory stimuli in earliest infancy. In a chapter on Manipulation considerable attention is given to the controversial question of left-handedness. The author comments, "It appears that the major difficulty in training a child who has developed left-hand preference lies in the method of securing his intent to use the right hand" (p. 178). It is the reviewer's impression that insufficient consideration is given to the factor of confusion in eye