Educational Psychology. By Edward Herbert Cameron, Ph.D.  The Century Co., New York and London. 1927. Pp.  467.

This work, designed as a textbook for the use of college classes in education, is by the professor of educational psychology in the University of Illinois. It defines psychology as “the science that describes conscious processes and their relationship to the behavior of man and other animals.” Consciousness is viewed as a higher type of adaptive function than the nervous reflex, and “appears as one of the links in the chain leading from impression to reaction,” the method used in the development of the subject is the eclectic one, and the author uses any facts or theories that seem to suit his purpose.

Starting with a brief chapter on “Body and Mind,” which takes a glance at the nervous and endocrine systems and stresses the importance of detecting sensory defects, the author proceeds with a chapter on original nature, in which the original tendencies are classified into (1) innate tendencies to action, which include the reflexes and instincts; (2) innate tendencies of attitude, which include attention, feelings of agreeableness and disagreeableness and emotion, and (3) innate tendencies to learn, including habit formation and ideational learning. Logically the chapters on Nature and Nurture and the modifications of innate tendencies should follow here, but the author delays them until after his discussion of mental measurement and individual differences. He thus has a foundation of experimental work on which to base his discussion. The chapter on mental measurement steers clear of the uncritical acceptance of test results which mars so many of our later books on education. The nature of averages and the necessity of taking account of individual facts, the difficulty of knowing just what we are measuring and the significance of emotional factors in tset performance are discussed. Different types of tests and their advantages and disadvantages are set forth. The conclusion is: “The net result of the investigation of quantitative individual differences in mental capaci