Edward L. Thorndike

“ The same theoretical view which would expect mental span and ability to manage very complex relationships in a given field to be increased by practice in close dependence upon original capacity, would expect particular associative habits such as thinking of thirteen upon seeing 4, 7 and 2 in a column, to be increased by practice in less close dependence upon original capacity. ”

“ It also supports the contention that the degree of efficiency shown by persons in any intellectual function is a result chiefly of specific training in it or the elements of it and only slightly of the transfer to it of the effects of training other functions. If the general training of from -fifteen to twenty-five years of a scholarly life were responsible for a large fraction of one's efficiency in "quickness of association" or "accuracy in response," one would not by so little specific training be able to improve so much. ”

“ The resulting correlations would seem, if corrected for attenuation on the one hand, and for mixture of the sexes and of differently selected groups on the other, to be about .9.
The relation between retention of the effects of an experience for one or two minutes and their retention for one or two days thus seems to be one of the closest yet measured in human nature. ”

“ They will not, however, be misleading to any one who bears in mind their limitations.
The measurements are of the relations in educate'd adults:– (1) between (a) the ability to remember a list of twelve words from a single hearing, at a rate of approximately one per second, long enough to write them immediately at the close of the reading; and (b) the same ability in the case of a list of five three-place numbers. There were five lists of (a) and five lists of (b) . (2) Between: (a) and (c) the ability to remember the sixty words given in the five tests of (a) twenty-four hours later. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1949, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 73 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”