Abstract
THE fourth volume of this collective treatise possesses all the qualities of scholarship, clearness and accuracy which have distinguished this standard work from the beginning of its publication. It deals mainly with the general functions of organisation and mental activity, such as attention, memory, habit, association of ideas, schematisation, symbolisation and the physiological aspects of mental activity. The chapter on schematisation (pp. 161-264) contains a number of controversial points, such as the distinctions and relations between schematisation on one hand and concept, judgment and reasoning on the other. Those who are interested in mathematics and science in general would have liked to find a discussion of the process of symbolisation in those fields of knowledge. But perhaps Prof. Dumas has left over these questions for the next volume, which is to deal with the higher functions of the mind. We might also mention the excellent chapter on the psychology of sleep by Prof. Claparede, with the remark that this subject raises many more problems than can at present be answered. The practical value of this volume would have been greater if it had been provided with an index.
Nouveau traité de psychologie
Prof.
Georges
Dumas
Par. Tome 4: Les fonctions générales d'organisation. Les lois générales de l'activité mentale. Avec la collaboration de Prof. Ch. Blondel, Prof. E. Claparède, Prof. H. Delacroix, Prof. P. Janet, Prof. H. Piéron, Prof. G. Poyer, Prof. K. Revault d'Allones. Pp. vi+528. (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1934.) n.p.
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G., T. Nouveau traité de psychologie. Nature 137, 50 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137050b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137050b0