Psychology

Preface and Table of Contents

James Rowland Angell

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AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY OF THE STRUCTURE AND
FUNCTION OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL

Head of the Department of Psychology in the University of Chicago

THIRD EDITION, REVISED

PREFACE

Psychologists have hitherto devoted the larger part of their energy to investigating the structure of the mind. Of late, however, there has been manifest a disposition to deal more fully with its functional and genetic phases. To determine how consciousness develops and how it operates is felt to be quite as important as the discovery of its constituent elements. This book attempts to set forth in an elementary way the generally accepted facts and principles bearing upon these adjacent fields of psychological inquiry, so far as they pertain to the mind of man.

Inasmuch as it is mental activity, rather than mental structure, which has immediate significance for thought and conduct, it is hoped that students of philosophy, as well as students of education, may find the book especially useful. The author has had the interests of such students constantly in mind.

The differing conditions under which introductory courses in psychology are offered at various institutions render it desirable that a text-book should be adaptable to more than one set of circumstances. The present text has accordingly been arranged with the purpose of permitting considerable flexibility in the emphasis laid upon the several portions of the subject. This fact accounts for an amount of repetition and cross-reference which otherwise would have been regarded as unnecessary.

To my teachers, Professor John Dewey and Professor William James, I owe much of what may be found good in these

(iv) pages. Were not the list too long to recount, I should gladly express my obligations to the many other psychologists by whom I have been influenced in the formation of my views. I am much indebted for advice and suggestion to a number of my colleagues in the Univesity of Chicago, especially to Professor H.H. Donaldson, Professor A.W. Moore, and Dr. J.B. Watson. My wife has given me great assistance in the preparation of my manuscript.

For the use of a number of illustrations acknowledgements are due to the following authors and publishers: William James; D. Appleton & Co., publishers of Barker's "The Nervous System"; W.B. Saunders & Co., publishers of "The American Text-book of Physiology"; Walter Scott, Ltd., publishers of Donaldson's "Growth of the Brain"; John Murray, publisher of McKendrick and Snodgrass' "Physiology of the Sense Organs"; and G.P. Putnam's Sons, publishers of Loeb's "Physiology of the Brain."

Preface to the Third Edition

A few purely verbal changes have been introduced into the present edition. Typographical errors have been corrected wherever detected. Otherwise the text remains unaltered.

J.R.A
Chicago, August 15, 1905.

Contents

CHAPTER I
The Problems and Methods of Psychology

CHAPTER II
The Psychophysical Organism and the Nervous System

CHAPTER III
A Sketch of the General Relations of Consciousness to Neural Action

CHAPTER IV
Attention, Discrimination and Association

CHAPTER V
Sensation

CHAPTER VI
Perception

CHAPTER VII
The Perception of Spatial and Temporal Relations

CHAPTER VIII
Imagination

CHAPTER IX
Memory

CHAPTER X
The Consciousness of Meaning and the Formation of Concepts