Physical Setting For Study
It is highly important that the student study in the right setting for him. Motivation and scheduling are preparatory to the act of study. If the act is to be effectively canied out, it must take place in the proper environment. Reading should be done in diffused or indirect ligbt. green and blue lights should be avoided. Natural daylignt of uniform intensity is easiest on the eves. One's desk or table and chair should be so situated as to facilitate concentration. Sitting by a window that affords outside views is not a good practice because of possible distracting influences. Don't study in a lounge chair. Instead, use a hard, straight-backed chair and sit with the feet on the floor, shoulders squared, and book firmly grasped. These may be good suggestions for one person, but not for another. Some stuclents prefer the comfort of ly:ng down, with papers and books all around and a soda nearby. This may prove to be an efficient situation for study-but not for everyone! We must consider individual differences. What are your habits? How efficient are you?
In general, anything likely to produce excessive relaxation should be avoided during any kind of learning. There is much experimental evidence to substantiate this advice. For example, in one investigation, subjects exerted a mild muscular tension while learr:ing. The tension was produced by gripping a hand dynamometer, an instrument designed to test the strength of grip. The subjects did not try to maintain their maximum grip. Instead, they merely exerted a continuous squeeze of moderate intensity. The results showed 'hat those subjects who maintained a little muscular tension during learning were the most efficient in learning and in recalling what they had learned. Another experimenter found that mental work is done more efficiently during hunger contractions. than at other times.
These and related facts show th,at learning is facilitated by bodily tensions that are not too strong. Intense contractions of the muscles or intense hunger would serve as distractions to effective learning. The applicable conclusion for study is that one should maintain a fit body posture but not permit himself to become strained as he studies.
Many students report that on occasion they have sought out some quiet isolated spot for studying an especially difficult assignment. Much to their surprise, they discovered that they did not accomplish nearly so much as then expected. The common experience of many is that work is done more rapidly and with less effort where there is some background of more or less regular noise. These observations are what one would expect in the light of what has been previously said about the effect of muscular tension on learning. Moderate intensities of noise produce some muscular tension. usually of such slight magnitude that it is not noticed. Nevertheless, this unnoticed tension is likely to increase speed in learning.
