Clarence Leuba

RELATION OF STIMULATION INTENSITIES TO LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Evidence has been accumulating regarding the far reaching significance of rich and varied environmental stimulation. This paper deals with one aspect of that stimulation: the intensity variable. It will be concerned with the implications of studies relating roughly three levels of intensity of stimulation, slight, moderate, and intense, to human learning. The thesis of the paper is that ordinarily behavior is little affected by slight over-all stimulation, is reinforced by over-all stimulation of modest or optimal intensity, and is disrupred by stimulation above tha: intensity. I t will be shown that this conception of the effects of increasing intensities of excitation can be useful in helping to understand and explain rhe learning which plays such a large part in early human development. First, however, let us see what conclusions can be drawn about the adequacy of current learning theories, as presently conceived, for unifying and explaining developmental data.