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between the objects or elements which compose the test set-up;
hence he reacts to separate elements rather than to the whole situation,
e.g., attempts to secure the object not realising the existence
of an obstacle ; his attention is fluctuating, his persistence in pursuing
the goal is comparatively small, and his activities appear to be
incoherent and "playful".
At 15 months the child shows the first signs of appreciating a
problem situation, though at first only as a sort of crude awareness
of the relations between objects. These relations are usually discovered
during and due to the manipulation of the objects. An
"experimenting" attitude sets in where the child watches the
effects of movements with one object on another. When a solution
is found in the course of such exploration or experimentation,
the child seems now quickly able to appropriate it for further use
as a method. The child fails, however, to visualize more complex
forms, or to solve problems which require the co-ordination of
several actions.
Between 15 and 18 months rapid progress is being made in the
understanding of a problem. Tests involving relatively simple
relationships between two objects are readily understood by the
18 months old child. At this age, too, the child for the first time
begins to deal successfully with problems of some complexity.
The child apprehends certain more involved shapes; he also becomes
able to carry out a number of consecutive actions to obtain an end
whereby these actions become an integrated unit, as opposed to the
unco-ordinated activities of the younger infant. Incidentally,
comparison with the achievements of chimpanzees shows, that at
18 months the child seems in the main to have surpassed the mental
level reached by these animals.
The progress between 18 and 24 months seemed mainly one in
degree as far as the present tests are concerned. The child becomes
able to attend to a growing number of objects simultaneously and
to grasp their inter-relations. Accordingly his behaviour undergoes
further organisation, and longer series of activities can be made to
serve an end.
It was a valuable confirmation that similar stages of development
could be noticed in the spontaneous play with the same objects.
The manner in which these objects were handled went through similar
changes towards greater adequacy; also progress was being made
from the stage of handling objects separately to combining them