Psychological laboratory
experiments have shown in many different directions that simultaneous
independent activities always disturb and inhibit one another.
We must not forget that even the conversations of the laborers belong
in this psychophysical class. Where a continuous strain of attention
has produced a state of fatigue, a short conversation will bring a
certain relief and relaxation, and the words which the speaker hears
in reply will produce a general stimulation of psychical energy for
the moment. Moreover, the mere existence of the social conversational
intercourse will raise the general emotional mood, and this feeling of
social pleasure may be the source from which may spring new
psychophysical powers. Nevertheless the fundamental fact, after all,
is that any talking during the labor, so far as it is not necessary
for the work itself, surely involves a distraction of attention. Here,
too, the individual is not conscious of the effect. He feels certain
that he can perform his task just as well, and even the piece-worker,
who is anxious to earn as much as possible, is convinced that he does
not retard himself by conversation. But the experiments which have
been carried on in establishments with scientific management speak
decidedly against such a supposition. A tyrannical demand for silence
would, of course, be felt as cruelty, and no suggestion of a jail-like
discipline would be wise in the case of industrial labor, for evident
psychological reasons.
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