But various factories in rearranging their
establishments according to the principles of scientific management
have changed the positions of the workmen so that conversations become
more difficult or impossible. The result reported seems to be
everywhere a significant increase of production. The individual
concentrates his mind on the task with an intensity which seems beyond
his reach as long as the inner attitude is adjusted to social contact.
The help which is rendered by the feeling of social cooeperation, on
the other hand, is not removed by the mere abstaining from speaking.
Interesting psychopedagogical experiments have, indeed, demonstrated
that working in a common room produces better results than isolated
activity. This is not true of the most brilliant, somewhat nervous
school children, who achieve in their own room at home more than in
the classroom. But for the average, which almost alone is in question
for life in the factory, the consciousness of common effort is a
source of psychophysical reinforcement. This evidently remains
effective when the workingmen can see one another, even if the
arrangement of the seats precludes the possibility of chatting during
the work.
However, by far the more important cause of distraction of attention
lies in those disturbances which come from without. Here again the
chief interest ought to be attached to those interferences which the
workman himself no longer feels as such.
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