HUMAN BEHAVIOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume 198, Issue LVII, 21 August 1926, Page 27

HUMAN BEHAVIOUR.

SEASONAL FLUCTUATIONS. PERIODS OF VITALITY. Professor A. B. Fitt, in a lecture delivered under the auspices of the Australasian Association of Psychology and Philosophy, dealt with seasonal fluctuations in human "behaviour. There was a crowded attendance, presided over by Professor W. Anderson.' The lecturer explained that he had been led to investigate the subject by the results he had obtained with a large group of school children in Melbourne when examining their various scholastic capacities of memory, speed, and accuracy over the period of an entire year. The activities requiring a more thorough grasp showed at their best in the autumn and winter months, and -were the first to decline at the outset *>t, & general

deterioration in performance that set in after the close of winter. This suggested that intellectual activities imposed a greater strain on the organism in the subsequent period. That the bodily vitality was then at eVb was brought out by the comparative statistics of births, deaths, and suicides, for the same period, which were graphically presented by the lecturer. These evidences of an organic rhythm suggested the hypothesis of a stage in evolution when 'man was a hibernating animal; one which still dominated his vital energies. - A crucial test 'in the practical sphere was found in the athletic performances of men whose rhythms were reversed through living in opposite hemispheres of the earth. In Anglo-Australian cricket, for example, in which the Test matches extended over the critical period of transition for the visiting teams in either case, the frequent drop in their performances in the later matches was explained "by thie hypothesis where the usual explanations 'by the weather or the light broke down, ~.