Validation (Part 2)

What sleep-learning appears to have in common with purposive learning is the importance of achievement and rewards.

From the layman's point of view, there is a good deal of hair-splitting from one school of learning to another. We find highly technical terms, obscure language of specialists and convincing arguments behind every theory.

Thorpe and Schmuller's attempt to state principles of learning which are flexible and drawn from all schools of thought appears to be the best solution, the one most likely to consider all proven factors and to result in a balanced, unbiased view.

They include motivation as an important factor. This is stressed in sleep-learning. They are concerned with mature adjustment. So is sleep-learning. They consider pattern-learning and meaningful relationships as basic. This, too, coincides with the advice of sleep-learners.

Evaluation of progress is deemed important. This is a major aspect of the appeal of sleep-learning. Satisfactory personality development and social growth are dual goals in traditional learning and sleep-learning.

It is unlikely that Dewey, who was concerned with learning as experience and with the importance of the social environment, would have been enthusiastic about sleep-learning. He was less interested in the acquisition of facts than in the integration and use of the knowledge acquired. Perhaps the ultimate answer is a careful combination of the advantages of sleep-learning and the conscious use of understanding—which, in fact, is strongly advocated in the printed instructions of sleep-learning.

On the whole, there appears to be considerable evidence that the methods of sleep-learning are to a great degree in accord with the views of the psychologists of learning.