ause he desires to change his present mental
state of uncertainty as to its parallelism with the base into one of
certainty. He further fixes his attention upon the qualities of certain
bases and triangles, because through attending to these, he hopes to
gain the desired experience concerning the parallelism of the two
lines.

=Attention and the Question.=--The general conditions for determining
the course of attention will be further understood by a reference to two
facts already established in connection with general method. It has been
seen that the question and answer method is usually a successful mode of
conducting the learning process. The reason for this is that the
question is a most effective means of directing a selective act of
attention. For instance, in an elementary science lesson on the candle
flame, although the child, if left to himself, might observe the flame,
he would not, in all probability, notice particularly the luminous part.
Or again, if a dry glass is simply held over the flame and then removed
by the demonstrator, although the pupil may have watched the experiment
in a general way, it is doubtful whether he would notice particularly
the moisture deposited upon the glass. A question from the demonstrator,
however, awakens interest, causes the mind to focus in a special
direction, and banishes from consciousness features which might
otherwise occupy attention. This is because the question suggests a
problem, and thus awakens an expectant or unsatisfied state of mind,
which is likely to be satisfied only by attending to what the question
suggests as an object of attention.

=Attention and Motive.=--It has already been noted that any process of
learning is likely to be more effective when the child realizes a
distinct problem, or aim, in the lesson, or feels a need for going
through the learning process. The cause of this is that the aim, by
awaking curiosity, etc., is an effective means of securing attention.
When, for example, the pupil, in learning that 3 x 4 = 12, begins with
the problem of finding out how many threes are contained in his twelve
blocks, his curiosity can be satisfied only by grasping certain
significant relations. In approaching the lesson, therefore, with such
an actual problem before him, the child feels a desire to change, or
alter, his present mental relation to the problem. In other words, he
wishes to gain something involved in the problem which he does not now
know