About one in seven boys in the afternoon group ceased to improve and tended downwards, compared with one in the morning group¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1912 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? One pupil in the morning group and six pupils in the afternoon group ceased to improve, oscillated, and tended on the whole downwards; with about one-third of Group B the late-afternoon work was futile. → Winch 1912

Evidence¶

Winch 1912¶

Winch, W. H. (1912). Mental fatigue in day school children as measured by immediate memory: Part I. Journal of Educational Psychology, 3(1), 18–28. doi:10.1037/h0070728

q2 · i? · causal · r1

From the summarized conclusions, drawing on the individual improvement data of Table V, which showed only one non-improving case in Group A against six in Group B. The author argues this is not likely due to boredom and suggests these pupils were being generally overworked or had reached their saturation point for the function.

"One of the pupils in the morning group and six of the pupils in the afternoon group cease to improve, begin to oscil- late in their work, and-tend on the whole downwards."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Late-afternoon memory work shows relative inefficiency of about 5-6 per cent compared with early-morning work in 13-year-old boys — related
• Exception: the top section of afternoon workers did better work than the corresponding morning section — related
• Improvement by practice continues in both morning and afternoon groups, but the morning group improves faster across weeks — related
• In a London boys' school class, the group working problematic arithmetic later in the morning improved about 5 per cent more than the group working it early — related