Yerkes and Donson formulated a relationship between arousal and task difficulty in 1908, and the formulation is wellknown under the name of Yerkes-Dodson law, and still today often referred to and commented on in articles of psychology and educational psychology. The authors reviewed several articles in Which the law was commented on. After examining the original experiment conducted by Yerkes and Dodson from where the law was established, the authors introduced Biggs' cognitive model as the most lucid and cogent theorizing of the law. The authors proposed three conditions to be met if the model works well to explain the underlying processes of the law. Several experimental evidences that might support the law were cited from previous researches, and that could not positively prove the theorizing from authors' own experimental data. Finally, the implication of the theorizing of Yerkes-Dodson law was discussed in a broader framework of Aptitude-Treatment Interaction.

Faculty of Letters Centennial IssueII