It seemed probable that further investigation of this subject might reveal some important facts concerning the development of the ability to estimate time in the individual, the significance of various conditions for time-estimation, the psychology of sex, and the relations of rhythms to personal affinities, antipathies, and motor capacities.
In this report the results of a statistical study of the sex-differences in time-estimation are discussed, and in later papers we shall present the results of investigations of the relations of time-estimation to age and to individual and sex rhythms, and attempt to work out a convenient and serviceable rhythm-formula. The need of such a formula for expressing individual rhythms is obvious, as is also the need of comparative studies of individual and sex rhythms.
TIME ESTIMATION
| Name | Place | ||
| Age | Date | ||
| ORDER OF TESTS | TIME IN SECONDS | ||
| Time of Intervals. | Male (17 years) | Female (17 years) | |
| No. 1 | No. 9 | ||
| 1. Idleness | 108" | 70" | 120" |
| 2. Reading | 36 | 30 | 118 |
| 3. Writing | 72 | 36 | 60 |
| 4. Estimating | 18 | 15 | 30 |
| 5. Reading | 108 | 90 | 68 |
| 6. Idleness | 36 | 35 | 60 |
| 7. Writing | 18 | 10 | 10 |
| 8. Estimating | 108 | 100 | 125 |
| 9. Reading | 72 | 100 | 66 |
| 10. Idleness | 72 | 75 | 58 |
| 11. Writing | 36 | 25 | 22 |
| 12. Estimating | 72 | 60 | 60 |
| 13. Reading | 18 | 14 | 15 |
| 14. Writing | 108 | 130 | 59 |
| 15. Estimating | 36 | 30 | 41 |
| 16. Idleness | 18 | 10 | 18 |
How did you estimate the interval when you were asked to estimate it as accurately as you could?
n o f e y m i q r s a d r g d e s t k n w e r a x u p x z y o n d f n o d c a e h p m a l g s r w y t b c k p s o n q a r v q c o m p v r i c p k t o s n q z r l x m i h u v o q g P p f u t o i c n g s c a r n o t c d a a o b i a r s a d e r w o a i e r g l c r t h f s o r a e n s i o c r b x g r z b h o w l t s
| Number of letters counted | 85 | 88 |
| Pulse-rate | 72 | 81 |
The experimental data now to be considered were obtained as follows. Record-sheets of the form reproduced above were printed, with blanks for age and name of subject, place, date, for sixteen judgments of time-intervals (numerals 1 to 16), for a statement of the subject's method of estimating time, for the number of letters counted in thirty seconds, and for the pulse-rate. Four intervals were used, 18, 36, 72, and 108 seconds, and for each of these intervals judgments were taken under the four conditions designated on the record-sheet as idleness, reading, writing, and estimating. In the experiments the intervals were not given in order of regular increase or decrease of the length of interval, nor were all the judgments for any one interval taken together, but instead, for the purpose of avoiding the influence of expectation of a particular interval or filling, they were arranged irregularly in the order of column two of the record-sheet. This column, as also columns three and four, which are specimen series of judgments for a male and a female respectively, of course were not printed on the record-sheets which were supplied to the subjects.
The experimental procedure was as follows:
(1) Each subject was given a record-sheet.