Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 2

by Unknown

The elements were spoken at the rate of forty-six a minute, timed by a metronome which was muffled in a heavily padded box so that its sound was no disturbing factor. The speaker sat within three feet of the subject and enunciated as distinctly as possible.

Dissociation was performed as previously: in each hour eight series were dissociated, and eight learned in the given order.

(7) The elements were one-syllable nouns, spoken as before, alternated with nonsense syllables, printed on small white cards. The nouns were all different from those used in the previous experiment: the nonsense syllables were the same, but were this time printed, in letters 10 mm. high, on cards 40 mm. square. They were exposed by sliding them, one at a time, in front of an opening in a cardboard screen which was fastened to the table-edge.

The optimum rate for presenting the elements was found to be about forty a minute, measured with the metronome.

Five nouns and five nonsense syllables were given in each series. Eight series were given to be learned in the given order, and eight to be dissociated into separate series of nouns and of syllables.

(8) The elements were names of mammals, alternated with names of cities of the United States, all spoken. The names were all fairly familiar. Ten elements were given in each series.

The interval in reading was planned to be long enough for some appreciation of the meaning of the words, but not enough to permit mental repetition of the preceding elements. Any mechanical time-measurement was found impracticable.

The subjects were instructed to avoid any effort to memorize the series, simply receiving each element as given.

After the last element there was a pause of about two seconds, to decrease the mere sound-recollection of the last few elements. Then the operator repeated, in an altered tone, one of the given elements. The subject at once wrote down the first element that came to mind, then the next, and so on.

In the seven preceding experiments the set of series presented had been different for each subject, though of course identical in character. But in this experiment and the following ones the lists of words were identical as read to each subject. The same element was repeated for each. Sixteen lists were given.