40 RECORDS 



SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 



February 28, 1902. 



Section met at 8:30 P. M., R. S. Woodvvorth presiding. 



The minutes of the last meeting of Section were read and 

 approved. 



The following program was then offered : 



J. H. Bair, Quantitative Relations between Motor and 

 Sensory Associations. 



J, B. Miner, Involuntary Muscular Responses to Rhythmic 

 Stimuli. 



Clark Wissler, The Ergograph : Comparative Results 

 WITH Springs and Weights. 



Summary of Papers. 



Mr. J. H. Bair reported on some quantitative studies in sen- 

 sory and motor association. His experiments have been carried 

 out by aid of a typewriter, the subject reacting to different stimuli 

 by striking different keys. Curves were presented showing the 

 rate of formation of association. If, after the stimuli have been 

 presented many times in the same order, the order is then 

 changed, the association is interferred with, and the more so the 

 firmer it has become. If the typewriter keys are interchanged, 

 so that the reaction to each stimulus must be changed, this inter- 

 feres still more with the association. These results showed, 

 then, that the association of definite sense impressions with defi- 

 nite motor reactions was more persistent than the association of 

 sense impressions with other sense impressions following in 

 serial order, or than the association of movements with other 

 movements following in serial order. 



In the discussion of this paper, several other facts were men- 

 tioned, showing the importance of motor reactions in the for- 

 mation of association. Professor Thorndike had observed that 

 good visualizers, who are able to picture mentally a page of 

 printed matter that they have read, yet cannot read off the 

 pictured words ; apparently because the visual images are not 

 associated with motor responses. 



