142 VITALITY AND EFFICIENCY WITH RESTRICTED DIET. 



(5) Memory Span fob 4-letter English Words. 



In planning for this memory test, it could not be known how little or 

 how much practice the men might have had in such procedures, or 

 whether any of them were familiar with the device of fitting words to- 

 gether into a story for purposes of recall. This latter is a more or less 

 common parlor game. It was therefore thought best to give a list of 

 words which was long enough to be far above the memory span of the 

 ordinary individual and, indeed, so long as to make the story method 

 of recall difficult to use. Thus it was not practicable to have the words 

 recorded in reference to the position given them in the list or to treat 

 the results in some of the more elaborate ways which have been used in 

 memory experiments.^ Eight series or lists, each containing 25 one- 

 syllable English words, each word composed of four letters, were pre- 

 pared and used. For the most part the individual lists were distinc- 

 tive. Occasionally one specific word was embodied in two lists, but 

 these were not used in consecutive experimental sessions. Many of the 

 words in these lists were the same as those selected and used by Dodge 

 and Benedict in the memory experiments of their alcohol investigation 

 and were later employed by one of us.^ Since there were 10 sessions 

 with Squad A, 2 of these 8 lists were given a second time, that is, list 

 No. 1 was given on September 29 and January 26, list No. 2 on October 

 13 and February 2. With Squad B there were 8 experimental sessions, 

 with no repetitions. 



The words were read at the rate of 1 per second, in tempo with the 

 metronome beating audibly to all. They were pronounced by the 

 experimenter as distinctly as possible and without stress or grouping. 

 The subjects were instructed to listen intently for immediate recall, to 

 watch the lips of the one who was pronouncing the list, and to avoid 

 whispered repetitions of the words. Inmiediately at the end of the 

 pronouncing the subjects were to write on the back of the accuracy trac- 

 ing blank as many of the words as could be recalled in 1| minutes. In 

 any extra time which a man might have at his disposal he was to 

 give attention to the legibility of his writing. The subjects were told 

 that with words pronounced alike and spelled differently either spell- 

 ing was acceptable, provided the word written was of four letters. 

 No instruction was given concerning the order in which the words 

 were to be recorded and nothing was said about the matter of 

 insertions, that is, words written by the subjects which were not in- 

 cluded in the lists. This latter point was considered in planning the 

 experiment, but it was thought that if the men knew they would be 

 penalized for each insertion they made it would tend in some cases to 

 inhibit their best performance. Since they were given definitely to 



^ Whipple, Manual of Mental and Physical Tests, part ii, Baltimore, 1915, p. 166. 

 * Dodge and Benedict, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 232, 1915, p. 126; Miles, Carnegie Inst. 

 Wash. Pub. No. 266, 1918, p. 67. 



