Experimental Psychology. — " Intercomparison of some insults 

 obtained in the Investigation of Memory by the Natural and 

 the Experimental Learning Method.'' Bj Dr. F. Roels. (Com- 

 municated by Prof. C. Winkler). 



(Communicated in the meeting of June 30, 1917.) 



II. 



This paper is to be considered as a sequel to a similar commu- 

 nication published in the Proceedings of the Meeting of March 31, 

 1917 Vol. XXV p. 1309, and treats more particularly of the way 

 in which the experimental method benefits the spontaneous tendency 

 to use rhythm in learning by heart. 



For the method and the technique of our investigation we refer to 

 our first communication (Ibid p. 1310). 



It has long been known that, under the formal conditions of 

 imprinting the material, rhythm tends largely to save repetitions and 

 learning time. In daily life people are fully convinced of this; when 

 they have to iearn something by heart they use rhythm. In our 

 experiments this tendency was strong with the natural method (I) ; 

 with the experimental method (II) it is still noticeable, though less 

 distinct. The following tables illustrate the rhythm of the first 

 repetition of the series and also how the rhythm varies when 

 the observer gets more familiarised with the material. The 

 tables were constructed as follows : The duration of the 

 repetition was split into groups, corresponding with the grouping 

 of the material according to the rhythm used by the observer. Then 

 I determined the time required for every syllable of the several 

 groups by dividing the time required for every group by the number 

 of the syllables it contained. From these timevalues the means were 

 calculated. The intervals between two successive groups were deter- 

 mined from the time elapsing from the moment the last syllable of 

 a group was pronounced to that on which the first of the following 

 group was read. In short, we determined the mean time falling to 

 every syllable of the group in a learning (1.) and a repetition (r) 

 experiment ; when compared with the time of the syllables consti- 



