420 MILDRED WEST LORING 



logical categories. The reaction time remains relatively con- 

 stant within the limits of word length when large groups of 

 stimulus words are used. 



5. The reaction tune for the verb-subject association is longer 

 on the average than for the verb-object association for stimulus 

 words having the same number of syllables. As with the nouns 

 and adjectives the normal order for the English language gives 

 the shorter reaction tune. 



6. For both the verb-subject and verb-object associations 

 the reaction tune on the average increases directly with the 

 number of syllables in the stimulus word. 



7. Two or three separate hours of work are sufficient for the 

 subject to become adapted to the procedure of the word asso- 

 ciation experiment, and to lose as much as is possible of any 

 emotional disturbance resulting from the novelty of his environ- 

 ment or from sex difference between subject and experimenter. 



8. The begining of each list of words is usually marked by three 

 or four reaction tunes faster than the average. There is then a 

 sudden increase which persists throughout the list, and which 

 may be due to the adjustment of the subject to a comfortable 

 steady muscular "tension" adapted to a long period of work. 



9. Successive repetitions of a list of stimulus words for both 

 the adjective-noun and the noun-adjective associations, cause 

 successive decreases in the reaction tune when the subject is 

 not informed that the stimulus words are words that have been 

 given before. These reaction times would no doubt ultimately 

 reach a physiological level. 



10. The reaction tune for double associations is longer on the 

 average for the inverse order than for the normal order in the 

 English language. That is, the reaction time is longer in asso- 

 ciating from intransitive verbs backward through noun subjects 

 to adjectives than forward from adjectives through noun sub- 

 jects to verbs. 



11. In all controlled word association experiments, any inter- 

 pretation of reaction times must surely take into consider- 

 ation the type of control put upon the associations, and the 



