CONCEPTIONS AND MISCONCEPTIONS 225 



strength of the emotional tone represented by it. This is 

 precisely the result which is affected by the conditions of 

 the association experiment. 



A series of words called test words, usually TOO, are 

 repeated to the patient, who is required to respond at once 

 with the first word associating itself in his mind with the 

 test word given. By measuring with a stop watch, re- 

 cording fifths of a second, the interval occurring between 

 the stimulus (the calling of test word) and the reaction 

 (the patient's response), a mathematical estimate is given 

 of the relative emotional value of the situation recalled 

 by the test word in question ; for the more profoundly the 

 consciousness of the patient is stirred, the longer will be 

 the interval required in order to return to the mechanical 

 routine of response required by the concrete conditions of 

 the experiment. 



Hence, having obtained the length of the patient's 

 probable average of reaction time, any marked excess of 

 this interval indicates the presence of a significant remi-. 

 niscence, that is, of an underlying complex. A marked 

 variation in the length of reaction time is, then, the most 

 important of the complex indicators. 



A further aid in unearthing the hidden complexes is 

 that of obtaining the patient's "reproductions," that is, 

 having obtained his responses to the series of stimulus 

 words, to test his memory of each of his responses by 

 again repeating the test words. In this procedure a wrong 

 reproduction or failure to recall at all the original reaction 

 word is indicative of a complex having been stirred. Here 

 again the excess of the affect carries the mind of the: 

 patient from the immediate verbal image to some inti- 

 mately associated impression, and the significance of the 

 reaction word as such is lost in the greater emphasis of 

 the remembrance awakened by it. 



Still a further complex indicator consists in the succes- 

 sive decrease of the heightened interval of reaction time 

 effecting the three or four immediately subsequent reac- 



