J— PSYCHOLOGY i77 



psycho-analytic theories may be in place. What is recalled and what is 

 forgotten both suggest the importance of emotional factors. 



Repetition. 



In the experiments of last year there was one case of two recalls only, 

 an immediate recall and a delayed recall after an interv^al of ten months. 

 The second recall by this subject was much poorer than that of a com- 

 parable subject who gave four recalls, the last after ar interval of fourteen 

 months. To test further this influence of recall on recall the subjects of 

 the present experiments were divided into two groups. Six gave four 

 recalls — the fourth after an interval of four months, and five gave two 

 recalls only — an immediate recall and the second after five months. The 

 scores of this group are consistently lower in this last recall than those of 

 the former group. Repetition of recital fixes recall. The same phrase- 

 ology is used, the same errors are repeated from recall to recall. Subjects 

 remember not only the original but their own reports of the original. 

 This taken by itself is a testimony to habit memory. 



The distortions and changes in the nature of the objects and scenes 

 depicted in the originals raised questions about the nature of memory 

 traces. There were reports that bore out the Gestalt view of traces of 

 organisation. There were reports wherein memory was conceptual in 

 character. It is knowledge about the scene. There were other reports 

 which suggested that if the writer saw imagery she created this in terms 

 of her knowledge about the object or scene. Other reports suggested the 

 presence of the orthodox memory image, a sensory presentation on the 

 model of the original sensory pattern. The same features are shown in 

 reports of this year's group. 



Experiments B. 



A new set of experiments was undertaken with the aim of testing the 

 influence of conceptual knowledge about an object on the recall of a sense- 

 given particular and the influence of one sense-given particular on the 

 recall of another belonging to the same class. 



For these experiments two parallel sets of cards were used. Set X 

 consisted of five variants of each of five simple objects — a lamp, a slipper, 

 a book, a candlestick with candle, and a teapot. The objects were drawn 

 in outline in black ink and coloured with chalk. Set Y consisted of five 

 variants of five shapes. These variants were obtained by drawing the 

 shadows of the same piece of cardboard placed in different positions in 

 relation to a light. ^ 



One variant of each object (or shape) constituted a series. Three 

 shades of yellow, of blue, of green, and of red chalk were used for the 

 drawings, and no two drawings in any series were alike in both colour and 



5 This method was adopted by Stevanovic in his ' Experiments on the Mental 

 Processes involved in Judgment ' {British Journal of Psychology. Monograph 

 Supplement 12). The material for these experiments is a duplicate of material 

 being used for a different purpose in other experiments, and I wish to express my 

 thanks to Miss A. M. Jenkin for kindly allowing me to use her material and 

 for making the duplicates. 



