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A1 WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Eighth Yeae. 

 Vol. XVI. No. 398. 



NEW YORK, September 19, 1890. 



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THE TIME-EELA.TIONS OF MENTAL PHENOMENA. 



[Continued from p. 150.] 

 Association Times. 



While the effect of the association between stimulus and 

 movetnent upon the time of the re-action has been already 

 discussed, the process of association forms so important p. 

 factor in our mental life, that it requires a more specialized 

 and independent investigation. 



(1) Questions ivith but a Single Answer. We may 

 view an adaptive re-action under the aspect of a ''question 

 and answer;'' the stimulus being equivalent t» the question, 

 "What, with regard to certain points, is this impression?" 

 and the answer, whether indicated by a name, or word, or 

 movement, is given in the re-action. Our problem is to in- 

 vestigate the time-relations of these questions and answers, 

 as an index of the readiness of the association between the 

 two. The processes intervening between the appreciation of 

 the question and the formulation of the answer may vary 

 greatly in complexity and character. A common character- 

 istic of the re-actions hitherto regarded consisted in the fact 

 that the material for forming the answer is simply and di- 

 rectly supplied by the stimulus itself: it is in the main a 

 verdict regarding the particular nature of sensation then 

 present. The re-actions to which we now pass all include 

 something more than this; and the formulation of the an- 

 swer involves to a greater or less extent more complicated 

 forms of mental activity, and depends more or less upon the 

 past experiences, the special habits and tendencies of mind, 

 of the individual. 



While the line of division between the direct appreciation 

 and the indirect interpretation of a sense-impression cannot 

 be rigidly drawn, and while it is no less difficult to decide 

 what processes are involved in this interpretation and elabo- 

 ration of the sense-impression, yet we may with sufficient 

 precision mark out as the first class of associations 'a) those 

 in which a simple act of memory plays the chief role. 

 Thus, when Oattell, instead of naming a picture in his own 

 language (which he does in 545(7), names it in German (in 

 694(7), the difference in time is needed for calling to mind 

 the German name, and measures the strength of this asso- 

 ciation. Berger's acquaintance with English is less than 

 Cattell's with German, and accordingly with him the diiJer- 

 ence between naming a picture in the vernacular and in a 

 foreign language is greater (477(7 and 649(7). The transla- 

 tion of a short familiar word from English to German occu- 

 pies Cattell 686(7; from German to English, but 580(7; the 

 time for long and less familiar words being much longer 



(we may obtain the portion of the time required for the act 

 of translation alone by subtracting from this the time to see 

 and name a word, 438(7). Such operations as addition and 

 multiplication, when confined to numbers of one place, can 

 hardly be more than acts of memory. Cattell adds such 

 numbers in 336(7; Berger, who is a mathematician, in 321(7. 

 The former multiplies them in 544(7; the latter, in 389(7. 

 Vintschgau's three subjects multiply such numbers (though 

 under different conditions) in 233(7. More complicated types 

 of "memory re-actions" have been performed by Cattell and 

 by Miinsterberg. The former determined in separate series 

 the time necessary, when given a city, to name the country 

 in which it was situated (463(7); when given a month, to 

 name the season to which it belongs (310(7), to name the fol- 

 lowing month (389(7), to name the preceding month (832ff) ; 

 given an author, to name the language in which he wrote 

 (350(7) ; given an eminent man, to name his sphere of activity 

 (368(7). Miinsterberg constantly varied the type of question 

 including such as the above, the position of cities, the quali- 

 ties of objects, the relations of men, and many others, find- 

 ing an average time of 848(7 (average of two subjects). 

 While many of these determinations are doubtless of more 

 individual than general value, we may stop to note a few 

 points that are presumably typical. The re-actions here 

 grouped under one class vary considerably in difficulty, and 

 a few instances may be cited to indicate the range of this 

 variation. In giving a country in which a given city is 

 situated, the shortest time is for Paris (278(7) ; the longest, 

 for Geneva (485(7). In giving the language in which an au- 

 thor wrote, Berger requires least time for Luther (337(7) and 

 Goethe (365(7), most for Bacon (565(7); Cattell, least for 

 Plato (334(7) and Shakspeare (358(7), most for Plautus 

 (478(7). In giving the calling of an eminent man, the least 

 time is required for poets (391(7), the longest for men of 

 science (421(7). Miinsterberg mentions as quickly answered 

 questions (400(7 to 600(7), "On what river is Cologne?" "In 

 what season is June?" "In what continent is India?" as 

 questions requiring a long time (1100(7 -1300(7), "Who is 

 the author of Hamlet?" "What is the color of ice?" "Who 

 was the teacher of Plato?" An infiuence which we have 

 found of great significance hitlierto is equally important 

 here; viz., the foreknowledge of the subject of what is to 

 occur. In Cattell's experiments the general question is vir- 

 tually asked once for the entire series, the special terms be- 

 ing given in each experiment, while in Munsterberg's results 

 the entire question changes with each observation ; and this 

 difference in the expectancy of the subject cannot but be an 

 important factor in the longer times found by the latter. A 



