560 PSYCHOLOG Y. 



is the existence of certain constant differences between as- 

 sociations of different sorts. Thus :. 



From country to city, Mr. C.'s time was 0.340 sec. 

 " season " month, " " " 0.399 



" language " author, " " " 0.523 



" author " ivork, " " " 0.596 



The average time of two observers, experimenting on 

 eight different types of association, was 0.420 and 0.436 

 sec. respectively.* The very wide range of variation is 

 undoubtedly a consequence of the fact that the words used 



* This value is much smaller than that got by Wundt as above. No 

 reason for the ditfereuce is suggested by Mr. Cattell. Wuudt calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that the figures found by him give an average, 0.720", ex- 

 actly equal to the time iniefval which in his experiments (tvVZe infra, chapter 

 on Time) was reproduced without error either way, and to that required, 

 according to the Webers, for the legs to swing in rapid locomotion. " It is 

 not improbable," he adds, " that this psychic constant, of the mean asso- 

 ciation-time and of the most correct appreciation of a time-interval, may 

 have been developed under the intlueuce of the most usual bodily move- 

 ments, which also have determined the manner in which we tend to sub- 

 divide rhythmically longer periods of time." (Physiol. Psch., ii. 386). 

 The rapprochement is oi" that tentative sort which it is no harm for psy- 

 chologists to make, provided they recollect how very llctitious and incom- 

 parable mutually all these averages derived from different observers, work- 

 ing under different conditions, are. Mr. Cattell's figure throws Wundt's 

 ingenious parallel entirely out of line — The only measurements of asso- 

 ciation-time which so far seem likely to have much theoretic importance 

 are a few made on insane patients by Von Tschisch (Mendel's Neurolo- 

 gisches Centralblatt, 15 Mai, 1885,3 Jhrg., p. 217). The simple reaction 

 time was found about normal in three patients, one with progressive 

 paralysis, one with inveterate mania of persecution, one recovering from 

 ordinary mania. In the convalescent maniac and the paralytic, however, 

 the association-time was hardly half as much as Wundt's normal figure 

 (0.28" and 0.23 ' instead of 0.7' —smaller also than Cattell's), whil.st in the 

 sufferer from delusions of persecution and hallucinations it was twice as 

 great as normal (1 39" instead of 0.7") This latter patient's time was .six- 

 fold that of the paralytic. Herr von Tschisch remarks on the connection 

 of the short times with diminished power for clear and consistent processes 

 of thought, and on that of the long times with the persistent fixation of the 

 attention upon monotonous objects (delusions). Miss ]\Iarie Walitzky 

 (Revue Philosophique, xxviii. 583) has cairied Von Tsclii.sch's observations 

 still farther, making 18,000 mea.surements in all. She found association- 

 time increased in paralytic dementia and diminished il mania. Choice 

 time, on the contrary, is increased in mania. 



