618 PSYCHOLOGY. 



as the interval of time most easy to catch and reproduce. 

 Odder still, both Estel and Mehner found that multiples of 

 this time were more accurately reproduced than the time- 

 intervals of intermediary length ;* and Glass found a certain 

 periodicity, with the constant increment of 1.25 sec, in his 

 observations. There would seem thus to exist something 

 like a periodic or rhythmic sharpening of our time-sense, of 

 which the period diifers somewhat from one observer to 

 the next. 



Our sense of time, like other senses, seems subject to 

 the laio of contrast. It appeared pretty plainly in Estel'a 

 observations that an interval sounded shorter if a long one 

 had immediately^ preceded it, and longer when the opposite 

 was the case. 



Like other senses, too, our sense of time is sharpened 

 by practice. Mehner ascribes almost all the discrepancies 

 between other observers and himself to this cause alone.f 



Tracts of time filled (with clicks of sound) seem longer 

 than vacant ones of the same duration, when the latter 

 does not exceed a second or two.:}: This, which reminds 

 one of what happens with spaces seen by the eye, becomes 

 reversed when longer times are taken. It is, perhaps, in 

 accordance with this law that a loud sound, limiting a short 

 interval of time, makes it appear longer, a slight sound 

 shorter. In comparing intervals marked out by sounds, 

 we must take care to keep the sounds uniform.§ 



There is a certain emotional feeling accompanying the 

 intervals of time, as is w^ ell known in music. The sense of 

 haste goes ivith one measure of rapidity, that of delay icith 

 another; and these two feelings harmonize with different 

 mental moods. Yierordt listened to series of strokes per- 

 formed by a metronome at rates varying from 40 to 200 a 



* Estel's figures led bim to think that all the multiples enjoyed this priv- 

 flege; with jNIehner, on the other hand, only the odd multiples showed 

 diminution of the average error; thus, 0.71, 2.15, 3.55, 5, 6.4, 7.8, 9.3, and 

 10.65 second were respectively registered with the least error. Cf. Phil 

 Studien, n. pp. 57, 563-565. 



f Cf. especially pp. 558-561. 



X Wundt: Physiol. Psych., ii. 287. Hall and Jastrow: Mind, xi. 62. 



i Mehner: loc. cit. p. 553. 



