300 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



to them. Their "echoing'' would seem to be inexplicable by the laws of- 

 habit formation in general, or on the basis of any specific inherited ten- 

 dencies. If we explain the behavior of such patients as due to an instinct- 

 ive tendency to imitate, shall we assiime that they suffer from some char- 

 acteristic lesion, which sets them apart as a separate species? Or does 

 their reaction indicate the presence of an instinct which is an element in 

 the original nature of man, and is distributed according to the curves of 

 probability ? 



Professor Myers stated that eight students of Columbia University, 

 under certain standardized conditions, cut threads which represented 

 one of two dimensions of some familiar object, voluntarily selected, 

 which could not be seen during the experiment. These threads were 

 placed between the pages of a magazine where the date and introspections 

 were recorded. One subject first imaged tactually, then visually; the 

 rest, as a rule, imaged visually. Some imaged once a day, some twice 

 and some three times, until they each had about fifty records. Later 

 these threads were measured in millimeters by the writer. 



Four other subjects thus imaged ten familiar objects successively for 

 six continuous hours, of whom two later selected an arbitrary thread 

 length and repeatedly cut threads for one hour to equal the memoxj^ 

 length of that thread. Five more did the same for one-half hour. 

 Twelve subjects, for one liDur each, also imaged an object which had 

 been presented before the experiment began. Its dimensions were 228 by 

 44 mm. These dimensions, which were voluntarily selected, ranged from 

 34 inches to about one inch. 



Curves were presented of individuals and of the group of twelve. 

 Although there were considerable individual differences there were no 

 exceptions to the rule that the general trend of the curve was downward. 

 Most resembled the learning curve. The curves for length and width 

 were remarkably parallel. The sizes of the object imaged, as a rule, were 

 greatly underestimated. This was only a preliminary report. 



Mr. Bell stated that the Binet tests have been criticized because of the 

 trivial nature of some of the tests, the arrangement of the tests, arid the 

 mental age of the pupil. The Squire tests were constructed with greater 

 regard to psychological analysis, but have been used as a graded series 

 only by Mrs. Squire herself. It was proposed to investigate the relative' 

 values of the two series of tests for school purposes. Both were given 

 to twenty-three elementary pupils in grades four to seven, inclusive ; 

 three from each half grade except the high seventh, where only two were 

 available. N"o retarded pupils were included. By the Binet tests the 

 mental age of^the pupils ranged from one year below their chronological 



