EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS 55 



step of the horse was exactly what had been expected. 

 The few contradictory cases which occur in Series I of 

 the observations upon Mr. Schillings are to be accounted 

 for by the fact that he was here for the first time the 

 subject of observation, whereas the recorded time-meas- 

 urements in the case of Mr. Pfungst had been preceded 

 by a number of practice tests. The results of the meas- 

 urements taken in the case of Mr. von Osten were far 

 less satisfactory. Even if one were to allow a series con- 

 taining barely more than 50% of " right " cases as suf- 

 ficient proof of the correctness of our expectation regard- 

 ing the order of the movements of the questioner and the 

 horse, only three of the six series obtained with Mr. von 

 Osten as subject, would satisfy this expectation. How- 

 ever, since four of the six series show a greater number 

 of cases of simultaneity (their percentage may be easily 

 deduced by referring to the per cent of " right " and 

 "wrong" cases), the proposed method would give a dis- 

 torted view, and therefore it appears that the more cor- 

 rect method would be to consider simply the numerical 

 ratio of the " right " and " wrong " cases. Since, further- 

 more. Series II shows, in every case, a decided change 

 which is similar for all observers (note especially 

 Pfungst), there can be no doubt but that practice is here 

 involved, and that Series II is to be regarded as the true 

 standard. Throughout this series we find a preponder- 

 ance of " right " cases. Therefore, the table unmistaka- 

 bly confirms the expected order in time. That there were 

 more "wrong" cases with Mr. von Osten as subject than 

 with the other questioners is to be explained by the fact 

 that the decisive movements were far less easily observed 

 in this case, than in that of the other questioners. (See 

 page 49.) We expect that Series III would show the 



