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4. 
Memory value 
2. Suggestion 
1. Intensity 
3. Appeal to instincts 
2. Vividness 
4. Appeal to interests 
3. Feeling tone 
/ 5. Appear to emotions 
4. Familiarity 
6. Specific direction 
5. 
Persuasion value 
' 7. Personal appeal 
1. Vigor 
8. Authoritativeness 
These scoring factors having been determined npon, the meth- 
od of procedure is that technically known as the ‘/order of 
merit method^’, the reliability of which has. been demonstrated 
beyond question many times in psychological laboratories. Ac- 
cording to this method, the advertisements are taken and ar- 
ranged in a regular ascending order for one of these concrete 
factors at a time.. 
This arrangement is made for each of the scoring factors in- 
cluded in the complete analysis, and the. place held in the 
series by each advertisement for each of these factors is recorded. 
Then the sum of the numbers indicating the ranking held by 
each advertisement in all of the twenty-four arrangements is 
found, and these numbers taken as a measure of the relative 
merits of the different advertisements as a whole; the smaller 
the number representing such sum, the greater the merit of 
the advertisement. 
This method of measurement has been applied in our expe- 
rimental work to series of mail order copy, and its reliability 
tested by checking up the laboratory results with the actual 
keyed results, so that we feel we can claim a teasonable degree 
of accuracy, both for the analysis of scoring factors and for 
the method. 
If this method proves as workable in the hands of the aver- 
age business man as in the case of the skilled, observers used 
in these tests, the immense practical significance to the business 
world is apparent, when we consider that nearly a billion dol- 
lars are expended annually in advertising, and a large percentage 
of this amount is conceded by advertisers . to - be spent ineff ect- 
ively. 
Psychology Laboratory^ 
State University op Iowa. 
