Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory - Hugo Münsterberg (best life changing books txt) 📗
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or movement.
Certain rules were observed in the composition of the series. Since
the test was for permanence, to avoid confusion no number was used in
more than one couplet. No two numbers of a given series were chosen
from the same decade or contained identical final figures. No word was
used in more than one couplet. Their vowels, and initial and final
consonants were so varied within a single series as to eliminate
phonetic aids, viz., alliteration, rhyme, and assonance. The kind of
assonance avoided was identity of final sounded consonants in
successive words, e.g., lane, vine.
The series were composed in the following manner: After the
twenty-eight numbers for four series had been chosen, the words which
entered a given series were selected one from each of a number of
lists of words. These lists were words of like-sounded vowels. After
one word had been chosen from each list, another was taken from the
first list, etc. As a consequence of observing the rules by which
alliteration, rhyme, and assonance were eliminated, the words of a
series usually represented unlike categories of thought, but where two
words naturally tended to suggest each other one of them was rejected
and the next eligible word in the same column was chosen. The
following is a typical series from the A set.
A^{1}. Numbers and Nouns.
19 42 87 74 11 63 38
desk girl pond muff lane hoop vine
The apparatus used in the A set and also in all the later sets may
be described as follows: Across the length of a table ran a large,
black cardboard screen in the center of which was an oblong aperture
14 cm. high and 12 cm. wide. The center of the aperture was on a level
with the eyes of the subject, who sat at the table. The aperture was
opened and closed by a pneumatic shutter fastened to the back of the
screen. This shutter consisted of two doors of black cardboard sliding
to either side. By means of a large bulb the length of exposure could
be regulated by the operator, who stood behind the table.
The series—consisting of cards 4×2½ cm., each containing a printed
couplet—was carried on a car which moved on a track behind and
slightly below the aperture. The car was a horizontal board 150 cm.
long and 15 cm. wide, fixed on two four-wheeled trucks. It was divided
by vertical partitions of black cardboard into ten compartments, each
slightly wider than the aperture to correspond with the visual angle.
A curtain fastened to the back of the car afforded a black background
to the compartments. The couplets were supported by being inserted
into a groove running the length of the car, 3 cm. from the front. A
shutter 2 cm. high also running the length of the car in front of the
groove, fastened by hinges whose free arms were extensible, concealed
either the upper or the lower halves of the cards at the will of the
operator; i.e., either the foreign symbols or the words,
respectively. A screen 15 cm. high and the same length as the car,
sliding in vertical grooves just behind the cards and in front of the
vertical partitions, shut off the objects when desired, leaving only
the cards in view. Thus the apparatus could be used for all four types
of series.
The method of presentation and the time conditions of the A set were
as follows:—A metronome beating seconds was used. It was kept in a
sound-proof box and its loudness was therefore under control. It was
just clearly audible to both operator and subject. In learning, each
couplet was exposed 3 secs., during about 2 secs. of which the shutter
was fully open and motionless. During this time the subject read the
couplet inaudibly as often as he wished, but usually in time with the
metronome. His object was to associate the terms of the couplet. There
was an interval of 2 secs. after the exposure of each couplet, and
this was required to be filled with repetition of only the
immediately preceding couplet. After the series had been presented
once there was an interval of 2 secs. additional, then a second
presentation of it commenced and after that a third. At the completion
of the third presentation there was an interval of 6 secs. additional
instead of the 2, at the expiration of which the test commenced.
A^{13-16} had five presentations instead of three. The test
consisted in showing the subject either the numbers or the words in
altered order and requiring him to write as many of the absent terms
as he could. In the object and movement series the objects were also
shown and the movements repeated by the subject if words were the
given terms. The time conditions in the test were,
Exposure of a term 3 secs.
Post-term interval in A^{1-12} 4 secs.
Post-term interval in A^{13-16} 6 secs.
This allowed the subject 7 secs. for recalling and writing each term
in A^{1-12} and 9 sec. in A^{13-16}. If a word was recalled after that
time it was inserted, but no further insertions were made after the
test of a series had been completed. An interval of 3 min. elapsed
between the end of the test of one series and the beginning of the
next series, during which the subject recorded the English word of any
couplet in which an indirect association had occurred, and also his
success in obtaining visual images if the series was a noun or a verb
series.
As already indicated, four series—a noun, an object, a verb, and a
movement series—given within a half hour, constituted a day’s work
throughout the year. Thus variations due to changes in the
physiological condition of the subject had to affect all four types of
series.
Two days later these series were tested for permanence, and in the
same way as the tests for immediate recall, with this exception:
Post-term interval in A^{13-16} 8 secs.
Thus 11 secs. were allowed for the deferred recall of each term in
A^{13-16}.
In the movement series of this set, to avoid hesitation and confusion,
the operator demonstrated to the subject immediately before the series
began, once for each word, how the movements were to be made.
The A set was given to three subjects. The results of each subject
are arranged separately in the following table. In the tests the words
were required in A^{1-4}, in A^{5-16} the numbers. The figures show
the number of terms correctly recalled out of seven couplets in
A^{1-12} and out of five couplets in A^{13-16}, exclusive of
indirect association couplets. The figures in brackets indicate the
number of correctly recalled couplets per series in which indirect
associations occurred. The total number correctly recalled in any
series is their sum. The figures in the per cent. row give the
percentage of correctly recalled couplets left after discarding both
from the number recalled and from the total number of couplets given
those in which indirect associations occurred. This simply diminished
the subject’s number of chances. A discussion of the propriety of this
elimination will be found later. In A^{1-12} the absent terms had to
be recalled exactly in order, to be correct, but in A^{13-16}, on
account of the greater difficulty of the three-place numbers, any were
considered correct when two of the three figures were recalled, or
when all three figures were correct but two were reversed in position,
e.g., 532 instead of 523. N means noun series, O object, V
verb, and M movement series. Series A^{1}, A^{5}, A^{9},
A^{13} are to be found in the first and third columns, A^{2},
A^{6}, A^{10}, A^{14} in the second and fourth, A^{3},
A^{7}, A^{11}, A^{15}, in the fifth and seventh, and A^{4},
A^{8}, A^{12}, A^{16} in the sixth and eighth columns.
TABLE I.
SHOWING IMMEDIATE RECALL AND RECALL AFTER TWO DAYS.
M.
Series. Im. Rec. Two Days. Im. Rec. Two Days.
N. O. N. O. V. M. V. M.
A^{1-4} 6 7 3 1 6 7 2 1
A^{5-8} 5(1) 6 3(1) 6 6(1) 7 5(1) 6
A^{9-12} 7 7 4 6 7 6(1) 7 6(1)
A^{13-16} 4 5 2 2 5 3 2 2
Total. 22(1) 25 12(1) 15 24(1) 23(1) 16(1) 15(1)
Per cent. 88 96 48 58 96 92 64 66
S.
Series. Im. Rec. Two Days. Im. Rec. Two Days.
N. O. N. O. V. M. V. M.
A^{1-4} 6(1) 6 0 0 7 7 0 0
A^{5-8} 6 7 1 3 6 7 0 3
A^{9-12} 7 6 2 2 5 7 0 0
A^{13-16} 5 5 0 0 5 5 3 0
Total. 24(1) 24 3 5 23 26 3 3
Per cent. 96 92 12 19 88 100 12 12
Hu.
Series. Im. Rec. Two Days. Im. Rec. Two Days.
N. O. N. O. V. M. V. M.
A^{1-4} 6 7 0 1 5 6(1) 0 2
A^{5-8} 5(2) 7 1(2) 1 7 7 1 0
A^{9-12} 6(1) 7 2 2 6 7 0 5
A^{13-16} 4(1) 4(1) 0 2 5 5 0 1
Total. 21(4) 25(1) 3(2) 6 23 25(1) 1 8
Per cent. 95 100 14 24 88 100 4 32
These results will be included in the discussion of the results of the
B set.
THE B SET.
A new material was needed for foreign symbols. After considerable
experimentation nonsense words were found to be the best adapted for
our purpose. The reasons for this are their regularly varying length
and their comparative freedom from indirect associations. An objection
to using nonsense syllables in any work dealing with the permanence of
memory is their sameness. On this account they are not remembered
long. To secure a longer retention of the material, nonsense words
were devised in substantially the same manner as that in which Müller
and Schumann made nonsense syllables, except that these varied
regularly in length from four to six letters. Thus the number of
letters, not the number of syllables was the criterion of variation,
though of course irregular variation in the number of syllables was a
necessary consequence.
When the nonsense words were used it was found that far fewer indirect
associations occurred than with nonsense syllables. By indirect
association I mean the association of a foreign symbol and its word by
means of a third term suggested to the subject by either of the others
and connected at least in his experience with both. Usually this
third term is a word phonetically similar to the foreign symbol and
ideationally suggestive of the word to be associated. It is a very
common form of mnemonic in language material. The following are
examples:
cax, stone (Caxton);
teg, bib (get bib);
laj, girl (large girl);
xug, pond (noise heard from a pond);
gan, mud (gander mud).
For both of these reasons nonsense words were the material used as
foreign symbols in the B set.
The nonsense words were composed in the following manner. From a box
containing four of each of the vowels and two of each of the
consonants the letters were chosen by chance for a four-letter, a
five-letter, and a six-letter word in turn. The letters were then
returned to the box, mixed, and three more words were composed. At the
completion of a set of twelve any which were not readily pronounceable
or were words or noticeably suggested words were rejected and others
composed in their places.
The series of the B set were four couplets long. Each series
contained one
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