Page:Memory (1913).djvu/69

 lengths were gradually memorised by frequent repetitions which, however, did not all take place on one day, but were distributed over several successive days. When, after several days, only a few repetitions were necessary in order to learn the series by heart, they were repeated three or four times as often as was necessary, at this phase of memorisation, for the first errorless reproduction. But in no single case did I succeed in an errorless reproduction of the series after 24 hours unless I had read them again once or several times. The influence of the frequent repetitions still appeared, indeed, in a certain saving of work, but this became less in proportion to the decreasing amount of work to be saved. It was very hard, by means of repetitions which had taken place 24 hours previously, to eliminate the last remnant of the work of relearning a given series.

To summarise: The effect of increasing the number of repetitions of series of syllables on their inner fixedness in the above defined sense grew at first approximately in proportion to the number of repetitions, then that effect decreased gradually, and finally became very slight when the series were so deeply impressed that they could be repeated after 24 hours, almost spontaneously. Since this decrease must be considered, gradual and continuous, its beginning would, in more accurate investigations, probably have become evident even within the limits within which we found a proportionality, whereas no it is hidden on account of its small amount and the wide limits of error.