Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/64

 NEED OF A SOCIETY FOE EXPEEIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. 53 I may illustrate what I have been saying by taking some particular point on which collective investigation would throw light. A German psychologist, Dr. Ebbinghaus, recently pub- lished the results of an elaborate examination of his powers of verbal memory. [See MIND XXXIX. 454-7.] Among other points he studied how far the power of remembering sounds apart from sense depended on the number of syllables to be learnt. He arrived at no very definite result, but from his materials I fancy I have discovered the following curious law. There is, I submit, a certain number of syllables up to which each person can repeat a nonsense word like lorg- nap-fil-trip after only once hearing ; and it is probable, though we cannot know for certain, that this number varies with different persons, giving a sort of test of their linguistic capacity. This limit one may term ' the threshold of verbal memory '. Now from Ebbinghaus's results I suspect that for every syllable over the threshold the word has to be re- peated three times before we can exactly repeat it. Thus taking a nonsense word of nine syllables, pal-eng-mon-lif-tra- mig-pro-fu-jil, a person whose threshold was six syllables could repeat it after nine repetitions ; if seven were the thres- hold, in six repetitions ; while a Mezzofanti with eight as a threshold could learn it in three. But this law, if it is a law, has at present only been deduced from observation of one man's mind, and is therefore obviously not a law of mind in general, but at best a law of Dr. Ebbinghaus's mind. It is possible and I think probable that besides the variation of threshold with different persons there may likewise be a variation in the constant multiplier, so that a person with threshold six might require not three, but four times the number of surplus-syllables to obtain perfect reproduction. All this could be settled with ease if a Psychological Society existed whose members would be willing to amuse themselves and instruct others by trying after how many repetitions they could repeat perfectly though not necessarily remember afterwards each of the following nonsense words : (4) Bor-nas-tri-flip. (5) Cral-forg-mul-tal-nop. (6) Ab-nar-chif-vul-zil-tuf. (7) Dak-mil-Uuj-bin-roz-nil-gug. (8) Gom-lar-gol-foo-nop-rit-lu-chat. (9) Pal-sug-mon-lif-tra-mif-gro-pu-jil. (10) Fud-wij-ta-ning-por-lo-trig-num-gri-foo. (11) Jus-lot-ling-grif-wuz-kom-ril-gru-far-drom-lif. (12) Morg-lap-tril-gog-maf-timp-ru-lop-fo-grif-tu-pol. (13) For-cli-nip-tral-mor-gif-ti-glip-pra-mu-nag-lop-ti. (14) San-tor-li-con-gram-jin-go-tol-gan-su-fim-tok-wil-fo. (15) Min-dal-tul-fuj-sid-riior-lu-fmi-tif-gim-zik-tat-mi-jii-lon.