Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/76

 THE TIME IT TAKES TO SEE AND NAME OBJECTS. 65 words did not make sentences varying between and ^sec. When a passage is read aloud at a normal rate, about the same time is taken for each word as when words having no connexion are read as fast as possible. The rate at which a person reads a foreign language is proportional to his familiarity with the language. For example, when reading as fast as possible the writer's rate was, English 138, French 167, German 250, Italian 327, Latin 434 and Greek 484 ; the figures giving the thousandths of a second taken to read each word. Experiments made on others strikingly confirm these results. The subject does not know that he is reading the foreign language more slowly than his own ; this explains why foreigners seem to talk so fast. This simple method of determining a person's familiarity with a language might be used in school-examinations. (3) The time required to see and name colours and pictures of objects was determined in the same way. The time was found to be about the same (over |sec.) for colours as for pictures, and about twice as long as for words and letters. Other experi- ments I have made show that we can recognise a single colour or picture in a slightly shorter time than a word or letter, but take longer to name it. This is because in the case of words and letters the association between the idea and name has taken place so often that the process has become automatic, whereas in the case of colours and pictures we must by a voluntary, effort choose the name. Such experiments would be useful in investigating aphasia. A more detailed account of these experiments, and of the methods used, will be found in Wundt's Philosophische Studien, ii. 4.