Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/85

 72 J. M. CATTELL : III. In the experiments so far considered a question was asked which admitted but one answer : the association was necessary, and the interval passing while it was being formed might be called a ' Eecollection-time '. A question can, however, be so arranged that beside the act of recollection a certain choice as to the answer must be made, and in this case a little more time is needed. Below is given the inverse of several of the cases we have considered ; a country being given, some city situated in it had to be named, &c. The last line gives the time needed to think of -a work by a given author. Country-City (26). B 400 72 357 45 ' C 346 75 340 48 Season-Month (26). 561 92 548 36 435 99 399 54 Language- Author (78). 663 200 702 110 519 137 523 83 Author-Work (26). 1076 397 1095 287 763 308 596 127 It will be seen that it took no longer to name a city when the country was given than the reverse ; in this case there was but little choice, as there is in each country one particular city which was named almost as a matter of course. It took, however, considerably longer to name a month when the season was given and an author when a language was given than the reverse. A choice had in the former case to be made, and further, as Steinthal has before remarked, 1 the mind moves more readily from the part to the whole than from the whole to the part. It will be noticed that the naming a work by a given author is one of the most difficult associations considered in this paper. As to the time taken up by the separate associations, I must again call attention to the fact that it is largely determined by accidental variation. This variation could only be eliminated by making a large number of experiments, and in this case we should no longer have the time taken up by associations in our daily life, but the minimum recollection-time, which would tend to become the same for different classes of associations as they became equally familiar. In naming a city, C needed the longest time for Brussels (1042) and Pekin (1001): the shortest time for Athens (214) and Philadelphia (222), his home. In naming an author, less time was needed for English, German and Italian, where Shakespeare, Goethe and Dante at once occurred, than in the three other languages used, French, Latin and Greek. In naming a work by a given author C needed the 1 Einleitung in die Psychologic und Sprachwissenschaft, p. 161.