DC
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW PUBLICATIONS
THE
Psychological Monographs
*
EDITED BY
JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
HOWARD C WARREN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY (Index)
JOHN B. WATSON, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (Review) and
SHEPHERD I. FRANZ, Govr. HOSP. FOR INSANE (Bulletin)
VOLUME XIX
1915
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW COMPANY
PRINCETON, N. J.
AND LANCASTER, PA.
AGENTS: G. E. STECHERT & CO., LONDON (2 Star Yard, Carey St., W. C.);
LEIPZIG (Koenig Str., 37) ; PARIS (16, Rue de Cond6)
TABLES OF CONTENTS OF VOL. XIX
i. I. Symptomatological Differences Associated with Similar
Cerebral Lesions in the Insane. II. Variations in Distribu-
tion of the Motor Centers. SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ. Pp.
162.
2. The Psycho-physiological Effects of the Elements of Speech in
Relation to Poetry. ROBERT C. GIVLER. Pp. 132.
3. Standardization of Tests for Defective Children. CLARA
SCHMITT. Pp. 181.
4. A Study of Retroactive Inhibition. J. EDGAR DECAMP. Pp. 69.
(This volume includes Monographs 81-84).
M XK PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW PUBLICATIONS
No. 1 Whole No. 81
THE
Psychological Monographs
EDITED BY
JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
HOWARD C. WARREN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY (Index)
JOHN B. WATSON, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (Review) and
SHEPHERD I. FRANZ, GOVT. HOSP. FOR INSANE (Bulletin)
ON THE FUNCTIONS OF THE CEREBRUM
I
Symptomatological Differences As-
sociated with Similar Cerebral
Lesions in the Insane
By
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
II
Variations in Distribution of the
Motor Centers
By
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
With the Assistance of
J. DUERSON STOUT
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW COMPANY
PRINCETON, N. J.
AND LANCASTER, PA.
AGENTS: G. E. STECHERT & CO., LONDON (2 Star Yard, Carey St., W. C.) :
LEIPZIG (Koenigstr., 37): PARIS (16 rue de Conde)
PREFACE
The two articles which constitute the present monograph deal
with the same gen'eral topic, the variations in function of cor-
responding parts of different brains. This matter has received
scant attention in neurological literature, notwithstanding the
fact that the anatomical variations have been extensively studied.
The data recorded in the two articles point to a conclusion which
helps to an understanding and to a conciliation of some apparent
discrepancies in previous clinical and experimental studies of
cerebral function. The theoretical discussion which is given is,
however, not due solely to the work now presented, but in great
part has been the result of previous personal observations and of
various facts which have been recounted in clinico — and physi-
ological— neurological literature.
The experimental data of the second article were collected be-
fore the examination of the clinico-pathological data contained
in the first article was begun. Many results of the experimental
study could not be prepared for publication in the present article,
and a number of duties prevented the earlier completion of the
article as it now stands, but it is hoped that time will be found
for the early presentation of the other collected facts which bear
upon the same problem. Part of the first study was prepared for,
but was not presented at, the conference on individual differences
at Columbia University in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniver-
sary of the professorship of J. McKeen Cattell.
In the experimental part of the present work the author has had
the assistance of and is under obligation to a number of former
students, and of internes at the Government Hospital for the
Insane, too numerous to mention separately. The major part of
the assistance was given by Dr. J. Duerson Stout, now associate
professor of physiology and pharmacology in the George Wash-
ington University and his name appears, therefore, on the title
page.
The research on the brains of the monkeys was made possible
by reason of a grant to the author, for the purchase and main-
tenance of animals for the investigation of the functions of the
cerebrum, by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and for
making possible this and other similar previous investigations
the author here expresses his sense of obligation.
For the convenience of the reader it may be mentioned that
summaries of the experimental work appear at the ends of the
individual sections of that article (see pp. 102, 105, 132, and 139).
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface iii
I. SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES ASSO-
CIATED WITH SIMILAR CEREBRAL LESIONS
IN THE INSANE.
Introduction I
Dementia Precox, clinical histories 9
Dementia Precox, discussion 19
General Paralysis of the Insane, clinical histories 27
General Paralysis of the Insane, discussion 33
Arteriosclerotic Dementia, clinical histories 39
Arteriosclerotic Dementia, discussion 45
Senile Dementia, clinical histories 52
Senile Dementia, discussion 65
Summary 74
General Discussion 77
II. VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF THE
MOTOR CENTERS.
Introduction 80
Methods 82
Experimental Results 92
I. Extents of cerebral motor areas for the arm and leg
segments 95
II. Relative distributions of areas for arm and leg move-
ments 103
III. Distributions of areas for individual segments 106
(Thigh, Leg, Foot, Toes, Shoulder, Forearm, Hand,
Fingers, General.)
IV. Anomalous distributions of the stimulable areas. ... 134
(Arm movements within leg areas; Leg movements
within arm areas ; Relatively non-stimulable zones. )
General Discussion (Theoretical) 14°
References .
I
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES
ASSOCIATED WITH SIMILAR
CEREBRAL LESIONS IN
THE INSANE
INTRODUCTION
It is well known that in different diseases similar symptoms are
often exhibited. For example, anemia and fever are not more
characteristic of one special disease than of a multitude of others.
On the other hand, discomfort and malaise are so constantly re-
ported by those who are sick, that they can not be said to be of
more than minor diagnostic value. Even pains are so commonly
concomitants of different diseases that, except when definitely
localized, and not always then, they almost cease to be of diagnos-
tic or prognostic importance. In the mental disease, the individual
symptom is often less valuable, if this be possible, as an indication
of the special disease. A depression or a sadness, an hallucination
or a delusion, defects of retention or of comprehension, and evi-
dences of loose thinking and the like are elements or symptoms in
many of the psychoses. Not one is pathognomonic of a special
disease, each is an expression of a physiological conflict or of a
loss or defect of anatomical, and also functional, cerebral elements.
Although no one symptom or condition can be relied upon for
the purpose of diagnosis, the combination of symptoms does give
most often plain evidence of the nature of the special disorder.
The recognition of the fact that diagnostic reliance may be placed
upon the collection or concatenation of symptoms has led to the
foundation and the elaboration of a system of knowledge, we
might almost say a science, which is called differential diagnostics.
The development of this field has also been due to the realization
that in the same disease in different individuals the micro-or-
ganisms may produce different effects, or the body physiologically
2 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
may be affected differently, and there may result different prom-
inent systems in different individuals. Apart from the so-called
mildness or the severity of the disease, one individual may ex-
hibit high temperature, another may exhibit a temperature only
slightly above the normal. In one individual the diseased con-
dition of one of the heart valves may exist for many years with-
out obvious symptoms which attract the patient's attention because
of compensation in both the strength and the size of the heart,
while a similar pathological state in another patient gives rise
to distress, sharp pains and faintness.
These similarities of symptoms in different diseases and the
variations in symptoms in different individuals with the same
disease are paralleled by variations in actions of different drugs
and by differences in the reactions of different individuals to
some foods. In some, the eating of strawberries or of fish is
accompanied by disagreeable effects, and in other individuals
the effects following the administration of therapeutic doses of
certain drugs are not only disagreeable but often dangerous.
Small amounts of the derivatives of opium, of arsenic, of antipy-
rine, and of even generally supposed-to-be-harmless quinine at
times give rise to violent physiological reaction, although most
people may take small doses of these drugs with impunity and
without apparent physiological changes.
In the older psychiatry individual symptoms or concomitant
physical conditions were uncritically believed to have major
importance and, because of this, dissimilar diseases were consider-
ed to be the same. When certain etiological factors were deter-
mined and when the symptomatological variations were carefully
considered it became apparent that superficially different group-
ings of symptoms might be and often are essentially similar.
Notwithstanding these supposedly fundamental similarities as
we see them at present, there remain many prominent points of
differences in the symptoms in individuals who suffer from the
same disease. These individual differences have been supposed
to be due to or to be connected with variations in the normal
mental make-up of the patient, or to variations in lesions or in
functional disturbances of cerebral centers or connections.
SYMPTOM ATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 3
To account for the individual variations in both mental and
nervous diseases, the psychoses and the neuroses, it has been
most easy and quite satisfying to presuppose functional and
structional differences of the lesions, because of our relative
ignorance of many of the functions and of the anatomical con-
nections of parts of the nervous system. This is specially true
when we deal with lesions or disease of the cerebrum and the
basal ganglia. Within recent years, however, there has been
growing the realization that a minute lesion in one part of the
brain may give rise to a symptom or to a collection of symptoms
which is exactly the same as that resulting from a similarly
minute lesion in a second or a third portion O'f that organ. If
we liken the cerebral mechanism to the stations and lines of a
telephone or a telegraph plant we may readily understand how
this can be. If the emissive element or the transmitter be broken
or destroyed it is not possible to transmit the message in a par-
ticular direction or to a given point. The function is abolished.
But we must also keep in mind that a similar abnormal condition
of function arises if, instead of having a lesion of the emissive
element, there be a break in any part of the conducting line.
Such an injury or a disease may be close to or far from the
transmitter and may even be in the receiver.
Lesions in the nervous system minute enough to embrace an
individual nerve cell or its processes are never found. The
smallest always involve many elements. But even though this
be true, it has been shown that such lesions in different parts may
result in similar physiological disturbances. Lesions of such
widely separated parts of the nervous system as the frontal
lobes and the cerebellum are known to produce similar symp-
toms, and in many cases a definite diagnosis can be made only
after death. Usually, however, concurrent with the main, or
with the more prominent, symptoms other symptoms are found.
These additional symptoms point to disturbances of structures
anatomically allied to the one which is chiefly involved or which
is entirely destroyed, and they permit fairly accurate neurological
diagnostic localizations in many cases during life. Thus, for
4 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
example, we find it possible to predict the localizations of lesions
in individuals with paralyses because of the association of several
paralyzed segments, or because of concomitant sensibility dis-
orders.
The reverse state of affairs is seldom considered. Is it, we may
ask, possible that anatomically similar lesions of the cerebrum
give rise to dissimilar symptoms in different individuals? The
consequences of a positive or a negative answer to this question
are of great importance. If similar cerebral lesions do not al-
ways produce similar symptoms, there is opened a series of
problems regarding the "why" and the "how" of cerebral func-
tion which are fundamental. If similar cerebral lesions are
always accompanied by similar mental changes, our conceptions
of cerebral mechanics may remain simple and our explanations
of the relations of mental and cerebral functions become less
difficult.
Because of these considerations it appeared desirable to make
a special study of possible differences in symptoms accompanying
similar cerebral lesions. For this purpose there were available
autopsy and clinical records of nearly 3,300 patients who had
been in the Government Hospital for the Insane. The clinical
records of many were so meagre that attempted correlations of
the cerebral lesions with the clinical symptoms would, in these
cases, have been futile, and it appeared would have resulted in
a loss of time. For this reason only those cases have been
considered in which there were recorded the results of fairly
complete mental examinations as well as the autopsy examina-
tions. These considerations resulted in the primary rejections
of all but the last 950 autopsy cases, representing roughly those
autopsies which had been performed during the past six or seven
years. It was also found that about one-third of these must
also be rejected on account of insufficient clinical examinations,
and because of indefinite diagnostic data. The cases which were
eventually selected were of all kinds of mental diseases, but the
series is particularly strong in the organic psychoses, such as
paresis, arteriosclerotic dementia, senile dementia, and the like.
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 5
The brains of these individuals showed a great variety of
lesions, inflammatory, atrophic, hemorrhagic, and the like. These
were divided into two general groups, one in which there was a
single or unitary lesion, the other in which there was a com-
bination of cerebral lesions. Those in which there were two
kinds of lesions, e. g., softening and atrophy, were excluded.
The cases which showed atrophy were the most numerous and
these were selected for the present study. These were separated
into two general classes: (i) Those in which the atrophy was
general but in which there might be a greater atrophic condition
in one portion of the cerebrum, and (2) those in which the atrophy
was well localized in one special region of the cerebral cortex.
The second group is the one which has been more carefully stud-
ied at the present time. From this group, as has been stated
above, there have been omitted almost all those cases in which
there were other gross lesions of parts of the cerebrum or of the
nervous system in general. A few cases in which the only ad-
ditional lesions were recent cerebral hemorrhages, that resulted
in the death of the patients, were included, because whatever
mental changes had been observed during the major part of
their hospital residence could not have been due to these lesions.
It might also have been possible to include certain cases in which
localized softenings accompanied the atrophy, because in a num-
ber of cases these additional pathological conditions were due to
comparatively recent cerebral insults. Since, however, definite
dates could not be assigned to some of them, they have been
excluded from the present report.
The atrophies which are dealt with here are those which, as
defined by Blackburn1, imply "reduction in size and weight of
an organ which has been at one time of greater volume and weight,
though the organ may not have been orginally up to the normal
standard. It also implies that this atrophy is the result of de-
generation and diminution of the elements of the tissue and not
merely the result of pressure or gross loss of substance." In
old age this condition of atrophy of the cerebrum is met with as
1 Blackburn, I. W. Atrophy of the Brain in the Insane. Govt. Hasp, for
the Insane Bull., 1911, 3, 45-50.
6 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
a common concomitant of the general bodily degenerative
changes, and it may be due solely to these degenerative tend-
encies of the body as a whole. The condition of cerebral atrophy
is also to be found in a variety of other mental diseases besides
that of senile dementia, and it is particularly noticeable in many
cases of general paralysis of the insane. The atrophies may, it
has been shown, be primary, i.e., due to degenerations of the
cells, without concomitant changes in the blood vessels, or they
may be the result of partial blocking of or difficulties in the
course of the blood flow. The atrophies which accompany cerebral
arteriosclerosis are allied, some think, to the atrophies which are
found in general paralysis of the insane, in that they are atrophies
of a secondary nature, whereas the atrophies which are found in
senile dementia, and possibly also in dementia precox, are more
frequently primary atrophies. In many cases the atrophies are so
distributed that it is apparent they do not depend upon changes
in the arterial supply. In fact, in many instances the gross and
also the histological examinations may .fail to show any sclerotic
changes in the blood vessels. In this connection, it may be noted
that Blackburn has pointed out that in certain cases there may
be a complete preservation of certain cortical areas with an
atrophy of surrounding or neighboring zones which are sup-
plied by the same vessel.
In many cases the cerebral atrophy is general, but regional atro-
phies are frequently met with, such as those of the frontal, or
parietal or temporal lobes. In paresis it is not uncommon to
find such localized atrophies, and these are more frequent in
the frontal lobes. There is, however, an atrophy of the parietal
region, circumscribed in character, which has been described by
Lissauer. Although the symptoms due to this circumscribed
atrophic condition of the posterior half of the brain include cer-
tain focal manifestations, especially those of disturbances in
speech of the nature of the aphasias, the other symptoms do
not differ very markedly from the symptoms accompanying more
generalized or frontal atrophy, and previous to death it is not
usually possible to diganose this condition. Kraepelin2 reports
1 Kraepelin, E., General Paresis (trans, by I. W. Moore). Nerv. and
Ment. Dis. Monog. No. 14. Pp. v -f- 200. (See especially pp. 134-135.)
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 7
that in this Lissauer type of paresis the course of the disease is
spasmodic and resembles, to some extent, cortical epilepsy, while
the deterioration is more gradual than in the frontal atrophies.
This type of case is estimated by Alzheimer to comprise about
15 per cent of the total cases of paresis. Similar circumscribed,
or regional, atrophies are also found in cases of senile dementia,
arteriosclerotic dementia, and dementia precox.
In regard to the relation of atrophies to the clinical symptoms
Blackburn has written : "The conclusions reached by long ex-
perience are that in all cases of insanity of long standing in which
there is a demonstrable mental deterioration we may confidently
predict that some shrinkage of the brain may be found; that as
a rule the degree of dementia is commensurate with the atrophy
found or present; and that the localization of this shrinkage in
the prefrontal region in most cases is a strong presumptive evi-
dence of the seat of intellectual processes in that part of the
brain."3 He furthermore states that the fact that the secondary
degenerative atrophy "is confined most frequently to the frontal
lobes and the prefrontal region is strikingly significant in view
of the supposed intellectual function of these parts." On the
other hand, it should be mentioned that senile dementia may
be evident without concomitant atrophic conditions in the brain.
This is also true for dementia precox, and whatever relations
the atrophic conditions bear to the changes in mental characters
which are grouped together under the general term "mental
deterioration" are at present unknown. Since deterioration
may exist without obvious atrophy it is apparent that the
atrophy, in itself, is not necessary for the production of the
symptoms. That, however, the symptoms do, in many cases
at least, depend upon the cerebral changes we may believe. The
relation, direct or indirect, of the cerebral lesions with the
symptoms has not yet been sufficiently shown.
After the elimination of the cases with multiple lesions a
total of sixty cases was obtained with sufficiently complete clinical
and pathological histories to make certain comparisons of value.
Some of these were not usable in the present study on account
• Op. fit.
8 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
of the fact that they were diagnostically doubtful cases or
there were too few cases of the special kind of mental disease
to make valuable symptom-lesion correlations. In general it
was believed that at least four or more cases of a particular
psychosis were needed if the individual differences and similari-
ties were to be dealt with properly, and on account of this
twenty-two cases were omitted from the present work. The
omitted cases were : manic-depressive and allied psychoses, 7 ; in-
toxication psychoses, 2 ; imbecility, I ; epilepsy with dementia, i ;
paralysis agitans, i ; cerebral syphilis, 3 ; organic diseases of the
brain not otherwise differentiated, 3 ; undiagnosed or unclassified
psychoses, 4. The remaining thirty-eight cases were distributed
as follows: dementia precox, 9; general paralysis of the insane,
6; arteriosclerotic dementia, 9; senile dementia, 14. Thirteen
of these cases were described in the autopsy records as simple
frontal atrophies ; two were cases in which the brain was generally
atrophied but the atrophies of the frontal regions were great;
eighteen cases were described as anterior atrophies, and by this is
meant that the regions anterior to the central fissure (including,
therefore, the so-called motor region in addition to the 'frontal
area) were atrophied ; .four cases showed atrophy over the anter-
ior two-thirds of the cerebrum, including therefore more of the
cortex than in the cases previously mentioned; one additional
case, in which the atrophy covered the frontal region and the
posterior portion of the parietal area, was included 'for com-
parison. The distribution of these extents of atrophies in
the different diseases is given in the accompanying table and
comparisons are also made in the discussions.
Mental Diseases
Characters of atrophy
Frontal
Frontal
and
general
Anterior
Anterior
two-thirds
Frontal
and pos-
terior
parietal
Totals
Dementia precox ....
General paralysis of the
insane
3
3
2
5
o
0
2
0
5
3
5
5
I
0
0
3
0
0
o
i
9
6
9
M
Arteriosclerotic dementia
Senile dementia ....
Totals
13
2
18
4
i
38
DEMENTIA PRECOX, CLINICAL HISTORIES
Case i, white female, was admitted to the Hospital at the
age of 54 and lived for 3 years and 6 months.
Her family history was bad; her father was nervous, her
maternal cousin was insane, and her mother was an invalid for a
number of years before her death, which was due to ovarian tu-
mor; the patient attended private schools until the age of seven-
teen ; she was considered to be sickly all her life ; for many years
she showed marked peculiarities of conduct, was contrary, and had
spells of high temper at intervals varying from a week to several
months; at one time she lived in an eighteen-room house with
only a dog for company for a period of fifteen years. The mental
disorder which led to her commitment was probably of very long
standing, but the occasion of commitment was the manifesta-
tion of delusions of persecution by "witches" and by the "Black
Hand Society" ; she was also extremely nervous, had insomia,
refused to eat, and exhibited homicidal tendencies. She would
not permit either physical or neurological examination, but ex-
hibited no obvious physical or neurological abnormalities except
a few small sores over trunk and limbs. She was restless, suspi-
cious of almost every one about her; she refused to talk freely
about herself; at times she imagined the food was poisoned and
refused to take it on this account, but on being assured that
there was no poison or after it had been tasted by another, she
would take it; she also feared that the towels, the combs, the
water, etc., contained poison; she had hallucinations of hearing
(she had heard her mother's and brother's voices talking to her)
and also of skin sensations (she said that she was electrical and
could give out power at any time ; she also reported that electric
currents had been turned upon her for years by her enemies) ; she
believed that she was especially favored by the Lord and that she
received signs of this; her memory was excellent and when she
was persuaded to talk, she gave detailed accounts of her past and
of the conditions which led up to the persecutions to which she be-
lieved she had been subjected ; her attention did not appear to be
io SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
impaired, and there was no distractability ; she had no apprecia-
tion of her mental condition ; she was well oriented in all spheres ;
there was no clouding of consciousness; she reported (in-
correctly) that she did not sleep well; and she answered in-
coherently at most times. Later she became indifferent, but at
times was noted to be emotionally labile; she was irresponsible;
her answers were circumstantial, irrelevant, or incoherent; at
times she was disturbed, noisy, destructive, violent, and untidy;
she wandered away ; talked constantly ; her answers showed that
her memory was poor for recent events, and there was evidence
of gradual mental deterioration.
Death was due to purulent parotitis and bronchopneumonia.
Besides these, the autopsy revealed : diffuse nephritis ; pulmonary
tubercular nodules; an insufficiency of the tricuspid valve of the
heart ; numerous uterine fibroids and endometritis ; the brain was
slightly shrunken in the frontal regions, but no other gross cere-
bral lesions were found. The histological examination showed a
slight chromatolysis of the ganglion cells, neuronophagia, and an
increase of the neuroglia.
Case 2, white male, 36 years of age at the time of admission,
lived 25 years and a half in the Hospital. The duration of the
mental disease at the time of admission was noted as 2 years
and 3 months.
His family history was negative; the patient came to the
United States when young, entered the army, and, as has been
indicated above, exhibited for more than two years previous to
his entrance to the Hospital mental abnormalities. Physically
and neurologically no pathological conditions were detected.
He was quiet, tidy, had little to say voluntarily, but would answer
questions; his answers showed that he had delusions of a fan-
tastic nature which were fleeting in character, but which did not,
however, appear to cause him any discomfort ; he appeared to be
indifferent to his surroundings, but in general was satisfied and
happy, industrious, and he willingly helped with the ward work;
his memory was fair; in general he was disoriented; his delu-
sions concerned God and religion, and combined with these, there
SYMPTOM ATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE n
were auditory hallucinations that the "Almighty" talked with
him and that other voices abused him, and for that reason he
swore at them occasionally; he often talked to himself. Later
he became almost completely disoriented; memory became very
poor, for the most part he talked unintelligibly, but he gave
plain evidence of the existence of delusions; he said that God
Almightly persecuted him by ordering him to do things he did not
like to do; he occasionally stopped eating in the midst of a meal
and explained this as being due to the fact that God had told
him to eat no more ; he used very profane language and swore at
times, and would have nothing to do with the other patients; he
asked for whiskey to drink so that in this way he might punish
God Almighty; he kissed the walls; he muttered unintelligibly,
and he informed a physician that God's voice was inside his
body, and that God talked so quickly that he could not repeat
what was said ; he showed no interest in his surroundings except
as exhibited in his daily, almost continuous, polishing of the
floor, which he said was done at the command of God; he had
practically no knowledge of current events; his reasoning and
judgment were very much impaired; he was illogical; his con-
duct was silly ; and his insight was almost lacking.
At the autopsy there were found: marked generalized ar-
teriosclerosis; calcification of the mitral valves of the heart;
hypostatic congestion of the lungs; interstitial nephritis; and
shrinkage of the frontal portions of the cerebrum.
Case 3, colored male, exhibited mental abnormalities for 5
or more years previous to his admission at the age of 30. Hos-
pital residence was 1 1 years and 6 months.
Nothing was learned of this patient's family or previous per-
sonal history except that it was reported he had been mentally
abnormal for at least five years previous to his admission, although
his marked mental abnormality was evident for only a year
previous to his commitment ; during that time he was noted to be
melancholy and restless; he showed extreme anxiety and had
hallucinations; he upset everything in his room, and was untidy
and filthy in habits. Physical and neurological examinations
12 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
were negative except that hearing and smell were slightly im-
paired; his gait was slow and his attitude, although fairly erect
and steady, was slightly relaxed; his actions in general were
slow, imperfect, uncertain and unreliable. He was quiet, dull,
often stupid; he was also untidy; memory was markedly im-
paired; his ideation was slow and uncertain; in general he ans-
wered fairly well, although at times irrelevantly; his reasoning
and judgment were bad; he appeared to have very little mental
capacity ; no hallucinations or delusions were observed and could
not be detected from his actions ; he was unappreciative and had
no apparent interest in his surroundings; he appeared stupid; he
usually sat in one place and assumed one position ; he spoke only
when spoken to, and then only after much persuasion; at times
he was noisy, turbulent, talked incoherently, and was destructive ;
echopraxia, mutism, negativism and catatonia were observed, but
none of these conditions was marked ; orientation was lacking.
The patient died of tubercular pneumonia, and shrinkage of
the frontal lobes of the cerebrum was also found at the autopsy.
Case 4, white male, entered the Hospital at the age of 54 and
lived :for 18 years.
He fought in the Civil War and since its ending (he was twenty-
two years old at that time) was abnormal, with intervening lucid
intervals ; the character of his abnormality during this period of
twenty-one years was not very clear, but presumably it was of a
precox nature. On his entrance to the Hospital he was untidy ; he
answered irrelevantly; he exhibited poor memory; he said little;
he went out walking daily ; at times he would not keep his cloth-
ing on and was filthy in habits. Later the patient was found to
have interstitial nephritis, and ,for about seven years before his
death he was almost entirely confined to bed on account of this
pathological condition and heart disease; he became much de-
mented, took no interest in his surroundings ; questions often re-
mained unanswered, but if answers were obtained, they showed
no grasp of his surroundings and were given in a slow, hesitating
manner and in so low a voice as to be almost inaudible and unin-
telligible; he talked to himself a great deal and appeared to have
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 13
auditory hallucinations; occasionally he arose from his bed and
peered about the ward; echolalia was present; he remained most
of the time in bed motionless with his arms across his chest and
his fingers intertwined.
Death was due to purpura hemorrhagica. The autopsy showed :
some heart disease ; atheromatous aorta ; small cysts in the kidney ;
hypernephroma ; chronic cytitis ; the section of the brain revealed
no lesions except atrophy of the anterior convolutions.
Case 5, colored male, lived for about 2 years after admission
at the age of 23.
A brother and sister had spasms in early life; otherwise the
family history was negative ; he attended school for five years, but
made little progress; he drank alcoholic liquors to excess and
sometimes was drunk two or three times a week; he had gonor-
rhea several times and a chancre a year previous to his admis-
sion; he was arrested on account of a brawl and sent to the
workhouse, where his mental condition was recognized as ab-
normal. From there he was sent to the Hospital, where he was
excited; he said that another inmate had shot some dope or
chloroform into him, that all the other prisoners were dodging
about to avoid it, this was blown at him through a long stem,
and he could not sleep and felt queer ; he believed he would have
been killed by it if he had remained, for he heard them talking
about "kill that nigger," and he became frightened and excited;
bells were also rung in his ears, voices asked him how he felt;
he believed some one was after him trying to read his mind; he
said that the poisoned stuff which was being shot at him he
could feel, smell, and taste, but could not see the dust of it, and
could not see the people; some nights he jumped out of bed
because he thought electricity was being used upon him and for
several days he had the feeling of things crawling over his body
like insects. The physical and neurological examinations re-
vealed no abnormalities except a complete positive Wassermann
of the blood serum ; he was uneducated, and his general informa-
tion and memory were poor, but he exhibited a good memory
for occurrences in his own life; at first he was quiet and orderly;
I4 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
he was tidy in habits; he helped with the ward work; he ap-
preciated his surroundings; he answered questions promptly, but
talked little with the other patients ; and he appeared to be some-
what depressed. Later he became sullen; he stood in various
places about the ward; he was slow in movements and showed
a tendency to remain in one attitude for a considerable length
of time; he took no interest in what went on about him; he
never spoke unless spoken to; he was disoriented for time but
oriented for place and persons; he had auditory hallucinations
of voices which seemed to come 'from his stomach, and which
were interpreted as the spirit of God talking to him; the voices
said different things, but he could not, or would not, recount any
particular thing; insight was lacking; pulmonary tuberculosis
was diagnosed three months before death.
The autopsy showed: pulmonary and intestinal tuberculosis;
fibrous deposits over the small intestine, and infiltration of the
mesenteric glands; slight shrinkage of the anterior portions of
the cerebrum, but no other gross cerebral lesions on section.
Case 6, white male, was 25 years old at the time of admission
and lived 28 years subsequently.
No family or previous personal history was obtained except
that the patient exhibited mental abnormalities for a month pre-
vious to his admission ; during his Hospital residence he became
gradually demented and exhibited periodic variations in his
behavior. At one time he would be quiet and orderly, and he
would sit or stand for hours at a time in one place ; for the most
part he was tidy in his habits; he seldom answered and volun-
teered no information; he appeared to be dull and stupid and in
almost a semi-conscious condition. This state would last for a
week or two and be replaced by one of general activity ; he sang
loudly and irrationally nearly all night; he was restless, destruc-
tive, and untidy in dress and habits; he ran around the ward
moving or picking up everything he could reach. At times his
face was expressionless and at other times he appeared to be
very much depressed ; his talk was unintelligible, and he mumbled
to himself continually; it was judged that he had auditory hal-
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 15
lucinations because at times he turned his head suddenly to the
right or left and muttered unintelligibly or excitably as if he
were talking to or scolding some one; some of his mutterings
which were heard indicated that he believed some one was after
him and wished to harm him; he showed no interest in his sur-
roundings ; he could not be made to work ; his memory was poor.
In his later years it was noted that he "exhibited no marks of
intelligence"; he either did not understand questions or could
not make himself understood ; his clothing was disheveled ; he was
filthy in habits; and when he could he stole from his fellow
patients ; the only reaction which was often elicited when he was
spoken to was the opening and closing of his eyes.
Death was due to pulmonary tuberculosis ; in addition to this
condition, cardiac atrophy and atrophy of the anterior portions
of the cerebrum were noted at the autopsy.
Case 7, white male, 36 years of age at the time of admission;
had exhibited mental abnormalities for 4 or more years previous
to his admission, and lived in the Hospital for 7 years.
This patient was a wife murderer who showed the following
evidence of insanity immediately after his imprisonment for life;
he was melancholic; he was unconscious of his surroundings;
he answered in monosyllables when at all; part of the time he
would not talk and he was noted to have a treacherous disposition.
Whether or not the murder of his wife, for which he was con-
victed, was due to paranoid ideas was not determined, but in view
of his later history this seems probable, and the psychosis may
have begun many years previous to the date assigned above.
His expression was dull and indifferent ; his attitude was stooped
and careless, and he walked in an apparently reckless and slovenly
manner. Physical and neurological examinations showed no
abnormalities of importance. On admission he recognized what
was said to him; he knew where he was; he exhibited a fair
memory ; he rubbed his hair and face, twisted his mouth, grinned
meaninglessly and hummed to himself; he attempted to strike
an attendant with a shoe ; but at this time no delusions or halluci-
nations were detected; he was restless, continually moved about
16 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
the ward, he walked rapidly and in an excited manner ; he wanted
his own way, but otherwise was apparently indifferent to what
went on; he rarely spoke voluntarily, but sometimes sang to
himself ; he was noisy at times and at other times appeared to be
depressed ; he was clean in habits ; he butted his head against the
door and walls of his room; false hearing was suspected on ac-
count of his frequent talking to himself; he used abusive terms
towards parts of the room in which no one was present; he
would not tell what or who was bothering him; he shouted vile
names ; he answered general questions, although this was done in
a surly manner. Later his hallucinations and delusions became
more evident; he believed that a woman was after him, that she
came into his room at night to bother him ; he called to her out
of the window, using a number of names indicating her indecent
character; he also bawled at some chickens which he believed
were on the floor under his feet, and he attempted to "shoo"
them away and to stop their cackling; a month later a swelling
of his feet and legs was observed, and at that time he was fre-
quently found on his hands and knees on the floor looking under
the bed for the dogs which he believed were there and upon
which he stepped; at this time he admitted having auditory
hallucinations (of voices) ; and also visual hallucinations (of
ghosts and people) when he closed his eyes; he assumed catatonic
attitudes; he exhibited numerous mannerisms, and at times had
impulsive outbreaks; at the same time he was negativistic ; he
was found to have pulmonary tuberculosis, and death was due
to this.
In addition, the autopsy showed: intestinal tuberculosis and
some shrinkage of the cerebral convolutions anteriorly.
Case 8, white male, had exhibited mental disturbance for more
than 6 months previous to his admission; he was aged 30, and
lived 2 years and 8 months in the Hospital.
His /family history was negative; the patient had attempted
a criminal assault and was convicted for this; in the last few
months of his term in prison he developed a disorderly tempera-
ment ; he laughed when questions were asked ; he refused to wear
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 17
clothing and to obey orders, and occasionally to eat. The physi-
cal and neurological examinations revealed nothing of importance
except a distended, tympanitic abdomen and stumbling over test
speech phrases. On admission he conversed with a physician
pleasantly, but appeared to be suspicious; he had notable man-
nerisms of gritting his teeth and drumming on the table with
his fingers ; he was neat and tidy ; he believed his family had been
sent to the same prison as he; at times he became irritable and
was pugnacious, especially when another patient walked in front
of him, and because of this he had several altercations with them;
he expressed the belief that he was some kind of a Mason, al-
though he had not been initiated into or by a regular lodge, but
had been "admitted through another personality" ; his replies in-
dicated that he believed his personality changed from day to
day, although he said he could not reveal the secret of this be-
cause it was Masonic and military; in general he was well
oriented and showed fair memory and considerable general
knowledge, but he had no insight into his condition; he refused
to answer many questions on the ground that they were "too
easy"; at various times he said that the Government owed him
money, that he was a rich man, and that he used to travel
about a great deal ; he continued to be reticent about his previous
life and his ideas, but was cross and disagreeable; he refused
medicine and food, and many times fought with the attendants
and with the other patients ; hallucinations of any kind were not
recorded as having been evident; he frequently complained of
abdominal pain and suffered from distention of abdomen; an
operation was planned, but not performed on account of the sud-
den death of the patient from intestinal obstruction and gangrene.
In addition to the diseased conditions which caused his death,
the autopsy revealed fatty changes in the liver and slight shrink-
age of the anterior portions of the cerebrum, with no other gross
cerebral lesions.
Case 9, white male, admitted at the age of 34 and lived nearly
20 years in the Hospital.
The mental diagnosis which was made was "probably cerebral
syphilis," but later this was changed to dementia precox, prob-
i8 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
ably paranoid form. The certificate on entrance stated that the
patient had visual hallucinations and delusions of persecution but
no maniacal explosions, although he talked incessantly about the
loss of some musical instruments; he also had hallucinations,
which were nocturnal in character, of seeing women coming to
the beds of patients who were in the same ward with him. He
admitted having had a soft chancre at eighteen, and gonorrhea at
nineteen ; the physical examination was negative except for irreg-
ularities and inequality of the pupils; there was no disorder of
voluntary movement, or of the reflexes or of sensation ; there were
hypertrophy of the heart and lesions of the valves. He smiled con-
stantly, his expression was dreamy but fairly intelligent; no
peculiar actions were noted; he reported that soon after his ar-
rival at the Hospital he was given some black medicine which
injured his health, making him nervous and giving him pains in
the legs like needles, and causing him to spit, which made his
tongue sore; subsequently, no delusions were elicited except a
brief mention of this supposed poisoning episode. Thirteen years
after his entrance, it was noted that he was not depressed; he
talked and associated with the other patients; he played games
of different kinds when on the ward, and also played a musical
instrument; he sat quietly; he was not overly religious; he did
not assume peculiar attitudes ; he was tidy in habits ; he did not
lack in initiative; his memory for recent and old events was
good ; he was not agitated as a result of any of his delusions ; he
did not become excited, abusive, profane, destructive or untidy;
he slept well; his conversation was coherent; he had parole of the
grounds; he was well oriented; he appeared to be content; he
never complained, and he played in the Hospital band. On
several occasions later he became restless and very much con-
fused, being unable to comprehend what was said to him and
seeming to be much disturbed ; one of these attacks immediately
preceded his death. During the later years of his life he showed
marked loss of intelligence and very little judgment; it was diffi-
cult to get his attention, and when his attention was obtained,
it was almost impossible to hold it ; he showed much retardation ;
he spoke indistinctly, and at times his teeth were kept closed so
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE ig
that it was difficult to understand what he said; he also seemed
unable to comprehend some of the simplest questions, and when
asked to repeat one which had been asked, he was unable to do
so; he remained orderly, but took no interest in his surroundings;
he was neat and tidy; he was also fairly well oriented in all
spheres : he had fair memory of his personal history, but of other
events his memory was very poor.
Death was due to cardiac valvular disease. The autopsy
showed that he had: hypertrophied heart; marked aortic ather-
oma ; mitral aortic valves contracted ; pulmonary tubercular scars
and pulmonary hypostasis; nutmeg liver; some adhesions in the
region of the appendix; brain shrinkage over the anterior two-
thirds of the convolutions, but no other cerebral lesions; and a
slight sclerosis of the large vessels at the base.
DEMENTIA PRECOX, DISCUSSION
Although these nine cases have somewhat different clinical
symptoms, the symptomatology of all is sufficiently alike to war-
rant the clinical diagnosis of dementia precox. The form of
the disease, it should be remarked, is not the same in all cases,
five being judged to be catatonic (3, 4, 5, 6, and 7), and two to
be paranoid (i and 8). Cases 2 and 9 were committed to the
Hospital many years ago. The case histories of these patients
contained no, or very meagre, information regarding their mental
conditions previous to commitment, and only outlines of their
behavior during their early hospital residence. We are not en-
tirely justified in making a definite diagnosis of the form of
precox from the information obtained in their later years, but
the general diagnosis of precox is, however, justified by the ac-
counts which have been kept, and the symptoms recorded in the
records during their later years might be interpreted to indicate
that case 2 was a paranoid case, and case 9 an hebephrenia.
Looking at these cases from another point of view, it will be
noted that the anatomical lesions do not correspond with the
clinical forms. Of the three cases in which the brain was noted
to have shown frontal atrophy one was diagnosed as paranoid, a
second as an hebephrenic and the third was a "possible paranoid"
20 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
case. Of the five cases with anterior atrophy the mental diagno-
sis of catatonia was made in four, while the fifth was a paranoid
case. The ninth case, with atrophy covering the anterior two-
thirds of the cerebral convolutions was the case mentioned above
as possibly hebephrenic. The only evidence of a possible corre-
lation between the forms of precox and the character of the
cerebral atrophy is the fact that most of the cases of lesions of
the anterior convolutions are catatonic. This might be taken to
indicate that motor disturbances in catatonia may be associated
with pathological changes in the anterior portions of the cere-
brum, but case 8, whose brain also exhibited similar lesions did
not exhibit these behavior disorders. It should also be remem-
bered that case 9, in whom the atrophy covered slightly more of
the cortex than in the catatonics did not exhibit motor disturb-
ances of the nature of catatonia. These two cases (8 and 9) are
sufficiently definite to prevent a generalization regarding the re-
lations of such anterior lesions with motor disturbances of the
nature of catatonia or negativism.
During their Hospital residence all of these patients were
noted to show gradual mental deterioration, although the amount
of this decadence differed in the individual cases. The histories
show that cases 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9 showed towards the end less
evidence of being thinking beings than the other four cases
showed. Excluding case 4, whose age at the time of death was
seventy-two, and whose lack of mentality might have been due to
the natural decadence associated with old age, the other four cases
are not chronologically aged, and, in fact, of the other cases
there were two (i and 7) whose ages were respectively greater
than those of cases 3, 6, and 9, and case 3. While the degree of
atrophy in these five cases is not specified, even roughly, there is
nothing to indicate any definite relation between the greater men-
tal deterioration and the degree of atrophy. It is true that the
brains of cases i, 5, and 8 are described as showing only "slight"
atrophy, but case 7, in whom extreme mental changes were not
found was also described as showing "some" atrophy, which term
may be interpreted, as I interpret it here, to indicate only a
medium degree, rather than a slight degree. No mathematical
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 21
estimation has been made in the individual cases regarding either
atrophy or mental deterioration, and the data at hand do not
permit the correlation of these two conditions at the present time.
It is, however, of interest and importance to note that the
degree of dementia in those cases in which the frontal lobes were
atrophied did not differ to any appreciable extent from those
cases in which the atrophic regions were larger. Thus case 2
has been described as exhibiting no knowledge of things occur-
ring about him, and case 3 to have "very little mental capacity,"
although the latter patient at the time of his death was only forty-
two years old. In addition, it has been noted that case i had a
poor memory.
Although the degree of dementia, or mental abnormality, does
not appear to be directly correlated either with the extent or with
the degree of the atrophy in the cases which we have studied, we
may seek for correlations in the individual mental symptoms.
Differing in the individual cases, and giving, as they do, special
characteristics to the disease, the mental symptoms can not be
dealt with in great detail. Nor can the individual elements of
the mental processes be considered, for in the clinical histories
the complex mental states or processes have not been analyzed
into their elements. This is, however, not different from the
methodological condition found in most clinical work, e.g., in
neurology, and the attempts at correlation of the complex proc-
esses with cerebral lesions may therefore well be attempted re-
gardless of the lack of analysis of these complexes.
Underlying all diagnostic methods in psychiatry are the as-
sumptions that mental states are mirrored by acts, that acts
change in accordance with the mental states, and that changes in
mentality, which are supposed to be produced by or correlated
with functional or anatomical cerebral lesions, are evidenced by
alterations in general behavior. In their general form these as-
sumptions may be satisfactory, but when they are made more
specific they become open to criticism. In the cases which have
been described above this latter appears to be true. It will be
noticed that four of these patients have been described as tidy
in habits, while four others have been described as untidy or
22 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
filthy, while the ninth has not been specifically described but ap-
pears to have been tidy. Two of the untidy patients were those
in which only the frontal regions were atrophied, and two in
which the anterior lobes were shrunken. Case 9, in whom the
atrophy extended farther backwards than in the other eight
cases, was, however, noted to be tidy. In this respect there is
correlation neither with the extent nor with the degree of the
atrophy.
Although the frontal lobes are believed to have more direct
relations with motor processes, the data at hand regarding the
motor manifestations, other than the catatonic attitudes, etc.,
in these patients do not appear to be correlated with the lesions.
A comparison of the movement differences in the patients under
consideration shows that the variations are not variations cor-
responding with the regional atrophies. Certain of the patients
varied from a quiet to a restless state; others were almost con-
tinually restless or noisy; and two were noted to be uniformly
slow, unresponsive, and, during part of the time, motionless.
Some may be inclined to interpret the general motor manifesta-
tions to be evidence of a supposed inhibition function of the
frontal regions of the brain, in some of the cases there being a
greater amount of inhibition, and in others a lesser amount of
inhibition than in normal individuals. The fact that the vari-
ations were not always in the same direction in the different
patients, would, however, be a matter needing special explanation
in addition to the general hypothesis. We should, on the basis
of our present knowledge of the motor functions of the cortex,
be able to explain or to correlate these irregular weekly or
monthly variations in activity in the same patient with exaccerba-
tions in irritation or degeneration of the ganglion cells, but the
pathological facts which would warrant such explanations or
correlations are lacking. One element, which appears to the
writer to be important in this connection is that the motor phe-
norfiena in the cases under consideration did not differ very
greatly. If these motor disorders were due principally to the
pathological conditions of the cells in the atrophic areas, we
should expect to find greater motor disturbances associated with
those atrophies which were of the greatest extent, or at least we
should expect that the motor activities in those patients in whom
the precentral, or physiological motor, area was involved should
be more greatly changed than in those in which only the frontal
lobes were atrophied. Such, however, is not the case. There is,
as has been written above, no apparent difference between the
motor derangements in those patients with frontal lesions and
those with lesions which also involved the precentral areas, nor
even between the motor phenomena in the case with frontal
lesions and those in the one case in which the atrophy also in-
volved the precentral areas and parts of the parietals in addition
to the frontals.
Certain clinico-neurological facts have been interpreted to
mean that the activities of the frontal lobes are especially asso-
ciated with emotional states or emotional expression, and were
this true, different degrees of frontal lesions might be expected
to result in variations in emotional tone or in the character of
the affective conditions. In these nine cases, however, the emo-
tional conditions were somewhat similar,. in that it was variable
in all. It varied from depression to indifference, and occasion-
ally to a high degree of happiness. Many of the affective states
in these patients depended upon, or resulted from, or, to speak
accurately, accompanied, and corresponded with, delusions, and
it is not possible to separate the affective elements from these
other mental states. Neither the degree nor the extent of the
cerebral changes appears to be correlated with the intensity,
character or variability of the affective states, for the fear and
suspiciousness of cases I and 5, in which only slight atrophies
respectively of the frontal and anterior convolutions were noted,
did not differ from similar states in patients 3 and 7, whose
brains showed corresponding areal distributions, but with slightly
increased degrees, of atrophy. An examination of the case his-
tories also shows that the fluctuations from one affective state
to another is not associated with particular degrees or extents of
the lesions.
Notable variations both in the presence and in the characters of
hallucinations were also recorded. Of the nine patients, four
24 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
exhibited plain evidence of auditory hallucinations (cases I, 2,
5, and 7). Two others (cases 4 and 6) appear to have had audi-
tory hallucinations, although this is not as certain as in the other
four cases. The presence of auditory hallucinations in case 4
has been inferred from his talking to himself, and similarly in
case 6 because he mumbled to himself and because he had been
noted to turn his head towards a special part of the room and
appeared to listen when no one was present there. Definite evi-
dence of visual hallucinations was found in only two of the cases ;
viz., patients 7 and 9, and in one of these it has been noted they
were more frequently present at night. Patients I and 7 also
exhibited actions which were interpreted to mean that they had
tactual hallucinations or paresthesias. Patient i, it will be re-
membered, reported that she could give out electrical power, and
that electric currents had been turned upon her. Patient 7 com-
plained of chickens and dogs which he thought were in his room
and which he was compelled to step upon when he got out of his
bed. Whether or not the latter case is a mixed hallucination,
e.g., tactual and visual, was not determined. The actions of the
patient indicated that he did not see the animals, for he searched
for them under his bed. Case 3 was reported to have had hal-
lucinations previous to his entrance to the hospital, but during
his Hospital residence these were not discovered. In the case
history of patient 8, in whose brain the atrophy extended over
the anterior portions, no hallucinations were recorded at any
time.
With the exception of cases 3 and 4, these patients were noted
to have delusions. It may not be definitely stated that patient 3
did not have a delusion of any kind, for there is internal evi-
dence in his case history that mental abnormalities of this kind
may have been present. It is stated, for example, that in the
year preceding his commitment to the Hospital he was restless
and melancholy and exhibited extreme anxiety. The reasons for
these affective states are not mentioned, but it appears doubtful
that they were independent of ideas of impending harm, or of
persecution or the like. None of his actions during his Hospital
residence was indicative of the presence of a delusion, although
during those years he was observed to fluctuate between excite-
ment and mutism. Case 4 was also judged to be free from
delusions during the period of his Hospital residence, although
the general facts regarding his mental condition for 21 years
previous to his admission are not sufficient to warrant the state-
ment that delusions had not been present during that period of
time. The considerable degree of dementia which was present
during his Hospital residence may have made the expression of
delusions difficult, but his reactions to the auditory hallucinations
from which he suffered would not lead to this conclusion. The
characters of the delusions of the other seven cases ranged over
the fields of somatopsychic, autopsychic, and allopsychic. De-
lusions of persecution were the more frequent, but these alter-
nated with delusions of grandeur in some cases. None of the
somatopsychic delusions was definitely associated with corre-
sponding pathological physical conditions, with the possible ex-
ception of those of case 7. This patient complained that chickens
and dogs were on the floor of his room, and that he had to step
upon them when he rose from his bed. The physical condition
associated with this delusion was a swelling of the feet, and as
has been suggested above, the hallucinations and the delusion
may have resulted from the stretching of the skin. The as-
sociation of the different characters of delusions with the cere-
bral atrophies in these cases is neither constant nor definite, cases
3 and 4 belonging respectively to the frontal and anterior atrophy
groups, so that we are forced to the conclusion that the lesions
can not be constantly associated with delusion formation. These
results are of interest in connection with Southard's studies of
delusions and especially with his conclusion that the presence of
delusions is "to be correlated more with lesions of the anterior
association center."4
Regarding the conditions of memory in these patients there is
little information. Six of them were unable to recount recent
events or events in their own lives, or were unable to repeat
simple questions which had previously been asked. The other
4 Southard, E. E. The (Mind Twist and Brain Spot Hypotheses in Psycho-
pathology and Neuropathology. Psych. Bull., ,1914, 11, 117-130. See espe-
cially p. 123, and other references there given.
26 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
three cases exhibited a fair degree of memory. Whether these
apparent memory defects were due to lack of attention or to
inability to retain the impressions which were received can not
be decided. All the patients with simple frontal lesions, irre-
spective of the degree of atrophy, had poor memory, whereas
patients 4, 7, and 8 with anterior atrophies exhibited fair memory.
In contrast to the memory defects of these patients the degree
of orientation is to be noted. Although orientation depends, at
least to a certain extent, upon retention, it is not necessarily as-
sociated with general memory ability. This is shown in case 9
where memory appeared to be very defective, although he was
fairly well oriented in all spheres, and in case 5 who, although,
disoriented for time, was oriented for place and persons. On
the other hand patient 4, who exhibited a fair degree of memory,
had no grasp of his surroundings. The relation of orientation
ability to the lesions in the nine cases is not definite, case I being
opposed in this particular to cases 2 and 3, and cases 5, 7, and
8, showing good orientation while the corresponding cases, 4 and
6, were in general disoriented. Case 9, in which the atrophy ex-
tended beyond the anterior region, was also noted to be fairly
well oriented.
The ability of the patients to attend to stimuli is not mentioned
in all of the case histories, but reading between the lines, it is
evident that this was poor. It is possible that some of the ap-
parent memory defects were due to lack of attention, and that
certain of the other mental disturbances were also caused by the
failure to attend to stimuli. It is also possible that the degree of
dementia is correlated to a certain extent with the failure to
attend.
When the facts of atrophy and the facts of mental abnormali-
ties in these nine patients are taken together, it is seen that there
are decided differences in the character of the psychic symptoms
associated with similar cerebral lesions. It is also apparent that
regardless, of the extent of the atrophies similar mental symp-
toms may be evidenced. The conclusion that follows, therefore,
is that similar cerebral lesions in cases of dementia precox do
not always result in similar forms of the disease, nor in similar
symptoms in all individuals, nor in the same degree of dementia..
GENERAL PARALYSIS OF THE INSANE, CLINICAL
HISTORIES
Case 10, colored male, was admitted to the Hospital at the age
of 30, and lived over 4^ years.
There is nothing of importance in the patient's family history,
and the only facts of interest in his personal history is that he
admitted gonorrhea, denied having had syphilis, and admitted
that he had used alcoholic liquors since he was a boy, but said
he had never been drunk. The physical • examination revealed
nothing of interest, except that there was a complete positive
Wassermann of the blood serum and a trace of the reaction in
the cerebrospinal fluid. He had diminished knee jerks, sluggish
reactions and inequalities of the pupils, well-marked tremor of
the tongue, lips and facial muscles ; speech was somewhat ataxic,
and there was difficulty in repeating test phrases. The onset of
the mental disturbance appeared to be a sudden one; he had
been working as a waiter two days before his arrest; he said
he had found a check which called for $30,000,000, on the back
of which there was a notice to return it to the bank and receive
$1,000,000 for it; the bank was closed but he showed it to a
number of people and tried to get $300 for it; one man gave
him $500 for it, but a policeman arrested the patient, took him
to a hospital and later he was brought to this institution. How
much of the above incident was based upon a minimum of fact
was not determinable. On entrance his expression was one of
exaltation; he was quiet and cheerful; his habits were tidy; he
gave no trouble except slightly by constantly requesting that he
be permitted to be allowed to go out so that he could get his
money; he was well oriented for time, place, and persons; his
attention could easily be attracted and held; he comprehended
what was said to him, and answered coherently and relevantly,
except when his delusional ideas were touched upon, whereupon
he became rambling and disconnected in conversation; his mem-
28 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
ory for recent and remote events was good for one of his grade
of intelligence ; his emotional tone was one of exaltation, he was
as "happy as a lark"; he was sociable with the other patients
and worked on the ward; no hallucinations could be elicited.
Later, he had a period of confusion for a few hours, in which
he took the dishes from the table and placed them outside of
the window (reporting that he thought thereby he would get
some tobacco), and attacked one of the nurses and demanded
his keys; his delusions of wealth had not changed materially;
subsequently he had convulsions, was then confined to bed, and
developed contractures. At that time he spoke rarely and then
only a few phrases, he took no cognizance of what went on
and led a nearly vegetable existence till his death 'from exhaus-
tion of paresis. The autopsy showed that the cerebral convolu-
tions over the frontal regions were shrunken.
Case n, colored male, had been known to have
mental abnormalities ,for at least 7 months prior to his ad-
mission at the age of 37, and he lived for nearly 2 years in the
Hospital.
His family and personal history were not obtained in any
detail, for he could not give much information and what he gave
appeared to be rather unreliable. He denied a syphilitic history,
but was found to have a scar on his penis due to an old sore ; the
Wassermann reaction with the blood serum was complete posi-
tive, with the cerebrospinal fluid a trace, the number of cells in
the cerebrospinal fluid was 170 per cu. mm. The neurological
examination showed marked tremors of the tongue and fingers,
and somewhat generally throughout the body; station and gait
were tremulous and impaired, he was unable to stand on one leg;
coordination was impaired; there was a marked speech defect;
some of the reflexes were diminished, others were absent; the
pupils were unequal and reacted only slightly to stimuli. He
appeared to be contented and did not seem to worry ; he sat in a
listless, though cheerful, mood, and paid little attention to his
surroundings ; he did not appear to be oriented ; he obeyed simple
29
commands, but when questioned he did not answer at times;
he was tidy in his dress and in his habits and did not conflict with
his surroundings; he believed he owned a race horse for which
he had paid $3,000. He had a brief attack of unconsciousness
followed by a .period of confusion in which he talked to himself
and made signs with his hands. Physically and mentally he
declined, until he was unable to do anything for himself; he
replied to no questions, and was apparently oblivious of his
surroundings. Death was due to exhaustion of paresis. The
autopsy also revealed pulmonary tuberculosis, pericarditis,
atrophy of the heart valves, fatty degeneration of the liver,
chronic cystitis, and general shrinkage of the frontal lobes. The
microscopical examination showed that the frontal and central
convolutions exhibited the characteristic pictures of paresis, but
that the parietal lobes did not show any marked changes.
Case 12, white male, had been suffering from mental disease
for at least a year previous to his admission at the age of 51 ;
he lived 2 years and 8 months after his admission.
The only fact of interest in the family history was that his
mother had died of pulmonary tuberculosis when the patient was
eight months old. He received a high school education, and after
serving for eight years in the army, was a clerk. He had con-
tracted syphilis thirty years previous to his admission and had
gonorrhea at a later period, but subsequently married and
begot three healthy children; he used tobacco to excess. About
a year previous to his admission he became mentally fatigued
very easily, his memory was impaired ; he could not comprehend
as well as he formerly could; his speech became indistinct; his
writing was careless, showing many omissions and mistakes in
spelling ; his gait was ataxic. At the same time he became morose,
sullen and irritable; he worried over the state of his health;
he made remarks about killing the members of his family and
himself ; he also bought immense quantities of perfumed soap and
bathed constantly. The neurological examination showed
coarse tremors of the facial muscles and twitchings of the thigh
muscles; Romberg sign was present; gait was unsteady; the
30 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
knee jerks were not elicited; the Wassermann reaction with the
cerebrospinal fluid was complete positive ; the number of cells per
cu. mm. was 20. On entrance to the Hospital he appeared to
be cheerful, contented and appreciative; but was inclined to
be fault-finding with his surroundings and fretful that he was
not permitted to have all his clothes and his special toilet articles
in his room ; he kept busy washing his hands and face and comb-
ing his hair ; he appeared to be bewildered at times, and expressed
the belief that he had offended some one and he worried about
this; in general, he showed no interest in what went on about
him; his memory for recent and remote events was poor; no
evidence of the existence of hallucinations or delusions was dis-
covered; his habits were tidy; he was usually quiet, but at
times was nervous. Later, fantastic and ridiculous delusions of
a grandiose type were evidenced, e.g., he was to take a marvelous
train ride through the country, he had invented things, etc. At
times he became worried, he wanted to shoot a fellow patient,
whom he believed to be an enemy ; he imagined people were going
to do something mean to him, that they came to take away his
trunk in which he had his money, he also spoke of being tired and
explained that this was due to his having had to fight negroes
during the night; he became untidy in habits. The depressive
delusions apparently disappeared, leaving only those o.f a gran-
diose type, that he owned the Hospital, had immense amount of
money, etc. He became much demented, he was bedridden, con-
tractures of the left arm and leg developed, there were no con-
vulsions; death was due to exhaustion of paresis. The brain
showed great atrophy in the frontal lobes.
Case 13, colored male, admitted to the Hospital at the age of
41, lived for 3 years and 2 months subsequently. The duration
of mental disease at the time of admission was about 2 years.
The family history was negative. The medical certificate
stated that the patient had had syphilis; mentally he had a vio-
lent temper and was very irritable ; he had been melancholy, and
had exhibited delusions and homicidal tendencies. Physical ex-
SYMPTOM AT OLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 31
amination showed only a slight heart involvement, Wassermann
reactions with the blood serum and the cerebrospinal fluid were
positive, there were 65 cells per cu. mm. in the cerebrospinal
fluid. The neurological examination showed irregularities in
outline of the pupils; tremors of tongue, lips, eyelids, and ex-
tended fingers ; patellar reflexes were very much diminished, and
there was a Babinski phenomenon on the right; his station was
poor ; there was ihyperextension of the legs at the knee ; the gait
was slightly ataxic; coordination was poor; and there was a
marked speech defect. His facial expression was placid; he was
orderly and quiet, he had little or nothing to say voluntarily;
he was indifferent and inclined to be stupid; his attention was
easily obtained and held; he comprehended questions and an-
swered coherently and correctly, but slowly ; he was not oriented
for place, time, or people; his memory was very defective; his
judgment was poor; he lacked insight; emotionally he was neither
exalted nor depressed, but rather indifferent and apparently
satisfied; he did not associate with the other patients and mani-
fested no interest in his surroundings ; no delusions or hallucina-
tions could be elicited, nor were they judged to be present because
of his conduct. Later he was restless, disturbed and at times
noisy ; he talked to imaginary people, but recognized no one who
saw him; dementia became profound; he comprehended little;
his conversation was rambling and incoherent; occasionally he
expressed some words indicating that he had grandiose ideas, that
he possessed houses and diamonds ; at times he became disturbed
and noisy; and often was restless, destructive and filthy; when he
walked, his gait was very ataxic. The autopsy examination re-
vealed shrinkage of the cerebral convolutions, especially in the
anterior parts.
Case 14, white male, was admitted at the age of 33 years, and
lived 8 months; his mental disease was evident for more than 2
months previous to his admission.
The medical certificate stated that the patient's father died
of tuberculosis, but this was the only interesting point in the
family history. A comrade reported that the patient had acted
32 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
peculiarly for several months. The patient denied that he had
used alcoholic liquors. He showed tremors of the lips, tongue
and hand, difficulty in speaking, some impairment of intellect,
muscular weakness, diminished knee jerks, and Romberg sign.
The Wassermann reaction with the blood serum was completely
positive, the cerebrospinal fluid contained 145 cells per cu. mm.
On admission the patient would not talk, and <his lack of co-
operation prevented a careful examination of his mental condi-
tion. He had a very stupid, blank expression, stood or sat in a
stiff, unnatural position until told to do somethig; several times
he rose from his chair and started towards the window as if
governed by some idea, but at command he readily resumed his
seat; jerkings of different muscles were observed; if undisturbed,
he closed his eyes as if going to sleep; he did not apparently
know how to hold a pencil and his first efforts at writing were
scribbles; his movements at unbuttoning his coat were inco-
ordinate; there was no evidence of apparent purpose fulness in
any of his movements; his attention was obtained and held
with difficulty; he appeared to know the name of the Hospital;
on account of his non-cooperation it was impossible to determine
anything about the character of his memory, or the presence
of hallucinations or delusions. Later it was noted that he was
tidy, disoriented for time, place and persons, his memory was
very poor; he could not find his bed, etc.; he did not answer
questions readily and seldom talked. He was confined to bed
and died of exhaustion. The autopsy revealed shrinkage of the
anterior cerebral convolutions, hypostatic pneumonia, intersti-
tial nephritis and purulent cystitis.
Case 15, white male, was noted for one month previous to
his admission to exhibit signs of mental abnormality; his age
was 38, and he lived in the Hospital for I year and 6 months.
The family history obtained from the patient contained noth-
ing of importance. The medical certificate accompanying him
stated that he had syphilis six years previously, but this was
denied by the patient; the Wassermann reaction with the blood
serum was complete positive, also with the cerebrospinal fluid;
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 33
the number of cells in the cerebrospinal fluid was 16.5 per cu. mm.
The patient had tuberculosis during his residence in the Hospital.
Previous to his admission his ward mates in another institu-
tion had complained of his irrational conduct and conversation.
He had a feeling of well being and of importance, with delusions
of grandeur, but no delusions of persecution or hallucinations;
in addition to the tuberculosis it was found that the patient's
pupils were unequal, the left reacted neither directly nor con-
sensually to light stimuli; the patellar reflexes could not be
elicited; coordination was good, there was a slight Romberg
sign and wavering gait. He was oriented lor place and persons,
and mostly for time; his general memory was poor for both
recent and remote events; he could not tell the times and places
of his occupations; he showed no insight into his condition and
said he thought his admission into the Hospital was a "frame-
up" ; an occasional slight buzzing in his left ear was the nearest
to an hallucination that was detected; and no delusions other
than that recorded above; his general intelligence was poor; he
was irritable, easily angered when questioned and swore
fluently; in general, he appeared to be happy; he emitted loud
screams occasionally, but no reason for these could be obtained ;
his writing was ataxic, his speech was tremulous ; he became un-
tidy in habits ; did not talk voluntarily ; he became much demented
and enfeebled. Death was due to pulmonary tuberculosis. The
examination of the brain showed that the convolutions were
shrunken over the anterior half.
GENERAL PARALYSIS OF THE INSANE, DISCUSSION
Of these six cases, three had atrophies in the frontal region
and three were of the anterior portions of the cerebrum. Only
one of these has been described as showing a great degree of
atrophy, viz., case 12. All of these patients showed a very
great degree of dementia previous to death. The one who
seemed least demented was case 13, although the degree of
dementia can not be determined with accuracy. It is of interest
to note that the total duration of the disease in this patient
was longer than in the other five patients, and the dementia
34 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
appeared to be more gradual in its appearance. With this
case there should be compared case 14, who lived less than
a year after the first signs of mental abnormality. Most of
these patients towards the end lived practically a vegetable ex-
istence; they were oblivious of their surroundings; they reacted
little, if at all, to ordinary stimuli and were apparently unable
to comprehend anything. These general mental conditions which
are found in all cases of paresis are not, however, correlated
with the degree or with the extent of the atrophy of the brain,
for the patient (case 15) whose brain showed the greatest
amount of atrophy was no more demented than the other pa-
tients at the time of death, nor was the patient (case 12) whose
brain showed the greatest degree of atrophy any more demented
than the other patients. Both of these cases showed an
extreme degree of dementia, and in this respect they differed
not at all from the other cases (with the possible exception
of case 13, which is mentioned above).
It is to be noted that all of the patients exhibited motor de-
rangements. With the exception of case 15, tremors, especially
of the lips, tongue and hand, were found. Case 15 did not
show tremors of these parts, although his writing was tremulous
and associated with this there was a certain degree of ataxia.
It does not appear, however, that the ataxic gait and the in-
ability to walk steadily and to perform other necessary move-
ments were any greater in those patients who exhibited lesions
extending beyond the frontal lobes, and in this respect we find
no definite correlation between the atrophies which included
the electrically excitable (i.e. motor) portions of the cerebrum
and those which did not extend as far backwards. Only one
of the six patients had had convulsions, case 10, and this pa-
tient it will be remembered was a case in which the frontal
regions were atrophied. On the other hand, two of the patients
(cases 10 and 12) developed contractures, and it is of interest
to note that both of these were cases of frontal atrophy. Periods
of confusion or of bewilderment, which are probably similar in
nature to the convulsive seizures, were noted in cases 10, n
and 12, and in one of these (case n) such a condition was at
one time preceded by a period of unconsciousness. These three
cases were those in which only frontal lesions were discovered.
The affective states in these patients were not similar. In
general, although they appeared contented, some had feelings
of exaltation, and at times some were depressed. Cases 10 and
11 appeared to be almost continually contented and cheerful.
Case 15 appeared to have feelings of contentment, of well-being,
and of self-importance at practically all times, and, although he
complained of having been sent to an institution and called it
a "frame-up," his remarks about this matter appeared to have
little affective accompaniment. On the other hand, patient 14
appeared to be indifferent, and the only evidence of worry or
depression on his part was his disinclination to talk and his
lack of cooperation. The reasons for the impulsive tendencies
which were noted in his case were not learned, but these were
not accompanied by noticeable emotional reactions. Patients
12 and 13 showed variations in affectivity, for they ranged from
sullenness, moroseness and homicidal tendencies to those of
cheerfulness and exaltation. It will be observed that these varia-
tions are not associated with particular lesions, and that similar
variations in emotional or affective states are found associated
with the more extensive as well as with the frontal atrophies.
In none of these patients were hallucinations noted at any
time, with the possible exception of case 15, who had complained
of a buzzing in his ear. Whether this was due to a peripheral
or a central irritation could not be determined; it did not ap-
parently lead to any interpretative elaboration, and because of this
it may be disregarded.
Case 14 showed no evidence of the presence of a delusion at
any time. The other five patients were noted to have delusions
of grandeur or of persecution, although these were most fre-
quently mild in character and those of some of the patients were
not much beyond the scope of the individual's life. In a few
instances the delusions were of a very fantastic and absurd char-
acter, notably those of patient 10. It appears remarkable, how-
ever, that with the exception of the temporary and unsystematized
36 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
delusions regarding the race horse (case n), the possession of
houses and diamonds (case 13), and some of grandeur, of which
the nature was not specified (case 15) and which were noted only
previous to his entrance to the Hospital, these evidences of mental
abnormality were not prominent in these three cases. Moreover,
it may be mentioned that some of the delusions of patient 12, e.g.,
those which were evidenced by his complaints that various people
were trying to get his money away from him, were not too far
out of bounds, and might not have been delusions in the strict
sense of that term. In this connection it must also be remem-
bered that with the possible exception of the delusion regarding
his retention in the Hospital, which he described as a "frame-up,"
patient 15 did not show any evidence of delusions during his
Hospital residence of about eighteen months. We are led to con-
clude from the facts which have been recorded that these mental
symptoms do not appear to be concomitants of special extent, or
of special degree, of atrophy of the anterior regions of the brain,
and that delusions, in cases of paresis at least, may not be due to
the cerebral changes in the frontal lobes.
It is of interest to note that in these cases the memory dif-
fered very greatly. Although the memory of all was very poor
during the later weeks or months of their Hospital life, in some
cases, even at times when the other evidences of abnormality
were plain, e.g., delusions, it was noted that the memory for
remote and recent events was fair. Thus, case 10 appeared to
have a remarkably good memory for the events of his past life
and even for other events which did not so immediately concern
him, although his delusions regarding his wealth were very ab-
surd and in this respect his judgment was very defective. Re-
garding case 14, no information could be obtained on account of
his lack of cooperation. The memory in the other four cases
may be said to correspond in general with the degree of de-
mentia, although not with the extent or the degree of the atrophy.
In most cases the degree of orientation corresponded also with
the degree of dementia, and also with the degree of memory.
Patient 10, who recalled quite well both recent and remote events,
37
was fully oriented for time, place and persons, and in general the
other patients who exhibited memory defects were not oriented.
One exception to this general statement is patient 15, who, al-
though he could not recall much of his own personal history, was
well oriented for place and for persons and also exhibited fair
orientation for time. It may also be noted that patient 14, whose
lack of cooperation has been mentioned, appeared to know where
he was.
At the time of their admission to the Hospital the attention of
these patients could be readily obtained, and, in two cases, 10
and 13, it was noted that they could attend to things well. The
latter patients understood what was said to them and could carry
on a conversation coherently and relevantly, and appeared to be
able to attend to such impressions as they received. Cases n
and 15 also exhibited a fair degree of attention ability, although
at the same time it was noted that their memory was defective.
On the other hand, case 12 was apparently unable to attend to
things well, for 'he is noted to have been unable to attend to
what was said to him or to comprehend readily, and case 14 also
exhibited a similar difficulty of attention. These variations, like
those in the dementia precox group, are not associated with the
special lesions.
These six cases of paresis do not differ extensively from one
another in symptomatology, although they may be differentiated
as belonging to the simple dementing form (e.g., case 14) or to
the expansive form (e.g., case 10) of the disease. Although the
symptoms in these cases are more nearly equal than in the cases
of dementia precox, the differences are also sufficiently evident to
make possible a comparison with the difference in the extent of
the lesions. It appears, however, that the symptomatological dif-
ferences are not to be correlated with the anatomical differences
in the extent or the severity of the anterior atrophies. Those
patients who exhibited only frontal atrophies were, apparently,
as markedly demented, they showed about the same degree of
emotional or affective change, and they exhibited lack of memory,
of orientation, of attention, and of comprehension to about the
38 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
same degree as those cases in which the atrophy extended beyond
the limits of the frontal lobes. On the other hand, it appears
equally probable that with frontal or with anterior atrophies some
paretic parents will exhibit a fair degree of memory and others
an almost complete loss of memory, that some will have fantastic
or persecutory or grandiose delusions and others will have none of
these. It is apparent, therefore, that with comparable lesions
the symptoms may differ, and that with lesions which do not
even approximately correspond the symptoms may be similar..
ARTERIOSCLEROTIC DEMENTIA, CLINICAL
HISTORIES
Case 1 6, white male, was admitted at the age of 63, and died
7 years and 4 months later.
The diagnosis on admission was acute confusional insanity,
intoxication psychosis; the duration was given as three months
plus; he was noted as having used alcohol only moderately; the
medical certificate stated that he burned papers on the floor
of his room; frequently wandered around aimlessly at night;
showed loss of memory, with all the symptoms of senility; had
fixed transitory delusions, one of his fixed delusions being that
he was "still in active service in the army, but at that time on
furlough"; he was disoriented for time; he made meaningless
remarks. His family history was negative. On admission he
was disoriented for time; appeared perfectly satisfied with his
surroundings; showed only a slight amount of insight; he was
up and about the ward ; his expression was placid ; he was poorly
nourished but there were no physical or neurological abnormali-
ties. His intellect and memory were defective; his attention
could be obtained and held without difficulty; he was quiet and
orderly; he appeared to be much demented, and seldom spoke
unless addressed; he remained seated in one place in the ward
the greater part of the day; he comprehended readily, and his.
replies were given promptly and were relevant and coherent;
no delusions or hallucinations were elicited. Later he claimed
that some one put laudanum in his beer, and that this had
doped him and caused him to be sent here; when asked if any
one had put poison in his food since he was in the Hospital,
he said it was not for him to say, he became indignant, his face
flushed, and he said he had a right to his beliefs; a speech
defect was observed. For over a year previous to his death
he was confined to bed; he became disturbed and excited if
he did not get the things he wanted; he thought some one had
40 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
stolen his money, hidden his clothes, and imposed upon him in
various other ways; his memory grew more defective, and he
was unable to give the name of the institution ; he thought some
one was sending electric currents through him, and that these
caused contracture of his fingers; his feet and legs became con-
tracted about six months before his death.
The autopsy showed atrophy of the frontal convolutions; there
was left bronchopneumonia, and the kidneys showed a slight
degree of swelling and some inflammation.
Case 17, white male, was admitted at the age of 65 and
subsequently lived for a little over a year.
His family and personal history was negative; the medical
certificate stated that the patient had been nervous and talked
at random about large amounts of money he thought he was
going to get from people in England; he made all kinds of
absurd statements ; he asked to have his ,f eet and toes amputated ;
he could not carry on a connected conversation and he attempted
violence upon other inmates in the Soldiers' Home in which
he was. On admission to the Hospital he was restless most
of the time; he would not sit for even a few minutes in one
place; he appeared to be profoundly demented; he was disori-
ented; his memory was markedly defective, and his talk was
disconnected and incoherent ; coarse tremors of the tongue were
noted; the pupils reacted slowly in accommodation, and the
superficial reflexes could not be elicited; his coordination was
fair; physically he showed signs of cardiovascular renal disease
and pulmonary tuberculosis.
In addition to these the autopsy showed marked shrinkage
of the brain, especially in the frontal regions.
Case 1 8, colored male, 73 years old at the time of admission,
lived for about I year subsequently.
The certificate accompanying the patient stated that he had
impaired cerebration, and for the preceding six years there had
been a tendency on his part to wander away. On his admission
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 41
to the Hospital he was found to be enfeebled; he was restless;
the only thing that could be elicited from him by questioning
was his name; he was disoriented; he talked very indistinctly;
he seemed to be very much demented; he was tidy in habits;
spasmodic laughing and crying and negativistic tendencies were
noted; he showed perseveration ; his voluntary acts were appar-
ently purposeless, and his movements were inaccurate; neuro-
logically, there were no atrophies found; a slight arcus senilis
was present; there were marked tremors; his gait was slow and
unsteady, and his walk was shuffling; he was noted to have some
ataxia; although a right homonymous hemiamopia was noted
in the history, this was not detectable at a later date and may
have been surmised because of special acts due to his negativism
and his general mental inertia; sensory and motor aphasia were
also noted; smell was diminished; there was a diminished sense
of temperature and a hypoalgesia; he was untidy in habits and
he could not find his bed ; he took no interest in his surroundings,
and at the time of his death he was in a condition of extreme
dementia.
The autopsy revealed shrinkage of the cerebral convolutions,
especially in the frontal lobes, pachymeningitis, slight arterio-
sclerosis of the basal vessels, valvular heart disease, atheromatous
aorta, congestion of the kidneys.
Case 19, white male, was admitted at the age of 62 and
lived 1 6 years. At the time of admission no information was
received regarding him except that the diagnosis of "acute mania"
had been made.
In the Hospital he was orderly and quiet and assisted with
the ward work; he was fond of reading; he spoke very little
voluntarily, but answered questions readily; he was untidy in
appearance, and he collected and filled his bed with trash; he
was very childish; at times he talked almost incessantly. Later
he was noisy and restless, somewhat destructive and untidy, and
he became hypochondriacal, and sometimes had to be restrained
but at other times he associated with the other patients and
played games with them; he comprehended what was said to
42 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
him; he was coherent and relevant in his conversation, but his
reasoning and judgment were limited; his memory was poor
for recent events, but he appeared to take considerable interest
in his surroundings, and was oriented in all spheres ; his station
was good but his gait was rather unsteady; there was noted
a slight double cataract and double arcus senilis.
The autopsy revealed internal hemorrhagic pachymeningitis,
shrinkage of the anterior convolutions but no other gross cerebral
lesions, sclerosis of the aorta and of the cerebral basal
vessels, pulmonary tuberculosis and pneumonia, and intestinal
tuberculosis.
Case 20, white male, age 72 on admission and lived for i
year and % month. He had been gradually losing his mental
faculties for a year, and while in another institution he had
been unable to find his bed and to take care of himself; he was
disoriented and confused, and had no insight.
There was fine tremor of the tongue; pupils were slightly
irregular in outline; the heart was somewhat enlarged; there
was a coarse tremor of the right arm ; the tendon reflexes could
not be elicited ; station and gait were greatly impaired. He was not
oriented for time, place, or person; his memory for recent and
remote events was very poor; emotionally he was apparently
indifferent; there was no insight; no hallucinations or delusions
were detected; the patient was quiet, feeble, and was agreeable
and rather childish in his reaction; three or four days before
his death he could not move his left arm and leg; the tongue
was protuded slightly to the left ; there was Babinski phenonema
on the left; whether or not this attack was accompanied by a
convulsive seizure is unknown.
The autopsy showed shrinkage of the frontal lobes; hem-
orrhage was found in the Rolandic region; in the left occipital
lobe there was an old softening affecting this part; the heart
valves were insufficient, and the heart enlarged; and
parenchymatous nephritis.
SYMPTOM ATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 43
Case 21, colored male, 65 years old at the time of admission
and lived 3*4 years subsequently.
The medical certificate stated that the patient had been normal
until a few years previous to his commitment ; he had bad mem-
ory and did not seem to remember anything; he was disoriented
for time and place; he was restless, he talked senselessly; his
reasoning was bad ; and he appeared to be excited. The physical
examination showed bronchitis, sclerotic superficial vessels, feeble
heart sounds, no tremors, coordination was good ; he had a poor
grip; there was a slight arcus senilis with some visual impair-
ment; no speech defect was observed. On admission he appeared
to be senile; he was quiet and tractable; he showed some con-
fusion and marked clouding of consciousness ; he was disoriented ;
his attention could not be held; his memory was poor; his
conversation was rambling and incoherent, and he usually
answered incorrectly; no definite evidence of hallucinations or
delusions was obtained, but he appeared to be suspicious that
he was to be harmed in some manner; at one time, however, he
said that colored people had been after him and almost scared
him to death, but that white people came to his rescue; and
later he also spoke of his farm and sheep having been stolen,
etc. ; at times he was restless and wandered around aimlessly,
talking in a rambling manner; he became untidy in habits; he
was very restless, and asked that he be permitted to go to his
work.
The autopsy revealed atrophy of the anterior convolutions,
sclerosis of the basal arteries, dilated heart, and chronic cystitis.
Case 22, white male, was 70 years of age on admission and
lived for only i month subsequently.
His mother had been insane and confined in a hospital ; other-
wise, his family history was negative. The patient always had
been a heavy drinker and occasionally he had a prolonged period
of intoxication; he had been treated for dipsomania a number
of times and six months prior to his entrance to the Hospital,
following a lengthened drinking spree, he became quarrelsome
and abusive; he thought other men were putting lice into his
44 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
bed and trying to injure his reputation in other ways; he threat-
ened them; he believed he was in command and ordered those
about him to do things for him; he heard voices of women and
of his superior officers talking to him and he replied in a loud
boisterous voice. Physically his muscles were of poor tone;
his coordination was fair; his station and gait were unsteady,
and his apparent delusion regarding lice may be explained by
the fact that these vermin were actually found upon his body;
he was neat and tidy in appearance; he was disoriented; he had
no insight; his general memory was fair; there were auditory
hallucinations of voices, but he would give little information
about the voices, people, or what was said to him; he became
irascible; swore frequently and fluently; he thought everything
in the ward belonged to him ; he gave orders to others to attend
to the horses, etc. ; and he conversed with imaginary people out
of the window.
The autopsy showed that the convolutions were atrophied
anteriorly ; there were also atheroma of the aorta, cystic kidneys,
interstitial nephritis, and cystitis.
Case 23, white male, was admitted at the age of 47 and
lived i year and 7 months subsequently.
At the time of his admission no medical certificate was
received and no previous family history was obtained; at first
he was diagnosed as an unclassified psychosis, but on account
of the pathological findings this was changed to arteriosclerotic
dementia. On admission he appeared to have no use of his
legs from his knees downward; he said he knew he was going
to be killed and burning was the way to do it; he imagined
that people were talking about him, and he heard them talking
about it at night; he imagined he had plenty of money; he was
noisy, untidy, occasionally talkative; he continually complained
about everything, and he was very irritable; he was oriented;
his memory was only fair; at times he was stupid; at one time
he had a convulsion affecting the right side, after which he
could not talk. Later he had a convulsion principally on the
left which also affected the right.
SYMPTOM ATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 45
At the autopsy it was found that he had bronchopneumonia,
atheroma of the coronary artery and of the aorta, nephritis,
and the convolutions of the anterior half of the brain were
considerably shrunken.
Case 24, white male, admitted to the Hospital at the age of
55, and lived nearly 18 years subsequently. He had been ad-
mitted to a Soldiers' Home because of a paralysis and epileptic
seizures. There he attempted suicide and was violent at times.
On entrance to the Hospital he was found to be deaf; he
was depressed and had many morbid fancies. Later he was noted
to be feeble, quiet, orderly; he did not answer intelligently; his
mind wandered; he was indifferent to his surroundings; he was
completely disoriented and showed no insight into his condition ;
at times he became very talkative and destructive, although most
frequently he was quiet and comfortable; delusions of a pleas-
urable nature were evident at times, and later these gave way
to delusions of persecution when he talked- about the property
and money which had been stolen from him; there was left
hemiplegia with contractures ; his gait was firm and rugged
for one of his physical condition, but he dragged his left leg;
the knee jerks were absent.
The autopsy showed slight enlargement of the heart, hypostatic
congestion of the lungs, peritonitis, ulcerative cholecystitis,
granular kidneys, marked shrinkage of the brain, but no areas of
softening or of hemorrhage could be found to account for the
hemiplegia.
ARTERIOSCLEROTIC DEMENTIA, DISCUSSION
Only two of these cases (16 and 20) are strictly frontal cases.
Two others (17 and 18) were cases in which there was a certain
degree of atrophy of the cerebrum as a whole in addition to
the marked frontal atrophy. The remaining five cases were
those in which the atrophy extended over the whole anterior
portions of the cerebrum. Case 22 was noted to be an alcoholic
case, but the relation of alcoholism to the mental disorder is
not clear, and the facts which have been recorded in the history
46 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
do not give any indication that alcohol played any great part
in the production of the symptoms during his Hospital resi-
dence. We may believe, however, that it was a contributing
factor. Case 24 appears at first sight from the history to be a
case complicated with epilepsy, but no epileptiform convulsions
occurred during the period of his Hospital residence, and it
seems more likely that the convulsions were of a character which
later resulted in the left hemiplegia, in other words, that they
were seizures similar to an apoplexy. Before death all of these
patients exhibited plain evidence of dementia. They were en-
feebled, childish, indifferent, confused, were not affected by
their surroundings to any extnet, and most often exhibited no
insight into their mental condition, etc. The two cases which
showed most evidence of mental enfeeblement (cases 17 and 18)
were those in which some general atrophy was found to ac-
company the intensive frontal atrophies, and it is possible that
the great degree of dementia in these cases is to be correlated
with the extension of the atrophy to the posterior regions of the
cerebrum, although the atrophy in the latter areas was not of
great degree. The other seven cases did not differ to a great
extent in the apparent degree of dementia which was present
immediately preceding death, and in this respect there can be no
great degree of correlation between the extent of the atrophy
and the degree of the dementia.
The physical enfeeblement probably kept most of these patients
less active than would have been normal for them, and the two
patients who exhibited effects of paralysis, cases 16 and 24, were
especially orderly and quiet most of the time. The physical
enfeeblement did not, however, prevent these patients from be-
coming disturbed, noisy, restless and at times excited, and these
states alternated with states of quiescence and even confusion,
the only exception being that case 20 (with frontal atrophy)
was uniformly apparently indifferent, inactive and agreeable.
Lesions to account for the paralytic phenomena were not dis-
covered, and it may be that part of the contractures in these
patients were due to disuse and not to special paralysis. In
other respects every one of these patients showed variations
SYMPTOM ATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 47
from the normal motor ability, both in the presence of tremors
and in their inaccurate, slow, and feeble voluntary movements.
Patient 18, whose brain showed some general atrophy in addition
to the marked atrophy in tjje frontal regions, also exhibited
negativistic tendencies, and at other times he appeared to be
purposelessly active. This patient, it will be noted, also showed
other symptoms like those of the dementia precox group in that
he was noted to laugh and to cry spasmodically and without
apparent reason and to show perseveration. Both the similarities
and the variations in these motor symptoms in these patients do
not appear to be directly correlated with the distribution of the
atrophies, for the unsteadiness and the tremors and the rest-
lessness were found equally in those with frontal and in those
with the more extensive atrophies.
The speech disturbances were not as pronounced as in the
cases of general paralysis of the insane. At least four of these
cases could talk readily, and also coherently and relevantly, and
there was no difficulty in carrying on a conversation with them,
if one did not approach their delusions or in the conversation
make too much of a demand to strain their memory. There
was in general none of the speech defects which are so com-
monly found in paretics, and when the patients would and could
talk, their words were usually well-pronounced. Defective speech
was, however, noted in some of them; patient 16 was observed
to have a slight speech defect; patient 18 was also recorded
at one time to have both sensory and motor aphasia, but the
diagnosis of this condition is a very doubtful one, and should
be accepted, if at all, with caution, for at that time the patient
was in a very negativistic mood ; patient 23 also showed a motor
aphasia after a convulsive attack. Assuming the accuracy of
the facts just mentioned, we may believe that these conditions
were due to local cerebral injuries that were, however, not
discovered at autopsy, and which may have been temporary
or functional. Considering only the speech ability anterior to
these accidents, we find that, with the exception of case 23,
the speech of all the patients was similar ; at times it was almost
incessant, at other times they conversed voluntarily very little
48 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
but would answer questions, and at other times it was difficult
to get any information from them. In other respects also their
talk was similar; two patients with frontal and two patients
with anterior atrophies talked at random, or incoherently, two
other patients with frontal and two patients with anterior
atrophies talked relevantly and could carry on conversations on
minor matters. In these respects, therefore, we find with similar
atrophies quite dissimilar characters of symptoms, and with
dissimilar atrophies quite similar symptoms.
The affective conditions in these patients differed widely. Of
the patients with frontal lesions three varied from an indifference
to a general satisfied condition, but the fourth patient exhibited
from time to time spasmodic laughing and crying, but whether
this alternation was accompanied by the appropriate emotional
states is not sure. This reaction has previously been compared
with those of dementia precox patients, and in addition it may
be said that it also resembles to a certain degree the similar
symptom associated with lesions of the optic thalamus, especially
in view of the association of hypoesthesia for temperature and
pain. One of these patients (case 16), in speaking of his de-
lusions of persecution, did not appear to react with appropriate
emotional tone to them. The other five patients, those with
anterior lesions, were depressed, suspicious, irascible, and quarrel-
some, with more normal or more contented, or indifferent,
intervening periods. Four of the latter group (patients 21, 22,
23, and 24) had corresponding delusions, and their affective
states were associated with and corresponded with these other
mental derangements. Patient 19, on the other hand, appeared
hypochondriacal without apparent reason, for if he had delu-
sions, they were not made evident (see below), and no hallucina-
tions were discovered. Whether or not the greater frequency
of particular types of emotional reactions and of special feelings
is to be definitely correlated with the more extensive lesions can
not be determined. That the general atrophy in cases 17 and
1 8, which it will be remembered was associated with a more
marked degree of frontal atrophy, did not produce similar
affective states is an indication that the special emotional con-
SYMPTOM ATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 49
ditions, which superficially appear to be definitely associated
with the anterior lesions, are better interpreted as chance oc-
currences, and that in a more extensive series they would probably
not be found in as great proportion. This conclusion also appears
more likely in view of the results which have been found in the
other diseases which have been studied.
Only one-third of these cases gave evidence of hallucinations.
These were cases 16, 22 and 23. Apparently case 16 had
paresthesias in the fingers, for he complained that electric cur-
rents were sent through him so that they caused contractures
of these parts. Regarding the other delusions of which he com-
plained, viz., that he had been doped and that laudanum had
been put into his beer, it is more difficult to judge whether
these were purely ideational delusions or delusions due to
paresthesias. The auditory hallucinations of patients 22 and 23
were very evident, but when patient 22 conversed with imaginary
people outside of his window, it was not certain that the hallucina-
tions were entirely auditory. The peculiar requests of patient
17 that his feet be amputated might be due to hallucinations,
but this was not determined. Those patients who had sensory
defects (patient 24 with deafness, patient 21 with visual defect,
and patient 18 with hypoesthesia for smell, temperature and pain)
did not apparently have hallucinations either in these fields or
in others, nor did patient 20 in whose brain a small softening
was discovered in the left occipital lobe. These facts do not
indicate any definite relation between the mental conditions and
the extent or degree of the cerebral atrophy.
There appears to be no more direct connection between the
presence or the character of delusions and the atrophies of the
anterior portions of the cerebrum. Patients 18 and 20 did not
have delusions which were detected, and one of these (case 18)
will be recalled as having had general as well as the well-marked
frontal atrophy, the other being a simple frontal case. The
other two patients with frontal atrophies did have delusions,
some of the delusions in both being allied to hallucinatory
phenomena, although a conclusion regarding this relation can
not be stated with definiteness. The delusion of patient 16 that
50 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
he was still in active army service was probably a filling-out due to
memory defects, but those regarding the loss of money, the ac-
tion of electric currents and the presence of poison in his food
are probably not due to this failure of memory, nor do the
delusions of patient 17 regarding the money which he expected
from England appear to be restrospective interpretations.
It can not be said with certainty that patient 19 did or did not
have delusions; the fact that he collected and attempted to fill
his bed with trash indicates that he believed this to have some
value or to have some relation to himself, but information on
this point is totally lacking. The other four patients, all with
anterior lesions, had delusions of persecution which with the
exception of those of patient 21 alternated with mild delusions
of grandeur.
All of these patients showed defective memory, and although
it is almost impossible to determine the degree of the defect
in the individual cases, the general reactions of patients 16, 17, 20
and 21 would lead to the conclusion that they were more abnormal
in this respect than the other four cases. Four of these patients,
it will be noted, are cases of frontal lesions, and the memory
defects seem to be correlated with the degree of dementia, since
it has already been mentioned that two of these (cases 17 and
18) were profoundly demented. The other two frontal cases,
patients 16 and 20, were confused and bewildered and in their
cases the memory defects may be either evidence of the con-
fusion or the result or the concomitant of these conditions.
In marked contrast to the character of the memory is the
orientation of the individual cases. Patients 17, 18, 20, 22, and
24 were completely disoriented; patient 16 was disoriented for
time; and patient 21 was disoriented for time and places. The
partial orientation of patients 16 and 21 is the more remarkable
in view of their poor memory, and the good orientation of
patients 19 and 23 is also to be contrasted with the degree of
memory loss. The latter two cases, it will be recalled, are cases
of anterior lesions, and this fact indicates that even with such
extensive changes orientation for time and space may be retained.
Not much more can be said regarding the other mental pro-
SYMPTOM ATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 51
cesses directly, although indirect information is obtainable in
the case histories regarding the patients' ability to attend to
impressions. In general, in these cases of arteriosclerotic de-
mentia there remains considerable ability to attend to impressions,
as has also been shown experimentally, and this ability appears
to be independent of the memory disorder. Even though the
patient was apparently very much demented or even confused,
his attention could usually be obtained without difficulty, and
this was noted especially for cases 16, 19, 20, 22, and 24. At
times patient 23 appeared stupid, i.e., his attention could not be
obtained, and although the attention of patient 21 could be
obtained it could not be held. Whether or not we shall interpret
the perseveration of patient 18 as "good" or "poor" attention
can not be definitely settled; there is sufficient ground for either
conclusion. The fact that with either frontal or anterior
atrophies there may be good ability to attend is an argument
against the supposition of an "attention function" for the frontal
lobes, and the fact that the ease or difficulty of attracting the
attention did not differ in accordance with the extent of the
lesions which are here considered is evidence that direct correla-
tion does not exist
The variations in the mental processes which have here been
considered permit the conclusion that neither the extent nor the
severity of the atrophy of the anterior regions of the brain
in arteriosclerotic dementia is directly correlated with the mental
symptoms, and they also show that with similar atrophies dis-
similar symptoms may be frequently encountered in different
patients.
SENILE DEMENTIA, CLINICAL HISTORIES
Case 25, white male, aged 63 on admission, had been admitted
in an obviously insane condition to a Soldiers' Home 4^ months
previously, and lived 13 months subsequent to his admission
to the Hospital. In the Soldiers' Home he was very restless,
constantly wandered about, exhibited a defective memory, was
careless of his personal appearance, and imagined that strangers
were relatives who had been dead for years. Physically there
were incontinence of urine, chronic cystitis, and marked tachy-
cardia. No family or previous personal history could be obtained.
Neurologically, there was tremor of the extended hands and
protruded tongue, most of the tendon reflexes were exag-
gerated, coordination and station were good, the larger vol-
untary movements were fairly accurate and exact, but his hand-
writing was very shaky. He smiled and laughed spasmodically
and without apparent reason, and without any apparent
emotional accompaniment; he responded very poorly to the
routine mental examination, forgot the questions which were
asked, and showed little memory for his past life and what
information he gave was apparently incomplete and inaccurate;
he could not find his bed; he appeared to have no intelligent
understanding ; he had no insignt into his condition ; no hallucina-
tions or delusions could be elicited; he was disoriented in all
fields, and addressed patients and others by names not theirs,
apparently thinking them friends or relations; he was so untidy
that he had to be cared for in bed. Death was due to hypostatic
pneumonia. In addition, the autopsy showed; chronic cystitis,
nephritis, hemorrhagic enteritis, heart valves atheromatous, and
circumscribed atrophy of the frontal lobes, but no other cerebral
lesions. The clinical diagnosis was arteriosclerotic dementia,
but the miscroscopical examination of the brain showed senile
changes and did not confirm the clinical diagnosis, and the
case is, therefore, included in this section.
SYMPTOM ATOLOG1CAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 53
Case 26, white male, had been noted as insane for 10 months
previous to his admission at the age of 67; Hospital residence
was 8 months. The signs of insanity noted on the medical
certificate were : the patient wandered away from the ward, tore
his clothing, he showed mental confusion, impairment of mem-
ory, occasional maniacal manifestations, incoherent talk, and was
sleepless. The account he gave of his family and past life was
incomplete but negative. Physically he had hypertrophied heart,
superficial arteriosclerosis, slight arcus senilis, his hearing was
impaired, the tendon reflexes were mostly exaggerated, and there
was a tremor of extended fingers. He was kept in bed as
much as possible, and at first was quiet and orderly, cooperating
well. The mental examination showed a total lack of orienta-
tion, no insight except that at one time the patient said that
if the questions had been asked a month previous he would have
been able to answer them; his memory was very poor for recent
and remote events; the only evidence of a delusion was his
statement that he had been robbed of thousands of dollars; his
talk was disconnected, but his speech was good. Later he
became restless, fumbled with the bed clothing, was noisy, sang
loudly, laughed and talked to himself, usually calling to horses,
as if he were taking care of or driving them, and advising those
around him to get out of the way or the horses would run over
them; he pulled the bed clothing and his remarks were ap-
parently due to ideas that he was driving ; he took off his clothes
and went about his room naked; apparently did not know how
to put them on, for he was found putting his shirt over his
legs. The autopsy showed shrinkage of the convolutions of
the frontal lobes, but no other gross cerebral lesions ; heart valves
atheromatous, hypostatic congestion of the lungs, congestion
of the stomach, intestines, liver, spleen and bladder, and slight
fibrosis of the kidneys.
fc
Case 27, white male, as an inmate of a Soldiers' Home was
considered to be senile for nearly two years previous to his
entrance to this Hospital at the age of 87, where he lived 2
years and 5 months.
54 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
The medical certificate stated that he was careless of his
personal appearance, was childish, and, unless confined, wandered
away and became lost. Physically he was very active for one
of his age, and was in good general health. He showed, how-
ever, a beginning cataract in both eyes and was very deaf;
there was sclerosis of the superficial arteries, the muscles were
small (atrophied) and their force was slight, but movements
were accurate and quick ; there was a fine tremor of the extended
hands; gait was normal and coordination was good. He was
quite cheerful; he wandered about the wards in an aimless
manner; he slept wherever he happened to sit down; he was
untidy in habits; he lost his way on the ward; he was com-
pletely disoriented; he seldom spoke voluntarily, but answered
cheerfully; he was inclined to be argumentative, especially re-
garding religious topics; he showed marked humor; occasionally
he was excited and disagreeable and fought with other patients ;
he persisted in keeping his clothes on night and day ; his memory
was impaired, but he talked intelligently about historical events
of which he had read; he spoke of $1,000 which he believed he
had and which he wished to get so that he could go to his friends ;
this was the only near-delusion which was elicited. Death was
due to cardiovascular and renal diseases ; the autopsy also showed
atrophy of the frontal convolutions, arteries sclerosed, emphy-
sematous lungs and consolidation of the right lung, nutmeg
liver.
Case 28, white male, was noted to have mental enfeeblement
4 1/2 months previous to his admission at the age of 71 ; he lived
iQl/2 months.
Neither family nor previous personal histories could be ob-
tained on account of the patient's condition. There were no
previous attacks known, and the first signs of mental enfeeble-
ment became evident only a few months before his entrance to
the Hospital. Alcoholism was given on the medical certificate
as a probable cause of his condition, which was noted to be a
"confusion." He believed himself to be on board a ship, per-
secuted, without his rights and often asked when he was to
SYMPTOMATOLOG1CAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 55
be murdered; he also had hallucinations and threatened to com-
mit suicide ; he was quiet and unassuming. Neurologically, hear-
ing was much impaired, a slight degree of arcus senilis was
present, and the right pupil was smaller than the left; there
were slight tremors of the fingers; skin sensations were some-
what impaired; all tendon reflexes were very much diminished
with the exception of the biceps. He was disoriented for time,
place, and persons; his memory for even the general events
of his life was very uncertain; his remarks were almost un-
intelligible; but he appeared to have some insight, i.e., he said
he thought his mind was affected in some way; he took no
account of the time or condition of things, he complained of
the weather being snowy and cold when it was bright and
warm, and he inquired why he was without shoes and clothes
with the snow up to his knees ; he denied having hallucinations ;
he also said he did not mind the snakes, but he was afraid of
the big alligators lying flat with their eyes down; looking up
at the ceiling he talked at imaginary people, and his remarks
could not be understood, except that he swore and became very
excited and sang and shouted. At one time he was found to
have a twitching of the eyelids, and later the left and then the
right arm were noted to be twitching (convulsion?) ; after this
the Babinski phenomenon was present on the left, and he moved
the left hand more than the right. The autopsy showed that the
right hemisphere was shorter than the left, and there was slight
shrinkage in the left frontal region; no other gross cerebral
lesions were observed; the heart was dilated, with few athero-
matous patches on the valve leaflets and on the aorta ; pulmonary
tuberculosis and hypostatic congestion; nephritis. The mico-
scopical examination revealed senile changes, although the
primary clinical diagnosis had been arteriosclerotic dementia,
and the case is therefore classed with the senile.
Case 29, colored male, ,his age on admission was 69, the
duration of the mental disease was not given, but the patient
had been in this Hospital for more than four years with a mental
disturbance, the nature of which is not clear on account of lack
56 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
of clinical data, 13 years previously. He lived only 2 months
subsequent to his second admission.
No family or personal history of value could be obtained,
although his previous residence in the Hospital is known. The
medical certificate stated that he exhibited delusions of wealth,
was slovenly in his appearance, sang and danced for hours,
but at times was irritable and quarrelled with others, and was
unable to repeat test phrases. Syphilis was given as a probable
cause of his condition, but a subsequent Wassermann test was
negative. When received he complied with all requests willingly ;
he was extremely talkative, spoke well and intelligently; told
how extensively he had traveled and recalled every place and
event of importance, and his memory seemed to be accurate
and exact; he spoke a few foreign phrases and thought he could
talk several languages; he was bright and alert, was ready to
talk when spoken to and ceased when requested and this with-
out apparent offense; he was restless and wished to be doing
something all the time; he denied having hallucinations, and
his ideas of wealth were not out of proportion to his station,
although previous to his admission he had peculiar ideas regard-
ing some financial dealings with others; he jumped from one
topic to another in his conversation; he was well oriented for
place and persons, but not well for time; he appeared to have
some insight into his condition for he said he was a "bit excited"
on his admission and that his memory was not good. He said
he had fallen from the seventh-story window thirty-four years pre-
vious to his admission and suffered from "concussion," and had
been bothered with this more or less ever since. His feet were
swollen and the skin over them was glazed, there was marked
dyspnoea, radical arteriosclerosis, double arcus senilis, great
emaciation, pulmonary tuberculosis . The autopsy showed slight
frontal shrinkage, but no other cerebral lesions, valvular heart
disease, atheromatous aorta, tubercular lungs, hypostatic pneu-
monia, nephritis. The miscroscopical examination showed
marked senile changes in the cerebrum, especially in the frontal
lobes although the clinical diagnosis was arteriosclerotic dementia
(maniacal excitement).
SYMPTOMATOLOGY AL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 57
Case 30, white male, was 65 at the time of admission and had
exhibited mental disturbances for a year previous; he lived 13
years and 2 ^ months.
The medical certificate stated that he was admitted to a
Soldiers' Home for various disabilities, including nervous pros-
tration, at the age of 54, and he was placed in the insane part
of the Home a few months previous to his admission to the
Hospital, on account of "delusional insanity." It was noted that
he was quiet and depressed; his memory was imperfect and his
perceptions were impaired. On admission he appeared deeply
depressed, he was quiet, and apparently he took no interest in
his surroundings; evidences of delusions or of hallucinations
were not found, but he constantly asked questions about words
which he found in the books and papers he read, and figured
a great deal on paper about them. At times he was cross and
disagreeable to other patients and fought them, and was very
noisy in the halls and had to be secluded. He appeared to have
peculiar ideas about politics, taxation, the coinage of money and
the money question, but it was difficult to understand what he
meant; he drew maps of model towns and sent them to different
people to have them adopted ; he talked freely ; he was tidy
and cleanly. Later he took no interest in his surroundings and
the peculiar ideas noted above became exaggerated and further
elaborated; he also thought that the patients carried electricity
around with them and shot it into him so that he was prevented
from urinating, or that they hypnotized him and played witch-
craft upon him; he was described at different times as being
"completely disoriented" and "completely oriented," and as hav-
ing a "good memory" and a "poor memory" ; he stated that at
night when he was alone and in bed he used to hear the voices
of his enemies speaking on political matters; he wrote inco-
herently and almost incessantly. His gait was slow, there were
no paralyses, the radial arteries were sclerosed, general tremors
were present. Death was due to chronic bronchitis. The autopsy
also showed : atrophy of the anterior cerebral lobes ; atheromatous
aortic valves, consolidation of the right lower lung; chronic
cholecystitis; chronic inflammation of the liver, spleen, kidneys
58 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
and bladder. Three clinical diagnoses were made at different
times: (i) undifferentiated psychosis (dementia); (2) paranoid
state associated with arteriosclerosis; and (3) senile depression.
Case 31, white female; 77 years old at the time of admission;
she lived 8 years and 3 months subsequently; the duration
of the mental disease at the time of admission was not learned.
No family or previous personal history, and no physical, in-
cluding neurological, examination accompany the records, al-
though on admission it was noted that her health and condition
were good for one of her age. She was much confused and
wandered around the ward in an aimless manner; she was free
from delusions and hallucinations; she was forgetful and easily
irritated, and childish and dependent in manner; she was tidy
in habits. A year after her admission she had an epileptiform
convulsion, which left her very much confused and reduced
mentally but did not result in any paralysis. Epileptiform con-
vulsions were present at irregular intervals, and previous and
subsequent to these she became confused. Three years after
her admission to the Hospital she was noted to have many
delusions, especially those of great wealth, that the attending
physician was her son, that she was going to will him a great
deal of property; she often said she had just been visited by
her relatives; she thought at times she was Queen Victoria,
and at other times that the Queen was her best friend. She
was noted to be picking imaginary objects from the floor and
said she was gathering money there. She became hypochondria-
cal; her memory was defective; she lacked insight; there was
poverty of ideas; she was disoriented; and her reasoning and
judgment were impaired. For fifteen months before death she
remained in bed helpless, totally indifferent to her surroundings ;
she never initiated conversation, and answered only in mono-
syllables. The autopsy showed that the convolutions of the
anterior lobes were markedly shrunken; in addition there were
sclerosis of the aorta, mitral and aortic valvular lesions, purulent
bronchitis, interstitial nephritis and chronic cystitis.
SYMPTOM ATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 59
Case 32, white male, admitted at the age of 74. The duration
of his mental disturbance previous to entrance to the Hospital
was not recorded. He died in 6 months.
This patient was admitted to a Soldiers' Home where he
was found to have emphysema, spinal curvature and an old
fracture of the ribs on the left side. While in that institution
he had a slight fever and delirium which were thought to be
due to gastritis, and following this he was noted to show evi-
dence of dementia. He talked incoherently ; he wandered around
the ward and tried to get out; he was unable to find his bed,
and constantly disturbed other patients by getting into their
beds; he had "no conception of anything." Physically, he was
poorly nourished, the mitral and aortic valves of the heart were
slightly involved, there was sclerosis of the superficial vessels,
there was bilateral arcus senilis; the pupils were unequal and
irregular, the right gave the Argyll-Robertson reaction; there
was tremor of the fingers; the tendon reflexes were not elicited;
the Wassermann reaction with the blood serum was negative.
He appeared to have no insight into his condition, but at one
time he remarked there were things in his mind he knew were
"not right"; emotionally he was indifferent; he was disoriented
for time, place and persons; his memory was greatly impaired;
he was unable to find his seat in the dining room or his bed
at night; he was up and dressed and was fairly tidy; as a rule
he was quiet and orderly, but later became very much confused,
restless and untidy in habits. A right lobar pneumonia developed,
from which the patient died; at the autopsy there were also
found : cerebral convolutions atrophied anteriorly ; calcification
of the aortic and mitral valves ; atheromatous arch of the aorta ;
tubercular scars in the left lung; liver and spleen somewhat
cirrhotic; cortices of kidneys markedly thinned.
Case 33, white male, admitted at the age of 79, had been ob-
served for over a year to show signs of mental impairment, and
lived for 7^ years after admission.
The medical certificate stated that he had an uncontrollable
temper, had hysterical attacks, delusions of persecution and loss
60 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
of memory. Physically there were: slight peripheral arterios-
clerosis ; hearing was very much diminished ; the voluntary move-
ments were normal in accuracy and rapidity, but they lacked
force; the knee jerks were absent. The family and previous
personal history was poor because the patient's memory for re-
cent and remote events was defective and what was obtained
showed nothing of interest or importance. The patient's expres-
sion was stupid, he was rather untidy, he appeared to be simple-
minded and rather childish ; usually he was good natured, happy
and contented, but at times he was irritable and abusive ; he was
very industrious making baskets which he tried to sell ; he talked
and associated with the other patients in a normal manner; his
memory for recent and remote events was not good, but, on the
other hand, was not entirely absent; he conversed coherently,
relevantly and freely ; he was oriented, showed fairly good judg-
ment, but exhibited no insight. Fluid accumulated in the ab-
domen and for this he was tapped twice, but died. At the autopsy
the chief findings were: fifteen liters of fluid in the abdominal
cavity; marked sclerosis of the abdominal aorta; peritonitis;
sclerosis of the liver and kidney; and marked shrinkage of the
anterior cerebral convolutions.
Case 34, white male, exhibited mental changes for nearly 3
years previous to his admission to the Hospital at the age of 80 ;
and lived I year 2^/2 months subsequently.
The patient's family history and the account of his previous
life were not well obtained, but what was learned was unimpor-
tant. The medical certificate reported him to be childish, restless,
inclined to wander away and become lost. His general attitude
was one of weakness, or weariness and fatigue; his gait was
shuffling, and slow; he had impaired vision (beginning cataract) ;
and defective speech. Neurologically he showed: arcus senilis;
unequal pupils, the left failed to react to light; the knee jerks
were diminished; there was a slight ankle clonus; there were
tremors of the tongue, lips and face ; a slight Romberg was pres-
ent. He was noted to be harmless, agreeable, and cooperative;
SYMPTOM ATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 61
he was absolutely disoriented; his memory was very poor both
for recent and remote events; he was somewhat confused and
was easily upset; emotionally he was unstable, and occasionally
irritable, and possibly on the borderline of depression; he had
nothing to say voluntarily; he preferred to be let alone and he
sat in one corner and did not associate with the other patients ; he
appeared to have fair insight into his condition ; his general com-
prehension, reasoning and judgment did not seem impaired when
his mind was occupied with simple things; his mental associa-
tions were not very active; his ideation was limited in amount;
he paid little or no attention to his environment. He became
untidy, refused to answer questions and used profane, vulgar and
abusive language to his questioners. The autopsy showed : slight
atrophy of the anterior cerebral convolutions, but no other gross
cerebral lesions ; aorta and aortic valves atheromatous ; bronchitis ;
pulmonary tubercular nobules; pulmonary emphysema; cirrhosis
of the liver ; fibrous spleen and kidney ; the right adrenal contained
an overgrowth and an hemorrhagic area.
Case 35, white male, has been mentally changed for a year pre-
vious to admission, at the age of 61. Hospital residence was n
years and 2 months.
This patient was sent to the Hospital on account of de-
lusions of "strange and impossible happenings" and hallucina-
tions of hearing (fictitious voices) and of vision (mysterious
objects). Physically he showed a dilated heart, bleeding
hemorrhoids, and a right inguinal hernia. Neurologically his
movements were deliberate, slow and rather weak; his coordina-
tion seemed somewhat impaired, although his gait was firm and
steady; a slight fibrillary tremor of the tongue was observed;
hearing was defective. He appeared to comprehend what was
said to him, but was deliberate in answering; his memory was
good, somewhat 'better for remote than for recent events; his
reasoning and judgment appeared to be below par; he heard
voices outside his door at night; he was mildly depressed but
claimed to be fairly well satisfied with his surroundings (ex-
62 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
cept for his delusions) ; he also showed some irritability.
Later he became more irritable, and at times he was ugly
and insulting; he refused to answer questions; he was dis-
trustful and suspicious, and exhibited delusions of perse-
cution (he claimed that the physicians had him "wired," that
they conspired to keep him in the Hospital, and hold him for
robbery and mistreatment; and he refused to converse with
them) ; he claimed that the patients ought to be sent to school and
educated ; he was oriented ; he was tidy ; he was usually quiet and
orderly, but occasionally he became indignant, irritable and
wrought up over his detention. Delusions of grandeur were
added to those of persecution (he thought himself to be a very
rich man and that the Government was robbing him of thousands
of dollars daily) ; his memory became poor; he was disoriented
for time; when talking with the physicians, regarding whom he
had delusions, he became so emotional that his voice trembled ; he
refused to answer questions regarding his condition; he was
usually quiet, orderly and well-behaved except when approached
by one regarding whom he had delusions; later he believed the
attendants were putting poison into his food and drinks, trying
to shave him against his will and injure him in other ways ; insight
into his condition was lacking. Death was due to cardiovascular
and renal diseases; the autopsy also showed shrinkage of the
cerebral convolutions over the anterior two-thirds and athero-
matous cerebral vessels.
Case 36, colored female ; the duration of the mental disease at
the time oi admission was not stated in the medical certificate;
she lived in the Hospital 7 years and 5 months.
The age of this patient was unknown, but she was undoubtedly
old at the time she was admitted from the Alms House ; there she
had been observed to be "maniacal," i.e., very much excited ; she
could not answer questions intelligently and at times showed that
she had delusions that people were after her; she was noisy,
especially at night. Her facial expression was one of apathy;
her gait was slow and feeble; the physical examination showed
nothing abnormal; neurologically she showed fine tremors of
the extremities, sight and hearing were defective. She was
somewhat disoriented and there was some clouding of con-
sciousness; she did not appear to appreciate her surroundings;
her memory for remote events was fair, but poor for recent
events; in talking she lapsed into incoherency, goal ideas were
lost; her reasoning and judgment were impaired; she thought
she could talk with the Lord, and she became religiously excited
at times, but as a rule she sat quietly in the ward, taking no in-
terest; she was tidy in habits. She exhibited the signs of gradual
mental enfeeblement; memory became practically a blank, and she
became untidy in habits; she did not want to be interfered with
by the nurses, and occasionally she showed a rather cross and
irritable disposition; she sat in one chair with an apron over her
head for hours; she never spoke unless spoken to and then al-
ways complained of being burned up by fire; the reason for cover-
ing her head could not be learned. Death was due to pulmonary
hypostasis and hemorrhagic cystitic; the autopsy showed in
addition generalized arteriosclerosis, cardiac atrophy, chronic
diffuse nephritis and atrophy of the anterior two-thirds of the
cerebral convolutions.
Case 37, white male, had been mentally deranged for 2 years
previous to his admission at the age of 74 ; he lived in the Hospi-
tal 3 years and 2 months.
The family history was negative. At the age of 43, as a
veteran of the Civil War, he was admitted to a Soldiers' Home, for
"physical disability and mental incapacity." The physical dis-
ability was a contusion erf the right shoulder; the character of
the mental incapacity was not noted, but could not have been a
marked mental change since the patient was able to take care of
himself and was permitted to go at will. Twenty-four years
later, at the age of 67, he was noted to have "impaired cerebra-
tion," but this term is not defined ; six years subsequently he was
noted to be senile; to have impaired cerebration and delusions of
persecution (he thought he was to be hanged for misdemeanors
of which he was not guilty) ; he was inclined to be talkative, but
his conversation was disconnected ; there was inability to concen-
64 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
trate his thoughts; he showed impaired judgment and reasoning.
On one occasion a rope, carefully and securely fixed, was found
in his locker, although it is not known that he had attempted or
planned suicide. Physically he was quite active for his age, and
his physical condition good with the exception of difficulty of hear-
ing and right inguinal hernia. On admission he was restless and
confused ; he showed no interest in his surroundings ; he was un-
tidy in appearance, but tidy in habits ; it was difficult to make him
understand, and he 'failed to answer questions ; no delusions could
be elicited, although he appeared to be apprehensive and afraid
that any one who approached him would do him harm ; his con-
sciousness was clouded; he was disoriented for time and place;
his memory and intellect were very much impaired ; his emotional
tone was one of indifference. Soon he became untidy in habits,
and 'there remained to him only a remnant of his former knowl-
edge ; he was kept in 'bed ; he took no interest in his surroundings ;
when approached and questioned he cried and whined pitifully,
he volunteered no information and he answered few questions;
he was entirely disoriented; he seemed to remember the events
of his childhood but none of recent date; no delusions or hallu-
cinations could be elicited. He was restless and pulled and re-
arranged his bed clothing frequently and resisted attempts to
help him. Death was due to bronchopneumonia. The autopsy
showed marked shrinkage of the f rontoparietal convolutions.
Case 38, white male, was admitted to the Hospital at the age of
72 ; his mental disturbance began 2 months previous to, and
he lived only i month after his admission.
For two months previous to admission the patient was childish,
forgetful, disoriental, and had a depression. His family history,
as far as it could be ascertained, was negative. Physically he
showed slightly enlarged heart, double arcus senilis, and defec-
tive hearing; Wassermann reaction with the blood serum was
negative; albumin and casts were found in the urine. Neurolo-
gically he showed : sluggish accommodation reactions, and irregu-
lar pupils; deep reflexes diminished; slight Romberg sign; gait
was very feeble; muscles wasted and atrophic; voluntary move-
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 65
ments feeble ; irregular tremors of the fingers. Mentally he said
he was sad, but usually he appeared to be indifferent; he had a
poor memory ; he was not oriented .for persons, and only partially
for time and place ; insight was lacking ; no hallucinations or delu-
sions were elicited; his speech was good. The patient developed
diarrhoea and died from exhaustion; the autopsy revealed no
arteriosclerosis ; the cerebral convolutions were shrunken over the
frontal lobes and the posterior portions of the parietal lobes, but
section of the brain showed no other changes; aortic atheroma;
pulmonary tuberculosis; and parenchymatous nephritis.
SENILE DEMENTIA, DISCUSSION
These fourteen cases are not entirely alike as far as lesions are
concerned, and, it will be noted, some diagnostic questions have
been raised regarding some of them. Case 28 has been noted
as being a possible alcoholic psychosis, and some of the hallucina-
tions which this patient had are suggestive of the alcoholic de-
lirium. Patients 29, 30, and 37 were also considered at one time
to be rather doubtful. Patient 29 was admitted to the Hospital
for the first time at the age of 56, was subsequently discharged,
but readmitted at the age of 69. Patient 30, on the other hand,
had been noted to have had "nervous prostration" eleven years
previous to his admission to the Hospital, but the symptoms which
he exhibited at that time were not recorded, and it is impossible
to determine the nature of the condition. Since the term "nervous
prostration" is so inaccurately used by general practitioners, it is
difficult to be certain that the patient exhibited anything more
than a disinclination for mental and physical work. Patient 27
also had been noted as exhibiting "mental incapacity" thirty-one
years previous to his admission to the Hospital, but, as has been
noted in the case history, this was probably a very general term,
and it may have been only a means of having him enrolled as an
inmate of the Soldiers' Home in which he spent these years. Pa-
tient 31 had epileptiform convulsions, but no previous history of
disturbances of this nature was obtained, and it is likely that
these convulsive seizures were due to the degenerative cerebral
conditions which mentally resulted in the dementia.
66 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
Regarding the cerebral conditions, similar variations are noted.
Patient 28 exhibited what appeared to be an unilateral atrophy on
the left side of the cerebrum. The description of the atrophy in
case 37 is probably to be taken to be the equivalent of that which
has been noted in cases 35 and 36, namely, that it covered the
frontal, central and parietal regions of the brain, in this way
taking in approximately two-thirds of the convexity. The brain
of patient 38, like that of patient 28, also showed rather circum-
scribed atrophies, and it has been noted that these were in the
posterior parietal lobes as well as in the frontal lobes. This case
is added for the purpose of comparison with those cases which
are strictly 'frontal atrophies, and for the purpose of comparison
with the extensive lesions which were found in cases 35, 36, and
37. The degree of atrophy in these cases was varied, cases 28, 29,
and 34 exhibiting only a slight amount of atrophy while cases 31
and 33 showed a marked degree of shrinkage.
In general the mentality of these patients did not greatly differ.
All showed a considerable degree of dementia. They had little
intelligence or understanding of what went on about them; they
were at times unable to answer questions ; they had become child-
ish, slovenly in appearance, and they wandered around the wards
aimlessly. At the same time, they were mostly harmless and
usually quiet, agreeable, and sometimes apparently stupid, but at
times they became restless and irritated. Patient 34, who ex-
hibited only a slight degree of atrophy of the frontal regions, was
apparently as demented as any of the other cases, and patients
28 and 29, whose brains were also noted to exhibited only slight
atrophies, were at the same time considerably demented. On the
other hand, the marked degree of cerebral atrophy which was
found in the brains of patients 31 and 33 did not appear to
bring about any greater degree of dementia or loss of mentality
than in the other cases. These two patients were confused or
wandered away, or were stupid, simple-minded or childish, but
in these respects they were not any less mentally active or men-
tally endowed than patient 25, who was noted to exhibit "no
intelligent understanding," or than patient 26, who was quiet,
confused, or than patient 27, who was childish and wandered
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 67
away. The relation of the general mental condition oi dementia
to the frontal, or to the distributed anterior, or to the even more
extensive frontal-parietal atrophies is not a definite one, and it is
apparent that in these cases, as well as in those which have pre-
viously been considered, the relation of the degree of atrophy to
the degree of dementia is not simple.
Most oi these patients exhibited rather marked degrees of
motor disorder. Tremors of the hands, tongue, face, or fingers
were found in nine of these patients, and it is of interest to note
that with the exception of patient 29 the frontal cases showed
these disturbances as much as those cases in which the atrophies
extended beyond the limits of the frontal lobes. In fact, those
patients whose brains were found to have the more extensive
atrophies (patients 31, 33 and 37) did not show motor distur-
bances of this character. Patients 27, 29, 33, and 37 were active
for individuals of their age, and although in connection with
general muscular atrophy they usually showed a slight amount of
force in their movements, their movements were accurate and
quick. It will be seen that some of these patients were those in
which the precentral region was also included in the atrophic
zone. In these cases, aside from the tremors, the five patients
with frontal atrophies (including case 38) were apparently motor-
ially more capable than those patients with the more extensive
atrophies. This, however, is only true in a general way. The
cases showed such extensive divergences in this particaular that
they can not be considered to be correlated with any special de-
gree or with any special extent of the pathological conditions oi
cerebral atrophy.
The conversation of most of these patients was disconnected
and frequently incoherent. Their remarks were often almost
unintelligible. They answered questions in an irrelevant manner,
sometimes slowly or, as it has been described, deliberately, and at
times they refused to answer or failed to answer at all. These
variations from the normal activity were found in practically all
these fourteen cases, although there is one exception, viz., patient
38, who not only answered properly and intelligently, but his
speech, i.e., his enunciation was good. In the case of speech as
68 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
distinguished from conversation, it was 'found that many of these
cases exhibited no specific alterations, although patient 29 has
been described as having been unable to repeat test phrases, and
patient 34 was noted to exhibit defective speech.
The emotional tone of patients 27 and 28 is not specifically
mentioned, and conclusions regarding their conditions in this re-
spect must be drawn from the other facts in the case histories.
We may conclude from the general accounts that patient 27
was usually cheerful, but at times, on account of his delusions,
apparently depressed, and, as has been noted in the account given
above, he was occasionally excited, disagreeable and pugnacious.
The hallucinations which were evident in patient 28 and the delu-
sions which he gave voice to did not appear to bring about very
marked emotional reactions, although he was excited at times.
As a rule, the other patients were usually indifferent; they were
quiet ; some of them were stupid, childish, and as may be concluded
from their general mental symptoms, they ranged in their affec-
tive states from indifference to excitability, or to feelings of well-
being, or to a depression or sadness. Patient 25 was perhaps the
only one who exhibited no evident emotional reaction, although
it should be remarked that he laughed and smiled spasmodically.
Externally he appeared to be emotionally labile, but in reality he
had no apparent affective concomitant with these reactions. The
relation of these emotional conditions to the extents and degrees
of atrophy is not apparent. Those patients with frontal lesions
appeared to be as much affected as those with the more extensive
lesions, and the condition of marked atrophy in patients 31 and
33, it will be noted, did not give rise to any special degree or
character of affective phenomena.
Eight oi these patients showed at no time any evidence of hallu-
cinations. The other six patients did have hallucinations, with
a possible exception of patient 26. The latter patient, as the
case history shows, laughed and talked to himself and had delu-
sions of driving horses or of calling to them, and, like patient 22,
he was found calling to horses as if he were taking care o'f or
driving them. Whether these symptoms should be interpreted to
be entirely delusionary or to be partially hallucinatory, as if he
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 69
had the particular sensations in the hands and arms of driving or
of rubbing down the horses, or of the visual experiences of seeing
the horses, cannot be determined. It appears probable, however,
that the delusion of his taking care of and driving these animals
was due to the presence of hallucinations as much as to anything
else. The hallucinations of patient 28 are much like those of the
alcoholic delirium, as has been noted above. The hallucinations
of alligators and snakes were especially like those which a patient
with delirium tremens experiences, and the evident disorientation
regarding the seasons when he complained of the cold weather,
with snow on the ground, when in reality it was bright and warm,
and when he complained of his being without shoes and clothing
with the snow up to his knees, appeared to be much more like the
paresthesias which an alcoholic might have. This apparent delu-
sion, or disorientation for time, appeared, therefore, to be much
more like a tactual paresthesia, or to be dependent upon such a
condition, although it is not certain that we can exclude the visual
element. In the expression df her delusions patient 36 also gave
evidence that she had paresthesias, for it will be remem<bered that
she complained of being burned up by fire. It is also possible that
her delusion regarding her ability to talk with the Lord may have
had as a basis the presence of auditory hallucinations of voices.
Patients 30 and 31 at the time of their entrance to the Hospital
were noted to be free 'from hallucinations, but at a later date both
of these patients gave evidence of the presence of these abnormal-
ities. Patient 30 complained that he heard voices at night. At the
same time it should be remembered that he also complained that
electricity had been used upon him, which had prevented his
urination. Patient 31 was found trying to pick imaginary objects
from the floor. Whether or not this reaction was due to a visual
hallucination or to a combination of visual and tactile hallucina-
tions was not determined. The delusion of patient 30 regarding
the action of electricity was undoubtedly of an hallucinatory na-
ture, as has been mentioned, the particular hallucination being of
the organic type. It is of interest in this connection to note that
these patients who exhibited hallucinations showed these abnor-
malities more frequently in the field of the skin sensations than
7o SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
in other fields. From what we know regarding the functions of
the postcentral areas of the brain it might be expected that this
kind of hallucination would be more common in those patients
who exhibited atrophy in the parietal region, viz., patients 35,
36, and 37, but of these three patients only one had hallucinations
oi this character. This woman complained of being burned up
by fire. Patients 26 and 28, whose brains were only atrophied
in the frontal lobes, also had the same kind of delusions, appar-
ently based upon tactile or organic hallucinations. From these
facts it appears that the hallucinations in these cases are not di-
rectly connected with the degree or the extent of the atrophies
which have been recorded.
Three of the patients were entirely free 'from delusions of any
kind. Two others, patients 25 and 37, were somewhat doubtful,
although it appears that patient 25 in mistaking individuals and
calling them by names not their own was suffering from a defect
of memory or otf orientation for persons, and did not have, pri-
marily, a delusion. It is impossible in the case of patient 37 to
determine whether the ideas of persecution which he spoke
of were or were not delusions. At any rate, they were not par-
ticularly evident, although it should be remembered that he
frequently appeared to be apprehensive, as if some harm would
happen to him or as i'f he were being persecuted. Delusions of
persecution were also found in patients 26, 28, 30, 33, 35, and 36.
These gave way to delusions of grandeur or of exaltation in the
case of patient 35, and perhaps also in the case of patient 36.
Delusions of grandeur were also given expression by patients 27,
29, and 31. Although patients 25, 30, and 31 did not show any
evidence of the presence of delusions at the time of their admis-
sion to the institution, at later dates delusions, of which mention
has been made in the individual case histories, were in evidence.
The association of delusions with lesions of the frontal region,
in view of the lack of these abnormalities in cases 32, 34, and 38,
and possibly also 37 and 25, can not be said to be demonstrated
by these series of cases. If we believe that the "Personenverken-
nung" of patient 25 to be a real delusion, we can conclude that all
of the simple frontal cases exhibited delusions. Opposed to this,
however, is the fact that the extension of the atrophies beyond
the frontal region in the other nine cases did not always result in
delusions. Case 38 is particularly interesting in this connection
because the frontal region was undoubtedly atrophied, and added
to this atrophy there was an atrophy of the posterior portion of
the parietal region. If frontal lesions in themselves were espe-
cially allied to the delusion formation, it is to be expected that
the more extensive atrophy would have been accompanied by this
mental condition. Such, however, was not found. In these cases,
therefore, delusions appear not to be directly associated with a
particular location or a particular degree of atrophy.
Patient 29, who showed only a slight frontal atrophy, ex-
hibited an accurate and exact memory. Patient 35, especially
during his early Hospital residence, was also 'found to have a good
memory, and although patient 30 was noted as having an imper-
fect memory at the time of his admission, it will be noted that
according to the case history his memory varied from "good"
to "poor" during his later Hospital residence. At times he ap-
peared to have a very good grasp upon his surroundings, to
know the events of his past life as well as other events, and at
other times he did not appear to remember these things. In
the other cases memory was poor. In the cases of patients
36 and 37 memory for remote events, especially those of their
childhood, was fair, but for more recent occurrences memory
was bad. When we consider these phenomena in connection
with the extent and degree of the atrophies which the brains
of these patients exhibited, there appears to be no correlation
whatsoever.
Case 33 was the only patient who was completely oriented, and
this is particularly noticeable in view of the extent and degree of
atrophy in his brain. Nine of the other cases were completely
disoriented for time, for place, and for persons. Patient 29,
with a slight frontal atrophy, was disoriented for time, and
similarly patient 35, while patient 38 was disoriented for persons
and only partially disoriented for time and for place. Patient
30 exhibited the same kind of fluctuation regarding this mental
function as he did for memory, in that at times he appeared to
72 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
be completely disoriented, to know nothing of time or of place
or of persons, and again to have an excellent grasp upon these
things. In this way there appeared to be fluctuations in his
mental condition, and these have, as far as can be determined,
no direct correspondence with the cerebral lesions in his case.
The abnormalities in this field do not apparently depend upon
the character or degree of the atrophies, the opposing evidence
shown in case 33 alone being such as would prevent any definite
statement regarding a relation.
Nine of these patients lacked insight. One, patient 34, had
fair insight into his condition, whereas the other four cases had
what might be termed partial insight in that, in answers to
questions, they gave evidence that they recognized that something
was wrong with them. They were incapable of making any
kind of analysis, and in at least some of the cases it is not
certain that their remarks should be interpreted as evidence of
insight. Thus, patient 26 appeared to have no insight into his
condition except that he remarked at one time that if the ques-
tions had been asked him a month previously, he would have
been able to answer them. Patients 28 and 32 were more evi-
dently in a condition in which they appreciated that something
was wrong with their minds, for both admitted that there were
"things in their minds which were not right," and that their
minds were affected in some manner. There appears to be some
relation between the degree of brain shrinkage and general
insight in that in every case in which there was a slight degree
of atrophy insight was present, partially at least. Insight, how-
ever, as related to the extent of atrophy, does not appear to have
much correlation, although of the five frontal cases three did
exhibit some insight into their condition, while of the anterior
atrophies only two exhibited insight, and of the four remain-
ing cases none exhibited insight in any degree.
Some of the other abnormalities which have been recorded
in the case histories may have relations to the sensory defects
which were present in these patients, although this is not ap-
parent. Apprehensiveness, or delusions, or feelings of depression
or apathy may be due to the presence of defects of hearing,
SYMPTOMATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 73
which abnormality was 'found in eight of these cases, and which
in otherwise normal individuals appears at times to be associated
with suspiciousness and allied affective states. It will be re-
membered that patient 28 had some impairment of the skin
sensations, and it is possible that his hallucinations and his
delusions of disorientation, snow on the ground, etc., which
have been described in a previous paragraph, may have been
due to the hypoesthesia for skin sensations. At the same time
it should be recalled that patient 27 and patient 34 exhibited
signs of beginning cataract, but these visual defects did not
bring about any types of visual hallucinations or delusions.
It is unfortunate that the "impairment of perception" noted in
patient 30 is not more fully described, for it is possible that
there were, in his case, sensory abnormalities which may have
had certain relations with the delusions and hallucinations of
which this patient gave evidence. The impairment of skin
sensations in patient 28 is not correlated with atrophy of the
postcentral region, since it will be remembered that this patient
exhibited only a slight atrophy in one hemisphere.
When we deal with these patients as a group, we find, as in
the other psychoses, extensive atrophies associated with some
mental conditions quite similar to those found in the patients
with the less extensive atrophies. In general it may be said
that the exaggerated atrophies have given rise to -no more
prominent symptoms than the milder or slight degrees of
atrophy which were recorded as being present in the brains
of three of these patients.
SUMMARY
Although all the cases which have been studied exhibited
atrophies which always included the frontal cerebral convolu-
tions, and some also included atrophies of the neighboring
central and parietal portions of the cerebrum, no one symptom
was found to be constant, with the possible exception of that
complex condition which is called dementia. It is also to be noted
that although the degree of atrophy varied from "slight" to
"marked" no one symptom or degree of symptom was found
to correspond with these cerebral changes. In general, there-
fore, we may say that there is no apparent correlation between
the extent or the degree oi atrophy and the general mental
condition. Those individuals who exhibited only frontal
atrophies at times showed as much dementia as those in which
the atrophy was more extensive, and many of the cases in
which the atrophy was of a slight nature were also as demented
as those in which the atrophy was noted to be great.
Nor does there appear to be any correlation between the
form of the disease in the individual groups and the extent
or the degree of the cerebral atrophy. It is true that more
of the dementia precox group with anterior atrophies were
catatonic in nature and that more of the frontal cases appeared
to be rather paranoid. On the other hand, both with frontal
and anterior atrophies, sufficient cases with other forms of the
disease were observed, and it seems certain that the extent
of the atrophy is not the determining element in the production
of the collection of symptoms which give warrant for the
diagnosis of the "form" of the disease. For the arteriosclerotic,
senile and paretic groups of cases a similar statement may be made.
In none of these collections of cases did there appear to be
any definite correlation between the degree of the atrophy and
the special form of the disease, and in the special discussions
of the individual groups of cases it has been stated that no
SYMPTOM ATOLOG1CAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 75
correlation between the degree of dementia (paretic, arterio-
sclerotic, senile, or precox) and the extent or the degree of atrophy
was present.
A similar statement holds true for the probability of correla-
tion between degrees of atrophy and the general behavior of
the cases which have been considered. Such behavior as the
care of the person and the relations of the individual to his
environment and to the other patients did not vary in accordance
with the location or the amount of the cerebral changes.
On the motor side, similarly, we find no definite correlation
existing. In the dementia precox group those with atrophies
extending beyond the .frontal regions differed in no respect from
those in which the atrophy was confined to the less extensive
area. The paretics with simple frontal lesions were perhaps
more active than those with the lesions extending over the
central convolutions and into the parietal lobe, but the cases
of senile dementia and those with arteriosclerosis /cerebralis
were about equal in this respect. The motor phenomena which
are found associated in these cases with atrophies do not appear
to be correlated with the degree of the atrophy. In none of
these collections of cases was it found that the motor phenomena
differed to any extent when the degree of atrophy was great
from those in which the atrophy was slight.
The emotional or affective states of these patients varied
considerably. No one fact stands out particularly to indicate
any possible relation between the affective states of these pa-
tients and the extent or the degree of the cerebral atrophy, and
in fact in this case the conclusion can also be drawn that there
is no correlation of this character.
The variety o;f the hallucinations which have been recorded
and the fact that these symptoms were not uniformly present
in those with similar atrophies does not indicate any definite
relation between the appearance of hallucinations and the
atrophies with which we dealt. It would appear that in
the dementia precox group the more extensive atrophies were
more frequently associated with the presence of hallucinations,
76 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
but such a conclusion can not be made regarding the groups of
paretic, senile and arteriosclerotic dements.
Nor do the delusions appear to be correlated with the extent
or degree of atrophies. Delusions appear to be as relatively
frequent in case of frontal atrophy as in those cases in which
the atrophy is more extensive, and in this connection it is of
interest to note that with the marked changes in the frontal
lobes which have been noted in connection with a number of
the cases delusions were not always found. From the data
which were available to him, Southard has concluded that frontal
lesions are more frequently accompanied by delusions, but in
the present series sufficient cases in which no delusions were
present have been observed, in which frontal atrophies were
present, either simple, or combined with those of the central
convolutions and at times with those of the parietal region. It
is worthy of note that df the dementia precox group there
were three; of the paretics, one; of the arteriosclerotics, three;
and of the senile, five ; a total of twelve cases, in which no evidences
of delusions was discovered, although in all o*f these cases an
atrophy of the frontal lobes was discovered at the time of the
autopsy. As a possible definite relation with the cerebral lesions
it may be said that most of the patients exhibited poor memory
and poor orientation. On the other hand, the accuracy of
memory of some of the patients was remarkable in view of
the degree of dementia which was noted to be present, and in
some of the cases the orientation ability was also remarkable in
view of the extensive cerebral changes which were found.
Summing up this portion we may definitely say that there
has been discovered in the present collection of 38 cases no
definite relation between (A) the degree of mentality, or lack
of mentality, the character of the disease, the motor and affective
states, the presence of delusions or hallucinations, memory or
orientation ability, and (B) the degree and extent of the cerebral
atrophies.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
On the assumption that similar portions of the brain in differ-
ent individuals have like functions, we should expect that corre-
sponding lesions would give rise to similar symptoms. That,
however, the symptoms differ even though the lesions be similar
is shown by the study o'f the case histories which have been
summarized in previous sections. In addition, it requires no
extensive acquaintance with the clinical contributions of neurol-
ogists to recognize that cerebral lesions other than atrophies
do not always result in similar mental abnormalities, or symp-
toms. Nor does it require any great amount of critical ability
to reach the conclusion that numerous facts which have been
recorded in clinical neurological literature do not always warrant
simple explanations of the relation of cerebral activities and
and mental phenomena. It is apparent that the variations in the
symptoms which accompany similar cerebral lesions in different
individuals have often been minimized and sometimes disre-
garded, perhaps 'for the sake of simplicity of explanation.
In some few cases, on the other hand, the variations in the
results of physiological investigations of stimulation and ex-
tirpation and the differences in the clinical symptoms accompany-
ing similar cerebral lesions have also led to numerous polemics.
Dissimilar symptoms have been shamefully taken from their
settings, estimated too highly and extravagantly emphasized by
those who controverted the quasi-phrenological views of cerebral
'function.
There is, however, no good reason either for disregarding
the dissimilarities of symptoms accompanying cerebral lesions
or for concluding that these dissimilarities demonstrate that
all parts of the brain act in the same manner and that there
are no cerebral "centers." The fact of dissimilarity must be
accepted and brought into relation with the other facts which
are known regarding cerebral 'function and control.
It has already been pointed out that in physical diseases the
symptoms of individuals may differ to a considerable extent,
and also that lesions in widely separated portions of the brain
78 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
may give rise to different symptoms in different individuals.
Many neurologists now recognize the latter fact, and von
Monakow in particular has been insisting that this fact is of
primary importance 'for deducing the functions and functional
connections of the cerebrum. The similarity of symptoms ac-
companying different lesions is readily understood if we conceive
of the nervous system, and especially the cerebrum, as a collec-
tion of cells with connections, the function of which is fixed
largely because of the intercommunicating connections. The
individual cell has its own function, but in the production or
control of any of the cerebrally produced or controlled processes
in other parts o'f the body, or of mental states, it is the serial
or grouped activities of nerve cells which must be dealt with.
When this view is taken it becomes clear why dissimilar lesions
may produce similar symptoms. A break at any part of the
chain will prevent the normal function, which is serial.
It is now recognized that widely separated areas are always
involved even when only a very small portion of the cerebral
cortex is injured or destroyed. The destruction of some por-
tions may immediately produce perfectly obvious de'fects or ex-
aggerations of normal behavior, while the destruction of other
portions may give rise to effects which are not immediate or
obvious. The effects of the latter lesions are sometimes to be
discovered only indirectly and at other times they are, as von
Monakow points out, of a "latent nature and only become mani-
fest when there is added to the primary operation (i.e., a lesion)
a second operation upon, or a pathological process in, another
region o'f the cortex."5
The present series of facts are, however, different from those
with which von Monakow and others have dealt. They are
the reverse conditions, and they are not readily understandable
on the hypothesis which von Monakow has set forth to explain
the similarity of symptoms with dissimilar lesions. In connec-
tion with these studies of 'frontal and anterior atrophies it
should be pointed out that dissimilarities of symptoms from
* Monakow, C. von. Theoretische Betrachtungen iiber die Localisation im
Zentralnervensystem, insbesonder im Grosshirn. Ergebnisse der Physiol.,.
1913, 13, 206-278.
SYMPTOM ATOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE INSANE 79
frontal lesions have not infrequently been the cause of much
discussion and recrimination. Thus, the clinical findings which
have been recorded at different times by different investigators
whose material (patients) was not exactly the same have given
rise to the hypothesis that the frontal lobes are (i) intellectual
centers, (2) centers for emotional states, (3) centers for in-
hibition, and (4) motor centers. Without attempting at the
present time to advance a more general hypothesis than those
already suggested, it may be said that the clinical facts are not
mutually exclusive and that all can be brought together under
one heading which gives a suggestion for the explanation of the
functions of the frontal lobes.
Facts of an experimental nature are also at hand to show
that the definiteness of control by the motor (precentral) cortex
is not as great as that which is usually assumed to be the case.
These will be dealt with in the second part of this monograph. All
of the facts indicate that we must conclude that the action of the
cerebrum is a diffuse activity, and an activity which varies from
individual to individual, and in the same individual from time
to time. A full discussion of this hypothesis will appear in
connection with the study of the variability of control from the
motor cortex. At the present time it may be mentioned that it
seems most satisfactory to consider the cerebrum as a labile
organ or, in other words, as a series of cells with numerous
possibilities of connections. The number of connections makes
possible a variety of activities, since at one time a cell may act
through its main axonal connection upon a second cell, and at
another time through its collateral connections it may act upon
a third or fourth cell. Probably the cerebral cells do not always
discharge, or influence other cells, in the same manner. We
should, therefore, not hold to a belief in a definiteness and
simplicity of physiological connections, but rather to a manifold-
ness of connections, any one or more of which may be used or
not used at one time. The use, non-use, or disuse of any one
of the possible paths at different times will produce differences
in behavior, and similar lesions of cells may, therefore produce
different symptoms in accordance with the normal (to the in-
dividual) connections which have thus been interfered with.
II
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF THE
MOTOR CENTERS
INTRODUCTION
The earliest positive results of the electrical stimulation of
the cortex were obtained by Fritsch and Hitzig, and at that
time and for a number of years the movements obtained on
stimulation of the cerebral cortex were described in terms such
as to suggest that the resulting movements were definite move-
ments of individual muscles. Subsequently attempts were made
to determine the cortical localization or representation of in-
dividual muscles or muscle groups, but it was amply demon-
strated by more recent experiments (especially those of
Sherrington and Griinbaum (6) that all the movements which
result from cortical stimulation are complex movements. These
are "movements" in a particular sense of the word and not
simply contractions of muscles. They are movements which
are best described as behavior phenomena, not only movements
of flexion but movements of grasping, not simply extension
movements but movements of repulsion or thrusting away. In
many cases the complex activities of the associated muscular
contractions can best, and at times can only, be described in
terms of such behavior activities.
From time to time in attempting to demonstrate the motor
control by the cortex by stimulating the so-called motor centers
difficulty was experienced by me with some animals in obtaining
special reactions of parts which appeared to be readily obtainable
in other animals.1 These variations in the stimulability or in
the control from the cortex were at first, on account of the
1 Compare also Sherrington's remark : "In the cat it is in my experience
quite infrequent to obtain primary extension of the crossed elbow from the
cortex. Flexion is readily and regularly obtained." Integvative Action of
the Nervous System, 1906, page 293.
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 81
definiteness with which most previous results have usually been
described, believed by me to be due to defects in technic or to
variations in the excitability of different cortical regions in dif-
ferent animals under anaesthesia. A careful examination of
the literature devoted to the experimental investigation of the
motor cortex in animals indicated, however, that notwithstanding
the supposed definiteness there was considerable variation in
the location of special areas in different animals. This variation
appeared to depend, to some extent at least, upon the varying
configurations of the fissures and consequently the varying posi-
tions of the collections of cells governing particular movements.
On the other hand, it also appeared possible that some of these
variations might be variations of a primary nature, i.e., not
due to the adventitious condition of anaesthesia or other similar
circumstances. In fact, the careful examination of published
work on the motor cortex, especially that of the Vogts (H),
shows that the location of the individual cerebral areas controlling
certain of the small bodily segments is not as anatomically
(spatially) definite as has been supposed. Such as least was the
suggestion that was received when the results of previous in-
vestigations were compared. Accurate determinations of the
variations of previous investigations were not found to be prac-
tical, both on account of the differences in method that individual
investigations had employed and their methods of recording
results and also on account of the different species of animals
on which the tests were made.
Because of these considerations, it was thought advisable to
attempt comparisons of the results of the stimulation of the
brains of a number of animals of the same species in order to
determine how much, if any, variation there is in the relation
of parts of the precentral cortex to the control of different bodily
segments. It appeared possible that in this area of the brain
there are variations of an individual nature, not explainable on
the ground of variations in fissural configurations. The animals
chosen for the present investigation were monkeys, macacus
rhesus, five of which gave results of value.
METHODS
An animal was driven from its cage into a large burlap sack
and completely anaesthetized. It was then transferred to the
operating board and kept under the anaesthetic during the whole
period of the experiment The A.C.E. mixture was used in
all of the experiments. At the time the movements of the
animal were to be determined all the limbs were untied, but
the head was kept steadied in a head-holder so that head move-
ments might not take place or be minimized. The present series
of tests were intended to deal largely with the relation of the
cerebrum to the leg and arm movements, and the head move-
ments were disregarded except when the latter were associated
with movements of the other segments. Since, however, the
head was kept fairly rigid, most of the head movements were
prevented and with the exception of a few have not been re-
corded. This procedure of steadying the head were also used
'for another reason, viz., to prevent possible injuries to the
brain when the head moved at the time the stimulating electrodes
were applied. Except by having the electrodes attached firmly to
the skull so that they move with it, it is not always possible to
avoid accidental injuries of this nature, but in the present series
such avoidable injuries to the brain were prevented by keeping
the head steadied.
A one-half inch trephine was used to cut through the skull
to such a point that the button of bone could be readily removed.
The trephine was not permitted to cut entirely through the inner
table of the skull on account of the possibility that the trephine
teeth might also cut through the dura mater and thus injure
the brain. In this way also injury to the cerebral cortex was
prevented as much as possible, and in no case, as far as could
be determined by an inspection of the brain through a magnify-
ing glass was any gross injury produced. After the skull open-
ings had been made in this manner they were enlarged in different
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 83
directions by bone forceps in order to uncover a large portion
of the frontal area, all of the so-called precentral region and
a considerable part of the postcentral cortex. Bleeding from
the diploe was checked by the application of bone wax. When
the large openings on both sides of the skull had been made
the bridge of bone which covered the longitudinal fissure was
cut through after ligatures had been placed at both extremities
of the bridge in order to prevent bleeding from the longitudinal
sinus. In previous tests bleeding from this source was found
to be very great and in one of the animals used in the present
series even the precautions of ligating the longitudinal sinus
which were taken did not prevent death from hemorrhage. The
dura was next cut and this was partly reflected and partly cut
away so as to leave the portion of the cortex which was to be
stimulated bare.
The part of the brain which was not at the time being sub-
jected to stimulation exploration was covered with thin rubber
tissue which had been wet with warm normal salt solution and
all was covered with a large sponge of cotton which had also
been wet and warmed in the same solution. Sufficient time
elapsed between the individual stimuli to permit the recording
of results and this also rested the brain tissue. After a series
of half a dozen or more stimulations the part of the brain which
was being used was covered by the rubber tissue and the sponge,
and the brain was permitted to rest for a longer period, five
to ten minutes. In this way the brain was protected at times
when the tests were not being made. In this way also drying
could not take place, and little, if any, of the anaesthetic gases
escaping into the room could act directly upon the cerebral cells.
At the same time the use of the rubber tissue prevented too much
moistening of the brain substance, for it should be recognized
that there is a possibility that the use of too much of the
normal salt solution may, by osmosis, sufficiently change the
chemical character of the cortical cells to produce alterations
in their irritability. The duration of the tests on one side of
the brain was usually about three hours. In certain cases where
the number of stimulable points was small this time was short-
$4 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
ened and on one animal in which the number of points was
large, this time was much increased. In addition to the careful
administration of the anaesthetic, the precautions to avoid
"fatigue" and those to prevent osmotic changes from the ap-
plication of the moistening solutions tended to keep the cortical
irritability at approximately constant level, and any experiment,
if it had appeared necessary or advisable, might have been carried
on for a greater length of time.
It was not .found difficult to keep the animal sufficiently under
the effect of the anaesthetic during the whole period of time,
for care was taken that the quantity should be sufficient to
prevent any voluntary movements which might mask or inter-
fere with the movements which were produced by the electrical
stimulations, but at the same time the anaesthetic was not pushed
to such a degree as would be necessary in experiments in which
complete relaxation of the involuntary muscles is desired. In
no case was the anaesthetic deep enough to produce a relaxation
of the sphincters, but by continuous careful application all of
the voluntary movements were prevented, even at the times
when cutting and trephining were performed.
The cortex was stimulated by the bipolar method, the in-
duction coil being a standard Helmholtz apparatus. The
platinum points were separated by approximately one-quarter
of a millimeter and each of the points was approximately of
the same size. The distance, therefore, between the centers of
the points was approximately one-half of a millimeter. The
electrode points were applied to a special portion of the cortex
and after the stimulation and the resulting reaction (when any
occurred) they were removed. The secondary coil of the in-
ductorium was arranged at the beginning of a series of tests
on an animal at such a point as to give a supra-minimal stimula-
tion. It was kept at this point throughout the series of tests
on that animal, with the exception that when with this strength
of current an apparently non-stimulable area was found, the
strength of the stimulus was increased to determine whether the
failure of reaction was due to a normal non-stimulable character
of the special area or to a decrease of irritability. It was found
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 85
that the increased stimulus seldom gave rise to movements, and
when failures with the increased stimulus were encountered
it was concluded that these areas were normally non-stimulable.
It is likely that further increases in the strength of the stimuli
might have resulted in reactions, but with greater strengths of
stimuli the possibility of "spreading" is greater and the results
would have been open to serious objection on this score.
The stimulations were usually first begun at the upper portion
of the precentral area where the motor cortex dip downwards
into the longitudinal fissure. Eight or ten stimuli were given in a
regular order as close as possible to the central fissure, and ex-
tending serially towards the fissure of Sylvius, the stimulated
points being approximately one millimeter apart. Another series
was begun at the extreme upper limit of the precentral area and
the stimuli were carried downwards in a line which was approxi-
mately one millimeter in front of the line along which the pre-
vious series of stimuli had been given. Third, fourth, etc., series
were made in the same manner, each extending one millimeter
anteriorly to the previous one. In this way the experiment was
carried on until in passing forwards a line or series of stimuli
had been given which produced no observable reactions. In cer-
tain animals, on account of the presence of blood vessels and
extra fissures, lines in which no stimuli were given were present.
In most cases, however, the blood vessels which were encountered
were not much greater than one millimeter in diameter and thus
the general experimental relationships were not markedly dis-
turbed. After such an area, about ten millimeters in length and
in width to correspond to the stimulable zone, had been carefully
examined, similar series were made in the area immediately below
(towards the fissure of Sylvius). In this manner the whole of
the superficial precentral cortex extending from the longitudinal
fissure downwards as far as the head area was carefully mapped
out.
After every second stimulation a small portion of a mixture
which was composed of vaseline and analine-black was applied
to the point which had been previously stimulated. This mix-
ture was viscid, and sufficient could be taken upon the point of
86 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
a sharp probe which, when lightly touched to the brain, left a
speck of this "paint" upon the brain surface. In some cases the
individual points did not stand out by this method as clearly
as was desired, but in many of the experiments the points of
application of the analine-black mixture could be correctly de-
termined and the relative locations of the individual points of
stimulation were therefore accurately given on the cortex. The
application of the wet rubber tissue and sponge after a series of
tests tended to obliterate the marks which were made, but the
pia mater (and the brain?) was sufficiently stained in many cases
so that the individual points were to be seen when the brain was
examined with a magnifier. The stained points were later com-
pared with the photographs and with the diagrams which were
used.
At the time of the performance of the experiment a rough
sketch (with a magnification of about ten diameters) of the
general appearance of the precentral and postcentral regions of
the hemispheres was made. On this sketch the longitudinal fis-
sures, the central fissures, subsidiary fissures, and the blood
vessels were noted. Following each test the location of the stimu-
lated point was marked on the sketch so that this could be com-
pared with the location of the stain which had been applied to
the brain. The serial numbers of the tests were noted on the
sketch in approximately correct relations. These sketches were
subsequently used for the identification of the stimulated points.
After the removal of the brain and its hardening in formalin
(10 per cent) the area which was found to be stimulable was
again sketched by placing over the cortex a piece of transparent
paper which was pressed down tightly and which was marked
to show all of the points of interest (fissures, blood vessels, ex-
tent of the stained zone, etc.) in that particular area. These
diagrams were then placed in the Leitz projection apparatus and
drawings were made of the results with a magnification of ten
diameters. On the drawings which accompany the present work
corrections have been made in the diagrams by comparisons with
actual brain pictures (photographs), so that the diagrams which
are here represented are combinations of the sketches taken at
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 87
the time of the performance of the experiments with the actual
pictures of the brains. At the time the brain was photographed
a two millimeter scale was placed along the central fissure and
photographed with the brain. The photographs were later mag-
nified uniformly at 10 diameters, each millimeter on the photo-
graphed scale corresponding to 10 on the diagram, and
drawings made of all the important landmarks.2
On these drawings the points of stimulation were noted and the
numbers corresponding to the serial tests were recorded. Since
the diagrams were drawn to scale, the results which are recorded
in them may be considered to represent fairly accurately the ex-
tents of the stimulable motor areas in the individual hemispheres
of the five monkeys which were used. It will be noted that these
areas differ considerably in absolute sizes, monkey 2 having a
more extensive responsive area than any of the other animals,
monkey 4 having the least extensive stimulable motor area.
At the time the experiments were performed there were usually
four observers. The chief duty of one was the manipulation of
the electrodes. This observer also directed the experiment, noting
on the rough sketch the points which had been stimulated and
3 Since there is a considerable curvature of the brain from the longitudinal
fissure towards the temporal areas (of special interest in this connection
being the curvature in the region of the central fissure) the photographs
showed considerable spatial distortions of the sides of the brain. In the
projection of the photographs only the two millimeter divisions on the
relatively flat superior surface of the brain could be made to correspond with
the twenty millimeter, divisions of the projection screen. The landmarks
(•fissures, blood vessels, etc.) and the scale divisions were recorded as they
were magnified. These drawings were then dealt with as if the curved
surface was simple, i.e., like that of a cylinder, and the proper geometrical
projections were made to bring about the uniform distribution of the area.
It is realized that for the most accurate representation we should deal not
only with the superior-inferior curvature but with the fronto-posterior cur-
vature as well. The latter curvature in the region of the central fissure is
however slight as compared with the superior-inferior curvature and has
been disregarded. The error of recording due to this method is, I am
advised, probably not as large as 5 per cent. Since also these drawings
were later compared with the brains, with the enlarged diagrams on trans-
parent paper, and with the original sketches, the error is doubtless much less
than this amount. It is presumed, however, that the error is about equal
for all brains and the results are, therefore, comparable.
88 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
applying to the cortex the analine-black mixture. A second ob-
server took charge of the anaesthetic, his attention being directed
principally to the matter of keeping the animal under good anaes-
thetic control, but he assisted at times in the observation of the
activities of the animal which accompanied the stimulations. A
third observer recorded the results of the individual stimuli on
sheets of paper, noting at the same time the serial numbers and the
times of the stimulations. This observer also cooperated with
the fourth one in noting the character of the movements. The
fourth observer had as his sole duty the observation of the move-
ments which resulted from the stimuli and the description of
the movement so that they might be recorded. As has already
been said, the anaesthetist also occasionally helped to observe
the movements. Only when the two or three special observers of
the reactions (movements) were satisfied regarding the charac-
ters of the reactions were they recorded. If there was a doubt of
a more or less serious nature regarding the combination of move-
ments which was produced the particular point was subjected to
a second stimulation at a later time.
Following the determination of all the available points in the
leg and arm areas the animal was killed by an overdose of chloro-
form. The brains were hardened in formalin and preserved for
future study. The extent of the stimulable areas was determined
in the manner described above after the brain had been thoroughly
hardened. The location of the points for the individual segments
or parts of segments was also made in the manner similar to that
described above, and are here reproduced in the diagrams.
The serial numbers of the original individual tests have not been
included in the present accounts, for to bring about an areal cor-
respondence of the allied areas in all animals the serial numbers
in the individual experiments were not available. This was due
to the fact that variations in the conduct of the experiments, i.e.,
the varying location of the different fissures and different blood
vessels, etc., were present to alter the constant serial character of
the experiments in the different hemispheres.3 Furthermore, in
*That is, test 10, or test 36, or test 72, did not always bear the same rela-
tion to the well known anatomical landmarks in all hemispheres.
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 89
the illustrations which are given later the areas have been, for
the purpose of comparison, divided into special zones, although it
should be understood that these zones by the methods used, are
only approximately determinable for any one hemisphere.4 At
the same time, since the individual areas differ widely in extent, it
should be noted that spatial comparisons of two or more hemi-
spheres can be only approximate.
In the present work as has been noted above, attention was
directed to those areas which are concerned with the movements
of the leg (including the thigh, lower leg, foot and toes) and
with the arm (including the shoulder, forearm, hand and fin-
gers). The associated movements of the head which were occa-
sionally met with in the stimulation of the arm area will not be
detailed in the present paper. The present paper, therefore, deals
primarily with the areas concerned with the anterior and posterior
limbs and occasionally with the associated movements of the tail
The results of the experiments are given in four divisions as fol-
lows : ( i ) the total extents of the stimulable areas for the arm and
leg; (2) a comparison of the distribution for the leg and for the
arm; (3) a comparison of the distributions of the areas for the
smaller segments (ringers, hand, lower arm, upper arm, toes, foot,
lower leg and thigh) ; and (4) the anomalous distribution of the
stimulable areas, namely (a) those areas which gave leg move-
ments when the surrounding areas gave arm movements, (b)
those areas which gave arm movements when the surrounding
areas gave leg movements, and (c) the nonstimulable (or rela-
tively non-stimulable) areas which were surrounded by readily
stimulable areas.
Several possible objections may be urged against considering the
diagrams to include all of the motor responsive areas for the arm
* In other words, in the diagrams each point of experimental stimulation is
represented by an area. Since the stimulated points were one millimeter
apart, the square millimeter surrounding a point was considered to correspond
with the point. A micrometric method of moving the stimulating electrodes
or the use of one pole, by the unipolar and monopolar methods, would have
permitted the stimulation of more points, and the diagrammatic representa-
tions would have been nearer the actual conditions. Since, however, we deal
with comparative results with the same method on all animals the slight
variations due to method can be largely disregarded.
90 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
and leg. One possible objection is that the stimuli may not have
been sufficiently strong to bring about responses in the outlying
portions of the areas, and that in any one of the monkeys the
total area which was found stimulable may be only the combin-
ation of more readily stimulated points. Such an objection would
be valid were it not that in those cases in which the extent of the
area seemed to be slight, additional slightly stronger stimuli were
given in order that there should be a reasonable certainty regard-
ing the outer limits. When these increased stimuli failed to
produce a response it was deemed that the limits of the normally
excitable area had been reached. The use of much stronger
stimuli may be objected to in this connection, since the stronger
stimuli tend to spread to a great degree and, therefore, to have
a more widespread physiological effect than the weaker stimuli.
Since the precautions were taken however, as a check and nega-
tive results were obtained, the negative results may be considered
to be confirmations of the limitation of what we may call the
"immediately" excitable zone.
Another objection which may be urged against considering
these results of absolute (rather than relative) value is that no ac-
count has been taken of the stimulable portions of the cortex
which are included within the central and within the subsidiary
fissures. This objection is in most respects weighty for it is
realized that there may be a possible inverse relation between the
amount of the stimulable cortex on the convexity or surface of
the brain and that to be found lying within the fissures. It may
be admitted at the outset that in the present work no measure-
ments (stimulation or otherwise) have been made of the quantity
or extent of the motor cortex which dips down into the central
fissures. It may also be admitted that some of the variations
which have been discovered by the present methods may be varia-
tions of an anatomical nature as described above (inverse rela-
tion of surface and fissure extents). It is not true, however, that
all the variations can be explained in this manner. Some varia-
tions that will be noted later, especially those of the distribution
of the areas for the individual segments cannot be explained
in this manner. On account of the possible objection to certain of
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 91
the results it may be mentioned that the correlation of the extent
of the motor cortex anterior to and that within the fissure of
Rolando is a problem which I hope to be able to deal with in a
subsequent publication.
A third objection is that the motor areas dipping downward
into the longitudinal sulcus have not been considered. In most
of the hemispheres this objection does not hold since the areas
within the longitudinal sulcus were investigated and the results
recorded. In the case of the left hemisphere of monkey 3, how-
ever, not even all the convexity surface was investigated, as will
be noted below.
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Before proceeding to the accounts of the results of the experi-
ments it appears desirable to present a series of figures which
describe numerically the brains of the animals on which the
experiments were performed. These figures are given for the
reason that the areal variations of the stimulable zones might
have correlations with the brain sizes or brain weights. Because
of this there are given various linear measurements and diameters
since the selection and use of one measure for possible correla-
tion might be considered to be too arbitrary. The measurements
were made approximately one year subsequent to the performance
of the tests, after the brains had been continuously in formalin
(10 per cent). All measures were taken in the nearest half
millimeter or nearest half gram.
The diameter measurements which are recorded were made
with slide calipers. The total length was taken as the longest
diameter between the frontal and occipital poles. The total
width is the greatest side to side diameter. This is sometimes
found caudad to the position of a plane from the upper portion
of the central fissure perpendicular to the longitudinal sulcus.
Since the measurements just noted can give only a general view
of the brain as a whole it was also thought best to take data
referring to the frontal (anterior to the central fissure) portions
of the brain. The frontal width was taken on each side from
the longitudinal sulcus to the side of the bzrain, on a plane
passing through the central fissure approximately one-half of
the distance from the longitudinal sulcus to the end of the central
fissure near the fissure of Sylvius. The frontal length is also
given for the two sides separately. It is the distance between
the anterior tip of the brain and a plane passing through the
brain and beginning at the origin of the central fissure near the
longitudinal sulcus and perpendicular to the latter. The length
of the central fissure could not be measured as accurately as the
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 93
lengths already mentioned. A narrow pliable but non-stretchable
tape was laid along the fissure beginning at either its superior or
inferior end and passing over its various curves as well as
possible. The weights of the brain were determined to the nearest
half gram, the weights being of the cerebrum alone. The
medulla, cerebellum and spinal cords 'had not been preserved.
Three measurements of each kind were made; the results were
averaged and in the table the averages are noted to the nearest
half millimeter or half gram.
The brain of monkey 4 was slightly flattened on the left side
in its superior-inferior diameter. This was probably due to the
usual cause, lack of sufficient protection from the bottom of the
containing vessel. At the same time this flattening may have
been accompanied by an elongation or a broadening of that side.
Since, however, the two sides gave approximately (within 0.5
mm.) the same fronto-occipital measurements it does not appear
likely that there has been much variation in this particular. On
the other hand, the variations in width are found to differ for
the two hemispheres of other animals and it is impossible to say
with surety that the superior-inferior flattening was the cause of
greater width of the left hemisphere of this animal. .When the
brain of monkey 5 was removed from the skull both occipital
lobes were accidentally cut and in the process of hardening some
FIGURE i. Representing the methods of making the linear measurements
which are given in the text and in Table I : a, total length ; b, total width ;
c, frontal kngth; d, frontal width; e, length of central fissure.
94
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
separation of these parts from the remainder of the brain oc-
curred. When the brains were measured these parts were approx-
imated to the remainder of the brain and the measures made. If
there is an inaccuracy in the measurements of this brain because
of this such inaccuracy relates probably solely to the total length.
The measurements which have just been described are given in
Table I and the methods of taking the linear measures are illus-
trated in Figure i.
TABLE I. Measurements of Monkey Brains. All linear measurements are
given in millimeters ; those of mass in grams. The brains of monkeys 4 and 5
were somewhat distorted when measured, and the linear measurements may
differ slightly from those given here (see text, page 93, for explanation).
Monkeys
Total
Lengths
Total
Widths
Frontal Widths
Frontal
Lengths
Lengths of
Central Fissure
Weights
R
L
R
L
R
L
I
2
3
4
5
70.0
67.5
74.0
67.5
66.0
52.0
48.5
54-5
50.0
51.0
21.5
23-5
24.5
21.0
24.O
24.0
24.0
26.O
23.0
22.O
34-0
32.5
41.0
35-o
36.5
36.0
37-0
39-5
36-5
35-o
32.0
33-0
36.0
33-0
29.0
33-o
33-o
37-o
28.0
3°-5
69.0
65.0
81.3
I9'5
60.5
The measurements show that monkey 3 had the longest, the
widest, and the heaviest brain and, whether measured by the
product of frontal width x -frontal length, or by frontal length
x length of the central fissure, which products may reasonably
be supposed to give an indication of the extents of the frontal
areas, also the largest frontal area. This, as will be pointed out in
a subsequent section of this report, is of special interest in con-
nection with the extent of the stimulable areas. In respect to
the similar measures of the brain of monkey I it will be noted
that the right hemisphere of this animal was found to be among
the smallest, although the brain weight and total length are
greater than those of monkeys 2, 4 and 5. At the same time it
will be noted that the brain weight of monkey 2 is the median,
that the total width is the least, and that the products of frontal
width x frontal length and frontal length x length of central
fissure are not much greater than those of the brain of monkey i.
I. EXTENTS OF CEREBRAL MOTOR AREAS FOR THE
ARM AND LEG SEGMENTS
Monkey 4 died shortly after the stimulation experiment had
been begun on the left hemisphere. Death appeared to be due
to an excessive hemorrhage from the longitudinal sinus which
had not been suitably ligated. The results of the experiments
on this animal can, therefore, be given for only one hemisphere
and in this case the comparison of the two hemispheres is im-
possible. A general view of the results on all animals is given
in Figure 2. As has already been mentioned, the points of stimu-
lation have been dealt with as if they were areas corresponding
with the spaces surrounding the stimulation points. The results
of the experiments on each hemisphere are shown separately,
the digits referring to the monkeys, the upper diagrams showing
the results of the experiments on the right hemispheres, and the
lower diagrams showing those on the left hemispheres of these
five animals. The areas for the leg segment movements are
represented by horizontal lines and those for the arm seg-
ment movements by vertical lines. The heavy horizontal lines
represent the respective longitudinal sulci, other heavy lines
represent the principal fissures (that of Rolando, or the central
fissure, being very plain) and the three parallel lines indicate the
locations of the principal blood vessels.
It will be first noted that the shapes of the areas differ con-
siderably. In some cases the areas appear to run practically paral-
lel to the central fissures (iR, iL, 3R, 3L).5 In other cases the
form of the areas is irregular, broader at the top, or near the
longitudinal sulcus, i.e., near the upper portion of the Rolandic
fissure, and narrower below. It is also to be noted that in some
cases, and in all hemispheres in certain locations, the areas are
solid, while in others there are zones in which no leg or arm
reactions were obtained. In some of these cases the points were
5 These figures and subsequent ones mean monkey i right hemisphere,
monkey i left hemisphere, etc.
96 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
apparently "silent" since no movement of the arm, trunk, tail
or head segments followed stimulation, but in a few cases on
the other hand the stimulation of these areas gave movements of
the head or of a segment other than those which are dealt with
here (i.e., arm and leg). These anomalous results will be dis-
cussed in a later section of this article (see p. 134 ff.).
A third difference which is obvious is that the overlapping of
arm and leg areas is irregular. In the brain of monkey i none
of this overlapping was discovered, very little was found in the
brains of monkeys 3 and 4 and more was found in the brain of
monkey 5, and a considerable degree of overlapping was dis-
covered in the brain of monkey 2. These overlappings will also
be dealt with in a subsequent section (see p. 128 ff.).
A further difference, which may however be only casual, is
that the dividing line between the leg and arm areas is at times
well marked by fissures or by blood vessels and in the brains of
other animals these anatomical landmarks do not appear to have
physiological differentiating characters. Those hemispheres in
which fissures and blood vessels mark off the two areas under
consideration are iR, iL, 2L, 3L, and 5L. I do not think that
the greater frequency of this in the left hemispheres, or in fact
any of the differences in this particular can, with our present
knowledge, be considered to be of physiological significance.
A closer examination of the figures also reveals well marked
differences in the totals of the stimulable areas. It is obvious
from inspection that the stimulable areas of 2L is greater than
that of all other hemispheres which have been examined. It is
also apparent that in this respect there are great variations,
hemisphere 4R shows the smallest area and the remaining seven
hemispheres are intermediate between 4R and 2L. As has al-
ready been indicated (p. 91 ) there was an experimental error
in connection with hemisphere 3L inasmuch as there was a possi*
ble line bordering upon the longitudinal sulcus which was not
subjected to stimulation. In this one case had the stimuli been
given to points in this area it is possible that the leg area would
have been found to extend correspondingly in the wedge shape
upwards to the longitudinal sulcus.
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
More careful measurements of these areas reveal the differ-
•ences which are observable on inspection. The figures represent-
ing these measurements are given in Table II. The measure-
ments were made from the magnified (10 diameters) charts
TABLE II. Measurements of Areas of Stimulation of Monkey Brains.
Figures marked with an asterisk are probably too low. For explanation of
this see the text, page 91.
Monkeys
Hemispheres
Areas in square millimeters
Per cent
Leg
Leg
Arm
Totals
Overlappings
Net
Arm
40
121
I
R
L
33
86
82
71
"5
157
0
O
"5
157
2
R
L
61
124
1 06
125
167
249
IS
34
152
£15
58
99
3
R
L
25
57*
103
80
128
137*
4
5
124
132*
24
71*
4
R
Si
34
85
7
78
150
5
R
L
79
78
83
77
162
'55
23
ii
139
144
96
IOI
which have been described, by the aid of a transparent die
divided to show actual square millimeters (in the magnified
form square centimeters, of course) which was placed over
the areas. Each full square covering the stimulable zone
was counted as one and each part square as one-half, the
latter on the supposition that the areas larger than one-half
would counterbalance those smaller than one-half. The
results of this comparatively rough method were compared in one
case with the similar finer method of using a die with spaces
representing half-millimeter squares, and since the variations
did not greatly exceed one per- cent the original measurements
were considered to be sufficiently accurate. The method of
measurement is also obviously exact enough in view of the
methods which were employed for the limitation of the areas
involved, and especially in view of the magnified representations
of the areas which were measured. It should be remarked,
however, that a turning of the die through an angle of 30 degrees
varied the measures by as much as 6 per cent but even with this
variation the figures appear to be sufficiently exact as they stand.
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 99
In connection with the table mention may be made again of the
fact that in hemisphere 3L an area lying next to the longitudinal
sulcus was not stimulated. The figures in columns 3, 5, 7 and 8
referring to this hemisphere are, possibly, too low.
At the present moment attention should be directed solely to
column 7 of this table in which are given the net totals of the
areas which were found to be stimulable. These figures show that
the stimulable area of 4R is the smallest, that of 2L the greatest.
In terms of percentage, using the lowest figure as 100, we find
that the other hemispheres take the following order and show
the following percents : iR (149); 3R (159); 3L (169); 5R
(178) ; 2R (195) ; iL (201) ; 2L (276). It will thus be seen
that the greatest area (2L) is almost three times as large as
that of 4R, and that the other seven hemispheres vary from
50 per cent to 100 per cent greater than the smallest.
These data show that not only are there marked variations
in different animals, but also that the variations of the two
hemispheres of the same animal are sometimes great with re-
spect to the stimulable (motor) areas. These differences of
the two hemispheres of the same animal are worthy of some
notice. In all four monkeys of which both hemispheres were
investigated and measured it will be noted that the stimulable
areas on the left surpass those on the right. In the case of
monkey 5 this left-sided preponderance is not great, only 3.6
per cent and therefore within the error of measurement, and
similarly in the case of monkey 3, only 6.5 per cent, close to
the error of measurement. In the latter case, however, there
should be recalled the suggestion (see p. 96) of the possi-
bility that the leg area should be considered to be larger than
it is sketched. With respect to monkeys i and 2 the pre-
ponderance of the left side is great, 36 and 41 per cent re-
spectively. In the next section a further analysis of these figures
will be made to determine the relative areas for the arm and
leg movements separately.
To what factors these differences correspond is at present
unknown. Certain of the general objections to considering them
typical of the motor cortex have already been discussed
100 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
(p. 89 ff.) and the general relation of the differences to our
conception of cerebral activities will be considered in the section
devoted to the theoretical discussion (p. 140 ff.). At this point,
however, it may be well to show the general lack of correspond-
ence or correlation with the measurements of the brain which
have been recorded in Table I (p. 94). Monkey 3, with
the greatest brain weight, greatest length of hemisphere, and
greatest width of the cerebrum did not have the most extensive
motor area as determined by the methods which were used in
the present work, while monkey 2, with one of the smallest
brains in the series showed the most extensive excitable areas.
If the measures which have been used (frontal length x frontal
width, and frontal length x length of central fissure} are at all
typical of the amount of the cortex of the frontal areas, it is
plain that there is no direct relation between the extent of the
motor or stimulable cortex and the total amount of the cortex
anterior to the central fissure. Such a conclusion becomes more
evident if we deal with the data regarding the other hemispheres.
The only apparent fact which indicates a possible relation be-
tween brain size (or amount of frontal cortex) and the extents
of the motor area is that there is a closer correspondence be-
tween the relative sizes of the motor areas and the total areas
of the frontal lobes in the two hemispheres of the same animal.
Thus, it might be concluded that the preponderance of the motor
area of the left hemisphere is an indication of and bears a
possible correlation with the (in general) larger hemisphere
measurements on that side. Monkey i whose brain showed
greater width, greater frontal length, and greater length of
the central fissure on the left showed also a considerable su-
periority in the extent of the motor area on that side. The
brain of monkey 2, in which a similar superiority in size was
apparent, except for fissure length, also showed a larger area
on the left side. The brain of monkey 3, in which there was
a greater width and a greater fissure length on the left while
the left frontal length was smaller than that on the right showed
little difference in the relative sizes of the two motor areas.
In a similar manner the brain of monkey 5 showed variations
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 101
in measurements, some of the right hemisphere being greater
than those of the left and others of the left being greater than
the corresponding measures of the right hemisphere. The
cerebral measures which may be concluded to be approximately
balancing for the two sides correspond therefore with the almost
equal distribution of the motor areas. A disturbing element to
such a conclusion is due to the unfortunate failure to complete
the series of experiments on the left hemisphere of monkey 3.
While there is an equal reason for believing that if the stimuli
had been given in this area there would and there would not
have been any great change in the sum totals of the areas,
at least the case must tentatively be thrown out of consideration.
Another fact which is opposed to the conclusion of such a
definite relation is found in the lack of correspondence between
the relations of the hemisphere measurements and the relations
of the extents of the excitable zones. Those measurements which
have been taken to represent the areas of the frontal lobes
(frontal length x length of the central fissure, and frontal length
x frontal width} do not have the same or nearly the same pro-
portions that the total motor areas of the two hemispheres of
the same animal bear. Thus our relative measures for the
brains R/L are as follows : frontal length x -frontal width,
1=0.85, 2 = 0.86; 3 — 1.01; 5=10.99. To compare with
these figures we have the similarly calculated relations of the
two motor areas of the same brains as follows: 1=0.73;
2 = 0.71; 3 = 0.94; 5—0.97. The absolute figures do not
show a close correspondence but it must be admitted that the
measures are grossly inaccurate as representing the area of the
anterior parts of the cortex of the cerebrum. If we consider the
relative figures there appears to be a closer correlation inasmuch
as the relatively smaller motor areas on the right (monkeys i
and 2) may be compared (not directly, however) with the
smaller cortical zones on that side. At the same time the nearly
equal motor areas (monkeys 3 and 5) are to be compared with
the nearly equal cortical zones (or with the preponderating right
hemisphere of monkey 5 as indicated by frontal length x -frontal
102 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
width). We can conclude with certainty that if a relation in
this respect exists it is neither simple nor direct.
Summary: The motor areas for the leg and arm segments
differ in size in the brains of different animals, and in the two
hemispheres of the same animal. These differences are not ac-
counted for by the size variations of the hemisphere of the
the different animals although there is some indication of a
possibility of correlation of the sizes of the frontal lobes and
the extents of the motor areas of the two hemispheres of the
same animal.
II. RELATIVE DISTRIBUTIONS OF AREAS FOR LEG
AND ARM MOVEMENTS
Figure 2 and Table II also contain data regarding the absolute
and relative extents of the respective areas for the movements
of the posterior and the anterior limbs. Examination of the
parts of the figure and of columns 3, 4, 7, and 8 of the table
reveal extensive differences. These differences are (i) varying
amounts of cerebral areas in different animals for the leg and
for the arm movements, (2) varying amounts of cerebral areas
in the two hemispheres of the same animal for the leg and for
the arm movements, (3) variations in the overlapping or mixing
of the leg and arm areas, which matter will be reserved for
discussion in a subsequent section, and (4) variations in the
spatial proportions of these two areas in the same hemisphere.
The individual variations in extents of these areas should first
be noted. The smallest leg area was found in 3R, the largest
in 2L. The smallest arm area was found in 4R, the largest in
2L. The largest leg and arm areas were found in the hemisphere
with the largest total area, which as noted above was by no
means the largest brain. The smallest leg area was not found
in the hemisphere with the smallest total stimulable zone, but
the smallest arm area was found in the hemisphere with the
smallest net total stimulable area. The intermediate sized total
areas more closely correspond with the order of magnitude
of the leg areas than with those of the arm areas. Thus we
find the order of magnitude of the net totals of the stimulable
zones (combined arm and leg areas) are 4R, iR, 3R, 3L, 5R, 5L,
2R, iL, and 2L; the order for the leg areas is 3R, iR, 4R, 3L,
2R, 5L, 5R, iL, and 2L; and the order for the arm areas is
4R, iL, 5L, 3L, iR, 5R, 3R, 2R, and 2L. The serial orders
indicate a rough correlation between the individual arm and leg
and the net total areas, with a greater correspondence of net
total with leg areas. When, however, the percentage relations
of the individual areas are considered it is to be noted that the
only close correspondence is in the hemispheres in which the
leg and arm areas are nearly equal in size. Thus we find in
104 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
general a fairly close correspondence in the cases of 2L, 5R
and 5L, but in these cases with the leg and the arm areas
each about one-half of the total, a direct and proportional corre-
spondence is obviously the only possible relation that can exist.
When we examine the table we find that in only monkey
5 are the totals of the areas for the leg and for the arm closely
similar for the two hemispheres. The almost exact correspond-
ence of areal distribution for the leg movements is noteworthy
and the differences in the sizes of arm areas in this animal are
not great, perhaps not much greater than the errors of record-
ing and of calculation. The only other close correspondence is for
the arm areas of monkey I, but in this case the variation is
approximately fifteen per cent. In the other five cases (hemi-
spheres) the differences are greater, the variations ranging from
1 8 to over 100 per cent. In the left hemispheres of monkeys
i, 2 and 3, the leg areas are larger than those of the right.
In the left hemisphere of monkey 2 the arm area is the larger,
while the arm area is larger in the right hemisphere of monkey 3.
It will be noticed, therefore, that the left motor areas for the
leg are in general considerably larger than those on the right,
while a reverse condition holds for the arms areas of the two
hemispheres with the exception of monkey 2 and also with the
exception that the differences are not as great.
If other data were not at hand such variations might reason-
ably be thought to bear a possible relation to the sizes of the
hemispheres, but an examination of the figures in Table I and
comparisons with those of Table II show that no such relation
exists.
Coupled with the individual and the hemisphere variations of
these areas we may also consider the relations to each other
of the leg and arm areas of the same hemisphere. In this
comparison we note even greater deviations than have already
been discussed. The quotients of leg area divided by arm area
for the individual hemispheres are shown in column 8 of Table
II. The smallest is that of 3R, the largest is that of 4R. In
three hemispheres (2L, 5R, and 5L) the quotients show the
two areas to be about equal, in four hemispheres the quotients
show considerable spatial superiority of the arm area (iR, 2R,
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 105
3R, and 3L), and in two hemispheres a corresponding superiority
of the leg area (iL and 4R). Although the importance of the
observation is not apparent it is interesting to find that in the
four cases in which figures for both hemispheres are available
the relative superiority of the arm area is more noticeable on
the right. It will be noted also that in three of these cases
(monkeys i, 2, and 3) this relative superiority is large and,
in the other case, although small, it is indicated by a difference
of at least 5 per cent.
An explanation of these differences cannot be given at the
present time. I greatly regret that extended observations of the
behavior of the animals were not made previous to the experi-
ments, for, merely to speculate, the suggestion occurs that these
cortical variations may have some relation to the normal activities
of the individual animals. A few observations regarding the use
of the right and left hands of some of the animals were made
but the data are so few that they give no clue to a possible rela-
tion between the extensive or limited arm areas in one hemisphere
and the use of the right or left hand or arm. It is for our
present purposes unfortunate that even these inadequate tests
were not continued a sufficient length of time with one animal
to make certain any preference in the employment of the hands.
The suggestion of a possible correlation of the areal differences
and the differences in behavior is directly in line with previous
conceptions of cerebral function, especially those regarding the
relations of the associational areas to occupations and habits
of thought. An extended series of observations of habits, gen-
eral activity, etc., of many animals is needed along with corre-
sponding observations of the stimulable areas before the truth
of such a supposition can be determined.
Summary : The areas for the arm and for the leg differ to
a considerable extent in different animals, and to an equal
degree in the two hemispheres of the same animal. The leg
areas are sometimes larger than, more frequently smaller than,
and at times approximately equal to the corresponding arm areas.
In the two hemispheres of the same animal the quotients of
leg area divided by arm area are not even approximately equal,
the proportions varying by as much as one to three.
Ill DISTRIBUTIONS OF THE AREAS FOR THE INDI-
VIDUAL SEGMENTS
Up to this point we have dealt with the areas for the arm
and leg as if these were the main anatomical (and physiological)
elements which were to be considered. It is obvious, however,
that the individual segments of these larger anatomical units
are worthy of more and closer study. We shall also find that
the variations which have already been shown to exist are not
only paralleled, but in a number of cases they are exceeded in
amount, by the variations in relative sizes of the areas for the
smaller segments. At the present time the analysis and com-
parison of the types of the movements have not been attempted,
nor will the separate finger or toe movements be dealt with
individually. For the present study I have made 'eight groups
of movements as follows: thigh, which includes all mass move-
ments of the leg on the trunk, such movements being of the
upper part of the leg; leg, those movements at the knee; foot,
those movements at the ankle ; toes, movements of these elements
taken collectively and not at the present time differentiating the
movements of individual toes ; shoulder, those movements of the
upper arm in relation to the remainder of the body; forearm,
movements of the elbow; hand, movements of this organ at
the wrist; and fingers, movements of these parts, also collectively
without differentiating the movements of the individual fingers
or the thumb. At the same time I have for the present disre-
garded the characters of the movements, (i) whether they be
flexions, or extensions, or rotations, or (2) dealing with the
movements as they appear in their complexity as behavior
phenomena, whether they be of a thrusting, or of a grasping,
or of a propulsive, or a reaching, or of any other complex nature.
In this section, therefore, I deal with the movements of
anatomical segments and not with the movement characters.
Thigh. — The distributions of the areas the .stimulation of
which resulted in movements of the thigh are shown in the
diagrams of Figure 3. The relative areal variations are here
io8
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
observed to be much greater than those for the combined leg
segments as shown in Figure 2, or than those for the arm
segment as shown in the same figure. In two hemispheres,
iR and 3R, these areas do not touch the longitudinal sulcus,
while in all other cases (omitting 3L which as has already been
mentioned was not sufficiently investigated in this respect) the
thigh areas border upon this great fissure. It is also to be
noted that with the exception of the two hemispheres of monkey
i, and it may be said that the left hemisphere of this animal
is a rather doubtful case in this particular, all of the thigh areas
border upon the central fissure. In some of the cases the loca-
tions are suggestive of outcroppings from the central fissure,
and of extensions of similarly functioning cortical zones lying
within that fissure. In the same way we may consider the areas
bordering upon the longitudinal sulcus although this appears
a less probable explanation, except in the case of monkey 5.
In all other animals there is a constriction of the area towards
the longitudinal sulcus, the greater extents being on the convexity
away from that zone.
The extensive variations of the area are shown in the ac-
companying Table III which gives numerical expression to the
diagrams. Reference to this Table will be sufficient without
TABLE III. Measurements of the extents of the thigh areas. The figure
marked with an asterisk is probably too low (see page 91) and the corre-
sponding percentage R/L too high.
Monkeys
I
2
3
4
5
Hemispheres
R L
R L
R L
R
R L
Areas in square
mm.
4-5 30.0
47.5 107.0
17.5 *i6.o
25.0
53-0 46.0
Percentages
R/L
15
44
109
—
"5
Percentage re-
lations of av-
erages, Mon-
key 2 = IOO.
22
IOO
22
32
65
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 109
any textural discussion, since the data are self-explanatory.
The attention of the reader is particularly directed to the two
final lines in which are noted (i) the proportions of the areas
in the two hemispheres of the same animals, and also (2) the
percentage relations of the average extents of these areas in
the five animals, using the largest average as unity.
In addition to the variations in the absolute and relative sizes
of these areas the distribution of the stimulable zones is worthy
of remark. With the exception of iR, in which there appears
only a small superficial area, all brains show a wide-spread
distribution. In no case (except iR) is the area solid, but the
points are frequently separated by the cerebral zones for other
movements or by the so-called silent or non-stimulable areas.
In some cases this separation, which will also be found illus-
trated in some of the later diagrams, is noteworthy since the
separated areas are within the zones governing the movements
of the arm segments and also because they are at such relatively
great distances from the main masses of the cortex which may
appropriately be called the primary areas. In iL and in 2L
these separations are especially great.
Leg. — Similar variations in the extents and in the distribution
of the areas governing the movements of the lower part of the
leg are to be noted *by inspection of the diagrams of Figure 4
and the data in Table IV. As compared with the areas for
the thigh movements some hemispheres show a greater leg area
(hemispheres iR, 2R, 3R, 3L and 5R) while others (iL, 2L
and 4R) show a lesser leg area. The general distribution of
the areas does not differ markedly for these two segments, al-
though the forms of the areas are not nearly the same. Both
thigh areas and leg areas are located at the upper portion of
the fissure of Rolando with perhaps a little more extensive ad-
vance towards the lower portion on the part of the leg area.
Most of the points in both areas, as can be seen by placing
the two figures together, are duplicates, indicating that the move-
ments are combined movements of thigh and leg. In a few
cases, especially in hemispheres iR and 3L, the leg movements
were not combined with movements at the thigh.
no
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
The percentage relations of the two hemispheres of the same
animal and those of the average areas in the five animals are
very great. It will be noticed that the relation R/L varies from
TABLE IV. Measurements of the extents of leg areas. The figure marked
with an asterisk is probably too low (&ee page 91) and the corresponding
percentage R/L too high.
Monkeys
I
2
3
4
5
Hemispheres
R L
R L
R L
R
R L
Areas in square
mm.
25-5 16.5
56.5 89.0
20.5 *30.5
16.0
60.0 46.5
Percentages
R/L
155
63
67
-
129
Percentage re-
lations of av-
erages, Mon-
key 2 = IOO.
29
IOO
35
22
74
63 to 155 per cent. The percentage relations of the average
extents of the areas with the extents of the areas in monkey
2 as unity are also greatly different, ranging from 22 to 74.
In no case do these proportions correspond with the proportions
for the thigh areas, the nearest approach to correspondence being
in the case of monkey 5. It can be concluded, therefore, that
neither the absolute nor the relative extents of the areas for
the thigh and leg movements closely correspond.
Foot.* — Variations, both for absolute and relative amounts of
the areas, similar to those which have already been described
for the thigh and leg are also noticed for the foot areas. These
are shown in the diagrams of Figure 5 and in Table V. These
variations exist not only for the different animals but also for
the two hemispheres of the same animal. In the latter cases,
however, the correspondence is closer than in the former. If
we take the net totals as standards, that is, if we take the com-
bined stimulable zones for the arm and leg segments as standards
for each hemisphere, we find that the percentages of the areas
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 113
TABLE V. Measurements of the extents of foot areas.
Monkeys
I
2
3
4
5
Hemispheres
R L
R L
R L
R
R L
Areas in square
mm.
9.0 23.0
34-5 52.5
13-5 35-0
24.0
50.5 42.0
Percentages
R/L
39
66
39
—
1 20
Percentage re-
lations of av-
erages, Mon-
key 2 = IOO.
37
IOO
56
55
163
for the foot movements for the two hemispheres of one animal
vary in two cases (monkeys I and 3) and do not vary greatly
in the other two cases (monkeys 2 and 5). In relation to the
standards which have just been mentioned we find the foot
areas with the following per cents: iR — 8; iL=i5;
2R = 23; 2L = 25; 3R=n; 3L = 27; 4R = 3I5 5R = 36;
5L = 29. In other words the total extents of the areas gov-
erning the movements of the foot vary from 9 per cent. (iR)
to 36 per cent. (sR) of the total areas for arm and leg. These
percentage data do not correspond closely with the actual ex-
tents of the areas, which vary from 9 sq. mm. (iR) to 52.5
sq. mm. (2L). Nor do the relations R/L of actual measure-
ments have the same proportions and the same serial order
as the relations R/L of the percentages of the totals. This
failure of correspondence is due, of course, to the varying degree
of overlapping areas in the different hemispheres. The over-
lapping of areas does not entirely change the relative positions
of the different hemispheres, however, for hemisphere iR still
remains the lowest, followed by 3R. The position of 4R is,
however, considerably changed in that by this comparison it
shows a relatively large area for foot movements whereas in
absolute amounts it is the fourth lowest.
Comparisons of the areal amounts for the foot with those for
114 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
the thigh and the leg show many interesting relations. In
the brains of monkeys 2 and 5 the foot areas are less than
either the thigh or leg areas, although in both hemispheres of
monkey 5 the superiority of the thigh over the foot is small
and, perhaps, within the error of calculation. In 3R a similar
relation holds, although on the left the reverse condition is
found. In monkey 4 and in monkey i the relation is not con-
stant, the thigh area being larger than the foot area in iL and
less in iR and in 4R.
The figure illustrating the distribution of the foot areas in
the different hemispheres shows other interesting variations. In
a number of cases we find that, unlike the corresponding areas
for the thigh and for the leg, there has been a sort of diffusion
or scattering of the foot areas. The diagrammatic representa-
tion of the points of stimulation shows less of a coalesced
mass and more individual patches. Whether or not this has
any anatomical or physiological significance cannot be deter-
mined. A similar condition will later be noted for some of the
areas for the arm segments.
Another matter which may be called to the attention of the
reader is the occurrence of points or areas for "pure" move-
ments of the foot. A careful comparison of figures 3, 4, and
5 shows that there are certain points in the foot area which
have no overlapping of thigh and leg areas, and a further com-
parison with figure 6 shows a similar state of affairs as related
to toe movements. Thus we find in iR a small area, at the
upper portion of the fissure of Rolando which borders upon the
longitudinal sulcus, which is not duplicated in any of the other
three diagrams for the leg movements in this hemisphere. Also
in iL there is a similar zone at the angle of the large blood
vessel, and a second zone at the extreme upper portion of the
area. Similar zones are found in four other hemispheres; in
4R at the extreme right upper portion, in 5R a small area in
the lower part of the solid, in 5L another zone bordering upon
and equidistant from the indicated extremities of the blood
vessel and towards the fissure of Rolando, and in 3!, a zone
of this character at the left end of the solid area. It will thus
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 115
be seen that scattered throughout the solid area for the leg
there is found an occasional zone for movements of one portion
of the anatomical segment uncomplicated with movements of
other segments.
Toes. — The relative positions of the toe areas is noteworthy.
A comparison of the diagrams in Figure 3, 4, 5, and 6 shows
the toe areas in iR to be higher6 than the thigh area and in
general higher than the foot area but closely approximating
the leg area. In iL the area is massive and lies nearer the
longitudinal sulcus, the thigh area, with the exception of a few
points, lying lower in the field. For 2R and for 2L similar
statements cannot be made, for in general the toe areas of
these animals lie lower down than the areas for thigh and foot,
although they approach in location the area for the leg move-
ments. It should, however, be noted that in these hemispheres
points lying much lower down than that corresponding to the toe
area were found for the thigh and leg movements. In 3R the
total extensity of the toe area is much less than that for any of
the other leg elements but the area is apparently just as widely
spread over the cerebral convexity. In 3L the area is greater
than those for the other segments and to a slight degree it is
more widely spread. In 4R the area is much greater and extends
higher and farther backwards than the other areas. In 5R
the area is the least extensive of the four leg segments and it
is, unlike that for the foot and that for the thigh, compact. 5L
is also an area without divisions and is more compact but only
slightly smaller than the other three areas for the leg.
It is to be noted, therefore, that differences exist not only
with respect to the absolute and the relative sizes of this area
in the different hemispheres but also with respect to the diffusion
or compactness of the area.
At the same time mention may be made of the variations
which are similar to those which have already been described
for the other leg segments. We find the absolute amounts of
" "Higher" and "lower" here refer to the diagrams, and these terms cor-
respond to the anatomical, but more cumbersome, "nearer the longitudinal
sulcus" and "farther from the longitudinal sulcus" respectively.
n6
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
the areas differing in the different animals, and at the same
time differing in the two hemispheres of the same animal. More-
over we find the relative amounts of the areas widely different
for the different animals and for the two hemispheres of the
same animal. In this respect there is an agreement with the
other areas which have previously been described. In iL, 3L,
and 4R the toe areas exeed those for the thigh, for the leg,
and for the foot; in 2R, 2L, 58., and 5L the toe areas are
exceeded by those for the other hind limb segments, although
the excess in the case of 5L is slight and well within the ob-
servational error. The variations in totals are not as great as
those which have been noted for the other leg segments, nor do
the percentages in relation to the total stimulable areas vary
as much. The hemisphere to hemisphere variations, with the
exception of those of the brain of monkey 5, are considerable
and differ in some cases by as much as i to 2.5. The results,
diagrammatic and numerically, are given in Figure 6 and in
Table VI.
Shoulder. — The totals of the shoulder areas range from 11.5
sq. mm. (4R) to 80.5 sq. mm. (2R), with percentages in rela-
tion to the net totals (leg and arm segments together) ranging
from 15 (4R) to 54 (3R). The differences in amount of the
TABLE VI. Measurements of the extents of toe areas.
Monkeys
I
2
3
4
5
Hemispheres
R L
R L
R L
R
R L
Areas in square
mm.
24.0 51.0
20-5 52.5
16.5 45-0
33-5
37-0 41-0
Percentages
R/L
47
39
37
—
90
Percentage re-
lations of av-
erages, Mon-
key 2 = IOO.
103
IOO
84
92
168
bo
£
fi
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 119
TABLE VII. Measurements of the extents of shoulder areas.
Monkeys
I
2
3
4
5
Hemispheres
R L
R L
R L
R
R L
Areas in square
mm.
37.0 25.0
80.5 79-5
67.5 32.0
II-5
26.0 48.0
Percentages
R/L
148
101
211
—
54
Percentage re-
lations of av-
erages, Mon-
key 2 = IOO.
39
IOO
62
H
46
areas in the five animals are greater than in any previous area
and also greater than any of the areas for the other arm seg-
ments. The amounts and the illustrations of the distributions
of these areas are shown in Table VII and in Figure 7. In
relation to the four leg segments which have already been con-
sidered there are four hemispheres in which the shoulder area
exceeds each of the leg segment areas (iR, 2R, 3R, and 5L),
there are two hemispheres in which the shoulder area is less
than each of the leg segment areas (4R and $R) and three
hemispheres in which two of the leg segment areas exceed and
the other two are less than the shoulder areas.
The variations from hemisphere to hemisphere parallel those
which have already been discussed for other segments, the great-
est difference being found in monkeys 3 and 5, where the dif-
ferences are approximately 100 per cent.
In addition to the differences which have been mentioned, the
wide-spread distribution of the shoulder areas, especially in
hemispheres 2L, 3R and 5L, is noteworthy. At the same time
the discreteness of the zones is a prominent feature in the
illustrations. There is also to be noted the relation of the areas
to the central fissure. In regard to this it will be observed
that the areas have the same general features as do those for the
thigh movements in that some of them appear to be outcropping
120
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
or projections from the concealed fissural areas, whereas others
are less apparently related to those hidden areas. At the same
time in some hemispheres there is an apparent sharp definition
of the areas by the principal blood vessels and by fissures other
than that of Rolando. While from the facts now at hand it
cannot be said that these divisions by fissures and by the principal
blood vessels have any special physiological significance the
finding of this in relation to several areas gives an indication
that these landmarks may have some physiological as well as
anatomical meaning. An examination of all the diagrams is
suggestive of this conclusion, but the matter needs a more ex-
tensive and a more careful study with a definite question in view.
Forearm. — The apparent outcropping of the zones for the
forearm from similar areas located within the infoldings of the
fissure of Rolando is more noticeable than in any other previously
considered segment. In every hemisphere there is a considerable
extent of forearm area bordering upon the central fissure and
moreover the areas appear more solid than those for the shoulder
movements. This does not mean, however, that the phenomenon
of diffusion is lacking for in fact an examination of the diagrams
of Figure 8 reveals a marked degree of separation of the areas
in 2R, 2L, 3R, and 5R.
Table VIII gives the measurements of these forearm areas
TABLE VIII. Measurements of extents of forearm areas.
Monkeys
I
2
3
4
5
Hemispheres
R L
R L
R L
R
R L
Areas in square
mm.
55-0 56.0
89-5 92-5
80.5 63.5
24.0
54-0 52.5
Percentages
R/L
98
97
127
—
103
Percentage re-
lations of av-
erages, Mon-
kev 2 = TOO.
61
IOO
79
26
59
122
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
in the nine hemispheres. Here are shown almost as great dif-
ferences as have been shown to exist for the other areas already
dealt with, for in one case (monkey 4) we find the area only
about one-quarter the size of that in monkey 2. In two animals
(monkeys I and 5) the areas are not only nearly equal but the
two hemispheres are also approximately of the same size. This
is the closest correspondence which is to be found in the whole
series but I hesitate to conclude that it has any great significance.
In three animals the proportions R/L are nearly equal (monk-
eys i, 2 and 5) which again is a condition not found for any
other area, but which I also doubt has any well marked signifi-
cance. The reason for this is to be sought in the varying rela-
tions of the extents of these areas to the net total (leg plus
arm segments) areas. When this comparison is made it is to be
observed that no close correspondence exists except for the two
hemispheres of monkey 5. By this comparison the two forearm
areas of monkey i differ by 25 per cent., those of monkey
2 by an almost equal amount, and the differences in the relations
of the hemispheres of monkey 3 are also approximately equal.
Hand. — The data regarding the extensions of the areas con-
trolling movements of the hand are given in Table IX and in
Figure 9. Unlike many of the areas which have previously
been considered these areas are not massed but are widespread
TABLE IX. Measurements of extents of hand areas.
Monkeys
i
i
2
3
4
5
Hemispheres
R L
R L
R L
R
R L
Areas in square
mm.
39-0 39.5
42.0 58.5
37-0 18.5
II.O
32.0 16.5
Percentages
R/L
99
72
200
—
193
Percentage re-
lations of av-
erages, Mon-
key 2 = TOO.
78
IOO
55
22
48
124 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
and divided relatively more than any of the leg segment areas
and the arm segment areas with the exception of those for
foot movements. The average extent of this area for all hemi-
spheres (32.7 sq. mm.) is less than that of the other segment
areas with the exception of the foot areas (average 31.7 sq. mm.)
and the variations are considerable. Although the average ex-
tent of this area is among the smallest it has wide variations,
for in monkey i it is exceeded in each hemisphere by but two
of the other areas, in monkey 2 it is exceeded in each hemisphere
by four other areas, in monkey 3 it is exceeded on the right
by three areas but on the left by six areas, in the one hemisphere
of monkey% 4 it is exceeded in extent by seven areas, and in
monkey 5 on the right by seven areas and on the left by all
other areas.
The variations in absolute size in different hemispheres are
great, from n (4R) to 58.5 sq. mm. (2L), a ratio of 1:5.3.
Its relation to the net total is less variable, from n (sL) to
34 (iR), although the ratio is slightly greater than 1:3. In
only one animal (monkey i) are the areas for the two hemi-
spheres nearly equal in size, although in relation to the net
totals the equality is greater in a second animal (monkey 2).
The percentage relations of R/L show only one instance which
has previously been considered (shoulder area of monkey 3)
in which the difference is as great as is found in monkeys 3 and
5 for the hand areas. These figures should, however, be con-
sidered to be no more than suggestive for in many previous
cases (for example, thigh areas of monkeys i and 2, foot areas
of monkey i and 3, toe areas of monkeys i, 2 and 3, etc.) if
the reverse percentages L/R had been used as a basis of com-
parison the differences would have been much greater in these
other hemispheres.
The apparent punctiform character of the area under con-
sideration is obvious in a number of the hemispheres. Although
exceeded in size in most instances by the other areas the number
of divisions greatly exceeds those for the leg and toes, slightly
exceeds those for the thigh and fingers, and is exceeded only
slightly by the foot and forearm areas and to a greater degree
by the shoulder areas. For such a relatively small area this
wide-spread distribution is noteworthy.
In form the areas under consideration are widespread, the
scattering being such as to make the different hemispheres ap-
pear to be without resemblance, and this statement is true for
the two hemispheres of the same animal as well as for the
hemispheres of different animals. The relation of the areas
to the central fissure is not constant, not more than one-half
of the areas in the nine hemispheres having close association
with this fissure. With the exception of a slight relation to
a subsidiary fissure in 2L the areas do not appear to bear a
close relation to the other fissures and principal blood vessels,
and to employ again the figure of speech which has previously
been used it may be said that most of the cortex which re-
sponded with movements of the hand appears to be outcroppings
from the depths or upward projections from possible underlying
areas.
A comparison of the total areas in Table IX with those in
Tables VII and VIII shows that in all hemispheres the hand
area is less in extent than that for the forearm and in monkeys
2 and 3 less than that for the shoulder, but in monkey I it is
greater than that of the shoulder area while in monkeys 4 and 5
the relations are irregular or undecided.
If the data which have been given were to be interpreted in
a manner which is not infrequent we might conclude from
the relative measurements that in general the hand of these
monkeys has only the same amount of cerebral control as the
foot, but that in specific instances the hand has a greater amount
of cerebral control and in other cases the foot is the part best
represented in the cortex. Such a conclusion appears to me
obviously premature, for even though it may prove to be true,
at present we do not know exactly what cortical stimulability
means and I believe we should not conclude from a comparison of
two sets of measurements that we are dealing with information
regarding lesser or greater cerebral control. The movements of
the hand areas, it will later be noted, are more often associated
with movements of the other arm segments than are those of the
126
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
foot with the other leg segments, and the matter of greater or
lesser cerebral control appears to me to be bound up with the
character of the distribution as well as with the superficial extents
of the areas from which such movements may be produced by
stimulation methods. It seems to me, therefore, that the element
of complexity is an important factor, and that the question of the
greater or less control should be considered only in the light of all
the data for all the segments.
Fingers. — Figure 10 and Table X contain the results relative
TABLE X. Measurements of extents of finger areas.
Monkeys
I
2
3
4.
5
Hemispheres
R L
R L
R L
R
V R L
Areas in square
mm.
55-5 15-0
40.0 57-5
41.0 46.5
IO.O
35-5 40.5
Percentages
R/L
370
70
89
—
88
Percentage re-
lations of av-
erages, Mon-
key 2 = IOO.
72
IOO
90
21
78
to the areas for finger movements. Although some of these
areas are smaller than the corresponding areas for the hand they
average about fifteen per cent more than the latter. In only a
few cases are the differences great enough to warrant note,
the variations in hemispheres iL and 3L and 5L being the
greatest.
The comparative range of the areas for all hemispheres is
approximately i : 6, which is nearly the same proportion obtained
for most of the areas which have previously been dealt with.
The diagrams of Figure 10 show the closer relation of the areas
to the central fissure than is to be found with some of the other
areas, since comparatively large portions of this area border
upon this fissure. This, in other cases, has been considered to be
an indication of the possibility that large or small cortical areas
" 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ' ' ' L
128
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
for such movements may be concealed within the Rolandic fis-
sure. If this be true the sizes of the finger areas would be much
greater than those which are shown in the diagram and in the
table.
General. — For purposes of comparison I think we are justi-
fied in combining the totals of the stimulable areas regardless of
overlapping, especially since these totals in relation to the net
totals will give some indications of the extents of the overlappings
from area to area, and consequently they also give indications of
the complexities of the movements of the different hemispheres.
The general relations are shown in Table XL In this table
TABLE XI. The overlapping of areas for the leg and arm segments. The
totals of all areas were obtained by adding the totals for each hemisphere,
and the amounts of overlapping by subtracting from these figures the "net
totals" given in Table II.
I
2
3
4
5
Hemispheres
R L
R L
R L
R
R L
Totals of all
249-5 256.0
411.0 589.0
294.0 287.0
155-0
348.0 333-0
areas
i
Net totals
H5-0 157.0
152.0 215.0
124.0 132.0
78.0
139.0 144.0
Overlappings
134-5 99-0
259-0 374-0
170-0 155.0
77.0
209.0 189.0
Per cent, over-
lappings in re-
lation to net
117 63
170 174
137 117
99
150 131
totals
are shown (a) the totals of the areas which have been considered,
that is the sum totals of the thigh, the leg, the foot, etc., areas
for all nine hemispheres, (fc) the net totals, that is the amount
of superficial space covered by the areas, (c) the differences
between these sets of figures, which give the total amounts of
overlapping of the individual areas, and (</) the percentage
relations of the amounts of overlappings to the net totals of the
hemispheres. It is obvious that if the series of stimuli on one
hemisphere produced a combined movement of all the segments
which we have been considering there would be a total of over-
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 129
lapping amounting to 700 per cent of the net total for that
hemisphere, because each of the segments would be totally repre-
sented in the grand total. The greater percentage of overlapping
is, therefore, an indication of greater complexity of movement.
In the next section we shall deal with the special overlappings of
the arm segments in the leg area and of the leg segments in the
arm areas and here we shall confine ourselves to the consideration
of the special overlappings of the arm segments among themselves
and of the leg segments among themselves. This includes at the
same time the borderline overlappings, since these border areas
cannot be considered to be distinctively either arm or leg areas.
The smallest amounts of overlapping was found in 4R and in
iL, the greatest in 2L and in 2R. The differences in this respect
range from 77 to 374 sq. mm., or approximately I : 5. In rela-
tion to the net totals, probably a fairer means of comparison of
the individual hemispheres with one another, the range is from
63 to 174 per cent, or approximately i : 3. An interesting fact
is that in iR, in which it has been noted (p. 96) that no over-
lapping of leg and arm areas occurred, the total amount of the
overlapping exceeded that of 4R, in which leg-arm overlapping
was found, and the total amount of the overlapping is not marked-
ly less in iR than in 3L in which the amount of overlapping of
the leg and arm segment areas is considerable. At the same
time the percentage relations give equally interesting figures
regarding the same thing, for it is to be observed that the per-
centage of overlapping in iR is greater than that of 4R, equal
to that of 3L and is not greatly exceeded by that of 5L, in all
of which hemispheres the amount of overlapping of the leg-arm
areas is not especially small. This indicates that in hemisphere
iR there has been a more general complexity of movement for
the two segments we have considered than for the other hemis-
pheres just mentioned since a certain percentage of the over-
lappings in the other hemispheres is due to combinations of arm
and leg movements. The low percentage in iL may be considered
a typical example of what may be expected when the two seg-
ments have not overlapped.
The complications or the combinations of movements are also
130
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
shown by the number of cases in which the areas for one segment
overlap those of the other segments. These data for the leg
segments are shown in Table XII and those for the arm segments
TABLE XII. Overlappings of leg segment areas. Digits represent the
numbers of hemispheres in which overlapping occurred. The total possi-
bilities are nine in each case.
Segments
Toes
Foot
Leg
Thigh
Toes
—
8
8
7
Foot
8
9
9
Leg
8
9
—
9
Thigh
7
9
9
—
in Table XIII. In these tables there are shown the total numbers
TABLE XIII. Overlappings of arm segment areas. Digits represent the
numbers of hemispheres in which overlapping occurred. The total possi-
bilities are nine for each case.
Segments
Shoulder
Forearm
Hand
Fingers
Shoulder
—
9
9
8
Forearm
9
—
9
9
Hand
9
9
—
9
Fingers
8
9
9
—
of cases in which Overlappings occurred, not the individual points
in the areas, and consequently not the totals of the areas or the
total portions of the cortex representing the areal distribution
of movements of the segments. If one area, for example that of
the shoulder, should have an overlapping in all hemispheres it
is clear that the table would show a total overlapping in nine
hemispheres. Similarly for the other segments. When the num-
ber is less than nine, it means that in one or more hemispheres
at no time in the whole series of experiments upon those hemi-
spheres did combined movements of the two segments occur.
The tables show that in two cases (iR and iL) there was no
overlapping of the thigh and the toe areas, in one case (iR) there
was no overlapping of the foot and toe areas, and in one case
(iL) there was no overlapping of the toe and leg areas. In
view of the fact that in iR no overlapping took place of thigh
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 131
and toe, and foot and toe, the small percentages of overlapping is
understandable, and this is the more noticeable also because of
the failure to find from cortical stimulation in this animal com-
bined movements of the arm and leg.
The almost universal overlapping in the arm segments areas
indicates the general complexity of the movements which were
obtained by the stimulation of the cortex in this area, and at the
same time it shows that the complexity is found in all hemispheres
with the exception of shoulder-finger relations of hemispheres
iL. It does not show, however, that there is the same degree of
complexity for all other hemispheres, for to settle the latter matter
there must be a comparison of the individual points which it is
not possible to make at this time. It may be said, however, that
there are considerable variations in complexity (hemisphere and
animal) shown by the examination of the protocols of the indi-
vidual tests, and these are partly indicated by the differences in
the totals of overlappings which are shown in Table XI. It may
be repeated that the results in Tables XII and XIII do not mean
that there has been a total overlapping of all segments in all
hemispheres for all the points which were stimulated. In fact
from Table XI we can conclude that at the most (2L) there
has been less than two-thirds of the total possible amount of
overlapping and in most cases the amount of the overlapping is
not more than two-sevenths of the possible total, and usually
much less than this amount. If there were no overlap] pings of
arm and leg segments and there was a complete overlapping of
the areas for the individual parts of the segments, which would
mean that when any motor point was stimulated the resulting
reaction would be a movement of thigh + leg + foot + toes, or
a movement of shoulder -f~ forearm -\- hand -f- fingers, we
should have a total overlapping of 300 per cent. A considerable
amount of overlapping occurs in relation to the leg and arm
segment areas so that the greatest recorded amounts (2L, 374
per cent) are made up of extra-segmental overlappings and of
inter-segmental overlappings. Table II, column 6 (p. 98)
shows the amount of extra-segmental overlappings, and the fig-
ures should be subtracted from those in Table XI. It should also
132 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
be remembered that the figures in Table II do not represent the
totals of extra-segmental overlappings but only those of total-leg
and total-arm, for such overlappings may be of two or more parts
of each of the two segments (arm and leg) with which we have
been dealing. When, however, the subtraction which is sug-
gested has been made we find that there is a noticeable reduc-
tion in some of the figures in Table XI. At the same time it
should not be thought that in dealing with the relation of the
cerebral cortex to complexities of movement such subtractions
should be made, for in general it is true that the greater the
overlappings the greater is the degree of movement complexity.
Thus, stimulation of the cortex at the border of the two
large areas produced complex movements of the two totalized
segments. We found for example movements of all the arm
segments towards the leg and at the same time complementary
movements of the leg towards the arm. Such movements are
well represented by those of the intact animal when he wishes
to scratch his leg, but makes only part of the movement, that
pertaining to the approach of the hand and fingers to the leg
and a similar approach of the leg towards the hand so that the
latter has a better chance for scratching. Also, such a movement
as the transfer of food from the hand to the foot is of this com-
plex type, and similarly with movements which simulate or
resemble those of the simultaneous use of the arm and leg
segments in the act of taking hold of the bars of the cage. Such
movements are on the other hand not always simultaneus, not
infrequently it was found that after the arm had made a definite
movement the leg would make a movement succeeding that of
the arm.
Summary.' — The data show that in different animals and in
different hemispheres a variety of distribution of the areas con-
cerned with the movements of the individual segments of the leg
and arm. In addition to this variation in distribution, varia-
tions in the total amounts of the different areas were found,
which when averaged for all hemispheres show the forearm area
of greatest size, with the foot area of the smallest average size,
and between these extremes and in serial order the areas for
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 133
the shoulder, the leg, the thigh, the fingers, the toes, and the
hand. It will be noticed that in all cases the average of a
segment of the arm exceeded in areal size that of the
corresponding segment of the hind limb, i.e., the area for the
shoulder movements was on the average greater than that for
thigh movements, that for 'forearm movements greater than
that for leg movements, etc. In the individual hemispheres
such relations do not exist, in some cases the leg areas
being correspondingly larger than the arm areas. At the same
time the serial order for the segments is not the same for all
animals, in one case the thigh area being the largest, in another
hemisphere the forearm area being the largest, etc. The shapes
of the corresponding areas in the nine hemispheres did not ap-
proximately correspond nor was there a correspondence of the
spatial relations of the areas to such well marked anatomical
landmarks as the central fissure, the longitudinal sulcus, etc. In a
few cases the anatomical dividing lines appeared to have a cer-
tain physiological significance, but in other cases, and especially
in relation to certain areas, this was not indicated. In all hemis-
pheres excepting those of one animal there was found a greater
or less overlapping of the areas for the leg and arm segment
movements, which was shown by the production of combined
reactions of these segments. In all hemispheres without excep-
tion there were found overlappings of the areas for the in-
dividual segments of the leg and arm, which was shown by
the complex movements of these parts. These overlappings
varied in all hemispheres, by which is meant that the stimulation
of the cortex of some hemispheres resulted in more of the
complex movements than did that of others.
IV. ANOMALOUS DISTRIBUTIONS OF THE STIMU-
LABLE AREAS
Arm movements within the leg areas. — In the broadest sense
we may consider that the leg segment area is that area within
which stimulation produces leg movements, and the arm area that
area within which stimulation produces arm movements. Taking
this definition of the areas we should need to consider that the leg
areas or the arm areas are not massed but are spread over the
precentral cortex as widely as the zone in which a stimulation
at any point produces such movements. For a better limitation of
the areas we must not deal with the widely spreading areas in
this manner, but limit the designation of the individual areas to
those solid-like combinations of zones in which the special char-
acter of movements are uniformly or nearly uniformly obtained.
By thus dealing with our results we can say that in general there
is a leg area separate and distinct from, but contiguous to, the
arm area, and that there is a similar arm area, but that between
the two areas there is an intermediate zone which is allied to
both, or which is both, and which can be considered to be a com-
bined arm and leg area.
By the limitation or the definition of the areas in this manner
we find that there remain certain areas or points within each of
the principal areas which are associated with the production of
movement of another segment separate from the segment with
which the area has definite connections. Thus we find that arm
movements are sometimes produced by the stimulation of areas
which are enclosed on all sides by zones which are distinctively
leg movement areas since only leg movements are produced by the
stimulation of the cortex in these regions and at the same time
there are arm areas within which stimulation sometimes pro-
duces leg movements. These areas are different from the border-
ing areas in that the results are unlike those for the surrounding
zones, and are therefore to be considered anomalous, while the
bordering areas are "normally" the combinations which are
expected in view of the continuity of the whole stimulable zone.
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 135
An examination of Figure 2 shows that there are no bordering
combination areas in the hemispheres of monkey i but that such
areas are found in all the other hemispheres. It will also be
observed that there are no anomalously distributed areas in the
hemispheres of monkey I and none in 2R, but that the other
six hemispheres show anomalous areas. In 2L we find an area
of this character with a considerable extensity having its upper
border contiguous to the longitudinal sulcus and extending down-
wards towards the fissure of Sylvius along the principal blood
vessels which is illustrated in the diagram. We also find in this
hemisphere a small area which is related to arm movement con-
trol, for movements of the shoulder were produced by the stimu-
lation of this area although the stimulation of the same points
gave leg movements and the stimulation of the surrounding areas
also gave purely leg movements. Similar zones were found in
the hemispheres of monkey 3 ; on the right at the extreme frontal
border of the area points were found the stimulations of which
were followed by movements of the forearm as well as of the
leg segments, and on the left side a similar zone in the center
of the leg area the stimulations of which produced simultaneous
movements of the segments of the leg and of the shoulder. In
monkey 5 there were also found on the right side a combined
area bordering upon the longitudinal sulcus which stimulations
showed was associated with the production of forearm move-
ments as well as with leg movements, and a second area some-
what lower in the field which gave similar combinations of fore-
arm and leg movements, in the left hemisphere of this animal
the combined area bordering upon the longitudinal sulcus gave
movements of the shoulder in addition to the leg segment move-
ments which were noted in the protocol of the experiment as
follows: "extension of toes, followed by extension of the leg
and thigh, and a movement of the tail to the right, with a mass
movements of the arm such as is made when lifting the shoulder."
The general results regarding the amounts of overlappings of
the arm and leg segment areas are shown in Table XIV. This
table shows only the general view of the relations as indicated by
the overlappings of the different areas, without considering the
136
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
TABLE XIV. Overlapping of leg and arm segment areas. Digits represent
the numbers of hemispheres in which overlapping occurred. The total possi-
bilities are nine in each case.
Segments
Toes
Foot
Leg
Thigh
Shoulder
3
4
4
5
Forearm
4
4
6
5
Hand
I
2
3
3
Fingers
o
0
2
2
spatial character of the overlappings. Thus, for example, the
total number of possible overlappings is nine in each case, and
we find that in no case do we get an overlapping of the toe area
onto the finger area, that in general the segments close to the
trunk show the greatest number of overlappings, both with re-
spect to one another and also with respect to the more peripheral
segments. This would indicate a possible closer relation of the
thigh movements and the movements of the hand and fingers,
and a possible closer relation of movements of the shoulder with
movements of the foot and toes. Until the movements are ana-
lyzed to a greater degree than is done at this time this can be
taken only as a suggestion.
Leg movements within the arm areas. — The number of anomal-
ous movements of this character is less than that of the arm
movements in the leg areas. In 2L, on the outer border of the
arm area, there is a small area the stimulation of which produced
movements of the thigh and of the leg, and at the frontal edge
of this area the stimulation was followed by knee flexions inde-
pendent of any movement of the parts of the arm segment. At
the lower portion of the arm area, far removed from the main
mass of the leg area, two small areas were discovered which gave
movements of the thigh and leg as well as movements of the arm
segments, in one case the leg movements being combined with
movements of the hand and fingers and in another case with move-
ments of the forearm. In 4R thigh and leg movements were
found to accompany stimulation of the area in the central portion
of the large arm area where the latter bordered upon the fissure of
Rolando.
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 137
Only two hemispheres, therefore, showed the (presence of
leg movements within the arm areas while five hemispheres of the
total of nine showed arm movements within the leg areas. Al-
though it is not possible at this time to determine the import of
these variations it appears probable that they indicate a greater
degree of ease of liberation of the arm movement impulse or a
greater degree of complexity of arm connections. Allied to the
results which have been considered in the preceding paragraph
similar results were obtained which indicate the complexity of
these movements and of the movement control. In 3R head
movements in combination with movements of the shoulder were
obtained by the stimulation of the cortex at the uppermost part of
the arm area although the characteristic area for head movements
lies lower in the field, approximately below that for the arm seg-
ments. In the same hemisphere head movements were found to
follow the stimulation of the area close to the bifurcation of the
subsidiary fissure which is shown in the diagram. This is far
removed from the principal head area. At the same time men-
tion may be made of the fact that in 4R the stimulation of the
area which is shown as a blank space bordering upon the fissure
of Rolando, and which is surrounded by arm areas, also gave
movements of the tail whereas in the other animals in which
movements of this organ occurred they followed stimulations of
the areas bordering upon or near the longitudinal sulcus.
Relatively non-stimulable zones. — In the diagrams of Figure 2
there are to be found blank spaces within the cross-lined areas, or
separating the cross-lined areas. This indicates that these areas
are unlike the surrounding areas in that they are non-stimulable
or relatively non-stimulable. This was mentioned in a previous
section (p. 84), where it was also said that when an apparent
non-stimulable area was found the strength of the stimulating
current was increased to see if the area was really non-stimulable.
At times it was found that we were dealing with an area
with heightened threshold because the increased stimulus
produced characteristic responses similar to those of the sur-
rounding regions, but at other times the increased stimulus
did not produce any response. Whenever the latter was
i38 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
found it was concluded that we were dealing with a silent
or a relatively silent area on account of the fact that any
further increase of current strength can be objected to on the
ground that the spreading of the current is more likely to take
place and to stimulate not only at the spot at which the electrodes
are placed but also adjacent collections of cells. Some objection
may be raised against the universal application of this method
of determining the silent character of the areas, and I do not
press the point at the present time although the conclusion appears
to me to harmonize with a number of other facts which have
previously been reported by others. Whatever explanation we
may select for the findings, whether we consider them to be indica-
tive of a non-stimulable character of the special regions or of a
relative lowering of irritability, it is of special interest to note
that similar phenomena were not observed in the results of the
series of stimuli to all the hemispheres which were tested. At the
same time in a comparison of the hemispheres for which this
phenomenon was noted there is found great variation. Thus we
note the leg area in iR to be divided into smaller areas, which
division is probably of the character described above although
not obviously so. The amount of space covered by this dividing
area is great in the case of 2R, and the relatively non-stimulable
zone in this hemisphere almost divides the arm area into two
separate areas. Fewer of these non-stimulable areas were found
in the leg areas than in the arm areas, which may be an indication
of a greater fixity or of a higher degree of exactness in the
development for the former. In this connection the diagrams
of the other figures are of interest since they show similar phe-
nomena associated with the areas for the individual segments.
It will be observed that in most of the diagrams of the arm areas
(shoulder, forearm, etc.) these divisions occur and that they are
less frequent in the leg areas. It may be expected that the divi-
sions would be more evident in the arm segment areas on account
of the multiplication of the blank areas in each of the diagrams,
but a careful comparison of all the diagrams referring to the
arm areas shows that the divisions are more numerous than those
of the leg areas even when the non-stimulable zones that are
common to all are omitted.
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 139
Summary: In the hemispheres which were investigated there
was found a number of points, or areas, the stimulation of which
gave movements unlike those of the surrounding regions. This
was especially marked in some of the hemispheres while others
showed none of this crossing or combination of control. The
number of cases in which arm movements were found to be asso-
ciated with the stimulation of leg areas, or arm movements asso-
ciated with leg movements when the surrounding areas gave only
leg movements, is greater than that of arm movements from the
stimulation of leg areas. A number of non-stimulable or rela-
tively non-stimulable zones were found surrounded by normally
stimulable areas.
GENERAL DISCUSSION (THEORETICAL)
The results of these experiments lead to certain conclusions
which have widespread application regarding the functions, or
functional connections, of all portions of the cerebrum. It is
apparent that in this area, which has very generally been con-
sidered to have neural connections directly (or indirectly through
intervening neurones) with the efferent cellular elements in the
spinal cord, there is not the definiteness of localization, and there-
fore of connection, which has been supposed. The fact that there
is a variation in the extent of the leg or the arm area in different
animals indicates that motor cells located in similar locations may
send impulses in different directions. The fact that the stimula-
tion of certain spatially located points in an area which usually
gives rise to movements of the thigh may, for example, result in
combined movements of the arm as well as of the thigh is also an
indication of a complex mechanism. This becomes more evident
when we realize that such combined movements are obtainable
upon stimulation of the cortex of one animal and not when the
cortex of another is stimulated (or if obtained in the second
animal the combined movement differs in quality) . Furthermore,
although the data in regard to the differences of control from the
two hemispheres of the same animal are not as complete as they
might be, the facts from the four monkeys of which both hemis-
pheres were investigated indicate that there is a considerable
difference in the connections which are established from each
hemisphere. All the varying results are, however, of interest in
that they lead to rather definite theoretical conclusions and in
that they lead to a better understanding of the variability in con-
trol which are evidenced by the normal behavior of different
animals and by that of different individuals and of different
races of man.
In connection with the results of the present series of tests, the
results of the recent experiments of Brown and Sherrington (3)
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 141
on the reversibility of action of allied centers7 in the cortex are of
very great importance. These investigators found that in the
monkey's cerebral cortex there were several centers, or groups of
cells, the stimulation of which normally brought about flexion, and
other adjacent groups or centers which, stimulation showed, were
normally concerned in the production of extension movements.
The stimulation of one of the flexion centers, it was furthermore
found, would bring about a slight or medium degree of flexion,
while that of another would produce an extreme degree of flexion.
Similar results were obtained upon stimulation of the extension
centers, or groups of cells. When, however, a flexion center
was stimulated repeatedly it was discovered that the flexion re-
action did not remain of the same intensity as that which was
originally found. There were changes in the degree of the mus-
cular contractions in a series of stimulations of the same cerebral
spot and in certain cases flexion eventually was replaced by the
opposed movement of extension. From the results of this exper-
iment we see that the repeated stimulation of one area may result
in a reversal of the function, such a reversal, however, being
probably only an exaggeration due to the normal connections and
perhaps only a magnification in certain respects of the normal
functions of such a center. After pointing out this fact the au-
thors conclude (page 277) that "the frequence of reversal as a
phenomenon attaching to the reactions of points in the motor
cortex suggests that one of the functions of the cortex may be
the performance of reversals, and that the greater predominance
of reversal under cortical than in purely spinal or decerebrate
reflexes is because reversal is one of the specific offices of the
cortex cerebri."
In the same series of experiments Brown and Sherrington also
noted another result which is of great interest, namely the varia-
tion in the degree of activity accompanying the stimulation of the
different centers at different times. When on the cortex of an ani-
T The term center in the discussion implies no metaphysical assumption.
It is a convenient and short designation for "a collection of cells the stimu-
lation of which may result in certain reactions and the extirpation of which
may bring about certain deficiencies of activities or behavior."
142 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
mal the center for extreme flexion was definitely located (i.e.,
spatially in relation to the other flexion centers) and the animal
was permitted to recover for some hours before a second experi-
mental determination of this center was made, it was discovered
that the second determination of the point for extreme flexion
did not always correspond with the point originally determined.
In other words, repeated stimulation of the same center, or group
of cells, did not always result in the production of the same
quantity or grade of movement. Thus, the center which on the
first stimulation gave the greatest amount of reaction might be
found to give a less amount of reaction at another time and the
area which gave the small amount of flexion or extension at the
time of the original or first experiment was sometimes found to
give a greater amount of flexion or of extension in a second test.
A phenomenon or reversal of another character was also found.
When the stimulation of a center resulted in a continued or epi-
leptiform contraction a second stimulation of the same center
might cause an inhibition of this movement. In the same series
of experiments it was found that "in one case the same point
which yielded primary extension with much regularity, on re-
examination twenty-eight hours later in the same animal, yielded
at first primary flexion instead of the primary extension"
(page 252).
Closely allied to the results of the present work is the fact,
which Brown and Sherrington note, that "in some experiments,
the area whence extension points could be chosen has been
distinctly larger than in others" (page 252). These authors con-
clude that "this variability signifies less a difference in the per-
manent arrangement than a difference in the condition of the
nervous system from time to time," but this conclusion does not
appear to be in line with the facts which have been recorded here,
nor does it appear to me adequate to explain all of the facts which
these authors have recorded.
Most of the recent work on the recovery of voluntary control
following various forms of nerve anastomosis also shows that
there is not the degree of definiteness of control from a particular
portion of the cerebral cortex which has been assumed. Were a
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 143
particular cell endowed with the particular function of sending
impulses8 to bring about only one special movement of the arm,
it could never be used to bring above a movement of the face.
Were the activities of such a cell associated with or, as some
clinicians hold, due to "memory images" of shoulder movements,
for example, there would probably never be the possibility of mov-
ing the face except by thinking of it as the shoulder. In man, as
far as our knowledge goes, the acquired ability to move the face
when there has been an anastomosis between the peripheral por-
tion of the facial nerve and the central end of the accessory nerve
is not associated with any "memory images" or thinking about the
shoulder. This conclusion is also forced upon us because of the
recovery of the facial mimetic movements, which are reflex in
character.
The experimental work on animals gives us many facts of value
in this connection. Kennedy (8), it will be remembered, crossed
the nerves for the flexor and the extensor movements of the dog's
leg and noted that after a time the animal was able to move the
leg quite properly. He also found that when the motor areas of
the cerebrum were stimulated, the stimulation of the portion of the
cortex which is considered to be a flexion "center" was accom-
panied by an extension, and vice versa, indicating that new brain
conections had been formed because of the peripheral anastomosis.
The observation that the animal recovered to a very great extent
the normal power of the use of the leg in locomotion demonstrates
that there has been a rearrangement in anatomical distribution of
the individual neurones. The results of the cerebral stimulation
experiments on the brain of this dog are, however, not conclusive
evidences of the rearrangement of function in the neighboring
cerebral areas because the flexor and the extensor centers are
anatomically very intimately related. The recent work of Brown
and Sherrington, which has already been described, has well
demonstrated that there may be a reversal of function of these
areas, and it is theoretically, and practically, possible that the re-
8 The use of the term impulse in this connection is convenient, although it
is recognized that some physiologists object seriously to its use, because it
appears to imply something more than physico-chemical changes.
144 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
suits of the cerebral stimulation experiments of Kennedy were
due to the normal physiological relationships of the flexion and
the extension centers.
When, however, we deal with the altered innervations of parts
which are not as closely associated physiologically the same prob-
abilities do not exist. The further experiments of Kennedy (7)
are, therefore, less open to question, for he found it was possible
to obtain the return of function in the appropriate parts when he
connected the central portion of the cut spinal accessory or the
central portion of the cut hypoglossal with the distal portion of
the cut facial nerve. After these operations it was found that the
first movements in the area innervated normally by the facial
nerve came in 58 and 32 days respectively, and in about 100 days
there was found to be a recovery of the voluntary control of the
closure of the eye and of other parts.
Other motor areas of the cerebral cortex which are spatially less
closely allied are also found to have the ability to assume func-
tions not originally pertaining to them. Thus Osborne (9) and
Kilvington, in their very suggestive research, found that if one
brachial plexus was served and some strands were carried over
from the opposite plexus and united with the distal parts of the
one which had been severed regeneration of the nerve took place.
This nerve regeneration was accompanied by a complete, or almost
complete, return of function in both forelimbs. It was further-
more determined that if the cerebral cortex in the forelimb area
was stimulated on the side contralateral to the completely cut
nerve (which normally innervates the limb supplied by the nerves
of the brachial plexus which had been cut), no reaction resulted,
but if the cortex of the homolateral hemisphere was stimulated,
movements of both forelimbs were produced. This is a clear and
convincing demonstration of the fact that the function of a par-
ticular area depends more upon the connections that are made
than upon any hypothetical inherent or innate function, and fur-
ther, that the functions of a particular area may materially change
in accordance with the paths which are formed. The recovery
of normal function also indicates that the impulses received from
the receptive areas of the cerebrum, which are considered to be
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 145
necessary for the proper performance of voluntary movements,
are not singularly direct. Such impulses, following the assump-
tion of their necessity and importance, must in an intact animal
go in certain directions and in the operated animal in other direc-
tions by other paths.
The experimental work of Boeke (1) is also of suggestive im-
portance, showing as it does that there is a possibility of regenera-
tion even in those cases in which the cross-sutured nerves differ
by as much as they do in the case of the sensory and the motor
nerves. In some cases Boeke found that if the central end of
the cut hypoglossal nerve was joined to the distal portion of the
sectioned lingual rierve regeneration of the fibers took place. He
has also been able to demonstrate that under these conditions some
of the efferent fibers of the hypoglossal actually progressed to the
surface of th'e tongue and made connections with taste buds.9
It is not definitely proven that these connections resulted in a
return of the ability to taste for those areas of the tongue which
had been deprived of his function by the section of the lingual
nerve. More experiments and more crucial tests respecting this
matter are necessary before we may say there has been a complete
demonstration of the functional regeneration. The fact remains,
however, that the possibility of anastomosis between a sensory and
a motor nerve has been demonstrated. What variations in sen-
sory or motor activity have been the result of these tests will
doubtless later be determined. That the normally efferent fibers
may regenerate and pass to the sensory end organs as well as to
muscle cells is a fact weighted with suggestions regarding many
practical, but especially theoretical, problems.
Variations in the motor responses to cerebral stimuli have also
been recorded by the Vogts (H), not only in different animals
of the same species but also in different species of animals. It
seems to me probable that many of the discussions of the
physiologists and of the clinicians of the past in which there
*At the present stage work of this nature has more definite interest in
connection with the peripheral distribution of the nerve fibers. It can readily
be understood, however, that the possible central (i.e., cerebral) relations are
most important. Confirmations of Boeke's work are urgently needed, espe-
cially in relation to the variations in behavior of the operated animals.
I46 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
were charges and counter-charges of ignorance, or of misstate-
ment, or of technical defects were due to the fact that these
variations were not known or were not recognized. I believe that
if this fact had been known and understood many acrimonious
discussions would have been prevented.
The Vogts hold to the view that the variations are due "in part
to special development of other pallium fields, and in part to varia-
itons in the functional capacity of performance." They further-
more assert that nothing prevents the "connecting causally all
variations in the number of foci and in the extension and to a
certain degree also variations in the excitability of a certain field
of stimulation with differences in the specialization of its motor
functions."
On the other hand Sherrington (10) has written: "Every in-
crease in the number of links composing the nerve cell chain seems
to increase greatly the uncertainty of its reaction in artificial ex-
citation. ... A cortex cerebri might well therefore have been
expected to yield under artificial excitation only extraordinarily
inconstant results. To Hitzig and Fritsch, and to Ferrier, we
owe the pregnant demonstration that as regards the motor region
this expectation is not well founded." That this constancy is not
a veritable one is, I think, fully shown by the researches of the
Vogts as well as by the results of the present study. There is not
the degree of constancy in the motor response which the earlier
investigators, as for example those which are cited by Sherrington,
contended there is. Moreover, the later results obtained by Sher-
rington in conjunction with Brown which have been discussed
above must also be taken into account, for it appears to me they
amply demonstrate the opposite of that which Sherrington wrote
eight years ago, and prove that the stimulation of the same cere-
bral point at different times produces varieties of action.
Whether or not the variations in movement associated with
cerebral stimulation are to be correlated with normal individual
activities, an explanation which is only slightly advanced beyond
that of the Vogts, is a question for the solution of which the
closest observations and correlations of the normal activities and
the extents and the variabilities of the motor cerebral control
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 147
of individual animals must be accumulated. At present such a
view appears to be in harmony with all the facts which are known
to me and is tentatively put forth pending further studies. It
may also be remarked that this view, in a special form, has been
suggested by Bolton (2) in relation to his anatomical studies of
cases of "amentia" and of "dementia," for he writes that the
anatomical variations indicate "the likelihood of a structural
origin for individual differences in mental endowment,"10 and
on the other hand he says the histologically differentiated areas
indicate the "limits of educability."
The results of the present research, in conjunction with the
data of others which have 'been recorded above, indicate that the
connections which are made by way of the cortical motor cells
are not definite in the sense, for example, that there is a passage
of an impulse from a Betz cell in the anatomically defined cere-
bral motor region to another particular efferent cell in the spinal
cord, but that the connection is, in special senses of the terms,
promiscuous or irregular. By these last terms I mean only that
the connections which one particular efferent or afferant cell
makes are connections with a great number of neurones, and that
the impulses resulting .from the activity of a cell body may affect
many other cells. Or, in other terms, an impulse arising in one
cell may activate or influence only one, or any number, of the
cells which are anatomically associated with the particular cell
with which we deal. It is quite generally admitted that a cer-
tain cell has the possibility of sending its impulses along the main
neuraxon and this is the view which is implicitly apparent in
most discussions of cerebral function. But it is also obvious
that since this neuraxon gives off, as it passes to its final goal,
certain collaterals it is quite as reasonable and quite as logical to
conclude that it has also the possibility of sending impulses along
any one of these, or along the main neuraxon and any number
10 This is not quoted as an indication of sympathy with the methods and
other conclusions of Bolton, who has, in fact, introduced forms of expression
in regard to cerebral-mental relations which are obviously grossly inaccurate.
Thus, to be specific, he says that by means of language "it is possible to per-
form the highly intricate processes of cerebral association," and that "if
words spontaneously arise in a cerebral center," whatever these things mean.
148
SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
of the collaterals, or along one or more of the collaterals to
the exclusion of the main trunk. It is this later method of
looking at the activities of the cerebral cells which appears to me
to solve some of the great difficulties of the exclusive neuraxon
activity hypothesis.
The illustration which is presented here (Figure n) is one
FIGURE n. Illustrating the conception of the possibility of impulses in one
cell influencing different cells, thus resulting in different reactions or differ-
ent behavior. The primary cells A, B, and C, may be equally well considered
to be afferent, efferent, or associational. Each cell may also be considered
as a simplification of a group of cells.
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 149
which gives a diagrammatic conception of this view.11 The
activity of the cell B in its discharge may be represented as
passing in any one or more of the directions taken by the
branches of its neuraxon. Thus the activity of this cell may
result in the stimulation of the cell U, or the cell T, or the cell
V. In turn the activities of these cells (T, U , F) may result in
the stimulation of muscles. On the other hand the activity of
cell A may through its collateral acting upon cell / result in an
activity of cell T, and the activity of cell C acting through its
collateral on cell N may also bring about activity in cell V . Or,
cell C acting through its collateral on cell G may activate cell B
so that the characteristic B activities may be obtained. In turn
the activity of cell B may influence those of cells A and C almost
directly, thus bringing about reactions in parts which are nor-
mally controlled by those cells, for example those parts connected
with cells P and R, and those with cells Y and Z, When it is
considered that cell B may be taken as a representative of a so-
called sensory cell, or an efferent cell which is normally made
active when it received the effect of an impulse from some
other cell or cells in other portions of the cerebrum, for example
from a sensory or associational center, and that there may be many
of these which exert an influence upon it, it will be realized that
the behavior resulting from the activity of a primary receptive
cell may greatly vary from time to time.
This neurological conception may be applied to the under-
standing of the behavior differences of individuals and also of
the same individual from time to time. It appears probable
that the variations in behavior of different animals and of the
same animal at different times to the same form of stimulation
are dependent upon the great number of connections and upon the
variations in activity which the connection variations make
possible. On the hypothesis that the connection between cor-
tical cells is definite, in the sense that one cell acts solely or
11 A few words of caution may be said regarding the diagram and its ac-
companying paragraph of text. Neither should be taken too literally, neither
should be considered to be more than an indication of a possibility, and
neither should be judged without the preceding and the following context.
150 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
principally upon one other cell, we shall have great difficulty in
explaining the phenomena in man or in animals which are
grouped under the general heading of habit formation. To show
this, let us briefly consider the facts regarding the formation
of habit in several animals. We shall then realize how the same
stimulus may result in different reactions in different animals,
and how in one animal at different times different reactions may
result from the same stimulus. Conversely also we shall get
some neurological insight into the possible reason for similar
reactions in different animals from different stimuli. On the
assumption of definite connections and definite paths of dis-
charge such facts are neurologically almost unexplainable.
L'et us take for consideration a young cat, four to six months
old, since an animal of this kind is readily "educable." If the
animal is hungry it will be better, since the formation of the
habit is then more readily obtained if the habit has one of its
elements concerned with the obtaining of food. We prepare
for our experiment a box with narrow slats in the front and a
small door which is closed with a bolt. The knob of the bolt
is attached to a cord which runs along, but an inch under, the
top of the box and which the animal can reach either with its
claws or by arching its back, or by biting with its teeth. When
the cord is pulled downwards or pushed upwards or moved side-
ways the bolt is also moved. Any one of these actions (there
may be others and also combinations of two or more of these
actions) will, if sufficiently strong, result in the loosening of
the bolt which keeps the door closed, and when the door is thus
opened the cat is enabled to escape and to get a particle of food
which is placed outside.
When we place a cat in an enclosed space of this character
there is a very decided change in the behavior of the animal.
It usually becomes very active. This activity we may describe,
in terms which are not directly scientific in their psychological
aspect, as being due to the desire on the cat's part to escape
from the uncomfortable situation of being in an enclosed place
of such small compass, and perhaps partly to the desire for the
food which in some experiments it may see outside. The actions
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 151
of the particular cat under these conditions are about the same
as those of other animals of the same species which are placed
in such a situation. The animal begins to scratch at the front
of the cage, at the door, at the sides, at the top. It turns here
and there, it takes hold of everything or anything which it can
reach. These movements are not performed in any apparently
logical order or in any apparently intelligent manner since the
animal may at first try one corner, then the top, perhaps next
the door. If these movements do not result in the escape
of the animal ;from the "unpleasant" situation the cat may
remain quiet for a time and begin all over again scratching at
a front corner or a back corner, trying the top, the door, the
slats at the front. Even though the special movements do not
result in the release which is sought the movements are con-
tinued, and if the cat tries one thing and does not escape by
so doing it may return to the first which it had previously found
unsuccessful. The random movements, if they are continued
for a sufficiently length of time, eventually result in the animal's
moving, either by clawing or by arching its back or by biting,
the cord which holds the bolt. When the bolt ' has thus been
lifted the activities of the animal may be continued for some
seconds or minutes before it realizes or recognizes that the
door is open and there is a possibility of escape. When the
animal escapes from the situation it finds the food or it is given
a small piece of food. When it is returned to the box which is
again bolted it goes through the same kinds of activities, claw-
ing here, biting there, resting, performing movements which are
apparently purposeless since they are not directed to the part of
the box by which escape becomes possible, or towards the
mechanism whereby the door can be opened. In its random
movements it again scratches the cord, and again escapes and
gets food. At the next trial the animal goes through the same
sort of movements. Finally it claws the cord, gets out, and in
succeeding tests it is found that this animal which at first escaped
because of biting the cord and then later by arching its back
against it, and again by clawing at the cord eventually acquires
the habit of escape by utilizing only one of these types of move-
152 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
ment, namely the scratching or clawing at the cord. Further-
more it is found that when an animal is placed in this situation
it eventually acquires the habit to such a degree, or the reaction
is facilitated to such an extent, that immediately the animal is
dropped into the box it goes to the particular location, claws at
the cord thus opening the door, escapes and obtains the food.
Another animal goes through the same general kinds of activi-
ties in its escape or its attempts at escape, but instead of acquir-
ing the habit of escaping by means of clawing at or by pulling
the cord, it acquires the habit of arching its back and rubbing
against the cord, thus putting the cord on a stretch and raising
the bolt. A third animal learns to escape from the box by biting
and pulling upon the cord.
It will 'be observed that as far as we can determine all three
animals have been stimulated by exactly the same primary forms
of stimuli. They have been stimulated by the sight of the box,
by the appearance of the slats in the front, by the closed door,
by other ill-defined sensations which are obtained from the con-
finement, perhaps from the stimulation of a variety of organs
which go to make up, in human perceptual terms, the general
feeling of being enclosed in the box. The sensory elements
which are present in these three cases we most likely have the
right to conclude are the same. The emotional elements or con-
comitants we do not know, if any exist, and we have at present
no means of determining the similarity or variety of these mental
conditions if they exist. It is to be noted however that although
the sensory stimuli are the same the behavior to which the stimuli
lead differs in the three animals. The reactions, it will be ob-
served, have one thing in common, namely that they result in
the escape of the animal. The actual means, however, of pro-
ducing this desired situation differs for the three animals.
Neurologically it is not only likely but it is almost certain that
the impulses from the sense areas, those so-called associational
impulses which start from the cells in the sensory regions of
the brain, eventually concentrate in these three animals in dif-
ferent motor areas, or to put the matter in more probable terms,
that the impulses originating in similar sensory cells in all three
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 153
animals reach (a) the same or (b) a different frontal lobe cell
or group of cells in all animals, and that (a) this similar frontal
cell or group of cells discharges into different cells in the pre-
central area, or that (b) the different frontal cells influence
motor cells.
Now it will furthermore be found that if an animal which
has acquired the habit of escape from a box of this character,
either by clawing or biting or rubbing against the cord, be
placed in the same box and the movement which it has been
accustomed to make results in no food or in no release,
this movement is gradually given up. The situation becomes
different, although the sensory stimuli remain the same. By
holding the bolt or by making some external change in the
mechanism (which is not seen by the animal) to prevent the
escape by any movement of the cord, but to permit the escape
whenever the animal sits quietly and licks itself, or washes its
face by the characteristic series of paw movements, or scratches
itself, the animal soon gives up the first habit which it had
formed and replaces it by behavior which in itself has not
apparently any direct bearing upon the desired result. We then
have a similar primary series of stimuli which at one time
results in a particular mode of activity (clawing the cord),
and at another time in a different mode of activity (licking
itself) in the same animal. Both lead to what may be con-
(sidered the desired result, namely the escape from the enclosed
box.
It should be understood that the sensory stimuli in two ex-
periments of this character are not the same in their totality.
The initial or primary sensory stimuli are, however, the same.
When after the receipt of the primary , sensory stimulation a
reaction is produced the reaction results in an additional sensory
stimulation, and this secondary stimulation, or the combination
of the secondary with the primary, may give rise to another
reaction. The animal which claws first at the front of the
cage after the receipt of the primary stimulation has thereby
a character or combination of stimulation different from that of
the animal which first reaches for the top of the cage and tries
154 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
to climb out in that way. Each animal however does have
the same primary stimulation, or at least the same general
primary stimulation, visual, tactile, organic, etc. To go back
to the original stimulation we may even wonder why such
similar primary stimuli have produced such diverse methods of
behavior as that of clawing at the slats at the front of the
cage and that of trying to bite the slats at the top. In either
case, whether we consider the primary stimulus or the collec-
tion of stimulations which make up the whole experience of
the animal in the box the sensory stimulations are sufficiently
alike to presuppose (on the basis of exactness of neurological
connections) an approximate similarity in the activity of the
cerebral sensory areas, and to suggest (on the same hypothesis)
that the efferent cerebral activity should be the same. This is,
of course, on the very generally accepted belief that the impulses
from corresponding sensory cells will always go to correspond-
ing efferent cells.
On the hypothesis that there are definite connections estab-
lished by means of certain cerebral neurones, and the hypothesis
that when the stimulation reaches a particular sensory center
it flows into other areas, eventually reaching the motor area
and resulting in a particular type of movement, the varying
activities of these animals are not understandable. It is not
an explanation to say that one animal has certain sensory stimuli
like those of another, but that there are different activities.
Neurologically, there must be a basis for the different kinds of
behavior. When we consider the possibility that the discharge
from a certain cell may pass not only along the main neuraxon
but also along any one or all of the collaterals and that in this
manner we have the neural activity diffused, we have a possible
explanation of the variety of the actions of the same animal
under similar conditions. If the receiving cell were definitely
and solely (anatomically and physiologically) connected with
a special cell or group of cells, the same sensory stimulus should
result in the same kind of reaction in different animals and in
the same animal at different times. But we find that at first
the cat makes many random movements. In other words, neu-
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 155
rologically we are led to conceive that the discharge of the
sensory or receptive element is not only along the main
neuraxon but is along all of the collaterals as well, and each
in turn acts upon its cells or group of cells, producing impulses
which eventually result in movements. These movements are
random, i.e., not directly correlated with the stimuli nor with
the desired result, but as the experience is repeated the animal
gives up all but a certain amount of the reaction. Its behavior
has changed. It is not only believable but probable that in
the development of a particular type of activity or in the pro-
duction of a particular association or habit, such as that of
scratching or of biting or of arching the back, we may have
two different neurological conditions. To use the simplified
diagram which has been given above we may say that at first
the discharge takes place along all the branches of the neuraxon,
but this diffuse discharge eventually gives place to a discharge
along one of the collaterals or along the main branch. The
variation in behavior of two animals may then be due to the
primary stimulation of corresponding cells, but in one case the
habitual reaction is determined by the flow of the impulses
from these cells along the course of the main neuraxon and in
the other case the habitual reaction is determined by the passage
df the impulse along a collateral These impulses reaching
different efferent elements produce the varieties of behavior.
The results of the preceding study (5) of the variation in
symptoms accompanying similar cerebral lesions in the insane
have also a bearing upon the present work. In that study it
is shown that in four collections of cases of patients suffering
from different mental diseases, in whose brains atrophies of
the frontal or anterior regions of the cerebrum were detected
at autopsy, there is no apparent relation between the symptoms
and the localization or the degree of the cerebral damage. On
the assumption that there are definite, in the sense of singular
and similar, functions and functional connections in each hemi-
sphere in all individuals such divergencies in the symptomatology
are not readily understandable.
At the same time the accounts of my experiments on the
I56 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
functions of the frontal lobes (4) contain material of impor-
tance for the understanding of the cerebral functional relations.
In that work it was shown that after an animal had been trained
to react in a certain way, or had acquired a certain habit, the
habit was lost when parts of the frontal lobes were Separated
from the remainder of the brain or when they were destroyed.
Even after the loss of a great amount of the frontal regions
such an animal could, however, reacquire the lost habit. The
reacquired habit could again be destroyed (or lost) if addi-
tional portions of the frontal lobes were extirpated, and in some
animals it was possible to show that the same habit could be
again acquired.
It is neither satisfying nor sufficient to say that in the latter
experiments there has been an inhibition, for this can only
give to the facts another name. Nor does it suffice to say that
there has occurred a sort of "diaschisis," since this also is only
another means of expression of the generalized fact of loss
of function. What must be concluded from these facts is that
at the time of the first extirpation there was a "diaschisis," or
blocking, or break, in the normal chain of cerebral activity (or
neurologically and anatomically, of the cerebral connections).
After the second learning of a habit and its loss subsequent
to a second and more extensive extirpation, "diaschisis" may
again be taken as the explanation of the fact. Another ex-
planation beyond those of "diaschisis" or inhibition is de-
manded, however, if or the phenomena of learning after the
first extirpation of the cerebral area through or by which learn-
ing or habit formation normally is possible. It is obvious that
the normal (i.e., the first) paths cannot be traversed again,
for these have been interrupted, or perhaps abolished. It is
obvious that new paths or new possibilities of connections must
be available. In other words for a reasonable explanation we
are thrown back upon the assumption that the paths for reac-
tions are not the simple anatomical unities which have been
commonly believed in but that these paths are diverse and that
anatomically as well as physiologically they are complex.
If the neurological path for the formation of a habit is a
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 157
fixity — from a certain sensory center to the frontal lobes and
thence to the motor cortex — a break at any portion of the
path (diaschisis, if you will) would prevent for all time the
reacquirement of the lost association. That there is no such
fixity is evident from the fact that relearning is possible. The
explanation of the fact must, I think, be sought in another
direction, and the one which has been suggested above appears
most reasonable. It appears probable that in the acquirement
of a habit certain paths are traversed and that they have a
certain fixity, but it is also probably true that these paths are
not the only ones that may be used to bring about the desired
connection or association between the sensory and motor end
stations. Most probably other subsidiary paths, if it be con-
sidered necessary or advisable to differentiate between the first
path and other paths, or relatively subsidiary tracts, are avail-
able when "diaschisis," or inhibition, or other similar conditions
supervene to prevent the normal course of the cerebral impulses.
The conditions of variability and the conditions of variation
in the particular responses which come from rather definite
sensory stimulation in different individuals lead us to a better
understanding of the neurological conditions which we must
believe are present in individual cases. It is not sufficient to
say, as is commonly said, that past experiences determine reac-
tions, for this is only a consideration of the matter from the
external viewpoint. It gives no conception of the neurological
conditions which enter into the matter. At present I think
it will be admitted that we are quite ignorant of the conditions
which result in the selection (not necessarily conscious of
course) of a definite path in the nervous system. It is un-
doubtedly true that certain paths are fixed in the sense that
one neurone has fairly direct connections, synaptic, however,
with other neurones and also that one neurone may have con-
nections with a half-dozen or more other neurones. Why the
stimulation of one neurone should usually give rise in one in-
dividual to a particular reaction and the stimulation of what
we believe to be a corresponding neurone in another individual
. results in a reaction which differs somewhat from the first, we
158 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
are not aware. It is, however, of some consequence and of
some importance to realize that there are greater possibilities of
connections than have hitherto been assumed or believed in.
Only on the ground of the assumption of variations or possi-
bility of variations in the connections or in the patency of
collateral and main tracts may we understand the behavior
phenomena to which the same stimuli give rise in different in-
dividuals. Only on this basis can we understand the various
activities of different races and of different individuals. The
different races have, it is well known, different types of reac-
tion. Anatomically we have no good reason to believe that the
neuronic connections differ widely in different races, nor anato-
mically have we any good reason to believe that the neuronic
connections in different individuals of the same race or of the
same family differ very widely. It is apparent, however, that
physiologically these connections are very greatly different for
the activity of the neurones gives rise to behavior of quite
different characters.
Thus far we have been considering what is doubtless the
most simple neurological system, a system much simpler by far
than that which is active in the production of any form of
behavior higher than that of a reflex. When we deal with a
system containing more than the two elements, afferent and
efferent, or receptor and effector, the complexities of connec-
tions and the possibilities of variation in the physiological
connections become apparent.
In this respect the cerebral cortex, or the cerebrum as a
whole, may be looked at as a very labile organ because of the
numerous possibilities of connections which may be made. One
cell, let us say, may have close connections with a half-dozen
or a dozen other cells, and the activity of the primary cell need
not always be through all the branches. There is a possibility
of a change in the direction of the impulse within the neurone.
Thus at one time the main effect may be due to the influence
exerted through a certain collateral, and at another time the
effect may be due to the impulse passing through the main
axon or through a second collateral. If this be true, it helps
VARIATIONS IN DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR CENTERS 159
to understand why there is a possibility of change in reaction
and a variability of reaction in the same individual from time
to time. At one time the individual may have a discharge from
a cortical motor cell along the main neuraxon acting upon a
definite cell located in a definite region of the spinal cord. At
another time the discharge may take place not only along the
main neuraxon, but along one or more of the collateral branches,
the actions resulting from the impulses passing through the
collaterals being added to that due to the impulse along the
main fiber, and the actions along these collaterals producing
effects on other cells which either inhibit or alter in character
the actions which were formerly produced, or new reactions
may entirely replace the original activity by an activity of a
very different character.
Nor does it appear necessary to believe that once a path,
by way of the main trunk or by one of the collaterals, has been
fixed that this fixity is a permanency. There may be a greater
tendency to use this particular path after it has been used a
number of times, but it may be said with certainty that the
impulse may under suitable conditions traverse any one or all
of the other collateral paths. In a state of "mental panic" a
man acts very differently to a particular stimulus than at other
times. His actions may be more diffuse or they may be the
opposite of those which he habitually performs at normal times.
Thus, the sound's of a rifle-shot heard at two different times
although both be of equal intensity may give rise to varying
reactions. Especially when there is an affective condition, such
as fear or apprehension, do we find such changes taking place
in the reaction.12 Neurologically, however, it is not satisfying
to say that the emotional condition gives the "set" to the dis-
charge of a particular cell, or that it directs the character of
the discharge, for we know nothing of the neurological con-
ditions which give rise to or accompany affective states. But,
a Particularly those of diffusion. Neurologically perhaps we may con-
sider such diffusion to be due to the passage of impulses from a cell not
only along the path commonly traversed, but along all the collateral paths
as well.
160 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ
should we admit that the emotional state can alter the character
of the motor response due to such a simple stimulus as that
of the sound of a rifle-shot, we are admitting at the same time
that the impulse from a sensory cell, or group of cells, may
pass through certain paths at one time and through other paths
at other times. Such a condition may also be well illustrated
by a difference in behavior when no affective state intervenes
to alter the reaction or when the affective state remains the
same with the presentation of the stimulus at different times.
An illustration of this is that of the differences of speech, which
are special reactions or forms of behavior, when the same picture
of an object is shown at different times. At one time such a
stimulus (the picture of an apple) may bring forth the reac-
tion "Apple," at another time "Apfel" and at a third time
"Pomme"
It seems most likely that these variations in activity are due
to physiological variations in the traversing of the axon or the
collaterals. It is not unlikely that as conductors the axon and
the collaterals are physiologically equal, that they may be utilized
equally well or equally often if occasion demands it, and that
the definiteness of response to any particular stimulus is only
a relative definiteness.
In considering the functions of the cerebrum, therefore, we
must rid ourselves of any preconceived notions regarding the
fixity or definiteness of connections. Fixity or definiteness of
an anatomical nature there undoubtedly is, but this fixity or
definiteness is on the physiological side a multiplicity of fixities
and definitenesses. One cell undoubtedly communicates with
many others, and while this is an anatomical fixity it does not
result in a physiological definiteness since at one time such a
cell may be conceived to discharge in one direction along one
collateral and at another time in another direction along another
collateral. At present we may not have sufficient information
to guide us in determining the reasons for the discharge in this
or that direction but the facts at hand indicate that discharges
do take place in this manner.
Somewhat similarly we must explain the facts of differences
in symptoms which are associated with similar cerebral lesions
which have been referred to in a preceding paragraph. If we
conclude that the cerebral paths for habits (or in a gross phreno-
logical sense, for mental operations) need not be the same for
all individuals such symptomatological dissimilarities in con-
nection with like lesions become clearly understandable. If all in-
dividuals do not use the same limited portions for the same
activities (or again in a phrenological vein, for the same mental
processes) the destruction of similar portions of the cerebrum
in different individuals need not produce the same symptoms.
There are at hand sufficient facts in clinical neurological litera-
ture to support the contention that similar lesions do not always
produce similar clinical symptoms or do not result in similar
mental alterations. There are also at hand sufficient facts to
warrant the conclusion that dissimilar lesions may produce
similar symptoms. From the extreme viewpoint of body-mind
relations (to which, however, I do not adhere) such facts are
sufficient to lead to the conclusion that the same mental opera-
tions are not always due to the activities of the same parts
of the brain. From a more conservative standpoint the facts
warrant the conclusion that the same forms of behavior are
not always due to the activities of the same cerebral cells. That
the variability in the functional cerebral connections should ever
have been considered doubtful is probably due to the phreno-
logical views which have influenced, and in fact pervaded, all
neurological literature for many years.
REFERENCES
1. BOEKE, J. Die Regenerationserscheinungen bei der Vertei-
lung von motorischen und rezeptorischen Nervenfasern.
PFLUGER'S Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., 1913, 151, 57-64.
2. BOLTON, J. S. The Brain in Health and Disease. New
York: Longmans, Green, 1914. Pp. xiv + 479-
3. BROWN, T. G. & SHERRINGTON, C. S. On the Instability
of a Motor Point. Proc. Roy. Sac., 1912, B85, 250-277.
4. FRANZ, S. I. On the Functions of the Cerebrum: The
Frontal Lobes. New York : Science Press. 1907. Pp. 64.
(Arch, of Psychol. No. 2.)
5 FRANZ, S. I. On the Functions of the Cerebrum: Symptom-
atological Differences Associated with Similar Cerebral
Lesions in the Insane. Pp. 1-79 of this MONOGRAPH.
6. GRUNBAUM, A. S. & SHERRINGTON, C. S. Observations on
the Physiology of the Cerebral Cortex of Some of the
Higher Apes. Proc. Roy. Soc., 1901, B69, 206-209.
7. KENNEDY, R. Experiments on the Restoration of Paralyzed
Muscles by Means of Nerve Anastomosis. Brit. Med. J.,
1911,2, 14-15. (Abst.)
8. KENNEDY, R. Experiments on the Restoration of Paralyzed
Muscles by Means of Nerve Anastomosis. Proc. Roy. Soc.,
1911, B84, 75-78.
9. OSBORNE, W. A. & KILVINGTON, B. Central Nervous Re-
sponse to Peripheral Nervous Distortion. Brain, 1910, 33,
261-265.
10. SHERRINGTON, C. S. The Integrative Action of the Nervous
System. New York: Scribner's, 1906. Pp. xvi + 4ii.
11. VOGT, C. & O. Zur Kenntnis der elektrisch erregbaren
Hirnrindengebiete. /. /. Psychol. u. Neurol, 1907, 8, 277-
Vol. XIX APRIL, 1915
H,t £ PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW PUBLICATIONS flfcjfc fl0> g£
EDITED BY
JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL. UNIVEKSITY OF CHICAGO
HOWARD C. WARREN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY (Index)
JOHN B. WATSON, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (Review) and
SHEPHERD I, FRANZ, GOVT. HOSP. FOR INSANE (Bulletin)
STUDIES FROM THE PSYCHOLOGICAL LABORA-
TORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
The Psycho-physiological Effect of
the Elements of Speech in
Relation to Poetry
By
ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER, PH.D.
Instructor in Psychology in the University of Washington
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW COMPANY
PRINCETON, N. J.
AND LANCASTER, PA.
ACBNTS: G. E. STECHERT & CO., LONDON (2 Star Yard, Carey St., W. C.;,
LEIPZIG (Koenigstr., 37) ; PARIS (16 rue de Conde)
THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECT OF THE
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION
TO POETRY
The purpose of this investigation is to determine by means
of the expressive method the effects produced by the speech
elements in poetry upon both the motor and introspective con-
sciousness.
Lying on the borderland between Esthetics and Psychology,
the investigation aims to throw light (i) upon the so-called
"tonal theory of poetry," by measuring the emotional value of
the sounds in poetic language without reference to alliterative
or grammatical devices, and (2) to discover what auditory,
kinaesthetic and organic sensations are aroused by the play of
vocal functions in meaningful as well as meaningless collocations
of the elements of language.
The material is presented in the following order :
1. A statistical determination of the frequency of the various
speech elements in English poetry,
2. Experiments upon the psycho-physiological effect of such
elements combined in simple relations,
3. Transmogrifications of English poetry to determine re-
action to the bare tonal elements, and
4. The esthetic and psycho-physiological question: Is the
psycho-physiological value of the poetic sum equal to the sum of
the psycho-physiological values of the separately contributing
phonetic elements?
i. SOUND FREQUENCY IN ENGLISH POETRY
Prior to undertaking the experimental work in the laboratory,
an elaborate statistical record was made by the writer of the
percentage of frequency of the various letter sounds in the lead-
ing English poets from Sydney to Rossetti. The basis for
this work was the observation of very striking differences in the
acoustic and kinaesthetic sensations aroused by the audible
2 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
reading of different poets. Especially was the motor pattern and
the tonal display of such poets as Byron and Keats noticed, and
upon analysis it was found that sound frequency was one element
likely to contribute to the differences between the effects which
they produced. A previous study of vocal music to provide an
increased sensitivity to tonal effects, and of phonography to
hasten the sensori-motor reactions necessary in making the tabu-
lations were found to have been invaluable psychological instru-
ments in this preliminary work. This analysis required over four
years and involved the recording of over 540,000 tonal elements ;
46 phonetic rubrics were employed, and where doubt was enter-
tained over the classification of the elements under the various
rubrics, recourse was had to general poetic usage as well as to
the special idiosyncracies of the individual poets. All the poets
were analysed upon the basis of the current English speech, the
Standard Dictionary being used as the criterion for pronuncia-
tion. The "foot- and -quantity" system was employed to deter-
mine the accentuation, and both accented and unaccented sounds
were registered in the tabulations. Approximately 1,000 lines
of the maturest and most melodious verse of each of the poets
were examined. The result of this work is here summarized :
I. English poets usually employ about 10 accented to 8 un-
accented sounds. Shelley, Browning and Swinburne are the
notable exceptions, each of which gives the ratio of nearly 10 to
10. But their rhythmic patterns determine much of this.
II. Greater variations, general and individual, are noticed in
the use of the accented than of the unaccented sounds.
III. Tennyson and Swinburne deviate most from the average
use of the sounds ; Milton is nearest the average of all the poets
examined.
IV. The greatest individual variations are found among the
most used accented consonants which occur in the following
descending order of frequency : R, N, L, T, S, D, M, etc. But
the smallest individual variations in the use of the unaccented
sounds occur among those of the greatest frequency of use,
namely: u, i, a.
Only a few double consonantal rubrics were employed besides
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 3
the familiar Ch, Wh (Hw), Ng, Sh, and Zh; such double sounds
as Bl, Cr, etc., were split and tabulated as two sounds. While
the work was in progress Josselyn's investigations (see Scripture,
"Elements of Experimental Phonetics," p. 501 ) came to hand, in
which it was shown that a double consonant was simply a single
one strengthened and lengthened, in so far as the time estimation
of rhythmic syllables was concerned; but whether the double or
triple consonantal combinations were felt as fusions or as addi-
tions did not enter in as a standardizing agent in the above work
of tabulation.
Perhaps the most striking thing in the whole work was the con
stant observation of the modifying influence of R. Besides
being the most used sound in English poetry, it is the one most
frequently observed as modifying the quality of juxtaposed
vowels and consonants, and when so found, its local signature is
absorbed by them.
2. THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECT OF
SIMPLE SOUNDS
The experimental work was carried on in the Psychological
Laboratory of Harvard University from 1911 to 1914. It began
with the audible recitation of groups of five iambics, such as
la-mo, la-bo, and la-do. The O was long, and the A was given
as the 'Italian' A. On account of the neglect it received in
the arsus, however, it became the neutral vowel. The time of
the recitation was taken and the chief results were: the appear-
ance of a caesura, the feeling of satisfyingness at the fifth iam-
bic, the changes in feeling-tone, sensations and imagery, as the
different combinations were presented. Only the above three
iambics were employed this way ; in order to obtain a record that
was valuable for the correlation of so motor a function as speech,
some graphic record had to be employed.
HISTORICAL
Briicke1 had obtained kymograph records of ictus and arsis
by means of a quill marker while various kinds of verse were
1 Briicke, "Die physiologischen Grundlagen der neuhochdeutschen Kunst."
4 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
recited.2 Lip movements were also recorded by means of a
lever passing from the lips to the kymograph. His findings were
that the time taken to tap various kinds of poetic feet were almost
equal; at least the arses recurred at equal periods of time, and
the abruptness of the departure of the kymographic tracings
from the abcissa line was found to vary considerably for dif-
ferent poetic metres.
Bourdon3 had traced the neck vibrations at a particularly
mobile place, while certain sounds were uttered, and found very
great amplitudes for the vowel I, less great for O, and lesser
still for A. It appears, however, that the average amplitudes for
combinations of consonants with O was greater than those with
I and A ; the I-combinations being quite the lowest.
In regard to what one might expect with reference to the
general permeability of the psycho-motor organism to stirs of
various sorts, Angell4 held that "only those sensations breaking
in upon a state of relative quiet disturbed the psycho-physical
mechanism enough to make any peripheral difference."
Fere's opinion5 on this matter is that a momentary intel-
lectual activity is accompanied by a momentary increase in power
of the voluntary muscles. He also found that both under the
influence of an intellectual effort and of other things (e.g ., speech
and odors) certain excitations of the muscular sense were aroused.
His studies showed that during the exercise of speech the move-
ments of the right hand were influenced, i.e., augmented, just
as one works a treadle with the foot and finds the synchronous
hand movements augmented as much as a 6th or a 5th ; it is even
stated that the right hand in gesture plays a veritable "esthesio-
genic" role. But the correlation of the amount of energy ex-
pended with pleasurable or unpleasurable states, Fere does not
report in the case of speech ; in connection with odors and the
"The study was not of the pure iambic or other line; inversions of feet
occurred, as usual.
'Bourdon, P., "L'application de la methode graphique a 1'etude de 1'inten-
sitie de la voix," L'Anee Psychologique, 1897.
4 Angell, J. R., "Organic processes and consciousness," Psych. Rev., 1890.
*Fere, Ch., "Sensation et Mouvement," 1900, esp. Chap. 3.
like, the greater energy seems to be aroused in a state of pleasure.
But the final generalization is in these terms: "La sensation de
plaisir se resont done dans une sensation de puissance; la sensa-
tion de deplaisir dans une sensation d'impuissance."
The development of the expressive method itself is a fitting
corollary to the "modern tendency to understand all conscious-
ness in motor terms," and to connect it with the "motor rather
than the sensory side of the organism."6 Professor Miinster-
berg's action theory allies itself with the same tendency. Such
writers as Dearborn,7 Pillsbury,8 Alexander,9 and others give a
large place to the psycho-motor side of the neural arc, though
treating the consciously volitional side of consciousness with
varying degrees of prominence.
In their experiments upon the "Time relations of poetic
metres,"10 Hurst and Mackay appear to have justified somewhat
the method of poetic analysis used herein (only indirectly, how-
ever), and while their subjects only scanned silently or tapped
empty rhythms, they found that the iambic foot was really short-
long and thus that the tapping of the metrical unit laid a stress
upon the so-called accented syllable. Inasmuch as greater differ-
ences appear among the poets (as found by the tables previously
mentioned) in the use of accented than of unaccented sounds, the
above results are pertinent to the present investigation. Fur-
ther comparisons of method and results are hardly possible; they
used the iambic foot only in octosyllabic lines, (e.g., Scott's
poems), and even then the iambus was frequently exchanged for
other kinds of feet.
Scripture's subjects11 read rather than scanned poetry. Trip-
let and Sand ford12 found that the explosive consonants were
" Kostyleff, quoted from E. B. Delabarre, "Volition and motor conscious-
ness-theory," Psych. Bull., 1912.
7 Dearborn, G. V. N., "The relation of muscular activity to the mental
process," Am. Ed. Rev., 1909 (14) 18.
*"The place of movement in consciousness," Psych. Rev., 1911, (18) 83-99.
' Brit. Jouxr. of Psychv 11911 (4) pp. 239-67.
10 Univ. of Toronto Studies, No. 3, 1899.
11 Scripture, E. W., Yale Psych. Stud., Vol. VII, 1899.
""Studies of rhythm and meter," Am. Jour, of Psych., XII, 1901.
6 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
more nearly tapped and spoken at identical times than were the
others. S was almost always syncoped. But in the general, they
found that finger stress indicates quite well the vocal stress,
though minuter correlations are not indicated. To the above
results we ally those of Meumann13 which state that the time
limit of syncope is but 0.02 seconds. Miyake14 found that the
beat of the finger came before the beginning of the vowel when it
stood alone, when it had a glottal catch, when it was short or
long, followed by a final consonant, or when it was short or long
between two consonants. Also, except in the case of B, D, and G,
the beat as tapped came before the vowel following these
consonants.
With regard to the matter of correlating qualitative conscious-
ness states with the motor consciousness, there is to be men-
tioned Dressler's work15 where increased central activity seemed
to favor increased rapidity in voluntary movements; also the
work of Drozynski16 which does not crystallize into any specific
positive correlation, but shows apparently that the unpleasant
stimuli gave the more noticeable arousals. But by 'unpleasant'
we must understand here the many meanings of the term in the
sense of Wundt's tridimensional theory. This writer used no
iambics.17
So much for a general account of some of the more important
and resultful experimentations upon the motor and introspective
phases of an expressive method in psychological esthetics (espe-
cially in re, poetry). But to come down to the particular
elements of our own research, especially the form of the rhyth-
mical presentation and the apparatus used; and first the rhythm
form.
" "Untersuchtmgen zur Psych, und Aesth. der Rhythmus," Wundt's Studien,
X, 1894, p. 419.
14 See Scripture, "Elements of Experimental Phonetics," esp. Chap. 37.
" "Excitement and tapping rates," Am. Jour, of Psych., 1891, IV, p. 523.
""Atmungs und Pulssymptome rhythmischer Gefiihle," Wundt's Psych.
Stud., Vol. 7, pp. 83-140.
1T See also for the effects of pleasant and unpleasant music, F. Rehwoldt,
"Ueber respiratorische Affectssymptome," W-undfs Stud., Vol. 3, pp. 149-192.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY ^
THE CHOICE OF THE IAMBIC FOOT
It was shown above that iambus is a sufficiently character-
istic form to be used as a vehicle for sounds (op. tit. Hurst and
Mackay). There is another justification, however. From the
writer's own experience in the field of literature, the standard,
as well as the most dignified line of English poetry is the iambic,
decasyllabic line; the comic finds a place much more readily in
the octosyllabic (and trochaic) line, or in still smaller forms.
No longer line than this has succeeded for great lengths of
verse, and most of the sustained work of any considerable length
(barring of course Coleridge's "Lyrical Ballads") is written in it,
and even lighter works such as sonnets are not rendered over
heavy by its use. The iambic foot was chosen because it appeared
to be the standard foot in English poetry, not because exceedingly
frequent inversions of it did not occur, nor because dactylic and
anapestic innovations were not part of the very body of even the
heavier epics, nor because runover lines did not frequently ren-
der the iambic-trochaic mele of feet difficult of interpretation
in favor of one or the other kinds as the predominant foot,— but
because the stress of the accented syllable of the iambus seemed
to bring more into prominence the sounds meant to be stressed
than did that of the trochee. Hurst and Mackay (op tit.} found
indeed that the iambus detained its ictus in the motor conscious-
ness twice as long as its arsis, while the time relation of ictus and
arsis in the trochee was only 3/2 to i .
The experiments carried on by Stetson18 and Bingham19 had
effectually shown the advisability of employing some simple vol-
untary process as a basis for psycho-motor correlation. The
method herein employed is practically the same as theirs. The
voluntary process used was the tapping movement of the right
index finger. This movement is exceedingly simple and natural,
and soon tends toward automatism, leaving one's attention entirely
free to be directed upon the stimulus. Very rarely did the
finger movement return to consciousness after it had become
automatic ; when it did so, introspection showed a very unpleasant
18 "Rhythm and Rhyme," Harvard Psych. Stud., Vol. I.
" "Studies in Melody," Harvard Psych. Stud., Vol. II.
8 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
and turgid state of consciousness ; which state seems to be present
usually when any chain of habitual responses is broken.
THE APPARATUS
The form of the apparatus was as follows : Upon two tables
placed about two metres apart, revolving brass drums were fas-
tened ; over these drums passed a smoked paper belt ; the driving
mechanism was at one end, the record-taking device was at the
other. The subject sat comfortably at the side of the table and
laid his right arm on a flat wooden rest having a notch sufficiently
long to avoid all possible interference with the index finger,
which was left free to move throughout its entire natural range
of flexion or extension. To have had the finger strike against
some resisting surface would have prevented our detecting any
slight variations which the stimuli produced and inasmuch, also,,
as the characteristic departures of the tapped strokes from the
abscissa line were of great importance for most of the subjects,
the lack of objective controls in the tapping was an obvious
advantage.
The periodic movement of the finger was recorded as follows :
the end of the finger was placed in an oilcloth cot which was
used for all the experimental work without being changed, and
from the cot ran a fine silk thread up over a small brass pulley
(always kept well oiled) through a guide, and was fastened to a
small aluminum marker of triangular shape. From the other end
of the marker ran a small rubber band to an unright support.
The point of the marker rested on the smoked ribbon, at a place
on its surface quite close to the vertical axis of the drum, and
so neatly was this whole apparatus constructed and so slight
was the tention of the rubber band, that it was hardly per-
ceptible to the subjects and did not interfere with the freedom
and naturalness of the movement. The tension was not altered
throughout the experiments. The thread and rubber band were
renewed in duplicate at about equal intervals and thus the mechan-
ical errors in the recording device were reduced to a minimum.
The smoked paper ribbon was driven by a gravity motor of
sufficiently constant speed to reduce the error of inconstancy to
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 9
less than i per cent. Its rate was i cm. = 1.54 sec. The driving
mechanism was enclosed in a i>6 in. soft-pine box, lined with
very heavy felt, and the only sound audible was an exceedingly
faint, and not unpleasant whirr, which soon became accommo-
dated and was never again noticed. A control string passed from
the motor up over a pulley to the other end of the belt to where
the experimenter sat, and thus the movements of the experimenter
were very slight.
As the finger moved up and down while the ribbon revolved,
tracings were made on the smoked surface and, since the pointer
accurately recorded the full extent of finger movement as well as
such qualitative differences as suddenness and quiverings in
flexion and extension, the smoked paper ribbon translated much
of the voluntary movement into visible terms.
No suggestions or illustrations were ever given as to rate or
extent of finger movement; each subject was allowed to make his
own pattern, and for this a little preliminary tapping was em-
ployed using empty 5-iambic lines. In recording the introspec-
tion, which was done without inserting a screen between subject
and experimenter, great care was always taken to betray no sign
that the introspection given was agreeable or not to the results
sought after. At least, all conscious control of the matter was
assiduously avoided.
The apparatus was arranged so that the subject sat facing the
window, from which only a patch of sky was visible; the aspect
was northerly, and there being little or no direct sunlight, the
lighting of the room was fairly constant throughout the whole
period of experimentation.
PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS
The first experiment to be tried with the above tapping device
was a decasyllabic line made of five iambics, repeating la-mo.
This line was repeated five times. The instructions ran as fol-
lows: "This is an experiment upon the psycho-motor effect of
the sounds in poetry; while you recite the line, tap at each ac-
cented syllable ; take your own time to do it, tap in a natural way,
in as long or as short strokes as you please ; say it in a clear voice
io ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
and then introspect upon the three factors of feeling-tone, sensa-
tions and imagery, if all three come; otherwise just give me
the introspectional conscious content, much or little; it is the
sounds and their effects which you are to attend to. I pull this
string and start the motor; after that, whenever you are ready,
recite and tap; the line is to be spoken and tapped five times;
pause between the lines just enough to control the start of the
next line ; have you got the instructions in mind ? are you ready ?
etc." This instruction was not repeated in toto at every hour's
work to every subject; as much of it, however, as was deemed
necessary from psychognostic reasons was repeated, in order
to get the same 'set' for each group of experiments. Inasmuch
as the motor field was so narrow, the tapping soon became
automatic, and the instructions could be reduced to: "This is to
be tapped as the others were, — on the accented syllable." And
since most of the experiments were written out and the accents
marked in red, this fact rendered full instructions obsolete.
La-mo was followed on the same day by two other experi-
ments, la-bo and la-ro. All of the eight subjects found the
la-ro pleasant; one subject, W., found la-mo unpleasant, and
A. found la-bo unpleasant. In general, la-mo was found to have
a "soft, smooth character," like the gentler sounds of nature;
la-ro, on the other hand was said to represent the roar of waves
and to have less personal reference than la-mo; while la-bo im-
plied something insistent and was referred to as "trivial."
One cannot lay much importance upon the affect-motor corre-
lations in these experiments, for the subjects had not yet become
accustomed to the tapping; A. and W., for example, found it
more convenient and natural (?) at first to represent the ictus
by an up-stroke of the finger. The down stroke was
suggested, and they attempted it, but for the first few weeks,
at least, found that it was more difficult to employ it. The
records, nevertheless, were measured with respect to the ictus,
whether it had been functioned by an up or a down stroke. It
seemed very curious that an accented syllable should be repre-
sented by means of the weaker of the two movements of the
finger.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 11
Of these three combinations, la-bo appears to have aroused
the greatest feeling of energy. A. seemed to find it so; B. cer-
tainly declared it as such; L. and T. also indicated the same
tendency. But B. moved his finger farther in the recitation
of la-mo and la-ro than he did in the more "energetic" la-bo.
So did L., while T. who found la-ro to represent "something
substantial" employed the greatest force for that sound, and
was consistent with respect to la-bo, which he called more active
than la-mo. But this was all in the learning stage, and it is
not surprising to find that practice increases the length of the
tappings, on account of the greater familiarity and confidence
with the work which it brings. The subjects were asked to
rank these three experiments according to pleasantness, and
the following scheme shows what relation degrees of pleasure
have to motor discharge in this first group of experiments,
(Descending pleasantness represented by A. B. C.)
Subject (A Tapp.) (B. Tapp.) (C. Tapp.)
Av. Av. Av.
A -ro 44.1 mm. -mo 38.3 mm. -bo 44.9 mm.
B -ro 78.1 -mo 83.5 4>o 76.2
F -ro 45.8 -mo 58.0 -bo 46.4
L -ro 51.8 -mo 66.7 -bo 50.7
N -ro 86.8 -bo 87.7 -mo 83.3
T -ro 76.0 4)0 73.6 -mo 62.6
W -ro 54.8 -mo 24.6 -bo 55.3
Z -ro 43.5 -mo 51.2 -bo 42.3
Three of the subjects, A., W., and Z., ascend in length of
tappings as the feeling tone ascends. Three of them, B., L.,
and T., all give the medium stroke to the experiment they found
in the middle degree of pleasantness but all three also ally the
greatest degree of pleasure to the least amount of motor dis-
charge. The other two, F., and N., show no correlation at all.
The next two experiments were the combinations de-ho, and
ho-de (both long vowels). From graphing the objective re-
sults it appeared that ho-de produced on the average a greater
motor output than did de-ho. Also the curve of the latter rises
and falls, — from the first to the middle a rise, and from the
middle to the end a descent; this was general for all the sub-
jects: some reported a little exhilaration, strain and the like,
but no feeling of fatigue, or exhaustion. The ho-de curve.
12 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
on the other hand, rises almost continuously from start to finish,
with a remarkable rise on the fourth foot of the fifth group,
and a no less striking descent on the last accented syllable of
the series. But the last three groups show the same general
tendency, — that of emphasizing the motor prominence of the
fourth foot of the group. The first group of either, however,
shows almost the same kind of form, which may be due to the
persistence of the motor "set."
Three of the subjects, A., L., and T. preferred ho-de; in
each case the tapped strokes were longer for the more pleasant;
but in the former experiments, only one of them, A., showed
this feature. All the other subjects, B., F., N., W., and Z.
manifested a preference for de-ho; all but N, as mentioned above,
tapped shorter strokes while reciting it. Four of the subjects
found the vocal construction caused by the "-de" an unpleasant
feature. But inasmuch as there was no objective standard of
intensity or other vocal quale which was to be followed, the
matter of constriction cannot be raised to a very high impor-
tance. One can say "ho-de" with countless degrees of energy
and the like, and usually no subject intensified an unpleasant
sensation; rather was the voice weakened and lowered to avoid
it. On the same day, also as de-ho and ho-de were given, the
combination ra-fo (both vowels long) was given. The explosive
character of the f tended upon repetition to destroy the pleasant-
ness with which it started out.
The graphings showed a remarkable steadiness of motor reac-
tion for this combination until the last group of five iambics
was reached.
The next two experiments were de-sto, and sto-de (vowels
both long). Curiously enough, the differences in the amount
of motor discharge did not appear until the fourth and fifth
groups, and while the ho-de graph kept rising after the third
group, and de-ho fell, here the case was altered completely;
de-sto showed an ascent, but in the middle of the line only ( !) ;
but again, the accented O produced a slower reaction than did
the E. One must remember, of course, that not only is the
accented syllable different in each of these four experiments,
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 13
but also is the unaccented syllable. Furthermore, the subjects
reported that not only did the iambic attempt to become a trochee,
but the unaccented syllable also tended to demand an accent!
Correlating the feeling-tone with the motor discharge of
these two experiments, we find that subjects A. and F. tapped
longer strokes for the pleasant than for the unpleasant experi-
ments; N., W., and Z. reversed this; L. tapped longer strokes
for the unpleasant than for the indifferent, while B. and T.
tapped longer strokes for the pleasant than for the neutral.
A comparison of these results with those given previously shows
very little constancy.
THE PSYCHO-MOTOR EFFECTS OF N
The next seven experiments were constructed to ascertain the
effect of accented N; the unaccented syllable, "be" (short e)
was chosen because it seemed to be about as explosive as N,
and thus would be a good balance for it. The experiments
were: be-ne (e short), be-ne (e long), be-ni (i short), be-ni
( i long), be-na (a long), be-nu (u short) and be-noo (oo long).
N is also a much used sound in the language. Seeing that these
experiments furnished a better body of material than any pairs
or triads which had preceded, it was decided to correlate accord-
ing to the mean, the mean variation, and the range. In-
trospectionally, N appeared to arouse an attitude of negation.
This group of experiments also appeared as the conjugation
of a verb, and took on at once with most of the subjects a dis-
tinctly "oriental" character. The N dominated consciousness,
in spite of the changing final vowel. The experiments were all
given on the same day ; which may also account for the following
constancy in numerical results.
Rank list. Average of the tappings for each subject.
Subject
A
Be-ne
.. .. b
-ne
b
-m
c
-ni
c
-na
b
-nu
b
-noo
b
Variation
B
h
h
h
F.
e
e
e
d
g
d
L
. .. d
d
d
e
d
H
N, .
h
h
h
h
T
f
f
f
f
f
f
f
W. .
c
c
b
b
c
Z.
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
n
I4 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
If, however, we take the averages of the tappings for the
pleasant, unpleasant and neutral experiments, no such harmony
is manifest. As follows:
PUN
Average of arranged in
Subject PUN order of magnitude
A 52-9 53-3 514 U P N
B 78.0 76.7 80.4 N P U
F. 62.9 62.4 65.0 N P U
L 62.3 62.5 65.0 PUN
N 78-5 80.8 — UP —
T 68.0 68.1 65.2 UPN
W 53-8
Z 46.0 49.1 UP —
But even if no judgments of unpleasantness or neutrality were
made by some of the subjects, yet the above table shows that
when such judgments were made, it was not at a time when the
tappings were the longest; one is again at this place referred
to Fere's "sensation et mouvement", op. cit. Where comparison
is possible in these above citations, rarely did the pleasant feeling
tone go with the longest tapped strokes. The balance hangs
almost evenly between neutrality and unpleasantness in this
respect.
The rank lists of the mean variations, hereafter denominated
by M.V. and of the ranges, that is, the millimetric distance
between the longest and the shortest tapped strokes, denominated
later by Rnj, show no positive correlation. In this instance,
also, the averages of the M.V. and of the Rnj. for the P., U.,
and N, experiments is hardly significant.
The graphs for these experiments showed that be-ne and be-ne
are similar in their capacity to arouse equal amounts of motor
discharge. The average difference is but 2mm. All things con-
sidered, the increase of motor output was fairly steady from
start to finish. Bern and Be-ni showed a less increase from
start to finish and in the third and fourth group of five iambics
stood somewhat apart. There was a general rise in be-nu, but
be-noo fell almost precipitously at the close. Be-na tended to
duplicate be-ne and be-ne. These differences can hardly be
correlated with those of feeling tone, for the be-ne was found
to be pleasant by 3 persons, Unp, by 4, and indifferent by one;
be-ne, which followed it quite faithfully in the graph, was
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 15
chosen pleasant by 7, and Unp. by one. Likewise, be-nu was
found pleasant by two persons, Unp. by three, and yet this graph
does not ascend at all like the other one or with so great an up-
ward slant; moreover, be-noo, which was chosen pleasant by
all the subjects (including the 7 who chose be-ne as pleasant),
did not produce the same kind of a graph in appearance as did
be-ni. Furthermore, there was no report from the subjects that
they felt the finger strokes getting longer or shorter in any
such way as these graphs indicate they must have done. And
every one of the subjects contributed to the increases and de-
creases. One can but conjecture then, that some of the neural
currents find their way out of the central system along that
motor channel which is already in use, without making their
functional nature known to the introspective consciousness. It
was unpleasant, also, for nearly all of the subjects to be aware
of their lip and tongue movements; and while some of them
actually did raise the pitch of their voices at the finish of be-na
and be-ni, yet they had no notion of it, much less of the fact
that they were tapping in co-ordination with this general in-
crease of effort. The only introspection they gave on this matter
was "a feeling of difficulty" (e.g. with be-ni) and a "feeling of
activity" etc. (e.g. with be-ni). That both of these should
produce the same general increase of tapping is interesting.
THE EFFECT OF LONG OO
The next experiments were of the same general character.
Ro (long o) was chosen as the unaccented foot, and the long
accented vowel was oo (long). Both being long, open vowels,
a good balance was expected. Furthermore, the long oo vanishes
quite readily into a long o, preceded by R. Unlike the former
group, which was devised to study the effect of accented N, this
group intended to bring into prominence the mouth resonances,
rather than the articulation pressure of the consonant N. The
following consonants, in the following order, were prefixed to
the accented long oo: B, M, V, TH (sonant), D, Z, SH,
J, L, and G. As usual, the iambic decasyllabic line was employed,
and repeated five times.
16 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
From the introspection given for these experiments it was
found that the long vowels employed in them dominated the
combinations and had a non-personal reference. Frequently the
effect became soporific, and again, when the consciousness of
facial expression involved while reciting them became observed,
the subjects were inclined to call the emotion thus induced one
of "supplication" or "complaint." None of the consonants at-
tached to this vowel ever became at all "hard," or difficult to say.
The rank list for the mean of these experiments.
Experiment Ro-boo -moo -voo -thoo -doo -zoo -shoo -joo -loo -goo
Subject
A
d
e
e
e
f
d
e
d
e
f
B
e
d
g
g
d
f
f
f
f
e
C
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i*
F
f
f
c
d
e
e
d
e
d
d
L
b
c
b
b
b
b
c
b
b
b
N
g
h
f
f
h
g
g
g
h
g
T
c
b
d
c
c
c
b
c
c
c
W
h
g
h
h
g
h
h
h
g
h
Y
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
at
Comparing these ranks with those of the be-ni type of experi-
ment and with only those subjects who took part in both, we
find them showing the following divergences from a steady
position :
Be-ni, etc., A. 2, B. 3, F. 2, L. 2, N. 3, T. o, W. 2.
Ro-boo, etc., . . . A. 5, B. 6, F. 8, L. 2, N. 5, T. 3, W. 3.
The first group represented here contained 7 experiments, the
second, 10. One can expect a wider latitude of variation in a
greater quantity of material. F., alone seems to have increased
the ratio of divergence more than would be expected. It was
noticed, also, that the organic stirs which some of these experi-
ments, like, for example, Ro-thoo set up, was not shaken off
by him (F.) until several of the subsequent experiments had
been performed. Besides, -moo and -voo had disturbed his
original position in the ranks, which was "f." He never after-
wards regained it in this set of experiments.
The introspection for the above experiments contained many
expressions of "feelings of activity," "struggles," "quiet states,"
*, Subject C. now begins to tap the longest strokes of any and f Subject Y.
remains in the lowest position. It is the rank of the other seven subjects,
who varied the length of their tappings most and whose tappings are nearer
alike in length which needs to be considered especially.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 17
and so on. Let us compare these with the amounts of motor
discharge in the tappings :
A. felt "-moo" to be easy, and "thoo" to be a struggle; and
the M. for -moo is greater than for -thoo; again, in -loo, he
felt activity, but the M. for -loo is not as high as it is for -shoo,
-joo, and -goo, in each of which there were unpleasant mouth
sensations. B. felt -joo to be the most energetic, and his M. for
this is the highest of the series, 94.8; -thoo, which brought
visual imagery of a dense crowd, was accompanied by a M. of
94.0; -zoo, with "openness," has an M. of 91.0; but while with
th, "crowdedness" is correlated with 94.8 mm., "sultriness" in
the imagery of -doo is correlated with only 77.6 mm. in the mean
of the tappings.
C. shows some nice correlation between energetic and passive
states in connection with -boo, -moo and -voo ; but -loo is higher
in the M. than -joo. F. gave the lowest of his M.'s to -voo and
-thoo, which he found the most difficult to say, while in the sounds
which brought a feeling of activity, he taps the longest strokes.
L. does not seem to offer correlation either way. N. during
states in which activity is felt, taps longer strokes than when
some restraint is manifest; c.f. -voo, -doo, -zoo and -loo as
compared with -boo, -thoo, and -joo. T. and Y. do not seem
to furnish any definite correlations. W. taps variously for the
energetic sounds, yet gives a M. of 99.8 to -zoo, which did not
seem to appear energetic to him.
Thus the three factors of "free activity," "restraint" and "quiet
ease" do not correlate with the amounts of motor discharge in
any way as one might expect. Three classes of subjects are evi-
denced in the above records ; — those who tend towards relaxation
in the finger when they feel it in the imagery or in the utter-
ance of the sounds, those who do the opposite, and those who vary
throughout the experiments. But it is perhaps too early in the
work to make any general statements.
Correlation of feeling-tone with motor discharge
Experiments : ro-boo ro-goo, as before
Subjects PI. Unpl. Neutral
A 83.6 84.2 84.9 N U P
B 89.3 77-6 85.7 P N U
C 103.1 108.8 109.2 N U P
L
. .1 61.4
64.2
N
01.6
90.4
T
85.5
76.1-
06.0
Y
46.6
46.0
18 ROBERT CHENAULT CILLER
— P U —
63.0 U N P
— P U —
— P U —
— 88.8 P N —
— P U —
This seems to give a decidedly different sort of result from
that of the Be-ni type of experiment revealed with respect to the
length of the tappings during the pleasant experiments; but
if the single experiments are taken into consideration, it will
be found that while subjects A. L. T. and W. do tap the longest
strokes for the most pleasant of the pleasant experiments, yet
the other subjects do not do so; B. C. F. and N. show no prefer-
ences, while Y. taps the shortest. But this division of the sub-
jects into classes does not run parallel with the above division into
classes on the basis of motor output and feelings of restraint,
activity or quiet ease. But until we come to a set of experiments
in which each one of the subjects is represented in all three feel-
ing tones, it is hardly fair to pit one set of results over against
another to the detriment of either. It may well be that the
continuance of pleasant states or of other kinds has its own special
effect upon the motor resources.
Considering the three rank lists, M., M.V. and Rnj. together,
find that the number of aberrations from a steady position is very
great, and only the following remarks are appropriate :
i. Subjects C., F. and N., approach and sometimes maintain
some degree of regularity in the Mean Variation and in the
Range, yet only one of these, C., remained steady in the Mean
rank list. Here, in the M.V., this subject has four f-positions
and in the Rnj., three g-positions, with a general tendency to
maintain them. Subject F. who had eight displacements in the
Mean rank list, steadies himself with three h-positions in the
M.V. rank list, and with three g-positions in the Rnj. rank list,
but only in the latter does he tend toward making that letter his
moorings. Subject N., with five displacements in the Mean
rank list, shows here steadiness in the M.V. list, tending toward
an a-position, and in the Rnj. list his tendency is toward maintain-
ing the same position also. But Y, who was absolutely steady in
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 19
the Mean rank list, here shows only three h-positions in the M.V.
and but three c-positions in the Rnj. rank list.
2. Most of the other subjects, who tended toward some steadi-
ness in the Mean rank list, here are scattered up and down the
scales in complete disorder.
Correlations were shown before between the feeling tone and
the averages of all the tappings for the pleasant, unpleasant and
neutral combinations. There follows a similar table, showing
the correlation between the feeling tone and averages of all
the mean variations and ranges of all the tappings during the
various feeling tone states.
(Repeating the former correlations with the mean.)
Experiments : ro-boo ro-goo.
Subjects Pleas. Unpl. Neut. (Mean) N U P
A. M.V 3.1 3.4 2.4 U P N
Rnj 18 19 12 U P N
U
B. M.V 3.7 3.2 4.1
Rnj 20 13 19
(i
N U P
C. M.V 4.5 3.7 2.9 PUN
Rnj 19 24 16 U P N
«
P U*
F. M.V 3-5 3-0 P U
Rnj 20 18 PU
U
U N P
L. M.V 3-5 34 4-9 N P U
Rnj 18 17 23 NPU
<(
P U
N. M.V 2.2 2.9 UP
Rnj 12 14 — UP
it
P U*
T. M.V 3-8 3-4 P U
iRnj 20 19 — P U
a
P N
W. M.V , 3-0 2.7 P N
Rnj 16 — 17 N P
1C
P U
Y. M.V 3.1 3.0 P U
Rnj 17 22 UP
* Where only two kinds of affective judgments are made, of course the
possibility of correlation is better, but even chance would give as good
correlations as N., W., and Y. show.
20 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
The graphs for these experiments showed an entirely new char-
acter in the visible record of the average of the tappings for all
the subjects. With few exceptions, the rise is only initial, but
not a great deal of importance is to be given to the first group of
five iambics in any of the experiments, because no preliminary
tapping was done by any of the subjects ; they all began to tap and
recite at the same time. The averages of the Be-ni type of ex-
periment were all below 70 mm.; these are all above 77 mm.;
evidently all the subjects got more familiar with the work. In-
deed, all of them seem to have by this time passed the period
of the "Anregung," as can be easily demonstrated from the
tables which are to follow. It remains to be seen whether the
subjects respond to the material of the experiment in such a way
as to furnish correlations between feeling-tone and motor dis-
charge in point of Mean, Mean variation and Range that will be
of any service in determining the psycho-motor effect of the
speech elements in poetry. Referring to the graphs again, it
appears that the vowel OO swallows the consonants which pre-
cede it, and to produce in the drawings the visible effect of OO
rather than of B, M, TH and so forth. It remains to be seen
whether the other vowels to be experimented upon perform this
same usurpative function or not. It will be remembered that
OO dominated also the introspective consciousness in these
experiments.
THE EFFECT OF LONG E
The next ten experiments were devised to exhibit the effect of
long E. The unaccented syllable was "la" (given as the Italian
A, but it immediately became the neutral vowel).
In general, the effect of "E" was to produce feelings of tension,
and as a long vowel, it was thought to take decidedly less time
than either O or OO. Some of the subjects tried to "put force
into it," but did not succeed ; it appeared to cause restraint, rather
than the "expected sense of outward control." All of the subjects
called its pitch very high and not at all like the effect of most
words containing long E's. It also appeared to be more modified
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 21
by the consonants preceding it than were the vowels in the other
previously given experiments.
From constructing the rank lists for the mean of the tappings
for these experiments, one sees greater variation from a steady
position than with either of the two previously given groups
of experiments. As follows :
Be-ni A. 2 6.3 C. 3 F. 2 L. 2 N. 3 T. o W. 2 Y. o
Ro-boo 5 6 8 8 2 5 3 3 o
-foe 10 in 89379 30
Should we ask whether the change in the rank for each subject
denotes a change in the feeling tone, the answer is doubtfully
given either way. Y. found all these experiments pleasant, and
keeps the same rank, but this subject's tappings are way lower
in length than any of the other subjects'. W., who finds the
last nine of these experiments pleasant and who varies very little
in his position in the ranks, may be said to be fairly constant,
but subject B., who also found the last nine experiments pleasant,
varies his position in the ranks more than any of the other
subjects (n points). L., who is quite steady, varies his posi-
tion even when he finds consecutive experiments are equally pleas-
ant or otherwise; while N., who finds the first eight experiments
pleasant varies most during the first part of the rank list.
Let us examine once more the averages of the tappings with
reference to feelings of activity, hindrance and the like. A. felt
a strain while reciting -fe, and his average is low; -ke and -le,
which were felt to be active, show high averages. C. found -ne
more energetic than -le, but tapped shorter strokes for it ; -ge he
found to be "powerful," and his average tapping is the highest
for this sound. But -che is also quite active, and yet the average
of the tappings is low. He thought he was tapping very long
strokes for -the, but he was mistaken. F. began to feel strain
sensations with the recitation of -ne, and from this point on he
taps longer strokes; he called -ke less free than -le, and taps
longer strokes for the latter sound. When L. found -ke a "hard"
sound, his tappings were lower. Usually, the more "harmonious
states of mind" brought the lowest averages for N.'s tappings.
But when W. felt the freest, his tappings were the longest. Sub-
22 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
jects A., F., N. and possibly W. seem to be keeping quite constant ;
they tap the longest strokes in the freely active states, and
vice versa.
Correlation between feeling-tone and motor-discharge, with respect to the
mean of all the experiments, grouped under the three degrees of affect, P., U.,
and N.
Experiments : -be -ge.
Subjects PI. U N
A.., 85.0 81.3 85.0 PNU
B 83.0 — 87.4 N P
C 93-1 85.6 86.6 UPN
F 81.5 77.0 P U
L 68.3 74-8 65.5 UPN
N 88.5 90.2 N P
T 79.3 76.2 78.0 PNU
W 94-8 91.8 — P U
Y 50.8 — —
Comparing this with the correlations for the -boo experiments,
we find F., L., T. and W. somewhat similar in their preferences,
but the other subjects vary exceedingly. L., indeed is the only
one giving three judgments who duplicates himself.
Of all the subjects, Y. appears the most constant all the way
through. N.'s ranges rank fairly steadily, but the Mean is not
constant. W. and L. represent the best averages, after Y. C.,
who varies much in the F.T. as the experiments proceed, also
varies much in these rank lists, but other subjects do not correlate
in the same way.
Correlation between feeling tone and the averages of all the M.V.'s and
Rnj.'s for the various experiments (together with the previously given data
for the Mean).
Experiments : -be -ge.
Subjects Pleas. Unpl. Neut. (Mean) PNU
A. M.V 4.3 5.4 2.6 UPN
Rnj 23 21 13 PUN
N P
B. M.V 4.1 3.0 P N
Rnj 48 — ii PN
UPN
C. M.V 3.9 2.7 2.3 PUN
Rnj 21 19 20 PNU
P U
F. M.V 3.9 3.2 — P U
Rnj 16 18 UP
UPN
L. M.V 3.4 3.7 4.8 N U P
Rnj 15 16 18 N U P
N P
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 23
N. M.V 2.3 2.1
Rnj 21 ii —
«
T. M.V 4-2 34 4-6
Rnj 21 14 16
«
W.M.V 3-6 3-5 —
Rnj 23 21
Y. M.V 2.8
Rnj 14
Here W. alone remains constant. All the rest vary almost
as much as is possible with three permutable terms.
Something must be said now in regard to the last two sets
of experiments in point of constancy in tapping during all the
pleasant, unpleasant and neutral states. We observe that the
final average of the mean, mean variation and the range do not
adequately represent in most of the cases the general results. If
one studies the variations from these averages, he will see that
especially in the "pleasant" experiments, there is almost no
confidence to be put in these figures as representative. It is not
so much so in the case of the "unpleasant" experiments. Space
does not permit a full review of this interesting point, but in
general, the pleasant states have more varied ways of represent-
ing themselves in the tapping than do the others. The subjects
frequently show that there is more variation from the mean of
the "pleasant" tappings when there is no interruption in the
affective tone as the list precedes, than when some other condi-
tion is manifest. This is very curious. And the objections that
might be brought against any such method of experiment seem
now to have plenty of reasons for their existence. Some might
say that there should have been more careful judgments on the
degrees of pleasure, to obtain a more accurate correlation, but it
was deemed a very arbitrary matter to oblige the subjects to say
""pleasure i, 2, or 3" when they did not feel such a difference to
be manifest.
Our next interest is in the graphs for these long E experiments.
Ke, -ne, -ve, -me, and -le all start stronger than do the others,
and also move straight across the page; while the others ascend
fairly well together, but end in different degrees of strength.
24 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
The "scatter" of the first group of these graphs is greater in
the second and third groups of iambics, — that of the others (the
-be, -ge, -the, -che, and -fe) is prominent only in the last two
groups. One might say that L, M, N, and V, being pleasant, had
here shown positive correlation between pleasantness and motor
discharge, since they are all lower than those of the most unpleas-
ant experiments, those employing K, G, B, and TH, but -ke is in
the group which shows the less motor discharge. Also -che,
which everybody found pleasant, is next to the very topmost
graph of the lot, which means that its average is to be placed with
the other pleasant experiments. Ranking the experiments in a
descending order of pleasantness, below which are the final aver-
ages of all the tappings, it can be shown, that with the exception
Exp -che -le -ne -me -ve -fe -the -ke -ge -be
Av 80.2 85.8 82.8 83.2 82.0 78.6 81.2 86.6* 78.4 78.4
of -ke*, the correlation runs positive with the pleasantness. As
for -ke, it was chosen as indifferent by two of the subjects. But
this apparent correlation may be due to the tapping of but one
subject, W., who gave the longer tappings to the pleasant com-
binations.
The next experiments to be tried were devised with a view of
discovering the effect of the "aw" sound. They were five in
number. The unaccented syllable was De, (long E). Aw was
preceded by these consonants : f , th, t, n, and g.
Introspectively it proved to appear pitched very low, to have
a tendency to become nasal ; not very musical, but arousing more
organic stir than any sound previously used.
The rank list for the Mean of these experiments is, with symbols P, U, N
indicating the feeling tone, as follows :
Experiment: -faw -thaw -taw -naw -gaw
Subject
A. d-P c-U c-P c-P c-P
B f-P d-U f-P f-P h-P
F. ,
C,N
& «"
e-P
e-P
d-U
e-N
L
b-p
b-U
b-P
b-U
b-N
N
h-p
h-P
R-P
g-P
f-P
T. ,
e-P
f-P
d-P
e-N
d-N
W
i-N
i-U
h-P
i-P
ff-N
Y. .
a-N
a-N
a-N
a-N
a-N
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 25
Notice here that subject Y. would hold position -a- in the
ranks, regardless of feeling tone; and that L., whose position in
the ranks is -b- in these experiments, shows here lower tapping
averages than he has for some time. It is hardly possible to
make any statement about these ranks, except to say that the
subjects are all more anchored to one position than in the case
of either the Ro-boo or the La-be experiments.
In regard to feelings of effort and activity, C. described -naw
as requiring effort, but the average for this experiment is almost
the lowest of the series. -Taw, which gave a feeling of activity,
is correspondingly high, but -thaw, which affected him the same
way, fails to show in these averages ; -f aw, also requiring effort,
is parallel in effect to -naw. The other subjects do not furnish
enough examples to make correlation exact.
Grouping the above results according to feeling tone, and
taking their averages, we obtain :
Subjects P. U. N
A 64.9 66.7 UP
B 80.9 73.6 P U
C 88.6 85.3 97-8 N P U
F 76.4 71-3 70-5 PUN
L 57-8 55-0 58.0 N P U
N „ 86.6
T 75-0 73 5 P N —
W 90.6 97.1 87.2 U P N
Y 28.9
which, as results along this line, are not paralllel with any that
have been obtained before.
The rank lists for the M.V. and the Rnj. show that of all the
subjects, only W. and Y. keep some sort of anchorage in them;
the rest vary indiscriminately.
Grouping (and averaging) all the Means, Mean-variations and
Ranges according to feeling tone, we obtain the following:
(Order of greatest to least)
Subject
A. M. UP
M.V UP
Rnj P U
.26 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
B. (as a'bove) P U
P U
P U
C. . N P U
P N U
P N U
F. . PUN
N U P
N P U
L N P U
PUN
N P U
N all P
T. . P N
P N
P N
W. . U P N
PUN
U P N
Y all N
From the graphs for these experiments it appears that -gaw
ascends steadily; -ge, in the preceding series, on the other hand,
maintained a horizontal position. -Naw and -ne are likewise
opposite in tendency, indicating some comparison in regard to
these consonants. But -faw and -fe show the very opposite traits,
as well as do -thaw and -the. One is tempted to correlate with
the articulation-character of these consonants, but the amount
of experimentation is as yet too meager. However, one thing
more may be noticed, and that is that all of these -aw experi-
ments but one, namely -naw, show in their final averages that
the vowel "aw" tends to swallow up the consonants, in a way
that the vowel "e" never did. Time did not permit any further
experimentation with this vowel sound; furthermore, it is not a
very important one in the tables of sound frequencies for English
poetry. For equal bulks of material, nevertheless, and for those
consonants which were used alike before accented -aw and -e, it is
not idle to point to these results as showing something quite
significant in the psycho-motor effect of the speech elements of
poetry. Any one can see that the whole matter is one of amazing
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 27
complexity; later results may induce some sort of generalization
of a specific character, but whether pro or con the matter of
vocal valences, cannot be foretold at this time.
EXPERIMENTS UPON THE FOUR MOST USED LONG
VOWELS IN ENGLISH POETRY: A, E, I, O
We next undertook an extended study of the psycho-motor
effect of the long vowels A, O, I and E. Ten subjects took part
in the experiments.
The experimental material was made on this plan: The un-
accented syllable was "la" (neutral vowel), and the various
consonants were prefixed to each of the above vowels to make
such combinations as "La-BA," "La-DA," "La-CHE," etc.
there were twenty-four experiments on each vowel, which at
the same time were experiments on each of the consonants em-
ployed; thus we had four experiments in which the consonant B
was used, and so on for all the series. The experiments were all
given to each of the subjects in the same order, at the rate of
about eight or ten an hour.
The last two experiments in each series of twenty-four are
slightly different from the rest ; in the tables presented later they
are called A, A2, O, O2, etc. The twenty-third experiment in
each series, A, O, I, E, consisted simply in reciting the open
vowel five times in a group and for five groups, filling in the
unaccented syllable subjectively. Experiment number twenty-
four in each group is a line of verse in which all the accented
vowels are the same, thus : A2 is the line, "The gray and rainy
April makes the May." O2 is "The homeless ocean moaning o'er
the shoal" ; 12 is, "The dying fire lights the silent sky," and E2
is "And dreaming seem to hear the weary sea." No such lines
exist in poetry, but they served the purpose in hand.
It was found by introspection that the characteristic thing
about the long A was its "flat and uninteresting" quality. It was
by no means energetic, and when liked, it was termed "soft and
quiet" ; vocally it was felt to be directed downwards rather than
upwards. As far as the vowel-vanish is concerned, it was so
little noticed by the subjects that we need not mention it; of course
2& ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
the repetition of the same iambic foot brought it so closely into
contact with L in the unaccented syllable, as almost to nullify the
effect of the vanish.
One rather remarkable thing was noticed in the numerical re-
sults for the A2 experiments: The mean of the tappings for
every subject in this experiment drops below what it was for
the previous experiment, A; with most of the subjects, also, it
is lower than their average for all the other A experiments. Thus
an influx of consonants, to say nothing of meanings, tended to
reduce the lengths of the tappings. Changes in the apperceptive
consciousness appear to induce changes in the motor setting.
O, from the introspection given upon the experiments concerned
with this vowel, was more easily said than A, directed from the
mouth more horizontally, more of an object of the esthetic con-
sciousness, and more associated with the wind and water sounds
of nature than the preceding one. Consciousness 'had more play
with regard to O than A, — one could inspect the fringes and
return to the focus, or maintain disparate foci quite easily during
its recitation.
The character of the long I was found to be considerably more
intense and forceful than that of A or O. Also the diphthongal
character was very poorly concealed under the constant recur-
rence of the unaccented consonant. But I is a true diphthong
and the introspection thus faithfully gives a prominent place both
to the E-vanish and to the Italian A with which it begins. Its
pitch seemed at once higher, its utterance less smooth, and the
mouth movement more conscious than that of the preceding
vowels; the drop and lift of the lower jaw was ever consciously
prominent. It was frequently remarked that this vowel had very
little connection with feelings of personality; the labial conso-
nants had very much more to do with one's self than did the other
consonants, and all felt much more intimate than did any of the
vowels.
E was the most intense of all the vowels, feelings of strain at
once appearing; but it was also more easily controlled by the
muscles of the vocal apparatus than was I. Not so resonant as
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 29
the O, but it had far more "color" than the A. Reference was
always external, the word "he" appearing to be thoroughly ono-
matopoetic. The tense condition of the mouth during its utter-
ance often gave a feeling of weariness, as the position of the
cheeks, lips and jaws is more rigid than in the case of the other
vowels experimented upon.
If one should ask how these four vowels stand in the order
of pleasantness, the answer is that O was chosen pleasant 126
times out of 240 judgments, I 123, E 120, and A 119 times. The
consonants were preferred in the following order: R (28 out
of forty judgments), L 27, N 27, V 25, M 24, B 24, D 23, Z 22,
Ch 21, F 20, P 19, W 19, J 18 K 18, S 18, T 18, Th 17, St 17,
H 15, Q 15, G 14, and Sh 12. One is referred in this connection
to an article in the American Journal of Psychology, 1912, by
Louise Roblee and M. F. Washburn, on the "Affective Values of
Articulate Sounds," in which quite similar results are brought
forth; the judgments of pleasure and displeasure were in general
confined to the final consonants and vowels, and many more
sounds were used by these experimenters than we have employed
in the above experiments. But that S and I are quite netural in
character, as the above-mentioned article indicates, we have not
found to be the case in our own work. I was very insistent, and
S became the basis for more unpleasant judgments in the trans-
mogrifications than any other single sound in the language.
If we compare the consonants in the order of their pleasantness
with their order of frequency, as given in the introductory para-
graphs, it will be seen that the two orders do not entirely corre-
spond ; nevertheless, it is plain that the pleasanter of the sounds,
as found in the brief sampling of the consonants, are those which
occupy the positions of higher frequency; had all of the con-
sonants been combined with all the vowels, the discrepancies
might have been less. Three factors seem to militate against
pleasantness in the pronunciation of a consonant: breathiness,
vigorous movement of the lips, and the employment of the ends
of the tongue in articulation.
A correlation between feeling tone and motor discharge was
30 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
found in the following way: If one arranges the averages of
all the tappings for each of the experiments upon any one of the
vowels in the descending order of motor output, and places
side by side the same twenty-four experiments arranged in the
ascending or descending order of pleasantness, it will be seen
that in the case of the A-experiments that the more unpleasant
were correlated with the greater expenditure of motor energy
and vice versa. So with the other three vowels, the O, I, and E.
This is exactly in line with what was found in the case of most
of the earlier experiments in this investigation. Differences in
one to one correspondence appear, however in the case of each
of these vowels: with the long A, there are seven such corre-
spondences ; with O, there are eleven ; with I, but two, and with
E, five. The average displacement for the others is with the A,
nearly nine points; with O, eleven; with I, eight; and with E,
nine. It was also to be learned that the explosive consonants
aroused the motor consciousness more than the softer and more
liquid sounds. Besides, those sounds requiring the more facial
movement while uttering them arouse the more general somatic
activity.
Differences in the time taken to recite these experiments were
not to be correlated with either of the above factors of affection
or motor output; it is true that the more explosive sounds tend
to be said very quickly, perhaps indeed, because many of the
subjects tried to say them quickly to get done with them. But
the liquids also went quickly, because they blended well together
in the combinations, — indeed the whole line of five iambics often
went like one ten-syllable foot, according to the introspective
report.
As typical of the numerical results of these simple vowel and
consonant experiments we next present the averages of the tap-
pings by each subject together with the mean variation and the
range, and also the rank lists for the above results in the case
of the long O experiments. It will be noticed that most of the
subjects change their position in these rank lists quite frequently :
this will not mean that there was a corresponding change in feel-
ing tone, but only in motor settings and motor arousal. With the
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY
vowel, O, however, less variations from average position occurred
in the case of each subject. The character of O from the intro-
spective report is an interesting corollary to this fact: O was
the most pleasant of the four vowels, and the play of conscious-
ness about it was greatest on the side of introspection, but appar-
ently not as regards the motory end of the matter.
The mean of the tappings for the long O experiments follows :
Subject -Bo
A 86.2
B 94.8
C. HO.O
D.
F.
K.
L.
M.
P.
S.
90.2
90.2
41.6
77.6
89.2
126.5
103.7
-Ko
A 68.1
B 89.5
C 103.2
D.
F.
K.
L.
M.
P.
S.
92.7
94-8
43-9
71-8
Qi.S
116.1
108.3
-Ro
A 81.2
B 95-0
C 109.0
D 94.4
F 86.6
K 67.5
L 68.0
M 98.9
P II7-3
S 111.9
A.
B.
C.
D.
F.
K.
L.
M.
P.
S.
-Cho
84.5
774
105.9
93-3
96.8
44-5
74.1
96.3
117.8
117.4
-Do
85-3
93-6
106.3
84.6
96.8
47.6
79-0
91.2
125.2
102.4
-Lo
80.5
64.6
101.5
87.8
35-9
70.9
93-7
117.8
104.5
-So
84.2
91.6
109.6
88.0
88.9
55-7
72.0
122.2
1044
-Sho
75-1
107.5
93-7
97-8
49.2
70.0
94.0
118.9
118.5
-Fo
92.4
79-7
105.1
88.4
96.7
51.6
714
91-5
1154
-Mo
79-7
84.1
101.7
97-8
90.6
30.1
65.3
94.0
II5-4
108.5
-To
83.3
91.1
105.2
91.2
87.4
37-2
74-9
92.8
118.4
110.7
-Sto
86.1
86.4
105.5
93-5
93-8
3I-I
78.8
103.4
122.7
118.0
-Go
90.5
81.6
105.6
83.2
92.6
53-4
62.1
91.5
120.8
105.8
-No
65.0
92.7
ii'i.5
96.6
89.5
25.2
66.0
90.7
1 21.0
II2.2
-Vo
88.1
89.3
101.4
95-9
86.7
42.1
77-4
90.8
124.4
113.2
-Tho
75-8
92.6
IO0.2
94-7
39-8
73-1
96.0
125-4
II5-5
-Ho
88.2
81.3
105.1
93-9
92.2
545
62.5
90-3
120.4
108.0
-Po
91-3
88.7
107.1
98-5
82.2
44-0
72.2
92.2
124.1
107.4
-Wo
837
95-0
102.8
96.3
79-8
44.9
63.8
90.7
124.8
113-6
-O-
75-0
82.7
106.7
102.0
93-8
53-8
58.3
97-4
121. 1
120.5
-Jo
80.7
80.8
104.5
81.2
93-8
44-7
67.5
95-0
117.6
109.8
-Qo
88.6
834
in. i
90.7
90.2
37-3
67.5
98.0
127.8
107.6
-Zo
87.1
91.8
106.8
96.0
83.2
42.8
74.0
91.7
125.4
II3-7
-O2-
74.6
IOI.4
97-4
101.8
95-2
45-7
71.8
954
124.2
125.6
ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
The rank list for the Mean : La-Bo, etc.
Subject
B
D
F
G
H J
K
L
M
N
P
Q
A
c
e
f
e
d c
b
d
c
h
e
d
B
f
c
c
c d
d
c
d
f
d
c
c
i
i
i
h
h h
h
h
h
h
i
D
e
d
d
d
s e
f
h
•f
F
f
K
K
g
f f
g
e
e
d
c
e
K
a
a
a
a
a a
a
a
a
n
a
a
L
b
b
b
b
b b
c
b
b
c
b
b
M
d
c
e
f
e g
e
f
f
e
f
g
P
J
J
J
J
J J
J
J
J
j
J
J
S
h
h
h
i
i i
i
i
i
i
i
h
Subject
R
S
T
V
W Z
OH
SH
ST TH
0
02
A
c
c
c
d
d d
d
c
c
c
c
c
B
f
R
e
e
f f
c
d
d
e
d
C
h
i
h
h
h h
. h
h
h
h
h
D
e
d
f
g
g g
e
e
e
f
g
h
F
d
f
d
c
c c
g
g
d
d
e
d
K
a
a
a
a
a a
a
a
a
a
a
a
L
b
b
b
b
b b
b
b
b
b
b
b
M
g
e
•g
f
e e
f
f
g
K
f
e
P
J
J
}
J
J J
J
J
J
J
J
i
S
i
h
i
i
i i
i
i
i
i
i
)
The mean
variations
for these experiments
: La-Bo, etc.
Subject
Bo
Do
Fo
Go
Ho
Jo
Ko
Lo
A
4.2
7-1
3-7
5-0
3-5
3-6
6-7
2.6
B
4.6
3,2
3-1
3- 1
3-8
4-8
7-2
4-7
C
3-7
2.4
2A
2.4
3-1
3.3
2.7
2.8
D
2.1
5-6
2.6
5-2
1.8
5-o
2.8
2.2
F
3-8
3-3
3-0
3-3
5-6
4-3
34
5-5
K
4.1
4-9
4.2
3-4
4-r
4.0
2.9
4-8
L
2.8
2.5
4,1
4.8
5.5
4-5
5.6
3-8
M
3-0
1.6
2.8
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.4
34
P
1.9
2.1
5-0
3-0
2.2
34
3-8
3-8
Subject
Mo
No
Po
Qo
Ro
So
To
Vo
A
3-3
4.0
2.8
4-9
5.7
3-2
4-8
5-3
B
4-0
4-3
7-3
5-2
4-5
5-8
5-1
7-0
C
3-1
2.8
3-2
2.9
2.8
3-3
3-2
2.4
D
1.4
2.2
2.9
3.2
2-5
3-6
1.8
3-9
F
3-2
3-8
6.2
3-9
3-6
3-6
3-9
3-6
K.
44
3-7
3-8
4-8
5-6
4-3
54
44
L
3-5
4.n
2-3
4-1
2.7
3-1
6.0
3-8
M
2.4
4.2
3-3
4.0
2.6
2.9
34
4.2
P
3-8
3-7
5-9
2.5
1.8
24
2.5
2.5
S
2.6
1-7
4-0
2.6
2.2
4-6
4.1
2-5
Subject
Wo
Zo
Cho
Sho
Sto
Tho
0
02
A
4-1
4-1
5-4
7-1
5-2
4.1
4.2
4.1
B
4-8
5-0
4.1
5-5
6.0
5-8
4-1
4.6
C
27
3-7
3-0
3-3
2.5
2.2
3-0
2.8
D
2.8
3-9
2.1
1.6
2.6
3-5
1.6
2.6
F
3-0
4.0
3-2
2-7
2.9
4-7
1.9
3-8
K.
4-2
5-8
5-9
3.2
4-7
5-2
4-7
S-i
L
4.3
4-3
4.8
5-6
4-5
54
5-7
5-8
M
2.6
3-2
3-6
3-9
2.8
5-5
2.7
3-7
P
2.3
I'.2
2.O
2.9
2.9
1.2
2.1
1.9
S
3-1
2.7
3-3
3-i
4.1
44
3-6
2-9
The rank list for these mean variations : La-Bo, etc.
Subject
B
D
F
G
H
J
K
L M
N
P
Q
A
h
j
i
f
e
h
b f
g
b
i
B
i
e
e
e
g
i
i
h j
j
j
j
C
e
c
a
b
e
c
b
c d
c
d
c
D
b
i
b
J
a
J
c
a a
b
c
d
F.
£
f
d
f
J
g
f
J e
f
i
e
K.
g
h
i
K
h
e
i i
e
f
h
L
c
d
h
h
i
h
J
f g
h
a
g
M
d
a
c
a
c
b
a
d b
i
e
f
P
a
b
1
c
b
d
g
e h
d
h
a
S
J
g
f
d
d
a
d
g c
a
g
b
Subject
R
S
T
V
W
Z
OH
SH ST
TH
O
O2
A
j
d
K
i
g
g
j
i i
g
d
h
B
h
1
h
i
1
h
h
i -s
i
j
C
f
e
c
a
c
c
f
a c
d
b
e
D.
f
a
f
d
b
a
b b
e
c
a
F
g
K
e
d
e
f
b
e d
f
f
b
K.
i
h
i
h
h
J
e
h j
J
g
i
L
e
c
J
e
i
i
i
g h
h
h
J
M
d
b
d
g
b
e
g
d f
c
i
d
p
a
a
h
b
a
a
c
c a
a
a
c
S
b
i
f
c
f
d
d
f e
b
e
f
The
rank
list
for the ranges :
La-Bo, etc.
Subject
Bo
Do
Fo
Go
Ho
Jo
Ko
Lo
A
20
32
21
26
16
16
35
12
B
24
114
18
16
17
20
27
2.S
C
18
i.S
9
14
15
17
16
H
D
in
28
12
30
12
22
20
II
F
18
18
Ifi
22
23
18
21
28
K
18
22
16
19
18
23
29
21
L.
IS
13
19
2O
21
IIQ
25
17
M ,
14
9
13
IO
IO
II
16
16
P
8
IO
2O
12
II
21
12
22
S
19
22
24
18
2O
8
I'S
26
Subject
Mo
No
Po
Qo
Ro
So
To
Vo
A ,
23
23
15
23
22
15
2Q
z$
B
30
21
26
28
23
24
39
28
C
,ni
IS
14
IS
III
23
17
14
D
9
12
i'3
16
13
17
12
19
F ,
241
19
28
i'7
24
H3
20
18
K
21
2O
19
29
2O
25
25
27
L ,
18
16
21
24
14
18
27
22
M
12
22
16
2Ii
211
12
22
20
P
19
18
3»
HI
12
21
H
17
S ,
IO
9
37
20
9
16
18
12
Subject
Wo
Zo
Cho
Sho
Sto Tho
O
02
A
25
20
19
31
25
19
21
22
B
32
2*
23
25
30
30
18
26
C
19
15
13
i'3
'II
II
17
12
D
13
12
in
7
15
17
7
IO
F
m
18
15
17
20
24
n r
17
K.
28
28
26
12
18
22
21
23
L.
22
16
21
37
22
18
27
18
M
14
17
18
19
21
23
19
21
P
18
7
9
18
19
7
16
II
S
20
14
14
n
24
33
20
2O
34 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
The rank list for the ranges : La-Bo, etc.
Subject BDFGHJKLMNPQ
A i j i i e c j b h j c g
B j d f d f g h h j h g i
C e e a c d d d c c c b b
D b i b j c i e a -a b a c
F f f d h j e f j i f i d
K g h e f g j i f g g e j
L. dcggi fgeedfh
M c a c a a b c d d i d e
P a b h b b h a g f e j a
S h g j e h a b i a a h f
Subject R S T
A h c i h h h g i i e i h
B i i j j j i i h j i e j
C b h c b e d c d a b d c
D d e a e b b b a b c a a
F j b e d a g e e e h b d
K f j g i i j j c c f h i
L e f h g g e h j g d j e
M gaffcffgfgfg
P c g b c d a a f d a c b
S a d d a f c d b h j g f
In measuring the ranges, it often happened that two or three
subjects could have had the same position; re-measuring, how-
ever, or alloting to the subjects that position which they had
previously tended to maintain, obviated the difficulty; for ex-
ample, where subjects A. and B. were equally set for the position
C in the rank lists, but had previously maintained positions B and
C respectively, we assigned to them positions B and C, in order
both to have ten positions, and to give each of them the benefit
of the doubt. With differences of tenths of a millimeter as
the basis for many of the correlations, it was not always easy
to determine the exact status of affairs for any one subject with
respect to another better than by the above method.
If one is again asked what changes of position in the rank
list for the Mean denote, or even what changes in the average
of the tappings denote, we are somewhat at loss to give a 'fully
satisfactory answer; it is not due to a change in feeling tone
so much as it is due to various manifestations of the motor con-
sciousness during the continuance of the same feeling state.
As was previously noticed in the first year's work, it is usually
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 35
quite a while after the onset of a new feeling state, that a change
takes place in the motor manifestations. And insofar as we
correlate with the introspective report as a basis, we find that
the mean variation of the tappings made during pleasant states
is greater than the mean variation of the tappings made during
unpleasant or neutral states; thus pleasure is manifested, at
least in this experiment, by more varied expressive means than
are the other affective states of consciousness. The introspection
in connection with the pleasant experiments is richer, the asso-
ciative functions are more operative, and the general bodily
and mental condition is more indicative of ever new and varied
manifestations in those states in which fine esthetic feelings are
present than in those which appear to indicate the presence of
cloggings, inhibitions and mutually antagonistic impulses.
Graphing these experiments revealed the following characteris-
tic differences between the vowels :
The ascending order of motor output followed the series as
presented, A, O, I and E. This may, however, be due to practise
alone. But within any group of experiments other differences
are quite significant, especially if compared with the introspec-
tion as given above; the O-graphs showed the least scatter, the
E and I the most. E and I also march straight across the page,
while A shows an "Anregung" incessantly throughout the series.
E and I are also spoken in a shorter time than are O and A, and
besides, the O-graphs are all indicative of the fact that this
vowel was spoken in more nearly the same time even though
preceded by the various consonants than were the E and I.
Here, in the case of O, steadiness of motor discharge, as evi-
denced by the fact that the vowel tends to swallow the consonants
which precede it, is correlated with steadiness and evenness of in-
trospectional content and attitude; with E and I, on the other
hand, the exact opposite is the case. The number of factors
involved is many, and the final result may perhaps be tentatively
stated as follows: Quickness of utterance is correlated with
greater motor output ; strain in the vocal apparatus with uneven-
ness of motor output; ease with which the vowel is spoken
36 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
dominating the strain-effect of the consonants; and a negative
correlation between unevenness (though unfelt) in the motor
output, and also amount of such output and the pleasantness as
aroused in the introspectional conscious content.
From a different graphing of these experiments, four in a
group, on the basis of consonants preceding the vowels, where
in each group of four drawings, one finds those graphs together
which show the differences between the four vowels under the
influence of the same initial accented consonant, we found that
in nearly all the cases the A graph is the lowest, frequently very
much the lowest, while again, the O, E, and I graphs exchange
positions of height and extent to some considerable degree. But
this is quite natural, — if the O had been by far the pleasantest
vowel, or the R by far the pleasantest consonant, we might have
expected the R and O graphs to appear unique and different
from the others, but the vowels are almost equally pleasant, a
difference of but seven judgments of agreeability separating the
O and the A (the extremes), and the consonants grade very
gently from the most to the least agreeable. So it is perhaps
correct to say that the different graphs represent the matter not
so much from the vowel side as from the consonant side when
we compare the graphs for any one vowel together but that
comparing one of these large groups with another, we have vowel
differences rather than consonant differences before us.
The introspection revealed the fact that entirely different states
of mind were aroused according to changes in the direction of
the attention; instructions were given to neglect the physical
sensations and to think of the sounds as much as possible, in
order to have constant conditions for all the subjects. But this
does not seem to have worked very satisfactorily in many of the
above cases; frequently, indeed, mixed feelings were reported;
the subjects would say : "The sounds are not unpleasant, but I
do not like to say them" ; or, "The sounds as heard are all right,
but the everlasting mouth movement is exceedingly hard to keep
out of the focus of consciousness." Absolute restraint was im-
possible ; it would also have been quite unwise, for we were study-
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 37
ing the motor as well as the introspective consciousness and
to find out just what happened in apparent conflicts between the
two, especially on the side of the affections, was considered just as
valuable as anything else. It was thought better to let things
take pretty much their own course in the matter rather than to
be too severely restrictive. But that the introspection was not
universally given on the same elements in consciousness is at once
evident; whether it could be, whether one can abstract one ele-
ment and keep it abstracted throughout the series is very doubt-
ful indeed. And yet, when we compare the amounts of motor
discharge for the different subjects, the question comes up:
"What was it that was called pleasant or unpleasant?" Well, the
only thing to say is that the whole experience extended toward this
or that type of affective tone, and that is about all that can be said.
And if that is insufficient, then some other method must be de-
vised to experiment upon these simple vowel and consonant
combinations than we have employed. One will also notice that
the subjects talked about some of the combinations having a
higher pitch than others, — unless the pitch was changed, sub-
consciously, of course, to relieve the uniformity, this is quite
incomprehensible; surely the vowel A does not take a different
pitch in connection with some of the consonants than it does with
the others, and if it seemed to, it is not unlikely that this was
an illusion due to the greater intensity required to enunciate the
explosive consonants. And as there was no uniformity on the
judgments of pitch, even among the two or three subjects who
made them, it is hardly possible that the pitch judgments indi-
cate anything objective.
One final point also needs to be emphasized ; which is that the
tendency to make words out of these meaningless experiments
was super-strong with nearly all of the subjects. As one subject
said in regard to the transmogrifications : ''It tantalizes me
dreadfully because the words I get out of them have such dis-
junctive meanings." So that some severe critic might call this
whole work, "An experiment in the delayed associations of mis-
spelled words." But following such caustic criticism, let such
38 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
a person suggest some better way than we have used to experi-
ment on the psycho-physiologies of the sounds of the language,
and thus help us out of the dilemma. We admit right at the
start that the whole realm of psychological esthetics seems to be
constituted chiefly by its difficulties.
SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS CONSTRUCTED FROM THE
TABULATIONS OF SOUND FREQUENCY IN
ENGLISH POETRY
In connection with the next two sets of experiments reference
must be made to the previously mentioned tabulations of sound
frequency in the poets. If one arranges these percentages in
order of magnitude for each one of the poets, it will be noticed
that certain sounds are almost equally prominent for all of
them, especially in the unaccented lists; and here we refer to
the short U, I and A. Of the accented sounds, the consonants,
rather than the vowels appear to be common property, inasmuch
as R, T, D, L, S and M usually stand at the head of the lists.
The next twenty-seven experiments were devised to show the
effect of the most prominent of these accented and unaccented
sounds. They nearly all contain two unaccented and three ac-
cented letters. But these combinations, unlike those which have
hitherto been employed, usually end with a consonant, L, N, D
and T predominating. Thus the body of sound produced by their
utterance is something more solid than we have had before ; and
the organs of articulation exercise more control than they did in
the case of the long, open vowels.
No single poet's preference for certain sounds is especially
represented in these combinations; the whole twenty-seven of
them merely exhibit the most used accented and unaccented
sounds of English poetry "ueberhaupt." The introspections for
these experiments, which were given in the following order, is
of interest :
I. Ne-rol. (Iambic foot, vowels both short; repeated five
times in succession for each of the five groups.)
Implies the joys of rustic work and pleasure; visual imagery of the fields hi
summer. Soft and musical; suggests rapidity of movement; imagery of some
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 39
May morning. Soft, drawn-out thing; not very active nor deep, but it has
body. Very musical and easy to say; sounds like the ringing of a bell;
slightly monotonous, but not dull.
II. Un-ral(e). (As above, metrically and in groups; short
"u," long "a".)
"R" the best thing about it; seems slightly inharmonious and perturbing;
no definite imagery. Not energetic; couldn't keep the word "unreal" out of
mind. "Ral" gives a feeling of contraction; seems inefficient; thinks of the
pattering of hail or of big water drops.
III. Id-rel. (Vowels both short.)
Sounds have a bell-like quality; seems to refer to some celebration. Hard
to keep the two syllables apart. Became "id-well," "did-well"; dislikes the
jump from the first syllable to the second. Musical, hopeful sound; keeps
ascending in pitch.
IV. Ri-tin(e). (First "i" short; second, long.)
Visualizes self on the sea shore on a warm, summer day; feels the heat
and his own body distinctly. Makes him frown. Seems narrowly concen-
trated in space. Musical ; in major key ; encouraging ; calls up the word
"time." Emphatic, but monotonous; gets nowhere.
V. Tu-lin. (Both vowels short.)
Energetic and poetic; visualized the sea; heard the wind and the sound
of the breakers. Very easy and pretty sound to make ; suggests a light,
fleet movement. Seems rapid ; "tu" is light ; "lin" heavy ; good combination
of sounds ; very easy to coordinate finger and voice. Soothing and quieting ;
a lullaby; the alternation of the vowels is charming.
VI. Ti-ren. (Both vowels short.)
Sharp and concise and easy to produce; but the "n" seems to negate the
expected climactic character of it. The superficial gloominess of a rainy,
indoor day implied; not very "deep" sound; visual imagery dark gray.
Couldn't keep track of the counting. Forceful sound; calls up the words
'"to arms !"
VII. Ti-rel. (Vowels both short.)
Bell-like ; musical and melodious ; implies recreation ; visualizes a country
dance in the moonlight; slightly erotic. Energetic and speedy; runs together
well ; suggests the full pleasure of animal spirits. Just a happy little fool's
song; jolly. Good lyric poetry; "It may be flip, but never mind"; the
sounds run together beautifully. Exciting and exhilarating; feels the pitch
to be very high; brings a joyful and exuberant feeling.
VIII. Un-dol(e). (First vowel short; second, long.)
Has distinct musical quality, but the tone is sad and mournful. Romantic,
but doleful ; recalls the "Niebelungen Lied" ; implies the pathetic fallacy.
Quiet and sombre; calls up the tolling of a bell; exceedingly passive thing.
Means a mild lament, or self-pity; the nasal sensations almost become
unpleasant.
40 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
IX. A-ren(e). (Short "a," long "e.")
Almost meaningless and nonsensical ; seems to be calling someone by
name. Not poetic; thought of things colloquial. More energetic than
"un-dol." Very uninteresting and commonplace; "ri-tin" was intellectual;
this is stupid. Has a romantic quality ; seems like some amorous declaration ;
musical. A small sound ; it is minor music ; makes one quiet and thoughtful ;
might arouse pity and sympathy.
X. Ri-nad(e). ("I" short, "a" long.)
Something mournful about it; but not much to it. Induces a slow, pas-
sive state. Seems to stay way back in the mouth cavity; can't raise the
pitch enough to make it effective. Seems contracted and nasal; has no life
or activity to it ; too inward. Emphatic ; almost a battle cry ; very dignified
sort of a thing.
XL Un-rin. (Both vowels short.)
Emphatic; the rhythm is easy and regular, but the nasal quality is not
enjoyable. Something hopeless about it; seems like a cry; Shelley's poetry
came to mind.
XII. Ti-ra. (First vowel short; second, long.)
Thinks of something like political excitement; "sisjboom-bah-rah" and
Roosevelt prominently in mind. "It's just some conversation." Nice and
quick; happy and joyous; expansive; suggested "hooray." Implies jubilant
and exultant action.
XIII. Ni-dal. (Both vowels short.)
Reminds of very fine and pleasing music. Active and energetic; suggests
the military. Calls to mind the girls of Biskra in the street of Ouled Nail.
"It tumbles out of the mouth before you want it to"; implies following
the line of least resistance. Something important and also impatient about it;
implies hurrying.
XIV. Ri-leet. (Short "i.")
Like a bird song; bright and vivacious. Not very deep, but joyous;
images a woodland scene in the summer; birds and squirrels plentiful.
Feels hurried ; thinks of the song of a lark. Thought of "relief," "rillet," etc.
Very dainty, light and springy; something bright and feminine about it.
XV. Ti-reen. ("I" short.)
Thinks of the mightiness of nature ; wild gray ocean and sea gulls imaged.
The explosive quality of "ti" well counterbalanced by "reeri"; it's like a
ditty sung to oneself. This is romantic and "eulogistic"; might be a love
sonnet, or some manifestation of devotion.
XVI. Ri-nel. (Both vowels short.)
Has a bell-like quality; "rin" is subjective; "el" objective. Like a bell;
tranquil, but not solemn. Seems to swell in volume as it proceeds; good
sound with which to call any one. Something personal, fatalistic, and strong
about it.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 41
•
XVII. Ni-lur. (Short "i"; "u" as in "fur.")
Seems deceitful, and slippery; too smooth to have any body to it. Implies
a Byronic despair; visual imagery of a gray cold autumn sky. Difficult to
say; gets way up in his nose; suggests peevishness; wanted to prolong the
"lur" so as to get a firmer hold on the "ni." Hard to say; lacks body; felt
almost tongue-tied. Calls to mind some foolish person, perpetually grinning ;
mouth sensations disagreeable. Very emotional; an intoxicating riot of
sounds ; full of color.
XVIII. Ri-dev. (Both vowels short.)
Very peculiar; thought of a hot, summer day; also some fiery, physically
exciting passion obtruded. Unusual sound; "devil" the only thing that came
to mind. Dramatic; alluring; wanted to make it impressive; something
funereal about it. 'Has resonance, but gives a drawn-in, contracted feeling.
Funereal and mournful thing; yet has musical quality and fascinates one.
XIX. Ni-rees. (Short "i.")
Very musical; sounds like whistling. Feels the "s" stops one short; like
putting on the brakes suddenly while driving an auto. Mouth movement
seems delicate; tends to fuse into "nireesnirees,'* etc., without stopping
between the syllables ; like singing a little tune to himself ; feels contemplative.
Sort of a "love motif"; imagery of a woodland scene, with birds and soft,
quiet places. "S" softens, hushes, smoothes; very light and dainty sounds;
"s" also seems like spreading something over a broad surface. Foreign
sound; slightly wistful; yet gives a feeling that something is inevitable.
Quieting, slightly monotonous sound; thought it descriptive of the waves
on the sea shore.
XX. Un-reen. (Short "u.")
Something profound about it; a sad, unsatisfied cry, either sexual or
spiritual. Sounds like a call for help; or else it is some exposition of an
important theme. Doesn't allow one to expand; a climax foreshadowed,
but not reached. Something romantic, supplicating and pathetic about it.
XXI. Ni-ral. (First vowel long, last vowel short.)
Imaged a big country fair, where everybody was having the time of his
life; "ni-raP is everybody calling everybody else. Called up visual image
of Millet's "The Lark." Makes him keep his mouth open all the time; gives
a cold feeling all over; the "i" seems like something pointed; almost
deprecative.
XXII. Thi-ra. ("Th" sonant ; "i" short ; "a" long. )
Has much quality, but the lisping character of the "th" almost killed the
feeling tone. The syllables do not seem to belong together; "th" irritates;
seems like a lover's lisp. Peculiar mixture of sounds : "th" always repul-
sive; "ra" very fine; almost a case of mixed feelings. Difficult to say;
seems like a scraping movement along the ground. "A horrid, tongue-tied
lisp."
42 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
XXIII. Ne-mal. ("E" long; "a" short.)
Implies a superficial pessimism or complaint. Tends to become "nemel" and
"nemalne" (trochaic) ; seems to be just a matter of daily conversation,
buying and selling, and the like. Insistent and affirmative; "ne" is the dis-
turbing factor. Implies maliciousness, anger or irritation; it climaxes into a
veritable fury.
XXIV. Ri-naz(e). ("I" short; "a" long.)
Very subjective thing; "az" makes it so inward. Slightly energetic;
imagery of a rainy day in the country. Slow, monotonous, sombre, deaden-
ing ; demands much attention to keep saying it. Smooth, but lacks body ;
like the voice of a mediocre clergyman giving a nice, homely sermon. Quiet-
ing, harmonious quality to it; implies the pleasant acceptance of a situation,
suited to one's abilities. It means homage to some Oriental monarch whose
name is "Rinaz." A lullaby ; something almost hypnotic about it ; fascinating.
XXV. Rolen. ("O" long; "e" short.)
Expresses activity, but a superficial kind. Active, and quick; rolls right
along. Clear cut, vigorous and manly sound; personal reference to it.
"Rol" should have the accent; hence it shuts off the effect of the intended
iambic. Rather matter of fact and unimaginative. Rather strong and
vigorous; tendency to anticipate the accent with the finger. Pleasant alter-
nations of the vowels; "en" brings one right up standing.
XXVI. Thi-nal. (Both vowels short.) (Th surd.)
"Th" is the disagreeable part of it; something remorseful about it. Gives
a blurred effect; the whole things seems to lisp. "Th" ruins the otherwise
pleasant effect of "nal." Easy to say, but the "nal" is too nasal; it whines;
reverberations of the sound felt throughout the face. An unimaginative,
practical, downright statement of fact. Harsh, complaining, and unsatis-
fying; the pitch is too high to be pleasant.
XXVII. Ri-neen. (Short "i," long "e.")
Too nasal to be musical; refers to some one other than himself. Rather
tiresome work; thought of rowing fast and hard for no particular purpose.
Too nasal; the final "n" is the worst part of it; not so mature a sound as
"rolen." "Neen" is cold and hollow; too low in pitch; makes one short of
breath and demands great depth of voice; "ri" is by itself quite pleasant.
Even from these fragments of the introspection given in con-
nection with the above experiments, it is plainly seen that the
responses of the subjects to the material indicate that they had
"gotten into" the business of introspection better than ever be-
fore. Much of it, is of course not pure introspection; but the
instructions were only : "give me what is in your mind after you
have recited this combination twenty-five times." In describing
the effect of these sound combinations, then, if to say, "it is like
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 43
this or that" may not be introspection, yet it did not seem possible
to obtain any other introspective results than the above. And yet,
in the light of future experimentation, just this kind of answers
upon the effect of the sounds in poetry seems to be the only thing
one can obtain, and furthermore, the results obtained from in-
trospecting upon passages of poetry transmogrified into meaning-
less jargon justifies to a considerable degree the method of intro-
spection which most of the subjects employed. One thing more,
also; the idea that the subjects would all introspect upon the
physical sensations or learn to do so was quickly expelled from
the mind of the experimenter ; the threefold instructions, — to give
feeling-tone, sensations, and imagery proved to be too autocratic ;
what we have in the above, typical introspection is mostly feeling-
tone and association. However, inasmuch as most of the subjects
did not like to think of the movements of the organs of articula-
tion while they were speaking, to have insisted that they do so
would have been fatuous.
All in all, the introspection is the valuable part of this set of
experiments so far as we have gone with them. Diligent and
careful study of the rank lists for the above experiments has
failed to show that changes in feeling tone, changes in the feel-
ing with regard to "activity," "passivity," "energy," and the like
states can be traced down to the numerical results with any cer-
tainty. On the whole, however, the experiments in which the
subjects found difficulties of enunciation and the like, produced
the longest tappings. Feelings of free activity and pleasurable,
"dolce far niente" states usually correlate with lower tapping
averages than do other states. The word "activity," however,
must not be interpreted to mean a "feeling of work" or "exer-
tion" ; often it was hard enough work to recite the combination,
but the doing so may have been pleasant or unpleasant, depending
upon many factors singly and in a constellation, such as pleasant
or unpleasant associations, difficulty or ease of counting the five
iambics, and the like; and inasmuch, also, as we have hitherto
failed to attempt to "grade" the feelings of pleasure, activity, and
the like numerically, correlations of any sort do not show up with
44 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
any degree of nicety either way. But the grading of feeling tones
is a matter that is on a psychological brink where the footing is
horribly slippery ; checking up the results would have been neces-
sary, and with this kind of experiments, where the effective
phase appears to be so fragile and at the mercy of every other
psychological factor, it can hardly be supposed, at least from the
results we have already obtained, that to give these experimnets
all over again in various orders, would have been either wise or
fruitful.
We next take up the matter of general correlations between
feeling tone and motor discharge, taking all the pleasant, un-
pleasant, and neutral experiments in groups by themselves and
contrasting the means, mean variations and ranges with one
another.
Subject PI. Unp. 'Neut.
A. M 95.9 92.7 91.7 PUN
M.V ....3-0 3-6 3-1 UNP
Rnj 15 19 17 UNP
B. M 88.0 86.1 88.6 N P U
M.V 3.1 3.6 4-6 N P U
Rnj 18 17 21 N P U
C. (as above) 107.3 IO74 104.8 U P N
2.5 2.6 2.7 N U P
10 n 12 N U P
F. 89.2 89.7 100.1 N U P
3.2 3.1 3.4 N P U
17 18 16 U P N
L 73.8 72.4 74.0 N P U
3-6 3-7 4-1 N U P
16 18 20 N U P
N 86.7 84.8 83.3 PUN
2.9 2.5 2.7 P N U
IS ii 14 P N U
T 76.7 73.2 P N
34 3-6 N P
16 19 N P
W 95.1 95.2 95-6 N U P
2.4 2.2 2,5 N I
12 10 13 N P U
Y 50.7 52.3 47-1 U P N
3.1 4.1 3-2 UNP
14 18 17 UNP
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 45
The difference between these various averages is very slight,
and in every case the variations from it are great. But they are
usually greater for those which have been obtained while the
subjects were in a pleasant state of consciousness than otherwise.
Neutrality and unpleasantness appear to work up to a better
level in the motor consciousness than does pleasurability ; fur-
thermore, introspectively, there are more varied states of pleas-
ure than of unpleasantness; if what the subjects gave intro-
spectively is of any importance, this appears to be empirically
substantiated, — they got after a while to be very reticent about the
introspecting upon the unpleasant combinations, saying only such
things as "very bad," "I do not care for that at all," and the like.
But when they got a pleasant combination, they would even wan-
der into forbidden fields of introspection and bring back material
which had apparently no connection with the subject in hand. Not
all of them, however, but it is quite the fact that the subjects who
found most of these combinations pleasant, show up the most
negatively in these correlations; at least those who got into the
most effervescent states of mind offer those numerical results
which are the most recalcitrant to satisfactory correlation.
HINTS OF A TONAL CALCULUS
We now turn to the graphs for these experiments. Tiren and
Tireen were taken together; and Unrin and Unreen also; these
were drawn in pairs to show the differences obtained from those
experiments which were the nearest alike. We treated in the
same way the graphs for Tira and Thira, and also for Rinaz and
Rinad. The remaining nineteen graphs were arranged in groups
for similar purposes of comparison.
Comparing Tiren and Tireen, it appeared that the short "e" in
Tiren was responsible for the elevation of this graph above the
other. Apparently, also, the "long" E did not "live up to its
privilege," for the graphs were of exactly the same length, even
group by group. But the Tiren exceeded the other graph in
height only at the beginning and end of its course. Also, the
effect of the Tireen was steadier than that of Tiren. The latter
showed an average rise toward the fourth iambic and then a
46 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
sudden descent. This also holds true in all the groups but the
last, as appeared from the long Tiren graph.
A comparison of the next two, Unrin and Unreen, showed
less difference in the general motor discharge aroused by these
two graphs than was evident in the case of the former two.
This might be due to a number of things; first, the difference
in the structure of the unaccented syllables in these pairs: -un
may determine the motor supply as much as the -rin or the -reen.
But the differences in the accented vowels are also to be taken
into account, for in the one pair, short "e" and long "e"
alternated, while in the other, short "i" alternates with long "e."
Hence we have two variables, and not one to deal with.
Rinaz and Thira produced the strongest effects of the Rinaz-
Rinad-Thira group and they were nearly equal in height and very
similar in form; Rinad and Tira were exactly identical in form,
but not so close together as were the other two. Evidently "th"
and "z" gave the impetus to the responses, and the open "a" was
in each case provocative of restraint in the tapping, for the open
"a" experiments took longer time to utter than those which
closed with "z" or "d." Rinad was found by the subjects to be a
rather poor stimulus, while they attributed to Rinaz a sort of
hypnotic or lulling character ; yet the graphs show that the latter
of these sound-combinations was more arousing than the other.
But as a general thing indifferent states were correlated Mean-
wise with a greater motor output than were the pleasant. But
Rinaz was the more pleasant of these two.
Comparing Niral and Nidal with one another it appeared that
the "r" as an initial accented consonant has a greater motor
effect than does initial "d." And yet the "d" can be given a much
more explosive vocal character than the "r." But the long "i"
in Niral must not be forgotten. Nemal showed very well, espe-
cially in the fourth group, the insistent character which was
attributed to it in the introspection. Comparing the lengths of
these graphs does not seem to throw any light on the matter of
correlation, for while the long "i" in Niral might be construed as
that factor which gives the length to this graph, yet Nerol is
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 47
equally long, but Nerol was the first of this series to be given,
and perhaps the subjects took longer to say it because it was
something new in the way of utterance.
The next group of graphs showed among other things, the*
various effects of final "1." It is not surprising that Idrel took
a longer time to repeat twenty-five times than did Tirel ; even the
manipulation of the organs of articulation is a more difficult
matter for the former combination; time is about the only
noticeable difference between the two graphs, their height being
about equal. Undol and Unral were also close quantitative
equals, but the slightly greater effect of Unral at the beginning
of each group, as was seen from a combination graph, allies this
effect of "r" with those noted above. It would seem then, that
sometimes articulation force (e.g. the explosive character of
some consonants) is represented in the tapping in an inverse
proportional.
Tirel proceeded more evenly across the page than did any other
of this group of graphs, but in the final summation graph, Rinel
showed that the average stress on each of the twenty-five iam-
bics was exactly the same. Unfortunately such summation
graphs were not duplicated to any but the slightest degree in
the longer ones and so their significance is doubtful; one point
is to be made, however, and that is that where lack of uniformity
between the separate groups of the larger graphs is manifest,
all that can be stated about the summation graphs as regards one
another is just as significant as that which can be stated about
the longer graphs.
In regard to the general effect of final "1" in these combina-
tions, one thing is quite remarkable; and that is the frequency
with which the fifth iambic of a group ends with a descent in
the curve. It is exactly fifty per cent: about ten per cent of the
time, also, there is no change from the fourth to the fifth foot.
The conclusion seems to be that the tendency of final "1" is to
produce its greatest motor effect in some other foot than the
fifth, when repeated in the manner employed in the above
experiments.
48 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
The next five graphs cannot be so strictly compared with one
another, but if we consider those having long vowels, it appeared
that they extended slightly farther to the right than did the
others. The longest, "Ritin," seems to offer some sort of posi-
tive correlation in regard to the long "i" in the accented syllable,
but by comparing it with those which we have hitherto considered,
we find that "length" of vowel is an equivocal expression in
reference to the motor consciousness,
It is proper now to see whether we can deduce anything from
the above twenty-seven experiments by combining them in
various groups, for many of them contain exactly the same fac-
tors in either the accented or the unaccented syllable.
First: arranging these experiments in the order of greatest
to least amount of motor discharge called forth in the tapping we
get column I. The figures represent 425 tapped strokes (9 sub-
jects, each one tapping 25 times.) Opposite these numbers are
the feeling tone judgments of P, U, and N, with the number
of times each judgment was made, regardless of which subjects
contributed to that particular mass of judgments.
PUN
Idrel 88.4 5 3 i
Tirel 87.4 8 i o
Tulin 87.0 6 i 2
Nemal 86.8 333
Rolen 86.8 6 2 i
Ritin 85.8 324
Thinal 854 I 7 I
Niral 85.4 441
Thira 84.8 432
Rinaz 84.8 8 I o
Af en 84.6 513
Undol 84.4 7 n i
Unral 844 333
Rineen 84.0 450
Unrin 83.6 234
Nerol 83.6 702
Tiren 83.6 5 3 i
Unreen 83.4 441
Ridev 83.2 252
Rinel 83.0 522
Rinad 82.8 333
Nirees 82.8 720
Nidal 824 522
Tireen 82.0 621
Tira 81.8 5 i 3
Nilur 81.6 252
Rileet . 80.8 8 i o
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 49
If, now, one arranges these same experiments in two columns,
one indicating a decline in the amount of motor discharge, and
the other a descent in pleasurability, it can be seen how far, gen-
erally speaking, these two factors are correlative. Likewise,
taking the motor decline once more and pairing it with another
list indicating the decrease in unpleasantness for the same ex-
periments, another set of correlations can be obtained. We
have determined the pleasurability and unpleasurability on the
following basis: where under the P column or the U column
we find the same numbers, e.g. PUN and P U N, we have
522 531
called the first of these the more pleasant, and the second the
more unpleasant; where we find the following situation
PUN P U N, we have called the second of them the more
612 711
unpleasant. Here, as in the former experiments upon the simple
vowels and consonants, we find that pleasantness and amount
of motor discharge are inversely correlated. The average diver-
gence of the position of terms in each column is about ten points
away from a one to one correspondence. We now come to
another interesting phenomenon. Taking those experiments
which are nearest alike, and computing from their difference
the effect of one vowel over another, or one consonant over
another in the motor consciousness, we can draw the following
tentative conclusions. To begin with pairs of experiments:
Exp. M.D. PUN Here the unaccented "Th"
Thira 84.8 432 has a greater motor effect than
Tira 81.8 5 i 3 does "T." Also the feeling tone
correlation is strong for the increased motor effect of the un-
pleasant. Take another:
Exp. M.D. PUN Here short "i" accented has
Unrin 83.6 234 a greater motor effect than does
Unreen 83.4 441 long "i"; and the same feeling
tone correlation also holds true as with the above.
Again, Exp. M.D. PUN In this pair the short
Tiren 83.6 531 vowel may be credited
Tireen 82.0 621 with the greater motor
effect.
ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
And in Exp. M.D.
Rinaz 84.8
Rinad 82.8
greater motor effect.
inferences are dubious.
PUN We find the accented
8 i o find "z" as that ele-
333 ment which gives the
But in both of the above, feeling tone
Let us now compare several groups :
Here the long accented
vowels seem to have the ad-
vantage, and the "naz" and
"nad" do not contradict the
deductions about them made
immediately before.
Here the short vowels again
produce, or assist in produc-
ing, the greater motor effect.
Deductions on the basis of
feeling tone are hardly possi-
groups. We .make two more
Here the feeling tone en-
ters again as an apparent
factor, but rather contradic-
torily to what has been de-
duced from the experiments as a whole.
Exp. M.D. PUN
Un-ral 84.4 333
Un-dol 84.4 711 Which completes our groups
Un-rin 83.6 234 of this kind.
Un-reen 83.4 441
In connection with the next matter, a few symbols are neces-
sary. Let Ki = the accented consonant which stands imme-
diately before the accented vowel, thus: ni-Ral, un-Dol, etc.
Let also K2 = that accented consonant standing immediately
after the accented vowel, or which closes the accented syllable,
Exp.
M.D.
P
U N
Ri-tin
85.8
3
2 4
Ri-naz
84.8
8
I O
Ri-neen
84.0
4
5 o
Ri-dev
83.2
2
5 2
Ri-nel
83.0
5
2 2
Ri-nad
82.8
3
3 3
Ri-leet
80.8
8
I O
Exp.
M.D.
P
U N
Ti-rel
87.4
8
I 0
Ti-ren
83-6
5
3 i
Ti-reen
82.0
4
4 i
Ti-ra
81.8
5
i 3
ble in
either of
these two
comparisons :
Exp.
M.D.
PUN
Ni-rees
82.8
720
Ni-dal
82.4
522
Ni-lur
81.6
2 C 2
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 51
thus: ni-raL, ri-niZ, etc. Let also V stand for the accented
vowel, and let the letters i, e, a, etc., represent the short vowels,
and the letters I, E, A, etc., represent the long vowels. Let
also the symbol > stand for the "greater than" and the symbol
< stand for "less than." Then, in general, taking all the com-
monly used accented final and initial consonants of the accented
syllables, we have :
> K2N = 17.4 > 15.5
> VE = 17.3 > 12.0
> VA = 17.5 > 12.8
and KiL > KiR > KiN = 17.0 > 14.0 > 13.6,
so that the motor effect of KiN < the motor effect of KiR and
also < that of KiL. We can say, then, that of the consonants,
KiL and K2L have the greatest motor effect, and the short
vowels also, in general, rank with them. This is significant, and
shall be used later in the correlation of large masses of sounds.
3. TRANSMOGRIFICATIONS OF ENGLISH POETRY
This part of the work includes several kinds of experiments.
According to the plan outlined in the early paragraphs, we are
now to consider the effect of more complicated collocations of
the speech elements than have been hitherto employed. The poets
themselves are experimented upon from now on, and in a two-
fold manner : first, by casting into decasyllabic lines the sounds
as they appear in the tabulations of frequency, and then by em-
ploying both single lines and ten-line passages from poetry to
show the various effects of combination with and without
meaning.
THE EFFECT OF MEANINGLESS SINGLE LINES FROM THE TABLES
OF SOUND FREQUENCY
We now turn to the first of these experiments. They were
devised to show the psycho-motor effect of those sounds which
certain poets use most frequently as well as those which they
use less frequently, and in each case they attempted to illustrate
the proportion of use by the frequency of repetition in the
52 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
decasyllabic line into which they were arranged. Taking four
of the poets from the tables of sound frequency hitherto men-
tioned, we find them using the sounds of the language in the
following proportions. We take only the first twenty or more
sounds from each one, accented and unaccented alike. (Short
vowels, small letters; long ones, large.)
Keats
Byron
Tennyson
Arnold
Ace.
Unacc. Ace.
Unacc. Ace.
Unacc. Ace.
Unacc.
R
3-9
U
5-3 :R
5-3
u
5.3 :R
5-0
u
5-3 :R
5-5 u
4.0
N
3-7
i
4.1 :N
4.0
N
4-5 :L
4-5
i
4.0 :N
4.6 i
34
L
3-5
N
3-5 :L
3-5
i
34 :T
3-1
N
3-2 :L
3-6 N
3-0
S
34
R
3Ji :E
2.19
R
2.7 :M
2.7:
:Th
2.9 :T
3-3 a
2t9
T
3-1
T
2.3 :D
2-5
T
3-1 :S
2.6
R
2.8 :S
3-1 D
2.6
D
2-5'
S
2.0 :M
2.4
Th
2.3 :E
2-5
D
2.1 :E
2.3 Th
2.5
e
2.1
Th
1.9:8
24
€
1.7 :a
2.3
a
1.8: A
2.2 L
2.1
V
2.O
e
1.7 :T
2.2
Z
i.7:I
2.1
L
1.8 :D
2.2 Z
1.8
u
1.9
O
11.7 :0
2.1
O
1.6 :D
2.O
Z
1.8 :0
2.1 R
1-7
E
1.8
L
1.6: A
1.8
D
i>.6 :N
2.O
T
1.8 :F
2.1 E
1-7
P
17
a
1.5 :u
1.8
a
US :Z
11.9
Th*
i.6:I
2.0 T
1.6
M
1-9
D
i.5:I
1.6
I
1.4 :P
1.9
Ng
i.o:M
1.8 e
14
A
i-7
K
1.4 :e
1-5
E
14:1
1.8
W
i. 0:0
1.5 H
14
F
1-7
Ng
i.i :a
1.4
Th*
1.3 :B
1-7
E
.9:6
14 Th*
1-3
i
1.6
Th*
i.i :i
14
o
1.2:0
1.6
I
.9:K
14 W
i-3
K
1.6
M
i.o:P
14
L
1.2 :F
1.4
e
.8:W
i.3 S
i.i
H
1-4
W
1.0 :K
1.2
S
1.0 :W
1.4
e
.7:Z
1.3 B
1.0
I
1.3
E
.9:0
I.I
M
.9:u
1-3
0
.7:1
13 A
•9
0
1.3
F
.8:F
I.I
W
.8:K
1-3
H
.7:u
1.2 K
.7
w
1.2
V
.8:V
1-3
B
.8:e
1.2
OO
.6:a
i.o Ng
•7
z
1.2
Z
.7:Th
I.I
P
.8:0
1.2
K
.6:B
I.O
<
:G
1.2
St
.6:P
I.O
:St
I.O
* Surd.
All but one of these poets, Byron, employs his sounds ap-
proximately in the ratio of ten accented to eight unaccented ones.
Byron uses nine unaccented ones to every ten accented ones. We
took the first seven accented consonants and the first three accented
vowels, and the first five unaccented consonants and the first three
unaccented vowels from the other three poets; in Byron's case
the same number of accented sounds were used, but six unaccented
consonants and three unaccented vowels were taken to make his
10:9 proportion. Taking then, ten accented sounds from each
of these poets, and the proportionate number of unaccented
sounds, and arranging them in a line of five iambics with the
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 53
most used sounds in the more prominent places in the line,
namely the first and the last feet, we obtain the following four
experiments :
Keats: Ni rul su veed ri nest it el ith reen.
Byron : Zu reen tith nole der tull thin sode tu reem.
Tennyson : Thu ral di reet thu nime ra dees un tal.
Arnold : Thu reen din lase za f ode ml tane thu leer.
The 10:8 and the 10:9 proportions are fairly well kept in
these combinations, as can be proven by counting the sounds.
The arrangement of sounds is quite arbitrary, but in making
such a combination, there are many things to be considered be-
sides mere proportion. For example, one must test by means of
his ear what combinations are suitable to follow one another;
and when strict proportion cannot be followed, one must be
judicious.
If, now, we take the next ten accented sounds in the lists, and
combine with them the proper number of the next eight or nine
unaccented sounds, we have the following experiments for these
poets:
Keats : La maz mo kif de poth la pam we ho.
Byron : Do thav 16 pi se ke da thip H va.
Tennyson : Te poz li bin eng wo zite nuf we nop.
Arnold : Re moz et wik sa thu we zem he mi.
(It must be noticed that when the appearance of the list indicates
that more than three vowels to seven consonants are the materials
out of which the experiment would normally be made, we have
followed the list, rather than discarded the prominent elements
in it.)
These experiments were presented in pairs: first the two
representing Keats, and after that the others in the order in
which they occur above, finishing each poet as we proceeded.
Each line was tapped and recited five times. The instructions
were to read the line over until it became easy to read; but not
to wait until associations came up; then the tapping and reciting
went on as it had done before, the instructions again being to
54 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
"tap at each accented syllable." A few of the subjects prac-
tised reading the lines over once silently and tapping at the same
time, in order that full preparation for the experiment would
not be lacking. The idea was to get the full effect of the line
while tapping, in order that the motor manifestations could
be called representative in the fullest sense of the word. The
introspection which they gave for these experiments follows :
Keats I. (The first ten accented and the first eight unac-
cented sounds.)
Visual imagery of maples and other deciduous trees in the fall of the year;
the air is frosty and the whole soene is grayish; very objective.
The rhythm feels like dance music; very contagious; thought of evening
bells ; very romantic. Gentle thing ; not much action to it ; a little Spencerian ;
deals with pastoral things.
Keats II. (The second group of Keats' most used sounds.)
Visual and auditory imagery of the surf; also of fields; sounds go well
together. Seems short and broken up; compares it to an "Italian" salad.
Brings imagery of the sea; thinks of something like the "Ancient Mariner."
Not very active.
Byron I.
Something superficial about it; kinaesthetic and visual imagery of idly
following things about. Minor, meditative and solemn; attributes this to
the long vowels; thinks of something like "Crossing the Bar." An epic,
recounting adventures. Deep and funereal.
Byron II.
Active thing; relates to strength and power and brawny arms. Sounded
like the speech of a big-chested, half -civilized people living in a cold climate.
Rather dramatic and superficial.
Tennyson I.
Inactive; sad throughout; subjective thing. Evokes pity and compassion;
elegiac thing; sorrow, not wild, but quiet and domestic implied. Very
rhythmic ; gives a feeling of solemnity felt in the midst of happy surroundings.
Images of a quiet, restful woodland scene. Asked if it was Tennyson. Just a
little dramatic; not quite sincere. A little tragic and sorrowful; thinks of
Fate.
Tennyson II.
Rhythmical and dramatic; sounds Shakesperean. Kinaesthetic imagery of
many motions in different directions. Makes him short of breath; thinks of
dying gladiators ; mentioned "Heldenleben." An explanation in some dialect
of an unfortunate event.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 55
Arnold I.
Something strong and military about it. Rhythmic, but not very deep.
Medieval and romantic; seems to be a description. Thinks of the "Meister-
singers"; active and objective.
Arnold II.
Unpleasant taste images aroused; something psycho-pathic about it. Inter-
esting, but not emotional; full of irritating things; more like conversation
than anything else. Leaves one a little gasping ; sounds like some one timidly
trying to recite.
It must be remembered that these combinations were pre-
sented to the subjects without their knowing what poets they
represented; nor was it a guessing contest, either; no stress was
laid upon anything but a good reading of the lines.
There follows the correlation between feeling tone and motor
discharge, in general, for all the subjects in the above experiments.
Subject
A. M ....................... 94.3 91.0 104.9 NPU
M.V ...................... 2.1 2.0 3.4 NPU
Rnj ...................... 10 12 16 N U P
B. (as above) ............... 74.0 - 72.2 P N
34 3-6 N P
15 17 N P
C. " " .............. 92.5 - 82.0 P N
3.6 - 5-5 N P
19 27 N P
F. " " .............. 73-5 75-7 - UP
3.6 3-8 - U P
17 18 UP
L. " " .............. 72.0 74.8 - U P
3-2 2.7 - P U
18 15 P U
N. " " .............. 85.2 84.6 - P U
2.4 2.O - P U
12 II P U
T. " " .............. 75-3 774 - UP
3-0 3-7 - U P
20 13 - P U
W. " " .............. 87.8 85.9 91.2 NPU
2.3 2.5 24 U N P
10 13 12 U N P
Y. " " .............. 39.9 41.9 52.0 N U P
2.3 3-2 3-0 U N P
IS 17 19 N U P
56 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
Comparing these results with all similar correlations, we
find that none of the subjects have remained constant during
the experiments, as is evidenced by the following. A.'s longest
tappings were twice for the pleasant, twice for the unpleasant and
twice for the neutral. B.'s were three times for the pleasant,
twice for the unpleasant, and once for the neutral, etc. The
whole list is given below.
(this subject did not begin with the others)
(only one kind of judgment was made in one series)
(only one kind of judgment was made in one series)
(this subject did not begin with the others, and in
one series made only one kind of judgments)
19 14
Comparing the M.V. and the Rnj. in a similar manner gives
equally varied results.
Let us now consider the graphs for these experiments. Their
resemblances were more striking than their differences, and it is
not unlikely that the reverberations set up in the motor con-
sciousness just by this new material were too strong to be altered
by the other factors involved. In the first place it was found
that these experiments produced a much lower motor output than
did those preceding them ; Idrel had reached a height of 88.4 mm. ;
none of these reach anything above 78.8 mm. (the Arnold II).
Massing together the P, U, and N judgments, and correlating
them with the amounts of motor discharge as shown by these
graphs, we obtain:
PUN
Arnold II M.D. av. 78.8 mm. 342
Tennyson 1 78.6 711
Byron II 78.4 8 o r
Tennyson II 78.0 441
Arnold 1 77.6 4 4 i
Byron 1 77.4 540
Keats II 77.2 711
Keats 1 76.6 711
This comparison would seem to indicate that the most pleasant
experiments go with the strongest and the weakest tappings,
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 57
while the most unpleasant tend to produce those which are mid-
way between the greatest and the least. No correlation with the
feelings of activity adds anything to what we have already ob-
served, that sometimes, and sometimes only, the feeling of ease
means longer finger strokes, and feelings of inhibition and diffi-
culty mean shorter strokes.
None of the experiments numbered III are given for any of
the poets, and hereafter only No. I of the first three is presented,
because it represents better than do the others the differences
in sound frequency for the poet. No. Ill, however, was con-
structed by combining half of the first and half of the second
of the above groups of sounds, Nos. I and II, to illustrate the
poet's use of those elements which are not either very frequent
nor infrequent, and thus we had a set of three experiments which
began with the liquids, and ended with the gutterals and
fricatives.
Experiments numbered IV, V, and VI in the case of each
poet are transmogrifications of single lines of poetry; experi-
ments VII, VIII, and IX are lines of poetry rearranged,
keeping the accented words of the original accented, and the
unaccented words unaccented. Experiments X, XI, and XII are
lines of poetry, "clothed and in their right mind," and for
each of the twenty poets experimented upon there are these
twelve experiments, which start with the tonal elements, pass
through the nonsense verse of transmogrification, through also
the ungrammatical poetry into the normal meaningful lines
from which all had been ultimately derived that preceded them.
Thus we had 240 experiments upon the poets arranged in such
a way as to supply sufficient data for a compact thesis in itself.
In the case of nine of the twenty poets, the same material en-
tered into the transmogrifications, rearrangements and the mean-
ingful lines, so that Experiments IV, V, and VI were the trans-
mogrifications of the material in Experiments X, XI and XII
respectively, and Experiments VII, VIII and IX were the re-
arrangements of the same material as had been used in the others.
In the other eleven poets, which were experimented upon first,
58 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
only now and then was such a symmetrical arrangement carried
out. We decided upon the method of repeating the same sounds
in three different relations in order to exactly determine what
both grammar and meaning had to do with the effects of the
poetic line upon the motor and the introspective consciousness.
But only in the case of four of the poets do we give the experi-
ments from IV to XII. What has been omitted will be con-
sidered in later, summarizing paragraphs.
It was the purpose at first to obtain experimental material
from the poets which would duplicate in tonal quality Experi-
ments I, II, and III; after a futile search for such lines, it was
given up; too many extraneous elements entered into the matter.
In the first place, very few lines of the poet actually follow the
tonal pattern of the first experiment in our series, and those
that do, usually contain inverted iambics, if they contain iambics
at all ; in the second place, to find decasyllabic lines that are regu-
larly accented in the iambic pattern is not always possible, and
when such are found, they are likely to be some of the poorest
lines, esthetically considered, that the poet suffered to leave his
pen. So that in every case almost, Experiments I, II, and III
are in a class by themselves, and the other nine experiments of the
series are in another class.
THE TRANSMOGRIFICATION OF SINGLE LINES OF POETRY
The business of transmogrifying single lines of poetry is
quite difficult, for the restrictions placed upon one in this work
are very rigid, — words must not be made, and sounds must not
be left out; again, to avoid making words, one may have to
construct a very badly sounding line, and sacrifice to the purpose
of the experiment much of his artistic predilection for the beauty
of tones; let any one who doubts the difficulty of the matter at-
tempt the task, and he will find that we have but lightly touched
on the obstacles to be encountered. The transmogrifications we
have used in this experiment are but a fifth of the number which
we attempted to complete with satisfaction to ourselves.
These experiments were presented in the order in which they
are given in the following pages. The first four poets experi-
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 59
mented upon were Byron, Keats, Arnold and Tennyson, and
the forty-eight experiments upon them were well under way be-
fore the I and E Experiments had been completed. This was a
relief to the subjects, who rather chafed at the idea of having
so many similar combinations week after week.
There were fifteen experiments performed on Keats, but we
have omitted all but twelve in our consideration, because we
discovered that the others were of no importance for the work
in hand. Our original plan had been to experiment upon very
many more than twelve decasyllabic lines for each poet, but
time did not allow, and this had to be given up. Neither were
the subjects able to react to twenty experiments an hour as well as
to twelve.
The introspection for the Keats and Byron experiments is
very interesting indeed, from the very start, and the transmogri-
fication of the famous line from Byron's "Apostrophe to the
Ocean" was a decided success, but it is not beyond cavil that
the line may have contained too many hints at the sense of the
original verse.
After the introspective account of the matter, we have given
the numerical results which we shall consider at once.
Keats IV. Won femz e nanj 6v di nal ter en teev.,* trans-
mogrified from "One faint, eternal eventide of gems."
Nothing in the introspection compared to the original mean-
ing or mood of the line.
Keats V. Too zowb ith bind tha rawl me ting win ti. From
"To bind them all about with tiny rings." Introspection.
Visual imagery of a farm; auditory imagery of some bells ringing. Sounds
like an ode; vocal placement seemed forward in the mouth. Gives a light
and cool effect; the sounds vary in pitch very much; more resonant than
the former one.
* From now on the diacritical marks will have their usual significance over
single vowels ; but when two vowels occur together, the following interpre-
tation is required : ee = e ; oo = the oo in "brook" ; 66 = the oo in "food",
etc; a as in "ask" is indicated by no mark at all; in addition to this, the
ow, aw, ou, oi, and other diphthongal sounds are pronounced as usual in
'English. Differences between the sonant and surd th, are not indicated here,,
though they were in the experiment.
60 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
Keats VI. A thurn us too thu bow too flandry bide. From.
"A flow'ry band to bind us to the earth."
Very rhythmic line; 'Chaucer's poetry came to mind. Imagery of a high
tower; romantic scene, maybe some battle being narrated; romantic and
idyllic. "Flaundry" a strange word; thinks of "Flanders" and "laundry"
at the same time.
Keats. Experiment VII. So cooling very still was and the
air. From "The air was cooling and so very still."
Imagery of the twilight. Visual imagery of a bright green color. Cool
sensation in the mouth. Very conscious of lips.
Keats VIII. The dwindled of its trace and edgings brim.
From "The trace and dwindled edgings of its brim."
Imagery of snow; "trace" a "cold" word. Feels lips to be very active.
Keats IX. Across the move would blue a little cloud. From
"A little cloud would move across the blue."
Gives an inane feeling; "move" and "blue" are "sticky" words; "cloud"
doesn't go with them. Cannot say "little cloud" fast enough to suit the line.
The word "across" is too hard ; the "k" sound sticks. Lips rather prominent
in consciousness.
Keats X. A bower quiet for us and a sleep.
Odd that the gutteral should have been used, — "quiet." "Bower" the only
"quiet" sound. Uses too much breath for the meaning.
Keats XI. "With lucent syrops tinct with cinnamon."
Thinks of toddy and cordials; just the opposite kind of a scene came up.
Much taste imagery; visual imagery in bright colors. The line hisses too
much; imagery of peppermint. Tickles the tongue.
Keats XII. "That broodest o'er the troubled sea of mind."
Mind in a quiet uncertainty. Thought of Byron, and Hamlet; visualized a
cliff. Feeling of a cosmic melancholy. Gives a gentle melancholy; "mind"
too abrupt.
Byron IV. Shun dole ow rod thu nark blore 6 land eep. From
"Roll on thou dark and deep blue ocean, roll."
Visual imagery of some one on a rock by the sea ; sounded like a foreign
language. Subject A. — Imagery of the ocean, in a storm; the jerky effect
here is justifiable. B. — Imagery of a ship on the ocean in stormy weather;
seemed to take more force. D. — Imagery of the sea; heavy waves; dark
colors. F. — Sea imagery; "nark" is very hard. "Blore o" is the blowing of
a horn. K. — 'Great deal of resonance; no imagery. L. — Sea concepts aroused;
thinks of Norsemen, etc.; very thrilling. M. — Feels the roar of the ocean;
visual imagery very rich. P. — Counting bothered a little; imagery of Hoi-
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 61
land. S. — Mixture of Persian, Arabic and Hindustani language; great deal
of imagery of the ocean; sounds fill the mouth.
Byron V. Thu vl land sa ml ji ta fro the vee. From "The
inviolate island of the sage and free" (with two unaccented
syllables omitted).
Narrative poetry ; thinks of natural scenes. A gesture could do it all better
than words. Imagery of gaudy colors ; not smooth sounds. Not very smooth ;
especially the fourth iambic; imagery of a pastoral scene. Imagery of some
big man saying this in a thunderous voice. Lip sensations unpleasant.
Byron VI. Has mowd sti rme wha stesh ra mid thu krathe.
From "Amidst this wreck where thou hast made a shrine."
Describing a very interesting place; something troubled and dolorous about
it. Implies a rough activity. All the sounds very unpleasant; do not fuse.
Too staccato; but "su krath" very good. Just a strange, incomprehensible
language.
Byron VII. "With stirred as rose her dream leaves with the
air." From "Stirred with her dream as rose leaves with the
air."
Ethereal quality about the sounds. Rhythmic; thought of a sleeping girl.
The words "air" and "stirred' the best of all; olfactory imagery.
Byron VIII. At bluelit moon and midnight on the deep. From
"At midnight on the blue and moonlit deep."
Imagery of a ship at midnight; pleasant self-feelings. Smooth, soft, and
gentle combination. ,
Byron IX. Upon beheld decline who hath my brow. From
"Who hath beheld decline upon my brow."
Thinks of a pessimistic old man. Monotonous; takes too much breath.
Thinks of some unsuccessful person.
Byron X. "And temple more divinely desolate."
"Emp" sounds pointed. "Desolate" just suits the meaning; it's a cold,
blue word; "divinely" doesn't have anything to do with the line. The
"hiss" in "desolate" very expressive.
Byron XI. "Yet I was born where men are proud to be."
Prosaic and pessimistic; sounds very resonant. Very strong physical
sensations. "Yet" always a vocal surprise.
Byron XII. "And silent rows the songless gondolier."
Very dark and somber feeling induced. "Silent" the only silent word in
the line; "gon" in "gondolier" is too gutteral. Cheerful and lively line
in spite of the intended meaning; "songless gondolier" a tonal equivocation.
62 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
The remarkable thing about the graphs representing these
twelve experiments upon Byron and Keats was that in nearly
every case the motor discharge for the Byron Experiments is
greater than that for Keats, and the final averages showed that
the combined finger movements for the Byron experiments were
eighteen metres longer than they were for Keats. But we must
not be too sanguine; the tonal elements in Byron are not the
ones which have hitherto been those arousing the strongest re-
actions, and the fact that Keats was experimented upon first may
indicate that we have only practise curves before us in this in-
stance. But there was something rousing and enthusing in all
the Byron experiments which the subjects did not find in those
on Keats, which may account for the matter more exactly. The
character of the lines transmogrified and employed in other ways
is very different for the two poets, as any one can see from a
glance at the material; but whatever may be the nature of the
individual sounds used in the above experiments, we find here
that order and arrangement are potent factors, and single deca-
syllabic lines may produce different effects than do larger pas-
sages. One could also notice in these graphs the form quality
of the decasyllabic groups, — the regular thing in a rhythmic line
is for the first and the last feet to demand more motor discharge
than the intermediate iambics. And the form-quality of the
Byron lines always differed from those of Keats. Again, the
mean variation of the tappings for the meaningful lines is less,
according to the graphs, than it is in the first six of the experi-
ments for these poets.
Every one will admit that Byron is a more oratorical poet than
Keats, and that there is a power and vigor to Byron's poetry
which is not found in any other English poet. It would seem
that the temperamental character of the poet had gotten into
these experiments, and that also the quieter and more pastoral
nature of Keats had not been omitted from the experiments
which we graphed with those of Byron. It is admitted that the
experiments were made with the different poets in mind, and that
even the first three experiments were patterned upon what was.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 63
conceived to be the poet's tonal characteristics, but the results
are what they are, and whether from one cause or another, they
show that the experiments on Byron called for the more activity
on the part of the motor consciousness. This is enough.
The next experiments to be considered and compared are those
on Arnold and Tennyson.
Arnold IV. Nor hi but smord hiz neerd ukt lod 6rn wabez.
From "But he looked on, nor smiled, nor bared his sword."
Thinks of a 'battle; (but "smord" never meant "sword" consciously) .
"Smord" and "neerd" indicate the presence of trouble.
Arnold V. Lo mordz iim stur dile hus ker mize hiz mafe.
From "Like some old miser Rustum hoards his fame."
Tragic narrative poetry.
"Hus" the highest tone in the line.
"Maie" not very pleasant; the auditory consciousness much more pleasant
than the reading consciousness.
Arnold VI. Zi nold be krem es laj e ruld sho hize. From
" 'Behold,' she cries, 'so many rages lulled.' '
"Z" the prominent consonant.
"Kremlin" aroused by "krem."
Seemed to be a "begging symphony" of the Mohammedan beggars.
Arnold VII. As she her echo stormy screams sails by. From
"Echo her stormy scream as she sails by."
"S" the right sound for this meaning.
Imagery of excited movement.
The "s" sounds are very unpleasant; sounds like a poorly oiled wheel.
"Sails" too heavy a word for an unaccented syllable.
Arnold VIII. All who pained desert lion some of day. From
"Of some pain'd desert lion who all day."
Hard to say "pained" in the time allowed.
The words "some" and "desert" disturbed the rhythm.
Arnold IX. Her it the glass lake flying over shall. From
"Shall the lake glass her, flying over it."
Sounds very pleasant; gives a "thin," damp feeling.
Lips much in consciousness.
Mood aroused akin to that of Wlordsworth's Lucy poems.
Arnold X. "The sails that gleam a moment and are gone."
"Can this be the same poet as the last nine experiments illustrated ?*
Liked the sense but not the sounds or rhythm.
64 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
Arnold XI. "Before this strange disease of modern life."
Sounds unpleasant per se; "s" too frequent.
"Strange," very unpleasant and nasal; the "ern" of modern also a bad
sound.
Arnold XII. "He lies in death upon the common sand."
"Death" as a sound is very pleasant here ; one cannot expand while saying it.
The words "common sand" go too quickly for the meaning.
Tennyson IV. For tharing kern he toft a seefly thile. From
"He therefore, turning softly like a thief."
Thinks of the ocean and the surf; "a cynical line."
Means something soft, quiet, and subdued; "kern" is a lovely word.
The letter "k," while dissonant, only brings out the harmony of the other
sounds the more.
Tennyson V. A whil in dost ur genward nispers eep. From
"Again in deeper inward whispers 'lost'."
Thinks of a soft, subdued scene; evening.
Thinks of whirling dust; whispers; deep; etc.
Thinks of Gray's Elegy.
Tennyson VI. Whar lamz too urking wile too bisk an vorn.
From "Scorning an alms to work whereby to live."
"Vorn" is Scandanavian ; thinks of the early Britons.
"Lamz" = "lambs," but they were not frisky; something dark and weari-
some about the line.
"Urk" brings a dead stop.
Sounds like Matthew Arnold; "urk" a little hard.
Very personal, and sad; gloomy melancholy; fatalistic.
Implies a moral situation.
Tennyson VII. But will made fate in weak by time and strong.
From "Made weak by time and fate but strong in will."
Uninteresting, abstract, philosophical.
The sounds too short for the meaning.
The sense takes away the pleasure of the sounds.
Tennyson VIII. Now crimson sleeps the now the petal white.
From "Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white."
Imagery of carnations, visual and olfactory.
"Crimson" visualized as "pink."
The sounds are good even without meaning.
The sounds of the word "petal" are too light for the rest of the line.
"Crimson" the best sound of all; thinks of English pudding.
Tennyson IX. To scorning live whereby an alms to work.
From "Scorning an alms to work whereby to live."
Stupid sort of a line; "scorning" a dreadfully "hard" word.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 65
Laborious combination ; has internal 'bodily strains.
Didn't feel that the tapping was at all expressive.
Tennyson X. "And on the mere the wailing died away."
Rather onomatopoetic ; but "died" has a little too much movement about it.
Tried to be sad, but did not succeed.
Tennyson XI. "The silent water slipping from the hills."
The word "silent" means distance and seclusion.
"Sliding" would have been better than "slipping" for onomatopoeia; the
short "i" is too full of impact.
Too much sound for the sense.
Sounds slightly artificial and banal.
"Slipping" is most annoying; gets no motion out of the line.
Tennyson XII. "And all the coverlid was cloth of gold."
'^Coverlid" strangely pleasant for a "k" sound.
Nasal; "cloth of gold" pleasant to say; but got visual imagery of a scarlet
cloth.
"Gold" the conspicuous word.
Mouth seems very open in the last two feet.
"Lid" doesn't fit in.
Something "insincere" about it.
As typical of the numerical results obtained from the experi-
ments numbered I to XII, we present those for Tennyson. First
a table showing the results from the mean o'f the tappings for
each subject arranged both according to feeling-tone and also
to the triadic grouping of the experiments as outlined above. In
the first column stand the abbreviations for the names of the
subjects, and in the last column the averages of the tappings for
the pleasant, unpleasant and neutral experiments, regardless of
group.
The next table presents the same results qua mean variation.
And the third table shows the rank lists which exhibit the acme
of the steadiness attained in this whole group of 240 experiments.
The mean alone appears to be significant in point of comparison
with the general psycho-motor correlations hitherto obtained.
Subject
A. P. .
TENNYSON, EXPERIM]
Mil
86^
ENTS I-XII. MEAN
IV-VI VII-IX X-XII
81.6 87.4 90.0
87.6 89.6 87.7
93-5 •
78.5 78.8
75-8 79-1
Av.
86.3
88.3
93-5
77-7
78.3
8^.8
U. ...
N. ...,
B. P.
7=58
U. ...
801
N. ,
81.8
66
ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
C. P
91.8
87.9
83-5
76.6
84.9
u
87.3
87.3
N
87.9
87.9
D. P
103.8
1044
102.6
106.1
104.2
U
98.8
96.0
97-9
97-6
N
96.8
96.8
F. P.
82.0
79-9
83.0
80.5
814
U
77-2
73-0
79-6
76.6
N
77.0
80.8
7&9
K. P. .
S6.i
47.9
50.8
51.6
U
474
49-1
48.2
N
524
524
L. P
69.3
67.3
77-1
78.5
73-1
U
70.2
80.9
83-5
78.2
N
69.0
69.0
M. P. .
85.0
87.8
86.4
U
85.2
80.1
90.6
85-7
854
N
85-7
88.8
87.2
P. P.
127.0
131.2
131.7
I34.I
131-0
U
127.9
127.9
N
1324
1324
S. P
"3-5
in .3
III.2
II2.O
U
i!i5-6
II5-6
N.
TENNYSON, EXPERTS
lENTS
I-XII. M.V.
Subject
I-III
IV-VI
VII-IX
X-XII
Av.
A. P
3-7
2-3
4-7
3-8
3-6
U
4.1
3-3
3-9
3-9
N
34
34
B. P
3-9
4-3
_^_
44
4-2
U
7-1
4.4
5-8
5-7
N
4-5
4-5
C. P
4-0
4-7
4-6
4-2
4-3
U
7-1
M
N.
3-8
3-8
D. P
3-8
1-7
14
2.O
2.2
U
3-2
4.6
2.8
3-5
N.
5-6
5-6
5-6
F. P.
4-5
6.0
54
4-6
5-1
U
3-7
4-5
6.1
4-7
N.
4-3
7-2
5-7
K. P. .
6.2
5-3
6.0
5.8
U
6.2
5-5
5-9
N
5.7
5-7
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 67
L. P 5-1 4-r 4-8 3-7
U 3-4 3-7 3-6
N 5-1
M. P 24 5.0
U 3-9 4-8 3-3 54
N 4-1 4-i
P. ;P 1.7 2.0 1.6 2.0
N 2.6
S. P 2.0 3.1! 2.6
N 2.8
TENNYSON. RANK LISTS. EXPERIMENTS I-XII.
Subject Mean
44
3-6
5-1
3-7
4-3
1.8
24
2.6
2.6
2.8
A
e
g
f d
e
g
g
t
t
g
g
g
B
c
d
c e
d
d
c
d
b
f
d
b
C
g
f
g g
f
f
e
e
e
d
b
c
D.
h
(throughout)
F
d
c
d f
c
c
d
b
d
b
e
e
K
a
(throughout)
L
b
(throughout)
M
f
f
>6 C
g
c
t
g
g
e
t
t
P
J
(throughout)
S.
i
(throughout)
MV.
A. ,
d
f
e g
c
e
b
g
e
f
d
h
B
h
i
g e
g
f
e
J
h
J
f
d
c
b
h
j f
h
•d
1
b
d
d
g
i
D
e
c
d a
a
a
i
a
f
a
a
c
F
g
g
f j
J
g
h
f
i
h
i
g
K
J
J
i h
i
J
f
i
J
e
J
J
L
i
d
h d
c
i
g
e
g
g
e
<e
M
f
e
b i
f
h
c
c
c
i
•h
f
P
a
a
a c
d
b
a
b
a
b
b
a
S
c
b
c b
b
c
d
d
b
c
c
b
Rnj
A. .
e
g
g d
b
f
b
f
d
i
d
i
B
f
1
e e
f
g
d
g
g
J
g
b
C
b
i
f h
h
c
J
h
e
f
f
g
D
a
b
b c
a
b
g
b
J
a
b
c
F
g
h
h g
i
i
f
d
h
g
1
h
K
J
f
J i
J
,1
e
J
i
d
i
J
L
i
d
i f
d
d
i
e
f
c
c
f
M
h
e
d j
e
h
c
c
c
h
h
e
P
c
a
a a
g
a
a
a
a
b
a
a
S
d
c
c b
c
e
h
i
b
e
e
d
In the experiments upon Byron and Keats, subject A. was the
only one who gave longer tappings for the pleasant than for
the unpleasant lines; D., L., and P. do the opposites in both cases;
68 ROBERT CHENAULT G1VLER
all the rest of the subjects are apparently inconsistent. In the
experiments upon Arnold and Tennyson subjects B. and C. give
the longer tappings to the pleasant lines ; D., K., M., and P. do the
opposite, and the rest of the subjects are again self-contradictory,
to a more or less degree. The apparent conclusion is, — new
material, new motor manifestations.
Both of the rank lists for the mean (Arnold and Tennyson)
are splendid, — indeed, they are rarely ever so consistent there-
after. But the rank lists for the mean variation and the range are
not as consistent as they have been before.
From the graphs for this work it was noticed that in every
case, the Tennyson experiments took a shorter time to be spoken
than did those of Arnold. Also in graphs X to XII appeared
much more form quality in the Tennyson than in the Arnold
graphs. Even in the final average for all twelve experiments
this character is well defined. Again it is concluded that there is
something about the sounds or the arrangement of the sounds in
the Tennyson experiments which caused the fingers of the ten
subjects to move eighteen metres more while tapping the Tenny-
son experiments than while tapping those for Arnold.
We find also that characteristic feeling-tones, moods and the
like are correlated with the type of motor discharge which ac-
company them. Where one is individual and significant, so is
the other. Not only were the Byron graphs indicative of a
greater length of tapped strokes than those of Keats, and the
Tennyson than the Arnold, but also the general appearance, the
steadiness, the form of the graph began at least at the tenth
experiment on these poets, and very frequently before this, to
take on an individuality as drawn on paper, as much as did the
content and quality of the lines as spoken and understood. So
that the motor expression we had used, namely the tapping
movements of the right index finger, appeared to be not only
one that tended toward automatism, but also one that drained
away the general somatic supply in a manner characteristic to
the poet and fitting to the purpose in hand. A fair analogy to
this is found in the case of singers sympathetically accompanying
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 69
themselves upon the piano; where the two forms of musical
expression are identical, at least functionally, in so many ways
as to be regarded as indicative of that unity of the esthetic con-
sciousness which in this particular instance expresses itself in
blends of behavior.
To take up each poet or each pair of poets who were experi-
mented upon would be too tedious, and so we shall now turn to
a consideration of the rest of these 240 experiments only insofar
as they supply data for the main thesis involved in our problem.
At the end of the series there appear two very interesting tables,
which summarize and focus the matter of the correlations in a
very interesting way. One generalization is not out of order
in this connection, — the lyrical poets, as every literary man well
knows, have employed a phonetic device which the other poets
have not; name the lyric poets, and you name the users of liquid
sounds in their poetry ; name again the lyric poets, and you have
named those not only whose lines transmogrify best, but also
those who will produce in these tappings, as recorded in the
graphs, the finer form quality of the curve of the motor discharge.
At the end of the introspective and other reports of the ex-
periments upon these remaining sixteen poets, we shall consider
the graphs for all of them.
Coleridge I. Thu nase ta neel ri tarn din rade thu leer.
Reminds him of the sound of cymbals.
Sensations cluster around "n" and "s."
Very highly colored sounds.
"E" is conspicuous ; imagery of the sea.
Stays in the mouth.
Consonants more prominent than the vowels.
Coleridge IV. Ru thad tha bang tis leet sta rusk ti pa. From
"Beat its straight path along the dusky air."
Visual imagery of rustic scenery ; simple concept.
Sounds run back and forth in the mouth.
Hard to say "sta rusk." Rather quiet sounds otherwise.
Sounds like water gushing and then flowing smoothly.
Something Russian about it ; more epic than lyric.
Coleridge V. Ri voze ka stron sov morst ba fand thu wame.
From "A storm of waves breaks foamy on the strand."
Has a funereal air ; imagery of scenes of death.
70 ROBERT CHENAULT GIYLER
"Wame" means country life.
Images somebody laboring under a burden.
Felt as if standing at bay, in desperation.
Forceful ; hard sounds, but not unpleasant.
Sounds like a strong rebuke.
Coleridge VI. Thu zurv les noom all blether wilden foge.
From "All golden with the never bloomless furze."
Some idea of blessing, or piety called up.
Seems like the last words of a narrative of fighting.
Weather and fog and ocean thought of.
Gives a cold and lonely feeling.
Something cloudy and wild and inconsistent about it.
Gives him a "fuzzy" feeling; ghost story.
Wordsworth I. Thu rin din lase ra zeem ti rit thu tane.
Very natural sounds; gives a relieved, placid feeling.
Too nasal; imagery of skipping along.
The whole line a balance between soft and loud sounds.
The "t" sound predominated.
Wordsworth IV. Thu greem that brillz toor zong and hovez a
thane. From "That nature breathes among the hills and groves."
Thinks of the "Lady of Shallott" and of "Launcelot." In spite of the "g"
sounds, it seems far forward in the mouth.
Felt in the nose; imagery of fields in a brilliant green.
"Greem" gives a shock ; "zong," "toor" and "hoves" bring up bovine concept.
Wordsworth V. Ov tathe im tose ro si hav lors tal meez.
From "Our souls have sight of that immortal sea."
Recalls moral ideas.
Sounds all pleasant.
Very easy to say ; vocalized well ; no imagery.
Once almost got a meaning but lost it.
Wordsworth VI. H66 kron thu set with stadz 6v nidmg bom.
From "Who crossed the sands with ebb of morning tide."
Sounds imiportant; "kronz" = crowns.
Epical sounding thing.
The "z" sounds very effective.
Shelley I. Nid ren dat rul tal meed run tes ther mil.
Every foot pleasant, but the line disconnected.
Front of the mouth used.
Sounds do not fuse; each foot is distinct, yet smooth.
Sounds gloomy and melancholy.
Surprised because it went so smoothly; especially since all the sounds are
short and emphatic.
"Ther null" meant "thermal," "diurnal" ; very resonant.
The "d" and "t" sounds predominate.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 71
Shelley IV. When sov thu nesh dol gress her thon thu ree.
From "When on the threshold of the green recess."
Mediocre poetry; the "s" sounds mar it again; "sov" makes the lips come
into focal consciousness.
Very strong rhythm.
Lyric sort of a thing. Visual imagery of out doors.
Shelley V. Be quiving theenerd zarm our twiter nin. From
"Quivered beneath our intertwining arms."
Refers to some very romantic scene.
Something akin to coquetry thought of; slight sexual feeling connected
with it.
Arouses many emotions.
"Twiter" particularly pleasant.
"The R sounds prominent."
Shelley VI. That flogy 166th up lengerz miv at ron. From
"At length upon that gloomy river's flow."
"Flogy" seemed sexual; conscious of the roof of the mouth.
"Flogy looth" is a lovely, slippery combination; thinks of seaweed on the
rocks.
The "g" sounds suffocate.
Gives that feeling of uneasiness one has when shadowed.
Marlowe I. Rm ten thu rile da zade ut si thi net.
Great variety of sounds in it.
Seems to occupy the middle of the mouth cavity.
Very little buoyancy or warmth.
Something explanatory; expansive feeling.
Marlowe IV. Thu denchilz quare in chevless fanez ov thlre.
From "The devils there in chains of quenchless fire."
Feels lips touching eye-teeth ; thought of something tragic or mock heroic.
Forceful sounds; thinks of "fame," "Macbeth," etc.
Very energetic and sturdy; sounds forward in the mouth.
Epic line; invites bellowing.
Marlowe VI. Thu wurj or tekt be droot na ser dra murld.
From "Be termed a scourge and a terror to the world."
Seems around the front of the' mouth.
Thinks of the growling of a lion; wild and forceful sounds; they fill the
mouth full.
Too many consonants; feels like being whirled about in a circle and left
breathless.
Sounds like angry swearing.
Cowper I. Nud ras ti nil ma zet rin des du ran.
Tiresome, disconnected sounds.
Seemed to be inhibited.
72 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
"If said low and quietly, it was pleasant."
Gives an attitude of confidence.
Sounds like the narrative of a traveler.
Cowper IV. Thu nem that hife as van di meedz az dire.
From "The deeds that men admire as half divine."
Located at the lips ; kinaesthesis the basis of the pleasure.
Gives a vague idea of something confidential.
The "ad van" very prominent.
Cowper V. With nern i pid and us kon ti ra nad. From
"With mad rapidity and unconcern."
Has a silly and foolish meaning.
Located forward in the mouth ; imagery of indefinite activity.
Prevalence of short vowels noticed.
"Us" is peculiar to accent; this the focal point.
"Pid" balks one; induced a feeling of spunkiness.
Cowper VI. In shurz re kozement zuv thu fore he lent. From
"Incurs resentment for the love he shows."
Feels it located back in the mouth.
Not very energetic; gives a cool effect.
Milton I. Thu ril tin leet re tise da ned nu ro
Front part of the mouth in consciousness.
First two feet give a sense of levity, last two, gravity.
Not emphatic, but most agreeable and lovely; gave many pleasant thrills.
The "t" and "n" sounds tended to interchange.
Milton IV. The diz and tild yoo wis shun wa mal sate. From
"The dismal situation waste and wild."
Thought of the words "wistful way."
The sounds feel frigid ; imagery of a cold country.
Very easy to say ; sounds like an oration.
Milton V. At boze he chan tel mast hiz twilt and rool. From
"At last he rose and twitched his mantle blue."
Suggests early English romanticism; maybe fighting; feels as if the front
of the mouth alone were used.
Calls up Scotch scenery.
Trace of quiet and melancholy in "bloze"; rhythmic.
Calls up some martial attitude.
Milton VI. Me tase I lawt mi sount es paze ed thaw. From
"Methought I saw my late espoused saint."
Very conscious of the mouth sensations.
A quiet, peaceful description.
Rossetti I. Ni ril thur dete za mes rut le di rin.
Kinaesthesis rather forward.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 73
Not musical, but impressive
Felt as if "mes" and "rin" were light spots.
Perhaps a description of nature; "t," "d" prominent.
Rossetti IV. Too nudz ten sprole too zing this gine set wes.
From "Tonight this sunset spreads two golden wings."
Rhythmical; imagery of a sunset.
"Too zing" and "set wes" charming.
'Seems like walking haltingly; five separate feet.
Feels like setting his teeth.
"Z" and "s" quite prominent.
Rossetti V. Thu wed 6v dinth im ser ish wuble ping. From
"The wind of death's imperishable wing."
Mysterious and humorous.
Kinaesthesis goes from the throat to the lips and back. Imagery of some
red scene in nature.
The last three syllables seemed strangely inadequate.
Seems like climbing a hill to a level path.
Warmly emotional, but no meaning.
Rossetti VI. Thu shounding mse thu soudz a rite thu lore.
From "The sighing sounds, the lights around the shore."
More magnificent than pleasant ; visualizes Niagara.
Thinks of the roar of water ; sounds dental and palatal.
Thinks of an enormous wide ocean.
Description of an imposing natural scene, either mountains or the sea.
Shakespeare I. Thu trel tin rad nur tin dat si thu nal.
Sounds musical and rhythmic.
Seems to lie in the forward part of the mouth.
Has a latent meaning of some kind ; very musical.
Very light and lyric.
Melodious; firm sounds, yet not obtrusive.
"N" and "t" prominent, but not hard this time.
Shakespeare IV. A kree zen swev that zi est hote in flare.
From "A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air."
Seems all in the roof of the mouth ; visual imagery of a stream, also of flame.
Too many "z" and "s" sounds".
Thinks of some national affair, such as "conditional dependency."
Seems to be a description of a big fire.
Shakespeare V. Thu prime her kov zal bur li pa kn vull
From "Calls back the lovely April of her prime."
Kinaesthesis not localizable. Every iambic is an isolated meaning.
Pitch rises to the middle and then descends.
Very mysterious and splendid.
74 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
Shakespeare VI. Me kloum hath reet him f rask thu now jun.
dom. From "The region cloud hath masked him from me now."
Seems to describe a little animal freeing himself.
Kinaesthesis elusive; something energetic about it.
Seems to describe the frisking of a clown.
Describes a jolly May festival on the very green grass.
Very amusing; burlesque; anticlimax;
Spenser I. Rin deer du ms ta mite ntiz rel ri deen.
Felt in the front of the mouth ; likes R, M, N, and V.
Hard to say; feels as if the sounds were projected from the mouth.
Nasal, especially the "d-n,1* "n-d" combinations.
Queer ; sort of an old fashioned dignity about it.
Spenser IV. And ding 6v tins and sa dis len tul jeedz. From
"And sing of knights' and ladies' gentle deeds."
Superficial and humorous ; his mouth seemed to wear a grin.
Couldn't get it out of the back part <of his mouth.
"Z" too prominent.
Spenser V. Be dole a la him fidly vur di sare. From "A
lovely lady rode him fair beside."
Located forward in the mouth.
Smooth ; a ballad of some sort ; love poetry.
Spenser VI. Thar dez el wud a hap i choli fi. From "There
was a holy chapel edified."
Something rather profound indicated by it.
Seemed forward in the month.
Browning I. Nit rase teth nal ral deet this mas nus rane.
Emphatic and slightly humorous.
All feels in the front of the mouth.
Requires more mouth movement than is normal.
Tends to get a little cumbersome.
Browning IV. And blem thu vee de tos ter has thu mur. From
"And hear the blessed mutter of the mass."
Sounds on the lips mostly; thinks of ocean and the mermaids.
First amusing, then unpleasant.
"Blem the vee" is swearing.
Arouses feelings of disgust, possibly scorn.
Sarcastic meaning.
Browning V. He kul tant ib re thoo nes pur thu liz. From
"He threw reluctantly the business up."
Sounds in the front of the mouth ; unpleasantly comical.
The sounds do not go together.
Very commonplace description.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 75
Browning VI. Nad ri vook il ten thor nab te thu son. From
"And I have written three books on the soul."
Sounds in .the middle of the mouth.
Certain warm quality about the sounds.
Seemed to demand a rapid reading.
Pope I. Ni run thur til tu zed ras nus m rit.
Has a nasal twang.
Tip of tongue used too much; not rhythmic.
Too many "n" sounds; gets tongue-tied.
Pope IV. Thu shurn 6 bleke hiz misli stoobing ra. From
"The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray."
Gives a cold, unhappy sort of feeling; thinks of snow.
Smooth and rhythmic; thinks of a windy, sunshiny day.
"Nusli" and "stoobing" very bad sounds.
Pope V. Thu loundmg sats in roop ex tur der tor. From
"The troops exulting sat in order round."
Thinks of a camp fire and of baking.
Sounds like a title to something odd.
Jerky and full of irregularities.
Pope VI. Thu snoud ant kees mu sen 6s too thu mes. From
"The sound must seem an echo to the sense."
Thinks of forced punishments.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, Foot I to V. Here the sibilants are
not unpleasant.
Sounds like a sarcastic remark.
Jonson I. Nit Hn thu ta ran des du thane ti ril.
Full of dentals; feels tongue pushing about vigorously.
Kinaesthesis at the hard palate forward.
Fairly smooth and open ; forward in the mouth.
Visual imagery of bright colors, no objects.
Jonson IV. Or krangther hest her mat a ristal rebe. From
"A crystal mirror hangeth at her breast."
A romantic note to it.
"Krangther" called up a blacksmith shop.
The "r" sounds very prominent.
Jonson V. And moice her vike iz trilpet shroud a lull. From
"Her voice is like a trumpet, loud and shrill."
Depressing, heavy and dark; cannot tell why.
Flowing and easy; visual imagery of a foggy sea.
Thinks of Vikings and pirates.
Dislikes the tonal anticlimax.
Cannot explain why it should be so full of effort.
76 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
Jonson VI. Her threst ma he m yoo shand bart her soor. From
"And you may see her heart shine through her breast."
Sad and depressing ; gives a feeling of helplessness.
Seems to be slightly threatening; the "r" sounds prominent.
"Shand" dominated the whole line.
"Threst" very pleasant.
Might well be a continuation of IV, and V.
Dryden I. Nu rin tith 16 rad sete ri lid ml rane.
Seems nasal all through; felt damp and wet.
Localized exactly in the middle of the mouth.
The "n" sounds are rather nasal.
Too many of the same sounds caused inhibitions.
Narrative, business like, but not strong.
Felt as if he had been in a damp forest.
"Tith lo" the pleasantest sound of them all.
Dryden IV. Too rold in lure too stave thu ruse re to. From
"Resolved to ruin or to rule the state."
It describes some vigorous historical action.
Thinks of Napoleon addressing his troops; "r" did it.
Located extraordinarily far out of the mouth.
Gives a sense of argumentation or exposition.
Suggests melodrama and a villain.
Describes some one's activity.
Dryden V. Thar krellen zall noos wikerz wade thu rene.
From "Their cries soon wakened all the dwellers near."
Related to a scene of action; intellectual poetry.
Imagery of some majestic excitement; "r" does it.
Imagery of a sailing boat, activity ; sounds placed back in the mouth.
Gets a sensation of floating.
Imagery of something flowing.
Thinks of a ship sailing out of the harbor.
Dryden VI. Di voundz thar tishonz thid and nod par bide.
From "And thin partitions do their bounds divide."
Seems to describe some great hurry and excitement. Gets a ringing in
his ears.
Seems common and vulgar; the activity has faded out.
The last iambic drops perpendicularly.
Something determined and emphatic about the line.
Swinburne I. Nad ren dor lese thu ta. rit zede nat rel.
Smooth, and well placed sounds.
•Conscious of the roof of the mouth.
Easy to say, but "zede" disturbs.
«T," "d," and "r" prominent.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 77
Swinburne IV. Duse pawd hits wale he bluz rath ward per
sleem. From "Deep sleep hath warmed her blood through all
its ways."
Distinct visual imagery of a fleeing horse.
Thought more and more of a blustering, angry man. Rhythm changed
from jerky to smooth and regular.
Sounds like a long list of slang words.
Variety of tonal effects in the line.
Swinburne V. And na wete zare ing loi sov ting thu ms.
From "And noise of singing in the late sweet air."
Glimpses of Polish scenery in the imagery.
Suggested some love scene; serenade, or sweethearting.
The long vowels have a warmth about them.
Thrills in the body at "na wete zare. . . ."
Swinburne VI. And rast thu vingyer pand thu spoterd win.
From "And past the vineyard and the water spring."
Feeling of action and strength.
Kinaesthesis very interesting, but cannot locate it.
"Yer" sounds vulgar.
Sounds scratchy, metallic and rasping.
"Yer" made the whole line seem slangy.
Gray I. Thu lere ni dase ra tarn di nase tu le.
Rhythmical and smooth; sounds like Scottish poetry.
"Di nase" to nasal.
"R," "t" and "d" prominent.
Gray IV. Too le thu mawn dup mus Ian ut thu pon. From
"To meet the sun upon the upland lawn."
Visual imagery of a brook and a sunrise.
Has a feeling of eating something soft; "1" the prominent sound, calls
up imagery of water.
Imagery of sky, moon and clouds; sounds rather nasal.
Description of rural scenery.
Gray V. Thu fturperz hekeli zare and mo yoo sped. From
"And spare the meek usurper's holy head."
Visualizes a scene of activity in the harvest fields.
Rather throaty; thinks of crickets chirping.
Imagery of the mown hay.
Flows together; visual imagery of reapers.
Describes some monotonous activity.
Gray VI. And sare thu dez its wonert staness wete. From
"And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
Gives a tinge of sadness ; does not imply activity.
78 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
The line is as smooth as water; seems very dental, too.
Seems like running down hill; sibilants prominent.
Short "o" and long "a" do not fit together.
Could be easily memorized ; "wete" a very comical ending.
Sydney I. Thu ra na sit re vun tith le nu rale.
In front of the mouth more than in the back.
Lyric quality; yet somehow hard to say.
Cannot be said very rapidly.
Tonal warmth about it.
The vowel sounds predominate.
Sydney IV. He wunz my hone it woz hiz lart for zuv. From
"He loves my heart, for once it was his own."
Rhythmic and easy to say ; narrative ; sexual ideas aroused.
Sweet scenes between lovers thought of.
Sounds like gossip.
Sydney V. With plee ture nazed kon tez ent case with prent.
From "With nature pleased, content with present case."
Thinks of wooing, pleading and the like.
Thinks of the links of a chain.
"Nazed" is a participle.
Sydney VI. Thu noor no wiz thu selth re preel zam perz.
From "The poor man's wealth, the prisoners' release."
Very smooth and rhythmic; might be a deprecation.
Had to pause after selth.'"
Of all these twenty poets, Byron, Keats, Arnold, Tennyson,
Shelley, Shakespeare, Coleridge and Wordsworth show best in
the rank lists, and their effect on the introspective consciousness
was quite superior to that made by the other eight poets.
The table next to be given needs some little explanation ; across
the top of the page are written the abbreviations of the ten sub-
jects who took part in the work; the column at the left contains
the names of the twenty poets experimented upon. Below the
abbreviations of the subjects' names are found three columns
with the figures i and 2 in various positions under the symbols
P P U
— , — and — . The numerator of these verbal fractions is re-
U N . N
ferred to by the number i in the columns below them, and the
denominator is referred to by the number 2 in the same columns.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 79
P
Now when the — column has a number i in it, it means that the
U
average of the tappings for this or that subject were greater for
the pleasant (P) experiments than for the unpleasant; when there
is a 2 under this verbal fraction, it means that the unpleasant
experiments produced the greater motor discharge. And the
P U
same for the figures under the symbols — and — , — when there
N N
P
is the figure I under • — it means that the averages of the tappings
N
for the pleasant experiments were greater than for the neutral,
and the same way throughout the other symbolic representations.
So that we have a concise summary of the correlations between
the feeling tone and motor discharge for these 240 experiments,
with respect to the mean of the tappings, all on this one page.
If we ask, then, who are the absolutely constant subjects, the
answer is that they are in the null class; 'for in every vertical
column we find the ones and the twos scattered all through, with
only tendencies of one kind or another looming large. Where
there are no figures in a column, it means that there were not
enough different judgments to make a correlation : for example,
there were in A's judgments on the affective value of Keats'
poems, no neutral predicates attached to the experiments, and so
on. In D's judgments on the Shakespere experiments, there
were only one kind of predicates given, and so in the columns in
which there are no figures for a certain poet, we have slight basis
for correlation.
Following this page, we have another table, which shows the
same correlations over again, and also the correlations between
the mean variation and the feeling tone; the figures mean the
same as before, and here one can see a very much better correla-
tion than with the mean alone. This is the conclusion : that upon
consideration of the preponderance of twos in the first two col-
umns, our former statement is again verified, that it is not the
pleasant experiences in these experiments which call for the
greatest amount of motor discharge, but the unpleasant and the
neutral.
Subject
A.
B.
C.
D.
F.
K
L
M
p
s
P P U
P P U
P P U
P P U
P P U
PP TT
PP TT
PP TT
PP TT
PP TT
Poet
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
Keats
1
2
2
2
2
112
221
2 2
221
211
Byron
1
111
2 1 1
2
112
1
221
222
221
2 2
Arnold
222
1 1 1
1 1 1
222
1
222
222
2
2 2 1
1 1 2
Te.myson
Wordsworth
1
111
1 2 2
2
221
111
211
222
122
2
211
222
211
221
1
1
Coleridge
1 1 1
1
111
2
1
221
2
1
2
211
122
1 2 2
1
221
2
221
111
211
2
Shelley
1 2 2
221
1
112
211
2
1
112
111
2 2 1
122
122
2
121
1 i
2
111
211
211
222
211
211
221
2
2
221
112
1
Shakespeare
222
1
1
222
222
1
222
1
112
Rossetti
221
1
222
211
2
112
2
2
1
Browning
211
211
211
1
221
221
1
111
2
112
222
1
211
211
2
1
2
2
112
221
212
122
211
1
1
2
1
222
221
122
221
2
221
111
211
2
112
222
221
211
112
121
211
1
221
122
1
1
2
1
221
2
222
111
211
211
112
2
221
221
111
122
221
2
2
221
1
222
1
112
Gray
122
222
2
122
221
2
122
222
2
1
Subj ect
A.
B.
1
'D
1 F
K.
L.
M.
P.
S.
P P U
P P U
P P U
P P U
P P U
P P U
P P U
P P U
P P U
P P U
Poet
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
UNN
Keats M.
1
2
2
2
2
1 1 2
221
122
2 2 1
211
Mv.
Byron M.
1
2
2
222
2
1 2 2
1
2
1
2 1 1
122
1
1 2 2
222
2 2 1
2 2 1
2 1 1
222
1 1 2
1
Mv.
Arnold M.
1
1 2 2
1 1 1
222
2 1 1
2 2 1
2
1 2 2
112
2
1
1 2 2
221
222
222
1
221
1 2 2
2
1 1 2
Mv.
Tennyson M.
Mv.
Coleridge M.
Mv.
Wordsworth .M.
Mv.
Shelley M.
222
1 2 2
1 1 1
1 2 2
1 1 1
2
1
211
111
1 1 2
1 1 1
1
1
222
1 1 1
111
1 2 2
1 1 1
2 2 1
1 1 1
1 1 1
1 2 2
1 2 2
222
111
222
2
2
2
2
2
1
2 1 2
2 2 1
2
1
2 1 1
111
2 1 1
222
1 2 2
2 1 1
1 1 2
221
1 2 2
222
1 2 2
222
2 1 1
1 2 2
1
2
1
2
1
2
112
2 1 1
2
1
2 1 1
222
1
221
1 1 1
2 1 1
1
2
1 2 2
2 2 1
222
1 1 2
1
1
1
2
1
1
2 1 1
Mv.
Marlowe M.
Mv.
Cowper M.
1 2 2
1 1 2
2 1 1
1 1 1
2 2 1
1 2 2
122
221
111
122
1 2 2
1
1
1
1 1 1
1 1 2
221
2 2 1
1
2 1 1
1
2
2
2
222
221
111
1
1 1 1
1 1 1
1 2 2
1 1 2
111
2 1 1
1 1 1
1
2
2
Mv.
Milton M.
222
1 2 2
211
222
2 1 1
222
2 2 1
1
2
1 2 2
2
2
2 2 1
2
1 1 2
1 1 2
222
1
2 1 1
Mv.
Rossetti M.
221
1 2 2
1 2 2
2
1 2 2
111
2
1 2 1
2 1 1
1
1
2
1 2 2
1 1 1
2
2 1 1
1
2 1 1
2
Mv.
Shakespeare.. .M.
Mv.
Spenser M.
221
122
222
2 1 1
1
2
1
2
222
2
1
2 2 1
221
2 1 1
1 1 2
222
2
2
211
222
1
1 1 2
2
1
1
2
2 1 1
222
2
2
2
1
1 2 2
1
1 1 2
112
2 1 1
Mv.
Browning . . . .M.
Mv.
Pope M.
222
112
211
222
1
1 2 2
2 1 1
1
211
1 2 2
2 1 1
211
2 1 1
2
1
2
2
11 1
2 2 1
221
1
2 1 1
2 2 1
1
2
2
1
2
2
1 1 1
1 1 1
2 1 1
1 1 2
1
2
1 1 2
2 2 1
1 1 2
1 1 2
222
Mv.
2 2 1
222
2
2 2 1
2 2 1
2 1 1
1
1
2 1 1
2
2
2
1
2
1 1 2
221
2 2 1
1 2 2
2 1 1
222
Mv.
2 1 2
122
1 2 2
1
2 1 1
112
1
112
1
222
2
222
1
1 2 2
222
222
2 2 1
1 1 1
1 2 2
1 1 1
Mv.
Swinburne ...M.
Mv.
Gray M.
2 2 1
2 2 1
1 1 2
122
2
1 2 2
1 2 1
1 1 1
222
221
2 1 1
2
111
1
1
1 2 2
2 1 1
221
2 2 1
211
2 1 1
221
1 2 2
2
1 1 2
2
1
2 1 1
1 2 2
1
1
1 2 2
2 2 1
1
2
1
2 2 1
2
1
2
Mv.
1 2 2
122
222
221
2
112
1 2 2
1
2 2 1
2
2
2 2 1
1 2 2
1
222
111
2
2
1
1 2 2
Mv.
1 1 1
1 2 2
2 2 1
2
2
2 2 1
1
222
1
1 1 2
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 81
The same features were noticed on the graphs for the last
sixteen of these poets as were brought to our attention be-
fore;— the more and more meaning the line of poetry con-
tained, the finer and finer was the form-quality of the graph as
drawn on these plates ; experiments X to XII for every poet show
the same effects in these drawings, — the first foot of the line
and the last foot of the line called for a greater motor discharge
than did the intermediate feet. Particularly irregular were some
of the graphs, especially those of the less lyric poets; and it not
infrequently happened that the rearranged line was provocative
of a less regular and rhythmic effect than the transmogrifications
which preceded it. Indeed, the experiments numbered VII to
IX were not very much enjoyed by the subjects, but, having begun
that way, it was argued as a better policy to continue to the end
in the same manner as we had begun, so as not to spoil the
symmetry of the work.
With nine of the twenty poets experimented upon, the same
material was used in experiments III to XII. Thus we had both
introspectional and graphical results upon the same tonal content
of poetry cast into three forms, — transmogrification, rearrange-
ment, and full meaning. Introspectively, however, the results
were not equal : frequently the transmogrification would be pleas-
ant, while the other forms were unpleasant, and vice versa. When
this occurred, however, the graphing showed analogous changes.
And when the position of a strong consonantal combination was
transferred from one part of the line to another, in the same way
the graphings showed a shift of accent in the same direction.
That tonal replicas were obtained in the transmogrifications with-
out betraying the meaning was evidenced by the fact that in many
of the cases the two forms in which the line stood were asso-
ciated together by the subjects of their own accord. Transmogri-
fications also always preceded those lines from which they were
taken in order of presentation.
Insofar as the graphing of the 81 experiments for those poets
whose single line experiments were repeated three times in three
different forms were concerned, the results showed that the ex-
82 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
periments X-XII always took the shortest time to be spoken,
which is quite natural, since they are in the English language ; the
rearrangements take the next longer time, and the transmogrifi-
cations take the longest time to be spoken. There are special
cases where the three graphs are very close together, and again
other special cases where they are very far apart from one an-
other; Spenser, Cowper, Pope and Milton illustrate the first
tendency, while the rest of the poets, more or less illustrate
the second. There are also great differences in the angle of in-
clination of these graphs from the horizontal axis, which is great-
est for those experiments which were the most puzzling and the
most difficult to recite and introspect upon.
TRANSMOGRIFICATION OF LARGE PASSAGES OF BLANK VERSE
We now turn to the experiments concerned with the psycho-
motor effect of large passages of poetry. These are numbered
XIII, XIV, etc. The plan was as follows: to find a ten-line
passage of blank verse containing nothing but iambics, — this to
be called No. XIII for each poet. Experiment No. XIV trans-
mogrifies this same passage. Experiments XV et seq. are con-
cerned with the effect of other than blank verse lines, namely
rhymed passages and shorter or more irregular verse forms than
the heroic blank verse.
It was very difficult to construct these XIV experiments; it
was also very difficult to find the XIII experiments; — in several
cases larger passages than the ten lines we used were boiled down
to make them, and often it was tedious and slow work ; we may
have done injustice to some of the poets, — certainly now and then
the succession of iambics is doubtful, as in the Arnold XIII ex-
periment. But any one who tries to find ten lines of blank verse
poetry without an alteration in the feet, will be persuaded at the
end of his search to withhold severe criticism upon the selections
of poetry we have made.
To transmogrify these XIII experiments we first wrote the
poem on a large card marked out in small squares, indicating the
accented consonants and vowels in red ink, and the unaccented
in black ; the card was then cut up, a line at a time, and the trans-
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 83
mogrification was accomplished by uniting- the scattered elements
again with the tonal pattern of the poem in mind and the injunc-
tion to avoid making words or suggestions of words in the tonal
product that resulted.
We never presented experiments XIII and XIV for the same
poet on the same day; and since intervals of a week elapsed be-
tween the presenting of experimental material to the subjects
there was little danger that they would recall the work of the
week previous; these experiments were presented in the order in
which we give them, one of the XIII and one of the XIV on the
same day; it was at the close of the hour, also, after the single
line poems had been treated experimentally. A brief period of
rest was given before we attempted this heavy work, and since
the subjects had been tapping for thirty minutes, with rests, the
practise curve for the day was not likely to show in these
experiments.
Two preliminary experiments of this sort were tried before it
was determined to carry the experimentation in this direction.
The poets selected were Coleridge and Keats.
The poem from Coleridge so treated was the "Ode to the
Departing Year." The first sixty-five accented and the first sixty-
five unaccented sounds were employed. For the benefit of a tonal
comparison of the original and the transmogrification, we print
them both:
Original :
Spirit who sweepest the wild harp of time!
It is most hard with an untroubled ear
Thy dark inwoven harmonies to hear! etc.
The transmogrification :
Thu spard of teep it swee mth an est warp
Mo trime it zark whoo hild thu weer uld 6v
Ost ib ni dard wti nar too rees In eem
Thet eving clafe on ixtens mong e mor
I ree tal cholds en f eenj end f rm yad nime
Fren ho dum stind its trav erd lind ess raf
Bus tim its wist li nond ing lime thu nart
84 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
I rad ness morf ing lart thu len 6v stee
Nith ent en to li sile de wou dess ath
Thu clit erd mo hent clon ing sape m pazd
Wha ret mi flad the frong mur sol wand rith
Wim fees I mozd or yi tent mzd a moot
Thu hi f ous hess er sti em yo his sul, —
One difference that will be at once noticed between this and
the original is that here we have nothing but iambics, while in
the other the feet do not remain so regular ; neither is there any-
thing in the transmogrification but decasyllabic lines, which is
by no means the case in the poem Coleridge wrote. But our
rhythm and line form was unchangeable for methodological
reasons.
The subjects were all handed this experimental material printed
and with the accented syllables marked with a red accent-stroke.
They were not told what it was ; each one read it over until the
pronunciation was well learned, usually four or five times; no
pauses were allowed, since we wanted the fresh impression to
go into the introspection. When they felt sufficiently confident,
the lines were recited and tapped as all the previous experiments
had been.
This is the introspection :
Subject A. (We shall omit the feeling tone judgments in this
series, for they were all pleasant. ) Rather tragical and solemn ;
organic sensations of a marked character appeared all through the
reading; felt that something was impending and tried to shake
off the feeling, but couldn't; line four is the important line,' —
it is very descriptive of some battle or personal conflict; don't
know exactly what it means, but it is very gloomy and depressing ;
sounds foreign and the imagery of some cold climate was aroused.
B. Imagery of a dark cloudy evening on the wild moor;
comething fatalistic about it; wind seems to be blowing,
some traveler is hurrying to obtain shelter; auditory imagery of
the sea, which is stormy and fierce ; line four seems to reach some
climax, and there is a secondary climax in line eleven; I think
of Schopenhauer's philosophy and of some of Byron's poetry,
but this is more sincere than Byron; organic sensations of a
compelling sort; the whole feeling is intensely romantic and
mournful.
C. Did not get as good imagery out of it as it seemed to
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 85
promise ; romantic and forceful ; seems to be a description of some
battle or of some scene in which there is conflict.
F. Imagery of some wild scene, maybe at night; line four in-
dicates some clash between persons or things ; very romantic and
at times solemn and heavy poetry. The last line does not seem to
belong to it at all, — the "s" in "hesser" rather spoils the digni-
fied effect of the other lines.
L. It's tragic. There is depicted a scene of the middle ages
or some dark tragedy of some sort; very heavy and important
thing, and someone is describing either his own deeds or those
of another in a very emotional way; some of it is soft and
persuasive, and gives variation to the heavier parts ; it's all very
much in earnest; very full of activity and force, — might be from
Othello or the other Shakespearean tragedies.
N. Very powerful thing; means some tragedy or heavy and
intense situation ; line four is where something dismal happened, —
some battle described. "Bus tim its wist," in line seven
gives the effect of something conciliatory, or as if one should say,
"Well, I accept it, if it has to be so," or something like that;
gives a deep sound while saying it; but it lightens slightly at
the end.
T. Very mournful and sad ; almost oppressive ; somebody seems
to be grieving over some loss or some calamity ; at line four there
is a feeling that the fatal moment is reached and there is nothing
to do but to endure what is to come; the whole thing sounds
slightly barbaric, and Teutonic; might refer to Scandanavia and
the Norsemen ; seems to refer to men rather than women.
W. It gives a rather light and pleasing effect (!) Thought
of a lot of animals ; seems to refer to something other than my-
self, and to be out of doors.
Z. Very dignified and tragical; refers to some dreadful
calamity and almost to a gruesome deed in the dark. Imagery
of wild country and wilder ocean; all imagery of a dark gray
color, and auditory images of the sound of the waves and the
wind; highly enjoyable sensation altogether; something seems
to be inexorably moving and pushing all before it; line four is
where something fatal happens ; the rest is not so tragical, but it
all seems to belong together.
Y. Almost doleful; certainly tragical and intensely romantic.
Means much; imagery of some ocean scene where a storm is
raging; everybody is in a state of great fear, and is hanging on
for dear life ; this is in the first part ; the last part is more hopeful.
Perhaps it is taken from some one of Shakespeare's tragedies.
It certainly couldn't be any light, lyric poetry.
86 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
In order to make a comparison between the motor discharge
obtained in the above experiment and something else by which
it can be standardized, we shall take the next experiment of this
sort, the Keats-transmogrification, which again every one of the
ten subjects found pleasant, though W only slightly so. Here
in each case, we have no possibility of correlation between feel-
ing tone and motor discharge, but only upon the basis of what
sounds were employed in each experiment, and see whether, for
example, the short vowels or the long vowels give the greater
motor impetus, and whether certain consonants seem to have
more effect than others in this matter.
The other transmogrification was constructed out of Keats' "I
stood tiptoe upon a little hill." We employed the first fourteen
lines in which there are more unaccented syllables than accented,
though the accented sound elements outnumber the unaccented,
as is the case generally with Keats as well as most of the English
poets. In making the transmogrification of the above passage,
these supernumerary sounds had to be omitted ; so did the rhyme,
as a matter of course, and hence the effect of both fourteen-line
passages of sound is not quite the same. Yet the introspection
seemed to neglect these differences.
The transmogrification of this poem of Keats :
Ing lood I p5 pit till a villy ston
A stock til rit sa wand u sto thu ra
Su hem wheet bide thu prith est 66ds swich 6d
In woop ul drant Tng lat a thurv ing sant
Ping slems li kide a skleev rand fide li prat
Thad ston yate ost oze nar thu tlameds
Morf stawt i herl thu lod ing soov thu nor
Nand owds 66 merb has flosh thu cloory porn
Thand whyks creel tesh wu freet li brom a slook
Thu swon u blept the f ren 6v heeldz e crev
Thu lept less foiz and oiz nar thit el I
Thov 6rn a vong ens beel thu meevz a sil
Thu her? favz nat sont or mot thu sood.
In line eleven one finds an alliteration "foiz and oiz," and line
nine is not free from enunciation difficulties, but the above ar-
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 87
rangement of sounds was the best that could be done at the
time. It was, for some reason or other, much more difficult to
keep words from forming in the making of this transmogrifica-
tion than in the case of the rearrangement of the Coleridge Ode.
This one took longer, and more changes were made in it before
it was finally presented. Rhymes are particularly troublesome
things to handle, — the danger of alliteration is great, for they_
must be used as near to each other as passible, if one wants to
keep the thing a tonal replica of the original.
The subjects gave the following introspections :
A. Slightly humorous thing; very peculiar sounds reminding
me of something playfully done; visual imagery of an outdoor
scene, quite full of color; whenever the long "I" occurred, it
made me think that someone was telling what he had done, but
it did not seem very important; this whole combination of sounds
less solemn and effective than the other (Coleridge). Something
rather quaint about it all.
B. It puts me in the midst of some natural scene, where there
is quite a little animation; nothing heavy at all, might be in
spring or summer; makes my mouth feel just a little bit puck-
ered, all the sounds seems to cause much movement of the lips ;
it is not a very deep or profound thing, — just a sort of playful
and slightly humorous affair; nothing philosophical in this pas-
sage as there was in the other one.
C. Seemed as though it ought to have been easier to say than
the other one, and it reads easier to the eye, but when I came
to say it, it bothered me more; I don't get much imagery out of it,
but it all seems rather light and gay, in spite of the fact that it
is hard to read ; so many unusual and almost laughable combina-
tions in it.
F. Gives a very peculiar feeling; half humorous and half
otherwise ; rather romantic and a little Spencerian in places ; "the
swon u blept" makes me think of Lohengrin and other fanciful
characters of mythology; rather much ado about things of very
little real importance. Some visual imagery of pastoral scenes,
shepherds and lasses and the like.
L. Romantic, curious sort of a thing; not at all heavy like the
last one, but pleasant on other grounds ; visual imagery of some
quiet scene in the fields, in spring; everything is just sightly
moving and nothing very much is the matter, though now and
then somebody seems to be making or trying to make important
88 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
that which is not so ; parts of it are soft and dainty, such as "thu
leptless foize and oize."
N. Dainty and light; reminds me of a bird cocking its head
from side to side and chirping slightly ; visual imagery of some-
thing fresh and green, and nothing very important going on.
"Tiameds" means something very pretty and dainty, like an orna-
ment or a gift of some kind.
T. Not at all like the preceding one; its all very light and
carefree, although some one seems to be talking quite seriously
about it at times; the sounds rather too heavy for the meaning
implied ; I get plenty of imagery of things pastoral and romantic,
like shepherds and flocks, and love making and that sort of
things; "flosh the clury porn" means that some one has found
something very enjoyable and likeable.
W. Seems to be quicker than the other; no imagery, but
a general feeling of haste; a good deal of motion to it.
Z. Very curious and light-hearted sort of a thing; visual
imagery of a very fine, clear summer day and everything just
right ; attempts to be serious at times, but doesn't mean it at all ;
plenty of color to it, and a great deal of animation ; seems to be
all in the first person ; some one is describing an adventure in a
somewhat humorous manner ; there may be laughter in it.
Y. Seems to be a description of some incident of pretended
importance; very romantic and quaint sort of a thing; some of
sounds are rich and musical, and again they become a little too
hard to say to keep the impression with which the passage started ;
seems to go much slower than the sense of it demands; visual
imagery of something like a tournament in the middle ages,
where everybody is gaily dressed and happy; but the sounds
seem to change the mood in places where the appearance of the
words indicates no change at all.
The question might well be asked at this point, — upon just
what were the subjects introspecting in connection with these
transmogrifications? That the passages are fairly faithful to
the originals can easily be discovered by checking up the sounds
of both the versifications, but whether the subjects were introspect-
ing on Keats and on Coleridge, is another very important ques-
tion. But it is doubtful whether this can be decided.
The mean of the tappings for each subject indicates that none
of them had as free a finger movement in these experiments as
they had in those which immediately preceded, which, again, were
lower than in the "Nerol" type of experiment. Evidently the
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 89
reading consciousness and the introspective consciousness
drained some of the motor channels of their usual supply of
energy.
Experiment: Coleridge (Klj) Keats (Stk)
Subject M. M.V. Rnj. M. M.V. Rnj.
A 60.2 1.9 ii 63.9 14 ii
B 63.8 1.6 16 64.0 1.9 24
C 70.3 3-6 18 71.0 4.5 15
F 674 4.1 23 69.7 4.0 23.
L. 64.5 4.1 13 64.9 3.1 14
N 69.7 4.6 24 74.0 4.2 21
T 72.1 4.8 21 76.3 3.7 17
W 64.2 2.9 20 61.0 2.6 20
Z 41-9 LI 13 43-6 1.5 9
Y 36.8 1.3 9 40.0 .9
The rank list of the above :
Experiment: Klj. Stk. Klj. Stk. Klj. Stk.
Subject Mean M.V. Rnj.
A c d d b b c
B d e c d e j
C i h g i f d
F g g h h i i
L. f f e f d e
N j i i i j h
T h j j g h f
W e c f e g g
Z b b a c c b
Y .v a a b a a a
The relative positions are fairly well kept in these lists, and
indeed better than one might expect in connection with such
new material as the above experiments contained. It will be
noticed, also, that all of the subjects but one, W., contributed
to the increased motor output in connection with the Keats ex-
periment over that of the one on Coleridge. A comparison of
the tonal elements contained in these two experiments reveals
the following differences :
Accented Coleridge Keats
Long vowels 44 34
Short vowels 2P 31
Unaccented
Long vowels 16 49
Short vowels 49 56
Accented
Consonants 144 152
Unaccented
Consonants 88 74
Total elements 362 356
go ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
From this it would seem that a preponderance of accented and
unaccented short vowels together with fewer long vowels of both
kinds, more accented consonants and fewer unaccented conso-
nants were capable of being interpreted as giving the greater
-effect on the motor consciousness. These experiments were not
given on the same days; and yet it may be that the week that
elapsed between them for each subject was in itself sufficient
to make the Keats Experiment easier and more capable of call-
ing for motor output than the other. Yet none of the subjects
found the second of the presentations easy; each syllable had to
be gone over carefully, — certainly none of them read it at sight.
Of the two experiments, the one on Coleridge "took hold" the
better, and aroused and perpetuated its mood the more easily.
A more careful examination of these experiments reveals the
fact that there are an equal number of accented "h" and "s"
sounds; that Coleridge employs more accented "f," "m," "n," "r,"
and "w" sounds; and that Keats employs more accented "b,"
"d," "k," "1," "p," "st," "t," "v," and "z" sounds than does
Coleridge. The inference is rather clear, that the explosive
consonants and the short vowels are what makes the tappings
longer in the one case than in the other. One has only to refer
to the "Nerol" type of experiments for the same sort of indica-
tions; there, likewise, the short vowels were correlated with the
greater amounts of motor discharge. Again, too, the "1" sound
is allied with the explosive consonants and not with the liquids,
but this may be only a fortuitous matter.
From the graphs of these experiments, it appeared that they
were quite different both in height and in slant; the Coleridge
graph was the steadier of the two and even tended to sink
slightly at the end, while the other one rose at one angle of incli-
nation until the eighth decasyllabic line, and at another angle
from then on until the end. The short vowels and explosive
consonants seem to be both more energetic and more irregular in
their effects upon the tapping. Also the greater motor output
appeared to take less time.
There follow the eighteen regular XIII and XIV experiments
together with the introspection given upon them, after which is
given the numerical results and the various correlations.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 91
KEATS, EXPERIMENT XIII
I stood upon a shore, a pleasant shore,
Of fragrance, quietness, and trees, and flowers;
Too full of joy and soft delicious warmth.
I sat me down, and took a mouthed shell
And murmured into it, and while I sang,
And with poor skill let pass into the breeze
The dull shell's echo, from a bow'ry strand
Just opposite, an island of the sea,
There came enchantment with the shifting wind
That did both drown and keep alive my ears.
KEATS, EXPERIMENT XIV
Too norj 6v zil ti storant quide a mur
And shool a preez 6v morp and thonans la
Pu shoi thu flowd up weerz i shifting zoor
A thoum ed frol ger 16ft and tass et dree
And kafe us shend a jown de zang ment 61
And shith 66r wis and stramerd wit n mant
Shi nowd and with en tass I podland kuv
And skee that whi zo kul to dow thu f rim
Thar vi sto zit in soo thu strebel nid
Tho chee nam keb I tid thu pife me sen.
Keats XIV. (The transmogrification of Keats XIII.)
Subject A. P. Cast a visual image of a woodland scene, a stream in it, and
then a great number of woodland and water noises until it got very tiresome
indeed ; seemed to repeat the same thing.
B. P. Seemed to be hard to say and there came imagery of a summer
scene, and men in it, probably engaged in some contest or other; it is a
narrative, anyway ; the "1" sound was very conscious, and the accents were
hard to get right; yet the more he read it, the smoother it became; to look
at the page, it seems to be full of "s" and "z" sounds, but not while saying it.
C. P. Seems to be a description of natural scenery, woods, trees, flowers,
grass, sea water and some one seems to be talking freely about it; but the
talk is not as good as what it describes. Kinaesthesis seems rather forward.
D. P. I can't imagine it being any thing else but an out of doors scene
that some one is describing or enjoying; there's water there, and everything
is peaceful and quite pleasant ; it is emotional and the feeling is contagious.
K. P. No exact meaning, or imagery that was dependable came; but it is
92
a description, and is just a little declamatory, with a note of melancholy, and
perhaps, resignation in it ; also a certain amount of will and determination.
F. N. Very conscious of the difficulty in saying it, and each syllable felt
as if it were a mouthful; no imagery came, only the feeling of laboring
at the pronunciation continued throughout. "Podland Kuv" ought to have
meant something; could not get away from the strain of reading it.
L. P. This seems more intellectual than lyrical, or at least is not fully,
freely lyric; such words as "shilting," "thonance," "storant," etc., are very
pleasant; the sounds ran together very well. The tonal quality was epical.
M. P. It looks worse than it sounds ; images a woodland scene, and thinks
of the "Midsummer's Night's Dream"; there is water in this scene, and
somthing weird and peculiar is happening. Would like to read it often and
become familiar with it.
S. P. It is describing a natural scene, with trees and flowers and water
in it; sense of relaxation in it, the more it is read.
BYRON, EXPERIMENT XIII
And dreams in their development have breath
And tears and tortures and the touch of joy;
They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts,
They take a weight from off our waking thoughts,
They do divide our being; they become
A portion of ourselves as of our time,
And look like heralds of eternity ;
They pass like spirits of the past,' — they speak
Like sybils of the future; they have power —
The tyranny of pleasure and of pain.
BYRON, EXPERIMENT XIV
Thu meez a brent in zare ing meth de reet
And chev thu nad and theeling porturz vide
Thu droi na ja tha plake its sperald here
And kool dav tulz di von shun pelz in toi
In tape thu wake op tose our kime its wa
Morf stawt i bis tha tuv az na like we
Ki tha tur fez 6v nad row fom be reet
How kade as pov ra weet la kassung fov
Val tur thup seeb 6v pur tha towp ur thoo
Ra vith 66r vol ta ki thus 6v thu ree.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 93
Byron XIV. (From transmogrification of Byron XIII.)
A. N. It describes action or scenery; the meaning is vague and elusive;
doesn't seem to run smoothly and evenly, and gives him a feeling of tension.
B. P. Gives a feeling of something portentous, but very enjoyable, even
if it is fearful; is quite determined and full of energy, and might be said
very loud ; it seems to be held back all the while.
C. P. Quite tiresome, as compared with the former (Keats) ; but it
means something, perhaps, like a struggle or some activity somewhere.
D. P. Harder to say than the one previous (Keats) ; liked lines 4, 5 and 9
very much; thought of something rather deadly and threatening; the mean-
ing did not come clearly.
F. P. Goes easier than the former (Keats). Seems to be more creative
than the former; is speaking of familiar things in a heavy manner; sounds
oratorical, and can be spoken tragically.
K. P. Not quite so pleasant as the former ; little declamatory at first,
later on is subdued and a little tense.
L. U. Seems like a reporter's account of some event; has no poetic beauty;
it is too hard.
M. U. Seemed hard to say; the sounds themselves reminded her of a
slave driver, urging somebody on; dreadfully conscious of the effort to
pronounce it well, and the emotion aroused was one almost of suffering.
P. P. It was all hard work to say, and about the middle he felt as if some
dreadful force was pulling him back.
S. P. The last was static (Keats) ; this is dynamic; this does not describe
still nature, but moving nature; there is no relaxation here as there was in
the last one. Not so poetically intense, but more physically intense.
ARNOLD, EXPERIMENT XIII
And Rustum gazed in Sohrab's face and took
The spear, and drew it from his side, and eased
His wound's imperious anguish; but the blood
Came welling from the open gash, and life
Flowed with the stream ; — all down his cold, white side
The crimson torrent ran ; his head drooped low,
Till now all strength was ebbed, and from his limbs
Unwillingly the spirit fled away,
Regretting the warm mansion which it left,
And youth and bloom, and this delightful world.
ARNOLD, EXPERIMENT XIV
Thu gort zon krade hiz lanmng wellus fide
And tooz ab sake it speen a way nad zee
Hiz droomlng stree zit nowd thu mith il grem
94 ROBERT CHENAULT G1VLER
Re tis in wile urn stur nad peer ish f roll
Hiz yoom and rooth un woun thu daz it ling
Ka so shun bli pen dole and nowb un thee
Ful theng de thel war spec thu sheming lor
Was f rol do gam and chi f land whit za rud
All sur ti wib and weft hiz ti md mo
And blan ent streb thu frimz droom all thu murld.
Arnold XIV. (The transmogrification of XIII.)
A. P. Very highly interesting, like the preparation for war or like some
very tense and exciting situation; auditory and visual imagery of this,/ —
also the sea entered into the imagery at times ; the emotional tone, which was
intense, had to do with death or things associated with death ; feels "erhabend."
B. P. Attention chiefly occupied with the pronunciation and the kinaesthesis,
which was sibilant rather than dental; the passage does not seem very
poetical or rhythmical; seems like narrating the virtues of some ordinary
poetry. (N.B. — Subject B. likes very erotic and sensational poetry, notably
Byron and Keats.)
C. N. Contains a lofty concept, and is probably epical ; not very decisive
or tumultuous, — at least it does not manifest emotions freely; thought the
sounds were produced in the rear part of the mouth ; was rather hard to say.
D. P. Sounded dramatic and oratorical; a trifle tragic, but not wildly so;
nevertheless it is not resigned ; quite hard to say, and seemed to be full
of thin, high sounds.
F. P. Slightly laborious here and there; some lines, notably Nos. 5 and 9
went slowly; had no imagery.
K. P. Slightly rhetorical, but restrained in its emotion ; felt his own breath
and pulse quicken at times; there is tonal and emotional warmth about it, —
more so than with any previous experiment. It is not easy to read.
L. P. It might be Tennyson in Swedish or Dutch ; was so taken up with
the pronunciation that nothing in the way of mood or emotion came.
M. U. It dragged horribly and was hard to say ; felt as if the tongue were
too large for the mouth ; the first five lines began to mean something, but
it all tumbled suddenly into nothing again.
P. P. Felt dreadful tensions in the finger, which seemed to be pulling
an enormous weight; could not get this out of consciousness, and so no-
meaning or emotions came.
S. P. Describes some fight or conflict; the feeling is not so intense as it
might be ; it seems more internal, more like giving oneself needless anxieties.
TENNYSON, EXPERIMENT XIII
There often as he watched, or seemed to watch,
So still the golden lizard on him paused,
A phantom made of many phantoms moved
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 95
Before him haunting him, or he himself
Moved haunting people, things and places, known
Beyond the line; the mill, the leafy lanes,
The peacock yewtree and the lonely Hall,
The horse he drove, the boat he sold, the chill
November dawns and dewy-glooming downs,
The gentle shower, the smell of dying leaves. . . .
TENNYSON, EXPERIMENT XIV
Thu stol den zel ing gade and mozard ween
Thu len ton chazly fannock paunt or thill
Be mingz him choffen mawzd or soovd thu lor
No shen thu rawnz to cheel thu gloney fand
And ni thu sooming vownz and bawntmg nelf
Ra wone thu neevz a smold him loobry hawn
Thu falton plass or hemple me thu sove
Thu dil him sond 6v hote thu lootree deem
Be forthing glid he towd thu padri yill
So deel 6v yame and solgern he thu vore. . . .
Tennyson XIV. (The transmogrification of XIII.)
A. N. Peculiarly baffling sort of a description, — now of nature, now of a
person ; very much like a sad reminiscence and full of a sombre, wild
melancholy; had visual imagery of rank nature.
B. U. Seems like extolling or eulogizing some person for patience and
benevolence ; did not seem very poetical ; the kinaesthesis was chiefly dental.
C. P. Interesting description of something; puts him in a mood similar
to that of Gray's Elegy; there is some human interest involved and some-
thing is at stake. Very good poetry, and it runs along very smoothly; the
kinaesthesis seemed to be more forward than usual.
D. P. Gives a feeling of sadness ; dreamy pessimism of a quiet character
involved; it does not describe activity, but has to do with some outdoor,
natural scene. Prefers lines 6 and 8.
F. P. Full of emotion; visualizes a rich natural scene, full of shade and
trees and water ; somewhat pastoral in aspect, but not in the feelings one has
about it; the sounds flow together nicely, and at times seems a little like a
speech.
K. P. It is melancholy and resigned, and is not dynamic; tells a sad
story and induces tensions and feelings of restraint at times.
L. P. Full of moral enthusiasm, devotion and the like; may ,be the de-
scription of some medieval character, knight, or noble person; very lovely
and poetic.
g6 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
M. P. Thinks of Chaucer's poetry ; interesting and romantic description of
a maiden about to have some adventures; the words "fannock," "paunt,"
and "nelf" very rememberable.
P. P. Gives a rather hypnotic and dazed feeling; the tapping seems enor-
mously labored; likes line 5 the best of all.
S. P. Reminds him of Sohrab and Rustum; got no imagery but had a
tense feeling all the way through; may be describing some natural scene.
SHELLEY, EXPERIMENT XIII
Where plants entwine beneath the hollow rocks
Beside a sparkling rivulet he stretch!
His languid limbs; a vision on his sleep
There came, a dream of hopes that never yet
Had flushed his cheek; he dreamed a veiled maid
Sate near him, talking low in solemn tones ;
Her voice was like his own, its music long
Like woven sounds of streams and breezes held
His inmost sense suspended in its web
Of many colored woof and shifting hues.
SHELLEY, EXPERIMENT XIV
Thu pleeth en tine hiz rolling kossed spar
Be stand whare hivling nide a let en sleem
That skolling stronz 6v lanyun buf zu woo
And chev hiz lois ho resk and pon a stree
In tizh be line its drame he miz yod reen
Hiz she ft sam tewz thar yeng sa va wid fleek
Li mong her tush a cheemd its keetik ho
Hiz breemy vowndz he dawk 6v lenmost win
Had zeld 6v wopen shimz him stensed hewm
Wos volerd spo ke vik set dralerz win.
Shelley XIV. (The transmogrification of XIII.)
\A. P. Has a feeling that the thing described is a rather unfortunate affair,
and deserves sympathy ; later comes the idea that somebody is speaking largely
of himself, maybe even in braggadocio.
B. P. Visual imagery of the sea shore and people on it; a good deal of
the "n-drone" in the poem, and this calls up the roar of the sea; the first
four lines are easier to say than the last six.
C. P. Vapory sort of a thing; seems animistic at times; got the idea of
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 97
the sun ishining and the word "hiz" brought up rather egoistic notions.
Kinaesthesis frequently back in the mouth.
D. P. Thinks of a slippery and slidy waterfall; several times it gave a
creepy, and crawly feeling; visualized the "Nude descending the Stairs."
F. P. Flows very well; gives an outdoors, cool effect.
K. P. Slightly rhetorical, but not heavy or sombre; very clear and light
sounds, and it runs off just as easily as real words do.
OL. U. Cannot seem to make it blend ; it doesn't fit into any organic rhythm ;
the fourth line alone good.
M. P. It is first a narrative, and then something very mysterious and like
a fairy tale; like the story of some very wonderful thing, told with wide
open eyes. Strange that it should sound so foreign and also so familiar.
P. P. The first half is very good, the last not ; organic strains come in at
the end, and make it pull very hard. "Lanion" is a very good word.
'S. P. Describes an adventurous scene; concerned with human life very
intimately; gets social concepts about it and maybe an idea of some work or
activity.
MILTON, EXPERIMENT XIII
Before the gates impaled with fire there sat
On either side a formidable shape.
The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair,
But ended foul ; about her middle round
A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked
And rung a hideous peal. The other shape,
If shape it might be called that shadow seemed,
For each seemed either — black it stood as night,
And shook a dreadful dart; what seemed its head
The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
MILTON, EXPERIMENT XIV
Thu mor ble gire be tase on lape thu deeth
Im sta thar fide a shaling 'fordul wees
It bowm her soo mi wendly karb an tow
But kile ed mare and krelyus won er sta
Thu lound his ningful peem with shallder sev
It sha zound bleeth er fung ro pile a chee
Thu doopness hi but sta da nock das hid
What dees thu med 6v shemd a cruv had rish
See tood ma das a thod mo kowm if hi
Ne drod ba tark az fud re koop that ree.
98 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
Milton XIV. (The transmogrification of XIII.)
A. U. Gives a feeling of sombreness, and arouses ideas of death and
fatalism; makes him very depressed and he asked himself the question,
"what boots it"; consciousness directed toward the sensory side, and felt
much strain and tension.
B. P. Gives an idea of isome activity, like the chase, or even trouble of
some sort; smooth and rhythmic all through; head resonance very pro-
nounced, and the whole mouth cavity seemed to be active.
C. P. Seems to be an exact description of some rough scene, maybe of
a rough and rocky country; some event is taking place at the present time,
perhaps in the "historical" present. Kinaesthesis not noticed especially;
prefers lines 3, 4, and 5.
D. P. It is not emotional and not romantic; seems to be telling about
some difficult situation; sounds are hard and rocky, and yet it all blends
smoothly together; "d" and "m" very prominent, and "med," "des," etc.,
particularly noticed.
F. P. Sounds like a bass drum; it pounds along and gives a feeling of
strain and force and sometimes harshness, but as a whole it knits together
well; the numerous "d" sounds are provocative of strain sensations, and
the pleasure comes from doing a difficult task well, or nearly so.
IK. P. No very definite meaning to it at all, but in general it is weird and
now and then cumbersome; easy to say, rhythmic.
L. P. Not a lyric, but a very serious and heavy narrative ; describes some-
thing like a tournament, and the shock of arms; could not keep the excite-
ment out of his voice.
M. U. Got very annoyed at it the more she said it; does not think it
is at all lyric or gentle ; too many "d" sounds, which made it drag and scrape
along; for a while it sounded like some of Chaucer, but then she decided
it was quite modern; even belligerent at times.
P. P. Line 5 has a meaning, but he did not get it ; it ought to mean a lot ;
the last four lines pulled like everything and strain sensations were felt
all over the body.
S. P. It is a narrative of some strong and determined activity all through;
seems to be told in the first person ; cannot think it is lyric, or gentle at
all; did not let himself get into it very far, as he does not like that sort of
poetry.
WORDSWORTH, EXPERIMENT XIII
Abundant recompense; for I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth ; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 99
Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns. . . .
WORDSWORTH, EXPERIMENT XIV
Too lens 6v murd a bunyoor noi dant zi
Nor stellom kree mens nate ing var nad merbz
LT pon a zet for chadden prelling nowr
Hav soolter grenned yote ing hiv thu kime
Az thawn on 166th ad hovless mi thu dase
Dis tarn but fewt or thate ing mewple md
Too hiften thodring jase ik wes ni lowr
Hew thi sov paf hooz lawts 6 rith e tewd
Sub tel thu sish a zat ov wes e thun
Sub tlze thu spec vom tos hav mz 6v nar. . . .
Wordsworth XIV. (The transmogrification of XIII.)
A. U. Seems to be a vague, meaningless jumble; suspects that it is philo-
sophical; certainly it is not the description of any activity, and does not
have anything to do with the common acts of life ; not heroic nor epical.
>B. P. Fairly smooth and rhythmic; mellow; meant something warm and
pleasant; visual imagery of summer scenes, rivers, and green shade and
kindred things; idle, rather than active, and musing rather than otherwise;
in spite of the apparent number of "th" and "s" sounds, it was kinaesthetically
pleasant
C. P. It is descriptive of nature, and has no climax; runs along easily
and smoothly; and the kinaesthesis is quite forward.
D. U. Gave a cold and clammy feeling; even snaky at times; it not active
and does not contain anything erotic; imagery of nature, but not in summer;
"kremense" gave the idea "cream" = "food."
F. N. Seems to go very freely and easily; many French sounding words
in it; no imagery.
K. P. Gets a feeling of resignation, and slight melancholy; noticed the
breathing and pulse were quickened toward the end; sounds were not noticed
at all.
L. P. Narrative poetry; slightly elevated and epical.
M. P. Quiet and subdued in some places ; but often the look of the words
disturbs the mood; no imagery.
P. P. Meant nothing as a whole, though several of the words began to
mean their phonetic equivalent; goes well and recites easily; gives the feeling
that he is hearing some one recite something well learned.
,S. P. It is like a description of (Nature, perhaps, of the sea, the woods,
or hills, — something grand and lofty; there is a tinge of regret in the last
three lines, and it seems to be mystically said ; went easily and rhythmically.
ioo ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
COLERIDGE, EXPERIMENT XIII
Tis the merry nightingale
Beside a brook in mossy forest dell,
That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates
With fast thick warble his delicious notes,
With skirmish and capricious passagings,
And murmurs musical and swift jug jug,
And one low piping sound more sweet than all,
As he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul
Of music!
COLERIDGE, EXPERIMENT XIV
Thu rale in tiz mi brem dus m zik mur
With tull est crown an too merz ged ri kos
Ja dile ing mew nad po gu soof ik nal
Di f urdz him sweef ul nadriz worthan mewb
With rastful hiz that tingz az reeble skerth
De jownd iis list wood sto ter shandik spec
Wer hile tish feechant lorsej mm and swo
Be sig 6v ti mor ber nad few ka pash
For sil this tav per sate lath hiz noo shath
Pre mert zo ta too hift en prind his wun.
Coleridge XIV. (The transmogrification of XIII.)
A. U. Got a conglomeration of feelings and ideas, — the whole mental
state was disordered ; felt that it meant something, but could only think of
something to be prevented; never came to clear consciousnss.
B. U. First impression was that the sounds were mostly dental; does not
seem smooth and even, but jerky and overdone; it is telling something in a
poor way, or else something that is not very important. "Rastful hiz"
brings up the idea of conflict. Some of the accents bother very much.
C. P. Explanation and reexplanation all the way through ; trying to change
an opinion and get a change of attitude; yet it is quiet and intimate and
neither profound nor very active ; seems to be an appeal to the intellect rather
than to the emotions.
D. P. Doesn't seem very peaceful or placid; there seems to be an extra-
ordinary number of the "s," "z" and "t" sounds in it; the thing was so hard
to say, that no attention could be given to the meaning.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 101
F. P. Pleasant rhythm, but the content seems dry and wooden; the sounds
flow together fairly well, but it has no color.
K. P. For the most part the sounds are rather cool and clear; at times a
trace of melancholy enters in; the sounds are well arranged and the rhythm
is uninterrupted.
L. U. "Horrid !" No melody to it ; the sounds do not blend together, and
no reaction comes at all.
M. P. At first it sounded "worked over" and not spontaneous, but after-
wards it got to be a quiet little narrative, or a quiet talk; tries to be a little
solemn at times, but soon lightens up and gets almost "pert."
P. N. Means absolutely nothing; some of the words tend to get respelled
and mean something in English, German and French, but the organic strains
accompanying the process take the focus of consciousness; "rastful hiz"
ought to mean something.
S. N. Nothing suggested or aroused by it; got no imagery, nor was any
sound prominent; it was just a thing to say, and he was glad to get through.
BROWNING, EXPERIMENT XIII
Is this apparent, when thou turnst to muse
Upon the scheme of earth and man in chief,
That admiration grows as knowledge grows?
If, in the morning of philosophy,
Ere aught had been recorded, nay perceived,
Thou, with the light now in thee, couldst have looked
On all earth's tenantry, from worm to bird,
Ere man, her last, appeared upon the stage—
Thou wouldst have seen them perfect, and deduced
The perfectness of others yet unseen.
BROWNING, EXPERIMENT XIV
The nurnst a par un skee that won ed ra
Shu Ion ant f erd erz whem too chorm tho meef
Je zume ent thur had lin ra woze in gris
Now yam per thul if dreep iz la feet rin
Re mord ow sta them jud ra seel up nad
Her staz ing 16 feet mee from ness in stoon
De gra mi tith and per thee vi mf kawm
Thur wan thap vid now ken thon dees the nad
Tu doth her nos of bew pez tek of noor
Thu durs the tep hav ton thou stib up tos.
102 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
Browning XIV. (The transmogrification of XIII.)
A. U. Sounds somewhat descriptive, and somewhat philosophical; slightly
remorseful feeling at times.
B. U. Not good poetry at all ; too stilted and commonplace ; may describe
some strife or disconcerted state of mind; very hard to read, to say, and
to tap ; the first tonal impression was : "ssth." Yet the rhythm seems very
good, even if the sounds are not smooth and mellow.
C. P. Some parts are smooth and others are rough ; seems like one sound
after another and nothing more; the kinaesthesis is very far forward.
D. U. The sounds jump around very irrationally; much impressed with the
tonal inconsistency. No meaning could be possible in this passage.
>F. U. Hard to say; wants to go on, but cannot; sounds like jumping from
one stone to another across a brook; it doesn't flow at all; to say some of
the sounds, e.g. "durz" gives him an awful pain in the nose.
K. U. Rhetorical and slightly melancholy; interesting because such a
dreadful jumble of sounds; couldn't say it fast; feels as if he had bombarded
his face with words.
L. U. It is some soliloquy, giving the pros and cons ; doesn't excite, and is
not important or profound.
M. U. It is not poetry ; the pleasant sounds are in the minority ; took all the
attention to say it, and means nothing; seems like one hundred separate
syllables.
P. P. Has no meaning, but goes rather easily; "her stazing," etc., ought
to have some meaning, but it doesn't.
S. P . Seems calm and quiet, and draws some analogy between nature and
human life; has just a touch of sadness in it; it is animistic, and psycholo-
gizes ; at the end it seems not sad, but calm.
MARLOWE, EXPERIMENT XIII
I will, with engines never exercised,
Conquer, sack, and utterly consume
Your cities and your golden palaces ;
And. with the flames that beat against the clouds,
Incense the heavens, and make the stars to melt,
As if they were the tears of Mahomet,
For hot consumption of his country's pride ;
And till by vision or by speech I hear
Immortal Jove say, "Cease, my Tamburlane,"
I will persist, a terror to the world.
MARLOWE, EXPERIMENT XIV
I sill thu nev yoor kong en zoom thu wen
And flazer tex that guld in kloum i zelt
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 103
Im dile shun ko for menst an geeb hiz lane
Thu tamriz wer with prent a stember sanz
Tha chee tal spor un radz yoor sind haz lake
Too sem thu parz and ho jmz wav er zeer
A stith ov tos bi vizh a wimp ter zerld
Bur kide iz tif ker mor nad soo na lens
Thu hiv erk tov sa jit per weet re tesk
Do rut mi hees 6b ta kon tus H tarn.
Marlowe XIV. (The transmogrification of XIII.)
A. P. Thinks of something in connection with government or rulers,
monarchies, or the like; very egoistical, and is a conversation describing
something in utter pride; hard to say until this meaning became focal.
B. P. Predominantly dental ; the rhythm is very good ; no meaning except
one of vigorous activity ; thinks of something high and bleak, like a preci-
pice and people near it; not liquid or labial enough to be the best kind of
poetry.
C. P. Describes something, possibly ; arouses some attitude of eagerness and
slight forcefulness, and the kinaesthesis was very far forward in the mouth
as if it was an oration.
D. U. It is rough, jerky, noisy and ishallow, and gets worse at the end;
seems very high pitch, and the "s" is too prominent ; it is vigor without depth.
F. P. Has no harsh sounds, and flows well, — also better at the start
than at the end ; images some one reciting very loud, standing up, and railing
at the social order of things.
K. U. The sounds get worse and worse and the whole thing is one em-
phatic drive from beginning to end ; seemed ludicrous on this account.
L. U. Description of something, or else philosophizing, but has no emo-
tional depth; more or less interesting as a collection of sounds, but there is
not much to be gotten out of it.
M. U. It is hard work, not poetry; gets the idea that someone is digging
away with a dull shovel, ten pounds of work to one ounce of earth; can
manage the first five lines fairly well, but the rest has neither rhythm, nor
beauty.
P. P. It means nothing, but the saying of it is a dreadful strain; tried to
let some of it go freely and then he got all mixed up ; and even when he tried
to control it, it began to pull his arm like a ton of lead; had to go slow and
rest while he said it.
S. P. Some passionate and disturbing person is "bluffing" in this poem;
there is depicted passion, scorn and defiance.
Rank lists for the experiments numbered XIII and XIV, per-
formed during the second year's work.
IO4
ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
I. THE POEMS IN ENGLISH (XIII)
bo
I. Mean.
Subject
rt
V
o
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Ft
H
2
"o
B
e
£
*<u
in
|
i
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'in
3
I
—
1
A,
d
d
c
d
d
c
c
d
d
c
B
.... c
c
d
c
b
d
d
c
b
b
C
f
f
g
K
h
g
£
h
g
g
D
.... e
e
e
f
f
e
e
e
£
e
F.
g
g
f
e
g
f
g
f
h
f
K
a
(throughout)
L.
b
b
b
b
c
b
b
b
c
d
M
..... h
h
h
h
e
h
h
g
e
h
P
j
(throughout)
S
.... i
(throughout)
II. M.V.
A
e
i
f
g
g
h
e
f
i
d
B
f
d
e
f
£
f
f
e
d
e
C
d
e
d
d
e
g
d
d
e
f
D
g
g
g
h
d
c
g
g
f
g
F.
..... c
c
b
c
c
e
c
b
c
c
K
j
(throughout)
L
h
h
h
e
h
d
h
h
h
h
M
.... i
f
i
i
i
i
i
i
g
i
P
... .. a
a
a
a
a
b
a
a
a
b
S
b
b
c
b
b
a
b
c
b
a
III. Rnj.
A
..... g
h
f
h
i
i
h
i
h
g
B
e
e
e
f
f
g
£
d
f
e
C
d
c
c
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d
d
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e
d
D
. . . . . c
d
d
d
b
c
c
a
c
c
F.
h
i
J
1
e
e
e
f
g
f
K
j
g
i
g
g
h
g
h
J
i
L
i
J
h
i
,1
J
i
J
i
J
M
f
f
g
e
h
f
J
g
d
h
P
a
a
a
a
a
a
b
b
a
a
S
b
b
b
b
c
b
a
c
a
b
II. THE TRANSMOGRIFICATIONS
I. Mean.
Subject
A
B
C
D
F
CQ
C
d
h
e
g
g
CO
>>
C
<u
H
C
d
h
f
K a (throughout)
L b (throughout)
M f f g g
P j (throughout)
S i (throughout)
J?
|
CO
1
IS
*n
cw
c
J
<y
•-^
o
o
*"!
CO
i
3
E
PQ
g
c
e
d
c
c
c
e
d
c
d
d
d
d
h
g
h
h
h
f
e
e
f
e
e
g
g
f
g
g
g
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 105
II. M.V.
A.
g
g
f
f
h
h
g
g
h
h
B
C
. d
f
f
d
d
e
d
h
g
e
c
f
d
f
t
e
g
f
D
i
i
i
K
c
K
h
i
e
e
F.
c
c
c
c
d
d
b
c
c
c
K
J
(throughout)
L,
e
e
g
e
f
e
e
d
d
d
M
h
h
h
i
i
i
i
h
i
i
P
a
(throughout)
S
b
b
b
b
b
b
c
b
b
b
III. Rnj.
A
f
i
i
J
h
b
i
J
i
g
B
e
g
d
i
i
g
J
i
J
a
C
b
f
f
h
J
e
d
c
g
i
D
« d
e
J
c
K
J
a
h
e
b
F
h
b
g
f
c
c
b
f
a
t
K
c
d
e
d
b
i
h
d
c
h
L
J
h
c
e
a
d
K
g
h
d
M
g
J
a
K
f
f
c
e
b
J
P
a
a
b
b
d
a
e
a
d
e
S
i
c
h
a
e
h
f
b
f
c
CORRELATIONS IN POINT OF VOWEL AND CONSONANT QUALITY,
QUANTITY AND PERIODICITY
The rank lists for these experiments are the best we have yet
obtained, for even those for the mean variation and the range
show much steadiness of position for the various subjects. The
correlation between feeling tone and motor discharge, however is
of the same general type as we have obtained before; the unpleas-
ant and the neutral experiments produce the longest tapped
strokes, and usually, also, the Transmogrifications produce longer
tappings than do the sources from which they were derived.
This was also shown by the graphs for these experiments which
may be considered somewhat in detail. They show exactly the
same effects as the two first transmogrifications did, — that the
explosive consonants and the short vowels produce a greater
motor effect than do the liquids and the long vowels; take, for
example the first four of these experiments performed, the Keats
XIII and XIV, and the Byron XIII and XIV. The Keats XIV
graph was higher than the Keats XIII, and the Byron XIV higher
than the Byron XIII; the XIV's are also both longer than the
XIII's. Now take another point into consideration: there are
in the Keats XIV 23 short accented vowels, and 40 short unac-
io6 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
cented vowels ; 38 explosive accented and 22 explosive unaccented
consonants. In the Byron XIV there are but 13 short accented
vowels, 29 short unaccented vowels, 40 explosive accented and
1 8 explosive unaccented consonants. The conclusions are ap-
parent and from the following lists of short vowels and explosive
consonants in these twenty ten-line experiments, one can see
the same tendency in all but two or three cases.
Ace. Unacc.
Arnold: Short Ace. Vowels, 26; Unacc., 40; Explosive Cons., 37 27
Tennyson : Short Ace. Vowels, 17 ; Unacc., 28 ; Explosive Cons., 30 18
And the Arnold experiments aroused more motor discharge than
did those of Tennyson. Compare also Shelley and Marlowe,
XIII and XIV:
Ace. Unacc,
Marlowe : Short Ace. Vowels, 28 ; Unacc., 26 ; Explosive Cons., 32 16
Shelley: Short Ace. Vowels, 22; Unacc., 38; Explosive Cons., 36 16
The graphs for these experiments showed clearly again that the
motor discharge is dependent upon these sounds, and just as
these two poets are nearly equal in the number of them they
employ, so are the graphs almost equal in height and other
features.
Likewise with Wordsworth and Coleridge; the graphs are
nearly equal in height and so are the determining sounds in
number.
Ace. Unacc.
Wordsworth: Short Ace. Vowels, 24; Unacc., 36; Explosive Cons., 31 21
Coleridge : Short Ace. Vowels, 24 ; Unacc., 35 ; Explosive Cons., 34 24
Milton and Browning do not show the same sort of correlation
in this respect as do the other poets ; the graphs showed this very
clearly ; the unlyrical subject matter of the Browning XIII experi-
ment and the general negative character of the effect of the
transmogrification bring again into prominence the introspective
side of the experiment.
Insofar as any validity can be attached to the results thus
obtained, it appears that the accented syllables alone are not in
all cases sufficient to account 'for the increase of motor output
caused by one line or one passage of poetry over that of another.
Construed in their psycho-motor effects, either syllable, the ac-
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 107
cented or the unaccented, can be the cause of heightened motor
manifestation. To this effect, then, we ally the results of our
previous investigation in regard to the length of the "long"
vowels: in both cases it appears that the intentional prolonga-
tion of a letter or syllable in consciousness is one thing, and
the reverberant effect of such prolongation is another. In such
cases one can at least catch a curious glimpse of the functional
nature of some phases of the introspective and motor con-
sciousness in their overlapping parts in point of the qualitative
distinctions to be made between quantitative similars which only
an analysis from the twofold standpoint of psycho-motor
manifestations would break up out of a subtle fusion.
Mention must be made again of the form-quality of the graphs
for these first long experiments. Just as characteristic differences
had occurred in the graphs for the single lines of each of the
poets, so here the XIII experiment for any poet produced a
graph which had individuality as contrasted with the XIII of
any other poet. Likewise with the XIV experiments. Those
passages, whether XIII or XIV which had gone easily and
smoothly in the recitation also went smoothly in the motor con-
sciousness and the dip of the graph line from first to fifth foot
was more marked than in those poets which produced other than
the above mentioned effects. In every case the motor display and
the introspectional flow showed what at least by analogy might
be called common parts. Not strange, of course, since by this
time the motor pattern of consciousness on the voluntary move-
ment side was now paralleled by the apperceiving tendencies of
the reading and speaking consciousness.
In many cases by actual counting of the accented and un-
accented vowels and consonants, it was not easy to see why
some of the introspective and motor effects were produced.
Frequently the very look of the page, before an attempt to
read it had been made, would suddenly "set" the motor ten-
dencies in a very definite way, while the results of this "setting"
would conflict with the auditory side of consciousness at the
termination of the experiment. And so we had the conflict
of such things as the fusion o;f subliminal stimuli for the read-
io8 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
ing consciousness with the fusion of liminal stimuli in the
auditory consciousness, and the like; here, also, the position
of letters in the line, and the periodic recurrence of a letter
as seen, but neglected in the speaking consciousness, or of
sounds possibly unpleasant qua sounds, but affording no dis-
pleasure on the side o:f visual form, entered as rather incalculable
disturbances throughout the whole run of these larger experi-
ments. That they could have been made constants, rather than
variables, however, lies well within reason, had the experiments
been conducted as a slow, inexorable arithmetic of spoken sounds,
rather than as an esthetico-psychological investigation. In this
connection it is significant to remark that the subjects took an
entirely different attitude toward large passages, from what
they did toward single iambic syllables, repeated to the point
of tedium.
This ended the experimental work for the second year. We
had performed 336 single-line experiments and 20 ten-line experi-
ments and the results have been all given in the preceding pages.
On the whole, the results are clear; from the numerical re-
sults of the 128,000 tapped strokes made during this year's work
we have obtained proof that the unpleasant and neutral states
of mind are correlated with a greater motor output than are the
pleasant states; from the introspection on the vowels and con-
sonant experiments we have been able to make statements about
the effective and affective values of the various classes of letter
sounds; while from the transmogrifications of the large pas-
sages of poetry we have been able to conclude that the sounds of
poetry, especially lyric poetry, are able of themselves to arouse
a mood congruous to that mood which the normal recitation of
the original poem would arouse. This is exactly in line with
the notion, on the basis of which the original thesis was made :
the sensational element in poetry that is derived from the sounds
themselves is immense, — poetry is largely tonal, — and it is cer-
tain, conversely speaking, that those poets which neglect the
finer sounds of the language either deliberately or otherwise deny
themselves a hearing that is worthy of cultivation.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 109
THE TRANSMOGRIFICATION OF OTHER THAN
BLANK VERSE INTO TEN-LINE PASSAGES
Only five subjects took part in the third year's work. With
one exception, the experiments were all transmogrifications of
other than passages of blank verse poetry. This exception was
Shakespeare XIII. No suitable passage had been found during
the first two years of the work, and this was the cause of the
delay. The numbers attached to the third year's experiments
mean as follows: XV means a passage of poetry, not blank
verse, transmogrified, — usually a passage in decasyllabic lines;
further experiments, numbered XVI, etc., means usually a pas-
sage of shorter than decasyllabic verse.
These poems were not very successful in the experiment. In
the first place, rhyme is an encumbrance to the transmogrifier, —
it makes alliteration almost a necessity, if one is to transmogrify
line for line or keep the first lines of the poem in the first lines
of his construction; in the second place, short-lined poetry does
not have enough tonal body, usually, to be satisfactorily trans-
mogrified into the heavier decasyllabic lines; there is something
solid about iambic pentameter which must be maintained in order
to keep the effect serious and dignified.
We next give the introspection of the third year's experimen-
tation, and after that, a resume of the numerical results and the
correlations on the basis of feeling tone and motor discharge.
KEATS, EXPERIMENT XV
Second transmogrification of "I stood tiptoe upon a little hill."
I hon tie to thu il tip ster bi vit
So lood ing prand up kide est mod u thil
With udz in bool wuz drant ing sterv thu slare
A lis Tng kide u lape II chist 6v whemz
And fant er toop ri whemz eet sorn li neevd
Pul ost a lat thare din yet thob thu dar
From f I li kov the ept had mawt thu tost
Az eur thoze klorn and flowdz thare pite neu slere
Thu brox li frook swand kresh from skete eu swen
Bland ev ringz kler tha hept wer shon thu eeldz.
i io ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
This passage contains the first fifty accented and the first
fifty unaccented syllables of the poem from which it was taken.
INTROSPECTION
B. P. Flows well, and the rhythm is regular and satisfactory; seems to
be telling some tale, perhaps slightly epical in nature. Upon reading it a
second time, got imagery of a shore and a chivalric or romantic scene; the
setting may be slightly sexual in its significance.
F. P. The most pleasant lines are Nos, 6 and n; makes him think of
Anglo Saxon poetry; imagery of an open air scene, with sunshine and
flowers ; some of the sounds appear remarkably strong for such a description.
K. P. Sounds a little mysterious and melancholy; thinks of English
country scenery in the fall of the year, — certainly not in the winter; rather
warm, tonally, but not at all deep; felt the pitch to sink a trifle toward the
end; surprised that it went even as well as it did; kinaesthesis not noticed.
iL. P. Recalls the days of chivalry, and thinks of King Arthur; gives
a thrill in the breast to read it, and it all goes very smoothly ; felt the accent
to be very prominent and expressive; it sounds familiar, but he cannot tell
when or where he has seen it before.
M. P. Seems very long; at first the imagery was that of a ship and
the sound of the water and the calls of the sailors, but later it changed
to a more subtle, and very delicate thing like some romantic scene and idle
and care-free people; the consciousness was a sound-consciousness entirely,
with the exception of fleeting visual imagery, and the tapping was forgotten
entirely.
BYRON, EXPERIMENT XV
The transmogrification of the "Apostrophe to the Ocean," be-
ginning with "There is a pleasure in the pathless woods," and
ending with the fiftieth accented and the fiftieth unaccented
syllable.
Thu plare less win Tz ath 66r loodz u pezh
U ron ture thare H nore thu pash iz trone
So thon whare oodz in si iz thare zik rin
And meu dits bi thu nore tepe Ian e se
Ni muv thu wha f rin eel ter chim but lor
I stm thot meez ure thes our fing be vail
I pran thu win gle mth 6t or kon soo
And kes too yare ket all rex tid 6m do
L66 bele an kar yole I not on band epe.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY in
INTROSPECTION
B. P. From the n-drone the passage contains he gets the idea of a forest
and ocean scene, rather peaceful, languid and quiet ; it may be that some one is
philosophizing or lecturing on contentment; quite a lot of sibilants in the
passage and frequently "v" and "f," also the liquids.
F. P. Had quite a good deal of difficulty in saying it; and doesn't feel
that the ending is satisfactory at all; but the passage is strong and vigorous,
with a sort of latent strength and it gives him the idea of something semi-
heroic. The staccato effect of "k" is noticed frequently.
K. P. Gets a vivid image of the sea-shore on a cool day ; melancholy enters
into the whole concept, which is not gotten by any association, but by a
direct evocation from the sounds ; thinks the passage is homogenous in sound
effects, and ability to call up these images and notions.
L. U. (Subject slightly weary.) Nearly every line contains some objec-
tionable sound; "epe" in the last line does not end the passage properly
(this passage was presented again later to the same subject, he remembered
not having liked it and the experiment was not a success.)
M. P. Imagery of a meadow enveloped by a mid-summer mist; slightly
chilly feeling accompanied the imagery; the saying of the lines was rather
difficult, and this took all the attention.
GRAY, EXPERIMENT XV
Transmogrification of the first fifty accented and unaccented
syllables of the "Elegy."
Thu nart ing kel 6v per thu doll sle
Thu lerd an a f mg plo thu ta mand plor
Hiz 6m ri we zined olz eu modz thu we
Too low nes wark too erld thu land erd devez
Thu himmer glite wing ladez and hil zow fon
Pa stol men dolez thu sail nes and thu sare
Hiz bav ing sontle whe thu tl ware dreelz
Thu siddant drow lisk till tingz flave at klm
Whan yoldz from hontled mour vT mowlmg tane
Thu po kom dife thu san tu muz der ploon.
INTROSPECTION
B. P. Describes something that happened long ago and gives a feeling of
content, rest and solace; imagery of romantic country scenery, and now and
then sees an old man moving, but not vigorously; very rich imagery and he
becomes totally empathic to the scene. The sounds seemed at first rough,
but afterwards smoothed down very much.
F. P. Arouses a sober mood, in spite of the fact that the sounds now and
ii2 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
then are dreadfully turgid; gets visual imagery of the outdoors, but it is not
very clear.
K. P. Seems hard to say; a very definite mood seems to be latent in it;
thinks of the fall of the year and the woods, and now and then a trace of
melancholy enters into it; now and then >he thought of summer instead of the
fall, but it changed again and ended in the latter season.
L. 'U. Certainly it is not dramatic ; it sounds rather sleepy and ineffective
(subject does not greatly care for Elegy) ; got no imagery and did not
find it easy to say; calls it "inconsequential."
M. U. It "looks" bad, and is hard to say; too many "z" sounds in it, but
cannot tell why; gets ideas of lazy people and stupid foreigners, — people
that are not up and doing (this kind of human beings are "persona non
grata" to subject M).
BROWNING, EXPERIMENT XV
Transmogrification of of "Rabbi Ben Ezra," lines I to 13^2.
Thu jold a mest iz bong wuz et wo be
Too lerst 6v whade thu fe grith ife thu chim
For hm iz tast I leth ar plimz a ge
H66 f role ust whade our shand 66th saf e boze
Ya nail tring flod that has but mand ich reev
Re nowrz ha boze ich mot is ken mand thil
Nor est whake sail traz Hde 6m jot sing mowrz
It larz whem hov that mernd 66th stire which flendz
Be ma theurd sig yan blarz nor fendz ad nail
Nor hi chand nopes us tof 6v nul fan zeer.
INTROSPECTION
B. P. Seems fairly rhythmic and easy; kinaesthesis is everywhere in the
mouth; evokes a mood of matter of fact pessimism; thinks of some middle-
aged person, some pseudo-philosopher advising a younger person; is sophisti-
cated, disillusioned and resigned.
F. P. Sort of humorously eloquent ; almost physically ticklish ; now and
then a slightly tragical feeling, but laughed at it; the sounds are very
Swedish, it seems, and the whole thing attempts pathos, but ends up with
bathos.
K. U. Blundered through the whole thing, and calls it a tonal and poetical
blunder; rather rhetorical in spots, but again positively full of humor; some-
thing "citified" about it, too conscious, too sophistical; it is "speechifying"
more than anything else ^ takes a lot of energy and is full of irregularities.
L. P. Rather dramatic, but has no meaning; sounds like Gaelic or Welsh;
may be recounting some tale.
M. P. Sort of a joke; interesting and very light; not hard to read; it is
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 113
not important, but it goes well ; full of spirit, and sounds a little condescending
and amiably superior at times, but she could not take it seriously at all;
(laughed much).
TENNYSON, EXPERIMENT XV
Transmogrification of "Crossing the Bar," with the most
used sounds in the poem repeated to fill out the last few iambics.
Thu won ing teev en boun az pla nad kernz
Too rawl net beme es nove and barling meez
For nus when stam which krame thu bide us fo
And tow but flon ing twi nes mob ro sleme
When fur ma le put chad ing rabe thu nark
For soo nay drel ter gam thu ho nad wi
Thar bees a tow from e land tepe a dov
Kla das me thi for dav 6 lound thu te
When taf ite bem too sud thar tow f ren soo
For meth 6m tise and po nad uv re tha.
INTROSPECTION
B. P. Easy to say and produces a feeling of apprehension; never got
exactly into it, and the imagery and emotions were indefinite; (subject
pondered the passage quite a while after the experiment, but no further
introspection was obtained) ; kinaesthesis is felt on the lips mostly.
F. N. Rather easy to say, and there is a good deal of openness about the
sounds, but no imagery came; feels often that the unaccented vowels ought
not to be long.
K. P. It is very temperamental, and at times slightly melancholy; thinks
of ploughed ground and gets ever olfactory imagery; but there is also a
slight monotony (sameness) about it, and at the end there came a feeling of
something like listlessness.
L. P. It's very nice, but does not provoke a big reaction; seems to be
describing a sad and tragic event; probably the death of a certain person;
thinks of many perils, enemies, trepidation and the like. The sounds are
wonderfully good.
M. P. Rather easy to say, and line 7 is charming ; doesn't seem very serious
and makes one think of the sounds of nature; gets imagery of the woods,
fields and the like ; but the whole effect is quite steady and self-contained.
ARNOLD, EXPERIMENT XV
Transmogrification of "Dover Beach," employing the first
eleven lines and a part of the twelfth.
ii4 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
Thu nam iz dile and stra land son ter ve
R6 nare thu ton quil bine thu seng 6v mern
Whar kind ing spreem thu stal chen tife iz ko
Thu gon f rin lis 6v stam blez nare thu chee
Tu flis thu whee nad zil thu hur dum then
Thu se dran wape eu'towm at stin 6v noom
Thu ti f rol wete thu bafe up tole thu gris
Chi pang thu stabe ing krand hi thai thu gmd
Tu stoon thu traf iz glake II kos be sweemz
Blan or hlz roon daw nole thu gli men zave.
INTROSPECTION
B. U. Traces of pleasantness in the first part, but at the end it was
rather sarcastic, i.e. full of a sort of "Schadenfreude." Too many "s" and "z"
sounds in it, and too many unusual sound combinations ; the first six lines
are better poetical constructions than the last four; tried to like it, but
the kinaesthetic factor dominated.
F. U. The first line is not so bad, but the rest are horrible, and he does
not think there can be any such sounds in poetry; a lot of the words give
him pains in the face, such as "glake," "gind," "gris," etc.
K. P. Got a very distinct feeling of standing up and "giving it to
some one" in a rhetorical manner; there is a great deal of reserve strength
in it, and the pronunciation is very prominent; not moody, like some of the
others, but rather stern and a trifle polemical.
L. P. It's tragic ; thinks of a combat ; there seems to be something dramatic,
moving and forceful about it; visualizes a storm at sea, through which the
vessel finally rode to safety. This was due to the associational element in
the sound themselves.
M. P. At first it was very heavy and labored, and did not delight her soul ;
then it became better, and visual imagery of the sea with people talking in a
dignified and probably hushed manner about it.
SHEKESPEARE, EXPERIMENT XV
Transmogrification of the LXIVth sonnet, lines I to 10.
Thu rene hov ki when fost hav bimz el taje
De rand orn te prid laste an ser boud mowrz
Whi tazed it ras woun slaje al chis and vore
Ne bri too sof dal mos thu tow gri hav
Fen ger tav so mi heen ad shan ij ta
Ti kos un woil thu tos 6m ding thu wand
Hov stind ing kov erm ane thu Ion ter krees
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 115
Whin or thu stun ith cheem and nis fon or
De fanj when too with sta kav i wit stoun
With ta chus or shed melf or 16s ter na.
INTROSPECTION
B. P. Has much emotional value, and there seems to be a sexual element
running through it; but very rich and refined, even if voluptuous, and it might
be taken from a poem which contains a sex-philosophy of life; the lip
sounds and the "j" and "ch" sounds are particularly predominant.
F. P. Means nothing to him and the pleasure is in the rhythm only, "j,'
"ch," and "sh' sounds quite prominent.
K. P. Seems to be of low pitch and is slightly provocative of melancholy;
visualizes a market-place full of people; the mood is not depressing, but the
kind of a melancholy that one takes delight in. "De rand orn' is very
fine tonally.
L. P. Very nice and smooth; narrative and not dramatic; is like Shakes-
peare in Othello where the story of the ships being lost is narrated ( ? query,
Merchant of Venice). Got no imagery, but tried to.
M. U. Very doleful and depressing; recalls the "Flying Dutchman," and
all the attendant weirdness of it; it is minor music all through; at the second
reading, it got insistently pathetic as in describing a great loss that was
irreparable.
WORDSWORTH, EXPERIMENT XV
Transmogrification of the opening lines of the "Ode on the
Intimations of Immortality." Employing the first fifty accented
and unaccented sounds.
Thu stree bel grame it vo nes mer nad le
When gli nad vare chul par mon thel n dem
Too mm did nore pas tmgz ern dree wo nese
I tro verz kom thu shemz 6 wen duth ra
De nowd 6v kom I tese thu ma li zore
Whi na chand thi luz f rem her tow kri sare
Ath yome thu ris hav zee naz dow thu tine
Or whinz u tabe so beth 6t hi nad wit
Kee var noot whi thu zen ad sil bo mth
De goze ar vul han dize thu noom a nar.
INTROSPECTION
B. N. Seems rather matter of fact; not what he calls poetry, because it is
rather narrative and epical, not lyric and free; seemed easy enough to learn
n6 ROBERT CHENAULT CILLER
to say it, and the kinaesthesis is forward; the "z," "s," "d," "th," and "t" sound
prominent.
F. P. Rather hard to say; calls it "Kammersprache," rather than poetry;
the sensations aroused are akin to those experienced while walking over a
muddy, frozen ground. No imagery.
K. P. (Arouses melancholy at once ; visualizes an English moor, over which
he seems to be walking; obscure feeling all the way through, as if hesi-
tating to say or do something; the prominent sound is the "wh."
L. P. Only a very slight organic quiver aroused by the poem ; it is barbaric,
but enjoyable; thought of Norsemen by association, and also of the Goths.
The feelings are rather lukewarm.
M. P. Images a cliff overlooking the sea and of someone on the cliff telling
tales of the sea; it is very appealing and peculiar; thought there were many
full cadences in the poem. At times it became very confidential.
SHELLEY, EXPERIMENT XV
Transmogrification of the first fifty accented and unaccented
syllables of the "Stanzas written in dejection, near Naples."
Thu marn is wering klave un wile ed zare
With sant enz brem thu tound it par thu sko
A win iz noom eld voin i sul its bree
Thu nelf iz per shun zit ent rast thu vound.
Tri 16 brand shon I pand thu gre lov serth
De moidz it nus thu swen lex merdz up tise
And stee kar soth I bmdz H tois thu do ft
Zan eeps Tz pern ik fees up stron thu trove
Ze pam thu floodz wi bors pul ti wud lis
Thu wuz 6v tos I zud lu flaves ed wi.
INTROSPECTION
B. P. Gets imagery of the sea and the splash of the surf at once; seems
very onomatopoetic ; and in spite of the fact that there is much "s" and "z"
in it, it is pleasant, but by virtue of the imagery only; gives a vague feeling
of uneasiness and there are many bodily tensions.
F. P. Rather moody and sombre feeling aroused by it ; there is much mouth
movement and one has to slide to some of the words and stop hesitatingly
before others of them ; feels tense, not on account of the pronunciation wholly,
but on account of the mood.
K. P. Feels as if he is reading a somewhat morbid fairy story, and the
emotion is one of mystery and helplessness; this comes direct, and is not
associational at all ; at first there was a feeling of withdrawing from the
mood, but this soon ceased ; it seems to be bound up in the sounds themselves
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY n?
and in nothing else; the frequency of the long vowels being unaccented seems
to heighten the power of the poem to sustain its mood.
L. N. The sounds are good, but he cannot feel the connection between
them; now and then it seemed as if the whole thing would get unified,
but it never did.
M. U. Very depressing and disappointing; arouses a mood in which one
feels helpless; so many interesting sounds in it, like "gree lov serth," etc.
The first five lines are cheerful enough, but the last five are doleful.
COWPER, EXPERIMENT XV
Transmogrification of the well known lines: "Knowledge
and wisdom, far from being one," etc. (This was selected, not
as poetry, especially, but as a test of whether the transmogrifi-
cation of a didactic, homiletic poem would be successful. )
Hav nol ing bar dom fon ij ween 6m elz
And 61 f ron wek ith noft er mz re dwen
Km plo dij mawts 6v theet wun huth imz or
Shorn wen tin miz that rone tiv zede ma tmds
Thu pras ij mof ich too nad zome its bood
A were alz tase Tl smared un tlz it plere
And with 6m dooth whar zild en fol ble chim
Diz boo that rowd no prit us kernd 6m sque
So lut haz wheemz it chumber nat iz hoom
He sumble niz ded wuth en hum diz nol.
INTROSPECTION
B. P. The prominent sound elements are the "n-drone," the dentals and the
labials; got no imagery and no meaning; commonplace.
F. P. Very queer thing; full of pauses, and the rhythm feels like the
different steps in a fancy dance ; besides the rhythm, there is not much to it ;
as far as meaning is concerned, it sounds like optimistic speech-making.
K. U. Seems cool, emotionally; rather rhetorical and arouses no imagery;
in spite of its poverty of emotion, and its unpleasantness, it is interesting.
L. N. It is not dramatical, deep, or poetical; it's like Pope.
M. P. Amusing; like some moral story to be told to youngsters; line i
starts out grand and almost epical, and then the whole thing tumbles and
never regains itself till the end.
DRYDEN, EXPERIMENT XV
Transmogrification of lines 94 to 103 inclusive, of "Absalom
and Achitophel."
n8 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
De mov er prand 6m dall isht az him pived
And lub ez tesh ar fland 6v lood uz blard
Ka host wer yax and gret thar wand eld bodz
Too gernt on stom this ka thike sood thar whame
Dal prot 66d in then flet thu he mis prall
And sar thu stee thunz jil 6v ma for stees
Re bod so rese thar hent 6v hiz de gome
Li gruth or whee bood pone 6k stenz in sar
Haz dole thu f eeb en gat his orn stin teeb
Hov ed ants if he had iz ber va dole.
INTROSPECTION
B. P. Predominantly dental; seemed rather easy to learn; quite matter of
fact and denotes activity of a non-poetic character; some people are doing
something, — all the way from arguing to moving vigorously about.
F. N. Very unpleasant caesural pauses ; very heavy and clumsy, and cannot
be lyric poetry, nor written by any one who knew the musical value of sounds;
tried to get away from it and couldn't.
K. P. (Laughed.) Humorous and countrified; seems to be telling some
"yarn," — a good big one; the speaker is perfectly willing to hear himself
talk; tonally, it is just an interesting collection of noises.
L. N. Got no reaction from it at all; it never drew his attention fully
and he began to think of other things.
M. U. Feels like going over a rocky road ; felt no rhythmical swing except
at "hiz de gome"; no imagery.
DRYDEN, EXPERIMENT XVI
Transmogrification of lines 66 to 78 of "Alexander's Feast."
Thu vound ith hane hiz dooth and or gra sail
F66 nabe thu gmg ed slantelz tase he koze
And thrasmg foo thu rail iz towness rad
Thu mize and slawment gloter chize thu fev
Awt thride hiz kees en sar we hile diz ther
Hen f rise en prand hiz chorn iz mew he danj
And tek is chi hin dall 6ft wheer ful zome
He tewz en chall e zood and fise he tafe
Di hon hiz rit and ta de soof ha grail
En pife us ta se fung ba stige a toove.
INTROSPECTION
B. P. (?) Hard to say; the "s* and "z" sounds predominate, and somehow
make it sound gummy ; feels that the cheeks have moved a great deal ; hissing
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY ug
and breathing is frequent; it is both difficult and amusing, and he cannot get
any meaning out of it.
F. P. Thinks of trotting horses and movement in the open air; but this
he holds to be due to a direct association from the words "soof" (= hoof?)
and "ritand" (= reiten [Ger.] which he pronounced with a long "I").
Goes easily and quickly.
K. P. Very smooth and interesting; gets a cobwebby mood of mystery,
but doesn't know why; feels that many of the expressions in such a passage
will turn into words, if one looks for words.
L. N. Gets no reaction whatever. (N.B.^Between this and the previous
passage experimented upon, Subject L. relieved his mind of certain matters
which were annoying him, but not even then did any reaction to the above
poem take place.)
M. U. Dislikes the looks of it ; it sounds blatant and impudent and is full
of the most difficult combinations possible.
SPENSER, EXPERIMENT XV
Transmogrification of Stanza 34, Canto I, "The Faery
Queene," with the most used sounds repeated to complete the last
line.
In laz it wertle ho mi lit a taje
Li fide a sown as dard 6v or est ede
Re hale id zar dom torple tath al fas
El pav a til bi frotle woo thel dite
Thu trotle fide ar win li haz i cher
Too mingz it hade li sont ar tew f ren de
And bide li porn hiz kra cha wis tal paj
That weem id ho den lit a fom ed pli
Chi thor li f rent wha tha kre toun li wase
Wha 16 mi per nad fev ed strel in taje.
INTROSPECTION
B. P. The vowels seems very predominant; the dental consonants rather
numerous also; very poetical substance in it, but cannot get at it; upon a
second reading notices the liquids more than the dentals, and the sounds
seem very open, but this does not make it at all oratorical, — rather quiet and
restful, instead.
F. P. The lines containing the words that end with "tie" remind him of
Maeterlinck's "Blue Bird" ; direct association ; some of it very easy to say
and some of it very hard; wonders what the frequent repetition of the
word "taje" means.
K. P. Easy to say; not exactly melancholy, but something very akin to it;
no content suggested, just this strange feeling of artistic melancholy.
L. P. Excellent Jabberwocky; got a rippling feeling down the back;
120 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
doesn't seem to be anything very tragic and vital; just like some nice little
quiet talk.
M. P. The words ending in "tie" are at first very quieting; then the
"look" of the letter "j" annoys and seems to color the whole thing; would
become unpleasant upon very slight provocation.
SHAKESPEARE, EXPERIMENT XIII
Shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous,
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
For fear of that, I still will stay with thee:
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again: here, here, will I remain
With worms that are thy chambermaids ; O here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh.
SHAKESPEARE, EXPERIMENT XIV
Thu Ian sal de sher nan at rus ab sten
Iz km ul meeps and han be m.6r sub lith
In theer sha dal hiz par thed both il stoor
And eep thov hane too stal f er tov ith reesp
Sti fev or nom is gee ful wen de thite
Wer pern das hane a chi we la wil freer
Bo ma ther zud im spar that hi with pame
Re sher ing tev et rast thu ka weer flun
Mi les and weer 6v ko ther yast id reesh
Hi zar mold sith aw rik wer zim us reet.
Shakespeare, Experiment XIV. Transmogrification of XIII
INTROSPECTION
B. P. The sibilants do not disturb, although they are very numerous; gets
visual imagery of the woods and the sea; the general aspect is quiet and
solemn ; seems restrained and hushed ; no activity in the notion aroused, — can
hardly tell what it is.
F. P. Seems delicate and soft, with only a few interruptions such as
"reesp" ; rhythm is both quickened and slowed in places, and he rather likes
the necessity to stop and begin again at a different tempo; feels like the
resolution of dissonances, every time it occurs, which is usually after a
difficult word, or one that causes readjustment of the vocal organs afterwards.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 121
K. P. Smooth and easy to say; doesn't get any definite imagery, but
the general effect produced is rather subdued; thinks of either a calm on
the sea, or a suspense of activity; the thing has a lot of meaning, but it is
very subtle, and for him, latent.
L. P. Not epic, but lyric; seems pastoral, rather than anything else;
the opening lines reminded him of the tonal effect of Gray's Elegy.
M. P. Would not have been surprised to have heard an organ keep up the
tonal effect after the end of the passage came; there is a rumble of heavy,
grand tones underneath, as it were, the sounds as spoken; it is not the
rhythm that is the prominent feature, but the sound-mass, which is surpris-
ingly new and agreeable.
We have omitted from this list a small number of experiments
made after the same pattern : Coleridge's "Christabel" was tried,
but proved introspectively unsuccessful; likewise three songs from
Shakespeare made over into five-line passages, — "Hark, hark,
the lark," Ariel's Song, and the Boy's Song from "Measure for
Measure." Likewise two passages from Swinburne's "Laus
Veneris," two from Rossetti's "Blessed Damosel," and one of
Sydney's Sonnets. Jonson's "Drink to me only with thine eyes"
as well as a passage from Pope's "Essay on Man" fell flat.
The writer usually found it more difficult to transmogrify
the shorter verse forms into decasyllabic lines than the others.
Tonal replicas were less easily elicited from such passages, which
having been cast into a form tonally demanding other than the
decasyllabic pattern, remained recalcitrant to the pulverizing
and agglutinizing process of this experimental method. Soft as
the tonal data of poetry may be, yet it would appear that the
various form-orders of verse lie not in intersecting series.
RANK LISTS FOR THE EXPERIMENTS PERFORMED DURING THE THIRD YEAR'S
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122 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
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ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 123
>*>>>>*>
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The rank lists for these experiments show much steadiness,
but inasmuch as there were but five subjects, the possible devia-
tion from position is very slight. Correlation between the feeling
tone and the motor discharge remains the same as it was in the
second year's work; to the very end, the mean variation and the
range do not seem to have anything to do with the matter, or at
least, very little in comparison with the mean of the tappings.
Let us turn to the graphs for these 26 experiments. In nearly
every case the "short" vowels, whether accented or unaccented,
and the explosive consonants produce a greater motor discharge
than the softer, "slower" and more mellifluous sounds of the
language. We give the figures for verification.
Accented
Unacc
Experiment
short vowels
short A
Keats XV
.. 25
39
Byron XV
.. 24
33
Arnold XV
19
39
Tennyson XV
12
35
Shakespeare XVI . . .
10
16
Shakespeare XVII..
8
18
Shakespeare XVIII.
IO
19
Cowper XV
.. 27
40
Shelley XV
18
42
Wordsworth XV...
.. 18
30
Gray XV. .
14
39
Sydney XV
14
28
Jonson XV
21
3i
Pope XV
•• 23
40
Accented
explosive
consonants
Unaccented
explosive
consonants
43
IS
15
24
27
36
18
24
15
17
18
ii
5
8
33
34
18
23
18
20
32
38
20
21
28
29
28
18
I24 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
Accented Unaccented
Accented Unaccented explosive explosive
Experiment short vowels short vowels consonants consonants
Spenser XV 18 4* 43 19
Browning XV 24 32 31 20
Dryden XV 25 33 4O 19
Swinburne XV 19 31 3i IS
Dryden XVI 10 38 38 17
Swinburne XVI 15 27 24 18
Rossetti XVI 26 27 37 13
Shakespeare XV 19 28 24 21
Rossetti XV 19 33 27 17
By referring to the graphing for the two experiments on
Shakespeare, XIII and XIV, it is found again in this case, as we
have noticed before, that the transmogrification of a passage of
poetry tends to arouse the motor consciousness more than does
the original poem.
From the above results, it seems clear that the short vowels
and the explosive consonants, regardless of accented or unac-
cented position in the poetic foot tend to produce the strong
motor arousals ; but this was not the case with the earlier experi-
ments in which the single line was repeated five times in succes-
sion; nevertheless, the summation of effects is evidently what
accounts for it, together with other factors not to be overlooked.
The motor setting preparatory to tapping a long passage of verse
is different from the motor setting which merely, repeats the
same line over and over again ; and with the appearance of new
combinations a stronger effect is produced by the addition of like
elements than by a great variety of elements giving no effect of
homogeneity ; once the feeling produced by the short vowels and
explosive consonants is aroused, even the lessening of their num-
ber per line in the following lines might not show as soon in the
motor consciousness as it did in the introspective consciousness ;
instances of this we have seen in the previous pages. But it does
not seem to work the other way around, — the effect of explosive
sounds is immediate upon the motor consciousness, and one such
sound can mar the effect of an otherwise placid and liquid line,
and this may account for the apparent partial lack of definite
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 125
one to one correspondence which we have sought for in connec-
tion with our study of the motor energies and the introspective
consciousness both singly and together.
Allied to the characteristic form-quality in the graphs for
each individual poet, especially in the more meaningful lines
experimented upon, is the matter of the tapped strokes as they
appeared upon the smoked paper ribbon. After they had become
accustomed to the tapping, every one of the subjects tapped in
what could be called a thoroughly individual manner. Some
of them tapped slowly and with great deliberation, thereby mak-
ing a visible record of very rounded loops; others would react
by a very quick down-stroke, followed by a slow, hesitating
up-stroke, while still others would tap strokes that appeared on
the paper as very fine points, or even in some cases would move
the finger so quickly that the pointer climbed the roller on
the up-stroke and returned with sudden relaxation of the rubber
band in such a way as to make a loop in the smoky surface
of the ribbon. >,And here lies the interesting point: that in the
variously individual records there appeared evidence of all felt
and unfelt changes in the emotional character of the experiments
presented; tenseness of the vocal apparatus as well as the op-
posite state could be told by the experimenter as well as by
the subject, together with subliminal effects of one sort or
another which the subject did not :feel either in summation or
otherwise. Illusions, also, of various character were there
evidenced, such as temporal and numerical ones. In general,
the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the visible record
amply supplemented the introspection in every way.
We have made no special mention of the time element in con-
nection with most of these experiments. This is because the
graphs are so typical for each and all of the subjects, that indi-
vidual mention is unnecessary; furthermore, the time element
does not seem to play any very important role. It certainly is no
special correlate of any of the affective elements in consciousness ;
and it does not seem to be a manifest index either of difficulty
in the material to be recited or of the number of sounds in the
decasyllabic line. The subjects were all told to take their own
126 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
time in the tapping; this was merely to assure them that they
were not to be hurried in what they did. This, however, is to
be noted as the regular temporal manifestation of all the subjects :
the repetition of the same iambic line five times usually showed
on the record as having taken longer time with each repetition, —
that is, the oftener repeated, the slower it became, though none of
the subjects were aware of it. This may have been due to a num-
of things : either slight muscular fatigue, or else to the fact that
as the impression aroused the introspective and the esthetic con-
sciousnesses more and more, less and less nervous energy was
sent per impulse per unit of time into the finger. That it was not
due to imperfections in the machinery is clearly shown by the
fact that the ribbon was allowed to pass several inches before the
pointer was dropped upon it and the signal to begin was given.
A very pertinent question to be asked about all this work is, —
"What had the subject's general condition, mental and otherwise,
to do with the results of the experiment?" A careful record was
kept all during the second and third year as to how the subject
felt at the beginning of the experiment and the results showed
that the main effects of fatigue and other sub-normal states were
of several kinds: i. A less high degree of pleasurability can be
aroused in the state of fatigue; 2. The mean variation of the
tappings on fatigue days is less than on normal days, but 3, that
the subject did not reverse the results of the previous experiments
at all,' — those who showed a positive correlation showed it still,
and those who before had showed either a definite negative corre-
lation, or a scatter and miss correlation also continued to do so ;
the more the experiment develops, the more it seems that we
were getting motor correlations with respect to the vocal appara-
tus, rather than results which attached significance to the total
psycho-neural mechanism. But to return to the matter of fatigue
days, only one of the subjects, L., tended ever to nullify his
previous results, but then he also attempted to guess at his own
type of correlation, and this guess may have influenced the tap-
pings for that day.
Not every anticipation or conjecture with which this work
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 127
began has been verified by the experiments so far presented. But
that the first statement of the thesis was not so dismally at fault
is at once evidenced by the introspection on these large transmo-
grifications of English poetry ; the tonal elements of the poetic line
do seem indeed to have the power of arousing a mood congruous
to that of the original poem, even when torn from their positions
and their rhetorical anchorage, and recast into such form as is
shown in the above experiments. The subjects did not know at
the time what poems were being given them in this potpourric
manner ; they only knew it was some poem, and that they were to
introspect upon it ; but it was not a guessing contest in any sense
of the term, — all intimations that it was to be such were stifled
at once; and to the subjects must be given due credit for their
admirable interest in the experiment from start to finish, for in
such fragile matters as the moods of the esthetic consciousness,
any hostility or any lack of true scientific interest would have been
fatal to the purpose in hand.
4. THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL VALUE OF THE
POETIC SUM
The question of a tonal calculus seems to be the logical devel-
opment of the foregoing experimentation. It has been shown
that short vowels and explosive consonants are provocative of
more motor arousal than the long vowels and the liquids. Strictly
speaking, as has been indicated before, the term "long vowel" is
equivocal. Except, of course in vocal music, where the long notes
rightly function their enunciation. But if the question be asked :
can we say that this or that number of sounds will produce this
or that effect ? the answer cannot be given in the affirmative with-
out the following reservations : effects can be calculated, provided
the number and arrangement of the sounds be taken into con-
sideration. In the above experiments it .appeared that if a
number of explosive sounds began the line or the passage, then
the motor manifestations were intense, and also that such mani-
festations did not wear away as soon as the type of sound had
changed to some less intense one. Changes in the apperceptive
i28 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
consciousness did not either run parallel with the motor pattern
nor did they very often seem to be influenced by the finger as
much as by the page of print. Yet the introspective and motor
results were parallel in other ways, as has been mentioned so
frequently before.
Only so far as we had data from simple vowel and consonant
experiments, could a tonal calculus be made. And so, when
even in the simplest of the I-XII experiments, there were found
sounds upon which no previous experimentation had been done,
their values were not known in the same way as the values of
the simple sounds previously used, and no two lines of the I-XII
experiments could be found which had the same common parts
known and unknown, in respect to psychomotor value.
Much thought and time was given to this matter, and 'for a
while it looked as if we had arrived at a solution of the problem
involved. But it had to be given up, and for this reason: that
while in nearly all the cases tried, the psychomotor values of the
separate letter sounds as found in the ninety-six preliminary
experiments upon the single vowels and consonants showed in
summation to be equivalent to the psychomotor values of the first
three experiments performed upon each of the poets, and that as
more and more meaning came into the experiments the sum was
affected by some other element, — yet inasmuch as we did not have
enough tonal elements to make a full correlation, and inasmuch
also as the later poets experimented upon did not give favorable
results, presentation of data and pressing of proof is withheld
at this time. We had but four long vowels and no short ones,
and it is likely also that the average motor effect of the conso-
nants we obtained would have been greatly modified by further
experimentation with other vowels, both long and short. Hence
this problem of poetic sums remains for the time being unsolved ;
were this experimentation to be repeated, that problem would
stand uppermost in the attempts at correlation.
Only in the longer passages does there seem to be a trend
toward a tonal calculus. And here, the surprising thing is that
a very small number of explosive sounds in one passage over
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 129
those in another produced a motor difference greater than that
deducible from the single effects of the elements involved. A
very rich experimental field lies right here, and, with the method
and results of this experiment herewith presented, ripe and free
for exploitation.
Futhermore, with the tabulations of sound frequency before
him, one could build up by the method of experiments I-III such
experiments which would signify and also contain the tonal body
of any of the poets contained in it, and then, by comparing the
results thus obtained with those from large "ex poematis" pas-
sages see whether parallel effects were thus obtained. The tonal
pattern of poetry is quite more definite than hitherto suspected,
and a poet may be known by his overtones as well as by his sub-
ject-matter and stanza form.
Little need be said in conclusion other than what we have
given as results in preceding pages. Upholders of the tonal
theory of poetry may take a fastidious pride in some of the find-
ings of this experimentation, and recollect that Edmund Burke's
theory of poetry may again be referred to without apology.
Certainly it is not the intention of this paper to neglect the formal
element of the matter, even if the constancy of a rhythm form
was used for the purpose of neglecting the form in the final
account. It is not an impossible assumption that poetry as well
as other forms of art may possess in each of their leading fea-
tures, form and content, a sufficiency of emotional wealth to be
considered each alone as able to arouse the esthetic consciousness
to the full. The union of the two may add nothing but unity, —
and hence all such experimentation as the above is perhaps more
of a training in the direction of attention than it is a splitting
of the elements of art asunder. Nevertheless, this must be left
for the consideration of those who are better qualified to decide
it than the writer.
Our study is completed for the present. So far as we know,
no such work has ever been attempted previously ; let us hope that
future experimentation along the same line will profit by our mis-
130 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
takes and lead our results to something finer and more conclusive.
Eight years of work culminate in the results we have brought
forward, in which years eighteen thousand lines of poetry were
phonetically measured and tabulated, involving the enumeration
of nearly 540,000 sounds; the measurement of the records ob-
tained in the laboratory involved nearly 300,000 bits of data; the
computation of the mean, the mean variation and the range for all
the experiments and the making of rank lists brings the total
number of computations to more than a million, and with all this
labor, it might seem to some that far more should have been
found out concerning the psychophysics of poetry than we have
to offer in closing. But the introspective consciousness and the
motor, too, are not such things as can be coerced and cajoled,' —
all their laws are by no means sun clear, and to have found out
something definite is better than to have been given only shadowy
hints, promises, and false signs to advance.
There were in all fifteen persons who took part in this investi-
gation. One of these was an instructor in the Department of
Psychology. The rest were mostly graduate students in the Lab-
oratory. Five were women from Radcliffe College. All were
trained introspectors.
The following scheme shows what subjects took part in the
investigation and for how long time :
Yr. I ABC F L N T W Z Y
Yr. II A B C D F K L M P S
Yr. Ill B F K L M
Thus three continued through the whole period, and the some five
subjects assisted during the last two years, in which by far the
most important work was done.
The following account briefly indicates the chief characteristics
of the subjects:
A. Predominantly visual ; disliked the tragic and melancholy ;
closed his eyes whenever possible; nodded head synchronously
with the tapping; often read in a slightly mournful tone; it was
usually unpleasant for his own personality to be injected into
the imagery ; good sense of rhythm ; very constant and steady.
ELEMENTS OF SPEECH IN RELATION TO POETRY 131
B. Visual-motor type; enjoyed the tragic and melancholy as
much as the light romantic; acquainted with English poetry,
favored Byron, Keats and Arnold; he alone of all the subjects
gave much introspection of the sensations of the speech appara-
tus; gave much introspection; good sense of rhythm; steady
and constant.
C. Motor type ; rarely got satisfying imagery of any sort ; had
great difficulty to count the five iambics in the "la-mo" type of
experiment ; sense of rhythm varied much with the type of experi-
ment; introspection meagre; steady and constant.
D. Very visual, with highly colored images; artistically gifted
and fond of poetry ; enjoyed the bizarre as well as the sombre ;
rather volatile, but rebounded instantly from depressed states;
strong sense of rhythm.
F. Visual-motor; fond of poetry; good declaimer, and often
varied from a steady recitation of the material experimented
upon; articulation sensations often seemed to determine the
imagery; German: had some slight difficulty in pronouncing the
"th" and other sounds; strong sense of rhythm; constant.
K. Visual-auditory-motor; musical performer; esthetic; liked
the melancholy; voice usually of medium pitch but very low
intensity ; pitch constantly noticed ; feeling of hoarseness accom-
panied low pitches ; tapped very short strokes, often no more than
12 mm. in length; syncoped the tappings very frequently; good
sense of rhythm; constant.
L. Visual-motor; artistic, and fond of certain kinds of poetry,
e.g. the sound of Shelley's and the content of Arnold's ; introspec-
tion varied much, from bare feeling-tone to full auditory-visual-
motor content; very apt in describing vague content by fitting
analogy ; good sense of rhythm ; steady and constant.
M. Motor type ; practical, and impatient of most poetry ; often
given to intentional changes of extent of finger movement ; wanted
objective finger control (the most inconsistent subject as far as
any feeling-tone —motor-discharge correlation was concerned) ;
said: "I have a good sense of rhythm," which did not always
appear.
132 ROBERT CHENAULT GIVLER
N. Motor-visual ; philistinian toward most poetry ; frequently
interrupted the experiment with a Phillipic on the impracticability
of art; good introspector ; good sense of rhythm; fairly steady
and constant.
P. Motor type; musical; singer; enjoyed the less romantic
forms of poetry; meagre imagery; left-handed (the apparatus
was accommodated to him) ; tapped the longest strokes of any
one (140 mm.) with the smallest M. V. ; good sense of rhythm;
steady and constant.
S. Visual-motor; enjoyed poetry of all kinds; introspection
often by tactual analogies ; had difficulty with the language, being
a native of India; good sense of rhythm; fairly steady and
constant.
T. Predominantly visual; fond of all kinds of artistic work;
introspection clear, often chromatic; sense of rhythm well
marked ; steady and constant.
W. Visual; practical and little acquainted with or apprecia-
tive of poetry ; counting the five iambics often very difficult ; tap-
ping never become pleasantly automatic ; steady and constant.
Z. Visual-motor; enjoyed poetry and was somewhat gifted in
verse-making; lack of imagery in the introspection often dis-
appointing enough to change the whole feeling-tone; steady and
constant.
Y. Visual; acquainted with English poetry; introspection
rather meagre; strong likes and dislikes; good sense of rhythm;
steady and constant.
My thanks are due to both Professor Hugo Miinsterberg, di-
rector of the Harvard Psychological Laboratory, and to Dr.
Herbert Sydney Langfeld, Instructor in Psychology, for their
kind and continual interest in and criticism of this work. And
to the subjects who took part in the investigation much praise is
rightly bestowed for their perserverance and interest.
Ttl. XK PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW PUBLICATIONS , n
No. 3 Whole No. 83
THE
Psychological Monographs
EDITED BY
JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
HOWARD C. WARREN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY (Index)
JOHN B. WATSON, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (Review) and
SHEPHERD I. FRANZ, GOVT. HOSP. FOR INSANE (Bulletin)
Standardization of Tests for
Defective Children
By
CLARA SCHMITT, Ph.D.
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW COMPANY
PRINCETON, N. J.
AND LANCASTER, PA.
AGENTS: G. E. STECHERT & CO., LONDON (2 Star Yard, Carey St., W. C.);
LEIPZIG (Koenigstr., 37); PARIS (16 rue de Conde)
.111-
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For whatever is of value in this work the author is indebted to
many persons. It is not possible to mention them in a para-
graph. In a very special sense the author wishes to express
gratitude to the following :
The Juvenile Psychopathic Institute and the director of its
clinic, Dr. William Healy.
Mrs. Mary Chapin White, formerly psychologist of the
Juvenile Psychopathic Clinic, for help in giving some of the tests.
To the principal and teachers of the private school where the
Healy-Fernald tests were given. These teachers gave freely of
their time and enthusiastic encouragement. It is regretted that
the policy of the school regarding publicity prevents a more defin-
ite acknowledgment of this service.
To the principals and teachers of the public schools where data
was obtained.
To Dr. Charles H. Judd and Dr. Frank N. Freeman of the
University of Chicago for helpful and patient guidance as teach-
ers before this work was undertaken, and for suggestion and
criticism during its construction.
To the children who so cheerfully and trustfully did their best.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
I. Introduction i
II. Historical development of tests of mental measur-
ment in correlation with general intelligence 3
III. Binet-Simon tests 16
IV. Fallacies and inadequacies of the Binet-Simon series 52
V. Discussion of Binet-Simon tables 68
VI. Standardization and discussion of Healy-Fernald
tests 81
VII. Correlation of three tests with school grade 124
VIII. Individual reactions to Healy-Fernald tests 129
IX. Summary of Standardization of Healy-Fernald tests 133
X. School subjects as material for tests of mental ability 137
XI. Factors involved in the mental classification of clinic
cases 164
XII. Qualitative classification of tests. 177
XIII. Bibliography 180
INTRODUCTION
The following study was undertaken to provide data for the
standardization of the Healy-Fernald tests, described by the
authors in Psychological Monographs, Vol. XIII, No. 2. It is
offered because a standarization of these tests has been asked for
by various persons interested in the development of clinical
psychology. It is hoped that the study will also suggest some
further clinical uses of the Binet-Simon series. The purpose of
standardization is to show the reactions of a socially homogeneous
group of individuals considered socially and pedogogically
normal, classified according to certain principles discussed below.
The psychological considerations which underlie the author's
classified evaluation of these tests has been found of value in
clinics where the mentally defective must be distinguished from
the mentally normal, and classified for the purposes of instruc-
tion in the public school and for placing in public institutions.
It is hoped that the formulation of the principles which have led to
such classifications may prove to be suggestive to those seeking
further light on the process of mental diagnosis.
The study is offered, however, with a due appreciation of its
incompleteness. It is desirable that a hundred or more children
of each age and grade of the school should be given the tests dis-
cussed in the following pages, rather than the twenty which it
was possible to get. But, though the numbers are small, they are
sufficient to show clearly marked tendencies to specific types of
reaction for the various grades and ages tested.
This work was done by the author while psychologist to the
Juvenile Psychopathic Institute. This organization maintains a
clinic at the Juvenile Court of Chicago. Wherever in this work
"the clinic" is mentioned it is this clinic to which reference is
made.
Much that is said in this study concerning mental tests in gen-
2 CLARA SCHMITT
eral and concerning many of the individual tests is the result of a
body of experience gained in the clinic just mentioned and a
further year's experience in the clinic of the Department of Child
Study of the Board of Education of Chicago. Much of this
experience is not amenable to statistical classification. The par-
ticular bit of work which is here used for standardization of the
Healy-Fernald tests is especially suitable for this purpose because
it is gained from a group of socially homogeneous subjects.
The work of the Juvenile Court clinic is entirely with the juven-
ile delinquent; and except for this one characteristic that group
of cases is not homogeneous. The work in the Department of
Child Study is with children who for some reason are reacting
unsatisfactorily to the school situation. This group of subjects
is far from homogeneous mentally, physically and socially.
Since one of the reasons for atypical social response may be
mental defectiveness, the reaction of what has come to be ac-
cepted by the users of these tests as mentally defective response
has been compared with the mentally normal for each test. The
factors which enter into consideration in classifying as mentally
defective are discussed on page 164.
Subjects. — The children who served as subjects for the tests
comprised the kindergarten and first six grades of a private
school in Chicago. These children composed as perfectly homo-
geneous a group as it is probably possible to find in a school.
They were the children of people of the professional class mainly.
A few were children of successful business men who sought the
best obtainable type of education for their children. The school
was founded for the purpose of putting into application the broad-
est and best conceptions of educational theory and practice.
So far as heredity in its relation to social class is concerned
these children were equally endowed. Home environment with
reference to educational endowment and stimulus was uniform
as nearly as such a matter may be measured. One may assume
that the children who belonged to the same grade had had the
some educational regime in home and school.
II
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF TESTS OF MENTAL
MEASUREMENT IN CORRELATION WITH
GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
Psychologists have for some twenty years been concerned
with finding a measure of general intelligence. Work with dif-
ferent types of tests under more or less rigorously controlled
laboratory conditions has been carried on with children of dif-
ferent classes and with college students, graded in one way or an-
other according to degrees of general intelligence. Within the
last ten years there has arisen the need of application of the work
of the laboratory psychologist to the practical work of clinics
for investigation of socially atypical individuals. In the United
States and other countries the criminal, the mentally defective, the
backward school child and the supernormal child are being inves-
tigated with greater thoroughness than ever before. To meet
this need there have been devised and invented tests for measur-
ing mental ability of a type quite different from the tests devised
by the early laboratory psychologists who worked at the prob-
lem. A short historical survey will serve to characterize the
two groups of practical tests discussed in this article.
Only a part of the great mass of literature on tests of general
intelligence is outlined in the following summary, namely, that
part which endeavors to establish a measure for the general
intelligence of children.
In 1897 the American Psychological Association (i) received
the report of a committee appointed at its previous meeting to
investigate the subject of physical and mental tests. This com-
mittee agreed upon and reported a series of tests which it recom-
mended be tried on college students in the various psychological
laboratories of the country. The physical and mental tests recom-
mended were classified as follows:
4 CLARA SCHM1TT
Preliminary Data. — Date of birth; birthplace; birthplace of
father, birthplace of mother; occupation, including class in col-
lege ; occupation of father ; any measure previously made. Color
of eyes; color of hair; right or left handed. Mother's maiden
name; number of brothers; sisters; order of birth; age of parents
at birth; birthplace and occupation of grandparents. Assymetry
of body; color of eyes, hair, complexion; degeneracy or other
stigma of head, eyes-, ears, mouth, teeth, hands, feet, posture; gait;
manners; coordination and speech; indications of intellectual,
emotional and moral characteristics.
Physical Measurements. — Height, weight, and size of head.
Breathing capacity. Height sitting.
Keenness of vision
Color vision
Keenness of hearing
Perception of pitch
Fineness of touch
Sensitiveness to pain
Perception of weight or force of movement
Dynamometer pressure of right and left hand
Rate of movement
Fatigue
Will power
Voluntary attention
Right and left hand movement
Rapidity of movement. — Taps on telegraph, short marks, tril-
ling with two fingers or five.
Accuracy of aim
Reaction time for sound
Reaction time with choice. — Card sorting
Rate and discrimination of movement. — Marking out 100 a's
in 500 letters, one of a number of geometrical figures, or colors,
or pictures, or objects.
Quickness of distinction and movement. — Rate at which cards
are sorted, combine with reaction, with choice, with effects of
practice.
Perception of size. — Draw a line equal to a model 5 cm. in
length, bisect it, erect a perpendicular of the same length, and
bisect the right hand angle.
Perception of time. — The accuracy with which a standard time
can be reproduced.
Memory. — The accuracy with which eight numerals heard once
can be reproduced, and the accuracy with which a line drawn by
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 5
the observer at the beginning of the hour can be reproduced at
the end of the hour ; line to be identified, not drawn ; ten numer-
als ; nine numerals. A combined test of memory, association and
finding time as described in the catalogue of the Columbian Ex-
position, accuracy of observation and recollection as proposed
by Cattell and Bolton.
Memory type. — Variation in the use of ten numerals, compare
results for indication of memory type and kind of imagery
preferred.
Apperception test of Ebbinghaus
Imagery
Much, and more than was here recommended, of this work was
done in the next few years, and the attempt was made to corre-
late the results with other evidences of general intelligence.
Before this time, however, some very important pieces of work
had been done. One of these was the work of Gilbert (2) in
1894. Gilbert correlated weight, height, lung capacity, simple
reaction time, reaction time with discrimination and choice, and
time memory with mental ability. In determining general mental
ability the teacher's judgment was relied upon. Each teacher
classified her pupils as bright, average and dull. Approximately
100 children of each age group from six to seventeen were
measured.
Porter (3), in 1893, correlated the height and weight of 33,500
school children with age and grade.
Later Smedley (4), in 1900, correlated height, standing and
sitting; weight; ergograph and dynamometer records, and lung
capacity with age and school standing of children between the
ages of eight and eighteen inclusive.
West (5) correlated physical development and intellectual abil-
ity of Toronto school children. His method of grouping for in-
tellectual ability was according to the teacher's estimate of the
children as good, average, and poor.
The investigations of the men mentioned and others gave rise
to three different conclusions with regard to the relation of
physical development and mental ability. Porter, Smedley and
some others found a positive correlation between physical develop-
ment and mental ability of which success in school life was taken
6 CLARA SCHMITT
as the measure. Gilbert found no correlation and West found a
negative correlation. These differences were probably due to
different arrangement of data and to different methods of group-
ing grades of intellectual ability. Gilbert did not separate the
sexes in his tables and did not state the proportions of his dull
and bright groups. Gilbert and West classified according to the
teacher's judgment; Porter and Smedley according to school
grade with reference to age. A severe criticism of the method
of classification according to teacher's judgment may be quoted
from West's account of his experience with it :
"It soon became apparent to me that any such classification of
children's mental ability would be very greatly influenced by the
mental caliber of the teacher making the classification. . . .
There were no poor scholars. The teachers were perfectly willing
to classify the scholars as of good and average intelligence but
any intimation of poor or stupid scholars was taken as a personal
reflection upon the teacher of the class in question. . . . The
poor students were no more than a mere handful."
The method of grouping according to success in school life,
the method of Porter and Smedley, grades all children of the
same age according to the same standard. Though some allow-
ance must be made for a small group compelled by individual cir-
cumstances to residence in grades below that of which the mental
ability of each individual might otherwise permit.
In the reaction time tests Gilbert thought to have found
a correlation with intelligence. He says, "The curves for reaction
time gave the most positive results showing that the brighter the
child the more quickly he is able to act. In discrimination
the same relation is true but to a less degree. . . . Of time
memory it may be said in general that the brighter the child the
more accurate his sense of time." An examination of Gilbert's
tables, however, fails to support so optimistic a view of the exist-
ing correlation. At some ages the dull class is superior to the
bright class, and the differences between the three classes meas-
ured are everywhere slight.
Reaction time tests of various kinds were tried out by various
investigators in the following years. The results of this work
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 7
were reviewed by Whipple (6) in 1904. He distinguished be-
tween two kinds of reaction time experiment, the laboratory type,
and the anthropometric type which includes card sorting and sim-
ilar tests. The former consists of work done under rigid labora-
tory conditions upon subjects competent to make introspective
analyses. The latter consists of experiments made on children or
others without introspective analyses and without practice in di-
reaction of attention. He pointed out that because different ex-
perimenters obtained widely varying results' under the same
conditions, attention came to be directed to the different types of
individuals, and the reaction time experiment came to be an ex-
periment in reaction consciousness. The anthropometric type of
experiment he criticised, because the conditions under which the
data were supplied, were so loosely controlled that one could
not be sure what was measured. He concludes that any reaction
time is conditioned upon a large number of independent factors
and when these are eliminated or controlled in the laboratory "we
have left no residuum of individual variation that can be turned
to account in estimating the observer's general intelligence or
mental ability."
In 1901 Wissler (7) published the results of a long series of
tests and anthropometrical measurements made under the direc-
tion of Cattell upon students of Columbia University for a period
of seven years. The results of these tests were correlated with
class standing. The general conclusions were that the laboratory
mental tests show little correlation in the case of college students ,-
that the physical tests show a general tendency to correlate with
themselves but only to a very slight degree with mental tests;
that the markings of students in college classes correlate with
themselves to a considerable degree but not with the tests made
in the laboratory.
Griffing (8), 1895, and others investigated the subject of at-
tention with reference to general intelligence. In general some
form of the tachistoscope was used. Griffing's conclusions rep-
resent the general concensus of opinion among these investigators.
He said, "I found that those rated 'A' for mental capacity by the
teachers on an A B C basis, had somewhat higher averages than
8 CLARA SCHMITT
the others. . . . There are, however, marked exceptions. . . . Those
marked 'A' by their teachers for attention in class also excelled
the others, but here also I found decided exceptions. Many
pupils must have, therefore, good powers of attention, even when
they show no evidence of them to their teachers."
In 1904 Spearman (9) made a critical analysis of the methods
of work in the determination of correlations of various tests with
general intelligence. With a more exact mathematical formula
for the calculation of correlations and by the use of more factors
for the determination of general intelligence he found large corre-
lations in tests of discrimination of grays, and weight and pitch,
with general intelligence.
In 1909 Burt (10) correlated the general intelligence of
two sets of English schoolboys with tests of discrimination of two
points upon the skin, of lifted weights, of pitch, and of length
of lines. To these he added two motor tests, tapping and card
dealing; two sensori-motor tests, card sorting and alphabet find-
ing; tests of immediate memory of concrete words, abstract
words and nonsense syllables; the tracing of a geometrical pat-
tern seen in a mirror, a test of the power to acquire new co-
ordinations; the reproduction from memory of a pattern of
spots presented by the tachistoscope upon squared paper; and a
test of voluntary attention, which consisted of pricking an
irregular line of dots passing rapidly before the subject.
Great care was exercised by Burt, in accordance with the
recommendations of Spearman, in the mathematical work of
correlating the test findings with general intelligence. The latter
was estimated by the headmasters of the schools from which the
reagents came. The conclusions at which Burt arrived are as
follows :
Of the simple sensory tests, tactile, weight, pitch, and length
of line discrimination, he says, "There appears to be no general
connection between intelligence and capacity to discriminate
weights; any connections between intelligence and tactile dis-
crimination, if it exists, is of the slightest; there is considerable
connection between intelligence and capacity to discriminate
undoubted general connection between intelligence and visual
discrimination of lengths. . . . '
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 9
Of the motor tests, tapping and card dealing he says : "Motor
tests seem to have a higher correlation with intelligence than
sensory tests. But where rapidity is due to frequent practice. . .
the correlations with intelligence and other tests are reduced,
abolished, or inverted. Thus so far as motor rapidity is the func-
tion of temporary 'facilitation' of the paths of neural discharge
it appears also to be a function of intelligence, while so far as it is
a function of permanent 'canalisation' of those paths it is but
slightly or inversely related to intelligence." This latter con-
clusion was the result of disturbance of correlational results
among a group of practiced card players.
Of the two sensori-motor tests, one for the sorting of cards
according to color, the other for selecting a complete alphabet
from a mixture of two alphabets, Burt says : "Depending as they
do for their performance upon processes of a more complex
nature and a higher mental level, tests combining perception
with motor reaction seem to involve the intelligence to a still
higher degree than relatively simple sensory or motor tests. Of
the two above discussed the alphabet seems to be, in practice, far
the more efficient."
Immediate memory was tested by the use of sets of words of
abstract significance, of concrete significance, and nonsense
syllables. The correlation with general intelligence found by
Burt between concrete memory, abstract memory, and nonsense
memory was .58, .48, .43 respectively for one group of boys and
.84, .78, .75 for another group. "Thus the memory for abstract
words does not show a higher, but a lower correlation, with intel-
ligence. . . . The introduction of difficult vocables, whether ab-
stract nouns or meaningless syllables, proves in both groups to
be on the whole a distracting element."
In the mirror test, a pattern is traced which, with the hand
doing the work, is seen only in a mirror. This tests the subject's
ability to readjust certain already learned eye and hand coordina-
tions to a changed situation. Burt found many difficulties in
the mechanical operation of this test as well as in the method of
measuring results. In his judgment it was a test which with
further perfection would be of great practical value. He, how-
io CLARA SCHMITT
ever, sums up the factors which would complicate and make
uncertain the results of this test in practice when he accounts for
the divergence between his two groups of the correlational fig-
ures, .67 and .54. "The divergence between the two schools is
largely due to the fact that four of the Preparatory schoolboys
had had previous practice at an analogous task in the form of a
not very common parlor pastime. Only one of the thirty Elemen-
tary boys had done any similar exercise before. The divergence
might also be in part attributed to a greater familiarity with
the use of the mirror among boys of a higher class as compared
with boys of a lower status. A similar factor apparently operated
when the test was applied to children of the opposite sex, though
subsequent application to very young children, and to adults,
have led me to wonder whether we are not dealing with one of
the uninvestigated innate differences between the sexes."
The spot pattern test was given in a dark room by means of a
tachistoscope. The pattern was shown as many times as it was
necessary for the subject to learn to reproduce it correctly. The
difficulties in the use of the tachistoscope in practical work are
indicated when he says, "The tachistoscope was found to require
a larger amount of experience on the part of both subjects and
operators, than any of the other tests, except perhaps those in-
volving sensory discrimination. . . . The first series of all had to
be rejected as worthless, owing partly to the irrelevant excite-
ment aroused in the subjects by the 'electrical flash' as the boys
named it. ... At this school we were not able to obtain the
complete darkness and silence procured at the other in our ex-
temporised dark room, and consequently the reliability coefficient
and the raw correlations with intelligence are not so high." The
coefficient obtained was .76 and .75 for the two groups.
Burt's test of sustained attention consisted of pricking dots
irregularly arranged upon a strip of paper which passed before
the subject. The number of dots per minute which the student
marked constituted a measure of his ability. The correlation for
this test with general intelligence was found to be .75 and .96
for the two groups of boys.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 11
Of the practical significance of these tests Burt says : "Of the
twelve tests six furnish coefficients below .50 and six above .50.
The former six — the simple sensory and motor tests — are thus
of little use in the empirical diagnosis of intelligence. Among
the latter six, no single test, at any rate in its present form, can
be claimed as a self-sufficient instrument for measuring and
detecting ability in individuals. But they indicate the direction
in which such a test may hopefully be sought. . . . McDougall's
dotting machine seems to be the most scientific. Where the
external conditions could be kept most uniform, . . . both the
amalgamated and the average raw coefficients reached .84. Such
uniformity is difficult in more extensive work, and the ensuing
variety in attention and fatigue affect the performances with this
test. Moreover, its figures are less discriminative than either of
the other three. By increasing the number of spots in the
pattern the tachistoscope test may be made to differentiate with
almost any degree of minuteness. . . . It is a slow test, however,
and without repetition scarcely reliable. And it calls for some
experience both on the part of the boys to grasp the nature of
the task, and on the part of the experimenter to manipulate
the apparatus with regularity. . . . The mirror test can be pro-
cured with but little trouble and expense, and needs no trained
superintendent. It, too, requires further improvements, espe-
cially in procedure and calculations, to eliminate the influence of
possible previous practice, and to elicit more completely the sig-
nificance of the figures observed. If called upon to recommend
a simple test for immediate use upon untrained subjects, I should
be inclined to advocate the alphabet test as perhaps the simplest
and most satisfactory test of all."
The work of Burt has been so fully recorded because it is the
broadest and most careful attempt to correlate the results of tests
with general intelligence. In this work many considerations were
taken into account in constructing a scale of general intelligence
of the subjects. Great care was taken in the management of
the tests themselves and! the mathematical correlations were
worked out with accuracy. The conclusions drawn of the vari-
12 CLARA SCHMITT
cms tests are valuable from the standpoint of an interpretation
of intelligence. For various reasons, however, the results can
not be immediately applied to clinical work. The reasons may
be grouped under five heads.
The first and most important is the measurement of the tests
against time. It is the experience of the writer and others
in the work of children's clinics that time within the limits of
rigid laboratory procedure can not be taken as the measure of
the subject's ability with a particular test. This is because of
the peculiar demands of such a clinic. One wishes the child
to be unaffected by any feelings of fear or anxiety or strange-
ness with the situation when he comes up for examination. As
far as possible he should not know that he is being examined.
He, therefore, should not be subjected to the anxious desire
to make good time in any thing he is doing. There are few
tests which can at all lend themselves to such measurement,
since in any test which can be useful as a measure of intelligence
or which can show the child's intelligence functioning, there
are involved perceptual or other types of discrimination which
may be interfered with if the child anxiously desires to make
a good time record. This interference with thought processes
may cause the final result to be a misleading and perhaps unfair
judgment of his general intelligence. Only such discriminations
as are habitual with him and therefore make little demand upon
attention can be measured against time. Under such circum-
stances one does not know what is being measured.
The second reason for the impracticability of Burt's work is
the fact that with tests which correlate most highly with gen-
eral intelligence, the use of apparatus is necessary. Burt, him-
self, showed how the tachistoscope mechanism interfered with
attention to the object of the test itself. In much larger meas-
ure would such a piece of apparatus be a stumbling block in
. a clinic where defective individuals are examined. As was
remarked above, one wishes the child to be unaffected by any
feelings of fear or strangeness with the new and usually strange
situation into which he is thrust when he comes to a psychological
clinic for examination. A piece of strange apparatus will so
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 13
fill his mind with fear or speculation as to its object and its
affect upon himself, that he may not act normally. The fact
also that much practice is needed on the part of the subject
to use a piece of apparatus must put it out of consideration
for the practical clinician.
The third reason for discarding some of these tests is that
previous practice may vitiate results. What Burt has said
with regard to the mirror test and card dealing test has already
been quoted. No tests except those on reading, arithmetic or
other subjects of cultural value can be used in a practical clinic
which in any way may have been the subject of practice on
the part of the child, and these only if the examiner knows the
extent of the child's experience with them.
The fourth point of error in applying the work of Burt,
and all other works of its type, to the examination of atypical
children is that it does not take into account the child's motive
for action. In child life there are in general two motives for
voluntary activity. One of these is the play motive, in which
the child voluntarily seeks the end to be attained. The other is
the social motive of pleasing associates, who may demand ends
which he would not voluntarily seek to attain. In a psyscho-
logical laboratory the motives of the adult subject and the
observer are the same, — the production of scientific data. In
such case the subject lends himself willingly to any conditions
imposed. Knowing the end of the experiment he is able to
direct attention to the attainment of that end and away from
the distracting elements of unusual conditions. It is otherwise
with the child. With him the motive most conducive to natural
reaction, uncomplicated by disturbing emotions, is the play
motive.
The fifth reason for the lack of applicability of this type
of work to a practical clinic is that it has been done with
subjects of so high a type of mentality that the results are of
little value in measuring low types. A mathematical statement
of the correlations of a test to the general ability of such
subjects as form the reagents for experiments under laboratory
conditions can have little significance in a clinic for defective
I4 CLARA SCHMITT
or abnormal individuals. The subjects for laboratory experi-
ments are in general of a high type of intelligence. Among
Burt's subjects there was only one defective child. In a clinic
no child typical of the average in the social situation in which
he finds himself, ever comes up for examination. Necessarily
in some realm of social, mental or physical functioning, the
child to be examined is abnormal or he would not be brought
for examination.
A part of Burt's work, however, can be of greater value
for clinic purposes than his correlations led him to believe.
Such simple sensori-motor tests as card sorting, or as Whipple
designated them, the anthropometrical reaction tests, have been
found by him and other laboratory experimenters to correlate
little with general intelligence. The reason for this is that
even with the least intelligent subjects these tests fall well
within the limit of their intelligence, and, therefore, can not
form a measure of the mental ability of those particular sub-
jects. With many subjects of the practical clinic, however,
such simple tests may be of great value. If it is found that
the child can do nothing more complex than sort cards according
to color or geometrical form, or whatever type of discrimination
is employed, this, in part at least, establishes a measure of his
mental ability. If it is found that he can not do even these
tests then others of a simpler nature still must be used as a
measure.
Viewed from the standpoint of such use, the simple "anthro-
pometrical reaction" tests are of great value as measures of
certain elements of general intelligence. For use in a practical
clinic any test may serve as a measure, in whole or in part, if
it really does mark off a range of intellectual activity. However,
no test can be of such general use as Burt thought possible of
the alphabet sorting test which he considered most valuable as
a test of mental measurement. The highly intelligent child
can accomplish tests of far greater complexity; the low grade
child may be unable to make such fine discriminations. This
test, therefore can not serve as a measure of these two grades
of mental ability.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 15
To sum up, the clinic must discard time for the most part
as an important factor in the measurement of results. This
point is discussed further below in connection with certain tests.
Some other measure, preferably a qualitative one, must be sub-
stituted for this quantitative one. The clinic must discard
rigorous laboratory conditions and adjust its tests to conditions
more in conformity with those of everyday life. It must dis-
card such apparatus as requires practice on the part of the
subject, or as is not directly connected with the object of the
test.
It was such considerations as the foregoing which led Binet
and Simon in 1904 to compile the series of tests which have
since been rearranged and modified into the series of 1911 (n).
In 1904 it was required that the mentally defective children in
the public schools of Paris be segregated after individual ex-
amination. Binet, who had contributed in large measure through
his laboratory experiments to the psychology of mental tests
and mental measurement, undertook to arrange a series of
tests capable of practical application to young children. These
tests eliminated to a large extent, the quantitative measurement
of results and substituted a qualitative measure. The require-
ment of laboratory conditions was discarded in favor of a situa-
tion more in accord with the normal every day life of the child.
Ill
THE BINET-SIMON TESTS
This series of tests marks the real beginning of the applica-
tion of psychological tests to the practical work of discriminating
defectives from normal human beings. Binet revised his first
scale in 1908. In this form it was used largely by many ex-
perimenters in Europe and America. Later, in 1911, taking
account of the criticism arising from these experiences with
his scale, Binet again made a revision. Several experimenters
have added materially to our knowledge of the usefulness of
this series of tests under the conditions of practical work.
Bobertag (12) has made a thorough analysis of the psychologi-
cal significance of each test and applied the series to a group
of German children. Goddard (13) applied it to four hundred
feeble-minded children of the Vineland School for the feeble-
minded, and to two thousand public school children. Kuhlman
(14) used the tests in the institution for the feeble-minded at
Faribault, Minnesota. Terman and Childs (15) applied the
tests to a large group of normal children in California and sug-
gested certain revisions and additions to them.
In the following discussion it is hoped to show something
of the psychological significance of the individual tests of this
series and its value in clinical work. Only so much of the
description of each test and its application is given as will
indicate the nature of the test. In some cases a more elaborate
statement will be given where the author suggests a wider use
of certain tests than that recommended by Binet. The dis-
cussion begins with the tests for five years because the writer's
clinical experience with children under five years of age has
been small.
CHILDREN OF FIVE YEARS
I. Compare two weights* — Four boxes in sets of two are
used. They are the same in appearance and volume and weigh
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 17
respectively, three grams and twelve grams; six grams and
fifteen grams. The first two are placed on the table before the
child and he is asked to lift them both and hand to the ex-
perimenter the one which is the heavier. This tests the child's
ability to compare two sensations and form a judgment concern-
ing them. The test is concerned with the ability of the subject
to make such comparison and not at all with the keenness of
his discrimination of differences of weight. The subject must
also exhibit ability to interpret and classify his sensations in
language. In the tenth year when weights are arranged in serial
order the later test deals more with sensory discrimination.
Bobertag points out the interesting significance of correspond-
ence of this psychological procedure with the highest intellectual
accomplishments in science and practical life. A quantity of
sensations are presented to the individual under normal life
conditions, and these are arranged in certain classifications of
different kinds. In this way order is established in the mental
life. To be able to isolate in consciousness one type of sensa-
tion from all others and to arrange its variations in a serial
order from little to great is the first necessity of conscious
intellectual life.
Defective children will hand to ' the experimenter the one
which happens to be the most convenient to pick up, or will
do nothing at all because of lack of comprehension of the
problem.
II. Copies a square. — To pass this test the subject must com-
mand three abilities. First, the comprehension of the square
as such, a perceptual discrimination. The same type of dis-
crimination is tested with the Seguin form board and sorting
cards. Second, the muscular control necessary to make lines
of equal length or approximately so; and third, the ability to
cooperate the two foregoing processes for the production of
the final result. If the test is not passed it may mean that the
child has not a comprehension of the distinguishing character-
istics of the model before him, or it may mean that he has not
* The descriptions of tests follow the translation by Town." The Binet
quotations are from the same source.
i8 CLARA SCHMITT
the motor control which will enable him to draw a model which
he recognizes, or he has not made the requisite mental coopera-
tion. Binet directs that the child be required to copy the square
with ink, not pencil. This direction would indicate that the
test was intended to be one of motor control as well as one of
intellectual comprehension, since the use of the pen adds a
motor difficulty.
The writer has seen defective children who were able to
distinguish a square from a circle, or some other form, as was
shown in the card sorting test in which cards were sorted ac-
cording to the geometrical forms upon them; but were unable
to initiate the process of step three sufficiently well to draw a
recognizable copy of the model. Their copy was a mere scribble.
There also come to the clinic children suffering from nervous
derangements, who cannot control the hands sufficiently to draw
a straight or approximately straight line, or draw one of the
length desired, and who therefore also fail to make right angles ;
but who, it seems evident from other tests which they pass,
and especially from the dissatisfaction which they show with
the result of their efforts with this one possess the two other
abilities necessary.
III. Repeat a sentence of ten syllables. — Binet says of
this test, "After the comprehension of words, the next step in the
development of language is not, as one might think, the verbal
expression of thought and the naming of desired objects, but
a repetition of words heard. It is easier, approximately, to
echo a word than to use it independently, to pass from an
idea to a word." In giving this test one says to the child, "I
shall now say something to which you must listen carefully
and then say it just exactly as I do." Binet permits no error
whatever in the reproduction of the sentences. The series of
sentences given by Binet are :
I am cold and hungry.
My name is Gaston. Oh! the naughty dog.
Let us go for a long walk. Give me the pretty little bonnet.
Bobertag uses the following list:
I am a good child.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS ^
I have a pretty dog.
I sit upon a chair.
My brother has gone away.
I will go to visit my father tomorrow.
I have bought myself a new suit..
We have not yet done our school work.
Now we will go together to take a walk.
I have said to my brother that he should visit me.
When we have done our work then we may play.
Bobertag grades these from 6 to 16 syllables. The English
translation makes the number of syllables in some cases slightly
different. In such sentences as Bobertag's the writer finds a
certain advantage over those of Binet. With the Binet set one
necessarily drops the voice and pauses at the end of the short
sentences, which constitute the set of ten syllables or more,
and the child, on the qui vive to reproduce immediately, begins
to do so as soon as he hears the drop of the voice, or the pause,
not realizing that the set is not yet finished. There is probably
a difference in the memory process of the two types of sentences.
Binet assumes that the child does not attend to the idea but only
to the words and reproduces them. The Binet sets contain more
than one idea. That the process of remembering the sentence
which is used for the expression of one idea, such as those of
Bobertag, is easier than that of remembering a sentence of the
same number of syllables which expresses two or more ideas
is indicated by the fact that Binet found the five-year old
child generally able to remember no more than a sentence of ten
syllables, but Bobertag found that sentences of sixteen syllables
were not too difficult.
IV. Counts four pennies. — This test shows whether or
not the child has learned this series of four terms and has
related the terms of the series to four like objects. Children
may learn the counting series without relating it to anything;
that is, without ever counting anything. General observation
shows this to be the case with young children. A child of
four, who could count to five as a mere word series, was observed
20 CLARA SCHMITT
by the writer to make for himself the discovery that he could
relate this series to five objects; upon the first occasion his five
toes. To count something, then, is a step in advance of merely
counting. Defective young children in the schools relate the
counting series imperfectly, or not at all, to the objects before
them.
Some defective children will relate the counting series per-
fectly to a series of objects; that is, they count correctly a
row of objects but have no appreciation of the number concept
involved. If, for instance, after the child has counted a series
of four objects, he is asked, "How many are there?" the answer
may be, "ten." If a row of objects, say two or three is placed
before him, and he is asked to tell how many are there he wi1!
again count correctly as a series and relate the series correctly
to the objects before him and answer wildly, "seven" or "nine."
The normal child of this age is able not only to count cor-
rectly, but also to understand that his counting numbers. He
does not make so erratic an answer as has been indicated of
the defective child. Binet and his followers have made this
test rather a vague one by insisting that the child be asked to
count four pennies and by pointing out that it is necessary for
him to count some such series of objects which are of interest
to him. The writer finds that if the child can count at all
he can and is willing to count anything. The writer generally
uses a row of small circles upon a sheet of paper. The child
always counts these as willingly as he would count pennies, or
other objects.
V. Game of patience with two pieces. — For this test
an oblong card is cut along the diagonal, making two triangular
pieces. An uncut card is placed on the table at the same time
as the pieces of the cut card and the child is told that a card
like the one before him was cut in two and that he may arrange
the pieces as before it was cut. This tests his ability to con-
struct from a given bit of material a product to correspond
to a given model. Failure to do this is significant of the child's
lack of constructive ability to the extent that the complexity
of this work permits it to be measured.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 21
Binet says of this test, "After the operation is analyzed, it
is found to consist of the following elements : i . To keep in
mind the end to be attained, that is to say, the figure to be
formed; it is necessary to comprehend this end, it is necessary
also to think about it, not to lose sight of it. 2. To try dif-
ferent combinations, under the influence of this directing idea,
which often guides the efforts of the child though he be un-
conscious of the fact. 3. To judge the formed combination,
compare it with the model, and decide whether it is the correct
one."
In the writer's opinion the cut pieces should be laid with the
two long sides of the original rectangle parallel with each other,
as in figure a or figure b. This compels the child to move one
piece about in such a way that his getting the pieces in the.
right position immediately would not be the result of accident.
To place the pieces as in figure c would permit him with one
movement to get them in the right position and since this is
almost the only movement which it is possible for him to make
with them the final result might be merely accidental.
CHILDREN OF Six YEARS
I. Distinguishes between morning and evening. — The
question is asked, "Is it morning or afternoon now?" This
tests the child's comprehension of this simple measure of time.
The writer always asks, in addition, after the child's answer,
"How do you know it is." The answer to this question always
indicates the event of the day which the child has set up as
his means of measuring time. He will say, "Because I have
just had my breakfast," or "my lunch," or some event of the
school day, such as "We had our reading." Many children,
who answer the question wrong, will, however, answer properly
such questions as, "Do you have breakfast in the morning or
in the afternoon?" "Do you have supper in the afternoon or
in the morning?" "Do you go to school in the morning or in
the afternoon?", and so on. This further precautionary ques-
tioning shows whether or not the child has set up any type of
time measure, though he may have failed to take notice of the
22 CLARA SCHMITT
particular event of the day at the time of his examination, which
divides morning and afternoon for him.
Binet says of this test — "One expects, we, ourselves, expected
more brilliant results. We would have judged that children
could distinguish between morning and afternoon long before
the age of six. It is a distinction which appears so easy. Think
of the fact that six-year old children are the oldest in the
'maternelle' schools. Recall that the program of these schools
provide for the teaching of history and geography; 'the prin-
cipal irregularities of the earth's surface, brief biographies from
natural history,' read the rules of the schools 'maternelle' of
the department of the Seine. Is it not rather ridiculous to
talk about natural history to children who cannot yet distinguish
between morning and evening."
Bobertag found that of 55 six-year old children 45 per cent
answered the question correctly; of 126 seven-year old children
69 per cent answered the question correctly.
II. Defines in terms of use.< — The child is asked successively
"What is a fork? What is a table? What is a chair? What
is a horse? What is a mama?" This tests the child's ability
to abstract and put in language form certain characteristic
qualities of familiar objects.
Binet finds that up to nine years of age the majority of chil-
dren define these objects in terms of use only; of a fork, "It
is to eat with"; of a table, "To eat on and to put things on";
of a chair, "To sit on"; of a mama, "She takes care of the
children." After nine years of age the definitions are in terms
superior to use. Of a fork, "It is an object used for eating";
of a horse, "It is an animal"; of a mama, "She is the mother
of a child," etc. Other definitions superior to use are those
which describe, such as "A fork has four prongs and a handle,
it is made of silver," etc. Very young children will answer with
silence or, "A fork is a fork."
Bobertag points out that many children, who are intelligent
and who are not loath to take the trouble to think, remain
silent or say, "I do not know." Certainly these children know
what a fork is as well as the others who make some kind of
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 23
answer, and neither are they less experienced in the use of
language. They make the problem a very difficult one for
themselves and are in a state of mind similar to that of the
adult if one suddenly asks him, "What is a hole?"; or what he
understands by the term state or truth. That this is the con-
dition of the minds of some children is shown by the fact that
they are able to show a greater intelligence concerning the dis-
tinguishing characteristics of the articles for which a definition
is asked if in the beginning one guides their thought in some
direction. Such guidance may take the form: — 'A fork is
to— ?", or "A fork is of— ?", or "A fork appears
how — ?". Children in their endeavor to find a good answer
will sometimes whisper quietly to themselves "It is a — "
Then they give up the problem and venture, "I do not know."
The writer has found many normal children who must be
guided into an answer because they do not see the reason for
asking, what to them, seems so simple a question. They have
just the attitude of the adult when the latter is suddenly asked,
"What is a fork?" So many possibilities for answer crowd
into the mind and, not knowing for what purpose the question
was asked, they stare and answer nothing. In the school in
which these tests were given, the children of the second and
third grades had studied and read of the customs of foreign
people. It was found expedient to guide the child in this way :
"You know in Japan they do not have forks. If you were
there someone might ask you — What is a fork? What would
you tell him?"
Bobertag maintains further that one is not justified in sub-
ordinating the use definition to other types of definitions of the
object. He asks, "Is it not much more important that one
should know of the fork that it is to eat with than that it is
of iron, or pointed, or has a steel handle and two sharp points ?"
The use of the fork for eating is, he says, doubtless its most
important characteristic. The others stand only in the relation
of further information concerning the thing defined. It is
probable that the tendency to add further definition to that of
use is due, he thinks, to certain methods of school instruction.
CLARA SCHM1TT
In the school the question, "What is a — ?" is generally
banned. If a teacher wishes to learn, for instance whether the
child knows what a revolver is, he requires of him when he
answers not only, "It is a weapon, or a hand weapon," but he
also asks him how a revolver looks, what one does with it, etc.
It therefore follows that the child of six years, who has had
little of such training in exact expression, will answer the ques-
tion, "What is a fork?" with what had to him been the dis-
tinguishing characteristic of a fork, and the most important
in his experience. The older child adds in addition to this or
substitutes for it some such further information as Binet
designates, "Definition superior to use."
That the definition may be made of further use for measuring
mental development than that conceived by Binet is shown by
Bobertag with the use of more and other words than those
used by Binet. Bobertag uses the following words : — fork, chair,
tongs, kitchen, doll, carriage, horse, soldier, penny, rose. These
were selected because — I. They could be easily defined by use.
2. They could be easily defined by description. 3. They could
be easily defined by means of classifying concepts. The de-
velopment of the child from the use concept to the class concept
in his definition of words is shown in the following table.
Age of
Child Fork
5 yr. Knife
5 yr. To use with
potatoes
6 yr. To eat
7 yr. To eat
7yr. Of iron
Chair
Doll
Frieda has a
doll
To play with
To carry
To play
Of glass
Horse
It has ears
It pulls
To run
To be hitched
to a wagon
Of flesh
Soldier
Credit
given by
Bobertag
+
+
+
To sit upon
To sit
Something
upon which
one may sit
Of wood
A soldier
To march
He plays
music
Has a unl-
r _ «
8yr. A handle A back and a Plaything
with 3 seat and
prongs four legs
pyr. A kitchen A piece of A plaything
utensil house fur-
niture
loyr. An eating A piece of A plaything
utensil furniture for girls
form and a
helmet and
a saber
A back and a A man
belly and
four legs
An animal A warrior
A mammal
A protector of
the father-
land
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 25
III. Copies a lozenge. — The same may be said of this
test as was said of the copying of a square. The drawing of
the lines at other than right angles to each other, and at just
the angle to be an approximately correct copy of the model
before him, may frequently be more a test of motor ability
than a test of the child's intellectual comprehension of the
characteristics of the model before him. The writer has seen
children with so little motor control as to be unable to make
a passable copy, but who had an intellectual comprehension of
the characteristics of the model such as to make them dissatisfied
with their own copies.
IV. Counts thirteen pennies. — The mental abilities underly-
ing the performance of this test are the same as those under-
lying the counting of four pennies discussed above. The
difference between the two is only that of length of series.
Whether or not a normal child of six is able to count to thirteen
instead of ten, or any other number depends entirely upon train-
ing. The writer has found many children of kindergarten age
who have been taught to count much more, some to 100.
V. Compares faces from the aesthetic point of view. — Six
drawings are used for this test, representing heads of women.
Three are pretty and three are ugly or deformed. The faces
are compared two at a time, one pettty one and one ugly one,
and the child is asked to tell which of the two he considers
the prettier. This tests the child's comprehension of the normal
or ideal type of face. That the faces would need to be changed
greatly were one testing Chinese or Ethiopian children in their
native home, goes without saying.
CHILDREN OF SEVEN YEARS
I. Right hand, left ear. — The command is given the child,
"Show me your right hand"; and then, "Touch your left ear."
This test, at this early age, depends upon teaching. Up to this
time the child has not done work of any such degree of manual
skill as to bring out the distinction between the two hands.
When he learns to write in the school such distinction is made.
The test, if not passed, may mean only that the child has not
26 CLARA SCHMITT
had such experiences as would lead him to distinguish between
right and left. The writer's memory of the learning of this
distinction may serve to illustrate. The knowledge was gained
through the hand-shaking situation. The extending of the left
hand was always inhibited by the parent's injunction, "No,
give the right hand." Later in life, when there came the
necessity for distinguishing between the right and left hands,
it was always necessary to call to mind the hand-shaking situa-
tion, and the kinaesthetic image in the right arm which always
came with it, served to distinguish the right from the left
arm from which there came no such image. This method has
sometimes still to be resorted to in order to distinguish the right
from the left hand in unaccustomed situations.
Binet directs in his grading of this test that the child who
hesitates be considered a failure in the test. But the child
who hesitates for a moment and then performs the test correctly
may be in some such situation as regards his knowledge of right
and left hand as has just been indicated above; and this hesita-
tion may in itself be proof that he has a control of the mental
process which helps him to make the desired distinction.
II. Describes a picture.* — For this test a picture is shown the
child, and he is asked to tell what he sees in it. He passes the
test if he does more than merely enumerate the objects which
the picture contains. If he says, for instance, "A man and a
boy are pulling a cart," and not merely, "There is a man, a
boy and a cart," he has satisfactorily passed the test.
Binet finds that three intellectual levels may find expression
through this test. The first occurs at the age of three when
the child enumerates separately the persons and objects which
he sees in the picture, without establishing any connection be-
tween them. He says, "At three years one is at the stage of
recognition, or identification of objects; this is the important,
fundamental work in the perception of the external world in
comparison with which all the other processes of perception
are complementary." The second level is that of description.
This is the level of seven years. The third level is that of
interpretation. "The meaning of the picture or the nature of the
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 27
people is told either by a brief word or by an explanatory remark,
and often there is even an emotional note of sadness or of
sympathy; it is possible that this emotional note exists with
children who make a more simple response but they are unable
to express it. We call these emotional responses interpretations,
because they go beyond the visual impression, there is a real
effort to explain the situation depicted."
Bobertag criticises Binet on two counts; i. That pictures from
which little in the way of description or interpretation could
be given were used by Binet. The pictures, he thinks, were too
wooden in character, too lacking in action. 2. That Binet's
method of gaining response is too indefinite. It leaves the child
in doubt and in a vague frame of mind as to what is wanted.
Bobertag would add such questions as, "What are the people
doing here ? What is happening here ? Why is this one doing
so?" etc. In this way he would seek to guide the child into
fruitful channels of response. By such methods he finds numer-
ous grades of individual development instead of the three
enumerated by Binet, but, in general, the three of Binet.
Bobertag, with his method of questioning, finds that children
younger than fifteen, the position of the test for interpretation
in the 1911 series, are able to make interpretations of pictures.
The interpretations may, however, not be correct.
A variation of this test was used by Squire (16). She gave
five pictures by noted artists, In Disgrace, by Sigsbeeker; In
Summer, by Van der Veer, Children of the Press, by Thomp-
son, The Goose Girl, by Millet and Embers by Eastman John-
son, to children between the ages of six and thirteen. The
pictures were shown the child and he was required to give a
name to each one, which he considered appropriate to the pic-
torial representation. There were ten children in each group.
She concludes, "From these results it seems fair to say that:
(i) No six-year old child can be expected completely to com-
prehend a situation presented pictorially. (2) Neither can a
seven-year old child be expected to give an adequate title — a
child of this age seems most interested in the appearance of
the objects presented. (3) The eight-year old children are in-
28 CLARA SCHMITT
clined to interpret meaning in terms of action, and a few are
able to give superficial titles. (4) In the ninth and tenth years,
while descriptive phases and activities of the object are most
likely to be considered, there is, in the case of the first picture,
complete comprehension of the artist's meaning. The descrip-
tive titles, when given, are condensed into terse phrases, and
no longer stretched out into disjointed sentences. (5) In the
eleventh year the answers show a wide distribution, due mainly
to the fact that the proportion of retarded pupils was greater
in this year than any other. (6) In the twelfth year the
majority of names given to the pictures would pass for titles,
although a large proportion of them deal with superficial aspects.
(7) There were many cases of complete comprehension in the
thirteenth year. This imaginative insight could not be expected
before adolescence." It is seen from this quotation that Mrs.
Squire's results agree closely with those of Binet, to whose
method she adhered in refraining from asking the child stimulat-
ing questions.
As Bobertag points out, the results will vary greatly with the
type of pictures chosen and with the method of stimulating
the child to express himself. Some of the Squire pictures
are plainly not within a small child's realm of experience and
are therefore uninterpretable by him. This is certainly true of
Children of the Press, a crowd of poorly clad children receiving
papers for distribution, and Embers, an old man seated before
a grate in which the fire is slowly dying. Also The Goose Girl
could have no associations with the experiences of a young
American child not old enough to have read of foreign customs.
Mrs. Squire found that the significance of In Disgrace, a picture
of a pouting child with face in the corner, was grasped earlier
and more frequently than that of any other picture. This
picture certainly portrays one of the child's earliest and most
significant and, perhaps, most vivid experiences.
Bobertag selected his pictures carefully with reference to the
experiences of a small child, and for this reason as well as for
the more stimulating method of presentation obtained a result
which would lead to a more optimistic judgment of the child's
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 29
ability to interpret or abstract the meaning of a situation .from
the signs by which it is portrayed.
In this as well as in any others testing the child's ability to
make right deductions in a given situation one must, as Bobertag
pointed out, choose the conditions of the situation with refer-
ence to the child's experience. To make the sweeping declara-
tion that a child of a certain age does not reason, from certain
tests given him would probably quite misstate the case. He may
reason or abstract correctly within the limits of his experience;
or when the right motive for expressing his thought is supplied,
as is the case in the picture test when he is stimulated by
questions.
III. Executes three commissions. — The child is asked to listen
while he is told to do something, and then the instruction is
given somewhat as follows; "You see the door and the pencil
and the watch; go close the door, put the pencil at the end of
the table, and hand me the watch." This is a test of the child's
ability to attend to a set of directions which have only a sequen-
tial relationship and translate them into activity. The test,
according to Binet, is passed only if the child carries out the
directions without any further encouragement such as, "And
what else?"; You have forgotten something."
The writer has found many sluggish and unresponsive chil-
dren who had to be encouraged in this way for one or two
sets of directions, but who then would follow out other similar
sets without this stimulus. One would certainly deceive him-
self and do the child an injustice to grade him as a failure in
this test without first arousing his enthusiasm and consequent
response in some such way as has been indicated. Children
of the first grade fail in some cases in proper response to the
school situation, — they will not attempt to carry out the direc-
tions of the teacher in games and other schoolroom activities,
such as counting, writing, etc. The attitude of the teacher to-
ward such a child and her further educational procedure with
him is wholly determined by the judgment which she forms of
his case. She must know whether he is by reason of innate
mental defect incapable of such response, or whether his failure
30 CLARA SCHMITT
is due to some other factor of disposition, emotion, will, or
interest. The type of stimulus which Binet inhibits is necessary
to show to what one may attribute such failure.
IV. Counts nine sous. — This test has for its material three
objects of a value of one each, and three of a value of two
each. Binet used pieces of French money. Dr. Goddard uses
postage stamps, and the writer uses small squares of paper
marked "i, i," etc., since the numbers on the postage stamp
are not easily discernible. The test is one of the child's ability
to relate the symbols of number to the idea of number. There
is involved also the idea of relative value, the value of one
thing in terms of another.
The idea of relative value involved in buying and selling is
one which first appears at some time between five and seven
years.
If so much of number work as this test involves is taught
in the first grade, the majority of children seven years of age
will be able to pass it. If number work is delayed until the
second grade, as is the case in some schools, many children
seven years of age will be unable to pass the test. The use
of tests similar to this is discussed in a later chapter.
V. Names four colors. — This tests the child's ability to ab-
stract a quality and name it. The colors red, green, yellow and
blue are to be recognized without error. The writer finds no
such refinement of method as is insisted upon by Wallin (17)
necessary. He directs that saturated colors and dull, not shiny,
surfaces be used in the test. If a child knows red as a quality
he knows it whether associated with a dull or a shiny surface.
If the character of the article whose color he is to name inter-
feres with his recognition of the color — though the writer has
never found so anomolous a case, — it would certainly be proof
that he did not know the color.
In order to relieve the situation and test of any air of formal-
ity— which is always a desirable thing to accomplish in an
examination — the writer is accustomed to ask the colors of any
objects at hand which happen to be of the required color
sufficiently saturated and in sufficiently large masses of solid
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 31
color, such as the color of the book lying before him, the
pencil which he is using, etc. The writer finds this test possible
for children younger than seven. The ability to distinguish
colors exists earlier than the age of seven, but its expression
depends upon training. This is shown by the fact that kinder-
garten children are trained in the recognition of colors, and
normal children of kindergarten experience know them.
As was pointed out by Binet, the naming of colors is a step
in advance of the discrimination of them. Many defective
children can not name colors correctly but can correctly- sort
color cards.
CHILDREN OF EIGHT YEARS
i. Compares two remembered objects. — Binet says of this
test: "This is a valuable test because it does not depend in
the least on instruction, and brings into play the natural good
sense of the subject. It consists in investigating whether the
subject can, in thinking of two objects, distinguish a difference
between them; the perception of the difference is, in fact, the
habitual and most natural result of the comparison."
In this test one says to the child : "You have seen a butter-
fly, have you not?, and you have seen flies. Tell me how is it
that they are not alike. How do you know them apart when
you see them at the same time?" In the same way he is asked
to tell the difference between wood and glass, and paper and
cloth. The child is expected to give what constitutes some
significant difference between the two objects, such as, "The
butterfly is larger than the fly" ; or, "has brightly colored wings
and the fly has not." The types of response observed to this
test by Binet, Bobertag, and others, are: I. The child main-
tains silence. 2. He gives an answer which involves no dis-
crimination, "Because they are different," or "Because it is a
fly and one is a butterfly," or "They have wings." 3. He
gives some non-discriminating differences such as "Wood is
thick and glass is thin," or "Paper is whiter than cloth."
4. He gives a correct answer for the first pair asked and, find-
ing that answer receives approval, uses it for the other pairs
32 CLARA SCHMITT
and cannot be induced to make the correct discrimination for
any others. 5. He gives a correct and discriminative response.
Bobertag adds to this test one which requires the child to give
the characteristics in which two objects are alike. He uses
sun and moon; glass and ice; honey and glue. He says to
the child: "The sun and the moon are alike in something, are
they not? How is it that they are alike?" The correct answer
is to the effect that they are both round, or that they both
shine, etc. Bobertag finds that the test for differences and the
test for likenesses show that the two abilities differ in many
cases. Some children are able to pass the one and not the
other.
II. Counts backward to i from 20. — In this test the child
is asked to count from one to twenty, and then he is asked
to count backward from twenty to one. The test is one of
the child's ability to rearrange mental content in a new and
prescribed way. It shows that he is able to control his associa-
tions in such a way as to produce a desired result. Reciting the
months of the year and the alphabet backwards are analogous
and perhaps more difficult tests. The difficulty of such a test
depends largely upon the familiarity with and length of series.
Binet considers the test passed if the child takes not more
than twenty seconds for the process. In the opinion of the
writer the time required should not be so rigidly dictated. Binet
also considers the test a failure if the child can be detected
counting forward up to the desired point in order to get the
next item of the reconstructed series. The writer's introspection
at doing this sort of thing shows that there is no other method
of doing it, unless the series is so familiar as to make this
method of getting the next desired item unnecessary, or as to
so shorten the process as to make it seem to be altogether
eliminated. With the writer the alphabet is not so familiar
a series as to make this method, when repeating it backwards,
unnecessary. The child who is able to hit upon such a method
of doing his work and to keep his mind to the task so that he
makes no errors; who does not forget that his task is to count
backward and to inhibit the counting forward association, shows
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 33
his ability to control his mental processes, and has surely passed
the test.
Defective children of this age are either unable to understand
what is required of them, and reply with absolute silence, or
can find no method of doing the work even though they do
understand what is required and make a valiant effort. Some
defective children who do understand what is required and who
have a method for doing it, are unable to inhibit the usual count-
ing forward association, and after one or two successes at get-
ting the desired items for the new series, begin again to count
forward. The performance in such case becomes as follows :
nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nine-
teen, twenty- twenty-one, etc.
The test is, in the writer's experience, one that can be passed
by children younger than eight years of age, in case the series
used is one with which they are perfectly familiar. Kinder-
garten children who can count to ten or any other number, can
also successfully count backward in the series with which they
feel a perfect 'familiarity. Some of the kindergarten children
of those examined by the writer, who could count to twenty,
failed to count backward from twenty but succeeded in count-
ing backward from ten, because the series between ten and
twenty was not so familiar to them as to have become automatic,
and they could not so divide the attention between the task to
be accomplished and the imperfectly acquired series.
III. Indicates omissions in pictures. Four pictures are shown,
each lacking some elemental part of the physical make up, and
the child is asked to tell what is missing in the picture. This
tests the child's ability to compare the representation of a type
with the type itself; in this case the human body.
IV. Gives day and date. In this test the child is asked to
give the day of the week, the month, the day of the month,
and the year. An error of three or four days is allowed.
That this test may be passed two conditions are necessary.
The subject must possess an appreciation of the conception of
the measure of time involved in the date, and he must engage
in such activities as make use of the date, such as the writing
34 CLARA SCHMITT
of letters or the reading of the daily papers. A subject may
fail to pass the test merely because he does not engage in such
daily occupations as require note of the current day, though he
is quite capable of the conception of time measure. On the
other hand he may be able to recite the date without possessing
any idea of the time measure for which it stands. In the school
children are frequently required to place the date on written
work. In such case large groups of children may know the
date without the corresponding idea of time measure. In order
to determine whether the child's knowledge is only the result
of such specific teaching or whether it is related to the time
conception, the test may be extended by asking the questions,
"What day of the week was yesterday? What will be to-
morrow? What was last month? etc." Many defective children
are able to recite the days of the week, the months of the year,
and give the date without being able to answer the foregoing
questions correctly. Occasionally a child fails to pass the test
according to the standard set by Binet, but is able to answer
these questions correctly with reference to the date which he
has given. Such a case should be given full credit for the test.
Binet says, "We found that in the schools 'maternelle,' a
language lesson is given every day at the opening of school
in which the day and date are taught. The children are told
the day, date and year, and then made to repeat it. However,
not one child in the school was able to give us the complete
information, nor one the name of the year alone; and for the
month many answers were given, even when in reality it was
February 8. ... It is a curious fact that children fail most often
to give the year. They give no year, they remain silent for
they do not know it. Perhaps a year is for them so great a
lapse of time that they can form no idea of it."
If Binet's rinding concerning this test and the fourth of the
nine-year-old tests in which the child enumerates the months
of the year are true for the ages under which they are put, one
must conclude that the child who knows the day and date at
eight years of age, but cannot know the months until he is
nine years of age, is able to pass the former test only because
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 35
of specific training. If he cannot know the months of the
year until he is nine years of age, how can he have a conception
of the time measure for which the date stands?
V. Repeats 5 digits. — The simplest and most effective way
of giving this test is as follows: — One says to the child —
"Listen!" and when he is attending "2, 7, i, say it." When
he has responded correctly one says again, merely keeping the
same attitude of attention toward the child, "4, 9, 6, 3," and
so on until he fails. Should his attention at any time wander,
it is most quickly brought back by the short command, "Listen !"
An added feature of this test is to discover how many repeti-
tions of the set of digits, which is just beyond his memory
span, is necessary before he can learn to repeat it. If the child
can repeat only four digits, then a set of five may be repeated
again and again until he. can repeat it correctly. This gives
some indication of the child's ability to take on a new habit
of attention, or to advance to a higher stage of ability.
The writer finds frequently a type of defective child who,
when given the set, for instance, 3, 5, 9, i, 4, will repeat all
the digits but in some inverted order, such as 3, 9, 5, i, 4. One
says to the child, "No you did not say them correctly. Say
them just as I do," and they are repeated for him again. He,
however, persists in saying them in the order in which he first
said them. It seems, that having made one set of associations
he is unable to break it up in favor of another. Upon one
occasion a teacher, hearing this type of response, said of the
child "That's just the way he is in reading. If he ever pro-
nounces a word wrong, it is very difficult to get him to give
the correct pronunciation." The writer has observed, in addi-
tion, the following types of response on the part of defective
children, i. They maintain silence. 2. After the child's limen
is passed, he repeats only the last one or two digits of the set
given him. 3. He repeats a set of numbers which may not
be at all those given him. 4. He starts out with one of the
numbers which has been given him, the first or the last perhaps,
and then goes on counting in serial order.
Bobertag has found that children of five years of age can
36 CLARA SCHMITT
reproduce a group of four digits; at seven years of age a group
of five ; and at ten years of age a group of six. He adds to the
test, after the child's response, "Was it right?" to which the child
answers 3;^ or no. He finds that feeble-minded children main-
tain that what they have said is quite right, even though quite
unlike the set given them. The normal child is more likely to
say, "I do not know," or "It may be wrong."
CHILDREN OF NINE YEARS
I. Gives change from twenty sous. — This test depends both
upon ability, teaching and experience. The writer has not found
the elaborate refinement of method described by Binet for this
test a necessary condition for its proper performance. It is
quite sufficient to ask the child to tell what would be the change
that one would receive, and then, if he has answered correctly,
to tell in what kind of pieces one might receive it. When a
quarter is used, and the amount purchased is four cents, the
child who answers correctly does not fail to tell you that your
change might be in the form of two dimes and a penny. As
a test of mathematical knowledge this one does not test the
maximum mathematical ability of the child at this age, since
the school requires more complex problems of him in the grade
in which he normally belongs at nine years of age than the test
implies. It is a test in which experience of a specific sort enters
very largely in determining the type of performance. Many
children who fail in doing the mathematical work of the school,
but who are permitted to use money, are able to make change
so far as their specific experiences with money permit them to
do so. A thirteen-year-old defective boy in the third grade in
school was unable to do the arithmetic work of the third grade.
He could not learn to subtract or multiply. He, however, could
make change with larger denominations and in more complex
situations than this test calls for. He had learned to do this
through collecting fares in the cab which he drove from his
father's small hotel to the railway station. He could tell how
much thirteen twenty-five cent fares amounted to, and yet was
unable to so generalize his mathematical experience as to be
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 37
able to work out this or other problems with which he had no
experience, by the use of the mathematical processes taught in
his grade. The children of his grade can work out problems
with which they have had no specific experience. They can
apply the arithmetic of the school for the purpose.
II. Defines in terms superior to use. — Discussed above.
III. Recognises all the pieces of our money. — This test is,
perhaps, in its implications of innate ability not different from
that one in the fourth year list in which the child is asked to
name different objects. To be sure, the distinguishing differ-
ences between two pieces of money may be very much finer than
the differences between a key, a knife, and a penny. Whether or
not the child at this age knows these particular pieces of money
depends upon the same ability which enables him at four years
to name objects of any other kind, plus the specific experience
which enables him to name different coins.
The writer has not found it necessary to show the child all
these pieces of money in order to determine whether or not
he is able to recognize them. The child who can recognize
them is able to tell you in what respect a five dollar bill differs
from a one dollar bill, or a silver dollar from a half-dollar,
sufficiently well to show his acquaintance with them.
IV. Enumerates the months. — The ability which underlies this
test is not different from that which enables the child at an
earlier age to learn the counting series. The difference is merely
one of specific instruction, plus whatever difference there may
be in the difficulty of learning the two series. Whether or not
the majority of children are able to repeat the months of the
year at this age depends upon the school curriculum. The
table of time measure is taught in that part of the arithmetical
course which takes up other tables of measurement. In the
Chicago schools this occurs in the fourth grade. Children who
begin school at six years of age and progress normally, one
grade every year, are in the fourth grade at nine years of age.
It is probable, since much use is made of the date before this
grade, that the names of the months of the year have been learned
before this time. At any rate, the majority of children nine years
38 CLARA SCHMITT
of age during the first half of the year in the fourth grade learn
the various tables of time measure, including the months of
the year, if they have not previously learned them. If this specific
bit of instruction came at an earlier or later period than this
in the school, it would not, of course, be a suitable nine-year-old
test ; and for that reason it cannot be considered a test of innate
ability alone. The most important consideration with this test
is the conception of time involved.
It is characteristic of defective children, who can repeat the
months of the year, that they cannot do it upon the demand,
"Say for me the names of the months of the year." They re-
main silent, not knowing what is wanted. If one starts them
out, however, with, "January, February, go on now, say them
for me," they can begin and repeat them correctly. In this case
they have been able to learn a series, and when it is started for
them they can go on with all of its terms but have been unable
to relate the series to another conception. They have no idea
of the meaning of the series as a measure of time.
V. Understands easy questions. — The questions are, (i)
"What would you do if you missed a train?" (2) "What
would you do if one of your playmates should hit you without
meaning to do so?" (3) "What would you do if you broke
something belonging to someone else?" The answer to the
first one of these questions depends upon the specific experience
of the child in this particular situation. Binet considers the
answer to this question, "Go home again," as incorrect; but
in many instances this is what is done. Just what one would
do of course depends upon circumstances. The child whose
family would have small choice of trains, say only one a day,
has observed that they do go home again if the train is missed.
Question number two shows the child's understanding of the
relation of conduct to motive. Question number three shows
his understanding of the accepted moral way of meeting the
situation.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS
39
CHILDREN OF TEN YEARS
I. Arranges five weights. — The weights are in the form of
boxes or blocks of identical size and color weighing respectively
three, six, nine, twelve and fifteen grams. The child is asked
to arrange them in the order of weight. This tests, in addition
to the ability underlying the weight test in the five-year series,
the child's ability to distinguish small differences in weight. In
the writer's opinion, the grasp of the idea of arranging them
serially, and an intelligent attempt to do so, is the significant
part of the test. An error in the arrangement, such as fifteen,
twelve, nine, three, six, is of little or no importance in judging
his general intelligence.
This test was given by the writer to a college class of twenty
students. Each person was given all the time that he desired
to arrange the weights to his satisfaction, and was permitted
to lift and test them in his own way over and over until he was
satisfied that he had arranged them correctly in the order of
weight, from the heaviest to the lightest. Of these twenty
college students, ten arrived at a correct result and ten of them
did not. The ten who failed had some such error as is indicated
above.
II. Copies drawings from memory. — The child is asked to re-
produce from memory two drawings after being allowed to
look at them for ten seconds. One says to him, "I shall now
show you two little drawings which you may look at for only
a little while. When I take the drawings away, then you are
to draw them as well as you can remember. As you have only
a few seconds to look at them, you must be careful to look at
both of the drawings." When the child is ready with his arms
and pencil in position and attention alert, the drawings are
40 CLARA SCHMITT
exposed for ten seconds. This test is one of a particular type
of memory, — the visual. Psychological investigations of dif-
ferent types of memory, visual, auditory, etc., go to show that
they vary in ability with the individual. It is reasonable to
suppose that children of the same degree of general intelligence
might vary considerably in their ability to pass such a test as
this, unless the drawings are so simple that they come within
the lowest range of ability at visual memory, or the time of
exposure so long as to place them within the lowest ability at
learning the drawings. This learning may consist in getting
a very thoroughly stamped visual image; or it may consist in
transferring the visual imagery into terms of other imagery;
or the visual imagery may be partially aided or propped up,
so to speak, by a partial transference into other types of imagery.
Many intelligent children show that they have a method of
aiding the visual memory. Sometimes it is with a verbal
analysis of the drawings before them. They will say softly
to themselves of the second one, "three squares in a row" and
then proceed to draw the figure more or less accurately, often
with the right hand square turned outward or the middle por-
tion closed. Of the first figure one often has evidence in the
result that the drawing has been interpreted. The child says
softly "a box," and then reproduces the figure, sometimes cor-
rectly. Often the figure is reproduced as the conventionalized
box, which shows even if one did not hear the child pronounce
the word, that he has so interpreted the figure, forgotten the
figure itself, and produced his interpretation.
A clear example of the necessity for aiding the visual imagery
with a verbal analysis was shown by a boy of thirteen. The
test was given him in a way different from that prescribed by
Binet. One figure at a time was exposed for three seconds and
he was required to reproduce it. If wrong, it was exposed again
until such time as it was reproduced correctly. Of the second
figure, he said softly to himself, "three squares in a row," and
reproduced the figure correctly, except that the center portion
was drawn as a closed square. He was told that he had re-
membered it wrong and might be permitted to look again. With
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 41
the second exposure, he said, "the center one is open," and
then reproduced the figure correctly. When shown the first
figure he said, ''two squares," and reproduced the figure with
the enclosed square in the exact center of the outer one. Upon
the second exposure he reproduced it correctly. When asked
what he thought about it then, he said, "I said to myself the
middle one is nearer one side."
Many children aid the visual memory by outlining the figure
in the air while observing it. In the writer's experience, the
defective child never learns consciously to help out his defective
memory with such an analysis. He may or may not learn to
represent the figures correctly, after an indefinite number of
exposures, but there never is evidence that he finds another type
of mental imagery to aid the visual.
III. Criticises absurd phrases. — The absurdities are : ( i ) An
unfortunate bicycle rider fell on his head and was killed in-
stantly. He was taken to a hospital, and they fear he will
not recover. (2) I have three brothers, Paul, Earnest, and
myself. (3) I am taller than John, John is taller than Henry,
and Henry is taller than I am. (4) There was a railroad
accident yesterday, but it was not a bad one; the number of
dead is only forty-eight. (5) Some one said, "If I should ever
grow desperate and kill myself, I would not choose Friday, be-
cause Friday is an unlucky day and might bring me unhappiness."
The performance of this test requires the ability to hold in
attention the several elements of the verbally presented situation,
and to form a judgment as to the possibility of their simul-
taneous presence in the situation. The writer's experience with
this test, as may be seen in the tables II, III, IV following,
indicates that children younger than ten years of age are able
to do this. To determine this fact, care should be taken, in
giving the test, if the child answers incorrectly, to find if he
is unable to hold the various elements of the situation in mind
sufficiently well to form a judgment, or if he has forgotten or
failed entirely to notice some of the elements of the situation
as presented to him. It is the practice of the writer when a
wrong answer is given to ask the child to repeat the thing that
42 CLARA SCHMITT
was said. Frequently he has failed to take note of some of
the elements of the situation; for instance, in the first one
he sometimes has forgotten immediately that the unfortunate
bicycle rider was killed instantly, in which case he says that
there is nothing wrong with the statement. It is then repeated
for him and he is asked to repeat it until he can do so cor-
rectly. It is only then that a wrong response can be attributed
to defect of judgment. The defective child may, however,
never be able to get all the elements of the situation in the
field of attention at one time. Of the normal children tested
none required more than a third repetition.
Among foreign children it is very common to find that they
make use of such an expression as, "I have three brothers, Paul,
Earnest and myself," with correct comprehension of the mean-
ing. Their meaning is, "There are in my family three brothers" ;
but the putting of the statement in the first person does not
show a lack of judgment on their part. It is merely a very
common misuse of language on the part of foreign speaking
people.
IV. Understands difficult questions. — The questions are:
(i) What should you do if you were delayed in getting
started to school and knew you would be late? (2) What
should you do before taking part in an important affair?
(3) Why is a bad action done when one is angry
more excusable than the same action done when one is
not angry? (4) What would you do if you were asked
your opinion of someone whom you did not know well? (5)
Why should one judge a person by his acts rather than by his
words? These questions test the child's ability to formulate
a rule of action to meet a given situation.
From the answers one can often determine whether the child
has generalized the situation or has in mind a particular situa-
tion. To question number one, Binet considers only the answers,
"I should have to hurry or "I should have to run," as correct,
the idea being to reduce the amount of tardiness. However,
the rule or practice adopted by the particular school or the home
may determine another answer which would be equally correct.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 43
For instance, if he says, "I would go back home and get an
excuse from my mother," since some schools make this require-
ment. The second question the writer finds it necessary usually
to put in this iform: "What ought one to do before beginning
a very important piece of work or anything that is very im-
portant?", since the word affair among uneducated classes is
not understood. Some children generalize the situation, and
answer to the effect that they would think or reflect about it.
Some children have in mind particular important situations,
usually those in which they have recently engaged, and answer
accordingly. One girl, thinking of a fine piece of embroidery
which she had been doing for days in the schoolroom for a
rather important purpose, answered, "Wash your hands." A
boy, thinking of a workshop where he had been for several
-months learning a trade, said, "Ask the boss to show you how."
The generalized form of answer shows a higher range of in-
telligence than the particularized form. Young children and
defective individuals are, if they answer at all correctly, more
likely to particularize the situation than to generalize it.
V. Uses three given words in two sentences. — Binet uses
the words, Paris, fortune, stream; Dr. Goddard uses the words,
Philadelphia, money river; The writer uses the words, Chicago,
money, river. Binet says of this test that it shows the child's
ability to invent his own expression. He directs that the child
be asked to write the sentence or sentences which he makes.
The writer's practice is to ask the child to give his sentences
orally. With very young children the word sentence, is not
understood, and the child is asked merely to tell something
about these three things, or to say something that has these
three words in what he says, or to tell a story about them.
The success of the test with children of different ages de-
pends upon the words chosen. When there is a failure to re-
spond with a correct sentence for the words Chicago, money,
river, the writer gives other words, such as boy, river, ball, when
the result is generally successful with normal children. This
indicates that the ability to invent one's own expression may be
something apart from the ability to invent an expression for a
44 CLARA SCHMITT
given set of words. Success with certain sets and failure with
certain other sets may indicate, among children of the same or
different ages, differences in experience, or maturity of thought,
but one would have to examine further than the set given by
Binet before deciding that the child lacked the ability to invent
his own expression.
Young children fail to respond to the words Chicago, money,
river, because their experiences with such generalized ideas as
these is quite lacking; or in their specific experiences, the three
ideas expressed by these words may never have had any relation
to each other and the child is therefore unable to form a train
of ideas which would connect them all. When he is given a
set of words which come within the experience possible to his
age, he is successful in his response.
Illustration of the influence of formal educational experience
was (furnished by the children whose records appear in the
tables below. In the local history which is taught to the third
grade, the Chicago river figures much in the development of
the city of Chicago. The children from this grade gave gen-
erally a sentence which expressed this historical fact, — in effect,
"Chicago has a river which cost much money." The children
of the other grades did not generally give this sentence.
Another type of sentence is one which is grammatically correct
but is an invention merely to fulfill requirements, such as,
"Chicago has a river, and also much money in its banks." This
type of sentence is given very largely by the child who lacks
the historical teaching just mentioned. A third type is non-
sensical in meaning, such as, "Chicago makes more money than
the river does," a sentence given by a fifteen-year-old defective
girl. Squire (16) gave the set, boy, river, ball, to six-year-old
children with the requirement that they tell a story. She obtained
a uniform result showing that the child of this age is able to
invent his own expression.
CHILDREN OF TWELVE YEARS
I. Resists suggestion. — The material for this test as prepared
according to Binet's suggestions, is: "Prepare a booklet of
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 45
six pages. On the first page two lines are drawn in ink, A and
B ; the first, that is the one on the left, is four centimeters long,
and the second five centimeters; they are placed in line with
each other and one centimeter apart; on the second page two
similar lines are drawn, the first five centimeters, the second six ;
on the third page the first line is six centimeters, and the second
seven; on each of the three following pages two lines are drawn
in the same positions, but all are the same length, seven
centimeters."
In giving the test one says to the child, "Which is the longer
of these two lines?" (showing the first pair), "and of these
two?" (showing the second pair), and so on. Many children
attempt to measure the lines; if not directly on the page itself,
in some other way, by placing the fingers appropriately on the
table before them. For this reason the writer finds it advan-
tageous to say to the child, "Which of these two lines looks
the longer?" Binet finds that children under twelve years of
age tend to answer correctly for the first three pairs, and to
make the same answer for the next three. That is, the child
points for the first three pairs to the longer line at the right;
he has thus established a "habit," and follows the suggestion
given for the next three pairs by pointing also to the ones at
the right.
Binet has not in his discussion of this test mentioned the fact
that frequently the wrong judgment on the part of the child
is not the result of the type of suggestibility which this test
is designed to measure. This error in judgment occurs fre-
quently under such circumstances as to make one doubt that it
is the result of habit plus suggestibility. If the child pauses
for a moment before the two lines of equal length, looks at
and scans them carefully, and then indicates one as being longer
than the other, the error is very apparently not the result of
"habit" and "suggestibility." It shows that he has used his
judgment but has judged incorrectly. The writer's experience
with this test may throw light upon the child's error. When
looking at the two lines intently and moving the eye from the
left-hand end of the left line to the right-hand end of the right
46 CLARA SCHMITT
line, the left line appears to be the longer. Many of the chil-
dren to whom this test was given made this particular type of
wrong judgment. The number is indicated in the tables which
follow. Those who made the error in such a way as to conform
with Binet's interpretation of it, that is, said the right hand
line was longer, were marked failures in the tables. The writer
also tried this test upon six adults who came into the clinic
one after another on a certain day. All of these persons made
wrong judgments, at least to the extent of saying that they
thought the left line was longer than the other but were not
quite sure about it.
II. Cf. above, test five, under ten-year-old children.
III. Says more than sixty words in three minutes. — The child
is asked to say as many words as he can think of in three
minutes, and is told that they will be counted. Binet says,
"This test is very interesting, for its fertility in suggestions.
Besides the number of words, one can know their relation. Some
subjects give only detached words, each of which requires an
effort to recall; others give a series of words, the furnishings
of a school, various articles of clothing, geological terms, etc.
Some use only names of common objects, others cite abstract
words or rather far-fetched words. All this gives an idea of
the mentality of the subject. The use of series of words, and
of abstract terms, indicates a certain amount of intelligence
and culture. ... By this test we are able to estimate, accord-
ing to observations which we have made elsewhere, both the
intellectual activity of an individual and his verbal type."
In addition to the above phases concerned in the judgment
one may derive from this test, another may be considered. In
the writer's opinion, a certain paucity of words in the perform-
ance of this test with young children does not necessarily indicate
a low level of intellectual activity; indeed, it may indicate a
high level. In the conversation of every-day life words come
not singly and unattached, but are the result of associations
which the purpose of the conversation brings about. Other
associations than those pertinent to the subject of discussion
are inhibited by the normal person. Without a purpose for the
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 47
use of words they may not occur in association. Many children
like to comment upon their successes with this test and tell how
they accomplish it. One said, "I thought about all the things
that we have on our boat, and named them all." Another
fastened his eyes on a map on the opposite wall, and mentioned
all of his observations associated with it. Many of them make
the comment, "It was hard to think of the words." All of this
comment on the part of the child shows the necessity for an
object and a use for the word before associations with other
words can be made.
IV. Defines abstract terms. — The terms to be defined are:
chanty, justice, kindness. See III, under adults.
V. Derives the sense of a sentence the words of which are
mixed. — A card is given to the child with the words, For — an —
the — at — hour — early — we — country — started. The child is told
that here are the words of a sentence which were mixed up,
and that if he puts them in the right order he will make a
good sentence. This test is discussed further on page 72.
CHILDREN OF FIFTEEN YEARS
I. Repeats seven digits. — This test is made in the same manner
as that which requires the repetition of five digits. In the
writer's experience with it most children who succeed are those
who after the first or second failure repeat softly to themselves
the digits as they are given by the experimenter. This provides
the child with an added memory image to aid in recall.
II. Gives three rhymes. — The child is asked to repeat as many
words as he can think of that rhyme with the word obey. The
writer's experience with this test shows that the success attained
with it depends upon the word which is chosen. Younger chil-
dren will readily construct a rhyme with the word hill, for in-
stance, but remain mute when given the word obey. The
two-syllable and more unfamiliar word presents to their minds
difficulties which they do not attempt to surmount. The same
child, however, will glibly recite hill, fill, will, etc., when given
the more easy and familiar word.
III. Repeats a sentence of twenty-six syllables. — The child is
48 CLARA SCHMITT
told that the experimenter will repeat some sentences to him,
and that he is then to repeat them exactly as he has heard
them, without the change of a single word. The writer's ex-
perience shows that success with such sentences is dependent
upon the familiarity of the child with the words used. An
unfamiliar word or name so attracts the child's attention ;from
the remainder of the sentence that he is unable to give it. When
giving such tests to children of foreign parentage it has been
found expedient to use the vernacular to which the child is
accustomed. For instance, in the following sentences : The
other day I saw on the street a pretty yellow dog; Little Morris
has stained his nice new apron. Among children of the
street type frequently encountered Morris is sometimes an un-
familiar name, stained is always an unfamiliar word. The test
is passed better by these children if these words are changed
in such a way as to make the sentences seem very ifamiliar to
them. In the following sentence, — "Ernest is frequently pun-
ished for his bad conduct" — frequently is a word which the street
child has probably never used, even if he has heard it. It is
expedient to change it to a word familiar to him in his own
vocabulary.
IV. Interprets a picture. — See above.
V. Solves a problem from several facts. — The two situations
presented to the child are : ( i ) A woman walking in the forest
of Fontainebleau stopped suddenly, dreadfully frightened, hurried
to the nearest policeman and told him that she had just seen
hanging to a limb of a tree — what? (2) My neighbor has just
received some singular visitors. He received, one after the
other, a doctor, a lawyer and a priest. What is going on at my
neighbor's house? These situations are presented to the child
in such a way as to conform with circumstances familiar to
him. The name of the park nearest his home is substituted for
the forest of Fontainebleau. In the second situation, with
Protestant children minister is substituted for priest, and with
Jewish children Rabbi is substituted. The writer has considered
it expedient to allow credit for answers to the first in addition
to the one which Binet permits. Binet judges the only correct
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 49
response to be, "A person who has been hanged." The answer
sometimes is made. In addition, one often obtains the answer,
"A wild animal." Under the circumstances, this is in the child's
mind sufficient reason for the conditions of the problem. In the
city of Chicago one of the large parks contains a menagerie.
There occur occasionally in the newspapers stories of the escape
of animals from the menagerie. That these stories are always
untrue, of course the child does not know. Another answer
which has been given so many times as to show the application
of real experiences to this situation is, "An owl; his eyes frighten
you and make you think something dreadful is there" For the
second situation, the writer has found it expedient to add an
additional caution. If the child answers correctly, "He is ill,"
or "He is dying," he is asked to tell why in that case the three
people have gone there. Frequently the child's correct judgment
is made with reference to one of the conditions only, that the
doctor has gone there. He does not know why the lawyer and
the priest have gone, which shows that he has not taken into
account the whole situation. His answer, even if correct, is
given such credit only if he can give correctly the functions
of the lawyer and priest in the situation.
ADULTS
I. Solves the paper cutting test. — A sheet of paper is folded
along both diameters before the subject and a small triangle
is cut out along the edge which shows but a single fold. The
subject is asked to draw on a similar sheet before him the
position of the cut out portion when the sheet is unfolded. This
test requires control of the mental imagery in accordance with
the given conditions, such as to bring about in imagination the
correct result of the conditions.
II. Reconstructs a triangle. — A card is cut in two pieces along
the diagonal. The pieces are placed before the subject on a
sheet of paper, and he is asked to draw the resulting shape
if the lower piece is placed in such a way that the short side
lies along the diagonal of the other card with the right angle
at the left-hand corner of the upper card and the end of the
5o CLARA SCHMITT
long side pointing downward. One says to the subject, "How
will it look if I place the lower card so that this edge lies
along this edge, with this corner here, and this one pointing
downward?", with the gestures appropriate to the above ex-
planation. This test, as the one above, is one of control of the
imagery to correspond with the given conditions, with a con-
crete stimulus to set up the train of imagery.
III. Gives difference in meaning of abstract terms. — The
question is asked, What is the difference between laziness and
idleness; between event and advent; between evolution and rev-
olution?" The passing of this test depends, of course, upon the
training which the subject has received. Except among educated
classes in America the word advent is unusual, as is also the
word evolution. An example which illustrates the dependence
of this test upon training is the answer of a twelve-year-old
Catholic boy in the high school. He said, "Advent is a church
festival; evolution is a term in arithmetic." Both these answers
were correct, though strictly they could not fill the conditions
of the test. Many children say for revolution, "It is a turning
about," often giving as an example, "A wheel revolves and
then there is a revolution." This, to be sure, is correct. Many
children give as a definition for revolution, "It was a war,"
which, with reference to American history, is also correct.
That there is a difference in innate ability between the per-
sons whose acquaintance with the words has been somewhat
limited and who, therefore, gives a limited definition but en-
tirely correct within the realms of his own experience, and the
older or better educated person who gives a definition for the
words also correct within the realms of his larger experience,
is problematical. If the two are of the same age but the educa-
tion of the former was cut off at such a place that further
experience with these words was prevented, one may not rate him
upon this test with less innate ability but with less education.
IV. Solves the question concerning the president. — The ques-
tion is, There are three principal differences betzveen a king and
a president; what are they? This test also depends for its
proper performance upon the education of the subject.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 51
V. Summarizes an observation made by Hervieu. — The child
is told that a short paragraph will be read to him, and then
he is to tell in his own words the meaning of it. The paragraph
is : Many opinions have been given on the value of life. Some
call it good, others call it bad. It would be more just to say
that it is mediocre; for on the one hand our happiness is never
so great as we would have it, and on the other hand our misfor-
tunes are never so great as others would have them. It is this
mediocrity of life which makes it just, or rather which prevents
it from being radically unjust. This tests the ability to control
the attention over the period of the reading of the selection
and to generalize the abstract thought which it contains.
IV
FALLACIES AND INADEQUACIES OF THE
BINET-SIMON SERIES
From the use and analysis of the Binet-Simon tests one realizes
that the theory underlying their construction was not clearly
conceived by their authors or was not consistently carried out.
The method used in the first series was that of putting to
children of different ages a large number of questions and
setting down as suitable to each age those questions which re-
ceived at a given age a certain percentage of correct answers.
The 1908 series, which has received the largest use, contained
a reading test. In the 1911 series this reading test with a few
others of less importance were eliminated in order that the
series might be free from those tests which are the product of
educational advantage. Because of these considerations, then,
the series may be accepted as designed to measure intellectual
growth from year to year without reference to the changes
produced by formal instruction.
Though Binet nowhere definitely outlines his theory one gains
the impression that the different age groups of tests are designed
to measure something in mental development which is qualita-
tively different from year to year. One infers from various
statements that certain tests are possible at nine years of age,
for instance, which were not at eight because of a certain quality
of the nine year mental age not possessed by the eight year
mental age. In other words the assumption is that there is a
mental growth from year to year which makes it possible to
take on at corresponding ages certain experiences without ref-
erence to previous experience. For instance, at a certain age
it is possible for the child to know the months of the year,
at another age he cannot. That is, this underlying factor of
mental growth determines the form of expression of mental
life. The converse of Binet's theory is that the form of ex-
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 53
pression of mental life at any time is determined by the sum
of previous experiences.
The theory of Binet may be expressed as follows: at a cer-
tain chronological age the mental age may be represented by
x, at a succeeding chronological age it is y, and at a third
it is z. According to the converse theory, the mental age of the
first period, is x, at the second x -f- i, at the third x + 2.
A third possibility presents itself. At the earliest measurable
stage of development the mental age is x, at the second it is y,
and at a third it is z, and thereafter at succeeding stages it is
z + i, £ + 2, etc. The unknown quantities stand for the im-
measurable innate factors which distinguish the vegetative idiot
from the normal person and the ordinates for the measurable
factors of experience.
Apparently Binet assumed the first possibility to be the rule
of development from infancy to adult age. That the assumption
is true to this extent has not been proved by observation or
experimentation in child psychology.
It is probable that the third possibility more nearly expresses
the truth. There are, we know, periods of development in the
child where great and significant changes take place, both
physically and mentally. The acquisition of walking and talk-
ing mark stages of development which are of great significance
in the growing child. Certainly the mind is qualitatively dif-
ferent after the advent of the great increase of motor ability
accompanying walking, and of language. The advent of puberty
marks another such stage of development. The mental changes
accompanying puberty mark off a rich field for investigation.
The walking stage and the pubertal stage have their bases in
physiological changes which may be more or less definitely ac-
companied by intellectual changes. To what extent these physio-
logical changes cause or accompany or are paralled by intellectual
changes of a qualitative kind not dependent upon previous
experience, is one of the unanswered problems of genetic
psychology. Aside from these few possibilities we do not know
whether mental development proceeds from year to year as
Binet assumed. We do not yet know except in a few matters
54 CLARA SCHMITT
whether a child is innately more capable of certain mental pro-
cesses at one time than at another. In the discussion of the
preceding pages it has been shown that some of the tests placed
at certain ages by Binet and supposed to measure abilities peculiar
to those ages, could be used to call out an expression of the
same abilities at earlier ages if so presented as to fall within
the child's range of possible experience at those ages. The
interpretation of pictures, counting backward, and originating
of a sentence with three given words are cases in point.
Until we know more of these most fundamental of the under-
lying facts of genetic psychology we can not unqualifiedly accept
the Binet-Simon tests for the purpose for which they were de-
vised, namely the measurement of mental age. We must know
in more fundamental terms than they express what it means
to be eight years of age, or ten years of age mentally.
We must be able, too, to separate innate mental development
from that due to education of specific types. This the Binet-
Simon tests fail largely to do. This point has been indicated
in the foregoing discussion of the individual tests. The most
striking example of this lack is the test which requires the
reciting of the months of the year. The very young or the
defective individual may have the ability to learn this series with
more or less facility but the conception of time relationship in-
volved in the series is one which it is possible is not entertained
by either. The same thing may be said of the counting series
which may be learned as a verbal series without the accompany-
ing conception of number. Such tests as these without further
investigation fail to indicate the type of mental complex involved
in passing them.
It was Binet's attempt to measure only innate ability as dis-
tinguished from information, however, which led him to discard
reading tests from the 1911 series.* By reason of this the
series now fails to take account of a most important set of
abilities, those that the school endeavors to develop. Many
innate abilities can be measured only by the reaction of the
individual to the learning situation. The most obvious measure
of the ability or group of abilities which enables one to learn
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 55
to read is the amount that has been learned after a given period
of instruction, — say a year in the first grade of the public school.
The use which can be made of the school tests of reading,
writing, and arithmetic is discussed below. They are valuable
because, in a given situation in which the curriculum and the
child's history are known, the relation of the product to the
experience can be measured.
However, if we should admit tfrat there is such development
of mental age as may be measured from year to year, the Binet-
Simon tests do not constitute an accurate measure of it, as is
claimed by Binet and his followers. This is most strikingly shown
in the work of Goddard (13) who applied the scale of 1908
to two thousand nonselected children of the public school. He
made a distribution table showing the relation between the mental
age as measured by the Binet-Simon tests, and the chronological
ages of this group. This piece of work was discussed in 1912
(18) by the writer as follows, beginning with Goddard's table
showing the chronological and mental age distribution of his
two thousand subjects.
Ag
4
S
6
e
yrs
yrs
yrs
I 2 2 3
2 4 8 40 16 4
i o 3 29 48 69
9
0
i
8
114
160
7
yrs
o i 2 8 15 114
50
4
3
197
8
yrs
0 O 2 2 I 87
86
16
12
3
209
0
yrs
27
54
56
58
4
2
2OI
10
yrs
3 IS
24
19
124
27
8
2
222
II
prs
14
13
25
50
00
12
I
166
12
yrs
4
10
13
42
,36
39
144
13
yrs
li
5
6
30
IQ
21
7
89
14
yrs
i
I
6
5
4
3
2O
15
yrs
3
0
ii
2
o
6
Showing the chronological and mental age distribution of the two thousand
public school children graded by the Binet tests.
The writer has computed from this distribution table the
percentages of those who passed "at age" or normal, "below
*Nouvelles Researches sur la Mesure Niveau Intellectual chez les Enfants
<TEcole. L'A. P. 17: 146.
56 CLARA SCHMITT
age," and "above age" for the different ages. These percentages
arrange themselves as follows:
Age Below Age At Age Above Age
5 12.2% 35-0% 52.6%
6. 20.6 30.0 49.4
7 13-2 57-8 28.9
8 44.0 41.1 14.8
9 40.2 27.8 31.8
10 27.4 55.8 16.6
ii 554 36.2 7.8
12 72.9 27.O OO.O
13 92.1 7.8 oo.o
This table shows that with the exception of the seven-year-
and the ten-year-old children less than fifty per cent of any
group were graded "at age" according to the Binet scale. Of
the eight, nine, eleven and twelve-year-old children the largest
group is of the "below age" group; and of the five- and six-year
old children the largest is the "above age" group. Dr. Goddard
has grouped all the "above age," all the "below age," and the
normal or "at age" groups regardless of chronological age and
obtains a curve very closely approximating a normal distribu-
tion. Of this curve Dr. Goddard says, "The significance of these
figures obtained from the general result is very great. There
is every reason to believe, and statisticians confirm this, that
any group of two thousand children may be taken as a fair
sample of conditions to be found in any number of children
to be found in any country. Consequently whatever percentages
or proportions are found here may be taken to be very closely
the standard to be found elsewhere." In answer to this state-
ment we may make the very obvious objection that this curve is
not made up of the measurement of one quality of an otherwise
homogeneous group, but is compiled from the measure of many
qualities of children of different ages. It is made up of the
results of tests applied to children of different ages who may
not have done the same tests, as will be presently shown. The
curve can, therefore, have no statistical validity. It is merely
a happy or an unhappy accident. Dr. Goddard says further,
"Bearing this in mind it becomes very significant when we find
that we have 78 per cent of the children practically normal and
satisfactory — for we allow those children who are one year above
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 57
and one year below to pass with the central group as satisfactory
children." It is only by lumping the percentages again that
this approximation of a normal distribution is obtained. The
percentages of those graded normal according to Dr. Goddard's
standard for the different ages arrange themselves as follows:
Age 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 1 12 13 years
Per cent normal 77.1 91.2 80.7 90.4 83.5 76.5 73.4 52.20 31.4
This table shows that it is only for the ages five, ten, and
eleven that a standard approximating that fixed by Dr. Goddard
is obtained. The twelve and thirteen year group fall below,
the six, seven, eight, and nine year groups above it. The adop-
tion of Dr. Goddard's standard is, however, hardly permissible
because of the great pliability of the rule for grading the tests
laid down by Binet. This rule, presumably followed by Dr.
Goddard, allows a child to be graded normal or at age if he
misses not more than one of the tests designed for his age. If
he misses two of the tests for his age he may be allowed to
substitute tests of a higher age and still be graded normal.
This method gives the nine-year-old children, for instance,
opportunity to fail on any two of the six tests for that age
and substitute any three of the sixteen remaining tests. They
are then graded as nine years of age mentally. The eight-
year-old children may pass any five of the twenty-two tests
above those for eight years and are then graded nine years
of age. The ten-year-old children may fail to pass two of
the ten-year-old tests and not a sufficient number of those above
to compensate and are then graded nine years old mentally.
In this way we may obtain one mental age group by classing
together three groups who have done different things. Dr.
Goddard gives a further pliability to the method of grading
by grouping together with these as normally satisfactory two
other groups who have done still other things.
Further doubt is cast upon the accuracy of the tests by the
fact that judgments arrived at through their application do not
coincide with that of the school concerning the same subjects.
Dr. Goddard, himself, recognizes this. He says, "Analyzing
our data so as to show where each individual is, we find that
58 CLARA SCHMITT
the case is not as favorable as we suggested in the previous
paragraph, that many children who are normal mentally
[according to the Binet tests] are two or three or possibly
four years behind their grade. We find a great many other
children who are mentally dull, not as far behind their grade
as their mentality would require. We find still worse condi-
tions among those who are ahead of their age mentally. They
are not correspondingly ahead of their grade. In other words
the two systems do not agree at all. Now having satisfied our-
selves that the Binet scale is the most accurate method that we
have of determining intellectual ability in children, the question
at once arises, how much injustice is being done these children
by the ordinary school routine?" The teachers of the school
might well retort to this question that as they have the child
continuously over a period oif years their judgment of Ms
abilities ought necessarily, in general, to be more accurate than
that arrived at by a ten or twenty-minute examination over
very little of the matter with which the school concerns itself.
Terman and Childs (15), after the application of the Binet-
Simon scale of 396 non-selected children of the public school,
came to the following conclusion : "It is evident from the results
of our investigation that the Binet scale requires a radical revision
to make it at all suitable to conditions in this country." The
revision of the Binet tests made by Terman and Childs, as they
point out, "has made the lower end of the Scale more difficult
by setting back many of the tests of Binet's higher years, and
the upper range has 'been supplemented . . . and some of the
tests even discarded . . . Believing that tests of memory, vo-
cabulary, observation, reasoning, and reaction to a complex
social or moral situation bring out fundamental characteristics
of mental ability, we have given our scattered range of tests
on memory, questions of comprehension, reasoning tests in-
volving observation, linguistic invention, and association, such
as the completion test, and rearranging a sentence of mixed
words, vocabulary, etc., so that a child of any age will be tested
on a number of these important questions."
Daugherty (19) applied the 1911 series to 483 public school
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 59
children with the following results : 30 per cent passed at age,
1 8 per cent above age, 42 per cent below age. Of the 483
children, 45 per cent were in the school grade normal to their
chronological age, 49.3 per cent were retarded, and 5.6 per cent
were advanced. When distributed according to mental age 48.7
per cent were in the school grade normal to that age, 21.1 per
cent were retarded, and 30.2 per cent were advanced.
Goddard graded four hundred institution feeble-minded with
the 1908 series. He read the classified grading to the teachers
and other officers of the institution and asked for criticisms
upon the classification. The object of the exercise was to
determine whether the individuals classed together by the Binet-
Simon system would be so classed by the people who had had
school and other types of acquaintance with them. The result
was that no individual was considered by the majority as not
belonging to the class in which his name was presented to them.
One necessarily must doubt the validity of a judgment obtained
under such circumstances as this. The classified list was read
to the teachers. The members of this institution doubtless were
already prejudiced in favor of the system adopted for use there,
and in the judgment of their psychologist. Their minds were
not left free for unprejudiced judgment.
Kuhlman (14) asked the teachers and other officials to grade
fifty institution feeble-minded into five groups. These children
graded from eight to twelve years mental age by the tests. Of
the result he says, "The most striking fact about this table is
the frequent wide range of disagreement of the teachers' grad-
ings. For nine children these grades differ by four years, for
nine others they differ by three years, for nineteen by two years,
and for seven there is complete agreement. There can be no
question about the fact that the Binet-Simon tests do not make
half as frequent or as great errors in the mental ages as are
included in these gradings based on careful, prolonged obser-
vation by experienced observers on this class of children. In
other words, the chances for error with the tests are much
less and are smaller when they do occur than is the case with the
grading of any one individual experienced observer when this
60 CLARA SCHMITT
grading is on the usual general observation." The answer to
this objection is that there are many considerations to enter
into the estimation of the intelligence of any subject, and dif-
ferent teachers may have had different bases for their standards
of judgment. We do not know what was the standard of the
individuals who passed judgment. It is possible that each teacher
had in mind that subject of instruction which it was his func-
tion to impart. For one it may have been reading, for another,
manual training. According to the writer's observation ability
of defectives in the two subjects varies widely. The various
Binet series provide no test for either, — if one takes into account
the rule for grading for the series prior to 1911. The official
concerned with the institution routine work 'may have had in
mind as his standard the reliability of the child in such work.
The value to be placed upon any judgment of general mental
ability is proportional to the number of items taken into con-
sideration and the weighting given those different items. We
do not know in view of the disagreement whether in this case
it was the judgment of some of the teachers or the rating
arrived at by the use of the Binet tests which was most reliable.
Since there was so great disagreement between these people
who were well equipped by experience and observation to make
a judgment and the tests, it is probable that the former took
into consideration certain factors which might well be included
in any system of mental measurement.
The extensive pieces of work upon the Binet-Simon tests
quoted above show, also, the lack of correlation between the
series and the child's ability to succeed with the work of the
school. The Binet tests, therefore, while professing to test
native ability are concerned very little with the education which
all normal children have the native ability to acquire, and which
is of much importance in civilized life. The school is busy
during the first four years of the child's school life developing
ability in the processes of reading, writing and arithmetic. In
in the new series there is none at all. The arithmetic tests are :
the 1908 series there was no reading test before eight years and
a counting test; a test of the combination of the numbers
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 6 1
2, 2, 2, i, i, i ; and making change for a quarter. The school
teaches during the years for which these tests are designed
more complex processes than these. Along with and after the
mastery of the early subjects of formal instruction, the school
is concerned with their application, especially of reading, to the
acquisition of a systematized body of information, such as geog-
raphy, history, etc. We have then to conclude, that since the
1908 series falls short of measuring the abilities which the
school expects to develop, the 1911 series is still more open to
criticism.
In the work of the public school ability to read is of the
greatest importance because upon it depends all further progress
in the school. Number conceptions and knowledge of the pro-
cesses of their combinations are of so great importance in the
practical activities of every day life that arithmetic occupies a
large part of the time of the public school. Mentally defective
children in the public school display their defectiveness in their
slowness or failure in acquiring the processes of reading and
number work. Any set of tests which fails to explore these
realms of mental activity can be of little value as a measuring
scale for backward children brought to the clinic of the public
school. We must conclude, then, that at least the lower end
of the Binet-Simon scale does not measure the ability of a
child in accordance with the social standards set for him.
The second psychological fallacy implicit in the grading of
mental defectives according to mental age is seen in the false
assumption that a defective individual of any age, who tests
to a certain mental age according to the Binet-Simon scale, is
equivalent to or identical with the normal child of correspond-
ing chronological age. Examples which illustrate this point may
be quoted from the clinical studies made by Huey (20). He says
of case 22 : "In school Hilda reads poorly in the first reader,
adds and subtracts very little, is poor in spelling, writing and
industrial work, but dances well. She gives only momentary
attention to anything, gets on fairly well with others, and her
worst fault is stated to be her insistence on being the center of
attraction. She is most restless and 'always sits on one leg or
62 CLARA SCHMITT
twisted around in her seat.' She appears bright, and even
spontaneous, but she does not get the work done. She is over-
demonstrative of her affection for persons whom she likes. The
Binet tests give her a mental age of eight and one-half years, a
retardation of two years. She could not repeat 16 syllables,
could not count stamps, nor backward from 20 to o, could not
write a four word phrase when heard, could not give the date
even approximately, nor make change, name the months, or
arrange weights. Hilda has learned to write with moderate
legibility, but cannot use writing to any purpose. In trying to
reproduce stories I and II and to write of a trip in a flying-
machine, she wrote p, 6 and 4 lines respectively, being a hotch
potch such as 'a fat pig a hoig to leand a good heven Cand a
sometime cand! etc. Instead of writing similars and opposites,
in the tests for these, she either copied the words with strange
transpositions and changes, or occasionally wrote some appar-
ently unrelated word or series of letters. . She crossed 49 and 77
A's in two minutes each, with no errors. Her tapping record
counted to nearly normal, but she showed exceedingly poor con-
trol, tensing her fingers into knots, hammering the key. etc." All
of this description points out in a very striking way the defects
of Hilda's mentality as compared with that of the normal 8-
year-old child in the school. The normal child of this age can
do more than read poorly in the first reader, has a knowledge
of arithmetic processes such as enables him to make changes
within one dollar; to recognize related units of measure, such
as inch, foot; minute, hour, day, week; pint, quart; cent, nickel,
dime, quarter, half-dollar? dollar; to use the tables of two's
and three's; to count by two's to 24 and by three's to 36;
to tell half of any multiple of two to 24 and one-third of any
multiple of three to 36; to read and write numbers of one and
two orders ; to read time by the clock to hour, half hour, quarter
hour; and to answer any of the 45 addition and subtraction
facts. [According to the 1912 Course of Study for the Second
Grade of the Elementary Public Schools of Chicago.] The
child of 8 years can use writing to some purpose; he can or-
ganize his mental life with reference to this accomplishment
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 63
so that he does not produce the results which were quoted of
Hilda.
Another example of this fallacy is that of Robert P., quoting
from the volume mentioned above. "In school Robert reads
fairly in the first reader only, does some addition and subtrac-
tion, but jailed on 5 x 2 and 4x1. He does well in calisthenics
and likes to 'lead.' He is also good at dancing and in basketry.
In manual work he is generally quite satisfactory, only working
by fits and starts, though occasionally he turns in and works hard
for a time. . . . Mentally Robert shows an intelligence of nine
years with a retardation of five and one-half years. His speech
is nasal, but he can articulate normally. -He could repeat five
numerals but once in seven trials, could not count from 20 to o,
nor make change of 4 cents from 25, name the months, detect
nonsense in sentences, or give 6 of the ip details about
the 'fire.' He seems to be bored with the trouble of think-
ing. He did not make absurd replies, but was merely weak in
his adaptations and at the same time rather self-satisfied with
them. 'Not very hard3 was his characteristic reply after utterly
failing to rearrange the shuffled words of a sentence. . . . In
the written tests the work is very weak both in quantity and
quality. His handwriting is irregular almost to scribbling,
though large and therefore moderately legible. His mis-spell-
ings, as in some of the other cases, suggest a form of agraphia."
It is needless to point out that the normal child of nine years
can do more than read in the first reader, would not fail on
5 x 2, is not bored with the trouble of thinking, and is not
satisfied with absurd results, such as were mentioned in Robert's
case.
In the cases described above one also sees along with the
fallacious assumption which they disclose, the failure of the
Binet tests, alone, to adequately describe or explore the mental
life of any subject. This inadequacy of the Binet tests is strik-
ingly shown in the description of a case which was discussed
by the writer in the above mentioned article: — "But the writer
feels impelled to assert that if there were complete agreement
between the test findings and school grade they would still, alone,
constitute an inadequate measure of mental ability or mental de-
64 CLARA SCHMITT
velopment. The best possible illustration of this is afforded by
the description of a boy by Holmes in a recent article. The
Classification of Clinic Cases. The following is an abstract of
Holme's description of the case : The case was that of a six-year-
old boy who had been in school for six- months without having
made any progress in the work of the school in spite of the fact
that an adult sister attempted every evening to teach him his
lessons for the next day; he cried when struck by his playmates
or when hurt by his playthings but did not strike back or in any
way try to defend himself and would run to his mother for help;
he could assemble the parts of electrical apparatus, arranging
cells, wires, and bells so they would ring; could connect an in-
candescent lamp so it could be lighted; could start and operate
a gas engine by himself. In commenting upon this case Dr.
Holmes fell in the fallacy of an uncritical acceptance of the
Binet tests when he said, 'It presaged what was revealed by
the Binet tests, namely that the boy was one year beyond the
mental attainment of the average boy of his age,' that is, he
had passed the Binet tests for seven years. In the case of
this boy were found by Dr. Holmes four distinct judgments.
His sister and the school thought him a dullard ; his father, with
whom he worked at the electrical apparatus, thought him all
right; his playmates considered him a mollycoddle; and the
Binet tests classified him as somewhat precocious. No two of
these judgments were the result of the same set of data. The
school judged him by his proficiency in acquiring the processes
of reading, writing, and number conceptions; the Binet tests
have nothing to do with these school abilities except counting
to thirteen and writing from copy in the seven-year-old tests,
in either of which he may have failed and still be graded
one year ahead of his age. Neither is there in the Binet tests
anything which would hint at or indicate his ability with
mechanical contrivances; nor that his social reactions would
be as they were. Should the school and social disabilities be
persisted in through life or for several years he certainly would
not escape being considered a defective. It is also clearly in-
dicative of the inadequacy of these tests that Dr. Holmes could
not give a description of the case in terms of their result. He
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 65
had to resort to other facts in order to present a true picture.
We certainly can not agree with him that this boy had the men-
tal attainments of a normal boy of seven years. In that case
we should have to believe that the majority of seven-year-old
boys possess his mechanical efficiency and his academic ineffi-
ciency, which is not true. Children of six can learn to read
and if children of seven can assemble the parts of a gas engine
and run it without adult supervision no one knows it. In the
case of this boy there was one and possibly there were two
of his social relationships in which he failed to function prop-
erly, namely, in his reaction to the school and to his playmates.
It would seem to be the legitimate business of the psychological
clinic to find why he thus failed. Was the defect in his school
work due to a lack of ability for that type of activity, to lack
of interest in it; or was it a result of his defective social re-
sponse? And what was the cause of this latter defect?
Another case showing the inadequacy of the Binet tests to
describe a case of mental defect was described by the writer
in the above mentioned article as follows : "This case was a
boy, Frank, aged sixteen. Following are his reactions to the
Binet series copied from the notes of the writer made as they
were given.
Eight Year Tests :
1. Comparison of butterfly and fly, etc., passed.
2. Counts backwards, passed (?) (Forgot where he was once
and had to ask what had said last).
3. Notes omission eyes, etc., passed.
4. Date, failed.
5. Repeats five numerals, passed (once out of three trials).
Nine Year Tests :
1. Makes change, passed (25 cents — 9 cents. Instead of mak-
ing the change told that one could receive it in the smallest
number of pieces in a nickel, a dime, and a penny).
2. Definitions superior to use, failed.
3. Recognizes money, passed.
4. Months of the year, failed.
5. Problem situations, passed.
66 CLARA SCHMITT
Ten Year Tests:
1. Arranges weights, passed.
2. Copies design, passed.
3. Detects incongruities, failed.
4. Problem situations, failed.
5. Three given words in a sentence, failed (Chicago has
money in the river}.
Twelve Year Tests :
1. Resists suggestion, passed.
2. Three words in a sentence, failed.
3. Utters 60 words in three minutes, failed; (27 words.
Pauses much, though urged to go fast).
4. Definitions, failed. (Charity? "Don't know." Justice?
"Justice of the peace." Goodness? "Gracious.")
5. Rearranges shuffled words in a sentence, failed.
According to the Binet series this boy grades nine years of
age, and it might be thought is a fit candidate for the feeble-
minded institution. The further disabilities which these tests
do not disclose are as follows:
1. He cannot recognize any printed words and not all of
the alphabet, though kept in school the regulation time.
2. He can write only his own and his brother's names. Told
to write the cat ran away wrote the set, though he could spell
cat correctly.
3. He can do simple number combinations such as 5 plus 6,
10 minus 4, by counting his fingers.
4. He knows only that his birthday comes in the summer;
said, "My mother told me but I always forget."
5. He has very poor control of associations which do not
provide a sense stimulus as is shown in his reactions to the
opposite test. Out of 20 stimulus words he reacted correctly
to only 6, gave a wrong association for 10, and failed entirely
for 4 of the stimulus words.
6. He is very suggestible. In the Aussage test accepted 5
out of 7 suggestions.
The positive abilities which this boy possesses and which the
Binet tests cannot disclose are:
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 67
1. He can do a test involving the planning of a complex set
of spatial relationships in a planned and comprehensive way.
This ability is disclosed by test IV of the Healy-Fernald series.
2. He has the ability to do in a planned and comprehensive
way a test requiring the analysis of the functional relationships
of a simple mechanical contrivance, as is disclosed by test V.
of the Healy-Fernald series. He also did tests I, II, and III
of this series in the manner considered intelligent in the grading
adopted in the work of the clinic.
The history of the boy's industrial life correlates with the
inference that one might draw from his performance with the
mechanical tests. He has been an efficient farm laborer for
some months, worked satisfactorily for a creamery for a time
loading and unloading cans etc., and as a janitor for a small
school building. He is capable of earning his living without
direct supervision."
The faults of the Binet-Simon series may then be summed up
as follows :
1. The assumption of serial mental development from early
childhood to adult age.
2. The omission of tests of socially significant abilities.
3. Failure to distinguish certain innate abilities from a cer-
tain expression of them due to age or experience.
4. Is not an accurate measure of mental development of
normal children.
5. The assumption that a defective is quantitatively rather
than qualitatively different from a normal individual. This
point is discussed further on p. 164.
There is a further lack in the series which has been implied
in the description of Frank. With the Binet series alone one
might have had no hint as to his industrial possibilities. The
mechanical tests of the Healy-Fernald type, it is possible, may
be made to supply such deficiency. To determine this, studies
for the purpose of correlating them with the handwork of
the school or other places where such activities can be measured
need to be made.
V
DISCUSSION OF BINET-SIMON TABLES
The reactions to the Binet-Simon tests have been summarized
in the following seven tables. Each table is arranged with refer-
ence to grade, one for each grade. The first column of num-
bers at the extreme left of each table refers to the individual
children. The age of each child is in the second left hand
column, and the results of the individual tests are recorded in
the following columns. A plus sign indicates success and V
failure with the tests according to the Binet-Simon grading,
and where modifications from the French are required those
adopted by Goddard are followed. Where the author has
further modified the standard for grading has been indicated in
the text of discussion and in the case of some tests by footnote
to the tables.
The tests were given with the Healy-Fernald tests to the group
of children described on page 2. These children were
considered normal by the teachers who had them in charge. No
child known to be defective or seriously backward is admitted
to the school. There were some retarded members, the extent
of which is shown in table VIII below. The causes assigned
by the teachers for retarded cases were, in general, illness, de-
layed start to school because of the theory of the parent that
such a course was best for the child, and the interruption of
regular study by travel.
The general technique of procedure was adopted with reference
to demands of the Healy-Fernald tests. It is discussed further
on page 86.
- In the conduct of the two sets of tests the Binet-Simon tests
were reserved for the last. By the time they were reached the
child had been doing tests for an hour or more. In some cases
there was too much restlessness and fatigue to carry the child as
far as the majority of his comrades in his grade were able to go
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 69
and the tests were then discontinued. This accounts for the
unevenness of the right hand side of some of the tables.
Binet-Slmon Record of Kindergarten. — Table I shows the
record made by the twenty-four kindergarten children. A
glance at the table for the tests below nine years shows that
the greatest amount of failure occurs with the following tests:
the 6-3 test,* six failures to copy the lozenge. When watching
these children work at this test one comes to the conclusion
that the failure is due to lack of muscular control. The fre-
quently heroic and often unsuccessful attempt to draw the
slanting lines of the lozenge is easily apparent. Seven fail at
7-3, describe a picture; 15 at 7-4, give the value of nine cents;
9 at 8-2, to count backward.
The counting backward test was not an utter failure on the
part of any child graded V. Those so graded were able to
comprehend the problem sufficiently well to make a reasonable
attempt at it, and to get more than two-thirds of the required
terms correct. The errors were mostly those of omission. They
come about in this way; the child has successfully reached per-
haps fifteen in his backward progress toward one, and here
he pauses to go through the process discussed above by which he
determines the next term in the series. He counts up from
some term nearer one and having come up to fifteen again,
says thirteen instead of fourteen.
Twenty-four children fail at 8-4, the date; nine at 8-5, to
repeat five digits. The 7-4 and 8-4 tests concern themselves with
bits of specific instruction not included in the curriculum of the
kindergarten.
Of the nine year tests the first four are tests of the results of
specific school instruction. The 9-2 test, defines in terms super-
ior to use, may 'be classed as such because of the usual school
exercise of defining words found in the reading and other exer-
cises of the school. The fifth one is a test which involves having
formed a generalized rule of action for a given situation. Of
the eighteen children who were given the nine year tests, failure
was the rule with the first four. Eleven of the eighteen were
*This convention is adopted to indicate test III of the six year group.
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ON ON 00 00 00 ON 00 00
O
$
H
I
•V*
<?
B
o
\O \O VO VO
0606
O\000000 Q
c^ o\oo o< o\
•c
M"^
S w
72 CLARA SCHMITT
able to so generalize experience into rules of action as to succeed
with the fifth test according to the Binet standard. No child of
the eighteen failed to answer at least one of the problems
correctly.
Binet-Simon Record of the First Grade. — Passing to the record
of the first grade, Table II, we find that here again the tests below
ten years which depend upon specific instruction are usually not
passed except the 7-4 test. The material of this test is included in
the curriculum of this grade. The 9-5 test of experience is univer-
sally passed. Perhaps one may venture upon the theory that it
is because the children of the first grade have had more and
broader social experience than those of the kindergarten. The
10-3, 10-4, and 10-5 tests, are passed by approximately two thirds
of the first grade children. There is almost entire failure with the
10-2, test of visual memory, and more than fifty per cent of
failure with the discrimination of weight.
Binet-Simon Record of the Second Grade. — With the second
grade, Table III, the reaction to the 10-3, 10-4, and 10-5 tests
remains the same as for the first grade, as do practically the
weight discrimination and visual memory tests. The 12-4 test,
definition of abstract terms, is generally missed, and the 12-5,
test of rearrangement of words to make a sentence. This test
was graded V in accordance with Binet's standard of the time
factor, failure in one minute. Many of the children were given
more time and several trials and finally accomplished the result.
It is characteristic of the child who fails according to the Binet
standard that he is unable to see the sentence entirely. He puts
a few words together in the right relation and a few others in
their right relation, and then he finally criticises the whole pro-
duct. In no case was a child who failed to do the test satisfied
with his result.
This is in striking contrast with the behavior of the defective
child. The latter does not criticize his failures. If he tries to
perform the test he is usually satisfied with the result.
C v
B *a 3
o o o o o
O
o
c
m
o
:§s
'•3 M
«j c
O
bo
2 £ N ^00 ON 2
OO tx
coN
00 00
oo co m Th vp
<N c?4 (^ f» fN
74
CLARA SCHMITT
Binet-Simon Record of Third Grade. — The children of the
third grade, Table IV, continue in large numbers to fail in the
10-1, 10-2, 12-4, and 12-5 tests. It is interesting to note that the
reaction to the 12-1 test of suggestion has changed in character.
The second grade child made no error in his judgment, but the
third grade child, perhaps in his desire to exercise great care, fell
into the error of judgment which has been discussed above.
TABLE IV
Reaction of Third Grade Children to Binet-Simon Tests
Binet Ages
8 yr.
9 yr.
10 yr.
12 yr.
Grade
Men-
tal
Age
No.
Age
12345
12345
12345
12345
20
8
+ + + + +
+ + + v +
+ + + + +
+ + V V V
3
i&A
21
8-2
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + v
3
10^
6
8-8
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
V V + + +
+ + + V V
3
^A
12
8-9
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
v + + + +
+ + + + v
3
103/s
IO
8-10
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + v +
3
io$i
2
9
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
v v + + +
+ + v + v
3
10^
3*
9
+ + + + +
+ + + + v
+ v + + +t
+ V V V V
3
9^
13
9-2
+ + + + +
+ + + v +
+ v + + +
+ + v + v
3
™y5
5
9-2
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + V V V
3
io2/5
7
9-2
+ + + + +
v + + + +
v v + + +
+ + + + v
3
ioy5
8
9-2
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + v v
3
i&A
i
9-3
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
v v + + +
+ + v + v
3
ioH
ii
9-4
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + + v
3
103/5
4
9-4
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + v v
3
l02/5
9
9-4
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
v + + + +
+ + + + v
3
V03/5
17
9-9
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + v v
3
™2/S
16
9-9
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
v + + + +
+ + + + V
3
103/5
18
9-KI
+ + + + +
+ + + v +
+ + + + +
+ + + + v
3
10^
14
IO-2
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
v + + + +
+ + V V V
3
10}*
15
10-4
+ v + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
3
12-11
19
10-4
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
v + + + +
+ 4- V V V
3
10^
+ Wrong judgment.
t V with Chicago, money, river, with boy, river, ball.
* Considered a pathologically timid case, but not lacking in ability,
apparently due to fear of expressing a wrong judgment.
V's
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS
75
Binet-Simon Record of Fourth Grade. — The fourth grade,
Table V, shows much the same type of reactions as the third
grade.
TABLE V
Reaction of Fourth Grade Children to Binet-Simon Tests
Binet Ages
No.
Age
8 yr.
12345
12345
10 yr.
12 yr.
12345 12345
Grade
Men-
tal
Age
40
47
53
56
51
48
45
50
55
52
46
49
54
57
44
61
59
60
58
63
62f
9
9-5
9-9
9-9
9-9
o-io
9-10
10
10- 1
IO-2
IO-2
10-4
10-4
io-5
10-5
10-5
10-8
lo-g
10-9
1 1-2
n-6
12-2
+
+ + v +
v + + +
v + + + +
V + ++
v + + + +
+ v + + +
+ V+ + +
v + + + +
v + + + +
v v + + +
v + + + +
V V + + +
-f + + + +
+ v + + +
v v + + +
V V + + +
V V + + +
+ v + + +
+ v + + +
+ V+ + +
+ v + + +
v + + + +
V + 4- + +
v + + v +
+ + + v v
V + + + V
+ + + + v
+ + + + v
+ V + + V
+ + + v v
+ + + + v
v + + + v
+ + + + v
+ + + 4- v
+ + + v v
+ + + + v
+ + + + v
+ + + v
+ + + v
10?*
105*
105*
ioy5
io3/s
105*
io?*
10?*
105*
12
+ Wrong judgment, opposite to suggestion judgment.
15 yr.
fAdd to No. 62 one column as follows: V + V V
CLARA SCHMITT
Binet-Simon Record of Fifth Grade. — The fifth grade, Table
VI, shows itself capable of doing the 12-5 test and fails in large
numbers in the 10-1 and 10-2 tests. The 15-3, test of memory
of sentence of twenty-six syllables, and the 15-4, interpretation of
a picture, were generally failure.
TABLE VI
Reaction of Fifth Grade Children to Binet-Simon Tests
Binet Ages
9 yr.
10 yr.
12 yr.
15 yr.
Grade
Mental
age
No.
Age
12345
12345
12345
i 2 3 4 sf
66
10-3
+ + + + +
v + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + V B
5
12^/5 or 11%
65
10-3
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + V +
5
1 2^5
64
10-5
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + + +
+ + V V V
5
12% II
67
10-6
+ + + + +
v v + + +
+ + + + +
V V V V V
5
12 IO%
69
10-6
+ + + + +
v v + + +
+ + + + +
+ + v + +
5
12^ 11%
72
ii
+ + + + +
v + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + V V B
5
12% II
71
1-1-2
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + v
+ + v v +
5
12% 11%
73
I>I -2
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + + +
V + V V +
5
12% II
68
n-5
+ + + V +
+ v + + +
+ + + + v
V + V + A
5
10^ 10^
70
n*5
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + + +
+ + V V +
S
12% 11%
74
11-6
+ + + + +
v + + + +
+ + + + +•
V + V V +
5
12% II
78
1 1-6
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + + +
+ + V V A
5
12% II
79
11-8
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + + +
+ + V V A
5
12% II
77
12
j_ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + v
+ + v + +
5
12% 11%
76
I2-I
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + + +
+ + v v +
5
12^ 11%
75
12-2
+ + + + +
v v + + +
+ + + + +
V + V V -f-
5
12% 10%
83
12-6
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + + +
V V V V B
5
12 IO%
80
12-7
+ + + + +
v v + + +
+ + v v +
+ V V V +
5
iof<5 10%
82
12-7
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + v
V + V V -f
5
12% 11%
84
12-11
+ + + + +
v v + + +
5
9%
81
12-11
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + + +
v + v v +
5
12% II
85
13-8
+ + + + +
+ v + + +
+ + + + +
+ + v v +
5
uM «.«
+ Wrong judgment.
t A and B indicate problems i and 2, respectively, of the test passed.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS
77
Binet-Simon Record of Sixth Grade. — The reactions of the
sixth grade, Table VII, were much the same as those of the fifth.
The adult tests were given to the sixth grade as a class, the
results being written by the children and handed in. Of the
adult tests, number 2, rearranges a triangle, and 3, give differ-
ences in meanings of abstract terms, were answered by two thirds
of the class. The matter of test four is not a part of the organ-
ized civics work of this grade, and the information in sufficiently
organized form to permit of an attempt to answer the question
must have been obtained through general reading by those who
succeeded.
TABLE VII
'Reaction of Sixth Grade Children to Binet-Simon Tests
Binet Ages
12 yr.
15 yr.
Adult
Grade
Mental
age
No.
Age
12345
12345
12345
H5
12
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
6
A
116
12
+ + + + v
+ + + + +
v + + + +
6
15^
124
12
+ + + + V
V + V V +
+ V V + +
6
12
105
I2-I
+ + + + +
+ + v + v
v + + v +
6
12^
109
I2-I
+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + v v
6
l53/5
104
I2-I
+ + + + +
+ + v + +
+ v + + +
6
153/S
123
I2-I
+ + + + +
+ + v v +
v + + v +
6
I5H
in
12-2
+ + + + +
+ V V V +
V + V V +
6
12^
IOO
12-2
+ + + + +
+ + v + v
+ + + + v
6
l52/5
114
12-3
+ + + + +
+ + v + +
+ + V V V
6
I5H
1 02
12-6
+ + + + v
+ + v + v
V + + V V
6
12^
106
12-6
+ + + + +
+ + v + +
V V + V +
6
15^
119
12-8
+ + + + +
v + v + +
V V + V V
6
12^
118
12-8
+ + + + +
v + + + +
v + + + v
6
i52A
H3
12-8
+ + + + +
+ v v + +
+ + + + +
6
A or 153/5
108
12-9
+ + v + +
+ + v + +
V V V V V
6
10 or n
103
12-9
+ + + + +
+ + v + v
V V V V V
6
I3*i
1 20
12-11
+ + + + +
+ V V + +
v + + v +
6
15^
99
13
+ + + + +
+ V V V A
V + V V V
6
12^
122
13
+ + + + v
+ V V V +
v + + v +
6
12^
117
13-4
+ + + + +
V V V V +
V + + + V
6
l2Ys
no
13-5
+ + + + +
+ + v + v
+ + + + v
6
IS2/S
107
14-2
+ + + + v
V V V V V
V + V V V
6
12
78 CLARA SCHMITT
The final column of each table shows the mental age attained by
each individual. Where the ages of ten and twelve and fifteen
overlap there is some ambiguity as to the grading for mental age.
Should the children who fail in some of the ten year tests but
make the additional five in the twelve and fifteen sets be graded
eleven years or twelve years mentally ? The type of performance
with the 1 2- 1 test also complicates the grading. Where there
may be an alternative grade the fact has been indicated in an
additional column.
The results are arranged in table VIII which shows the rela-
tion of chronological age to mental age. In this table are
indicated the alternative gradings and the resulting alternative
percentages. The 150 children grade 14 per cent (or 20)
retarded, 26 per cent (or 24) normal, and 55 per cent (or 54)
advanced.
Table VIII
Re- Nor- Ad-
tarded mal vanced
Chronc
ical a
Mental Age
u
.0
.0
3
&
&
.0
§
55
&
.a
a
3
55
£
)log- /
ge 678
9 10 ii
12 15
A'.I
5 to
5-6 2 i
3
O
o
o
o
3
IOO
5-6 to
6-6374
H
O
o
3
21
II
78
6-6 to
7-6 i 3 8
6
18
I
5
3
16
14
77
7-6 to
8-6 i 3
II IO
25
I
4
3
12
21
84
8-6 to
9-6
3 18
21
O
o
3
14
18
85
4
9-6 to
10-6
or
19 [3]
i
23
o
0
19
82
4
17
5
6
5
45
o
O
6
54
io-6 to
n-6
or
or
or
or
or
7 [4]
0
II
7
63
4
36
o
o
o
9
o
o
9
56
1 1-6 to
12-6
or
or
or
or
i [51
3 6
i 16
6
38
3
18
7
43
2
9 4
i
12-6 to
13-6
or
or or
or
i 3 [3l
5 5
o 17
12
70
O
o
5
29
13-6 to
14-6
2
2
2
IOO
Total
ISO
21
14
40
26
88
Is
or
or
or
or
30
20
37
24
81
54
Showing the relation of chronological to mental age of 150 normal children.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 79
With these results we may compare those of table IX, which
shows the relation of grade to chronological age. The numbers
in heavy type mark those of normal age for the grade. Since
the data was obtained at the end of the school year the normal
age for the kindergarten is that of the beginning first grade, for
the first grade that of the beginning second grade, etc. — that is,
the kindergarten children were ready for the first grade and
became first grade children at the beginning of the next year.
The table shows that 38 per cent are retarded, 56 per cent
normal and 4 per cent advanced with respect to their school
work as compared with the 14 per cent, 26 per cent and 58
per cent respectively with respect to Binet-Simon mental age.
TABLE IX
Age Grade Correlation
Re- Nor- Ad-
Chronological Age tarded mal vanced
VO
S1
s>
V
/
— \
r ' •"
N
r—
— \
£
VO
oo
*
O
h-t
5
<M
r?
M
hi
IH
t-,
T^
o
o
Q
O 4J
o
<U
0)
VO O
o
O
O
— .Q
^
^Q
_<*>
o
VO
VO
VO
vo 5
E
s
E
+J VO
»3
^
Grade
IT) VO
^
00
ON
O
t— i
O)
»— 1
I-H Z
55
&
&
S5
*&
Kdg.
17 6
2
25
8
32
17
68
o
o
I
12
7
I
20
8
40
12
60
o
o
II
12
5
17
5
29
12
70
0
o
III
2
13
6
21'
6
28
13
61
2
9
IV
2
14
4
2
22
6
27
14
63
2
9
V
3
7
6
5
I 22
12
54
7
3
14
VI
10
12
I 23
13
56
10
43
0
o
Total 150 58 38 85 56 7 4
Showing relation of grade to chronological age of 150 normal children.
Table X shows the relation of school grade to the mental
age grading of the Binet series. If school grade age and Binet
age correspond the normal Binet age for the Kindergarten
would be six years, for the first grade seven years, etc. The
normal mental age for the grade is indicated by the heavy type.
The number retarded according to the Binet age with reference
to the normal grade age is 2 per cent (or 4) ; normal, 25 per
cent (or 35); advanced 72 per cent (or 60).
The results of the three preceding tables arrange themselves
as follows :
80 CLARA SCHMITT
Retarded Normal Advanced
14 (or 20) % 26 (or 24) % 58 (or 54) % By Binet Age to Chronological
Age.
38 36 4 By School Grade to Chronological
Age.
2 (or 4) 25 (or 35) 72 (or 60) By Binet Age to School Grade Age.
These figures show the wide variance in the various gradings.
Where the school grading shows 4 per cent advanced over the
normal for the chronological age, the Binet grading shows 58
per cent over the chronological age and 72 per cent over the
age normal to the school grade.
TABLE X
Re- Nor- Ad-
tarded mal vanced
u
1
O
Mental Age
|
|
*
|
*
1
3
fe
*
6 7 8 9 10 ii
12 15 A.
Kdg.
6 ii 8
25
0
o
6
24
19
76
I
0 7 II 2
20
O
0
o
0
2O
100
II
o 7 10
17
O
0
o
o
17
IOO
I
III
i 19 [i]
or
21
o
o
i
4
2O
95
o
IV
21
i
22
o
o
21
95
I
4
2
19
3
13
O
o
19
86
V
I or
or
or
or
or
or
or
or
5 [15]
i
22
6
26
15
68
I
4
i
IO 2
VI
or [i]
10 or or
o
ir i
23
i
4
IO
43
12
52
Total 150 4 2 38 25 108 72
or or or or or or
7 4 53 35 90 60
Showing relation of normal grade age to Binet mental age of 150 normal
children.
Table X when analyzed further shows that below the fourth
grade the Binet tests are not suited to children with the educa-
tional experiences of those grades, since from 76 per cent to
100 per cent are advanced by the Binet tests over the age normal
to the school grade. At the fourth grade the age normal to
school grade and the Binet age correspond very closely. At the
fifth grade the Binet age is advanced or rather close to the
normal according to the convention chosen for the Binet grad-
ing. At the sixth grade it is rather evenly divided between
advanced and normal.
VI
STANDARDIZATION AND DISCUSSION OF THE
HEALY-FERNALD TESTS
Origin of the Healy-Fernald tests. — The Healy-Fernald set
of tests was worked out for two purposes. The first was for
the purpose of supplementing the Binet-Simon series. It was
discovered in the work of the clinic that the Binet-Simon series
failed to explore with sufficient thoroughness the mentality of the
child. The objections to the Binet-Simon series have been
discussed a1x>ve.
The second reason for the preparation of the new tests arose
from the language difficulty which confronted the workers of
the clinic. Many children who come to the clinic are of foreign
parentage or from homes where a foreign language is spoken.
In many cases they come from parochial schools where little
English is taught or used. In other cases, especially those of
rather young children, the reactions to the Binet-Simon tests
were of doubtful significance, because the tester could not be
sure that the language in which these tests were given was
completely understood by the child. The difficulty of using the
English language with a child from an alien speaking home
can be appreciated only by one who has mingled with these
children informally on their own ground. The child confronts
a situation in which he has not only two languages with which
to deal, but rather three. There is the foreign language in
the home, the patois which he gets on the street, and the
classical language of the cultured person with whom he comes
in contact at school or other cultural institutions. The street
patois is surely not an unimportant factor in causing mental
confusion in the mind of the child. In the realm of patois a
man is never a man, he is a guy; a boy is never a boy, he is a kid;
?. foolish person is never such, he is a mut; one never stops doing
something, or is commanded to leave off doing something, he
82 CLARA SCHMITT
must always cheese it; and so on interminably. The confusion
can well be imagined in the mind of the child who, at home, is told
in a foreign language by his mother to leave off doing some-
thing; who by his older brothers or street companions is com-
manded to cheese it; and who by his teacher or other cultured
person with whom he comes in contact, is in more or less
classical terms requested to stop his misconduct. If the child
has never attended a public school, but only a parochial school
in which English is very little taught, the difficulty of examina-
tion with such a series of tests as the Binet-Simon, which
makes use of language almost wholly, can well be imagined.
For these reasons, tests which show the functioning of intelli-
gence without the necessity of accuracy in the use of language
were originated by the workers and friends of the Psychopathic
clinic.
Evaluation of Results. — In the attempt to express the dif-
ference between the defective and the normal human intellect
one is confronted by two possibilities. The first is, that there
exists a distinguishable qualitative difference. This idea was most
vividly expressed by Tregold when he said that there exists be-
tween the highest ament and the lowest normal individual an im-
passable gulf. The qualitative factor of difference has been
discussed with reference to the application of the Binet-Simon
tests to the task of distinguishing between the normal and the
defective. The second possibility is that the difference is only
a quantitative one. It is to the effect that there exists a normal
curve of distribution of mental abilities corresponding to the
theoretically normal curve to be obtained from a large mass
of fine measurements. Notwithstanding the theory of quali-
tative discrimination underlying its origin the attempt has been
made by Goddard, Kuhlman, Chotzen and others to fit the
Binet-Simon series into this conception. Their theory of the
difference between the normal and the defective is that the
latter takes more time chronologically to reach a certain point
of development than does the former. Clinical experience in
getting developmental histories of defectives goes to show that
in many phases of development that is the case. Defective chil-
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 83
dren learn to walk and talk later than normal children. In
matters of formal education they acquire more slowly. In
the clinic which has for its task the classification of children for
educational, penal or other practical social purposes this type
of data is inadequate to fulfill the demands of the situation.
Developmental history can not always be obtained with ac-
curacy; there are many causes of retardation of the develop-
mental phases of early life the effects of which do not persist
to a later period; progress in formal education and acquiring
of information may be interfered with by any one or more
of several physical and social factors.
This use of the time factor is only another application of
the quantitative idea of difference discussed in the first chapter.
The use of the time factor whether in the sense oif marking
off developmental ranges of difference, or whether applied in
the rigorous laboratory method to specific tests can make the
point of distinction between the normal and the defective only
an arbitrary matter. With the curve of normal distribution
of quantitatively measurable phases of mental processes before
us who is to decide this determining point and upon what basis ?
In order to give a 'further meaning and value to the quanti-
tative data obtainable in a clinical examination the writer
proposes certain qualitative classifications in the discussion to
follow.
The quantitative data used to determine the qualitative classi-
fications to be described below are, for the most part, number
and types of errors. The classifications are made upon such
considerations as the relation of error in individual cases to
the number of errors possible to the test to be evaluated, other
conditions peculiar to the test itself, and the object of the test
from the standpoint of the child.
Some of the reasons for the exclusion of time measure in
evaluation of results were discussed above. They are inherent
in the demands oif the clinical situation. The motive to make a
good time record is unsuited to the practical demands of the
clinic, because it is the desire there to test for the most part
such processes as require attentional control in a new situation.
84 CLARA SCHMITT
'For some tests such as tapping tests and the Thorndike a test,
the time measure is an important factor. In such tests there
is no new discrimination in the perceptual or other mental pro-
cesses to be made. If other things, such as the avoidance of
error or the making of a plan for a bit of work, are of most
importance, time can not except within large limits be taken
into consideration. In the writer's proposed classifications the
only use of the time factor is to mark the point where the
child's reaction to the test may be classed as failure.
A further reason for eliminating time measure from the
evaluation of results is that much time may be wasted by the
child who is working from the play motive. His attention
may be dften diverted from consideration of the end of the
test. If he stops to remark that it is a pretty puzzle, or to ask
who made it, the amount of time so wasted will depend some-
what upon the tact of the examiner in again directing his
attention to the work in hand. This, then, leads to the further
consideration that one does not know whether one unit of time
has been of the same value as any other unit in the performance
of the test. If the child takes some time apparently examining
the test before him before beginning, or stops to do so at any
time during the performance of it, one does not know what is
taking place in his mind. One does not know whether he is
examining it with reference to the requirements of the test;
or is occupying his attention with something quite apart from
the object of the test such as the colors or the grain of the
wood when doing puzzle tests; or is /only staring and not
thinking or planning. In an examination one is sometimes at
a loss as to how to direct the attention of the child because what
he is really doing can be often only a matter of conjecture.
It has been shown in the first chapter that laboratory tests
suitable to such fine discriminations of measurement as is de-
manded in rigorous laboratory method correlate more or less
doubtfully with general intelligence, the matter to be deter-
mined, or measured. The reason for this is that there exists
no measure of general intelligence which permits of such fine
discriminations as are used in laboratory tests. An analogous
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 85
process in the realm of physics would be the attempt to find a
proportion between an object measured with a micrometer and
another measured with a yard stick. The object of the clinic
for the present should be to find such tests as will present
suitable situations in which the general intelligence may func-
tion, rather than to find a correlate or measure in simple
mental processes. The tests should be of various grades of
complexity, but analyzable with reference to such standards as
we possess ;for judging human social conduct. It is with the
belief that they correspond to mental processes concerned in
the social adjustment of the individual, and in the relation of
the individual to social progress, that the writer proposes the
following qualitative classifications of reaction to the tests under
discussion.
The three classifications chosen are termed, planned reaction,
trial and error reaction and chance reaction. In the first type
the subject applies his previous experiences of the kind presented
to him by the test to the solution of the specific problem before
him, with a minimum of error. In the second type the situation
is approached as though entirely new, in which there is little
conscious application of previous experience to the solution of
the problem presented, but in which the experiences presented
by the present problem become the basis for attack upon a
new problem of similar type. In the third type of reaction
every new problem is wholly new, and the experiences of early
attempts with it do not become a basis for conscious modification
of reaction in further work with it.
The animal or low type of human intellect arrives at new
attainments such as the opening of a lock, through a chance
coordination gained after much trial and error. Every new
lock must be an entirely new problem. Such an intelligence
does not generalize upon past experiences in such way as to bring
about an adaptation of the old response to the changed conditions
of the old type of problem.
In the following tables may be noticed certain time correla-
tions with grade and in one case, Table XXI, with method
of procedure or type of reaction. Since, however, the time de-
86 CLARA SCHMITT
creases with the higher grades for both types of reaction, the
decrease has no relation to the mental process. It probably
indicates increase of motor ability with the higher grades.
General Methods of Procedure in Giving Tests. — The private
school children to whom the tests were given were told by the
principal that we had some games with which they might play,
coming one at a time, and that we wanted to see how well
they liked them. They were told not to tell their mates about
the games after having played with them, for it would spoil
the fun of those who were still to see them. This way of
putting the matter was very effective, for the children who
had not yet had the tests would not permit those who had to
discuss them. An effort was made to send each child back to
his school room with the feeling that he had had a very good
time. The other children then came with only pleasant antici-
pations. The children were given the tests singly in a quiet
room with which they were familiar. The word quiet is not
intended to convey the idea that it was noiseless. As a matter
of fact it was on a street car line and many other noises such
as the closing of doors, etc., reached it. The noises were such,
however, as the children were accustomed to hearing and did
not distract attention.
The older children who were not satisfied with the reason
for giving the tests were told that we wanted to see how much
better older children could play the games than younger ones.
Very few of the children asked for a reason further than the
one given them by the principal, that the games were intended
for their own amusement. In the clinic it has been found that
this reason generally suffices. In case the real reason is de-
manded it is generally best to give one that assures the child
of the examiner's personal friendship toward him. One to the
effect that we want to see how well he can do these things so
that we may know what kind of work to get for him or how
to help him out of his trouble, if coupled with the assurance
all along that he is doing well, is always satisfactory.
Test I. Introductory Picture Form Board. — This test, with
the exception of the sixth grade, was always given first. Its
FIG. i
PLATE I
A PICTURE FORM-BOARD — OUR TEST I
An example of a test in which form and color perceptions, some apperceptions,
and methods of trial and success are brought out.
Prom INDIVIDUAL DELINQUENTS — HEALY
Courtesy Little, Brown &r Co. ,
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 87
bright colors and the animal pictures immediately excite interest.
Its simplicity disarms suspicion that anything unusual or difficult
will be required. The pleasure of constructing the puzzle leaves
the child in a very pleasant and anticipatory frame of mind
for further tests. By giving tests of this character first the
child's friendliness for, and confidence in the examiner grows
to such an extent that he is willing to undertake tests of a
less immediately interesting character.
The design shows a certain number of pieces cut out on
the natural lines of some of the objects in the picture, together
with four other pieces, one of which is irregular in shape, and
three of which are cut on geometrical lines. Two of these last
somewhat resemble each other, but are not interchangeable. The
third is an isosceles triangle divided into two right angle
triangles. The purpose of this was to provide for a simple
trial and error procedure, if the make-up of the parent triangle
was not at once recognized — as it usually is not.
The puzzle is put before the child, the pieces scattered at
random on the table, with the remark that here is a pretty
puzzle which one would like to see how well he can do. With
the exception of the divided triangle this test presents a one
to one relationship between the openings and the pieces to be
placed, that is there is one opening for each piece. The usual
procedure is to leave the divided triangle until the last, since
there is no place for either piece alone. The high grade child
above five years of age makes few errors or none at all in
placing pieces other than those of the divided triangle. That
is, he does not attempt to put a piece where it does not belong,
the head where the legs ought to be, etc. The child of low
grade intelligence places the pieces by trial and error, trying
each piece in each opening until he finds the one in which it
fits. The still lower grade of intelligence persistently tries to
fit a piece into an opening and finally fails of accomplishing the
test because his lack of recognition of failure has prevented
his giving up a misfit attempt in favor of another opening for
the piece he is trying. The divided triangle, because of the
88 CLARA SCHMITT
difference between the numerical relation of the opening and
the pieces, really constitutes a test within itself. It may be
placed without any trial and error, in which case the subject
immediately perceives the relation between the opening and
the pieces. It may be placed by trial and error in which the
pieces are turned around and around until the right position
is hit upon. The most common error of the child in this re-
peated trial and error is to turn the piece through an arc of
1 80° or more instead of through 90° which would accomplish
the task. Because of the diversity between the body of the
puzzle and the triangular portion these two parts are tabulated
as two distinct tests. Table XI presents the data obtained from
the body of the puzzle.
TABLE XI
Introductory Puzzle. Test I. (Body of Puzzle)
Errors
3 to 5 6 or more
o errors i & 2 errors errors errors
Grade Number Time Number % Number % Number % Number %
Kdg.
27
I '-41"
9
33
7
25
8
29
3
II
I
21
l'-2l"
16
76
3
14
2
9
o
o
II
17
l'-l6"
9
52
5
29
3
17
o
o
III
21
i'- 4"
10
47
7
33
4
19
o
o
IV
24
i'- 3"
13
54
ii
45
o
o
o
o
V
22
I'-IQ"
12
54
9
40
i
4
o
o
The table shows the average time of performance of the
children of the different grades, and the number and per cent
of errors which are indicated in the fourth and succeeding
columns to the left. An error is any wrong attempt to place a
piece. It is counted an error to take any piece and attempt to
place it in an opening other than the one in which it fits; if the
piece is turned about and placed in another wrong opening
another error is scored; if the attempt is made to place a piece
in its own opening upside down an error is scored; if a piece
is discarded and later tried again in the same wrong opening
an additional error is scored for the second and each succeed-
ing wrong attempt. The table shows that the trial and error
is small after the kindergarten, when 80 per cent or more of
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 89
each grade perform the puzzle with less than three errors;
89 per cent of the kindergarten children make less than six
errors. The most common errors are the attempts to inter-
change the two heads, the two legs, and the diamond and
modified diamond. The errors of normal children are attempts
to interchange these roughly paired pieces. Defective children
will attempt such errors as placing a head where a leg should
be, etc.
Table XII presents the data obtained from the triangular
portion of the test. The data are arranged to show the average
time required to arrange the two pieces in the opening, and
the type of mental process which the child employed in ac-
complishing the task. The data have been arranged to show two
types or methods of work, the trial and error method and the
planned method. A child was recorded in the trial and error
column if he tried each piece in more than two positions before
finding the right one, and in the planned column if he tried
one or both pieces in less than two positions before finding
the right one. A more careful grading of the trial and error
method is not practicable because the pieces are turned quickly
and often held covered up.
TABLE XII
Introductory Puzzle, Test I (Triangle)
Method
Average
Failure
Trial &
error
Planned
f
>
t
A
/
\
Grade
Number
time
Number %
Number % Number %
Kdg
27
i '-36"
4
14
23
100
0
o
I
21
i '-28"
i
4
15
76
5
23
II
17
i '-25"
i
5
12
70
5
29
III
21
i '-25"
o
o
12
57
9
42
IV
24
54"
o
0
21
88
3
ii
V
22
33"
0
o
13
59
9
40
The percentage of trial and error of the above table is that
of the sum of the trial and error and the failure records. The
object is to find the percentage of children who do not do the
test by a method superior to that of trial and error. It is
probable that those marked failure, if permitted to work in-
definitely, would accomplish the task. The table shows that
go CLARA SCHMITT
from 60 per cent to 100 per cent of the children between the
kindergarten and the fifth grade have not had sufficient ex-
perience With such geometrical problems to enable them to do
this one without trial arid error. Since, then, the problem
cannot be used as a test of a child's ability to perceive the
spatial relationship involved without error, it may be used as
a test of his ability to learn by experience with it. Twenty-six
of the kindergarten children were asked to do the triangle a
second time. Those who had failed in five minutes were shown
how to do it. Of these twenty-six children, twenty did it a
second time without error, requiring, with one exception, not
more than twenty seconds; three children did it a second time
with repeated trial and error, but the third time without error;
and three did it a second time with error but no repeated error,
that is no wrong position for each piece was tried more than
once. These results may be compared with those obtained from
delinquent children seen at the Juvenile Court Clinic mentioned
above.
Of twenty-six children between 7-6 and 8-6 years of age
seen at the clinic, five because of their reactions to this and
other tests, were graded feeble-minded. Of these five cases,
three failed to complete the body of the puzzle because of lack
of recognition of failure in attempting to place the pieces;
two others failed to complete the triangle. Among those graded
normal there were no failures of either part of the puzzle; four
of the normal children made six or more errors in doing the
body of the puzzle, four did the triangle by trial and error.
Of twenty-.two children between the ages of 8-6 and 9-6 years,
three were graded feeble-minded. Two of these children ac-
complished the whole puzzle, with more than six errors for
the body and the triangle by trial and error; the third failed
on the triangle. Of the children graded normal, one failed
to accomplish the puzzle, one made six errors, and two did the
triangle by trial and error, and one failed to do the triangle.*
* In the process of evaluating a child's mental condition, in general, failure
with one test which the child's age might lead one to expect him to accom-
plish is disregarded if he has uniformly accomplished more complex tests.
One must take into consideration the fact that clinical conditions can not
o^o
FIG. 2
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS gi
Above this age failure in one or both parts of this test always
accompanies the condition jof .feeble-mindedness, but not all
feeble-minded persons above this age fail in the test.
Test II. Special Picture Puzzle. This test was given second
in order to the first four grades. The twelve pieces of the
puzzle are so cut as to form five rather closely resembling
pairs and two unpaired pieces. Four of the pairs differ in
shape and cannot be interchangeably placed. The quadrilateral
pieces can be interchanged.
Except for the two unpaired pieces the differences of form
are not sufficient to serve as a guide in placing the pieces. The
placing must be accomplished by the matching of the lines and
colors preserved on the piece with those of the surrounding
picture.
In giving the test the form is placed before the child with
the pieces scattered at random. He is told that "the game"
with this puzzle is to look so carefully at each piece before at-
tempting to place it that he will not try to put any piece where
it does not belong; that is, that he should not try to give any-
one the wrong head, but give to each one just what belongs
to him at the very first trial. If the child makes an error in
attempting the first piece the warning is again repeated with
the remark that he has just made a mistake and should look
carefully and not do it again. With young children the author
has tried to excite greater interest in doing the puzzle care-
fully by saying that to try to give any boy the wrong head
hurts him very much and care should be taken not to do that.
This extra appeal to the imagination, however, while amusing
the child, does not seem to stimulate him to greater care in
placing the pieces. Apparently the type of motive for doing
the puzzle, whether the humanitarian one just referred to or
the play motive or the desire to please the examiner who has
asked him to do it, has no effect upon calling into greater
activity his ability to do it.
In the performance of this test account is kept of time and
always be kept uniform with reference to the child's motives, and that the
child's reactions are not always uniform with reference to his general
mental level.
92 CLARA SCHMITT
errors. Attempts to place a piece in the wrong opening, to
place one upsidedown in its own or a wrong opening, at-
tempts to interchange the quadrilateral pieces, are counted as
errors.
The puzzle may be done by trial and error in which each
piece is tried out in several places until the right one is found
for it. In this case the child does not discover that some
other distinction than form is necessary to aid him in placing
the pieces, and his apparent compliance with the direction to
look carefully at each piece and the opening before attempting
to place it does not lead him to see the distinctive differences
of color and matching of pattern which would accomplish the
task. The mentally low grade child does the test by the trial
and error method.
Table XIII shows the data obtained from the first four grades
and the kindergarten.
TABLE XIII
Test II. Special Picture Puzzle
Errors
ii or
i and 2 3 to 5 6 to 10 more
Grade
Numbe
bfl ** <u
§•1 "1
> 3
*R
Numbe
*
Numbe
*
<u
,5
3
£
3
«
Kdg.
II
I'll
IV
22
21
17
21
21
3'-i5" o
2-8" I
2'-Il" 3
2'-i7" 3
2'-22" 7
O
4
17
14
33
i
4
4
7
10
5
19
23
33
47
5
9
6
7
3
22
42
35
33
14
9
5
4
4
i
40
23
23
19
4
7
2
O
O
0
31
9
o
0
o
This table shows that at the fourth grade the perceptive
abilities of these children are such as to lead them to see
the distinctions necessary for the accomplishment of the test
with little error. At this grade 80 per cent of the children
are able to do the test with less than three errors. Of the
kindergarten children 71 per cent do it with six or more errors,
an average of more than one error for each of the five pairs.
Of the fourteen feeble-minded children between eleven and
ejx'
FIG. 3
PLATE II
CONSTRUCTION TEST A
An example of a test which demonstrates planfulness and the powers of
learning by experience. The illustration shows the test as
presented, as completed, and two types of error.
From INDIVIDUAL DELINQUENTS — HEALY
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 93
thirteen years of age seen at the clinic, one did the test with
two errors, two with five errors, nine with from six to twenty
errors, and two were of so low grade as to be unable to
attempt the test.
Table XIV shows the results of the test arranged accord-
ing to age. This table shows that at the age of 9-6 years 75
TABLE XIV
Test II. Special Picture Puzzle. (By age)
Errors
ii or
i and 2 3 to 5 6 to 10 more
Age
1
P
|l
ja
P
*
.Q
p
*
"1
*
"1
*
.Q
E
1
*
5- to 6-6
6-6 to 7-6
7-6 to 8-6
8-6 to 9-6
9-6 to 10-6
10-6 to n-6
16
13
27
23
20
6
3'- 9"
2'-i7"H
i -18"
O
2
3
2
6
2
O
15
II
8
30
33
0
4
3
8
9
4
0
30
ii
34
45
66
2
4
IO
10
4
12
30
37
43
20
7
2
9
3
i
43
15
33
13
5
7
i
2
0
O
43
7
7
o
o
per cent of the children do the test with less than three errors,
a marked advance over the preceding year when 42 per cent
make as good a record.
Test III. Construction Puzzle A. This puzzle is made up
of an outer frame and five pieces, two of which are identical
in size and shape, which fill up the frame opening when properly
placed. The test may be accomplished with a minimum of 5
moves, one for each piece. There are eleven possible errors
without repetition. In giving the test, records of the number
of errors and the time for its accomplishment are kept. In the
final evaluation of results the removal of a piece from a right
position is counted as error.
The frame is placed before the child with the pieces scattered
on the table beside it and he is told that the pieces will exactly
fill the frame if he finds the right way to put them in. The
result is counted failure if the task is not accomplished in ten
minutes.
94 CLARA SCHMITT
Table XV shows the results of the test arranged according
to grade.
TABLE XV
Test III. Construction Puzzle A. (By grade)
Errors
12 or
Failure o i to 5 6 to n more
Grade
Jo
a
3
il
1
3
fc
*
1
3
*
1
3
*
I
3
fe
*
H
3
*
*
Kdg.
26
3'-io"
9
34
I
3
5
19
6
23
5
19
I
2O
2'-l8"
5
25
I
5
4
20
4
20
6
30
II
17
2'- 7"
o
o
O
o
7
41
5
29
5
29
III
21
I '-34"
0
o
I
4
10
47
6
28
4
19
IV
24
54"
0
o
3
12
15
62
6
25
o
0
V
22
i'- 6"
o
o
i
4
15
67
i
4
5
22
VI
24
43"
o
o
3
12
13
52
6
25
2
8
This table shows that the number of errors decreases until
in the fourth grade 74 per cent of the children do the test
with less than half the possible number of errors and may
be considered as having planned the disposition of the pieces
of the puzzle. Those in the 6 to n error column have made
more than half the possible number of unrepeated errors and
may be classed as having done the test by the method of
trial and error. Those of the 12 error and the failure columns
have failed to learn from the trial and error of their attempts
and have repeated one or more errors. When this repetition
begins in the child's performance the accomplishment of the
test is then a matter of chance, — that is, the chance that he
will hit upon the right relationship of the pieces. It is possible
and probable that at some place in this repeated trial and error,
learning and planning begin in the case of some children; but
where they begin in any case can be only a matter of con-
jecture on the part of the experimenter.
The data of this table have been rearranged in table XVI
to show the percentages of planned, trial and error and chance
methods in the accomplishment of the test.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS
TABLE XVI
Test III. Construction Puzzle A
Method
95
Planned
Trial and
Error
Chance
Grade
Number
Number
%
Number
%
Number
%
Kdg.
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
26
20
17
21
24
22
24
6
5
7
ii
18
16
16
23
25
4i
52
75
73
66
6
4
5
6
6
i
6
23
20
29
28
25
4
25
14
ii
5
4
o
5
2
53
55
29
19
O
22
8
This table shows the increase of ability to plan the work
of this test up to the fourth grade where it is highest, 75
per cent. There is a decrease of the chance method of per-
formance to the fourth grade where it is the lowest.
Table XVII shows the same data arranged with reference
to age and in accordance with the plan of evaluation of table
XVI.
TABLE XVII
Test III. Construction Puzzle A. (By age)
Method
Planned
Trial and Error
^
Chance
Age Number
Number
%
Number
%
Number
%
5 to 6-6
6-6 to 7-6
7-6 to 8-6
8-6 to 9-6
9-6 to 10-6
10-6 to u-6
11-6 to 12-6
12-6 to 14-6
18
18
23
23
23
ii
18
20
3
6
5
13
16
10
H
12
16
33
21
56
69
90
77
60
6
i
8
6
6
10
i
6
33
5
34
26
26
o
5
30
9
ii
10
4
I
I
3
2
50
61
43
17
4
9
16
10
This table shows the increase of the use of the planned
method until the age of 10-6 where it is highest, 90 per cent.
The chance method decreases up to 9-6, where it is the lowest.
Of thirteen feeble-minded delinquent children between the
ages of 10-6 and 14-6 seen at the clinic, five failed to do the
test in ten minutes, one was of too low grade mentality to
attempt it, six did it by the chance method with from 10 to
35 repetitions of error, and one did it by the trial and error
method.
96 CLARA SCHMITT
Since the results show that the test is not suitable for the
testing of abilities for its performance above those of trial and
error and chance for children under 8-6 where 82 per cent
use a method superior to chance, it was given to the kindergarten
children as a learning test. After the first performance of the
test, the children were asked to do it again. Those who had
failed to accomplish it were shown how. This showing con-
sisted in such suggestions as led the child to place the pieces
correctly once. Of the twenty-three children who were so
tested, eleven repeated the test with no error; eight with one
and two errors; one with three errors; and three by the trial
and error method. The last mentioned group were asked to
do the test again. One of them did it with no error and two
with one error each.
Test IV. Construction Puzzle B. — This test consists of eleven
pieces to be arranged to fit six openings. Three of the pieces
are of identical shape and size and four others are paired in
the same way. Two of the openings are the same in shape and
size. Three of the openings sustain a one to one relationship
with the pieces which will fill them, thus leaving three openings
to be filled with eight pieces. In the accomplishment of the
puzzle only one arrangement of pieces is possible, with the
exception of the two identical openings which permit of an
alternate arrangement of their respective pieces.
In doing the test one may perceive the relationship between
all the openings and the pieces so perfectly as to accomplish
the task with no error. In the actual performance of the puzzle
it is usually accomplished by first placing the pieces which have
a one to one relationship with their openings and thus reducing
the task to its simplest form. As .some of the pieces when
put together will fill some of the openings but leave the task
unaccomplished because there will be pieces and openings which
do not fit, there is the possibility of trial and error which has
a show of possibility of success. In this trial and error the
child does not take into account in his work all the openings
and all the pieces, but only the relationship of part of the
openings and part of the pieces. In this type of reaction to
It'
FIG. 4
PLATE III
CONSTRUCTION TEST B
Another test for planfulness and learning by the method of trial and
success. The illustration shows the test as presented, and
one example of error in placing the pieces.
From INDIVIDUAL DELINQUENTS — HEALY
Courtesy Little, Brown & Co.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 97
the test there are sixteen possible errors, — made up by counting
all the different possible ways of placing all the pieces. In
addition to these two types of performance there is another
lower type of reaction in which pieces are placed without refer-
ence to their spatial relationship to the openings in which they
are placed; as for example when a circular piece is put into
a rectangular opening. This type of reaction if it does not
fail to accomplish the test in the given time, does so by chance.
In this type the only ability measured is the subject's recog-
nition of success and his ability to keep before him the object
of his work until it is attained. There is, of course, the lower
type still with whom the test would not be a possible one, since
the subject could not conceive the object of the task.
Table XVIII shows the arrangement of the data obtained with
reference to grade.
TABLE XVIII
Test IV- Construction Puzzle "B." (By grade)
Errors
17 or
i to 4 5 to 8 9 to 16 more Failure
<y
3
!l
(U
"1
3
1
3
^
0
.a
6
o
3
1
3
Grade
55
<
^
^
^
*R
%
*&
*
^
£
&
E
&
Kdg.
26
3'-5i"
2
7
2
7
7
26
5
19
2
7
8
3i
I
20
4'-23"
O
o
5
25
i
5
4
20
4
20
6
30
II
17
2'-I'5"
O
o
9
52
3
17
i
5
I
5
3
17
III
21
3-13"
I
4
8
38
4
19
i
4
5
23
2
9
IV
24
2'-IO"
6
25
9
37
5
20
r
4
2
8
i
4
V
22
2'- 8"
3
13
6
27
6
27
3
13
4
18
o
O
VI
24
2'-I7"
4
16
9
37
5
2O
4
16
2
8
0
o
As was done in the preceding tests, the data of this one have
been arranged with reference to a qualitative standard. Those
who made eight errors or less, that is, not more than half of
the possible number of unrepeated errors are classed as having
done the test by the planned method; those who made more
than half the possible number of errors without repeating any,
in the above table under the column "9 to 16" are classed as
having done the test by the method of trial and error; those
98 CLARA SCHMITT
who repeated errors or failed to perform the test in ten minutes
are classed under the head of Chance. This is under the sup-
position that those who failed would have accomplished the
test if given unlimited time. The data so arranged is shown
in Table XIX.
TABLE XIX
Test IV. Construction Puzzle "B." (By grade)
Method
Planned Trial and Error Chance
Grade Number Number % Number % Number %
Kdg.
26
II
42
5
19
10
38
I
20
6
30
4
20
10
So
II
17
12
70
I
5
4
23
III
21
13
61
I
4
7
33
IV
24
2O
83
I
4
3
12
V
22
IS
68
3
13
4
18
VI
24
18
75
4
16
2
8
This table shows that the use of the planned method was
greatly increased at the second grade and is largest at the
fourth grade, 83 per cent.
Table XX presents the same data arranged with reference
to age.
TABLE XX
Test IV. Construction Puzzle "B." (By age)
Method
Planned
Trial and Error
Chance
Age Number
i
Number
%
Number
%
'(
Number
%
5 to 6-6
18
7
38
3
16
8
44
6-6 to 7-6
18
7
38
4
22
7
38
7-6 to 8-6
23
12
52
2
8
9
39
8-6 to 9-6
23
15
65
I
4
7
30
9-6 to 10-6
23
16
69
3
13
4
17
10-6 to 1 1 -6
ii
10
90
I
9
0
o
1 1-6 to 12-6
18
13
3
16
2
ii
12-6 to 14-6
20
65
3
16
4
20
This table shows the increase of the use of the planned
method up to 10-6 where it is highest, 90 per cent. The chance
method decreases up to this point where it is lowest.
Of nineteen feeble-minded children above the age of nine
years tried at the clinic after the test came into use there, six
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 99
were of too low grade to attempt the test, — that is, they could
not conceive the object of the test and could not keep at work
at it. Six failed to do it in ten minutes, two did it by the
method of chance, two by trial and error, and three by the
planned method. Of these three, one was 13-6 years of age and
two were fifteen years of age.
The test was given to the kindergarten children in two ways.
Those who failed were shown how to do the puzzle. The
showing consisted of suggestions for the proper placing of the
pieces which the child carried out. Each child who had not
failed was asked to do the puzzle a second time, and those
who had failed were asked to do it after being shown. Of
the twenty-four cases, one child required to be shown a second
time before learning to do the puzzle without error.
The test was then given as a test of the child's ability to
readjust a learned content to a changed situation. The puzzle
board was turned upsidedown and he was asked to do it again.
In this situation, the pieces which were originally placed at
the top of the board now had to be placed at the bottom. Of
the twenty-four kindergarten children so tested, nineteen made
less than two errors in doing the test in the altered position,
and five made two errors or more.
It is characteristic of the feeble-minded child to do the test
under the altered condition with the same amount, or more,
of trial and error as in his first performance of the test; and
sometimes after having once learned the test in one position
he fails entirely to do it in the other.
The data for the above tables for this test were made up
by counting as errors the wnong placing of any piece and
the removal of a rightly placed piece from its proper opening.
In some individual cases this method of evaluating results may
be unjust. A child sometimes, finding that he can go no further,
removes all the pieces already placed and begins again, though
some he knows are right and he replaces them immediately.
The data are again rearranged below, made up by counting
as errors only wrongly placed pieces and ignoring the rightly
placed pieces removed for any reason from their proper open-
zoo CLARA SCHMITT
ings. According to this method the percentaged gradings become
as follows:
Grade Planned Trial and Error Chance
Kdg.
40%
iB%
40%
I
38
14
47
II
70
ii
17
III
66
9
23
IV
87
4
8
V
77
9
12
VI
78
20
O
Comparison of the percentages resulting from this method
of reckoning error with those of Table XIX shows the former
to be slightly more favorable to a grading above that of the
chance method. Whether this method affords a more accurate
judgment of the mental process is doubtful. In many cases the
removal of a rightly placed piece is a positive error, for instance
that of the half circle, since there is no other piece to fill the
opening.
Test V. Puzzle Box. — In the previous tests the child had to
analyze more or less complicated sets of spatial relationships
or pattern matching. In this test he analyzes a set of functional
relationships of a contrivance all of the parts of which are open
to view, and involve no complex mechanical principles such as
the lever, or pulley, etc. The test consists of a box which he
is told he is to find a way of opening. The necessary number
of steps to accomplish the result is seven. These steps consist
of the loosening of the three inner rings from their confining
posts, the removal of the staple at the back, the removal of the
ring from the hook at the front of the lock, the removal of
the hook itself from the lock and the raising of the lid. The
arrangement is such that the steps must be accomplished in a
certain order, and a tool must be used for the removal of the
three inner rings. A long hook after the fashion of a shoe
button hook is provided for this purpose.
In giving the test the box with the hook on top is placed
lock side before and the child is told that he may look all over
the box inside and outside and any which way it occurs to him to
examine it to see if he can find a way to open it, and that he may
do anything he thinks will help in opening it or use anything he
toO
FIG. 5
PLATE IV
A PUZZLE Box — OUR TEST V
An example of a concrete problem to be reasoned out from perceived
relationships. Each step to the solution, namely, opening
the box, is plainly visible.
From INDIVIDUAL DELINQUENTS — HEALY
Courtesy Little, Brown & Co.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 101
thinks will help. No further hint concerning the tool is given
him, except in case he tries to accomplish step one, the first
one it is necessary to manipulate, without the tool and leaves
it to try something else since he can not succeed. He is then
told that he may use the hook. He is then recorded in the
classification under tool idea — . The child who is not classified
under tool idea — sees for himself the need of the tool and uses
it without suggestion or asks permission to do so. In the
record of data the time which the child spends in studying the
box without touching any of the fastenings is recorded, each
step or attempt, and the time to accomplish the test. Wrong
attempts are recorded as errors. The data for the time spent
studying the box before proceeding to work were found to
have no correlation with anything else. Whether the child spent
a few seconds or several minutes in such study had no relation
to his age or to the quality of his performance in doing the
test after he began. Table XXI shows the data obtained ar-
ranged with reference to grade. The qualitative classification
was made as follows : a child was placed in the trial and error
column if after his manipulation of step one he made any
other errors before accomplishing the opening of the box. He
was placed in the planned column if, after the manipulation of
step one, he made no further errors in opening the box. The
one exception to this was the attempt to do step five, removing
the ring from the hook at the lock, after step three. This error
is permitted for the reason that after step three has been done
the string holding the ring of step five is somewhat loosened
and one can only know by trying it whether it is sufficiently
loose to permit of the removal of the ring from the hook. It
may also be explained here that error six is an attempt to
push the hook through the lock with one movement instead of
making the turn in the lock which is necessary to permit of its
removal. In this classification the assumption is made that in
the attempts preliminary to step one, (and no case has been
seen in which some were not made), the child does or does
not learn the arrangement of the fastenings and their rela-
tionship to each other. If his learning has been complete he
102 CLARA SCHMITT
can then proceed without further error. If it has not been
complete other errors are made, and he then can open
the box only by a trial and error process. The usual procedure
on the part of the child in this learning process is to take up
the box and trace the fastenings back from the lock. He ex-
amines the lock and the ring of step five, follows it back to
step four, and so on back to step one. He usually tries one
or all of them before arriving at step one and sometimes does
not follow the series through the ,first time but goes back to
the lock or some other point and tries some of the fastenings
again.
TABLE XXI
Test V. Puzzle Box. (By grade)
i Method \ Average
Trial and Tool number Average
Failed error Planned idea moves time
S
1
<u
|
<u
S
3
<L>
.0
3
1
c
e
.5
T3
rt
w
<U
JS
rt£
£ t
Grade
fc
*
*fc
*£.
1
&
PH
H
S
H
*I
21
12
57
9 loo
O
0
2
9
O
16
7'-23"
II
17
2
ii
14 94
I
5
5
29
HI
14
6'-52"
7'-56"
III
21
3
12
16 90
2
9
9
42
9
15
3'- 5"
6'- 2"
IV
24
2
8
15 70
7
29
12
50
9
14
5'-33"
6'-i6"
V
22
O
o
8 36
14
63
3
13
9
13
2'-52"
4'-45"
VI
23
O
o
7 30
16
69
o
o
9
12
2'-52"
3'-54"
* A box similar to the one used there was tried with ten first grade
children in another school. All of them failed to open it in 10 minutes.
Table XXI shows that for the children under the fifth grade
from 70 to 100 per cent are able to do the test by a method
not superior to that of trial and error. That the number of
those who lack the tool idea in their planning of the test in-
creases up to the fifth grade is due to the fact that it is taken
account of only for those who succeeded in doing the test. In
the fourth grade where the amount of failure is the smallest
the lack of tool idea is greatest. The lack of the tool idea is
generally associated with the trial and error method of doing
the test; of the 31 children who lacked the tool idea, 28 did
the test by the trial and error method; the three who did it by
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 103
the planned method belonged to the fourth and fifth grades.
The last two columns of the table show the time correlation
with the two methods of doing the test. The time decreases
slightly as the grade progresses and for each grade the time
for doing the test by the planned method averages less than the
time for the trial and error method. This time correlation
with grade is probably due to increase of motor ability. The
two columns of the table preceding the last two show the
correlation of number of moves with the two methods of work.
The number oi moves in each case is the number of errors
plus seven, the number of correct moves necessary. After the
second grade the average number of preliminary errors, found
in subtracting seven from the average number of moves in
each column, is two, and does not decrease. The number of
moves decreases little for those who did the test by trial and
error.
Table XXII shows the same data arranged with reference
to age.
TABLE XXII
Test V. Puzzle Box. (By age)
Method
Average
Trial and number Average
Failed error Planned moves time
g
3
1
1
1
•0
rt «i
*c3 £
•c
<u
•o
•d
<u
c
JS
Age
fe
525
*R
55
*
55
*R
H
Pk
h
E
6-6 to 7-6
8
4
50
4
IOO
o
o
17
7'-39"
7-6 to 8-6
27
7
26
20
100
0
o
14
7'-46"
8-6 to 9-6
23
3
12
17
87
3
12
14
9
6-55
4 -21
9-6 to 10-6
23
2
8
15
73
6
26
14
10
5-33
4'-43"
10-6 to 1 1-6
ii
0
o
3
27
8
72
13
9
5- 3'
3'-43"
1 1 -6 to 12-6
,18
0
o
6
33
12
66
13
9
4'-3o"
2'-38"
12-6 to 14-6
19
o
o
8
42
II
'57
10
9
3-25
2-55'
This table shows that the use of the planned method for
this test increases greatly at the age of 10-6 where it is the
highest, 72 per cent.
104 CLARA SCHMITT
Of twenty-six children between the ages of 106 and 17-6,
judged at the clinic to be feeble-minded, and for whom a
record for this test was recorded, eleven were of too low grade
to attempt the test, ten failed in fifteen minutes to accomplish
it and five did it by trial and error.
Test IX. Cross Line A. — This and the two following tests
constitute a series of increasing difficulty, with the climax at
the reasoning step of the third of the series, the code test. In
this test the child uses representative material to accomplish the
desired result. In the previous tests the child's work is con-
tinually checked up by the sense stimulus of the concrete material
with which he works. This and the two following tests test
his ability to analyse his memory of the figure which has just
been drawn before him.
AV > <
The cross lines represented in the above figure are drawn
before the child and he is told that in the space with the lines
going upward and opening upward an I is placed; in the space
opening out to one side a 2 is placed; in the space with its
lines going downward a 3 is placed, and in the space opening
out to the other side a 4 is placed. While he is being told
this each space is outlined with the pencil and the number
is written in. Then one of the elements of the figure is drawn
at one side, and he is asked to tell which one of the spaces
it is like. If he answers correctly, his reason for his answer
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 105
is asked. If he answers to the effect that its lines point like
or open up like the one he has named, one may assume that
he understands the problem, and go on with the next step in
the test. If he answers wrongly, the figure is discussed further
with him until he understands the nature of the analysis to
be made.
There are cases of such low mentality as to be unable to
comprehend the problem. When the child's comprehension of
the problem is sure, the figure which has been drawn for him
is covered, with the remark that he may now see if he can
do the same thing with it covered up.
The elements are then drawn for him one by one and he is
asked to number them. The question asked him is, which space
is this one like? He is provided with a pencil to place the
appropriate number. If he begins by making errors he can
sometimes be led to find a method of recall .for himself by
the suggestion that he think of the covered up figure and see
if he can remember what kind of space one is in, and two, and
three and so on. If, after the four spaces are drawn and num-
bered there are errors, he is asked to draw the figure himself.
In case of error one wishes to know if he has remembered the
figure and its scheme of numbering incorrectly, but has analyzed
correctly according to his memory of it, or if he has remembered
it correctly and analyzed it incorrectly. If he has analyzed it
correctly as he has remembered it he is placed in the list of
those who have succeeded at the first attempt, since it is his
ability to do the analysis correctly that is to be tested. If
he has not analyzed correctly but has remembered correctly, he
is told that he did not number the spaces correctly at first and
that he may try again. If he has neither analyzed nor re-
membered correctly he is permitted to look at the original
figure and then is asked to draw it again, and is given as many
trials as is necessary to learn to draw the figure and number
it correctly from memory. The writer has found no child who
has been able to comprehend the problem of the test who could
not learn to draw and number the figure correctly with as
much as three such trials. If, after the second attempt at
io6
CLARA SCHMITT
analysis from memory, he still .fails to number all the elements
correctly he is again asked to draw the figure and the process
is repeated as before. He is given four such trials at the analysis
before being classed as failure. Table XXIII shows the data
obtained with this test arranged with reference to grade. It
cannot be given to kindergarten children because of their
unfamiliarity with written numerals.
TABLE XXIII
Test IX. Cross Line Test A. (By Grade)
Failure Succeeded
Fourth
trial
First
trial
Second
trial
Third
trial
Fourth
trial
1
1
3
1
3
1
3
i
Grade
fc
55
*
^
*
5
5
fc
£
*
&
I
20
2
10
12
00
3
15
3
IS
o
o
II
17
2
II
14
82
i
5
o
0
o
o
III
21
0
o
19
90
n
4
i
4
o
o
IV
25
0
o
21
84
i
4
ii
4
2
8
V
22
O
0
22
IOO
o
O
0
o
O
0
VI
24
O
o
24
IOO
o
0
o
o
o
0
The table shows that the percentage of children between the
first and the sixth grades who fail to do the test is negligible,
and that after the first grade the percentage who need more
FIG. 7
12.
I
i
(c.
7
1.
$•
8
3
(>
7
o L m j
r u D n
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 107
than a first trial is negligible. Since the results .for the grades
are so uniform an age table is omitted.
Test X, Cro'ss Line Test B. — The procedure for this test
is, so far as its own circumstances permit, like that of the
preceding test. The figure is constructed before the child, and
the spaces in which i, 2, and 3 are placed are outlined while
being numbered. He is then given .four trials, proceeding as
prescribed in the preceding test. The results are evaluated as
in the preceding test.
Table XXIV shows the data of this test arranged with refer-
ence to grade.
TABLE XXIV
Test X. Cross Line Test B
Failure Succeeded
Fourth First Second Third Fourth
trial trial trial trial trial
1
3
1
3
1
1
|
1
Grade
Jz;
£
*•
£
*
55
&
fc
*
£
&
I
20
6
30
8
40
3
15
2
10
I
S
II
17
2
III
ii
64
I
5
2
II
I
5
III
21
I
4
17
80
3
14
O
o
o
0
IV
25
O
o
20
80
I
4
2
8
2
8
V
22
0
o
18
81
3
13
I
4
0
o
VI
24
o
o
24
IOO
o
0
0
o
O
o
This table shows that after the first grade the percentage
of failure is negligible, and that after the third grade there is
no failure in doing the test. After the second grade from 80
per cent to 100 per cent are able to do the test at the first trial.
Before the second grade the percentage of children who need
more than a second trial is negligible.
The writer's further experience with this and the preceding
cross line test has led to the opinion that two trials constitute
a sufficient test of the child's ability to perform this type of
mental process. The drawing of the figure by the child after
the first unsuccessful attempt shows whether the failure is due
to his having forgotten the figure and its number arrangement.
io8 CLARA SCHMITT
It gives him in an added experience, the kinaesthetic, whatever
it may be worth in controlling his imagery for the second trial.
The practice effect which more repetition may have upon the
result is eliminated with the .fewer trials.
Test XL Code Test. — To this test has been added a step
which was not involved in the test as described by Healy and
Fernald. This added step requires the subject to use his ex-
perience with the material of the two preceding tests in a new
way. It is a test in reasoning which controls the material
which the child uses for the new product and which is not
the result of previous learning as is the case with many other
reasoning tests in use.
Bonsel (21 ) used in testing the reasoning ability of children (i )
arithmetical problems : // three-quarters of a gallon of oil costs
9 cents what will 7 gallons cost? What number subtracted 12
times from jo will leave a remainder of 6? (2) The com-
pleting of sentences to agree with the fact implied in the sen-
tence : — always comes in the last week of December. The flesh
of cattle used for food is called — . (3) The selection of alter-
nate statements to agree with the fact implied in the statement :
Days are . * in summer than in winter. Men are usually
shorter
, than women. (4) Opposites: day, asleep. (5) Selec-
tive judgment, in which a number of reasons are given to show
why New York has become a greater city than Boston; why
oak is superior to pine for the making of furniture, etc., and
the child selects those which are in his judgment the most
adequate. (6) Literary interpretations : This little rill, that from
the springs of yonder grove its current brings, etc. All of these
tests involve previous instruction, and it is possible that they
may test nothing more than the thoroughness of the child's
assimilation of such instruction. It is also possible and even
probable that one's ability to learn in this way the reasoning
processes taught by others is positively correlated with his own
ability to reason, and thus a measure of the former becomes
an indirect measure of the latter. None of the Bonser tests,
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS
109
however, control the material or the process which is used in
the act of reasoning. In doing the tests the child may never
have reasoned at all, but have relied only upon information
previously acquired and used. Nothing else could be the case
with tests two, three, four and five.
The procedure for Test XI must necessarily be adapted to
the interests and temperament of the child to whom it is given.
Only general directions for giving it can be suggested. The
procedure adopted by the writer is as follows :
One says to the child, "You know that in war time, when
two armies are fighting each other, the generals send out spies
to find out the secrets of the enemy's army, and sometimes
the spy must write what he has found in a secret message to
his general. When he writes a secret message, of course, he
cannot write it in the way in which we ordinarily write a letter
because it might fall into the hands of the enemy and betray
him. He must have a secret way of writing so that only the
general and himself will be able to read the message. Now,
I will show you something from which we can get a kind of
secret writing. The code is here constructed before him while
he gives attention.
FIG. 8
a
d
9-
(r
&
A
c
T
/C
j.
m
*
A
<*
rv
^-
{*
••
y-
~7F) LJQ
no CLARA SCHMITT
When the four figures are constructed in which the letters
of the alphabet must be placed, the child is asked to repeat
the alphabet while they are being put in the spaces. This insures
his attention to the rather long process in hand, and also shows
whether he knows the alphabet serially and hence might be
expected to do the second part of the test. Some children do
not know the alphabet in its correct serial order.
After the construction has been completed, then he is asked,
"Now, what could one get from this to use instead of the
writing letters of the alphabet for his message? If, for in-
stance, he were going to write a word that began with A,
what could he use instead of A, and instead of B, or C or
any other letter he might need to use in writing his message?"
The children frequently make suggestions which have no
relation to the construction before them. They will say he
may use numbers instead of letters, or they offer the Morse
code, or some similar scheme with which they are already
familiar. After each wrong suggestion it is pointed out to them
that their scheme has nothing to do with the one before them,
and could not be derived from it, which they, of course, readily
admit. The writer permits two such suggestions, giving them
an opportunity to make a third before classing the child among
the failures for the reasoning step of the test. Those who
succeed in seeing the correct process for the code writing are
classed in the column, "Idea -f-" in Table XXV below. Those
who fail through having made only wrong suggestions, or hav-
ing made none at all, are placed in the column, "Idea — ." Those
who have no suggestions to make are allowed to think about it,
and urged to think about it until they themselves declare that
they can see no way of getting the secret alphabet from the
scheme before them. Those who fail are then shown that each
letter may be represented by the space in which it stands,
and are asked to write the symbol which would stand for G,
the one which would stand for P, the one which would stand
for V, and the one for Z in order to bring out the idea of
the relation of the dot to the scheme, and also for the purpose
of giving a slight practice. Those who have succeeded are
also given this same practice.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS m
The figure is then covered, and the child is asked to write
the message, "Come quickly," previously written on the page
before him. He is told to take as much time as is necessary
to enable him to write it without errors.
Table XXV shows the data obtained from this test arranged
according to grade.
TABLE XXV
Test XI. Code Test
Grade
Number
Idea
, ' —
Number
N
Idea
, "—
Number
— \
Idea?
'Number
Average
number
errors
II
III
IV
V
VI
16
21
25
22
24
3
10
15
I'S
12
18
44
60
68
50
13
9
9
6
10
81
42
36
26
40
2
I
I
2
8
7
4
2
3
This table shows that after the third grade more than 50
per cent of the children succeeded in doing the reasoning step
of the test. In the column "Idea?" was placed those children
who had seen this code previously. After the third grade
they are able to attend to this rather long and complex process
of analysis of mental imagery to such an extent as to average
not more than four errors or 36 per cent out of the possible
eleven.
The second grade showed itself almost wholly unable to do
the reasoning step of the test, and was rather uninterested in
the test itself. The necessity for a secret means of communica-
tion is quite outside the range of experience of these children,
since for them writing itself has not yet wholly ceased to be
a mysterious process.
Of thirty-two children between the ages of 8-6 and 17-6,
classified as feeble-minded at the clinic, twelve were of too
low grade mentally to undertake any of the three above de-
scribed tests. Twelve failed in Tests IX and X. With Test
IX, four succeeded at the first trial, two succeeded at the second
trial, one succeeded at the third trial and one succeeded at the
fourth trial. Among those who succeeded with Test IX two
succeeded at the second trial with Test X.
The Code Test was not attempted with any of these children
112 CLARA SCHMITT
because of their difficulty with the two tests which necessarily
precede it.
Test XV. Association of verbal opposites. — The list of words
used for this test is as follows :
Good Big Happy Sick Empty
Outside Loud Cheap Glad Many
Quick Black Dead Thin Above
Tall Light Rich War Friend
The child is given some trial practice with as many words
outside of this list as is necessary to show that he has gained
the correct idea of what is desired of ' him in this test. He
is asked to say the word which means just the opposite of
the word which will be pronounced to him, as quickly as he
can think of it. The time is recorded with a stop watch. With
this test, as with many others, the absolute time of response is,
within rather large limits, of less importance than the character
of the response. The data of the test comprises three things :
The reaction time, the errors made in response, and the fail-
ures. An error is a reaction which is not in idea an antonym
of the stimulus word. Among defective individuals it is very
common to find a lack of control of the associations which
may be aroused by any stimulus word. The normal individual
will repress the wrong associations and give only the one which
is desired. The defective individual instead of giving an
antonym will give a synonym, or anything else which may come
immediately to his mind as an association with the stimulus
word. The defective child often, too, will embody his reaction
word, whether correct or not, in an entire sentence. The nor-
mal child inhibits all words but the one which is desired. In
recording the data any such response which was not in its
meaning an antonym of the stimulus word, was recorded as
error. Care was taken, however, in each case, if the reaction
word was not of the same part of speech as the stimulus word
or, if it were not the classical antonym of the stimulus word,
to determine whether in the child's mind it was an antonym.
This is especially desirable in testing children from homes where
a foreign language is spoken, or from parochial schools. For
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 113
instance, the classical antonym for empty is full; children fre-
quently respond with the word filled; the classical antonym for
above is below; a frequent response is down; the classical
antonym for sick is well; a frequent response from children is
better. Slang words are always recorded as correct. For in-
stance, good gets the frequent response bum. One might go
on to enumerate many other instances in which the child's
mental action was controlled in the desired way, but in which
response was modified by educational experience.
A failure is a lack of response of any sort within ten seconds
after the pronunciation of the stimulus word. With failure
it is desirable to know what is the reason for the failure, —
whether it is lack of knowledge, or whether the child could
not bring about the right association. To determine this, ques-
tions may be asked. For instance, if he fails to respond at
all to the word loud, one may ask him, "If the noise is not loud
what kind of a noise is it?" and the question may be put in
various ways to bring about in his own mind the correct asso-
ciation. If in this way one elicits the correct response, then
he is recorded as failure because of slow response. If the
correct response cannot be elicited, he is then recorded as failure
from lack of knowledge.
Table XXVI shows the data obtained from this test arranged
according to grade. The failures were recorded as such only
if they were failures because of slow response, and not because
of lack of knowledge. The most common failures for lack of
knowledge were to the stimulus words war and friend.
Younger children have not had sufficient experience in reading
or conversation to know the opposite of war. The response to
the stimulus word friend is frequently a word indicating a rela-
tive or member of the family, showing that in the child's mind
there are two classes of persons with whom he has personal
relationship, those belonging to the family and those outside
of the family who are friends.
ii4
CLARA SCHMITT
TABLE XXVI
Test XV. Opposites Test. (By giade)
Errors Failures
5 or
o i & 2 3 & 4 more
I & 2 3 & 4
5 or
more
V
a
J8
E
:3
fcJ
> •*-*
"1
3
J2
S
£
P
,0
P
.a
|
.0
P
,Q
|
O
<
*&
%
*R
5?
*R
£
*R
*R
^
*R
*Z* fe^
^ ^
I
20
23^
2
IO
12
60
4
25
!
5
3
IS
IO
50
6 30
i 5
II
16
2H
8
50
6
37
I'
6
Ii
6
6
37
6
37
3 18
i 6
III
21
2^/5
6
28
12
57
3
14
0
o
3
14
ii
52
4 19
3 14
IV
23
2
14
61
8
34
i
4
O
o
ii
47
9
39
2 8
i 4
V
22
't-Ys
17
77
4
17
i
4
O
o
15
67
7
31
O 0
o o
VI
24
13/S
211
87
3
12
o
o
o
o
13
54
IO
41
i 4
o o
The table shows that, beginning with the second grade, the
percentage of children who make more than two errors become
negligible; beginning with the fourth grade, from 61 to 87
per cent make no errors. On the failure side we see that,
beginning with the fourth grade the percentage of those who
make more than two failures becomes negligible, and at the
fifth grade more than fifty per cent of the children make no
failures.
Table XXVII shows the same data arranged with reference
to age. The same statement with reference to errors as above
TABLE XXVII
Test XV. Opposite Test. (By age)
Errors
5 or
i & 2 3 & 4 more
Failures
5 or
I & 2 3 & 4 more
Age
I-, <U ">
0 CC -
^3 « w
S fc E
3 >'J
5? <
Number
*
Numiber
&
Numiber
*
1
I
&
i
&
Numlber
*
Numiber
*
1
*
6-6 to
7-6 to
8-6 to
9-6 to
10-6 to
n-6 to
12-6 to
7-6
8-6
9-6
10-6
11-6
12-6
14^6
8 2^
24 2J3
23 2
23 1^
II I3/^
17 1^
20 1'^
o
9
9
15
6
13
17
0
37
39
65
54
76
85
5
ii
ii
8
4
3
3
62
45
47
34
36
17
13
3
2
3
o
I
I
o
37
8
12
O
9
5
o
o
2
0
O
o
0
o
o
8
o
o
o
o
o
o
6
9
9
4
IB
II
O
25
39
39
36
61
55
6
ii
9
ii
5
6
8
75
45
39
47
45
35
40
i
6
3
2
I
O
I
12
25
8
9
o
5
I
i
2
I
I
O
O
12
4
8
4
9
o
o
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 115
may be deduced from this table beginning with the age 8-6,
and for failures beginning with the age 9-6. At n-6 more
than 76 per cent of the children make no errors and 61 per
cent no failures.
Of thirty feeble-minded children between the ages of 9-6
and 17-6 seen at the clinic, twenty-one were unable to under-
stand the import of the test and so control their associations
as to make a record for it; the defective child fails to inhibit
the wrong association, responds with a whole sentence, goes off
on a tangent of discussion with each stimulus word, or re-
sponds with absolute silence. Of the nine remaining, four
made two errors or less, two made either three and four errors,
and three made five or more errors. Five made two failures
or less, one made three failures, and three made five or more
failures.
Texi XII, Memory from Visual Verbal Presentation. — A
typewritten sheet like the ordinary printed page, containing the
following selection is placed before the child :
If a man finds that the house is on fire, he should first look to see if it is
a large fire. If it is a small one, he should quickly pour water on it or smother
it. But if it is large, he should run to the fire alarm box, calling out fire
to the other people in the house. Then he should go back and help old or
sick people or little children to escape from the burning building. When all
the people are out, if there is time he may save valuable things such as money
or jewelry. Then when the fire engine comes, he may keep the crowds or
curious people out of the way so that the firemen may work more easily.
The child is told that he may read this selection to himself
once and then hand it to the experimenter and tell what he has
read ; just as nearly like that which he read as he can remember ;
but that if he can not remember it precisely he should not be
worried about it but give it as best he can. The request to
hand it back as soon as he has finished reading, is to let the
experimenter know that he has finished, and to discourage his
attempting to read it a second time, as was found sometimes
to be the case when this order was not given. He is also told
that if there are any words which he does not know, if he
will merely point to them they will be pronounced for him.
It was found with the children of this school that those of the
second grade and above found very few words which they
could not pronounce.
ii6 CLARA SCHM1TT
The experimenter uses for permanent record a printed sheet
with space sufficiently wide so that changes in the text as
rendered by the child may be written in, or words or phrases
omitted in his rendering may be crossed out.
Permanent Record Sheet of Test XII
If a man finds that the house is on fire
he should look to see if it is a large fire
if it is a small one
he should pour water on it
or smother it
but if it is large
he should run to the fire alarm box
calling out fire
to the other people in the house
then he should go back
and help old or sick people
and little children
to escape from the burning building
when all the people are out
if there is time
he may save valuable things
such as money or jewelry
then when the fire engine comes
he may help to keep the crowds of curious people out of the way
so that the firemen may work more easily.
Table XXVIII shows the data, arranged according to grade,
obtained from this test. The data are the number of items
the child remembers. What is considered an item is indicated
by the length of line in the record sheet above, each line con-
stituting one item of the passage. A judgment is made in
each case as to whether the child was verbally accurate, approxi-
mately verbally accurate, or made no attempt to be verbally
accurate. The correctness of the sequence of items is also
noted. He is noted in the column, Sequence correct if there
is not more than one detail misplaced in the selection. He is
put down in the column, Sequence incorrect if more than one
detail is misplaced in the selection. Following is an example
of an approximately accurate verbal reproduction. It may be
remarked here that there were none absolutely accurate.
"If a man finds his house is on fire, he must first look to
see if it is a large fire. If it is a small fire, he should pour
water on it to smother it; but if it is large, he should run to
the fire alarm box and call out Tire!' to the people. Then
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 117
he must go to help old or sick people out from the fire. Then,
if there is time, he may bring out jewelry. Then when the
fire engine comes he may help to keep back the crowds of curi-
ous people."
Following is another case, which was put in the column No
attempt at Verbal Accuracy:
"If a house should catch on fire, and the man should see
it, he should look to see if it is a large fire. If it is a small
fire, he should pour water on it or smother it; but if he finds
it is large, he should run as fast as he could to the fire alarm
box and ring for the firemen. Before the firemen come, if the
fire isn't very bad he first saves the sick who could not get out.
Next, get the children out, and when the firemen come keep
the crowds back so that the firemen can work."
Following is another example of a reproduction placed in
the column No Attempt at Verbal Accuracy. It is not so in-
accurate as the preceding one.
"If a man sees a fire, he must first look to see if it was a
big one or a small one. If it is a small one, he should throw
water on it; but if it is a big one, he should run to the fire
alarm box and call up the fire engine. Then he should go
back and see if he can do anything for sick or helpless people.
After all the people are taken care of he should save money
TABLE XXVIII
Test XII. Memory from Visual Verbal Presentation
Details Remembered Accuracy Sequence
19 14 Approx- No at- Incor-
to 15 or less imate tempt Correct rect
II 17 i 5 7 41 9 52 10 58 7 41 16 94 i 5
III 21 i 4 12 57 8 38 19 90 2 9 19 90 2 9
IV 24 o o 15 62 9 37 23 95 i 4 23 95 I 4
V 22 3 13 16 72 3 13 14 63 8 36 19 86 3 13
VI 24 i 4 15 62 8 33 22 91 2 8 22 91 2 8
ii8 CLARA SCHMITT
and valuable things. Then when the fire engine comes, he
may help to keep the curious people away from the fire, so
that the firemen may work more easily."
The data of Table XXVII show that beginning with the
third grade more than 61 per cent of the children are able
to recall not less than fifteen items of the twenty they have read.
These data are in striking contrast with those which Binet
obtained with his visual verbal memory test of the 1908 series.
He found that two items constitute the normal for eight-year-
old children. The data which Goddard (15) derived from the
same test led him to conclude that it was too difficult for eight-
year-old children. The material used for the Binet test was
as follows:
New York, September 5th. A fire last night' burned three
houses in Water Street. It took some time to put it out. The
loss was fifty thousand dollars, and seventeen families lost their
homes. In saving a girl who was asleep in bed, a fireman
was burned on the hand.
The difficulty with the Binet test probably lay in the un-
familiarity of much of its material. In such case the child's
attention is often so much engaged with the matter which is
unfamiliar to him that he fails to organize that part which is
familiar to him, and so presents the appearance of failure when
such is not really the case. The newspaper type of beginning
of the paragraph could only confuse a non-newspaper reading
child; the unfamiliar street name, and the unfamiliar quantity,
fifty thousand, followed by another number in enumerating the
loss, may detract attention and prevent an organization of the
story into a complete whole.
The table shows that all the children were approximately
accurate in their reproduction of the selection read, and that
the number of children who reproduced the selection with errors
in the sequence of items is negligible throughout, with the excep-
tion in each case of the fifth grade. This grade presents a
rather large percentage of children who make no attempt at
verbal accuracy and who made errors in the sequence.
Test XIII. Memory from Auditory Verbal Presentation. The
following passage is read to the child four times. He is told
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 119
before the reading that he must listen very carefully and then re-
peat the story as nearly as he can as it was given to him, but
that if he cannot remember it precisely he should give it as
well as possible.
If a sailor on the ocean is shipwrecked in a wild country, he must first
look for water to drink; then he must find a place to sleep, where wild
animals can't get at him ; and after that he can take time to look for food,
but he must be careful not to eat poisonous berries or fruit. Next, he had
better hunt for other people on the land, and put up a flag to stop ships which
may be going by.
Permanent Record Sheet for Test XIII
If a sailor
on the ocean
is shipwrecked
in a wild country
he must first look for water to drink
then he must find a place to sleep
where wild animals won't get at him
and after that he can take time to look for food
but he must be careful not to eat poisonous berries or fruit
next he had better hunt for other people on the land
and put up a flag
to stop ships which may be going by.
The same data are kept for this passage as for the one given
above. Following is an example of a passage classed as No
Attempt at Verbal Accuracy:
"If a sailor is shipwrecked, he has to be careful to see that
he has water, then to see that he sleeps where wild animals
won't get at him, and then he has to look for food, and be
careful not to eat poisonous berries or such things, and then
he has to look for other people, and put up a flag to stop ships
going by."
The following is an example of a reproduction placed in the
approximately verbally accurate column :
"If a sailor on the ocean is shipwrecked in a savage land,
he must first look for water. Next, he must find a place to
sleep where wild animals won't get at him. Then he may
look for food, but be careful that he does not eat poisonous
berries or fruit. Next, he must look around for other people
on the land, and put up a flag to stop ships going by."
Table XXIX shows the data obtained from this test :
120 CLARA SCHMITT
TABLE XXIX
Test XIII. Memory from Auditory Verbal Presentation
Details iRemembered Accuracy Sequence
ii 8 Approx- No at- Incor-
to 9 or less imate tempt Correct rect
1
Grade
Numiber
Number
^
Number
*
Number
&
Number
*
Number
^
Number
*R
1
£
^
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
13
17
21
24
22
24
i
2
4
6
9
3
7
12
19
25
31
12
10
13
16
18
13
19
77
76
76
75
59
79
2
2
I
O
O
2
15
12
5
0
o
8
5
15
20
23
16
22
38
88
95
96
73
92
8
2
I
I
6
2
61
12
5
4
3
8
3
16
20
23
19
24
23
94
95
96
86
IOO
10
I
I
I
3
0
77
6
5
4
13
O
It may be observed from the table that throughout the grades
the number of items omitted in the reproduction are negligible.
The children in general are able to remember nine or more
of the twelve items presented them. After the first grade, the
percentages of children who do not attempt to be verbally
accurate is negligible, and after the first grade the percentage of
those who do not get the sequence correct is negligible.
Test VIII; Learning Test — Arbitrary Associations. — The
material for this test consists of nine geometrical figures placed
at the top of a sheet and numbered. Below these are the
figures reproduced each one three times, without the correspond-
ing numbers; below these is another row of the geometrical
figures without the numbers. Figure 9 is a reproduction of the
sheet for this test. It is laid before the child and he is told
that at the top of the page he will see a set of figures or little
pictures each with a number, and that below are the same kind
of figures but without the numbers, in which he is to place
the number of the same figure in the top row. He is then
asked, "What number goes in the first figure?" A correct re-
sponse shows his understanding of his task. Many children
do not at first understand the instructions and begin to number
the figures serially, i, 2, etc. In such case the instructions are
repeated. When the three compact lines designed for that
purpose are numbered they are covered and the child is told
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS
121
that he may number the remainder from memory. Healy and
Fernald give an additional instruction: "When he has done
this he is told to study well the top line until he thinks he knows
it." This procedure is not followed by the writer because it
introduces a confusion in the comparison of results. Some
children take much time and some take only a glance without
attention to the instructions. This case is a clear illustration
cuf the fact of the unreliability of time measure as a measure
of mental process. What the child is doing mentally in what-
FIG. 9
A=*=l«_X©<?
C
X
ALO +
O
)AL
xc n
c x =
ever time he does take can only be guessed. If the sheet is
covered as soon as the last figure is numbered the learning
conditions will be made uniform. This test is, of course, only
possible after the child has gained sufficient practice in writing
numerals as to make the process automatic and thus free the
attention from this part of the task to that of fixing the de-
sired associations. The test, therefore bears some relation to
the curriculum. It can not be given until after such time as
this practice has been gained in the school. Since the following
table shows it to be a suitable test for the first grade child it
122 CLARA SCHMITT
would probably be suitable for younger children if it were de-
vised in a form which would do away with the necessity for
such skill.
The scoring takes account of errors of perception — that is
the errors made in numbering the figures from the model line —
and the errors of memory. Table XXX shows the results of
this test for the first four grades.
TABLE XXX
Test VIII. Learning Test — Arbitrary Associations- (By grade)
Errors of Perception Errors of Memory
i or more i or more
No errors errors No errors errors
W
'O
rt
s
1
1
3
1
HH
IH
0
£
*
*
*
*
^
i
$
<
I
*20
18
90
2
IO
II
55
9
45
2+
II
17
13
76
4
23
12
70
5
29
2+
III
21
21
IOO
o
o
17
80
4
19
IV
22
22
IOO
o
o
19
86
3
13
2+
* Of seventeen first grade children of another private school, none made
errors of perception, two made two errors each of memory.
The table shows that throughout, the errors of perception are
negligible and the errors of memory are negligible after the
second grade. The average error of those who made errors
are not more than two.
It may be noticed that in the line for memory numbering one
of the figures is repeated. This forms an interesting sort of
trap for the unwary type of mind which is always exhibited
by the defective individual. This type of person will give it
some other than the proper number, not seeing that he has given
different numbers to the same figure; or when he comes to it,
he looks over his past work and finds that he has used all the
numerals up to ten and then inserts that. The normal child
often shows an ability to help his memory which is never ex-
hibited by the defective individual. When the former has for-
gotten the appropriate number for one figure he will voluntarily
or upon suggestion go on and number the others which he
does know; then he will look over his work again and find
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 123
which numeral he has not yet used and place that in the for-
gotten figure. Questioning the child will often bring out the
process used by him in determining the forgotten item. An
example is that of a nine-year-old boy. He was asked, "How
did you know that was the right number?" "I guessed."
"How?" "I looked and saw that I did not have an eight
anywhere and I knew that must be the number." The defective
individual has no way of helping himself out in such an
emergency.
VII
CORRELATION OF THREE TESTS WITH
SCHOOL GRADE
The tests which have been discussed above were the ones
chosen for standardization, leaving out for lack of time the
few which had proved of least value in the work of the clinic.
In order to show what correlation exists between these tests
and general ability, three were chosen to be correlated with
school standing of children of a uniform age. School standing
may be taken as a rough measure of a child's general ability
to learn, because of the varied character of school work in a
city school. The curriculum contains reading, writing, arith-
metic, and the application of these three tools in the acquisition
of organized bodies of knowledge such as history, geography,
etc. ; and it contains handwork in varying degrees of complexity
to suit the various grades. In the Chicago schools a child is
not retained in a grade for a second term if he fails in no
more than one of the required subjects of that grade. This
rule keeps the child progressing in spite of the lack of some
one specialized ability or interest. The rule can, however, be
of significance only for the grades above primary work. A
child who can not learn to read, for instance, could make little
or no progress from grade to grade since all the work of the
school with the exception of handwork rests upon reading as a
foundation. In the case of the defective child school grade
may not indicate a true measure of his mental ability, — at least
it is not always a measure of his accomplishments in the work
of the school. Because the number of special rooms for de-
fective children is insufficient for the supply many have to be
kept in the regular grades. When a defective child in such
circumstances becomes too large to sit in the seats of the grade
appropriate to his school accomplishments, or for some other
reason, he is sent to another room where he may more com-
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 125
fortably be taken care of. It is seldom, that a defective child
is found in the fifth grade or above. His progress through
the school is at the rate of two years or more to a grade and
at the age of fourteen he is found no higher than the fourth
grade. On the other hand, among the foreign neighborhoods,
many children are in low grades by reason of late entrance into
the public school. A foreign born child, coming to America
at the age of twelve, must, of course, be placed in the first
or second grade to learn to read. Other children, by reason
of physical handicaps, may be in grades which do not measure,
perhaps, innate ability, but only what they have been able to
accomplish under the circumstances. Poor vision or hearing
may constitute handicaps to learning in the school, when the
child's innate ability to learn is good. The school grade is
not, therefore, an exact measure of mental ability.
With the above qualifications in mind the following tables
may be taken only as indications of an existing correlation be-
tween the tests chosen for the purpose and general ability as
indicated by the school grade. The tendency to positive correla-
tion is clearly shown.
The tests which have for prerequisites the smallest amount
of formal training and knowledge were selected for the purpose
of correlation with school grade of the children from 12-6 to
13-6 seen in the clinic. All of these children came from public
or parochial schools. Children of this age who have begun
school at the legally required age of seven and have progressed
normally through the school a grade a year should be in the
seventh grade. Those who began at six, the legally permissible
age, should be in the eighth grade. The cases were scattered
from the first to the eighth.
Table XXXI shows the data obtained from Test V, the puzzle
box, arranged with reference to the qualitative reaction already
discussed.
The table shows that beginning with the sixth grade prac-
tically all do the test by the planned method, and that below
the fourth grade practically all fail. Those below the fifth
grade are two years and more retarded in their school work.
126 CLARA SCHMITT
TABLE XXXI
Test V. Puzzle Box. (Age 12-6 to 13-6. Clinic Cases)
Method
Failure Trial and Error Planned
Grade Number Number % Number % Number %
I
9
7
77
2
99
o
o
II
4
3
75
I
IOO
o
o
III
i
i
IOO
O
IOO
o
o
IV
8
2
25
5
87
I
12
V
5
I
20
2
60
2
40
VI
3
O
0
I
33
2
66
VII
i
o
O
O
o
I
IOO
VIII
2
O
0
O
0
2
IOO
Total
33
14
42
II
33
8
24
A similar table was constructed for each of the ages from n-6
to 15-6, the years for which the grade of which the child was
a member in the school or at which he quit if he did so at the
legal limit of fourteen could be most surely ascertained. These
tables showed for each age the same large break in the per-
centages of qualitative reaction to the test at the two year re-
tardation point as has just been shown in the table for the
13-year-olds. The tables were then combined to show the reac-
tion for two year or more retarded cases and those showing
less than two years or no retardation. Table XXXII shows the
data so arranged.
TABLE XXXII
Test V. Puzzle Box. (n-6 to 15-6, Retarded and Unretarded, Clinic Cases)
Method
Failure Trial & Error Planned
i
Retarded 2 yr. or more 115 46 40 57 89 12 10
Unretarded 69 8 n 34 49 27 39
The table shows that of the retarded cases 10 per cent were
able to plan the work of this test, and of the unretarded cases
39 per cent were able to plan it; that 40 per cent of the re-
tarded failed and n per cent of the unretarded cases failed.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 127
Table XXXIII shows the data obtained for the 12-6 to 13-6
cases for Test IX, Cross Line A.
TABLE XXXIII
Test IX. Cross Line A. (Age 12-6 to 13-6. Clinic Cases)
Succeeded
Failure First Second Third Fourth
1
1
V
.Q
1
1
J
Grade
1
1
*
1
*
1
*
1
*
4
*
I
9
7
77
I
II
o
o
o
o
o
o
II
4
2
50
I
25
o
o
o
o
o
o
III
3
2
66
I
33
o
o
o
o
o
o
IV
ii
5
45
3
27
I
9
2
18
o
o
V
6
2
33
3
50
0
o
I
16
0
0
VI
2
O
o
2
IOO
o
o
o
o
o
o
VII
I
O
o
I
IOO
0
o
o
0
0
o
VIII
2
O
o
2
IOO
o
o
o
o
o
o
Total 38 18 47 14 36 3 7 3 7 o o
The table shows that above the fifth grade practically all
succeed and that 'below the fifth grade there is a large per-
centage of failure.
The data of this test were arranged with reference to re-
tardation as was the test last discussed, showing success and
failure. Table XXXIV shows the data so arranged.
TABLE XXXIV
Test IX. Cross Line A. (n-6 to 15-6, Retarded and Unretarded, Clinic
Cases)
Failure Succeeded
Number
Number
i
r "
Number
%
Retarded 2 yr. or more
Unretarded
123
79
45
7
36
8
78
72
63
Here it is seen that of the retarded cases 63 per cent succeeded
and of the unretarded cases 91 per cent succeeded.
The data for test X, Cross Line B, for the 12-6 to 13-6 year
cases is shown in Table XXXV.
128 CLARA SCHMITT
TABLE XXXV
Test X. Cross Line B. (Age 12-6 to 13-6. Clinic Cases)
Succeeded
Failure
First
Second
Third
Fourth
j?
&
J*
.0
JO
•s
Grade
1
|
*
*
1
£
z
*
1
&
I
9
7
77
i
II
0
0
I
II
o
o
II
4
3
75
o
O
o
0
o
O
i
25
III
3
2
66
o
O
I
33
o
o
0
o
IV
10
6
60
II
IO
3
30
o
o
o
o
V
7
i
14
3
42
2
28
I'
14
o
o
VI
6
o
o
5
83
0
o
I
16
o
o
VII
i
o
o
i
IOO
o
o
o
o
o
o
VIII
2
o
0
2
IOO
0
o
o
0
o
o
Total
42
19
45
12
28
6
14
2
4
I
2
• This table also shows the large percentage of success above
the fifth grade and the very large percentage of failure below
that grade. Table XXXVI shows the data with reference to
retarded and unretarded cases.
TABLE XXXVI
Test X. Cross Line B. (11^6 to 15-6, Retarded and Unretarded, Clinic Cases)
Failure Succeeded
Number Number % Number %
Retarded 2
Unretarded
yr.
or
more
123
84
52
4
4
80
57
95
This table shows that 57 per cent of the retarded cases and
95 per cent of the unretarded succeeded with this test.
VIII
INDIVIDUAL REACTIONS TO HEALY-FERNALD
TESTS
The following seven tables show the individual data of the
children of the private school to those tests which involve quali-
tative types of reaction.
The first column to the left shows the individual number of
the child when the data were recorded from the original notes.
The next column records age ; the third grade, and the following
columns the type of reaction to each test.
TABiLE XXXVII
Reaction of Kindergarten Children to Healy-Fernald Tests
No.
157
158
140
i'5S
145
154
138
160
141
159
149
132
139
137
144
143
153
135
142
140
152
134
151
136
147
148
Age Grade
5+ Kdg.
5 +
5- 3
5-8
5- 9
5- 9
5-10
5-n
6
6- i
6- i
6- 2
6- 2
6- 3
6- 4
6- 5
6- 6
6-6
6- 6
6-10
7
7- 4
7-10
8- i
Test III
Chance, Learning -j-
Tr. and Er., Learning
Tr. and Er., Learning
Chance, Learning -|-
Planned
Chance, Learning -f-
Chance, Learning -\-
Tr. and Er., Learning
Chance, Learning +
Chance, Learning -j-
Chance, Learning -j-
Chance, Learning -j-
Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er., Learning
Tr. and Er., Learning
Chance, Learning -f-
Tr. and Er., Learning
Chance, Learning +
Chance, Learning -j-
Chance, Learning -j-
Planned
Chance, Learning -f-
Planned
Chance, Learning -f-
Chance, Learning -j-
-f- Method for second attempt, Trial and
* Made errors, but method planned.
Test IV
Chance, Readjustment — •*
-f- Chance, Readjustment -|-
-j- Planned, Readjustment -f-
Chance, Readjustment — *
Planned, Readjustment -{-
Planned, Readjustment -j-
Chance, Readjustment -(-
-f- Planned, Readjustment -f-
Tr. and Er., Readjustment -f-
Chance, Readjustment — *
Tr. and Er., Readjustment -f-
Chance, Readjustment -(-
Planned, Readjustment +
Tr. and Er., Readjustment -(-
+ Chance, Readjustment +
-f- Planned, Readjustment -(-
Planned, Readjustment +
+ 'Chance, Readjustment — *
Planned, Readjustment +
Chance, Readjustment -{-
Tr. and Er., Readjustment +
Planned, Readjustment +
Chance, Readjustment +
Planned, Readjustment +
Planned, Readjustment +
Tr. and Er., Readjustment -f-
Error.
130
CLARA SCHMITT
TABLE XXXVIII
Reaction of First Grade Children to Healy-Fernald Tests
Test
No.
Age Grade Test III Test IV
Test V
Test IX X
93
6-6 I Planned Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
39
6-6
Chance Planned
F*
F
F
92
6-6
Planned Chance
Tr. and Er.
ust
3rd
96
6-7
Tr. and Er.Tr. and Er.
F
ISt
ISt
91
7
Chance Chance
F
F
F
94
7-i
Planned Planned
F
ISt
F
127
7-1
Chance Planned
F
3rd
3rd
86
7-2
Chance Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
129
7-4
Chance Tr. and Er.
F
I9t
ISt
98
7-5
Chance Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
F
88
7-5
Planned Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
4th
128
7-5
Chance Tr. and Er.
F
3rd
ISt
90
7-7
Tr. and Er.Chance
F
ISt
F
87
7-10
Chance Chance
F
ISt
ISt
97
8
Chance Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
2nd
95
8
Tr. and Er.Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
131
8
Tr. and Er.Planned
Tr. and Er.
4th
F
125
8
Chance Tr. and Er.
F
4th
2nd
126
8-2
Chance Planned
F
ISt
ISt
89
8-6
Planned Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
*F = Failure
Reaction of Second Grade Children to Healy-Fernald Tests
No. Age Grade Test III Test IV Test V Test IX Test X Test XI
32 7-6 II Tr. andEr. Chance F ist ist Idea —
36 7-7 " Chance Chance Tr. and Er. ist ist Idea —
29 7-8 " Tr. andEr. Planned Tr. and Er. ist 1st Idea —
37 7-8 " Planned Planned Tr. and Er. ist ist Idea —
38 7-8 Tr. and Er. Planned Tr. and Er. F F
27 7-9 " Tr. andEr. Planned Tr. andEr. ist 1st Idea —
33 7-9 " Tr. and Er. Planned Tr. and Er. ist F
30 7-10 " Planned Chance F ist ist Idea +
34 7-10 " Planned Planned Tr. and Er. ist 2nd Idea -j-
31 7-n " Chance Planned Tr. and Er. ist ist Idea —
35 8 Planned Planned Tr. and Er. ist 2nd Idea —
28 8-2 " 'Chance Planned Tr. and Er. 2nd ist Idea —
23 8-7 " Planned Planned Tr. and Er. ist ist Idea —
25 8-8 Planned Planned Tr. and Er. F 4th Idea +
24 8-9 Planned Planned Tr. and Er. ist ist Idea —
26 8-10 ' Planned Chance Planned ist 4th Idea —
22 9-3 " Planned Tr. and Er. Tr. and Er. ist 4th Idea —
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS
TABLE X'L
Reaction of Third Grade Children to Healy-Fernald Tests
131
No.
Age Grade Test III
Test IV
Test V Test IX
Test X
Test
XI
20
8 III Chance
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ret
Idea
—
21
8-2
Planned
•Chance
Tr. and Er.
.ISt
2nd
Idea
_|_
6
8-8
Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
4th
ISt
Idea
—
12
8-9
Tr. and Er.
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
1st
Idea
-|-
IO
8-10
Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
—
2
9
Planned
Chance
F
ISt
ISt
Idea
—
3
9
Planned
Planned
F
ISt
ISt
p
13
9-2
Chance
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
-j-
5
9-2
Planned
Planned
F
ISt
ISt
Idea
—
7
9-2
Chance
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
?
8
9-2
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea
—
I
9-3
Planned
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
-f-
ii
9-4
Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
-j-
4
9-4
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea
-j-
9
9-4
Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
4-
17
9-9
Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
I'St
Idea
-j-
16
9-9
Planned
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
4-
18
9-II
Chance
Tr. and Er.
Tr. and Er.
ISt
3rd
Idea
—
14
IO-2
Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
-|-
15
10-4
Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
3rd
Idea
—
19
10-4 Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
4-
TABLE XLI
Reaction of Fourth
Grade Children to Healy-Fernald
Tests
No.
Age Grade Test III
Test IV
Test V Test IX
Test X
Test
XI
41
9 IV Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
4-
42
9-4 Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
4-
43
9-4 Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
4th
ISt
Idea
-j-
40
9-5 " Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
3rd
Idea
—
56
9-9 " Planned
Planned
F
I'St
ISt
Idea
4-
53
9-9 Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea
-j-
47
9-9 Tr. and Er.
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea
—
51
9-10
Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
4-
48
9-10
' Planned
Tr. and Er.
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea
—
45
10
Tr. and Er.
Planned
F
ISt
4th
Idea
—
50
IO-I
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea
4-
55
IO-2
Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
4th
3rd
Idea
4-
52
IO-2
Tr. and Er.
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
I'St
Idea
-j-
46
1 0-4
' Planned
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
4th
Idea
—
49
10-4
Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
—
54
10-5
Planned
Planned
Tr. andEr.
ISt
I'St
Idea
4.
57
10-5
' Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
?
44
10-5
' Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
—
61
10-8
' Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
2nd
4th
Idea
—
59
10-9
' Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
4th
3rd
Idea
4.
60
IO-9
' Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea
-j-
58
II-2
' Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea
—
63
11-6
' Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea
4,
62
12-2 ' Planned
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea
4-
132 CLARA SCHM1TT
TAB'LE XLII
Reaction of Fifth Grade Children to Healy-Fernald Tests
No.
Age Grade Test III
Test IV
Test V Test IX
Test X
Test XI
66
10-3 V
Planned
Chance
Planned
ISt
rst
Idea +
65
10-3 '
Planned
Tr. and Er.
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea +
64
10-5 '
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea —
67
10-6
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea —
69
10-6 '
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea +
72
ii
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea +
7i
1 1-2
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
rst
Idea -\-
73
1 1-2 '
Chance
Planned
Tr. and Er.
rst
2nd
Idea —
68
1 1-5 "
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
rst
Idea +
70
n-5 '
Chance
Planned
Planned
rst
rst
Idea +
74
11-6 "
Chance
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
2nd
Idea +
78
1 1-6 "
Planned
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
I'St
Idea +
79
1 1-8 "
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea +
77
12
Planned
Tr. and Er.
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea +
76
I2-I "
Chance
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
2nd
Idea —
75
12-2 "
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
?
83
12-6 "
Planned
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
rst
Idea +
80
12-7 "
Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
rst
Idea —
82
l!2-7 "
Planned
Tr. and Er.
Tr. and Er.
ISt
3rd
Idea +
84
12-11 "
Chance
Chance
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea —
81
12- I I "
Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea +
85
13-8 "
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea +
TABLE XLIII
Reaction of Sixth Grade Children to Healy4Fernald Tests
No.
Age Grade Test III
Test IV
Test V Test IX
Test X
Test XI
US
12 VI Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea —
116
12 Planned
Planned
Planned
rst
ISt
Idea 4-
124
12
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea 4-
105
I2-I
Chance
Tr. and Er.
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea —
109
I2-I
Planned
Planned
Planned
rst
rst
Idea 4-
104
12-1
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea —
123
12-1
Planned
Planned
Planned
rst
rst
Idea 4-
rn
12-2
Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea -j-
IOO
12-2
Planned
Tr. and Er.
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea —
114
12-3
Planned
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
I'St
Idea 4"
1 02
12-6
Tr. and Er.
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea —
106
12-6
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea 4-
119
12-8
Planned
Tr. and Er.
Planned
ust
ISt
Idea —
118
12-8
Tr. and Er.
Chance
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea 4-
113
12-8
Chance
Planned
Planned
ISt
rst
p
108
12-9
Planned
Planned
Planned
ust
ISt
Idea —
103
12-9
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea —
1 20
I2-III
Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea —
99
13
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Trlpa
122
13
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
ISt
Idea 4-
121
13
Tr. and Er.
Planned
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea -j-
117
13-4
Tr. and Er.
Chance
Tr. and Er.
rst
rst
Idea —
no
13-5
Planned
Planned
Planned
ISt
rst
Idea -f-
107
14-2 Planned
Tr. and Er.
Tr. and Er.
ISt
ISt
Idea +
IX
SUMMARY OF STANDARDIZATION OF HEALY-
FERNALD TESTS
From the tables and discussions above may be summarized
the reaction to be expected of children of different ages to each
test.
Test I. Introductory Puzzle. — Accomplished by children of
kindergarten age or experience. Eighty-nine per cent make less
than five errors in performing the test exclusive of the triangle.
Triangle constitutes a learning test.
Test II. Special Picture Puzzle. — At the age of 9-6 to 10-6
accomplished by 75 per cent with not more than two errors.
Test III. Construction Puzzle A. — At the age of 10-6, 90
per cent do the test by the planned method. Under the age of
8-6 is done by a large percentage by chance. Constitutes a learn-
ing test for children of kindergarten age.
Test IF. Construction Puzzle B. — At the age of 8-6 to 9-6,
65 per cent of the children do the test by the planned method.
Constitutes a learning test and a test of readjustment of an
already learned content to fit an altered situation for children
of kindergarten age.
Test V. Puzzle Box.. — At the age of 10-6 to n-6 the test
is performed by the planned method by 72 per cent of the
children tested.
Test IX. Cross Line Test A. — Performed by 75 per cent
of children of first grade experience (so graded because of
necessity of accomplishment of writing1 numbers) — with not
more than two trials.
Test X. Cross Line Test B. — Performed by 69 per cent of
children of second grade with not more than two trials. Per-
formed by 65 per cent of children of first grade with not more
than three trials.
• Test XI. Code Test. — The reasoning step is performed by
134 CLARA SCHMITT
60 per cent of children of fourth grade. At the fourth grade
and above the average error is not more than four out of the
possible eleven.
Test XV. Opposite Test. — Performed by 62 per cent of
children between 6-6 and 7-6 with not more than two errors
out of a possible twenty.
Test XII. Memory for Visual Verbal Presentation. — Sixty-one
per cent of children of third grade recall not less than fifteen items
of the twenty. Is not suitable for children under second grade
because of necessity of reading accomplishment.
Test XIII. Memory from Auditory Verbal Presentation. —
Eighty-four per cent of first grade children recall not less than
nine items of the twelve.
Test Fi/77. Learning Test, Arbitrary Associations. — Per-i
formed by 55 per cent of children of first grade with no error,
and by 45 per cent with average of two errors; by 70 per cent
of second grade children with no errors.
The above summary may be arranged with reference to grade.
After each test in the summary below is indicated the reaction
to be expected of the children of the grade under which the
test is listed. The type of reaction shown by approximately
75 per cent of the children of the grade is indicated as the one
to be expected of the grade. In case this percentage is dis-
tributed over two or more types of reaction these types are
indicated with the one which is preferable mentioned first.
Where a test has reached a maximum in one grade or which
shows little variation for several grades it is not repeated in
the summary for the higher grades.
Kindergarten
Test I. Errors with paired pieces. Triangle by trial and
error, learning test.
Test II. Accomplish (in contrast with defectives of same
age) with much trial and error.
Test III. Trial and error or chance, learning test.
Test IV. Trial and error or chance, learning test.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 135
Grade I
Test I. Less than three errors. Triangle by trial and error.
Test II. Errors of paired pieces.
Test III. Trial and error or chance.
Test- IV. Trial and error or chance.
Test V. Failure.
Test IX. Succeed with second trial.
Test X. Succeed first to fourth trial.
Test XV. Succeed (in contrast with defectives) with less than
four errors.
Test XIII. Recall nine or more items.
Test Fill. Two errors of memory.
Grade II
Test I. Triangle, trial and error or planned.
Test III. Trial and error or planned.
Test IV. Planned or trial and error.
Test V. Trial and error.
Test IX. Succeed first trial.
Test X. Succeed first to third trial.
Test XI. Idea — , eight errors.
Test XV. Less than three errors.
Test XII. Twelve or more items. (In the column, 14 or less.}
Table XXVIII, p. 117, are included three children who remem-
bered less than twelve items.)
Test XIII. Nine or more items.
Grade III
Test III. Planned or trial and error.
Test IV. Planned or trial and error.
Test V. Trial and error.
Test IX. Succeed first trial.
Test X. Succeed first trial.
Test XI. Idea + or — , seven errors.
Test XV. Three or less errors.
136 CLARA SCHMITT
Grade IV
Test III. Planned.
Test IF. Planned.
Test V. Trial and error.
Test XL Idea -f- , four errors.
Grade V
Test V . Planned or trial and error.
Test XL Idea + , two errors.
X
SCHOOL SUBJECTS AS MATERIAL FOR TESTS OF
MENTAL ABILITY
In several large cities the school child, because of his un-
favorable reactions to the school situation, comes in for clinical
diagnosis of mental and physical condition. Since it is the
child's reaction to the school situation which is at fault, it is
well to test him along the line of the special abilities which he
is expected to develop under the conditions of the school situa-
tion. The school subjects may be made to form a series of
tests which can be used from year to year to measure or check
up the development of special abilities. The curriculum of the
school forms a serial arrangement of accomplishments proceed-
ing from the simplest subject-matter of the first grade to the
complexities of the eighth grade. Such an arrangement of tests
derived from the school subjects, as forms a psychological serial
arrangement from that which is simplest to that which is com-
plex may be derived from the curriculum as it exists. The
following series of tests and suggestions for the evaluation
of the child's development with reference to the school curric-
ulum has resulted from an examination of several hundred
children considered by the school to be unfavorable in their
reaction to the school situation, and a comparison of them with
children considered normal with regard to their reaction to
the school situation. The subjects chosen for this series of
tests are those of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Reading. — The most important accomplishment in the school
life is that of reading. The child's progress throughout the
school is dependent entirely upon his attaining it. Upon it
depends his progress to a large extent in arithmetic and almost
entirely in history and geography and other such subjects which
consist of classified or organized groups of facts. The ac-
complishment of the child in this subject may be arranged with
138 CLARA SCHMITT
reference to quantity and quality. A defective child may be
deficient in one or both of these two characteristics of the
reading accomplishment. He may be ^incapable of learning to
recognize the words of the printed page; he may show himself
capable of learning words only very slowly or of forgetting
them quickly and easily; he may show himself capable of learn-
ing words with some facility in memorizing them, and so of
becoming a good reader, but incapable of gaining ideas from
the words which he reads. It is this latter characteristic which
one is to understand as included in its various aspects under the
term "quality."
The child may show an ability to recognize words from
the printed page to a greater or less extent, but this recognition
with the defective child consists largely, merely of a mechanical
type of visual memory which serves as stimulus for its associated
vocal prototype. The child who learns words in this way only
is always dependent upon his teacher, since he can acquire for
himself no new or unfamiliar word from the printed page.
He can become somewhat independent of his teacher only if
he learns phonetic values. Defective children are sometimes
capable of acquiring very large visual vocabularies but show
themselves quite deficient in perceiving phonetic relationships.
Children of the first grade may be expected to acquire the
simplest phonetic elements of the English language.* The child
who can obtain a visual vocabulary with facility, who gains a
perception of the simple phoentic values, and who learns to
combine them correctly for the independent learning of new
words is considered a favorable reactor so far as the subject
of reading of the first grade is concerned in the public schools.
The various steps from the early period of the reading ac-
complishment to its complex fulfillment are indicated as follows :
I. QUANTITY
i. Knows no words. — This is the condition of the average
child when he enters school at six or seven years of
age, and is one persisted in by the low type of defective
* Cf. Chicago Public Schools, Course of Study for the Elementary Schools,
1912.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 139
child for several years or longer. This low type of defective
child shows himself incapable of perceiving the fine differences
which serve to distinguish one word from another on the printed
page, though he is able to use spoken language. Some knowledge
of the degree of his defectiveness may be gained when one
knows the length of time in which he has persisted in this
disability.
2. Can recognize a few unrelated words. — This is the ac-
complishment of the average normal child after a few days
spent in the school. It is a condition persisted in by many
defective children sometimes for years. In such case, the de-
fective child has learned a word here and a word there which
have stuck in his memory, and he recognizes them wherever
he sees them. He shows himself, however, incapable of gain-
ing sufficient words to make his reading a consecutive process
with regard to meaning. The words which he does learn bear,
perhaps, no relation to the amount or type of teaching that
has been given. The learning of them is largely a matter of
chance, and just why certain words have been learned and
many others imparted at the same time in his instruction have
been forgotten cannot be determined.
3. Can read entire sentence in the first or some other reader. —
This step in its simplest form is attained by the child after
a few weeks in school. The reader which he has in school, —
if because of being a defective he is placed in an ungraded
room,' — compared with the number of years that the child has
been in school is some measure of his defectiveness in learning
to read.
4. Can read at sight any material such as newspapers, etc. —
This is the highest grade which may be attained in the ability
to read, with reference to quantity. It is attained by the normal
child with the fifth grade.
The phonetics which underlie the reading process is the greai
stumbling block of the defective child. Seldom is one found who
has this accomplishment. He may be able to learn a very few
of the simplest combinations, such as consist of one or two
consonants and a vowel. The normal child progresses in his
140 CLARA SCHMITT
knowledge of phonetic values, to such an extent that he becomes
independent of the teacher in so far as the illogical complexities
of our English spelling permit. At the fourth grade the normal
child is able to work out new and unfamiliar words with approxi-
mate phonetic correctness.
II. QUALITY
i. Mechanical. — The defective child may be able to ac-
complish with reference to quantity in reading anything
between the limits set above from the lowest to the highest
stage of accomplishment. However great his accomplishment
in the quantity of his reading he is unable to read a new passage
other than mechanically, that is all he can do is, to use a
familiar popular phrase, parrot-like. This type of reading may
be described as a straight line association between the visual
and the vocal centers. The child makes no, or few, other asso-
ciations with the ideas gained from the printed page before
him. The words or ideas which he reads do not relate them-
selves in his mind with anything else he has read or with other
experiences he has had, such that a complex of related ideas
are (formed in his mind which he ican reproduce orally or
otherwise. He can reproduce few, if any, of the ideas which
the page contains. Upon being asked what he has read about,
he remains dumb or answers merely with a word or phrase
contained in what he has read. This type of reading may be
suspected from the monotonous tone with which it is delivered.
An extreme example of this was that of a girl of eleven, found
in the second grade. She had attained the fourth step in
quantity, and was very proficient in her rendering of phonetic
values. She read a long paragraph, of which the following
is the beginning sentence: "It was in the spring of the year
1826 about ten o'clock, when Mr. Amos Bliss, manager and one
of the proprietors of the Northern Spectator, was in the garden,
behind his house planting potatoes," etc. This selection was
taken from a Fifth Reader which she had never seen. She
pondered over the unfamiliar words spectator, manager, pro-
prietors, and pronounced them correctly, with very little loss
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 141
of time. The other words in the selection were read with
little or no hesitation. Upon being asked what she had read
about, she made no reply; and when the question was repeated
she finally said, "It was about a horse." The selection con-
tained no reference to a horse, but the opposite page contained
a picture of one. The normal child, when reading material
which is not familiar to him must give much attention to spelling
and deciphering unfamiliar words, he will often because of
this distraction, be unable to give the sense of the selection
read. A judgment of the quality of the child's reading should,
therefore, in every case be deduced only from material which
he reads with reasonable facility and which contains few if any
unfamiliar words.
2. Appreciative. — This/type of reading is the opposite of the
mechanical type just discussed. With this type there is usually
expression of tone in reading which shows the child's under-
standing or appreciation of the selection read. Upon being
questioned, he can tell in a sentence or more, the essential ele-
ments of the selection. It is usually a sure sign that the reading
has been appreciative if pleasure is shown. However, expression
is not an infallible test. Defective children may be trained to
read selections with expression, and if the circumstances of the
training have been pleasant the child may incorporate these
pleasant associations into the reading process itself, so that
he seems to be enjoying the ideas derived from the selection.
In such a case, however, he fails to read with expression or
to reproduce the sense of the meaning when the same material
is arranged in unfamiliar form.
3. Apperceptive.' — This is a grade of performance above the
appreciative, in that there is a relating of what is read to £
larger complex of knowledge or experience in addition to the
reproducing of content. In this type of reading the child can
reproduce orally without further prompting the essential details
and can give an interpretation of a selection. Fables Ifend
themselves readily to such an interpretive test. Defective children
often can answer correctly any questions asked about a selection
read, but are unable to organize it for themselves and are unable
142 CLARA SCHMITT
to give an interpretation of its meaning when the material is
of a literary type other than that of didactic narrative.
4. Initiative. — Reads voluntarily. Many children who attain
the highest stage as relates to quantity in reading may at the
same time really be able to gain so little from such abstractly
represented ideas that they never voluntarily read for their own
pleasure. Many children who have not yet gained the highest
stage as relates to quantity still read voluntarily because of a
desire to gain knowledge or to meet certain social demands.
It is seldom that a defective child reads from any other motive
than to please his teacher.
RESULTS OF READING TESTS FOR NORMAL AND DEFECTIVE
CHILDREN
Two selections to test ability in reading were given to seven-
teen children of each grade from the first to the sixth, chosen
from five public schools of Chicago. Three from each grade
were chosen from four schools and five from another. These
schools were situated in foreign speaking districts. Of the
eighty-five children tested, thirty-eight came from homes which
were counted as English speaking, since the mother was able
to speak English. In the remaining forty-seven homes, accord-
ing to the testimony of the children and the teachers who knew
them, the mothers could not speak English.
The teachers were given the following directions for choosing
the children for the test : Select children who are average good
readers for the grade; do not select the very best reader you
have. Select them from that age of which you have the most;
that is, if you have more nine-year-old children than any other
age select nine-year-old ones. The first grade teachers were
asked to select only those who had begun school in September.
The teachers consulted the record of ages upon entrance in
September. The tests were given during six weeks of May
and June. The children of the first grade were, then, near
the seventh birthday; the second grade were near the eighth;
the third grade were near the ninth; the fourth grade were
near the tenth; and the fifth grade were near the eleventh.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 143
The defective children who were given the tests at the same
time and in the same way were between the ages of ten and
sixteen who had been in the special rooms for defective chil-
dren for at least one year. Many of them had been in these
rooms for several years. With one exception the rooms were
situated in the same schools in which the normal children were
tested. There were five such rooms; forty-six children of the
eighty who constituted the membership of these rooms fell
within the conditions chosen. None of them had uncorrected
defects of sight or hearing.
The first of the selections chosen was the story of The Fox
and the Grapes.
THE FOX AND THE GRAPES
One day a fox went down the road.
"How hungry I am!" he said. "I wish I could find something
to eat."
Just then he saw a grapevine. It had ripe grapes on it.
"Oh, how good those grapes look! I will have some," said
the fox.
But he could not reach the grapes. They were too high on
the vine.
He jumped high up in the air, but he could not get them.
At last he went away hungry.
The birds heard him say, "Those old grapes are sour.
They are not good for a fine fox like me."
But the birds knew better.
This selection was made in order to give each child some-
thing to read that he had been taught in school. The story is
one of the lessons of the first reader taught toward the end
of the first year. All but the first group of first grade children
tested had read it. The general practice of the school with such
stories as this is to read, recount, and discuss, and in some
instances dramatize the story. If the children had not all
had an opportunity to recount the story individually they had
heard some of their classmates do so and had joined in the
discussion of it. All the defective children had had opportunity
144 CLARA SCHMITT
to hear it and read it and doubtless to recount it several times,
since much attention is given t(o such work with the defective
children. Each child had spent at least two years in the first
garde before entering the special room.
The defective children were all mentally at least seven years
of age according to the Binet scale. With the exception of the
stamp counting test with which three failed, all could pass all
the tests for seven years of age. All could do the Thorndike
a test with no more than three errors. All could do the Healy-
Fernald Test I as well as the average of the first grade. With
tests of greater complexity there was much variation.
The data recorded include time for reading the selection,
errors of pronunciation, verbatim reproduction of the story, and
the correctness or falseness of the interpretation of the motive
of the fox in saying the grapes are sour. This last item was
obtained by asking after the child had given his reproduction
of the story, "Were the grapes sour?" If the answer was, "No,"
then, "Why did he say so?" The interpretation was considered
correct when the child indicated that the fox was disgruntled
at not being able to get the grapes. The idea was not always
expressed in words, but some times in an inflection of the voice
in the answer, "Just because he couldn't get them." If the
answer to the first question was, "Yes," then, "How did he
know?" To this question there was sometimes an attempt to
make an explanation such as that of one child, "He looked at
them," but generally there was silence.
The reproduction was classed under the following heads,
scant, adequate, and full. That reproduction was classed as
scant which did not contain a sufficient number of the essential
details to tell the story, or which had them so mixed or otherwise
wrong that the story was not correctly rendered. An adequate
reproduction contained enough details to indicate the story, but
with little or none of the embellishing details of dramatic setting.
The full reproduction contained all or nearly all the items of
the original story.
The two following reproductions were classed scant.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 145
"The fox couldn't reach the grapes, he went away hungry,
the birds knew better."
"The fox was hungry, he wanted something to eat, so the
birds said them grapes are not good, they are sour."
It should be remarked here that no reproduction was classed
scant if the child could answer a series of questions which
would bring out his understanding of the story, such as, "What
did he try to get? What did he say?" etc.
The following is one of the poorest in the matter of detail
of the reproductions classed as adequate:
"About the fox, he was hungry, and he wanted some grapes
to eat, they were too high and he could not get them and he
said those grapes are sour."
The following is a full reproduction:
"One day the fox went down the road, he was very hungry,
he said I wish I had something to eat, then he saw a grape
vine, it had ripe grapes on it, how nice it looked, I will get
some, but he could not get any, then he went away hungry,
the birds heard him say, those grapes are sour, those grapes are
not good for a fox, but the birds knew better."
In recording mispronunciations those words which the child
could not decipher in ten seconds were classed with the mis-
pronounced. Words mispronounced in reading such as then
for they were called to the child's attention with the question,
"Is it then?" If he then pronounced it correctly the word was
not classed with the mispronunciations. The time record for
normal children includes time taken up in this way. For the
defective children a time record was seldom of any significance
because of the many corrections and helps necessary to get the
child through the selection.
The first grade children of the first school tested varied so
widely from the other first grade groups that their record could
not be included in the averages. Their performance supported
the assertion of the principal that this particular group of
foreigners were very slow in learning to read. It is possible
that their record would have been nearer the average if they
had been tested last. The same backwardness in reading was
I46 CLARA SCHMITT
exhibited somewhat by the second grade of that school but not
sufficiently to make necessary their elimination from the av-
erages. The third grade showed no variation.
Table XLIV shows the data gained from Selection I.
TABLE XLIV
Data of Reading Test I
(Reproduction Inter-
i\ umoer
Average
r
— \ p relation
of
Average
number
Ade-
/ *•
\
Grade
children
time
errors
Scant
quate
Full
+
—
I
12
82"
•5
3
9
o
6
6
II
17
62"
o
o
9
8
6
ii
III
17
48"
o
o
4
13
13
4
IV
17
48"
o
o
5
12
IS
2
The time average for the first grade of the above table had
a range as follows: two took between two and three minutes
to read the selection; six between one and two minutes; three
less than one minute. The error average was made up of one
child's five errors and two other errors made by two children.
The time average for the second grade ranged; one between
two and three minutes, four between one and two minutes,
seven less than one minute. There was little variation in the
time of the third and fourth grades.
It is rather significant of the small child's ability to under-
stand the point of the fable type of story that though all these
children had been taught this story and had discussed it more
or less, it is at the third grade that it is understood. The chil-
dren of the first and second grades who gave a correct inter-
pretation probably only reproduced their teaching.
The errors in pronunciation made by the normal children
in this and the second reading test was always in favor of a
word which had considerable visual or phonetic resemblance
to the correct word. The errors made by the defective children
with the first selection which was perfectly familiar to them
in content, at least, were absurd so far as visual or phonetic
values were concerned, but were calculated to fill in the context.
The defective child reads, for instance, that the fox saw a
vine with berries on it. Because of the great prevalence of this
type of variation the performance of the defective group can
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 147
not be compared with that of the normal. Another type of
comparison will be made below.
The second selection was chosen because of its unfamiliarity,
of its wide range of verbal difficulty, and simplicity of content,
which at the same time possessed a definite unity. It was taken
from page 177 of Jones' Fifth Reader. This reader is not
in use in the schools, and probably had never been seen by
any of the children who read the selection. Since the verbal
expression is rather complex and the words used are not those of
the ordinary child's every day vocabulary it was desirable to keep
the content matter simple, that not too many difficulties would
confront the child at the same time. The paragraph selected
was : It ivas a fine spring morning in the year 1826 about ten
o'clock, when Mr. Amos Bliss, the manager and one of the
proprietors of the Northern Spectator, might Jiave been seen in
the garden behind his house planting potatoes. He heard the
gate open behind him., and, without turning or looking round,
became dimly conscious of the presence of a boy. But the boys
of country villages go into whosoever garden their wandering
fancy impels them, and supposing this boy to be one of his own
neighbors, Mr. Bliss continued his work and quickly forgot that
he was not alone.
The same data as for the first test were recorded, except
that there is no interpretation for this one.
Following is an example of a reproduction classed as
adequate:
"A man was planting potatoes in his back yard and a boy came
in and he thought it was one of his neighbor boys and he didn't
pay attention to him and forgot he wasn't alone."
The following reproduction was classed as full. "Mr. Bliss
was planting potatoes behind his house, he looked up suddenly
and there was a boy coming in his yard, but in that country
the boys go wherever their fancy impels them and he thought
it was one of his neighbors and kept on with his work and
after a while he forgot that he was not alone."
No child grasped the significance of the title, manager and
one of the proprietors of the Northern Spectator.
rvveragc
iiuni'uer
Number
time
errors
Scant
Adequate
Full
17
194"
7-8
14
3
o
17
91"
2.8
13
4
o
17
74"
I.O
6
7
4
17
54"
•5
o
9
8
148 CLARA SCHMITT
Table XLV shows the data of the second selection.
TABLE XLV
Data for Reading Test II
Average Reproduction
Average
Grade
II
III
IV
V
The words most frequently mispronounced were, manager
proprietors, Northern, Spectator, conscious, whosoever, impels,
continued. The mistakes of the normal children consist, for
the most part, of misplaced accent, the omission of an obscure
syllable in long words, or giving a different phonetic value than
is the right one for the word in which the letter is found. Thus
manager becomes manager; proprietors becomes proprietors, or
propetors, etc.
RESULTS OF READING TESTS FOR DEFECTIVE CHILDREN
The reading of the defective children presents such irregular
characteristics that averages which would present any meaning
are difficult to obtain. The children tested had been much
drilled in the story of the fox and the grapes. Nevertheless
twenty-four of the forty-six could read it with less facility
than the first grade children. They made many errors of the
absurd type discussed above. Their reading consisted of some
unerring recognition of words and more or less filling in to
supply a remembered context. Nine of the defectives could
give only a scant account of the story and an incorrect in-
terpretation.
Twelve defective children were graded as equal to the first
grade child in reading ability. Ten were graded equal to the
second grade child in ability as regards the mechanical and
qualitative aspects of the second reading test. Two of the
defectives of the second grade could give an adequate account
of the matter read. One of these children was ten years of
age and by reason of this test and others was reclassified on
his record sheet as only backward and returned to the regular
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 149
grades of the school. The other, twelve years of age, was so
deficient in other tests that he was retained in the special room.
Table XLV shows that it is only with the fourth grade that
such mechanical skill in reading has been attained as to admit
of sufficient attention to content to enable the child to give an
adequate reproduction of an unfamiliar selection. With the
fifth grade such skill has become general.
WRITING
The process of writing, when carried along with the accom-
plishment of reading, constitutes an added complexity in gaining
the symbols of language.
1. Can form no letters. — This disability may be due to one
or both of two things. The child may be unable to analyze
and conceive so complex a thing as a written letter of the
alphabet, or the motor control may be so poor as not to permit
him to form letters in the usual way.
2. Copies words or sentences legibly.
3. Writes simple sentences from dictation. — Many children
who are proficient in the second stage of the writing process
cannot write simple sentences from dictation for several reasons.
One is that the child's memory span is so short that he cannot
remember even a short sentence until by repetition it has become
very familiar to him. In this case he writes the first or second
word and then must stop because he cannot remember the re-
mainder. Another reason is that he may be unable to remember
the formation of the letters, so that even though his memory
may be of the type which can compass a sentence it lacks the
ability to remember the symbols for recording it. A third
reason, often found, is the child's inability to learn to spell.
Though he may be able to remember the sentence and to write
from memory all the letters of the alphabet he fails bcause
he cannot remember the spelling which has been taught him,
and he has no phonetic ability to enable him to proceed in-
dependently.
4. Originates sentences to write. — Many defective children
who are unable to talk or discuss the subjects of their experi-
150 CLARA SCHMITT
ence with originality, cannot put over into written form any
sentence not dictated to them.
5. Can write a letter or composition. — This stage, of course,
tests much more than the mere ability to write. As indicated
in four, many defective children can relate verbally as much
as a letter or composition would contain, and have mastered
the mechanics of writing, but they cannot combine the two
operations. This is a test of the ability to make use of this tool
for the practical purposes of social life.
ARITHMETIC
The simplest mathematical processes are the result of general-
ized abstractions. With arithmetical processes there is the
necessity for the use of symbols to express such generalizations.
These symbols do not stand in one to one relationship with a
particular object or experience. The symbols of reading and
writing bear such a relationship to the things they represent.
The symbols of arithmetic are the expression of a conception.
The symbols for the counting series, for instance, cannot relate
to a particular thing or experience, but to particularized aspects
of that abstract quality of universal relationships which we
denominate as number. The simplest process relating to the
number relationship is that of counting. It is the first accom-
plishment of the child in acquiring number ideas.
1. Counts (a) As a verbal series merely. Frequently the
very young child learns the counting series before he learns
that this series may be related to a series of objects. Many
defective children who have been in the school for some period
of time know the counting series but fail to relate it to a series
of objects. When asked to count a row of like objects, such
a child repeats, "i, 2, 3," etc., and touches the objects in some
other order than that of the counting series.
(b) Counts objects such as lines, beads, etc., serially arranged.
This is the second step in the learning of the counting process.
2. Can make addition and subtraction combinations. — Many
defective children can count objects, but this is as far as their
arithmetical accomplishment goes. They cannot represent an
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 151
arithmetical situation such as, "If you have two pennies and I
give you two more, then how many will you have?" Normal
children of the age found in the first grade, from six to seven
years, are able to represent such a situation and to make the
combination correctly, though the attempt is not made to teach
them the process formally. [Chicago]
(a) With objects. The young child who has learned to
count and who has not yet had sufficient experience with num-
ber relationships to have made their combinations automatic in
his memory learns to make a concrete representation of the
situation for himself. If you ask him how much is five and
four, he can represent the situation with lines or by counting
his fingers or some other such device. Many defective children
never get beyond this stage in making number combinations.
They learn very few combinations, to such an extent as to make
them automatic. On the other hand, many defective children
learn number combinations as a mere mechanical memory
process. If you ask such a child how much is five and four,
he answers quickly. However, upon being asked a combina-
tion which has not become automatic with him he is quite
mute and has no way of solving his problem.
(b) Can make combinations only if put in the form of con-
crete ideas, such as, "If you have three pennies and I give you
two more, how many will you have then?" Many defective
children will remain mute if you ask how much is three and
two, but if you put it in some such form as this they can rep-
resent the situation to themselves and answer correctly. It is per-
haps needless to say that this type of defective child never can
learn very many mathematical combinations, since he must always
depend upon the imagery of concrete experience to carry him
through the process. With the normal child of the first grade
this process is at first necessary, but he soon becomes able to
cast aside this cumbersome method for (c).
(c) Can make combinations with symbols, either written or
oral, unaided by objects or the imagery of (b).
(d) Can do problems involving the processes of (i) "carry-
ing" and (2) "borrowing." Many defective children who can
152 CLARA SCHMITT
add a long column cannot, however, accomplish the added com-
plexity of "carrying" when adding numbers of more than two
columns. Many who can accomplish this feat can not go on
and accomplish the still more complex process of "borrowing"
in subtraction.
3. Multiplication tables.
(a) Knows the table as a series merely. With this type of
accomplishment the child learns to repeat the table, but if items
are taken out of their order in the table he is unable to answer
unless he again begins at the beginning and repeats the table
up to the desired item. His learning in this case is one of
mechanical memory of the type presented by the learning of
nonsense syllables.
(b) In the early stages of learning the multiplication
table, before the combinations have become automatic, the nor-
mal child shows his appreciation of the mathematical meaning
involved by counting from the last familiar item of the table
to gain the next unfamiliar one. The defective child who is not
adept at mechanical learning learns to use this method and then
continues with it indefinitely.
(c) Knows the table with the items taken at random.
4. Can do the processes of (a) multiplication, (b) short divi-
sion, (c) long division.
5. Fractions. — The work with fractions as it is given in the
fifth grade [Chicago] is dependent upon complex processes
which can be represented by symbols only. All the arithmetical
processes previous to stage four are of such simplicity as to be
capable of concrete representation step by step. The processes
of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division may be
learned as mere mechanical processes which may have no rela-
tion in the child's mind either to concrete situations, or to con-
crete situations symbolically represented. Many defective chil-
dren learn so complex a process as long division but never
can apply it to the working out of concrete problems. It is
to them merely a mechanical process and may indicate only
an ability to learn a process of such complexity. The work
with fractions comprises a set of processes of such great com-
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 153
plexity that it is hardly possible to learn them in the mechanical
way that long division can be learned. It employs a symbolism
of which each individual item represents a complex concrete
situation. For instance, to be able to understand such a term
as two-thirds one must have gone through the concrete process
of dividing up the unit, and so on to the final comprehending
of this whole process in the symbol, 2/3. One cannot, how-
ever, in the simplest type of problem employing the use of
fi actions, carry on the concrete imagery as he can with the
simple number processes discussed above. The various sets of
concrete situations represented by the problem, y2 plus ^, can-
not be kept in mind to aid in determining the result. One must
carry on the process with a series of symbolically represented
relationships in which each symbol comprises the summing up of
a complex situation. The further work of school arithmetic,
such as percentage, etc., is only an application of the number
processes and relationships learned up to this point.
6. Practical problems. — Many defective children can learn
number combinations and processes up to the stage of fractions
but are unable to apply these processes to the solution of the
practical problems of every day life. The simplest of such
problems are :
(a.) One-step problems, such as, "If one pencil costs two
cents, what will three pencils cost?" Many defective children
who can solve a problem of this grade of complexity cannot
reverse the process when it is put, "If three pencils cost six
cents what will be the cost of one pencil?" Many who can
accomplish this feat cannot go further and represent to them-
selves and solve the problem, "If five pencils cost ten cents
what will three pencils cost?" The control of attention, neces-
sary from the beginning to the end of the problem, and the
passing over from one step to another to the final third step
and the result is too much for them.
(b.) Make change. — Many defective children can learn to
make change only in so far as the conditions of their lives have
given them experience. They may be able to make change
with a dime or a quarter, or whatever sum it may have been
154 CLARA SCHMITT
frequently their fortune to have to expend, but are helpless
if given any other sum or combination of coins. The extent
to which the change making ability may be learned through
concrete experience is illustrated by the case of a boy of four-
teen in the third grade of the public school. He was accustomed
to drive the carriage which conveyed guests from the railroad
station to his father's small hotel. He could tell very quickly,
for instance, what thirteen twenty-five cent fares would amount
to, but he could not do the arithmetical work of the third grade
in the school, nor could he do other types of making change.
The normal child during this period of learning money com-
binations uses his arithmetic to help out the process for un-
familiar combinations. If he cannot "mentally" manage such
a problem as involves the expenditure of five cents and three
cents of a quarter and find the remainder, he applies his knowl-
edge of arithmetical processes to a solution of the problem.
The defective child gets his method from oft repeated specific
experience with such problems.
(c) Tell time. — The children of the second grade in the
public schools are taught time units and their relationship. The
accomplishment of telling time by the clock is one of too great
complexity for defective children of the normal second grade
age. Very few attain it at all.
RESULTS OF ARITHMETIC TESTS FOR NORMAL AND DEFECTIVE
CHILDREN
A series of tests was arranged in conformity with the pre-
ceding discussion. The children who took the tests were the same
group as took the reading tests discussed above. As was men-
tioned they were chosen for their ability to read. It is possible
that the arithmetic ability in a few cases was not satisfactory.
The tests for each grade were arranged to conform first to
the requirements of the curriculum of 1912 for the Chicago
schools. In addition to the test which would show the child's
acquisition of the required work for his grade one or more
additional problems were given to test his ability to make an
independent use of his mechanical acquisition. It was attempted
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 155
to use for this additional test such problems as would either
involve the next step to be made in the acquisition of number
conceptions, or would make such use of what had just been
learned as was not specifically taught in the work of the grade.
This attempt was not entirely successful due to variations of
procedure in different schools. In one school more of fractions
was taught in the fourth grade than was required in the curric-
ulum. In another school a much larger experience in number
work was given the first grade than was the rule in the other
schools. For this reason the following series of tests would
need to be given to a larger number of schools, or arranged
with close reference to the work of one school and given to all
the children in that school, before definite statements as to the
reasoning ability of normal children in the realm of mathematics
could be made.
In giving the additional or reasoning tests the child was given
every opportunity to show his maximum ability to think. If his
first answer was wrong he was told so and asked to try again
to think out his problem. This was repeated until it was apparent
that he was unable to think the problem out correctly. When a
correct answer was obtained by such means he was recorded in
the successful column only after he had proved by his answer
to other questions that the result was a thoughtful one and not
a fortunate guess. He was asked to tell how he had gotten
the answer, — the demand was usually put in this form: "How
do you know that is right?" If he could not give his method
clearly enough he was given another problem of the same kind
with the numbers changed. Occasionally a child finds the right
method for himself but is timid about explaining it, or is unable
to formulate it.
It is needless to say that no hint of ' the right method for
solving a problem was ever given. Much encouragement to
the effect that he could get the problem if he took plenty of
time to think about it was given. The child was always told
to take as much time as he needed to think his problem out care-
fully. Each child was tested alone except for the third, fourth
and fifth grade written work.
156 CLARA SCHMITT
The tests for the various grades were arranged as follows:
Grade I
Required work* — "Objects are counted, using cardinal num-
bers. They are compared to develop notions of inequality
and equality. . . . All the work of the grade is objective and
chiefly oral." It is further recommended that the work be
done incidental to the other activities of the grade, drawing,
construction work, etc.
1. (Test for required work.) Counting a row of like objects.
2. (Additional.) If you have three pennies in your hand
and I give you two more how many will you have then?"
If the child hesitates he is directed to find out by counting his
fingers or by making marks. He is given much encouragement
to do this. Some children will say they do not know how to
find out in this way, but if one keeps on with the coaxing
encouragement they will do it. The small child is often diffident
about trying an untaught or unusual thing.
Grade II
Required work. — " ... to read and write numbers of one and
two orders ; to read time by the clock to hour, half-hour, quarter-
hour; to answer any of the forty-five addition and subtraction
facts :
I
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
2
3
4
5
6
7
I
I
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
2
2
2
2
2
2
8
9
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
4
5
6
7
8
9
2
2
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
5
6
7
8
9
6
7
8
9
7
8
9
8
9
9
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
9
... To make change within one dollar; to recognize related
units of measure, such as inch, foot; minute, hour, day, week;
pint, quart; cent, nickel, dime, quarter, half-dollar, dollar; to use
the tables of two's and three's; to count by two's to 24 and by
three's to 36 ; to tell half of any multiple of two to 24 and one-
third of any multiple of three to 36."
*Chicago Public Schools, Course of Study for the Elementary Schools, 1912.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 157
It may be remarked that the use of the half-dollar and dollar
are not attempted by most second grade teachers since the num-
ber facts to be taught make no higher combinations than twenty.
1. (Test for required work.) How much is 7 and 8? How
much is 9 and 6? (Additional.) How much is 10 and n ?
2. (Required.) If you had 10 pennies and spent 6 how many
would be left?
3. (Required.) a. If you had a dime and spent 4 cents for
candy and 2 cents for chewing gum, how much money would
you have left? b. If you had a quarter and spent 5 cents for
candy and 3 cents for an apple, how much moneny would be
left?
4. (Additional.) If 5 boys are in this room and 3 boys are
in the other room, how many boys would have to go from this
room into the other room so that then there would be the same
number in each room?
Because it is often difficult for the child to keep so long a
problem in mind with one repetition, the problem is always
repeated immediately as follows. Do you see how it is ; we have
5 boys here and 3 over there, but we don't want it that way, we
want the same number in each room; how many would we have
to send over there?
If the answer to this problem is correctly given the proof of
a correct process lies in the answer to the question. How many
will be in each room then?
5. (Additional.) a. If i pencil costs 2 cents, what will 4
pencils cost? b. If 5 pencils cost 10 cents, what will i pencil
cost? (As may be seen by the table below, this problem is not
one within the powers of the second grade child.)
Required work. — Miscellaneous problems, involving one step
only and making use of the units of measure previously studied-
inch, foot; minute, hour, day, week; pint, quart; cent, nickel,
dime, quarter, half dollar, dollar; pound, dozen — and in addition
the yard, peck and bushel.
All tables to and including twelves; problems involving linear
158 CLARA SCHMITT
measure; areas of rectangles found by drawing and counting,
using the square foot and square yard; fundamental operations
with United States money, omitting division; reading and writ-
ing numbers including five orders ; fundamental operations, mul-
tiplier or divisor not to exceed two figures.
1. (Test for required work.) Multiplication Table. Care
was taken to determine whether the table was rendered as a
feat of mechanical memory more or less perfect, as is sometimes
the case with defective children, or whether the child had a cor-
rect mathematical conception of the table. The child who under-
stands what the table means, when he comes to an unfamiliar
item of the table knows that he can count from the last familiar
item to gain the required unfamiliar one.
2. (Test for required work.) Fundamental operations:
a. 2813 b. 3421 c. 12)36281
—1482 X 26
3. If you had a dollar and spent 47 cents how much money
would be left? This problem was used to see if when in any
case the problem was too difficult a one to do "mentally" a
higher process than the one resorted to by the second grade in
such situations was used. The second grade child could only
make marks to find the answer to an unfamiliar combination.
The third grade child has the advantage of the process of sub-
traction with "borrowing."
4. (Additional.) If five pencils cost ten cents, what will three
pencils cost?
5. (Additional.) a. If you had twelve cents and lost half
of your money, how much would be left? b. If you had fifteen
cents to divide equally among three boys how much would each
one get?
Grade IV
Required work. Area of rectangles, dimensions limited to
like integral units.
Time, including the number of days in each month; methods of
proving the 'fundamental operations, terminology used in funda-
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 159
mental operations; reading and writing numbers of not more
than two periods; problems, introducing bills, involving the
common measures previously studied and using incidentally the
half, third, fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth, twelfth, and sixteenth,
involving no remainders ; areas of irregular plane surfaces which
may be divided easily into rectangles; perimeters of rectilinear
plane figures ; mile and rod ; multiplication : multiplier, and any
two- or three-digit number; proofs; division: divisor, any two-
or three-digit number; proofs.
1. (Test for required work.) 48)64911.
2. (a) y2oii2 = (b) y3 of 12 — (c) 14 of 12 =
(d) y6 of 12 =
3. (Additional.) a. Which is larger a half of something or
a third of the same thing? b. A third of something or a fourth
of the same thing, c. A fifth of something or a tenth of the
same thing?
In general a correct answer is given :for a, but frequently a
wrong one for b. The problem may then be put as follows :
which way would you get the largest piece, if you were one
of the three boys who divided a pie among themselves or if
you were one of four boys ? The normal child gives the correct
answer. Then : If you were one of three boys what part would
your piece be? If you were one of four boys? Which, then,
is the larger, a third or a fourth? The normal child quickly
sees the principle of such problems and answers similar follow-
ing ones correctly. The defective child, though he may be brought
to decide correctly over and over again to which group he should
belong to get the larger piece, makes the same type of error with
the next similar problem abstractly presented.
4. (Additional.) If you had twelve cents and lost two-thirds
of your money, how much would you then have? This prob-
lem contains two new things; a consideration of two-thirds,
and the use of it as a quantity in a problem. If the child hesi-
tated long or seemed nonplussed by the complexity of his prob-
lem he was asked, How much is two-thirds of twelve? If a
correct answer was obtained, then the further encouragement
was given in this form: Then tell me, if you lose two-thirds
of your twelve cents how much is left? Of nine fourth-grade
160 CLARA SCHM1TT
children who passed this test, four needed such encourage-
ment.
5. (Additional.) You had some money and lost two-thirds of
it and then there was eight cents left, how much did you have
at first?
This problem, as may be seen by Table XLVI, is too diffi-
cult for the fourth grade.
Grade V
First half-year (semester) of the grade. Fractions. — Con-
cretely and orally; fractional equivalents; sum or difference of
any two fractions within the limits of halves and sixteenths.
Second half-year (semester) of the grade. Fractions. — Addi-
tion, subtraction, multiplication, division, comparison, and ratio
of fractions. Suggestion: fractions arranged in as many dif-
ferent pairs as possible : ^ + ^6;^ — H '> Y2 ~+~ H '> J/2 com-
pared with H( ratio) ; H, compared with J^; J4 of Y&; }i of #.
1. (Test for required work.) % -\- 34 =
2. (Additional.) If four dozen apples cost $1.50, what will
three apples cost?
Table XLVI shows the number of children of each grade
who succeeded with the tests as far as each individual was able
to go. Each child was given all the problems included in higher
grades with which there was a possibility of success. Each grade
was given such problems of lower grades as were not implicit
in the work of the grade being tested.
Examination of the table shows that with each grade success
was almost universal with the required work of the grade. The
numbers in bold type at the head of each column indicate the
problems testing required work. The few failures in required
work may have been due to the fact that the children were chosen
for satisfactory reading ability. The results of the tests with
defective children are given first in the absolute numbers and in
the line below reduced to a scale of seventeen. The table shows
that about two-thirds of the defective children were able to
accomplish the required work of the second grade ; one-third had
learned the multiplication table and one-sixth had learned to
multiply. The success of the defective children with the addi-
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10
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•4
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162 CLARA SCHMITT
tional work of the grades where it is indicated does not mean
that the mental process of such individuals was equivalent to that
of the children belonging to those grades. An uncritical cross
section type of test may lead one to infer that such is the case.
It is in watching the defective child in the schoolroom that one
comes to realize that he does not, for instance, originate the pro-
cess of counting marks to gain new number combinations but the
process must be drilled into his mind with more or less repetition.
The youngest of the defective children had had four times as
much school experience as the first grade children, and twice as
much as the second grade children. It is probable that the
youngest of these children and certainly the older ones, had
had so much experience with the money problems of the second
grade, for instance, as to make the result in effect that of drill.
Reference to the table shows that problem 5b under the second
grade belongs to third grade abilities. The second grade child
has no knowledge of division. Many second grade children at-
tempted to solve the problem by an arrangement of marks but
became confused in the process and gave up.
Methods of Solving Problems. — The first grade child finds
out combinations under ten by counting his fingers. A few can
be induced to make marks on paper. This grade, however, uses
pencil but little and this probably accounts for the child's dis-
inclination to use this method. Care was always observed in
the examiner's encouragement of the child to use the pencil to
stop short of actual showing this new method of representing his
number situation. The first grade child fails with the finger
method for combinations above ten since he has no more fingers
and must use some a second time in the process of gaining such a
combination. Though he attempts to do so the process is too
complex and he fails to get a correct result. Older children who
must resort to counting to find large combinations can use the
finger method successfully. The first grade child fails in sub-
traction of numbers above five because of the difficulty he finds
in using the forefinger of one hand both to count and to represent
one of the items of his problem.
Of the second grade children nine could give the combinations
of the first problem automatically, that is they did not need
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 163
to count. The others counted either fingers, marks, or silently.
In the method of silent counting the child did not have the com-
bination so thoroughly learned as to do away with counting
altogether, but he could represent the situation "mentally," by
means oi some type of imagery not reduced to concrete means
such as marks.
Of the defective children five could make such number com-
binations automatically.
The second grade child does the problem of 3a and 3b with
the use of marks. The failures with 3b were due to the neces-
sary complexity of many marks, roblem 5a was solved by count-
ing by 2's or by making marks of four groups of two each.
Each second grade child was given problem 3 of the
third grade group. Each child began industriously to make a
hundred marks, but because of the length of time necessary
for such a procedure was not permitted to finish the problem.
The third grade children had for the most part made the
multiplication tables of 4's and 7*3, the tables used for the test,
automatic with only an occasional stop to count up for an un-
familiar item. Of the defective children six had gained so
much facility with the tables. Twelve defective children could
recite the tables correctly by counting up from each last item.
Some of the defective children had a more or less complete
mechanical acquaintance with the tables, but when memory failed
they broke down with no method of finding the unfamiliar item.
The third grade child solves problem 3 either "mentally"
or by means of subtraction. The failures of the two third
grade children were due to the complexity of the double
"borrowing."
Problem 4 is too difficult a one for the third grade, but is
more nearly suited to fourth grade abilities.
Of the fourth grade children the five of the first school
tested had had little of the required work with fractions. Their
experience had been only with the fraction one-half. The three
failures with 2a, 2b, and 2c were in this group, and consequently
the three failures with problem three; all of the five failed with
problem four. Problem five is too difficult for the fourth grade,
but is suitable to fifth grade abilities.
XI
FACTORS INVOLVED IN THE MENTAL CLASSIFICA-
TION OF CLINIC CASES
Throughout this study the reaction of feeble-minded children
seen at the clinic has been compared with that of the normal
children of the schools. There does not exist any fixed accepted
standard, except the arbitrary one laid down by the Binet tests,
for distinguishing the feeble-minded from the mentally normal.
There come to any general clinic many different types of cases
of social deviation. In the Juvenile Court Clinic the cases are of
moral deviation; in the public school clinic the cases are
those which show unsatisfactory reaction to the school situa-
tion, of conduct or of progress in mastering the subject-matter
of the curriculum. It is the function of the clinic to determine
from what cause this social deviation springs. The causes
may be in the mentality, the environment, the physical condition,
or some peculiarity of individual interest or temperament. One
or all of these may combine to produce a deviation which brings
the child into the clinic for classification and advice.
The first duty of the psychological clinic is, naturally, to
separate the normal in innate mental ability from the defective.
The lower grades of feeble-mindedness are apparent to every
one. The defective reaction of the imbecile to almost every con-
ceivable situation is so marked as never to be overlooked, at
least after the child is five or six years of age. There is, how-
ever, a group at the upper end of the moron class which is not
so easily detected.
This type is perceptually bright; can reproduce past experi-
ences in conversation and so give a superficial impression of
brightness; is sometimes even loquacious; may be given to
bragging a bit and so give the impression of possessing those
powers of imagination from which high standards of action
are derived; are ready in promises of good behavior; can orien-
tate themselves in a large city and take proper physical care
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 165
of themselves among its dangers; if working, they can often
perform satisfactorily, certain types of routine work sufficiently
well to make them self-supporting. How to separate this class
from that large class of children who are not defective but
backward, pedagogically considered, frequently becomes a diffi-
cult task for the clinic psychologist. Holmes (21) discusses
this problem under the title o«f "Curable and Incurable Backward-
ness." He says: "If a child is curably backward, he, by that
fact alone, enters into a great class of children retarded from
any cause whatsoever; if he is incurably backward, he enters
into another great class commonly called feeble-minded or
mentally defective. Such a distinction is fraught with the
gravest practical importance for the child and all concerned'
with him. The determination of this vital step is one of the
most important in making a diagnosis. Sufficient is it now to
say that the distinction does not rest upon any symptom-com-
plex or appearance of the child alone. Curably backward and
incurably backward children often look exactly alike; know
about the same amount of school lore ; act about alike in society,
and sometimes even, — if there is any advantage either way,
the incurably backward or feeble-minded child has it."
Holmes' method of determination mainly rests upon the de-
velopmental history of the child in connection with his present
physical condition. If he finds in the past history nothing to
lead one to suspect that the child has suffered a brain lesion,
and if the present physical condition is one which needs correc-
tion, he is classed as curably backward.
This basis of classification, however, removes the case from
the field of psychology and places it in the field of medicine.
The child's developmental history is certainly of very great im-
portance for the clinical psychologist, but no such history, how-
ever full it may be of suggestions of brain lesion, can establish
the extent of such lesions or their effect upon mental function-
ing. It is in the province of the psychologist to so investigate
and analyze the child's mental complex as to show the quality and
extent of his mental defectiveness if such exists. The line, or
as Tredgold terms it, "the gulf" which divides the highest
166 CLARA SCHMITT
mental defective from the normal has been indicated by various
writers who have become acquainted with this class where its
individuals have gained entrance into institutions for the feeble-
minded. The standardizations of various authors have been
brought together by Holmes (21 ) :
By Goddard (15). Moron:
High-grade: can do fairly complicated work with only
occasional or no supervision; can run simple machinery, take
care of animals; only unable to plan.
By Barr (22). Imbecile:
High-grade: trainable in manual and intellectual arts.
By Binet (23). Feeble-minded:
Every child is feeble-minded who knows how to communicate
with his fellows by word and by writing but who exhibits a
retardation of two or three years, in the course of his studies,
unless that retardation should be on account of insufficient
training.
By Tredgold (24). Feeble-minded:
First-grade: can make tolerable progress in elementary
school work; can write a simple letter, read children's books,
can perform simple arithmetical exercises mentally. Can do
good manual work.
In the above definitions Goddard and Tredgold evidently have
in mind a qualitative distinction between the high-grade defective
and the normal. Barr and Binet indicate that the distinction
may be quantitative. Goddard emphasizes the qualitative distinc-
tion in his last clause, "only unable to plan." It is this distinction
which the writer uses as the dividing line between the normal
and the defective. In the foregoing discussion of tests where
the types of reaction may be distinguished as those of planned,
trial and error, and chance the last two have always been
found to be characteristic o»f the feeble-minded class and cases are
classified as such if their invariable reaction to tests is below
that of the planned or consciously controlled reaction type and
when the child's history is in conformity with the mental plane
the psychological tests determine for him.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 167
The histories of these individuals show them quite lacking in
the ability to plan their conduct in conformity with the complex
requirements of civilized life in such a way as to make them really
a part of the social class in which they may be found. The child's
reaction to the home situation, the school situation, and his
type of moral delinquency show, as well as the mental tests,
the inability of this type of child to plan or reason. The parents
of such children complain of a lack of responsibility of the
child in the home life. He cannot be trusted as the other chil-
dren to go on errands or to conduct himself properly in other
ways. The teacher says that he does not learn and makes poor
progress in the school. When his acquirements of school lore
are examined, it is found that he has been capable of learning
more or less in a mechanical way; he makes some degree of
progress in reading and arithmetic but the working over of any
learned content to fit the needs of a new situation is beyond
his ability.
The arithmetic gained by the child who may be classed as
mentally defective is merely that of a mechanical nature. Such
applications as he can make of his knowledge is small in extent
and usually the result of oft repeated bits of specific experience.
However much he may be able to learn to recognize printed
words, he is not able to use reading to an appreciable extent
in gaining organized bodies of knowledge. The use of reading
and arithmetic tests and other tests involving the use of symbols
can be made to show the extent to which he is lacking in the
ability to use abstract or symbolic materials of thought. The
use of reading, writing, and arithmetic as tests of mental ability
are discussed above.
That part of the child's history which relates to the school
must take into consideration grade with reference to age and
attainments with reference to the curriculum. One finds many
large defective children in grades a year or more behind that
which corresponds with the chronological age, but at the same
time far in advance of their attainments in school subjects.
The high grade defective child often becomes a dilinquent
of a more or less serious character in the neighborhood, because
168 CLARA SCHMITT
he is not able to apply to his own conduct such formal rules of
conduct concerning the rights of others, as he may have been
taught in the school or other social agencies.
The type of delinquency or other social reaction shows, fre-
quently, a correlation with mental ability as determined by other
tests. The defective delinquent is usually the follower of a more
capable companion who plans the escapades in which they en-
gage. The delinquent is a tool or a dupe in the plan of others.
The defective's type of delinquency is simple so far as its mental
content is concerned, however serious it may be in its social
or economic aspects. The fourteen-year-old boy who robbed
his mother of a sum of hoarded money, and then tied himself
and did other things to simulate an attack from the outside
was not a mental defective. The twelve-year-old boy who or-
ganized and led a gang of older boys in a robbery of a large
jewelry store, escaping successfully with the booty was not a
defective. The fourteen-year-old boy who on several occasions
went into unguarded houses and wantonly destroyed things,
repeating the offense, though each time he was apprehended
and brought before the Juvenile Court was a defective. The
boy who at fourteen years of age had appeared before the court
fourteen times for robbery, but who each time carried out the
plan of some other boy who escaped upon the approach of
the police was a defective; as was the boy of twelve who en-
gaged in a robbery of large extent with some others and selected
as his part of the booty all the pennies of the collection, leaving
to the others the bills of large denomination.
Such popular types of evidence discussed above can be ac-
cepted of course only as indicative of a possible mental status.
They must be used with judgment. The parent may place his
expectations of responsibility too high; the child's progress in
the school may be influenced by other factors than that of
mental ability; and many children in whom there is no hint
of mental defectiveness become delinquent. Formal tests of
mental ability must exercise their function either of corroborating
or disputing the social judgment.
A formal test of mental ability on the other hand must
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 169
always be carefully evaluated with reference to the situation
in which the child is found. Such care is especially demanded
under the conditions of a clinic for delinquents. The examiner
must also be careful to distinguish a type of reaction due to
temperament from that due to defective mental ability. The
exceedingly shy child or the child who lacks confidence in him-
self may react to tests in a different way than his mental ability,
uninfluenced by such temperament, might permit. An emotional
upheaval such as a delinquent may suffer is sometimes suc-
ceeded by such mental apathy as prevents normal reaction to
the tests which require judgment or a high degree of control
of attention. One such case was that of a boy of sixteen who
had graduated from the eighth grade with honors, had done
the work satisfactorily of a trusted errand boy in a large bank,
was a reader of classical types of literature and had organized
bodies of historical and geographical data gained from his
reading, but failed in nearly all formal mental tests given him.
The classification of this boy's mental ability could not be based
on his reactions to formal tests.
One must also be able to distinguish unfavorable reactions
due to the deteriorations or disturbances caused by certain men-
tal or nervous diseases from those due to mental subnormality or
defectiveness.
Thus school and social history and the evidence of formal tests
determine whether or not the child is normal or below in mental
ability. If his reactions go to show that his ability to learn
is only mechanical; that he is not capable of making new appli-
cations of the content of previous learning, he is classed as
mentally defective, or, as Holmes terms it, "incurably back-
ward." If he is classed as normal in mental ability, then, the
cause of his defective reactions to the school and social situa-
tion must be sought in physical conditions, social environment,
individual peculiarity of temperament or interest or mental com-
plex. Each one of these possibilities opens a new realm for
psychological investigation.
This, then, is the proposed criterion for discriminating the
normal from the subnormal or mentally defective. In order to
i/o CLARA SCHMITT
establish valid standards in the classification of individual cases
th physician and the psychologist must cooperate. We need more
knowledge than is now available of the mental effects of certain
curable and incurable physical conditions and defects. Such
problems as the mental effects of malnutrition, or the effect
upon certain learning complexes of defective vision and hearing
require careful observation and correlation over long periods of
time of the mental and physical functionings for their solution.
Until much more of such knowledge is available many individ-
uals can be only tentatively classed as curably or incurably
backward.
This basis for the determination of the mentally defective
is in conformity with the view of Stern (25) in his discussion
of "The Nature of Intelligence." He says :
"Naturally, we cannot begin our work without a preliminary
definition of intelligence, however provisional it may be. And
this definition must be neither too broad nor too narrow.
"Many psychiatrists have used a definition of intelligence
that is too broad. They use intelligence, in fact, to include
mental attainments of all kinds, all those mental qualities, then,
that are not volitional or emotional. If this position be taken,
it follows, evidently that the examination of immediate memory,
of ability to learn, of range of information, of fidelity of re-
port, or of discriminative sensitivity is just as much a con-
stituent part of intelligence as the examination of ability to
apprehend, to synthetize, of capacity to judge, to conclude, to
define, to criticize, etc. Again, a question that is very important
for us, viz. : to what extent intelligence really enters into these
first-named activities, and whether and in what way it shows
signs of its presence in them, becomes absurd. But the ad-
vance made in the recent development of intelligence testing,
in contrast to the uncritical determination of mental level by
any sort of questions and tests, consists in the fact that we
not only limit intelligence by setting it over against the emotive
and volitional nature of an individual, but also ascribe to it a
definitely restricted place within the mental ifunctions.
"This delimitation of the sphere of intelligence that is even
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 171
now essential cannot be affected, in my opinion, from a phe-
nomenological, but only from a teleological point of view. In
fact, my definition is this:
"Intelligence is a general capacity of an individual consciously
to adjust his thinking to new requirements : it is general mental
adaptability to new problems and conditions of life.
"This definition differentiates intelligence clearly from other
mental capacities.
"The fact that the adjustment is made to the new distinguishes
intelligence from memory whose fundamental teleological fea-
ture is the conservation and utilization of conscious contents
already given.
"The fact of adaptation, again, emphasizes the dependence
of the performance upon external factors, on the problems and
demands of life, and thus distinguishes intelligence from genius,
whose nature is to create the new spontaneously.
"Finally, the 'fact that the capacity is a general capacity
distinguishes intelligence from talent the characteristic of which
is precisely the limitation of efficiency to one kind of content.
He is intelligent, on the contrary, who is able easily to effect
mental adaptation to new requirements under the most varied
conditions and in the most varied fields. If talent be a material
efficiency, intelligence is a formal efficiency.
"I trust that these distinctions may serve to lessen the con-
fusion that has been current. It is not so long ago, indeed,
that in psychiatry 'information tests' were carried on as 'in-
telligence tests,' thereby confusing memory and intelligence.
And we often, even nowadays, find intelligence, and talent con-
fused in everyday life. In school, for instance, a teacher of a
special subject like mathematics, who perceives the special gift
of a pupil in that field, may easily come to believe without further
evidence that this pupil has general ability, or in other words,
to rate him as an intelligent pupil.
But we should not interpret this delimitation to mean the
erection of sharply distinct faculties, as in the old faculty theory.
Intelligence, for instance, does not function by itself and memory
by itself; rather, every operation of memory is more or less
172 CLARA SCHMITT
impregnated with intellectual functions and vice versa: the ex-
tent of this interconnection can be indicated only by the correla-
tion of the tested symptoms. But just on account of this com-
posite character of every actual mental process it seems to me
that the definition of intelligence I have given above is indis-
pensible as a regulative principle for further investigation; I
mean that any sort of perceptive, memorial or attentive activity
is at the same time an intelligent activity just in so far as
it includes a new adjustment to new demands."
With this principle for guidance a system of mental grading
independent of age may be constructed. A child of any age
may be on the same mental level as a child of any other age,
though their acquisitions of knowledge due to different types
of experience and training may be quite dissimilar. For this
purpose further work is needed to devise such tests as are re-
lated to the types of experience or innate development as are
common to all children of different ages. These tests must also
be of such character as to be adapted to the specific opportunities
for specific experiences of the particular atypical child to be
examined. Careful discrimination on the part of the examiner
of the relation of the tests to experience will prevent such
erroneous conclusions concerning the child's ability to reason
or interpret as have been discussed above with reference to
picture tests, definitions, etc. Tests must also be distinguished
with reference to the two phases of mental activity which are
concerned in a judgment of general intelligence. These are,
as has already been intimated, the individual's rate of acquisi-
tion of mechanical learning and his ability to apply it upon
demand to a new situation.
The most productive source for such study is probably that
presented by the public school. Here all children are subjected
to the same set of experiences; they are instructed in certain
types of mechanical acquisitions such as the recognition of words
and arithmetical processes which they are expected to use in
further acquisitions of knowledge. The reactions of normal
and atypical children to the school situation may be profitably
analyzed for the establishment of standards of normal reaction
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 173
to this almost universal set of stimuli, and the discrimination
and types of defective reaction. Such work upon defective
children as that erf Chotzen (26) can be of little value until this
has been done. The children studied by Chotzen through the
medium of the Binet-Simon tests were selected out of the school
and segregated in the Hilfsschule because of their defective
or atypical reaction to the school situation. It would seem that
it is only an analysis of this or other types of social reaction
in connection with the many other factors of temperament, home
or other social environment, physical condition, etc., which may
be of value for diagnosis with reference to educational treatment
or social or institutional classification. These other factors it
is not now our province to discuss further than to quote from
an article by Katzenellenbogen (27) who enumerated many of
them in connection with the discussion of the relation of epilepsy
to mental tests.
"The French psychologists, Binet and Simon, prepared this
test primarily for the use of normal children, in order to gain
a more exact and uniform basis for placing children in the
corresponding school grades. The necessary assumption for the
arrangement was the uniformity of conditions, under which a
child of a given age was supposed to be. A child for instance,
of the age of nine, should have according to the arrangement
of French schools such and such knowledge; the tests were
made a posteriori with a selection of the highest percentaged
questions, answered by children of a given age. Having a
practical point of view in mind, this test has been of the greatest
value in France and could be easily applied as a routine ex-
amination of children in any country, with the necessary
modifications. Although native ability plays an important role
in such a test, the training is an essential condition of the
child's success. If a child failed, and was retarded for in-
stance two years the Binet test would diagnose the case as
"retarded," without giving the cause for retardation. Such a
retardation might be due to mental dullness — an inborn con-
dition— or to lack of previous educational experiences, to
sickness, adenoids, psychopathic timidity and nervousness, or
I74 CLARA SCHMITT
other accidental causes. It is even possible that one should
attribute to a child which is only one year behind his normal
according to the Binet-Simon test an especially good native men-
tality, as he in spite of some cause (epilepsy 'for instance, as we
shall later have the opportunity to see) has fallen no more than a
year behind.
"We thus see, that difficulties arise even in dealing with normal
children and that even in public schools, this test would cause
teachers who lack a psychological or more important even, a
medical knowledge, to commit graver mistakes with the Binet-
Simon test, than they otherwise would. I can however say,
that every teacher' — provided he is of the same sex as the
child, — would be able, when properly instructed, to apply the
test under one condition, that the answers should be recorded
verbatim, scored with the aid of a stop watch. The real prob-
lem, however should begin at this point, and every child having
the record of failure, that is every child having the same op-
portunity as the others, which would fail, should be turned
over to a psychopathologist (with medical knowledge) who
would have the task to investigate the cause. Thus applied,
the Binet-Simon test even in its present form would be of great
value, as it would lead to the individualisation of pedagogical
attention and would result in proper segregation. Such a pro-
cedure however, would under the present arrangement of the
test, although pedagogically interesting and valuable, be of little
use to the scientific phase of the problem.
"The apparent success of this test with normal children led
the French psychologists to apply it as primarily devised for
pedagogical purposes and for the use of normal children, to
abnormal ones. They did not even stop at the using of this
test upon children, but thought it possible to apply it to adults
as well. The necessary hypothesis which led them to such an
application is a psychogenetic point of view, that imbeciles
reach a certain maximum of development and then stop for
ever and that theerfore, an imbecile of twenty-five years may
be compared with a child of five, if such an individual fails
in the test devised for a child of six. Kuelpe, justly questions
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 175
this point of view, claiming that one has no more right to
compare imbeciles with normal children of a certain age, than
to claim that dwarfs are physically children who did not develop
above a certain age. This point of view is indeed not new.
Wildermuth tried to adapt this point of view to idiots, but failed
to convert others to his way of thinking. Let us consider the
case of an imbecile of eighteen, whose mental age according
to the Binet-Simon scale is six years. As a rule such a low grade
imbecile is far below a normal child of that age regarding adap-
tability to new surroundings, or ability for learning or being
trained. He may exceed on the other hand a normal child in the
knowledge of money, counting, etc., which knowledge he has
acquired during the twelve years of additional life. Finally,
the sexual maturity will disclose a new life of inner psychic
experiences unknown to the child. The same dissimilarity exists
between a child and a dwarf, who is rather a caricature of an
adult's body; in like manner the imbecile's mind is a caricature
of a normal adult's mind.
"This objection to a grading like the Binet-Simon could be
overcome, if instead of years, a system of grading independent
of age would be substituted. For instance a given complex of
tests would indicate a certain grade of development. The same
complex with graded difficulty would indicate a higher degree
of mentality. Such a grading would necessarily be a quantitative
one in most of the tests. The Binet test has some of its tests
arranged in this way, such as for instance the impressibility
test for words and digits, unfortunately without a systematic
arrangement. In such an arrangement the grading would also
be artificial, but it would do away with the confusion, especially
among laymen, that imbeciles are children with a stunted
development.
"Imbecility is a collective diagnosis of many conditions not
only dissimilar regarding etiology but also in its manifestations.
It is often difficult to differentiate, where the imbecility ends
and the normal dulness begins. Psychiatry calls imbecility an
abnormal state of mind with a manifestation of inferior in-
tellect, a state which is either of congenital origin or which
i76 CLARA SCHMITT
had its origin in some pathological conditions occurring in
earliest childhood.
"The one diagnostically important point in imbecility is the
impossibility of any marked improvement and the lack of the
capacity for gaining knowledge by experience. The memory
and ability for gaining even an extraordinary mechanical
knowledge of facts can however be intact. I remember seeing
in Rome, N. Y., at the Custodial Institution, an imbecile of a
very low grade, who was able to recite the capitals of all the
States and knew a great many historical data. These facts he
repeated however in a parrot-like manner without inner under-
standing. To make a diagnostical point of calling imbecile all
those who are three years retarded in the Binet-Simon test,
means to create a new diagnosis, only valuable in its application
to the Binet-Simon test. There is no doubt, that there is a
possibility of training an imbecile along some lines, where me-
chanical knowledge or memory is concerned, so that an individual
whose grading was dependent on mechanical appliance and
diagnostication, after a certain training would test perhaps no
more than a year or two behind his age after a week's training
thus reaching the degree of backwardness or dulness. As on
the other hand, a dementing process may set in slowly in a child
(juvenile paralysis, dementia praecox, impossible to perceive in
their initial stages, without mentioning epilepsy) a previously
normal child might be classified as an imbecile. As we previously
mentioned, imbecility is a well defined although not always an
easy diagnosis and the Binet test is not adaptable to the making
of a diagnosis of imbecility. Pedagogical psychologists too
easily lose track of the fact, that imbecility is a term of path-
ology and not simply a gradation of mental ability. Such a
diagnosis should be left entirely to a medical psychopathologist.
We do not make a diagnosis based on the tests alone but on the
whole clinical picture which must correspond to the findings
of the test."
XII
QUALITATIVE CLASSIFICATION OF TESTS
In conformity with the principle of the qualitative evaluation
of reaction to tests of mental ability the Binet-Simon, the Healy-
Fernald and tests of reading and arithmetic are classified below
to indicate the mental process which is concerned in the per-
formance of the individual tests. This classification indicates
levels of intellectual ability from the highest to the lowest levels,
where mental defectiveness belongs. The reasons which underlie
this classification of tests appear in the earlier discussion of
this paper.
Level I. (Normal Level)
Process: reasoning or adaptation of a learned content to suit
a changed situation.
Tests: Counting backward.
Criticizes absurd phrases.
Uses three given words in a sentence.
Interprets picture.
Defines abstract terms.
Derives the sense of a mixed sentence.
Solves paper cutting test.
Reconstructs a triangle.
Test III, construction Puzzle "A."
Test IV, construction Puzzle "B."
Test V, Puzzle Box.
Test IX, X, and XI, Code test group.
Distinguishes between morning and afternoon, months
of year, and date (when conception of time relationship
is involved).
Interprets figurative literary material.
The use of arithmetical processes for the solution of new
problems.
I78 CLARA SCHM1TT
Level II
Process; Conscious choice of several possible reactions to
correspond to certain already learned classifications.
Tests: Compare weights. (Is not a test of sensory discrimina-
tion, since it is the classification heavy and light which is
determined.)
Distinguishes between morning and afternoon.
Defines concrete nouns.
Defines abstract terms.
Compares faces from aesthetic standpoint.
Describes picture.
Compares two remembered objects.
Indicates omissions in pictures.
Problem questions.
Gives rhymes.
Solves problems from several given facts.
Solves question concerning President and King.
Summarizes observations made by Hervieu.
Tells a story after reading.
Use of arithmetical formulae for the solution of type
problems.
Level III. (High Grade Defective)
Process; conscious choice or arrangement of material to
correspond to a model concretely presented.
Tests: Copies square.
Copies lozenge.
Game of patience.
Indicates omission in pictures.
Test I, Introduction Puzzle.
Test II, Special Picture Puzzle.
Level IV.
Process; mechanical or rote learning.
Tests: Tests of immediate memory.
Test VIII, learning of arbitrary associations.
Executes three commissions.
STANDARDIZATION OF TESTS 179
Naming colors.
Counting.
Making change.
Recognition of money.
Copies drawings from memory.
Months of year.
Date.
Recognition of printed words.
Arithmetical processes.
Levels I and II belongs to the normal grade of mental ability.
That child is normal or socially satisfactory who can think for
himsel'f, as indicated by the tests of Level I, or who learns
with facility in such a way as may be indicated by the tests of
Level II. The mental processes of the upper grades of the
defective classes are made upon Levels III and IV. Though
all normal individuals in every type of mental activity must at
some time belong to Levels III and IV, it is characteristic of
the normal type that it advances beyond this. It may be es-
tablished as the characteristic of the defective type that he does
not advance in a general way above these levels. Defective in-
dividuals may vary in their ability to pass over from Level III
into Level II in certain specific ways. The defective individual's
activities in Level II take place only after such prolonged ex-
perience of the specific types underlying the mental processes
involved as to make the result finally approach that belonging
to Level IV, mechanical or rote learning. It is in this sense
that tests should be evaluated with reference to age and, that,
only as age may be related to certain types of experience.
The classification may be continued downward to include more
fundamental processes, such as sensory discrimination, divorced
largely from such constructive activities as are indicated in
Level IV.
XIII
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(27) KATZENELLENBOGEN, EDWIN. A Critical Essay on
Mental Tests in Their Relation to Epilepsy. Epilepsia, No. 2,
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW PUBLICATIONS . ' _.
No. 4 Whole No. 84
THE
Psychological Monographs
EDITED BY
JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
HOWARD C. WARREN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY (Index)
JOHN B. WATSON, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (Review) and
SHEPHERD I. FRANZ, Govr. HOSP. FOR INSANE (Bulletin)
A STUDY OF
RETROACTIVE INHIBITION
By
J. EDGAR DECAMP, Ph. D.
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW COMPANY
PRINCETON, N. J.
AND LANCASTER, PA.
AGENTS : G. E. STECHERT & CO., LONDON (2 Star Yard, Carey St., W. C.) :
LEIPZIG (Koenig Sir., 37) ; PARIS (16, Rue de Cond6)
CONTENTS
PAGE
A. Origin of the Problem i
B. Work of others — Literature 2
C. Apparatus 8
D. Nonsense Syllables — Their Preparation n
E. General Method 13
F. Experimental Section 15
Experiment I 15
Experiment II 22
Experiment III 28
Experiment IV 30
Experiment V 31
Experiment VI 32
Experiment VII 33
Experiment VIII 35
Experiment IX(a) 36
Experiment IX (b) 50
Experiment X 52
Experiment XI 53
Experiment XII 54
Experiment XIII 57
G. General Discussion 60
H. Summary and Conclusions 66
A. ORIGIN OF THE PROBLEM
Since the rather exhaustive work of Miiller and Pilzecker,
investigating various aspects of memory, Retroactive Inhibition1
has held an unquestioned place among the principles of Psy-
chology. It follows naturally that it may play an important part
in our mental activities. Undoubtedly, it is to be considered
in the construction of any system for the attainment of the
highest efficiency in learning for recall, with the least expenditure
of mental energy. Furthermore, it seems in accordance with
popular science, and with a certain scientific tendency towards
the assertion of the unification of both mental and physical
energy, that if, after studying one task, the attention is turned
to a second task immediately upon the completion of the first,
the first task will not have the same recall value as if the second
task had not succeeded the first.
At the beginning of this work the author took these conclusions
as well grounded and, sharing the consensus of opinion among
psychologists that the effect of retroactive inhibition is quite
marked under certain conditions, proceeded upon this basis. In
the work of Miiller and Pilzecker the existence of retroactive
inhibition was seemingly definitely established. However, into
a consideration of its various aspects they did not enter. It
seemed, then, of scientific value to know the more minute de-
tails of the workings of this process. In carrying out this
work, it was the author's purpose to investigate the nature of
the working of retroactive inhibition, to produce curves evidenc-
ing its relative influence with the lapse of time subsequent upon
learning, to consider the nature of these curves, and to note
important subsidiary phenomena as they might appear in the
course of the experiment.
lFor convenience of expression, the writer deals with retroactive inhibi-
tion, throughout this paper, as if it were really denned as an active mental
process, rather than as an effect of some activity upon the permanence of a
closely preceding activity.
2 J. EDGAR DECAMP
The experimental work upon this problem was begun in the
summer of 1912. The work done at that time, though bearing
out the general conclusions of this paper, is not considered suffi-
ciently accurate and exhaustive to serve as a base for any definite
conclusions; the development of a more accurate method being
its chief service. The work upon which our conclusions are
based was carried out in the school years 191 2-' 13, 191 3-' 14,
and the summer of 1913. In Experiments I to XII seven sub-
jects— six men and one woman — were used. In Experiments
XIII 34 subjects — eleven women and twenty-three men — were
employed.
B. WORK OF OTHERS— LITERATURE
From 1892 to 1900 Muller and Pilzecker, two German inves-
tigators, continued the work on memory, begun some years pre-
viously by Muller and Schumann. They conducted a series of
forty experiments, endeavoring to bring out the main laws of
association and inhibition as they appear in connection with the
learning of nonsense material. Their report of these experiments
appeared in the Zeitschrift fur Psychologie, 1900, Erganzungs-
band I. Their work is an example of untiring effort in the
quest for knowledge. We are indebted mostly to them for our
present conception of the Perseveration Tendency, Generative,
Effectual, and Retroactive Inhibition. It is the last, Retroactive
Inhibition, which forms the main subject of our discussion in
this paper. Closely related to our phase of the memory problem
they conducted nine experiments, (Versuchsreihen 29 to 37).
The general tenor of their method in these experiments is as
follows :
The subject is shown a series of twelve nonsense syllables, writ-
ten on a strip of paper, and placed around a twelve-sided prism
in such a way that a syllable corresponds to each of the twelve
sides of the prism. This prism is revolved behind a metal screen,
containing an adjustable slit through which the subject may
view the syllables as they pass on the revolving cylinder. The
syllables are repeated a certain number of times in trochaic
rhythm. The number of repetitions for any experiment is kept
constant. The variability of the experiment lies in the arrange-
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 3
ment of the mental activity of the subject during the interval
between the learning and the test. This interval, for simplicity
of explanation, may be divided into three parts, (i) a rest, (2)
mental activity, usually consisting of an after-series (Nachreihe),
i.e. the attention is turned to the learning of a new series of
syllables, and (3) a second rest period. Then follows the test.
For testing the syllables, the apparatus mentioned above, to-
gether with a Hipp chronoscope and lip-key, or sound-key
(Schalltrichter), are introduced into an electric circuit. The
chronoscope is adjusted for running with a broken circuit. A
slide, to hide the syllable from the subject's view, is held in
front of the slit by means of an electro-magnet just above it.
The operator breaks the circuit, allowing the slide to fall, thus
exposing the syllable to toe tested. With the fall of the slide the
chronoscope starts. The subject reacts with what he thinks to
be the corresponding unaccented syllable. If he does not know,
he replies "Nichts." A brief outline of eight of the nine ex-
periments (Versuchsreihen 29 to 37) follows. The other,
because of its important bearing upon the problem in hand, is
given in toto.
Experiments 29 and 30:
The purpose of these two experiments was a comparison of
24-hour and n -minute associations. Little more was accom-
plished than a mere notice by one of the subjects that employment
duringjrie rest interval after learning a set of syllables. Jnjured
the associations of these syllables. The numerical results showed
nothing of particular importance.
Experiment 31 :
In this experiment a comparison was made between series
learned with no mental activity closely following, and series
learned with the learning of a second series following 34.4 sec-
onds after the completed learning of the first. In the first
case the average success was 48 per cent, with the average time
for successful scores 24800-. The corresponding figures for the
other case were 23 per cent and 35700-. The number of accented
syllables shown in the test was 144.
4 /. EDGAR DECAMP
(For brevity the following symbols are brought over from
Miiller and Pilzecker's work. H(Hauptreihe), a series learned
for test. N(Nachreihe), a series learned soon after the learn-
ing of an H series. V(Vergleichsreihe), a series with no N
series following its learning; r, the per centum of successes; Tr,
the average time for the successes ; n, the total number of syllables
tested in any particular experiment.)
Experiment 32 :
The general plan was the same as that of Experiment 31.
The reading of the N series was begun 17.8 sees, after learning
an H series. The results, n = 162, were: For the H series;
r — 27 per cent, Tr = 32300-; For the V series; r = 55 per cent,
Tr = 30700-. The subject indicated that he would rather not
look at a newspaper, for it would make him forget his syllables.
He found the best way to 'employ his time was to walk up
and down the room, and give himself up to meditation.
Experiment 33 :
Plan of Experiment 32. The reading of the N series
was begun 27 sees, after the reading of the H series. The
experiment was discontinued after eight days, "well die riick-
wirkende Hemmung in unbestreitbarer Weise hervorgetreten war
und eine weitere Fortzetzung der Versuche uberfliissig erschien."
For the H series ; r = 43 per cent, Tr — 2260 o- . For the V series ;
r — 72 per cent, Tr — 20900-. (n = 72).
Experiment 34 :
This experiment was designed to compare two kinds of series,
and Hj series, where the N series followed after 17.2 sees., and
H2 series, where the N series followed after six minutes.
The accented syllables of the Hx and the H2 series were mixed
and tested after one and one-half hours. Results: For the HI
series; r = 28 per cent, Tr = 27600-. For the H2 series; r — 49
per cent, Tr = 30000-. (n = 144).
The subject stated that it was better not to busy herself
with a magazine during the rest period, for she had previously
noticed that such activity was injurious to the recall of the
syllables. It was best to allow the thoughts to wander where
they would.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 5
Experiment 35 (in toto.1)
This experiment, in which Dr. Behrens acted as subject, was
conducted in the same way as Experiment 32, in which Dr.
Behrens was the subject, with the exception of the unimportant
circumstance, that the main series (Hauptreihe) and the com-
parison series (Vergleichsreihe) were not read twelve times but,
on account of the acuteness of the subject, were read only eight
times; and with the exception of the very important circum-
stance that the mental activity of the subject, following the
reading of the main series, did not consist in the reading of a
second series of syllables. The subject had, directly after the
reading of each main series, to observe attentively three different
landscape pictures that had been previously prepared for the
purpose, and, directly after the observation of all three pictures,
to describe, as nearly correctly as possible, to the operator what
he had seen in each picture. The time of observation for each
picture lasted ten seconds. To be sure, a picture once used was
never used again in the experiment. In order that the considera-
tion of, and the meditation on, the pictures might not leave behind
any fatigue of the subject for the test of the just previously read
syllables of the main series, the work with the pictures never
extended over a longer interval than two minutes, so that, if
the subject had not finished the picture work after a lapse of
two minutes after completing the reading of the main series,
he was stopped after this period without further ado. Between
the picture work and the test of the accented syllables of the
main series there always occurred a rest period of at least six
minutes. The experiment was discontinued after twelve days
for the expected result was obtained in an unquestioned way.
The main series, whose readings the picture work followed,
gave with each temporal position many less successes and fewer
very small times than the comparison series which were not
followed by picture work. On the whole, n = 108, there resulted :
For the H series ; r = 24 per cent, Tr = 29500-
For the V series ; r = 56 per cent, Tr = 24900-.
1 Free translation.
6 /. EDGAR DECAMP
If one compares these results with those received in Experi-
ment 32, it appears that in this experiment with picture
work, at least as strong an injurious influence upon the associa-
tions was at work as that which existed in Experiment 32 through
the i2-time reading of the after series. We hasten to remark
that, before the beginning of this experiment, we knew, through
occasional experiments, Dr. Behrens might possess a strong in-
terest and concentrated attention with visual pictures. It does
not necessarily follow, that other subjects, in experiments ar-
ranged as ours, may not give less striking results.
Experiment 36:
The savings method was used with the learning of another
set of syllables for the mental activity following the learning
of the main series. Results in two cases were obtained, (n=32) :
An H series, requiring an average of 13 repetitions.
A V series, requiring an average of 11.25 repetitions.
An H series, requiring an average of 7.8 repetitions.
A V series, requiring an average of 6.6 repetitions.
Experiment 37:
The savings method was used. As in Experiment 35 pic-
tures were used for influencing the fixity of the associations
of the previously learned series of syllables. Results, n = 24 :
An H series, requiring an average of 8.0 repetitions.
A V series, requiring an average of 4.9 repetitions.
Conclusions of Miiller and Pilzecker (abridged) :
v i. The introspections of the subjects indicate retroactive in-
hibition.
2. The numerical results of Experiments 31 to 37 indicate
retroactive inhibition.
^3. Retroactive inhibition is the greater the more attention paid
to the interpolated work.
\f 4. Retroactive inhibition is much weaker when the interpolated
work is done after six minutes than when it is done immediately
after learning.
5. That the work precludes thinking of the syllables does
not explain retroactive inhibition.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 7
6. The results obtained are not due to the similarity of the
syllables of the N series to those of the SELseriesr^AJ".
7. The influence of fatigue, following the work, was eliminated.
8. The work did more than merely to weaken the condition
of preparedness.
9. Physiological activity continues after reading. This is
weakened by any other activity.
~~io. The processes underlying retroactive inhibition and the
perseveration tendency are the same.
11. The objection that, because of the perseveration tendency,
the associations should increase, is not valid.
12. The condition of preparedness between the first and the
eighth syllables is different from that between the first and
second, for the brain excitations are different.
13. The application to didactics is clear.
At the Fifth International Congress for Experimental Psy-
chology,1 1912, G. E. Miiller made a brief report of an investi-
gation which was then being carried on by Frl. Heine, who
was working under the direction of Professor Miiller. Her re-
sults with nine subjects indicated that retroactive inhibition does
not apply to the process of Recognition, when tested with nonsense
syllables. Four of the subjects were tested for retroactive in-
hibition, according to the method used by Miiller and Pilzecker.
The average percentages of the four tests for the Hauptreihen
and the Vergleichsreihen were 22 per cent and 38 per cent
respectively.
Muller remarked that, from the results obtained, it appeared
retroactive inhibition manifested itself less easily as more repe-
titions were given the series in the learning process.
Other than the work of Muller and Pilzecker and that of
Frl. Heine, the writer is unaware of any important work done
upon the subject of retroactive inhibition. As noted by Muller
and Pilzecker and by Muller, a few investigators, Bigham, Von
Kries, E. Meyer, in experiments with different purposes in view,
have made mention of results, more or less harmonizing with
1 Vide Bcricht iiber den V . Kongress f. exper. Psychologic, 1912, S. 216 ff.
8 /. EDGAR DECAMP
the idea of retroactive inhibition. Bigham,1 in the presentation
of numbers, colors, forms, syllables, etc., noticed more errors
after an attention-engaged interval, and remarked, "The filling
of the intervals hinders the memory." Von Kries2 remarked,
that the memory of a seen extent fades very quickly, if the time
following the perception of the extent is filled with some other
activity.
Some of the recent texts on Psychology call attention to retro-
active inhibition. Pillsbury,3 in his Essentials; Meumann,4 in his
book on memory ; and Myers,5 in his brief summary of the work
done on memory, allude to its existence. Ebbinghaus6 refers to
it as a possible explanation for the disproportionate increase in
the number of repetitions required as the "memory span" is
exceeded.
C. APPARATUS
The apparatus used in the majority of these experiments may
conveniently be divided into three parts.
i. A modified form of the Wirth card-exposure apparatus.
This apparatus was modified and used by Dr. J. F. Shepard and
H. M. Fogelsonger in their work on Inhibition. In their article
reference is made to the main modification.7 For clearness the
modifications there introduced may be briefly described. In
place of the cylinder with stationary electrical contacts, an all-
metal cylinder, with adjustable contacts, was substituted. Around
the cylinder, and beneath a surface shell, were placed fourteen
sliding strips, each strip bearing a metal contact point projecting
through a narrow groove in the surface shell. By adjusting these
strips, any number of the fourteen points can be arranged so that
contact with the insulated projecting brush will be made as the
cylinder revolves. Midway between two strips was soldered,
1 Cited from Miiller and Pilzecker's articles, S. 194.
2 Cited from Miiller and Pilzecker's article, S. 194.
3 Essentials of Psychology, 1913, p. 196.
4 The Psychology of Learning, English translation, 1912, p. 147.
"Text-book of Experimental Psychology, 1911, Pt. I, p. 153 f.
8 Grundzuge der Psychologic, 1902, S. 652.
7 Psychological Review, Vol. XX, 'No. 4, July, 1913, p. 292.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 9
along its middle line, leaving its edges free, a thin and narrow
strips This resulted in fourteen grooves, directly over the four-
teen sliding strips, which serve to hold strips of paper bearing
syllables for the exposure. This modification greatly facilitated
the manipulation of the syllables.
A second modification consisted in the addition of a clutch
to take the place of the cumbersome link-chain part. In using
the link-chain, when more than a certain number of revolutions
of the cylinder were required, the operator had to stop in the
midst of the presentation process until the chain could be re-
adjusted. With the clutch, all that is necessary, when the weight
runs down, is to gently pull the end of the cord bearing the
counterweight. The regularity of the revolution of the cylinder
is not altered, and the distraction of the subject, due to the
change, is negligible.
A further and minor modification was the addition of a metal
projection to each of the two ratchets, thereby enabling the
cylinder to be easily tripped with the fingers, when it is not
desired to use the electric circuit and metronome for tripping.
2. A Hipp chronoscope for registering time.
3. A mouth-key. The mouth-key served as a reaction part
for breaking the electric circuit upon the subject's receiving the
stimulus word. This apparatus consists of a circular metal box,
somewhat similar to a frustum of a cone, the small end of which
contains an opening. The sides of this opening are shaped to
fit snugly about the nose and mouth. Absorbent cotton was
used about the edges to render the box air-tight when fitted
against the face. The opposite end of the box contains a single
circular opening with a projecting band. Over this opening
is placed a rubber tambour. To the tambour is waxed a disk
to which is pivoted an aluminum pointer, one end of which is
pivoted to a post on the side of the box. For the other end
of the pointer there is an insulated post upon which the free
end of the pointer may rest. Adjacent to the insulated post is a
second post in connection with the box itself. These posts are
fitted for wire connection. The working of the instrument is
io /. EDGAR DECAMP
as follows : When the mouth and nose are placed in the opening,
the face pressed closely against the edges of the box, and a
word spoken, the air pressure forces the tambour outward, con-
sequently pushing the pointer off its post, thereby breaking the
circuit.1
A simple metronome for regulating the rate of exposure of
the syllables and a commutator complete the list of apparatus.
The complete set-up may be diagrammatically represented thus,
Fig. i.
M. K., mouth-key; C, commutator; W. C. A., Wirth card-
exposure apparatus (modified) ; H. C., Hipp chronoscope.
The working of the combined apparatus, in a test, may be
briefly mentioned. The syllables to be tested are placed on the
cylinder of W. C. A. in alternate grooves. One of the two
slides closing the exposure slit should be pulled up, allowing
the subject to see the first syllable of each pair of syllables as
the cylinder revolves. With the exposure of each test syllable
contact is made at W. C. A. Upon thinking of a suitable re-
sponse, the subject speaks into M. K. We then have the time
elapsing between the exposure of the test syllable and the subject's
reaction thereto.
1 The mouth-key was designed by Dr. Shepard for reducing, as far as
possible, the time elapsing .between the subject's thought of a response and his
actual response as indicated by the apparatus. The lip-key is open to the
objection that the quickness of its release may vary with the response-word.
In fact, a clear enunciation of some words does not necessarily require its
release.
The sound apparatus has the objection that for its use a relay must be
inserted. This latter instrument increases the inertia to be overcome and
movement to be made, both requiring time. The mouth-key is scarcely open
to either of these objections. When the face is held tightly against the open-
ing the initiation of any sound, even a whisper, affects the tambour through
the intervening column of air. However, it has the objection that, for fairly
long times, the subject can not maintain his position, since breathing is
necessarily stopped. Consequently, in long times, the subject must allow space
between the face and the instrument for breathing. When the response is
thought of, movement towards the instrument must be made. It is question-
able, then, whether the difficulty has 'been wholly obviated.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION
ii
FIG. i
D. NONSENSE SYLLABLES— THEIR PREPARATION
In the preparation of the nonsense syllables, the five vowels,
a, e, i, o, and u, and all the consonants, were used. A nonsense
syllable was composed of three letters, a vowel between two
consonants. All syllables possible with the various combinations
of vowels and consonants were made. Any syllable making
a sense word was at once rejected. Syllables with the initial
and final consonant the same were rejected. The remaining
syllables — about 1400 in number — were written on slips of paper,
placed in a bag, and thoroughly shuffled. They were then drawn
by lot. Fourteen syllables were arranged in pairs, composing
seven measures of two syllables each, with the following restric-
tions in mind :
1. The initial consonant, the vowel, and the final consonant
of the first syllable should be different from the corresponding
letters of the second syllable of the same measure.
2. The final consonant of the first syllable of a measure should
be different from the initial conspnant of the second syllable of
the same measure.
3. Two syllables having an apparent sense association were
not used to form a measure.
12 /. EDGAR DECAMP
4. In the seven syllables, occupying the first-syllable position
of the seven measures, all the vowels were represented, and two
vowels were represented twice. The same applies to the seven
syllables occupying the second-syllable position. The two vowels
represented twice in the first position were not the same as
those represented twice in the second position.
5. The initial letters of the seven syllables occupying the
second-syllable position in the seven measures were all different.
In the case of those occupying the first position, not more than
two were alike.
6. The seven measures were arranged for learning so that
successive vowels of the different syllables were not the same,
and initial consonants of successive syllables were different. The
end consonant of one syllable was different from the initial
consonant of the succeeding one.
7. In a set of fourteen syllables, two syllables, with two letters
of one syllable the same as the corresponding letters of the other,
were not permitted.
The two syllables forming a measure were type-written upon
slips of paper to fit the grooves of the exposure apparatus. The
initial letter of each syllable was a capital, the other two being
small pica letters. The spacing between two syllables of a
measure was 2 cm.
In any experiment, when the stock of syllables was exhausted,
new syllables were formed by dividing the total number of
measures into three parts, the measures the subject first learned
being used as the first part for forming new syllables. These
measures were mixed thoroughly and drawn by lot, and new
measures of syllables formed with the above seven restrictions
in mind, and with the further restriction that two syllables, once
forming a measure, were not used again for a measure. Usually
the syllable occupying the first (second) half of a measure was
used for the second (first) half of a new measure.
In a few instances errors of construction crept in but may
be considered as negligible. It may be remarked that absolute
equality of different series of syllables appears almost impossible.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 13
Considering the matter of associations alone, a series of syllables,
to the operator apparently free from associations, often occasions
familiar associations to the subject. These can scarcely be
avoided, since the associations of two individuals are often quite
different, thus making it impossible for one to arrange wholly
unassociated material for the other.
E. GENERAL METHOD
The general method of our Experiments I to XII may be
briefly outlined. The subject, seated in front of the apparatus,
is shown a series of fourteen syllables, seven measures, two
syllables to the measure. The cylinder bearing the syllables is
revolved by the operator at a uniform rate throughout the expos-
ing process. The cylinder contains fourteen grooves for meas-
ures. Only alternate grooves are filled with measures. Each
empty groove is exposed the same time as a filled one. Thereby
the subject sees a pair of syllables for a certain time and, follow-
ing this exposure, there is a rest interval of the same length.
The subject repeats the syllables aloud as they pass. Equal times
of exposure are obtained by the use of the metronome. Following
the learning is an interval which may or may not, according to
the day's position in the experiment, contain a sub-interval of
mental activity. When this sub-interval was employed in mental
activity, the signal used for the subject to begin was, "Work,"
spoken by the operator at the desired time. When the operator
desired the subject to cease working, this was indicated by simply
saying, "Rest." How much mental activity had to be engaged
in, following the learning, was kept from the subject as nearly
as possible. At the end of the interval, varying in length accord-
ing to the experiment, came the test. While the subject was
working or resting, as the case might be, the operator re-arranged
the measures on the cylinder in an order different from that
used in learning them. In the first test of each day the order
of test of the measures, as compared with the exposure of them,
was 5, 7, i, 3, 6, 2, 4. In the second test of the day the order
was 6, 2, 4, 7, i, 3, 5. Only the first syllable of each measure
14 /. EDGAR DECAMP
was shown for test. The method of test has been given under
Apparatus. The operator notes the reply of the subject to each
syllable shown, records the time, and adjusts the apparatus.
The subject, each time after he has replied, makes the contact
at the mouth-key for the next test. After the seven syllables
are tested there follows a rest period, during which the operator
records the introspections of the subject, and arranges a new
set of syllables on the cylinder for the .second learning, which
follows after a rest period of not less than five minutes. Usually
two series are learned and tested on any experiment day. The
experiments on different days were made at as nearly the same
hour of the day as possible.
In recording the responses of the subject to the various test
syllables, it is to be noted that the first response — the one giving
the time — is always used. A second response, though correct,
is recorded but never considered as a correct response to the
test syllable. The time given the subject to think of a suitable
response is necessarily restricted to the limit of the chronoscope,
which runs apporoximately one minute. It may be noted in ad-
vance that such long times are exceedingly rare.
The seven subjects1 serving in the major portion of this
work were:
Prof. W. B. Pills'bury, (P.)
Dr. H. F. Adams, (A.)
and Graduate Students,
Miss Z. P. Buck, (Z. B.)
Mr. W. H. Batson, (B.)
Mr. F. C. Dockeray, (D.)
Mr. H. V. Foulk, ' (F.)
Mr. C. P. Wang, (W.)
1 To some of these the writer is particularly indebted in that he was unable
to reciprocate their service.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 15
F. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION
EXPERIMENT I
This experiment extended over a period of thirty-two experi-
ment days. Successive experiment days do not necessarily coin-
cide with successive calendar days, though for the most part they
do. On each experiment day two series of seven measures
each, two nonsense syllables to the measure, were shown to
the subject. Sixteen repetitions were given for the learning.
The rate of the revolving cylinder was kept constant by the
use of a metronome. The metronome was set at seventy-two beats
a minute. On each second beat of the metronome the operator
allowed the cylinder, bearing the syllables, to move arounld
one point. Thus a measure was exposed to the view of the
subject one and two-thirds seconds, then a blank space was ex-
posed for one and two-thirds seconds, then another measure for
one and two-thirds seconds, and so on, until the requisite number
of repetitions was given. This process is designated the learning.
Following the learning there elapsed a period of time which we
shall designate throughout as the variant interval. In the present
experiment this interval lasted fifteen minutes. The mental ac-
tivity of the subject during this interval is the important variable
in our experiment. In this consists our variable factor, it being
our purpose to keep, from day to day, all other factors as nearly
constant as possible. The plan relative to the disposition of this
interval for the different days may be given as follows :
Series A Series B
Exp. Day Rest Work Rest Work
1 15 o o 15
2 14 I I 14
3 U 2 2 13
4 12 3 3 12
16 o 15 15 o
17 o 15 15 o
18 i 14 14 i
19 2 13 13 2
32 15 o o 15
16 J. EDGAR DECAMP
The caption "Series A" is used to designate the first series
learned on any particular day. "Series B" refers to the second
series of the same day. The total, as given above, we arbitrarily
call a cycle of experiment days. Four results are obtained for
any definite position in the variant interval, e.g., take rest four
and work twelve; this combination occurs four times in the
cycle. It will be noted that this cyclic arrangement presents
the following advantages:
1. The effect of any practice is fairly equally distributed.
Thus it will be seen that the number of days' practice preceding
any position in the variant interval is 31. E.g., suppose we take
rest 12, work 3. The days preceding the first result are three,
those preceding the last result are twenty-eight.
2. The effect of fatigue is balanced. Any criticism that the
B series had the disadvantage, because of the learning and test
of the preceding A series, is evaded, at least as far as the com-
parative value of the results is concerned. In a complete cycle
any position in the variant interval has occurred twice in the
A and twice in the B series.
During that part of the variant interval not taken up with
work, the subject sat quietly, having been instructed not to engage
in any particular mental activity, but to rest as completely as
possible. The work used in this experiment during the variant
interval was cross-multiplication, the multiplicand and the mul-
tiplier each consisting of three figures. The process may be
best given by an example. Take 736 x 284 ; the process is as
follows :
4X6
= 24
4X3-
h 8 X 6 + 2
= 62
4 X 7 H
-2X6+8X3+
6 = 70
8 X 7 H
-3X2+7
= 69
2X7-
h 6
= 20
Hence the answer is 209024.
The subject is required to work all these steps mentally, i.e.,
without recourse to notes, jotting down the figures "to carry,"
or similar aids.
The test follows immediately upon the variant interval. Be-
tween the closing of the test of the A series and the beginning
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION
of the learning of the B series, there occurs, as noted before,
an interval of at least five minutes, during which introspections
and remarks of the subject are recorded. During this interval
the subject is allowed to talk freely with the operator, walk
about the room, etc., but is forbidden to do any thing that will
act as an unusual excitant.
The subject used in this experiment was B. He was ex-
perienced in learning nonsense syllables, having acted as a sub-
ject in the preliminary experiments leading up to this work.
He was exceptionally good at remembering nonsense syllables, if
allowed to form sense associations between them when learning.
This was noted in the preliminary experiments, and he was in-
structed not to form such associations. We may say that, at the
beginning of the present experiment, his habit of forming such
sense associations was fairly well broken.
The results of this experiment may be seen from the following
curves, Fig. 2.
A and B are success curves. C is the time curve corresponding
* T f f
FIG. 2
i8 /. EDGAR DECAMP
to curve A. In all three curves the abscissae represent the num-
ber of minutes of the variant interval employed in mental ac-
tivity. As the abscissae increase the work gradually fills the
variant interval from the end backwards. E.g., under abscissa
6 the experiments would be disposed; learning, rest nine min-
utes, work six minutes, and test. In curve A the ordinates repre-
sent the number of wholly correct responses obtained for the
different abscissae. In B the ordinates represent the wholly
correct responses plus the partially correct responses (two letters
correct being the only ones considered), each of these latter
evaluated at one-half — and not two-thirds — of a wholly correct
response. In curve C the ordinates represent the average time,
in sigmata, of the wholly correct responses corresponding to the
different abscissae.
There were a few correct responses for which the operator,
through his fault or some defect in the apparatus, failed to get
accurate time. Consequently, in the computation of the time
curve of the present experiment, as well as of those of subse-
quent experiments, any ordinate represents the average time for
the wholly correct responses for which time was received.
The greatest number of successes was obtained with rest 5,
work 10; the least number with rest 4, work n — two adjacent
points. Their separation along the Y axis, is greater than that
between any other two points of the curve. One is hardly
convinced of the validity of such a disparity existing between
adjacent points. No essential difference between such points
would be expected. To be sure, we should not attempt to draw
too much from this experiment, because of the small number of
results for each position in the variant interval. If we consider
the success curve as a whole, we note that the general trend is
slightly upward to point 10, from point 10 the general trend
is slightly downward.
Curve B shows no particular value over curve A. Even with
so few results, the nature of the two curves is not essentially
different. With increasing numbers for the different ordinates,
it appears that the character of the two curves would be less
different. Consequently, it scarcely seems necessary, at least
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 19
for our main purpose, to consider the partial responses in the
computation of the success curve.
If we consider the time curve, we note, starting with point
10, a general tendency upwards. Other than this the time curve
shows no particularly clear relation to the success curve.
No elaborate introspections were taken in this experiment.
It may be well to state that the subject repeatedly indicated that
the influence of the interpolated work was not noticed, asserting,
that if he had a syllable, he had it, and the work had no noticeable
effect.
Relative to the maximum and minimum points of the success
curve, it may be remarked that, under rest 4, work n, one
set of syllables, erroneously constructed, was given. The set
yielded three correct responses. The other series of the day,
with rest n, work 4, yielded no correct responses. It would
seem that if the erroneous construction — disobedience of re-
striction No. 5 — had any influence, it favored the correct re-
sponses. If we allow for this, it would mean still greater
disparity between abscissae 10 and n, in that abscissa n
would be still lower. On another day, with similar experimental
conditions, save that the order of the variant interval was, in
the A .series, rest n, work 4, and in the B series, rest 4, work
1 1 ; the former gave three correct responses, while the latter
yielded none. The subject reported that he thought the result,
in the latter case, was due, not to the work introduced, but to
the difficulty of the series of syllables. If we consider it valid
to allow for this, the height of abscissa n would be raised.
We may balance this allowance against the previous tendency.
We present below a table giving in outline the setting and
results of the different experiment days that are included under
Experiment I.
20 /. EDGAR DECAMP
— i /• — B. Series — \
Sx S3 S2 Sx R. W.
o 15
131 i 14
2 2 13
23 I 3 12
i 4 ii
21 5 10
3 69
II 2 78
4II87
II 96
i i 10 5
i ii 4
i 12 3
41 13 2
1 14 I
2 15 O
1 I 15 O
32 14 I
2 13 2
2 12 3
14 I II 4
31 10 5
6 i 10 6
3i 87
3i 78
S 69
7 5 10
i 4 ii
131 3 12
I 4 2 I 2 13
3 i 14
i o 15
10 76 15 8
Under E. D. we have the temporal order of any particular
experiment day. R. and W. refer to the composition of the
variant interval, following the A or B series, as the case may
be. Under R. we have the number of minutes rest immediately
following the learning of the A (or B) series before any work
is engaged in. The number of minutes work employed is found
under W. In the columns S3, S2, Si, appears the absolute number
of correct, partially correct (two letters of a syllable), and par-
tially correct (one letter of a syllable), responses respectively.
R. plus W. should, in every case, equal fifteen minutes, since
fifteen minutes was taken for the length of the variant interval
in the experiment. However, there are three instances in which
this was not the case. In neither case does the additional minute
i — A. Series-
E.D.
R.
W.
S3
S2
i
IS
o
i
2
2
14
i
2
I
3
13
2
4
12
3
I
2
5
II
5
3
I
6
10
5
2
7
9
6
2
I
8
8
7
9
7
8
4
10
6
9
i
I
ii
S
IO
3
12
4
ii
3
I
13
3
12
2
I
14
2
13
IS
I
14
I
I
16
0
IS
I
17
O
15
3
18
I
14
2
I
19
2
13
I
I
20
3
12
4
21
4
II
i
22
5
IO
3
23
6
IO
2
24
7
8
2
I
25
8
7
3
26
9
6
2
I
27
10
5
I
28
ii
4
3
29
12
3
3
30
13
2
2
31
14
I
7
32
IS
O
i
2
Totals
66
17
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 21
change the setting until after nine minutes after the learning
of the syllables. The writer considers the point negligible. But,
even if not so, the results of the particular day involved weight
against (to anticipate) the general conclusion of this paper.
By referring to the table, we may compare the total successes
of the A series with the total successes of the B series. We find
for the A series, 2S3 = 66, 25.,= 17, SS^io; for the B series,
2S, = 76, 2S2 = 15, SS, = 8. The advantage in favor of the
B series is a trifle greater than we should expect chance to give
either series. Due to the mental activity connected with the A
series, we may assume a slightly fatigued condition of the sub-
ject at the beginning of the learning of the B series. Hence,
we should have expected the A, instead of the B, series to possess
any slight advantage.
Of the thirty-two partially correct responses (two letters cor-
rect), twenty-two were of the Di- type, i.e., the initial consonant
and the vowel correct; seven were of the -it type, i.e., the vowel
and final consonant correct; while only three were of the D-t
type, the initial and final consonants correct. This was to be
expected since chance, in a combination of two letters, one of
which is a vowel, favors a consonant and a vowel rather than
two consonants. Further, we may explain the advantage of the
Di- type over the -it type in accordance with the laws of associa-
tion. Clearly, when the measure Loc Dit is learned, the associa-
tion between Loc and Di is much stronger than that between
Loc and it.
Of the eighteen cases of partial responses (one letter correct),
ten of these letters were vowels, and eight were consonants.
Of the eight consonants, four were initial and four were final.
Here again we should expect the vowels, relatively, to have the
advantage, since the number of vowels to select from is only one-
fourth (approximately) as large as that of the consonants.
The smallness of the number of each probably renders the results
more or less meaningless.
A distribution of the total number of correct responses re-
ceived, according to the position which they occupied in the
learning, shows the following :
22 /. EDGAR DECAMP
Position .No. of Successes
1 19
2 2O
3 18
4 18
5 20
6 21
7 26
A further discussion of the point here involved will be deferred
until later.
EXPERIMENT II
The subject for this experiment was F. The experiment con-
tinued sixty-four experiment days. Fourteen-syllable series were
used. The velocity of exposure of the syllables was twenty-three
and one-third seconds. The variant interval was fifteen minutes.
The work used, cross-multiplication. In fact, the experiment is
exactly similar to Experiment I, with two exceptions, (i) the
present experiment was continued longer. — to sixty-four days, in-
stead of thirty-two; and (2) a different subject was used. Two
complete cycles of results were obtained, giving eight results for
each position in the variant interval. As nearly as possible, the
same hour of the day on different experiment days was used.
A curve plotted from the results of the experiment follows in
Figure 3.
In curve A the abscissae represent the number of minutes
worked for the different positions in the variant interval. The
ordinates represent the total number of successes for any posi-
tion. In curve B the abscissae are the same as in curve A.
The ordinates, however, represent the values of curve A plus
the partial successes. Only those responses with two letters
correct, of the three of a syllable, are considered, and each
one of these is valued at one-half the value of a successful re-
sponse. The time curve is shown by curve C. Abscissae as in
A and B. The ordinates represent the average time of the
correct responses for any position in the variant interval.
The following points may be noted :
i. The lowest point of the success curve occurs with rest i,
work 14. The highest point occurs with the position rest
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION
'0000
f—
1
/000
tooo
•tfiooo
fTooo
-Jpoo
icoo
/.ooo
/
\
/
\
/
\
/
\
X
x
\
\
/
1
'
\
>
s
f
\
/
\
i
So
35
3o
20
/a
to
£
^
X*
\
/
i
/
i
X
'/
\\
X
-''
\
3
\^
i /
'
I
>
. — '
\
/
V
.^,
2
\\
'7
1
I/
\
—
'
\
i
/
* J <t J
r * 7 rf
FIG. 3
^ /^ // ^> /j /•»< i
2, work 13. These two points are adjacent, and it is
hard to account for such a difference existing between two points
whose position would seem, naturally, to merit no such dis-
tinction. We noted a similar occurrence in Experiment I, only in
that experiment the divergent points were n and 12 instead
of, as in the present experiment, 13 and 14.
2. To the lowest point of the success curve corresponds the
lowest point of the time curve, but to the two next lowest points
of the success curve correspond the two highest points of the
time curve — two results that do not seemingly harmonize with
themselves, and with what we might have expected. It would
seem reasonable to suppose, from our general idea of retroactive
inhibition, that with a large number of successes would corre-
spond short times. But this is not the case in our curves. In
fact, there seems to be no simple expressible relation between the
24 /. EDGAR DECAMP
two curves. According to the results of Miiller and Pilzecker
this relation is an inverse one.
3. The undulatory character of the success curve, noticeable
also in the success curve of Experiment I, is no less surprising
than bewildering.
The writer wishes to call attention to the fact that the subject
used in this experiment had had considerable experience in
learning nonsense syllables previous to this experiment. Again,
he did not have such a tendency to form sense associations as
was the case with the subject in Experiment I. It may be well to
mention here that subject F. and subject B. were quite different
in temperament; subject F. being calm, deliberate, slow and easy
going; while subject B. was quite the opposite, quick, active and
alert.
Here, as in Experiment I, a large number of introspections is
wanting. The subject reported no noticeable effect of the inter-
polated work. He reported that he though the process of mul-
tiplication tended to become a mechanical one, not requiring the
closest attention. He had at one time held a clerical position
requiring the constant use of figures. His idea was that such
work may become automatic, columns of figures may be added
while the attention is directed elsewhere. The writer has acted
as subject where cross multiplication was used; he is also accus-
tomed to the frequent use of figures in clerical work. With him
the process in the cases cited seems to be far removed from the
mechanical. To be sure, after a little practice, the work can
be done with greater rapidity ; the figures seem to fall into line,
as it were ; the result seems to come forthwith, but most success-
fully, only when the attention is closely given to the work in
hand.1
A table follows showing the setting and results of each day's
experiment :
1 Cf. Ladd and Woodworth's position relative to habitual actions, Elements
of Physiological Psychology, 1911, p. 564.
TABLE II— A Series
E.D. D-- Di- -i- -it - -t
1 i
2 i i
3 i i
4 i i
5 2 i
6 i i
7 i i
8 i i
9 i
10 i
11 i
12 I I
13 3
14 i
15
16
17 i i
18 i i
19 i
20 ii
21 I
22 II
23 211
24 I
25 I I
26 I
27 I
28 I
1 I
I
I
I
2 I
I
2 I
I
I
I
1 2
2 I I
I
I I
2
I
I
38 28 20
D-t
R.
W.
S3
S2
§,
IS
o
3
i
14
i
5
i
i
13
2
3
2
12
3
5
r
I
I
II
4
i
3
I
IO
5
2
2
9
6
3
I
I
8
7
3
I
I
7
8
3
I
6
9
4
I
5
IO
2
I
4
ii
2
I
I
I
3
12
3
4
2
13
5
i
I
I
14
ii
0
15
4
O
15
5
2
I
14
3
2
I
2
13
5
I
3
12
5
2
4
II
4
I
5
10
2
I
I
6
9
I
2
2
7
8
6
I
8
7
3
I
I
9
6
4
I
10
5
5
I
ii
4
5
I
12
3
7
13
2
5
14
I
4
I
I
I
IS
O
4
I
I
O
15
4
2
14
I
6
I
13
2
4
2
I
II
4
4
I
2
12
3
5
2
IO
5
4
I
9
6
4
I
I
I
8
7
2
2
7
8
4
6
9
6
5
10
i
I
2
4
ii
2
2
3
12
4
I
I
2
13
4
I
I
I
14
I
O
15
5
I
15
o
3
I
2
I
14
5
I
2
13
6
I
3
12
5
I
I
4
II
4
I
5
IO
4
I
6
9
5
7
8
i
I
2
8
7
i
3
I
9
6
6
i
IO
5
3
2
V
ii
4
3
2
12
3
4
I
I
13
2
4
2
14
I
4
I
I
15
6
8
239
66
38
TABLE II— B Series
D-t
E.D.
S3
S2
s,
R.
W.
D- - Di-
-i-
-it
--t
i
2
2
I
0
15
i
i
I
2
4
i
14
3
3
I
I
2
13
i
i
4
i
5
I
3
12
2
i
3
5
2
i
2
4
II
I
2
6
I
i
2
5
IO
I
I
i
7
3
2
6
9
2
8
2
I
I
9
6
I I
9
3
8
7
I
2
10
I
I
I
7
8
I
I
ii
3
2
IO
5
2
12
2
I
I
ii
4
I I
13
2
I
12
3
I
14
I
3
13
2
3
15
I
2
14
I
2
16
3
I
15
O
I
17
I
5
15
O
2
3
18
3
I
i
14
I
I
i
19
4
2
i
13
2
i
2
20
7
12
3
21
i
I
2
II
4
I
i
I
22
i
2
IO
5
2
23
3
I
I
9
6
I
i
24
6
I
8
7
I
25
3
2
7
8
I
26
6
6
9
27
6
5
IO
28
3
2
4
ii
2
29
5
I
3'
12
I
30
5
I
2
13
i
31
i
2
2
I
14
I
2
32
4
2
0
15
2
33
5
2
15
o
2
34
3
I
I
i
14
I
I
35
7
2
13
36
2
I
3
4
ii
2 I
I
37
5
3
12
38
i
I
3
5
IO
3
I
39
4
6
9
40
2
4
7
8
4
2
41
4
i
8
7
i
42
4
i
9
6
I
43
4
I
10
5
I
44
5
i
ii
4
i
45
2
i
12
3
I
46
5
I
13
2
47
4
I
14
I
I
48
3
I
15
O
I
49
3
3
i
o
IS
I
i
2
50
2
2
i
14
i
I I
I
51
7
13
2
52
4
I
i
12
3
I I
53
4
I
i
II
4
I
i
54
5
I
i
IO
5
i
I
55
6
9
6
56
3
2
i
8
7
2
i
57
4
3
7
8
2
I
58
4
2
6
9
2
59
4
5
IO
60
2
2
4
ii
I
61
4
I
3
12
I
62
3
i
2
13
I
63
3
3
I
14
3
64
4
2
O
15
2
2IO
6l
62
II 40
43
17
8
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 27
The significance of the different abbreviations is fully explained
under Table I, Experiment I, page 20.
A point, scarcely worthy of note, is that the temporal order
of the experiments on the eighth, ninth, and tenth days, is the re-
verse of our plan. The same occurs with days 36 and 37. The
A and B series of days 33 and 49 are the reverse of the planned
order. Both days, however, correspond in setting, hence the
reversal of one practically equalizes the reversal of the other.
In our present results, of the total successes for the A and B
series, we note quite the opposite to that received in Experiment I.
The A series gives, on the whole, 283=239, 2S2=66, 2SX= 38 ;
while the B series gives 2S3 = 210, 2S, = 6i, 2S l= 62. We
may explain our present result in accordance with our previous
reasoning, (p. 21), that the second set of the day may be at
a slight disadvantage. This, together with chance variation, we
may say, gives rise to the difference existing between 2S3 of A
and 2S3 of B.
We wish to mention another point, the details of which are
not presented. If we proportion the total 449 ( 2S3 (A) plus
23S (B)) correct responses according to their temporal order,
as respects measures, in the learning, we obtain:
Position Responses
1 74
2 Si
3 60
4 62
5 66
6 63
7 72
It was very noticeable with subject F. that he often knew the
position a syllable occupied in the learning when he could not
recall that syllable. It is to be remembered that the order of
the syllables in the test was not the same as that in the learning,
and the order for the test of the A series was not the same
as that for the B series.
The subject remarked that the syllable learned first often fails
to come up in the recall. We could attribute this to an assurance
at the first causing a comparative lack of attention to that syllable
in the latter part of the learning process. The subject also noted
28 7. EDGAR DECAMP
that he thought the getting of the response to the first test
syllable had a particular influence upon the total successes of
that trial. His idea being, caeteris paribus, a successful re-
sponse to the first test syllable initiates a kind of systematic pre-
paration for the responses to the remaining test syllables.
Theoretically, this appears plausible; if we assume the subject
has a certain stock of correct responses, consciously or uncon-
sciously, at the beginning of the test, the precipitation of any
one of them may prepare the remaining and lend a certain amount
of impetus, due to the feeling tone connected with the successful
response. This effect, coming at the beginning, is much more
potent, since the succeeding test syllables are unimpaired by any
unsuccessful inhibiting attitude, which is necessarily the case
when the first or first and second responses are unsuccessful.
The subject's idea of how he gets the correct responses may
be instructive. They are due to one, or some combination of,
the three factors, (i) direct association, (2) getting the position
occupied by the syllable in the learning, and (3) running over the
stock of syllables on hand. Towards the end of the experiment
the subject indicated that there was much more to learning a
set of syllables than the mere allowing them to pass before the
field of vision, framing his view, "Some force is let loose that
feels like an original will-power" ; meaning probably nothing
more than a concentration of attention, or, as expressed by
Ladd and Woodworth2 "setting up a favorable adjustment."
EXPERIMENT III
The two previous experiments have partially indicated the
difficulty of our task. It is to be remembered that the present-
work was intended to be an elaboration of the work done by
Miiller and Pilzecker on rectroactive inhibition. Consequently,
we assumed their work as a base. Neither our preliminary ex-
periments nor the two experiments given above, showed any
evidence that we were going to receive any such "striking"
results as those received by the German investigators. Naturally,
it appeared necessary to conduct experiments, similar to the ones
2 Elements of Physiological Psychology, 1911, p. 582.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 29
carried out by them, for the purpose of confirming their results,
or establishing new ones.
The general method of this experiment was similar to that
of Experiments I and II, but different from them in that, in our
present experiment, only two points of the variant interval are
under investigation. On each experiment day two series — an
A and a B — of seven measures, two syllables to the measure,
were learned. Ten repetitions were used for each series. Sub-
ject B., the same as in Experiment I. Following the learning
of one series, there was a rest period of fifteen minutes, then the
test. Immediately following the learning of the other series,
the subject engaged in cross multiplication for ten minutes. A
rest period of five minutes followed the multiplication, then
the test was made. On one day the multiplication was placed in
the A series, on the next day it was placed in the B series. This
gives us an equal distribution between the A and B series of
the deleterious effect of any fatigue, arising from having learned
a previous set of syllables. Of course, even then, the objection
lies open that, from the standpoint of fatigue, the set with work
following has a slight advantage in that, when it occupies the
second position (B series), no work was done during the pre-
ceding variant interval. When the set, with no work following,
occupied the second position, ten minutes of work were engaged
in during the variant interval of the first set.
The experiment extended over a period of 1 6 experiment days
with the following results, n = 112:
TABLE III
S3 r m.v. % S2 Sj Tr T<2OOO(r
Cs. I. Rest 15 54 3.4 1.6 48 5 4 2221 31 22
Cs. II. Work 10, Rest 5 37 2.3 i.o 33 4 4 2673 15 9
The above table gives the absolute number of successes, S3;
the average number in a set, r ; the per centum, % ; the mean
variation, m.v.; the number of syllables, two letters correct, S2;
the number of syllables, one letter correct, Sij the average time
for the correct responses, Tr; the absolute number of correct
responses with time less than 2000 sigmata, T < 20000-; and
tlie number with time less than 1,500 sigmata, T < 15000-.
30 7. EDGAR DECAMP
The results obtained in this experiment seem to favor the
assumption that retroactive inhibition plays a part under such
conditions as those of Case II. However, the force of these
results becomes somewhat weakened, when viewed in connection
with those received in the next experiment with the same subject.
EXPERIMENT IV
The present experiment extended over a period of ten ex-
periment days. Subject, B. Seven-measure nonsense syllables
were repeated ten times. The variant interval of fifteen minutes
was thus disposed. On each experiment day two series were
learned. Immediately following one series there elapsed a rest
period of six minutes, the remaining nine minutes were occupied
in cross-multiplication. Following the other set there elapsed
a rest period of two minutes, then thirteen minutes of cross-
multiplication. At the close of the variant interval, the syllables
were tested. A rest period of at least five minutes occurred be-
tween the test of the first and the learning of the second series
on any experiment day. On one experiment day the variant
interval, containing the rest six minutes, work nine minutes, fol-
lowed the learning of the A series; on the next day it followed
the learning of the B series. The results follow in Table IV,
n = 70:
S8 r tn.v. % S2 St Tr T<2OOO<r
Cs. I. Rest 6, Work 9 20 2 i 29 3 2 2675 14
Cs. II. Rest 2, Work 13 26 2.6 1.6 37 2 o 3328 n
Above is given, in tabular form, the absolute number of suc-
cesses, S3 ; the average number, r ; the mean variation, m. v. ;
the per centum, % ; the number of syllables, two letters correct,
S2; the number of syllables, one letter correct, Sij the average
time for the correct responses, Tr; and the absolute number of
correct responses with time less than 2000 sigmata, T < 200000-.
Attention may be called to the fact that Case II, though its
variant interval contains more work, and given sooner after
learning, than Case I, gives more successful responses. The
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 31
average time for Case II is longer than that for Case I. There
appears no evident reason for the getting of more successes in
Case II. The suggestion offers itself that the greater mental
activity of Case II placed the subject in a condition of better
mental preparedness for the test than did Case I. Assuming
the activity of retroactive inhibition, the time result is what we
should expect.
The results of this experiment suggest that two minutes after
the learning of a series, retroactive inhibition plays no notice-
able part in diminishing the number of successful responses,
though it may appear in a slight retardation of the correct re-
sponses. The author realizes that the meagreness of numbers,
if we consider in isolation the experiment at hand, is a serious
drawback to final acceptance of any apparent conclusions
therefrom.
EXPERIMENT V
This experiment was conducted exactly as Experiment IV, save
with a different subject, subject D., and with an essential change
with respect to the variant interval. In the present experiment,
the variant interval of fifteen minutes was thus occupied; the
subject either cross-multiplied the full time, beginning im-
mediately after learning, or he rested the full time. On one
day the cross-multiplication came after the A series, on the
next day it came after the B series. The subject was an ex-
perienced one in learning nonsense syllables. He tended rather
toward the steady, slow, deliberate temperament. The experi-
ment continued for ten experiment days, with the following
results ; Table V, n = 70 :
TABtLE V
S3 r m.v. % S2 St Tr T<2Oocw
Cs. I. Rest 15 24 2.4 .96 34 4 9 5149 6
Cs. II. Work 15 21 2.1 1.31 30 5 5 5822 2
The column symbols have exactly the same meaning as those
used in Experiments III and IV, p. 29$.
Case I shows a slight advantage over Case II, with respect
to the number of successful responses. A slight advantage is
32 /. EDGAR DECAMP
all that can be claimed; even that — it is not unreasonable to
assume — may have been due to mere chance. To be sure, the
argument works both ways equally well; it may be claimed that
chance favored the results of Case II.
Surely, if we are to obtain a retroactive effect, it should have
appeared in Case II, with fifteen minutes work immediately sub-
sequent upon the learning. Shall we then tend towards some
such conclusion as the non-existence of retroactive inhibition?
Or, shall we refrain — doubtless the better way — on account of
the paucity of results, from drawing any general conclusions,
until the question is more fully investigated? It seems that we
may be allowed to question the importance of the part retro-
active inhibition has hitherto been assumed to play in influencing
the recall of nonsense syllables.
EXPERIMENT VI
The plan of this experiment was the same as that pursued
in the preceding experiment, save that in this a different sub-
ject, subject W., was used, one who had not had very much
experience in learning nonsense syllables. Ten repetitions
were given each set of seven-measure syllables. The variant in-
tervals were of two kinds, one where the subject rested the full
fifteen minutes; the other where immediately after the learning,
the subject worked at cross-multiplication for ten minutes, and
then rested the remaining five minutes. The test followed the
variant interval. The experiment continued nine experiment
days. The results obtained are given below in Table VI, n = 63 :
TABLE VI
S3 r m.v. % S2 S, Tr T<2OOO<r
Cs. I. Rest 15 50 5.6 1.2 79 5 o 2828 18
Cs. II. Work 10, Rest 5 43 4.8 1.3 68 2 i 2955 12
The symbols at the head of the different columns have been
fully explained. See above under Experiments III and IV, p. 2()f.
We note here an advantage in favor of Case I, in respect both
to the number of correct responses, and the celerity of the re-
sponse. The advantage, however, is not a decided one ; especially
is this the case with respect to time. It is noticeable that Case I
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION
33
shows more correct responses with reaction time less than 2000
sigmata. The advantage in favor of Case I, on the part of the
successful responses, seems too large to be wholly accounted
for on the basis of variation and chance.
EXPERIMENT VII
W. acted as subject for the present experiment. The only
essential difference between the setting of this experiment and
that of Experiment VI, lies in the fact, that, in the learning,
the syllables were presented auditorially instead of visually.
This was accomplished by reading the syllables to the subject.
Six repetitions were given each series. The metronome was set
at 72. The operator began a measure on one stroke of the
metronome and ended on the next; two strokes were allowed
for rest ; then a new measure was read. For the test additional
apparatus was used, a second mouth-key, a lamp battery and a
relay. It will be recalled that the mouth-key is fitted with
tambour and metal pointer for breaking a circuit only. With
the use of two circuit breakers alone, the use of the chronoscope
is impractical either with open or closed circuit. The difficulty
is obviated by the use of the lamp battery and the relay apparatus.
The set-up may be shown diagrammatically as follows, Fig. 4:
FIG. 4
34 /. EDGAR DECAMP
M. K. I, mouth-key for the subject; C, commutator; L. B.,
lamp battery; H. C, Hipp chronoscope; R., relay; and M. K. 2,
mouth-key for the operator.
The complete apparatus was used only in the test. The pur-
pose of the lamp battery and relay was to give a closed circuit
through the chronoscope, when the operator spoke the test
syllable into M. K. 2. The subject's response was spoken into
M. K. i. A rubber tube led out from M. K. 2 to the subject's
ear. The subject's end of the tube was fitted with a common
phonographic listening device. This device consists of a con-
cavo-convex disk (diam. 5 cm.) of wood, through the centre
of which runs a short piece of tin tubing.
The experiment continued ten experiment days with the fol-
lowing results, Table VII, n = 70:
TABLE VII
S3 r m.v. % S2 S, Tr T<2OOO<r T<3OOO
Cs. I. Rest 15 28 2.9 i.i 41 ii 6 5127 7 11
Cs. II. Work 10, Rest 5.. 28 2.8 0.7 40 15 4 4286 4 11
The meaning of the headings of the different columns is
fully explained under Experiments III and IV, p. 2Qf., save that
we have added a column, T < 30000-, which includes the absolute
number of successes with time less than 3000 sigmata. It should
be mentioned that the measure of correctness of a response con-
sisted in its agreement with the correct syllable in sound, and
not in spelling, as in the case of those syllables given visually.
We note here, with respect to the number of successful re-
sponses, practically no particular advantage shown by either case.
An exceptional result occurs in that the average time for the
correct responses of Case II is less than that for the correct
responses of Case I. In our previous experiments, the average
time for Case II has always been greater than that for Case I.
Case I shows an advantage in the number of very short times,
less than 2000 sigmata, seven as compared with four for Case I,
but when 3000 sigmata is the maximum time for comparison,
both cases yield the same number of times less than that amount.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 35
EXPERIMENT VIII
The general method of this experiment was the same as that
used in Experiment VI. D. acted as subject; fourteen-syllable
nonsense series were used. Two sets were learned on each day.
A variant interval of sixteen minutes was thus disposed : In-
stead of using cross-multiplication as interpolated work, as in
the previous experiments, physical work was employed. The
subject was harnessed to an ergograph, so that the weight would
be lifted from the shoulders. The lifts were made with the
metronome, one every two seconds. Immediately after the learn-
ing of one set of syllables, one minute was taken for adjustment
of the apparatus to the subject, then came ten minutes work with
the ergograph, followed by a rest of five minutes, then the test.
In a second case no work followed the learning of a series of
syllables. On one day the work came in the A series, on the
next day it came in the B series. The experiment continued
nine experiment days, giving the following results, Table VIII,
11=63:
TABLE VIII
S3 r m.v. % S2 S, Tr T<2OOOcr T<30OO«r
Cs. I. Rest 16 42 4.7 1.2 67 4 4 4862 13 19
Cs. II. Adj. i, Erg. 10, Rest 5 27 3.0 0.9 43 2 2 4108 8 14
For explanation of symbols used see Experiments III, IV and
VII.
Here we have quite an advantage in favor of Case I. The
number of successes afforded by Case II is open to the very
serious objection that its smallness may be due to physical fatigue
rather than retroactive inhibition. The difference is quite ex-
plainable upon the basis that, at the time of the test, the lingering
fatigue sensations, together with the associated complex of "sen-
sations of rest," prevented complete attention to the recall of the
learned nonsense syllables. This, it appears to the writer, is a
sufficient explanation of the existing difference, without necessi-
tating the employment of a shock effect of the physical work
upon the learned syllables. In case the shock effect existed, the
present experiment was not adequately designed to differentiate
it from the fatigue effect.
36 /. EDGAR DE CAMP
EXPERIMENT IX (a)
Hitherto, in our discussion, we have been hampered and forced
to refrain from any final conclusions because of the paucity of
numbers. Hence it was desired to conduct an experiment to
such length that the weight of numbers should not be wanting.
It was the experimenter's purpose, in the present experiment,
to meet such a requirement. In order that the work might not
become too laborious, and extend to too great length, fewer
points of the variant interval were taken for investigation than
were taken in Experiments I and II, whose general plan the
present experiment follows. The length of the variant interval
was fifteen minutes. The first six minutes of the variant in-
terval were the only ones subjected to variance, the other nine
minutes serving as a rest period previous to the test. In justi-
fication of so narrowly restricting the variant part, we may cite
experiments I to VII. From them the only conclusion relative
to retroactive inhibition, we wish to urge, is that mental activity,
following three or four minutes after the learning of a set of
nonsense syllables, produces no apparent retroactive effect upon
the number of successful responses in the recall. Consequently,
we consider the limits of the variant factor in the present ex-
periment as sufficient, and deem more extended limits unnecessary
in the investigation of the factor under consideration.
Seven measures, two syllables to the measure, were repeated
ten times by the subject. The first six minutes following the
learning were disposed in accordance with the day's position
in the cyclic order. In consequence of the length of the variant
part of the variant interval, the cycle, which is fully explained
supra, (p. isf.), consists of fourteen experiment days. Follow-
ing the variant interval of fifteen minutes came the test. Here
the experiment days follow fairly closely the calendar days. In
all instances the work is carried out in the afternoon, and for the
most part at the same hour of the day.
Z. B. served as subject. The experiment continued seventy
days, thus completing five cycles, and giving twenty different re-
sults for each point in the variant part of the variant interval.
A success curve, A, and a time curve, B, plotted from the results,
follow in Figure 5, n = 140:
Sooo
tooo
Sttoo
3 OOO
i 000
/ooo
V
\
^
•
V
\
/
'
\
A_
JO
A
t z 3 ¥• JT 6
FIG. 5
38 /. EDGAR DECAMP
A is a curve representing the total successes. B represents
the time curve. In A and B the abscissae represent the number
of minutes in which mental activity (cross-multiplication) was
employed in the variant part of the variant interval; e. g.,
abscissa 4 corresponds to the day's arrangement, learning,
rest two minutes, work four minutes, rest nine minutes, and test.
In A the ordinates represent the relative number of successful
responses. In B the ordinates represent the average time of
the successful responses.
A subsidiary curve, plotted in accordance with the method
used in plotting Curve B, Fig. 2, p. i/f. and Curve B. Fig. 3,
p. 22 f., shows no essential difference from our present Curve A,
the courses of the two curves always running in the same
direction. Consequently this curve has been omitted.
The highest ordinate of the success curve occurs under abscissa
o, where no work occurred in the variant interval. A seemingly
non-harmonizing result occurs in that abscissa i vies with
abscissa 6 for the lowest point of the curve. In order to
consider the results more in detail two tables, Table IX and
Table X, are subjoined.
TABLE IX
Minutes Worked
1
-c —
— \
i
-i —
— -i
( —
—2 —
— -i
, —
—~\—
— \
f
— 4—
— \
i —
— 5~
\
i —
-6-
N
s,
S2
S,
S3
S2
s,
S3
S2
s,
S8
S2
s,
S3
S2
s,
S3
s.
s,
S3
S2
S,
4
i
3
3
I
I
4
I
i
i
4
I
3
i
I
6
i
I
2
i
2
3
4
3
i
i
i
i
3
I
I
2
3
i
i
2
I
i
X
2
2
3
I
I
3
i
I
i
i
i
ii
i
4
8
i
I
9
2
I
7
i
3
10
2
3
II
i
2
7
4
2
2
2
i
3
I
I
2
2
2
2
2
2
I
I
I
i
2
I
3
I
I
2
i
3
i
I
I
I
2
I
•3
3
i
I
i
2
3
2
3
2
2
3
X
I
2
3
2
3
6
I
2
2
3
I
4
18
3
8
16
2
3
16
4
6
19
6
6
16
6
6
17
5
7
18
6
6
4
2
2
I
i
2
I
i
i
i
3
I
2
i
i
2
2
i
i
4
4
i
i
2
2
i
2
2
2
I
i
5
i
2
2
I
3
2
4
2
I
4
I
4
i
2
I
4
28
4
12
24
5
5
22
7
6
29
II
8
26
6
10
23
9
IO
23
9
10
4
i
4
i
2
2
3
i
4
i
3
i
X
3
3
2
2
2
4
3
2
I
5
3
i
3
4
i
i
5
6
3
3
2
i
3
i
4
2
2
2
2
2
2
i
3
41
8
12
35
5
8
33
II
7
41
13
10
40
8
ii
36
II
II
34
10
u
6
I
4
i
3
i
I
i
4
4
I
I
2
X
3
2
4
i
2
i
i
4
I
2
X
i
I
5
4
i
2
4
I
2
X
7
3
3
I
2
3
I
i
4
4
I
4
i
58
8
14
44
5
9
48
12
10
Si
15
14
51
8
ii
52
12
15
44
ii
17
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 39
The figures at the head of the different columns correspond
to the different abscissae of the curves. Under S3 appears the
number of wholly correct responses; under S2, responses with
only two letters correct; and under S±, responses with only one
letter correct. The totals at the end of each cycle, give the total
number of responses, under the different columns, up to that
time, and not the totals of the immediate cycle under which
they are placed. The writer's opinion is that more is to be
gained from a consideration of this table than from a considera-
tion of the Curve A.
We note that work o, when compared with work 6, has the
advantage all the way through, save in the second cycle, where
the reverse is the case, giving at the end of the second cycle,
where n = 56, the same number of successful responses to the
credit of each. A point of great significance is that abscissa o
did not gain its ascendency over all other points until in the
fifth cycle. At the end of the second and third cycles, abscissa 3
was in the ascendency and maintained an equality at the end of
the fourth cycle, losing out only in the fifth cycle. Abscissa 6
did not uniformly occupy the lowest position, in fact, never oc-
cupying the lowest position of all. At the end of the fourth
cycle, n = 112, abscissae 6, 5, 2, and i were practically on an
equal footing. These considerations seem to indicate that the
ascendency given to abscissa o at the end of the fifth cycle is not
unquestionable. In fact, the results of the fifth cycle seem to play
an unnatural part, as respects both abscissae o and 6. In the
light of the results of the first four cycles, its value as a determi-
nant of the final figures, seems too great. Hence, the curve from
the results at the end of the fifth cycle can not be taken, without
question, as a finality, representing the true status of the matter.
Again, if we consider the part of Curve A on each side of
its mid-abscissa, i.e. 3, we get the total number of successes of
the half towards abscissa o, and that towards abscissa 6, equalling
I75//2 and 172*^ respectively — their difference being wholly in-
significant. This is an important fact, highly indicative, that
the true path of the curve is along the horizontal, and conse-
quently arguing against any effect of retroactive inhibition.
40 /. EDGAR DECAMP
For a consideration of further details, we append the second
table, Table X:
TABLE X--A Series
E.D. D-- Di- -i- -it - -t D-t
1 i
2 I
3 i i
4
5
6 i i
8 i i
9 i
10 ii
ii
12 I
13
14 I
15 2 I
16
17 I
18 i i
19 i
20 I I
21 21
22 I
23 2
24
25 2
26 12
27
28 I I
29 I I
30 I
31
32 i
33 i i 2
34 i
35 2
36 ill
37 2
38
39 i i
40 i i
41 i
42
43 i
44 i
45 2
46 I
47
48 i
49
50
5i
52
53 i
R.
W.
S3
S2
s,
6
o
4
I
i
5
4
I
4
2
3
i
I
3
3
4
4
2
2
5
I
i
I
6
O
6
•
o
6
i
I
i
5
2
I
2
4
3
i
I
3
3
2
2
4
3
I
5
i
2
o
6
I
i
6
o
2
2
I
5
i
3
4
2
I
I
3
3
2
2
2
4
3
I
I
5
I
I
I
O
6
2
I
2
0
6
3
I
I
5
2
2
2
4
3
3
3
3
2
4
2
2
3
5
I
3
6
O
i
2
6
O
4
2
5
I
2
I
4
2
I
3
3
2
I
2
4
I
4
I
5
4
I
0
6
I
2
o
6
2
I
I
5
i
2
2
4
5
3
3
2
I
I
6
0
3
2
4
2
2
I
5
I
4
6
0
4
I
5
I
4
I
4
2
2
2
3
3
3
I
2
4
3
I
5
2
I
O
6
5
O
6
3
I
5
6
2
4
5
3
3
i
I
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 41
TABLE X— A Series (continued)
E.D. D-- Di- -i- -it - -t D-t R. W. S3 S2 S,
17 29 4 18 4
TABLE X— B Series
4
2
3
i
5
I
i
6
O
3 2
6
O
6
i
5
I
4
i
4
2
3
4
2
i I
i
2
4
i
I
5
4
i
O
6
2
i
0
6
2
i
I
5
4
i
2
4
2
3
3
4
i
4
2
3 i
2
5
I
3
6
0
7
190 25
53
55%
E.D.
S3
S2
Si
R.
W.
D- - Di-
-i-
i
3
i
I
0
6
i
2
3
5
i
3
I
i
I
2
4
I
4
i
2
3
3
i i
I
5
3
2
4
6
4
I
5
7
3
i
O
6
i
8
i
i
I
6
0
I
9
3
5
i
10
i
i
4
2
ii
i
I
3
3
i
12
3
4
2
13
I
i
i
5
i
14
2
6
0
2
15
2
i
I
o
6
i
I
16
2
2
i
5
I 2
I
17
2
2
4
I
18
I
2
I
3
3
2
I
19
3
I
4
2
I
20
2
I
5
I
I
21
I
I
6
O
I
22
3
6
O
23
I
I
5
I
I
I
24
i
2
4
2
I
25
6
I
3
3
I
26
2
2
2
4
I 2
I
27
3
I
I
5
I
28
4
O
6
29
I
I
O
6
I
I
30
I
I
5
I
31
2
4
32
2
2
I
3
3
I
I
33
I
4
2
34
2
I
5
I
I
-it - -t D-t
i
42 /. EDGAR DECAMP
TABLE X— B Series (continued)
E.D.
S3
S2
&
R.
W.
D-- Di- -i- -it
35
3
I
6
o
i
36
6
0
37
2
I
5
I
i i
38
2
2
4
2
2
39
4
I
3
3
I
40
4
o
6
4i
4
2
4
42
I
2
I
I
5
2 I
43
I
I
O
6
I
44
3
I
5
45
4
I
2
4
I
46
4
3
3
47
2
2
4
2
I I
48
3
2
5
I
I I
49
3
6
O
50
3
I
6
O
I
51
3
5
I
52
4
4
2
53
4
2
3
3
I I
54
2
2
2
4
I I
55
2
2
I
5
2
56
2
I
3
O
6
I 21
57
2
I
O
6
I
58
4
I
I
I
5
I I
59
4
2
4
60
2
I
3
3
I
61
4
I
4
2
I
62
2
5
I
63
3
6
O
64
i
I
6
O
I
65
5
I
66
5
4
2
67
3
I
I
3
3
I I
68
4
2
4
69
4
I
0
6
I
70
4
I
I
o
I
158
46
37
9 32 28 12
- -t D-t
45%
The meaning of the symbols used has been given under
Experiment II. A few partial displacements appear in the cyclic
order, but, due to the brevity of the cycle, this appears
negligible. Under E. D. 60, it will be noted that R. 4, W. 2 has
been reckoned as R. 3, W. 3. This appears permissible, since, had
the additional minute of work been engaged in, the result could
hardly have fallen lower in that particular instant. Even as it
was, the result is below that of the B series with the same
point on the same day.
2S3 of the A series equals 190, while 2S3 of the B series
equals only 162, the percentages being 54.6 and 45.4 respec-
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 43
tively. In explanation of this difference, we may refer to our
discussion under Experiment I. We note here, as previously,
that the Di- type of partial successes far outstrips the -it type,
the former giving, in toto, 49; and the latter, 16. The D-t
type is fairly negligible, giving, in all, only six occurrences.
In the one-letter-correct syllables, the vowels far exceed either
the initial or the final consonant; in fact, the vowel occurs
oftener than both combined.
If we take the total number of successes, i.e., 2S3(A) plus
2S3(B) = 348, and consider them relatively to the position they
occupied in the learning, we get the following distribution
according to measures :
Position Responses
1 58
2 40
3 48
4 45
5 49
6 44
7 64
These results seem to indicate, as those in Experiment II, that
syllables occupying the first and seventh measures, are more
firmly associated in the learning process. Further, the seventh
position seems to possess this advantage to the greatest extent.
The results of Experiment I do not accord upon this latter point.
In explanation, it may be suggested that the beginning and end
syllables have special attention called to them, in that they begin
and end the series. But since the repetitions are continuous,
and there is no break at the end of the seventh position different
from that at the end of any other position, except, of course,
at the closing of the learning process, this attentive distinction
seems a rather meagre explanation for the disparity at hand.
A second explanation offers itself. Regardless of the contin-
uity of the learning process, the subject is nevertheless aware,
as the repetitions continue, of the end and beginning of the
series. Hence, a characteristic difference qualifying positions
7 and i. Without mentioning the results, the subject
of the present experiment was questioned about the consciousness
of such a distinction. The reply was in the negative. A
44 /. EDGAR DECAMP
knowledge of the position in the series occupied by a syllable,
with Z. B., seemed to be much less than that possessed by
subject F., in Experiment II. The second explanation seems
valid in case of the results with subject F., but appears some-
what lacking in explanation of the greater difference obtained
with Z. B., unless we assume that the same attentive distinction
was present, but subliminal. Even at that, we should hardly
expect the difference to be greater in the latter case. Subject
B. of Experiment I does not show the characteristic under dis-
cussion with respect to the first position. He does show it
in case of the seventh position. No reason for the difference
in case of subject B. is forthcoming, unless we ascribe it to the
insufficiency of numbers.
The learning process (Vorzeigen), used by Muller and
Pilzecker,1 for the most part, gave between the last and the
first syllable of a series, a longer interval than occurred between
any other two adjacent syllables. Such a procedure, we may
assume, slightly accentuates the importance of the last and first
syllables. Their Experiment 28 was conducted with no such dis-
tinguishing difference qualifying the last and first syllables. The
order of the positions occupied by the syllables in the learning,
in accordance with the largeness of the number of syllables
obtained, was 5, 4, 3, 6, 2, i.
If we turn to a consideration of the time curve, we find, as
in Experiments I and II, no apparent general relation between
the time and the success curves. In four instances there is
concordance of direction, in two instances there is opposition.
If we except the fifth abscissa, the general trend of the curve
is downward. It is to be noted, that with the two highest points
of the success curve correspond the two highest points of the
time curve, and with the lowest point of the success curve
corresponds the lowest point of the time curve. These results
militate against any general statement of the relation of the
success and time curves as one of inverse variance. Our average
time is somewhat longer than that obtained by Muller and
1 Loc. dt., S. 266.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 45
Pilzecker. This appears partially explicable in that in the present
experiment the average percentage of successful syllables was
fairly low. The number of repetitions was restricted lest the
subject should too often get all the response syllables correct.
This would have a tendency to give comparatively long times.
That the explanation is adequate for the full difference, can
scarcely be affirmed or denied.
Constructing a table showing the average time under each
abscissa at the end of each cycle we have Table XL
TABLE XI
Work 0123456
Cycle I 7172 3393 3782 3816 5431 8460 3867
6123574
Cycle 2 5216 4108 5998 4945 6594 6518 4629
4153762
Cycle 3 5866 5502 5400 5633 6328 6518 4402
5324671
Cycle 4. •• -6451 6544 6381 5786 5570 6557 474<>
5 6 4 3 71
Cycle 5.... 7039 6756 5625 6548 5967 7773 5706
6514372
The italicized figures represent the order of the length of
time of the particular abscissa in the particular group. It is
noticeable that abscissa five maintained the highest position
throughout save at the end of the second cycle, when it occupied
the sixth. Abscissa 6 twice occupied the first position, and
never above the fourth. Abscissa o twice occupied the sixth posi-
tion, and never below the fourth. Abscissa 3 seemed to hold
a median position throughout.
Eleven per cent of the total successes possess the characteristic
of having been given erroneously as responses to test syllables,
previously to their being given in the correct position. These
responses, when appearing in the correct position, usually
elicited long times, the average time being 109340-. It is very
probable that this long average time arose from the inhibitive
influence occasioned by having given the syllable in response
to a previous test syllable.
It might be suggested that the long average time was due
to some few very long unnatural times, due to chance occur-
rences. In order to throw light upon this point a table is
46 /. EDGAR DECAMP
presented showing the distribution of the responses according
to their time length.
TABLE XII
Work
o
i
2
3
4
5
6
T < looo
i
i
i
1000 < T < 2000
13
9
12
6
16
9
8
2000 < T < 3000
8
9
6
ii
4
12
ii
3000 < T < 4000
ii
3
9
5
5
4
7
4000 < T < 5000
i
3
5
3
6
4
3
5000 < T < 6000
3
i
3
5
3
i
6000 < T < 7000
2
2
3
2
3
2
7000 < T < 8000
3
4
2
i
2
8000 < T < oooo
i
2
i
I
2
2
9000 < T < loooo
I
i
2
i
2
3
loooo < T < i looo
I
I
I IOOO < T < I200O
I
2
I
I
12000 < T < 13000
I
2
13000 < T < 14000
I
I
I
3
I
14000 < T < 15000
2
I
I
3
I
i
15000 < T < 20000
I
2
2
2
3
3
I
20000 < T < 30000
5
3
I
2
2
4
I
30000 < T < 40000
i
2
I
The arrangement is self-explanatory. The number of long
times is rather large, except in case of abscissae 6 and 2, to
be disregarded on the basis of unnaturalness. Abscissae 6
and 2, if considered in isolation, may appear to give weight
to this idea. To be sure, for adequate comparison of the num-
bers under different abscissae, the total number for each point
should be the same. However, the difference is slight, and if
we correct the table to a standard of 50 as a total, proportion-
ately to the present distribution, the correcting figure would in
no case exceed 2, usually, not approaching 2 save in one
or two cases under each abscissa. Bearing this correction in
mind, we note that for T < 20000 the order of the abscissae,
according to brevity of time, is 4, o, 2, i, 5, 6, 3. For T < 30000-,
this order is i, 6, 5, o, {43. T < 40000-, o, 6, 2, i, 5,
4, 3. T < 50000-, 2, 6, o, 4/5, i, 3.
Plotting a curve for all those times less than 40000- and another
curve for all those times less than 30000- we obtain the following,
Figs. 6 and 7:
The curves fluctuate about the horizontal. This fluctuation
is exceedingly slight. The maximum difference obtainable be-
tween two points in the curve of Figs. 6 is 283^, in the curve
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION
47
JTooo
if. ooo
JOOO
2,000
/ooo
, 3
FIG. 6
#000
JOOO
Zooa
FIG. 7
of Fig. 7, 4060-. According to the general conception of retro-
active inhibition, the present time curves, as well as the gen-
eral time curve, should gradually rise as the abscissae increase.
We find no such tendency unquestionably manifesting itself.
The curve of Fig. 6 ends at abscissa 6, 1340- higher than its
starting point. The curve of Fig. 7 ends 200- lower than its
starting point.
Z. B. was experienced in learning nonsense syllables. It can
48 /. EDGAR DECAMP
not be said that her learning of them was free from sense
associations, yet she was not given to consistently forming them
as an aid in remembering the syllables. Occasionally it was
noticed that an associated (sense) syllable gave quite a long
reaction time. In such cases the mental process seemed to be.
something like this: The subject recalled that in the learning
there was a sense association connected with the test syllable
but, somehow, it had dropped out, and time was consumed in
search 'for the sense association. Sometimes the mere fact
of an established sense association would lead to an incorrect
response. The association would work but, due to its sense
relation, might give some word that would fit the association
just as well. In a few instances it was noted that sense associa-
tions, established during learning, did not consciously work for
the recall, even though the correct response was given. Whether
the sense association worked as a subliminal mediate association,
or whether the pure association was strong enough to recall
the correct response, cannot be definitely stated.
The subject thought she noticed variation in the different
series of syllables with respect to the difficulty of learning
them, characterizing some as hard and some as comparatively
easy.
The subject was repeatedly questioned relative to any notice-
able influence of the interpolated work upon the learned
syllables. Characteristic responses are, "Noticed no influence
of the work," "Didn't notice influence of work." Sometimes
the subject would be surprised at the result at the end of the
test, having expected to give a greater (or less) number of
correct responses.
In cases when most, or a very few, of the responses were
correct, the subject was questioned for any apparent reason
for such a result. None was apparent. In the only case where
all the responses were correctly given, W. o, R. 15, the subject
characterized the result as a "Happy accident."
There were comparatively few recurrences of measures in the
variant interval, an average of about one for every two series
learned. The majority of these occurred during the variant
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 49
interval R. 15, or in the rest period previous to any work engaged
in. As many recurred with R. 15 as recurred in the first rest
interval of all the other five positions, where work followed
a short rest period. About one-third oi the recurrences came
in the rest period following work. Only two measures and
one isolated syllable are reported as having recurred during the
work period. The measures reported as recurring almost in-
variably gave rise to correct responses in the test. Three in-
stances are recorded to the contrary. These three recurred
in the rest period following work. It may be said that there
is slight evidence in favor of the view that the advantage shown
by the R. type over the W. 6, R. 9 type was not due to the
retroactive effect, in the latter case, but due to cutting off a few
additional repetitions of some of the measures by the work
introduced, while in the former case, a few additional repeti-
tions went on unhindered. A consciousness of any such tendency
towards a continuance of the repetition of the syllables, im-
mediately after the learning process, was denied by the subject.
In fact, the subject's opinion was that the syllables became a
kind of nonentity during the rest period, the syllables, per
se, not having any thing particularly attractive about them,
tended to drop out of mind, while necessarily the mind wandered
into easy channels of thought.
The number of successful responses for the first and seventh
positions was, for R. o, W. 6, 9 and 6 respectively; for R. 6,
W. o, 5 and 13. This appears slightly in favor of the view
just referred to. When the remaining experiments, subsequent
as well as foregoing, are considered in this respect, the seventh
position usually has a tendency to give a few more results with
rest than with work immediately following the learning. This
tendency, however, is not sufficiently great to point to the inter-
ference by the work with additional subliminal repetitions as
being more than a secondary factor, or otherwise as one of
several primary factors, in explaining the difference at hand.
50 /. EDGAR DECAMP
EXPERIMENT IX (b)
This experiment is a combination of Experiment IX (a), with
the same subject. Two variations, however, are introduced;
one with respect to the variant interval, the other with respect
to the kind of work used in the variant interval. The subject
either rested the whole of the variant interval, or she worked
six minutes and rested nine minutes before testing. The work,
in the latter case, came immediately after the learning of a
series. The comparison series was learned and tested after
fifteen minutes rest. On one day the series with work follow-
ing was learned and tested first, on the next day the comparison
series was given the first place. Cross-multiplication was no
longer used as mental activity for producing the retroactive
effect upon a learned series. For the work, or mental activity,
the subject was given a problem to solve. Such problems were
used as one would class as of the recreation type. A new problem
was given each day.
The experiment continued eight experiment days, with the
following results, Table XIII, n = 56 :
TABLE XIII
S3 r m.v. % S2 $! Tr T<2OOO(r T<isoo<r
Cs. I. Rest 15 30 3.67 1.5 53.6 3 3 5238 n 5
Os. II. Work 6, Rest 9.. 26 3.25 .94 46.4 2 4 5593 4 o
We again note a slight advantage in favor of R. 15. With
the greater number of successful responses is correlated a
shorter average reaction time. With the exception of the greater
m. v. for Case I, the results point towards a slightly injurious
effect of the mental activity following the learning of a series.
If we consider the first four experiment days, the number of
successes for Case I and for Case II are 17 and 13 respectively.
For the last four experiment days the corresponding figures
are 13 and 13, thereby indicating that the whole disadvantage
of Case II appeared in the first group of four experiment days,
and was not equally distributed throughout the whole eight days.
Table XIV is presented for further considerations.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 51
TABLE XIV
A Series
D W R D-- Di- -i- -it --t D-t S3 S2 Sx
1691 41
2 O 15 I 51
369 2 12
4 o 15 6
569 I 41
6 O 15 I 21
769 3
o 15 i 6 i
241 3i 3 4
B Series
D W R D-- Di- -i- -it --t D-t S3 Ss S,
i o 15 3
2691 41
3 o 15 2 32
469 4
5 o 15 i
669 I 21
7 o 15 i 4i
8691 41
123 25 2 4
Comment upon this table is scarcely necessary, since it con-
forms with the results shown in Table X. Consequently, the
discussion presented in connection with Table X is applicable
to the present table.
If we now combine the present results with those of Experi-
ment IX (a), we greatly increase the comparative figures for
the two cases, viz., (i) learning, rest fifteen minutes, test and
(2) learning, work six minutes, rest nine minutes, test. We
thereby obtain comparative results for the two cases when
n = 196. The different magnitudes appear in Table XV.
TABLE XV
S, % Tr
Cs. I. Rest 15 88 55.7 6382
Cs. II. Work 6, Rest 9 70 44.3 5667
In five of the seven cycles, four results each, of the com-
bined results, the number of .successes for R. 15 slightly exceeds
that for R. o, W. 6, R. 9.
From the introspective side little can be added. The subject
reported that she did not notice any inhibitive effect of the
mental activity engaged in after learning a series. She was
of the opinion that the new kind of material used for mental
52 /. EDGAR DECAMP
activity did not noticeably command her attention more than
the cross-multiplication.
i
EXPERIMENT X
The general plan of this experiment was the same as that
of Experiment IX ; ten repetitions were used. There intervened
between the learning and the test of each series of syllables
fifteen minutes, the last nine of which were always spent as
a rest period. In the first six minutes cross-multiplication, as
interpolated work, was introduced, the amount varying with the
cyclic order as already outlined. Two series were learned on
each experiment day.
After one and one-half cycles the subject, A., could spare no
more time for the work. The experiment closed with n = 42, or
six tests for each point of the six minutes varied. The results
are presented below in Table XVI :
TABLE XVI
S3 Tr
15 1249
17 2196
19 1762
18 2451
23 1762
12 1689
14 2500
The first column contains the disposition of the variant in-
terval. Corresponding to this, the second column contains the
total number of successes, and the third column contains the
average time for the correct responses.
The experiment was not carried to sufficient length to permit
of great stress upon the results obtained. However, it seems
apparent that there is no trace of a tendency towards the appear-
ance of retroactive inhibition. In fact, we should infer that a
modicum of work aids in producing a large number of successes.
A peculiar departure exists in that with the most (least) work
the average time appears the shortest (longest).
It should be mentioned that A. could scarcely avoid sense
associations to connect the two syllables of a measure. Indeed,
it was the exception, rather than the general rule, for him to
J
e
O. .
2.
4,
9. .
«.
7,
9. .
4,
2,
9. .
5>
I,
9. .
6.
0.
O..
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 53
get a correct response that had no sense connection with its
paired syllable.
EXPERIMENT XI
P. served as subject for the present experiment. The general
plan is the same as that of Experiment III; eight repetitions
were used. The length of the variant interval was fifteen
minutes. A comparison was planned between only two condi-
tions, between results obtained when no work was used in the
variant interval, and those obtained when the variant interval
was thus disposed : Immediately after learning, ten minutes work,
followed by five minutes rest. The work used was playing chess.
The operator had the chess-men in position previous to the
learning of a set of syllables, that were to be followed by work
so that the play might begin without delay. Two sets of
syllables were learned and tested on each experiment day. At
least five minutes intervened between the close of the test of
the first set and the beginning of the learning of the second set.
On one day the experiment began with the work type, on the
next day with the rest type. The experiment continued ten
experiment days with the following results. Table XVII, n = 70 :
TABLE XVII
S3 r m.v. % S2 S, Tr T< 15000-
Cs. I. Rest 15 28 2.8 1.44 40 9 " 2343 14
Cs. II. Chess 10; Rest 5 35 3.5 i.io 50 9 6 2392 10
In the light of the explanation of the previous tables, the
symbols used above require no further explanation.
Here extraordinary results appear overbalancing the scale in
favor of Case II. The m. v. of Case II is slightly less than that
of Case I. The average time of the successful responses is 490-
longer for Case II than for Case I. Case II is slightly favored
in the number of successes giving time less than 15000-.
In the present experiment the time 'factor gives — and then
very meagrely — the only possible indication of the deleterious
influence of retroactive inhibition. The number of successes —
unquestionably the deciding criterion — instead of lending weight
to such an influence of retroactive inhibition, distinctly nullifies
54 /. EDGAR DECAMP
its possibility. In the opinion of the writer, the advantage shown
by Case II is not to be interpreted as showing that the pro-
cedure of Case II is the more productive of successes in general.
It seems that this advantage finds sufficient explanation in terms
of chance variation in the syllables, experimental method, etc.
Relatively to the work used, it may be remarked that there
occurs to the writer no mental employment that holds the atten-
tion more slavishly than does the game of chess.
It will be remembered that in all of our previous experiments
only experienced subjects were used. From a consideration of
the possibility that subjects, inexperienced in learning nonsense
syllables, might show quite different results from those shown
by experienced subjects, the present experiment consisted in
carrying out the previously adopted general plan with 34 — n
women, 23 men — laboratory students, inexperienced in learning
nonsense syllables. Each subject served two experiment days.
Two tests were given him on each experiment day. Seven-
measure syllables, two .syllables to the measure, were given
twelve repetitions for each subject. The variant interval —
fifteen minutes — found distribution into two types, a rest (R.)
type, consisting in rest throughout the variant interval; and a
work (W.) type, consisting in working six minutes immediately
following the learning of a set of syllables, then resting the
remaining nine minutes of the variant interval. The work used
was three problems of the recreation type.
The subjects were informed concerning the experiment only
sufficiently to enable them to carry out their part of the ex-
periment. At no time was it hinted that the operator's problem
dealt with retroactive inhibition, or the comparison of results
following work and rest. Several had the idea that some test
of their memory was being made. The subject did not know,
until the end of the learning process, whether he was to work
or rest. The operator informed him at the beginning that he
(the operator) would give him a signal, either "Work" or
"Rest." In the case of "Rest" being given, he was to abstain
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 55
from any particular mental thought; in case of "Work," he
should turn over the previously prepared sheet of problems,
select one of the three and work hard until the signal for stopping
was given. The sheet of paper, containing the three problems
written on one side and the title "Problems" written on the
other, was placed, with the written problems down, in easy
reach of the subject. A sheet containing three problems dif-
ferent from those used the first experiment day was used for
the second experiment day.
The two experiment days of each subject were separated by
no constant time interval. It was considered necessary for
each subject to maintain the same hour of the day in his two
experiment days. This was departed from in only three in-
stances, and then the displacement was only one hour.
In order to maintain an equal footing for each of the two
types (R. and W.), seventeen of the subjects began their first
experiment day with the R. type; and seventeen with the W.
type. Those beginning the first day with the R. (W.) type
began the second day with the W (R.) type.
The results obtained are abridged in Tables XVIII (a),
XVIII (b), and XVIII (c) following:
TABLE XVIII (a)
D.
No. i W
2 R
3 R
4 R
5 W
6 W
7 R
8 R
9 R
10 R
ii R
T. G. A.
Type R ^ i
—Type W >
s,
S2
S3
Tr
s,
S2
S3
Tr
5
7
1848
I
2
7
3175
i
10
2432
6
2317
i
5
2739
I
6
7739
i
3
6
1180
2
5
1099
i
9
1285
4
2
6
1830
i
6
4939
I
7
2173
i
i
5
2818
i
I
6
1380
2
12
1856
2
10
1747
2
2
5
1059
5
4308
I
9
1397
i
8
1317
3
2
5
1873
I
I
10
1806
9
18
79
2120
12
8
76
2232
/. EDGAR DECAMP
No. i..
2..
3"
4--
5-.
6..
7-.
8..
9-.
10..
ii..
12. .
13..
14..
IS--
16..
17-.
18..
19..
20..
21. .
22. .
23-.
T. G. A.
TABLE
XVIII (b)
/ Type R »
D.
S,
S2
s,
Tr
R
i
2
8
1231
W
i
6
0830
R
i
2
3
O906
W
10
2993
W
2
5
2329
W
I
6
2670
W
2
I
5
0742
W
I
10
1680
W
2
3
6
1636
R
3
i
2
?
W
2
3
?
R
2
i
3
Il87
W
i
3
1922
R
I
i
6
262O
W
2
4
0787
R
i
5
1377
R
3
i
3948
R
i
i
8
2689
W
i
3
6
2546
R
i
i
4
I7IO
W
i
2
5
1332
W
i
I
6
1587
W
I
ii
3062
26
28
123
2OO2
/ Type W
St S2 S3 T
2 i 7
2
I
22
6
I
IO
5
4
7
7
6
2
2
2
6
4
5
4
10
ii
3
10
6
6
29 124
1086
0916
?
1348
2707
1968
1326
1502
1849
4922
1737
IIO2
I047I
1057
0862
1644
2156
4697
1433
1764
1700
1969
Comb. T. G. A..
TABLE XVIII (c)
, Type R.-
Oi 02 Oj 1 r
35 46 202 2047
s,
32
-Type W.-
S2 S3
37 200
Table XVIII (a) shows the results for the eleven women.
Table XVIII (b) gives the results for the twenty-three men. In
the column D. is to be found the type — whether R. (rest) or W.
(work) — beginning the first experiment day. T. G. A. = Totals
and General Average, the latter referring to the time only. In
Table XVIII (c) the results of Tables XVIII (a) and XVIII (b)
are briefly combined. Under Tr is found the average time,
obtained by totalling the times for the successful responses for
the R. (or W.) type and dividing by the number of successful
responses.
It is obvious that the results of any particular subject, con-
sidered alone, are of little value. However, when the results
of the different experiments are considered in relation to each
other, or in toto, it may be possible to approach some general
conclusion. We reverse the order and deal with the latter first.
First. The total number of successes for the R. type was
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 57
202, that for the W. type was 200. There exists a difference,
wholly insignificant. The average time shows a slight increase —
i37<r — in type W. over that of type R. If we glance at the
time results of XVIII (b) we note that No. 14 apparently gives
a "freak" result, with respect to the W. type, in that it is so
far different from any other average obtained. If we neglect
the results of No. 14, our average, in toto, for the R. type is
26290-, and for the W. type, 19830-. This modified form appears
more nearly correct, otherwise one result, decidedly outside the
limit of variation, would exert too great a determining influence
upon our comparative averages. It appears then that we may
say, from the standpoint of the results considered in toto, neither
the number of successes nor the average time is indicative of
any deleterious influence of retroactive inhibition.
Secondly. If we consider the different results in relation to
each other, we find the following. Of the thirty-four subjects
there are fourteen, each of whom gives more successes for the
R. type than for the W. type. There are twelve, each of whom
gives more successes for the W. type than for the R. type.
Eight of the thirty-four are neutral. This seems adequate proof
that there is no general tendency towards favoring either type.
Further, with respect to time, sixteen of the thirty-four subjects,
give their average time for the W. type less than that for their
R. type. Thirteen of the thirty-four subjects give their average
time for the W. type longer than that for the R. type. Five of
the thirty-'four are unable to be compared. These facts of time
make more certain the correctness of our modification introduced
in the preceding paragraph. Again, we may say, when the re-
sults are considered in relation to each other, that neither the
number of subjects favoring the R. type over the W. type, nor
the number giving shorter times for their successful responses
with the R. type than with the W. type, is indicative of any
deleterious effect of retroactive inhibition.
EXPERIMENT XIII
The present experiment is a departure from the previous ex-
periments, both as to method and as to apparatus. We may
58 /. EDGAR DECAMP
designate the method as of the Reconstruction type. The ap-
paratus consisted of a chess-board, five distinct chess-men (a
pawn, a knight, a bishop, a rook, and a queen), a piece of card-
board 51 x 62 cm., and a stop-watch.
The chess-'board was placed upon a table. The subject, Z. B.,
sat at one side of the table; the operator stood at the other.
The operator placed five chess-men upon different squares of
the chess-board, and took a record of their position. During
this arrangement the piece of cardboard rested on the table, on
the long side as a base, between the chess-board and the subject's
eyes, preventing the subject from seeing the position of the
chess-men. The cardboard was raised and the subject allowed
fifteen seconds to study the different positions of the different
men. After the fifteen seconds exposure, the cardboard
was replaced in its previous position and the men
were removed by the operator and placed in a convenient
place for the subject to get. The cardboard was then
laid over the face of the chess-board. The three minutes
immediately following the closure of the exposing process,
found disposition in two general types, a rest (R.)> and a
work (W.) type. The R. type consisted in the subject's
doing nothing for the three minutes. The W. type consisted
in the subject's working two minutes and resting one minute.
For the first eight days the work consisted in the addition of
columns of figures; for the last four days simple arithmetical
problems were used, a new one being given each required time.
Three minutes after the end of the exposure process, the card-
board was removed from the chess-board for the reconstruction,
by the subject, of the previous positions occupied by the different
chess-men. The time required by the subject for the recon-
struction, was taken with the stop-watch. After the recon-
struction the cardboard was replaced in its position between the
subject and the chessboard, and the reconstructed position of
the men recorded by the operator. The experiment was then
repeated. At least three minutes rest was allowed the subject
between the closure of the reconstruction and the beginning of
the second experiment. On any experiment day six tests were
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 59
made. The R. and W. types alternated on any particular day.
The first three days began with the R. type, the next three began
with the W. type, the next three with the R. type, and the last
three with the W. type. The experiment continued twelve ex-
periment days, giving thirty-six tests for the R. and thirty-six
tests for the W. type.
The errors in the reconstructed forms, and the time, were
computed and tabulated. The error value for any chess-man,
in the reconstructed form, was obtained, speaking mathematically,
by adding the differences between the ordinates and the
abscissae in the two cases, chess-board squares considered as
units. To illustrate, a piece originally placed at b4 (German
chess notation), and in the reconstruction, placed at g2, would
give rise to an error value of 5 + 2 °r 7 f°r the particular piece.
The errors for the five men were totalled, and this total was
considered the error value of the test.
The results of the experiment follow in Table XIX :
TABLE XIX
/ — R. Type — i , — W. Type — »
E. T. E. T.
i R 31 265 38 192
2 R 13 135 54 232
3 R 33 220 26 197
4 W 29 209 24 117
5 W 34 146 38 259
6 W 59 142 44 169
7 R 43 294 20 152
8 R 24 92 27 102
9 R 36 204 41 150
10 W 29 174 28 194
ii W 18 191 41 209
12 W 24 151 41 279
Totals 373 2223 422 2252
Av 10.4 67.4 1 1.7 66.2
M.v 5.6 6.0
The first column gives the number of the experiment day and
the type of test with which the work began on that day. Under
R. Type and W. Type are given the errors, in sub-column E.,
and time, under sub-column T. ; the figures given represent the
total of the three tests of similar type for the experiment day
opposite which the particular figures appear.
The difference between the averages for the two cases is so
6o /. EDGAR DECAMP
small as to be wholly non-significant, while the m. v. is non-
indicative.
In the reconstruction here required of the subject, we are
dealing not merely with the impressibility aspect, but with the
subject's ability to hold in mind an ordered system. This re-
tention of systematic order is doubtless one of man's last
acquirements in his mental evolution, and considered from the
aspect of perseveration, appears to be one of the first to drop
out. Consequently we might expect retroactive inhibition, as-
suming its existence, so much the more to manifest itself when
dealing with this apparently unstable mental phenomenon. From
the results at hand such, however, is not the case.
G. GENERAL DISCUSSION
In dealing with the individual experiments we have par-
tially discussed the results obtained. A systematic unification
remains to be accomplished.
Knowing the conditions set by an experimenter, his results
place all who care to consider them upon a fairly equal basis.
The domain of results gives way to that of interpretation,
from which standpoint divergent lines may be taken by differ-
ent interpreters. It is in this field of interpretation that the
scientist, though in a sense "driven by the facts", in another
sense, "moulds his own laws and makes his own conclusions."
To the writer it seems unquestionable, from the results pre-
sented in this paper, that too much stress has hitherto been laid
upon the effect of retroactive inhibition. That there is such a
thing as retroactive inhibition we are not wholly prepared to
deny. Our results seem to justify the statement — and this is
our main THESIS — That retroactive inhibition plays a significant
part in influencing the recall of nonsense syllables, appears ex-
ceedingly doubtful. The tentativeness of our position follows
necessarily from the considerations already presented. Ex-
haustive experiments are necessary before generalities can be
indulged in if, indeed, generalities are ever permissible in deal-
ing with mental phenomena.
It may be suggested that our results, and consequent con-
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 61
elusions, conflict with the accepted view of the working of the
Perseveration Tendency, which, indeed, is one of the essential
units upon which the theoretical argument for the existence and
explanation of retroactive inhibition is based. Muller and
Pilzecker appear to have thought of the nature of the perse vera-
tion tendency as a kind of after-discharge — a continued ac-
tivity— of the nerve elements following any learning activity.
The physiological work of Sherrington1 on the spinal cord and
the work on inhibition by Shepard2 indicate that the after^
discharge of nerve elements is definitely inhibited by any neural
activity taking place during this after-discharge. From the
standpoint of the greater value of divided repetitions as com-
pared with accumulated repetitions the perseveration tendency
as such seems definitely established. Our results leave retro-
active inhibition questionable. The logical consequence, then,
is that the nature of the perseveration tendency, which leads
to the setting of associations, is not that of an after-discharge.
Again, it seems that hitherto emphasis has been laid upon
retroactive inhibition as an inhibition presenting a single as-
pect— and that inhibitory. The work of both Sherrington and
Shepard seems to indicate that inhibition is not a single-phased
process. According to these investigators two processes giving
rise to inhibition mutually inhibit each other; neither can inhibit
the other without itself being subject to inhibition. If retro-
active inhibition is to be conceived as according with this idea
of the double aspect of inhibition in general, then we should
expect the learning of a Hauptreihe to inhibit the learning of
a Nachreihe as well as the learning of a Nachreihe to inhibit
the preceding Hauptreihe. Consequently, against the conception
of retroactive inhibition as of a single aspect' — and this is prob-
ably the conception of Muller and Pilzecker — there may be
urged two arguments, (i) the difficulty of the conception of
a one-sided inhibition, and (2) the results of the present work,
which do not necessarily require the assumption of retroactive
inhibition at all.
1 The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, 1906.
2 Psychological Review, Vol. XX, No. 4, July, 1913.
62 /. EDGAR DECAMP
We have tended to ascribe most of the differences between
the comparison and the main series to chance variation. It
may be claimed — and rightly — that chance variation should give
evidence against as often as for retroactive inhibition. Con-
sidering our experiments in their totality, the majority of them
slightly iavor a trace of retroactive inhibition. Whether this
tendency of the majority is itself a variation further experi-
ments may decide. At present, in the opinion of the writer,
the validity of retroactive inhibition remains more or less
questionable. If we assume a slight amount of retroactive in-
hibition it may still be explained as due to a tendency of the
work to block the after-discharge of the just learned syllables.
The nature of this blocking is a difficult question.
For the small amount of retroactive inhibition granted I
may be permitted to suggest an explanation analagous to that
existing for the transference of training. From the neuro-
logical standpoint, in the learning of a series of syllables, we
may assume that a certain group of synapses, nerve cells, nerve
'paths, centres, etc., are involved. Immediately after the learn-
ing process the after-discharge continues for a short time, tending
to set the associations between the just learned syllables. Any
mental activity engaged in during this after-discharge, involv-
ing or partially involving the same neurological group, tends,
more or less, to block the after-discharge, and gives rise to
retroactive inhibition. Engagement in any mental activity,
involving a new — so 'far as it is new — group of synapses,
neurones, etc., would allow the setting process of the just excited
group to proceed unhindered. The effect of retroactive inhibi-
tion would vary directly as the relative identity of the neuro-
logical groups concerned. It appears exceedingly plausible that
any given group involved in learning nonsense syllables is a
relatively restricted and, more or less, isolated one, scarcely
involving the more intricate ramifications of the higher associa-
tion paths and centres, and hence much less liable to be in-
fluenced by mental activity, involving the complexity of the
higher centres and processes. Upon this view we should expect
retroactive inhibition to appear more readily where material
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 63
similar to that learned is used for the interpolated work. Where
the learning of nonsense syllables is followed by work of a
different nature — a mathematical problem, for instance — the
relative number of identical elements of the two groups may
be so few, owing to the complexity of man's neurological
system, that no appreciable retroactive effect is elicited.
The neurological explanation just presented seems sufficient
where the deleterious effect of the work is slight but appears
inadequate for the results of Miiller and Pilzecker which were
obtained by using additional nonsense syllables as the interpolated
work. To the writer it appears that Effectual Inhibition,
occasioned by merely increasing the number of syllables, may
play the decisive part in lessening the percentage of successful
responses in the recall of a Hauptreihe which has been followed
by the learning of a Nachreihe. Probably in this way is to be
explained the following quotation from Eleanor C. McC. Gam-
ble's "A Study in Memorizing Various Materials by the
Reconstruction Method."1
"With G. retroactive inhibition was obvious. Each series
[i.e. of smells, colors, nonsense syllables] was remembered
fairly well until the next was given. That is to say, the subject
could name hours afterwards the members of the last series
given, and the associations involved would remain almost un-
disturbed for weeks. But as soon as a new series was- given,
the eraser (the subject actually visualized a blackboard eraser
in this connection) was drawn over the old series. A 'smudge'
might remain to make the new series illegible but the old
one could no longer be read off."
In the opinion of the writer a similar explanation applies
to Ebbinghaus'2 attribution to retroactive inhibition of the ex-
traordinary increase in the number of repetitions necessary for
memorizing lists of syllables as the "memory span" is exceeded.
To quote,
"Die einzelnen Associationen beeintrachtigen und lockern
sich immer wieder durch ruckwirkende Hemmung, und die
1 Psychological Review, Monograph Sup. No. 43, 1909, p. 138.
3 Grundziige der Psychologic, 1902, S. 652.
64 /. EDGAR DECAMP
Herstellung einer bestimmten Festigkeit erfordert mithin einen
immer grosseren Arbeitsaufwand zur Uberwindung dieser
Stoning, je hoher die Zahl der hemmenden und gehemmten
Glieder sich belauft."
But, in the light of the present experiments, the writer does
not feel disposed towards accepting, as a general conclusion,
even a greater difference when a consideration of pictures is
substituted for the Nachreihe. There seems little doubt that
cross-multiplication involves the expenditure of at least as
much' — and very likely more — mental energy as the contempla-
tion of landscape pictures. With the use of such work the only
one of our experiments particularly favoring the results of
Miiller and Pilzecker is Experiment III, and in that experiment
the results are much less "striking" than those obtained by
Miiller and Pilzecker. The same subject, however, in Experi-
ment I gave the two lowest points (of 16 points) of the success
curve with R. 15, W. o, and in Experiment IV gave even more
successes with R. 2, W. 13 than with R. 15, W. o, though this
latter point can have no particular weight against the results
of Miiller and Pilzecker, since their work with pictures ex-
tended no farther than two minutes after learning.
It might be argued that retroactive inhibition, expending its
effect upon the rapidly descending part of the forgetting curve
(as given by Ebbinghaus1) may influence the relative number of
successes relatively more after a lapse of eight minutes than
after a lapse of fifteen minutes, thereby partially harmonizing
our results with nonsense syllables with those of Miiller and
Pilzecker. Admitting the validity of some such argument, it
appears extremely insufficient to explain the differences ob-
tained. Even 'from the standpoint of reaction time we fail
to agree with the German investigators. Some of our experi-
ments harmonize with their time results, while others oppose.
Seemingly, then, the only course open to us is to place the
results of their Versuchreihe 35 in some such class as "Happy
Accident," or question their saliency upon the basis of
unnaturalness.
1 Vber das Geddchtniss, 1885, p. 203.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 65
It can scarcely be maintained or denied that a subject's
tendency or non-tendency towards the formation of sense asso-
ciations is a determinant of the appearance or non-appearance
of results indicative of retroactive inhibition. Subject B.,
whose tendency in this respect was marked in the preliminary
experiments, though not particularly noticeable in the present
work, is the only one giving fairly unquestionable results in
favor of retroactive inhibition, and from the introspective side,
it will be remembered, this subject stated that work had no
influence: if he had a syllable, he had it. This, to be sure,
had no significance further than that the subject noticed no
particular influence of the work. Subject A. of Experiment X,
whose tendency towards the formation of sense connections be-
tween the syllables was well known previous to the experiment,
and appeared throughout the experiment, gave results inhar-
monious with the assumed deleterious effect of retroactive in-
hibition. Our other subjects, it may be said, had no particular
tendency in this respect, and not one of these gave results
unquestionably in favor of the existence of retroactive inhibi-
tion. Argumentatively, from one standpoint at least, if retro-
active inhibition is general in its effect, it would seem that of
the two classes of subjects, those subjects possessing no par-
ticular tendency towards sense associations should show greater
evidence of the presence of retroactive inhibition.
Doubtless it will have been noticed that the discussion has
almost wholly neglected the results of Experiment VIII. As
was mentioned previously, the fatigue element complicates these
results and forbids their consideration in favor of retroactive
inhibition.
Professor Pillsbury has indicated1 the analogy between retro-
active inhibition and the retrograde annesia of the psychiatrist.
In the case of the strong blow or emotional shock, it may be
assumed that the effect is a general one and that the bonds,
connecting the neurological groups, acting at the time with
the remaining neurological groups, are severed. The events
represented by this now isolated group are forgotten in the
1 Essentials of Psychology, 1913, p. 196.
66 7. EDGAR DECAMP
sense that they are not easily reached from the remaining neu-
rological groups. That they are not wholly lost to the individual
is shown by the fact that they may later return to consciousness,
or, under suitable conditions, be reached. Interpolated work,
it may be said, does not tend towards any such isolation of a
group which has just been excited. Consequently, the fact
that our results are not similar to those obtained by the
psychiatrist, does not necessarily argue against their validity.
The number of partial responses is so small that we make
no attempt to draw, from their distribution, any conclusion
with respect to retroactive inhibition. We may mention that the
average time for syllables, two letters correct, is much longer
than that for wholly successful responses, and the average time
for syllables, one letter correct, is still longer. Comparative re-
sults of a single experiment, Experiment IX (a), will suffice to
show this difference, Table XX:
TABLE XX
Work 0123456
S3 7039(52) 6756(42) 5625(45) 6548(48) 5967(50) 7773(50) 5706(43)
S2 11982(8) 15994(5) 8843(11) 13506(15) i495i(7) 10033(11) 8596(10)
St 19610(11) 19480(9) 22849(10) 23044(12) 17684(10) 21981(14) 17406(15)
The parenthesized figures represent the number of responses
for which the adjacent figures are the average time.
H. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The present work grew out of experiments conducted by
Muller and Pilzecker, whose results showed decided evidence in
favor of the deleterious influence, upon learned nonsense
syllables, of learning a second series of syllables, or of observing
and picturing to the operator landscape pictures immediately
after the learning of the first series of syllables. Their experi-
ment with pictures as interpolated work, showed slightly more
decided results in favor of retroactive inhibition than did the
experiments with a second series of syllables for the interpolated
work.
Our work embraces a series of thirteen experiments, extend-
ing over a period of two school years and one summer.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 67
The apparatus consisted of a modified form of the Wirth
card-exposure apparatus, Hipp chronoscope, and subsidiary
apparatus. In Experiment XIII a chess-board, men, and addi-
tional apparatus were used. Experiments I to XI and XIII were
extended experiments with seven subjects. In Experiment XII
thirty-four subjects were involved.
Series of fourteen nonsense syllables (save in Experiment
XIII) were repeated in pairs a certain number of times. On each
experiment day two series, an A and a B, were learned and
tested, an interval of at least five minutes intervening between the
work with the two series. The purpose of the experiments
was a comparison between syllables learned with no interpolated
work following, and syllables learned with work — usually cross-
multiplication — variously distributed within the interval im-
mediately following the learning process. The order of the
syllables was changed, and after a definite interval, the first
syllable of each measure was tested for the associated syllable.
The response, reaction time, and introspections of the subject,
were recorded. Experiment XIII approached the problem from
the standpoint of reconstruction of positions of chess-men,
where the studying, by the subject, of such positions was fol-
lowed in one case by work, in another, by rest.
Experiment III is the only experiment giving results char-
acteristically favoring the assumption of retroactive inhibition.
The other experiments — Experiment VIII excepted — including
our most extended one — Experiment IX< — do not particularly
speak for the existence of retroactive inhibition, either with re-
spect to the number of successes, or the reaction time of the suc-
cessful responses. Experiment XII, upon two counts, adds de-
cided weight in favor of the non-existence of retroactive inhibition.
Experiment XI militates decidedly against the assumption of
retroactive inhibition. Hence we must needs suggest that the
influence of retroactive inhibition is fairly unimportant and
has been given too great prominence among psychological
principles.
We may suggest the following conclusions as indicated, if
not wholly proven, by the results of our experiments :
68 /. EDGAR DECAMP
1. That retroactive inhibition plays a significant part in in-
fluencing the recall of nonsense syllables, either from the
standpoint of the number of successes, or the length of the
reaction time, or both, appears exceedingly doubtful.
2. No positive introspective evidence appeared in favor of
retroactive inhibition.
3. With inexperienced subjects no evidence appeared in
favor of retroactive inhibition, either from a combination of
their results, or from a consideration of their comparative
results.
4. A neurological explanation of a slight amount of retro-
active inhibition is tentatively offered; Retroactive inhibition
may present itself where relatively identical or partially identical
groups of nerve centres, neurones, synapses, etc., are involved
in learning the series of syllables and in the interpolated mental
activity. As the neurone groups have relatively less and less
in common, retroactive inhibition may manifest itself less and
less.
5. From the standpoint of the position occupied in the learn-
ing, the seventh and first measures usually gave the largest
number of successful responses.
6. The B series of syllables possessed a slight disadvantage
as compared with the A series, probably due to a slight fatigue
effect occasioned by the A series.
7. Different subjects showed no marked individual differences
with respect to the manifestation of the effect of retroactive
inhibition.
The author wishes to acknowledge his especial indebtedness
to Prof. W. B. Pillsbury and Asst. Prof. J. F. Shepard, under
whose directions this work was carried out.
A STUDY OF RETROACTIVE INHIBITION 69
BIBLIOGRAPHY
EBBINGHAUS, H., 1902. Grundziige der Psychologic.
> 1885. tiber das Gedachtniss.
LADD, G. T., and WOODWORTH, R. S., 1911. Elements of
Physiological Psychology.
McC. GAMBLE, E. A., 1909. A Study in Memorizing Various
Materials by the Reconstruction Method.
Psychological Review, Monograph No. 43,
Vol. X., No. 4.
MEUMANN, E., 1912. The Psychology of Learning. Trans-
lation by J. W. Baird, 1913.
MULLER, G. E., and PILZECKER, A., 1900. Experimented
Beitrage zur Lehre vom Gedachtniss.
MULLER, G. E., 1912. tiber Wiedererkennen und riickwirkende
Hemmung. Bericht iiber den V . Kongress
fur experiment elle Psychologie.
MYERS, C. S., 1911. A Text-book of Experimental Psychology.
PILLSBURY, W. B., 1913. Essentials of Psychology.
SHEPARD, J. F., and FOGELSONGER, H. M., 1913. Studies in
Association and Inhibition. Psychological
Review, Vol. XX., No. 4.
BF
1
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