Читать книгу A Study of Association in Insanity - A. J. Rosanoff - Страница 13

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This method is so simple that it requires but little training on the part of the experimenter, and but little co-operation on the part of the subject. It is not to be assumed that every reaction obtained by it is a true and immediate association to the corresponding stimulus word; but we have found it sufficient for the purpose of the test if the subject can be induced to give, in response to each stimulus word, any one word other than the stimulus word itself. No attempt is made to determine the exact degree of co-operation in any case.

In the early stages of this investigation the reaction time was regularly recorded. The results showed remarkable variations, among both normal and insane subjects. In a series of twenty-five tests, made more recently upon normal subjects, ninety reactions occupied more than ten seconds, and fifty-four of the stimulus words elicited a ten-second response from at least one subject.[1]

[Footnote 1: These tests were made by Dr. F. Lyman Wells, of the McLean Hospital, Waverley, Mass., and he has kindly furnished these data.]

It is noteworthy that these extremely long intervals occur in connection with reactions of widely differing values. That they are by no means limited to individual reactions is shown in Table III. by a group of selected reactions, all given by normal subjects.