The groundwork of psychology / by G.F. Stout.

  • George Frederick Stout
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The groundwork of psychology / by G.F. Stout. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tive series was due to associations between items more or less remote from each other in the primary series. (3) The next condition which we have to consider is the order of presentation. It is often asserted that association does not work backward, or in other words, that presenta- tions are only reproduced in the order in which they have been originally attended to. Undoubtedly, this is the pre- vailing tendency, and it is particularly strong where there has been frequent repetition in the same order. Hence the great difficulty of saying the Lord’s Prayer backwards. But we have here to do only with a predominant tendency and not with an absolute rule. It is shown by experimen- tal evidence that when a series of nonsense syllables has been learnt by heart, a much fewer number of repeti- tions is needed to learn the same series in an inverted order. The backward working of association may also be of a more direct nature. A presentation may recall a prior link with which it is intimately connected, rather than a forward link with which it is more loosely connected. There is a neat illustration of this in certain experiments with nonsense syllables alternately accented and unaccented in a trochaic rhythm. After a series had been learnt so that the subject could just reproduce it without error, some minutes were allowed to elapse. The experimenter then presented isolated syllables to the subject and required him to name the first syllables which they suggested. When the syllable shown was accented it almost always reproduced the next following unaccented syllable of the trochee. When it was unaccented it almost as frequently reproduced the previous accented syllable of the same trochee. (4) The effect of repetition is well known, and it has already been incidentally illustrated. Its relative impor- tance is greater as the interest is less intense and the
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