tion experiments with distracted attention. Hand in hand with this there is a diminution of sensory connections. Besides these many other disturbances show themselves, such as an increase of the mediate associations, the senseless reactions, and frequent repetitions of the stimulus words. Perseverations show a most contradictory behavior during distractibility. According to our experiments they are increased in women and decreased in men. In a great many cases we could explain the resulting perseverations by the presence of a strong feeling tone. Every-day experience teaches us that a strong feeling-toned idea shows a special tendency to perseverate. By distracting the attention there results a certain emptiness of consciousness[1] in which ideas can more easily perseverate than during complete attention.
Stransky then studied the results of continuous speech association under the influence of relaxed attention. His test persons had to talk at random into a phonograph for one minute on anything or in any way they chose. At the same time they were not to pay attention to what they said. A stimulus word was given as a starting point, and in one half of the experiments external distraction was caused.
These tests brought to light interesting results. The sequence of words and sentences immediately recalled the speech as well as the writing of dementia præcox. A definite direction of speech was excluded by the arrangement of the experiment. The stimulus word at most acted for some time as a more or less indefinite "theme." Superficial connecting elements became strikingly manifest, corresponding to the disintegration of logical connections. There were numerous perseverations, or repetitions of the preceding word, almost corresponding to the repetition of the stimulus words in our experiments, and besides this there were numerous contaminations,[2] and closely connected with them neologisms or newly formed words.
From Stransky's voluminous material I should like to quote
- ↑ Comp. Diagnost. Associationsstudien, I Beitrag. B. Durchschnittsberechnungen, Abschnitt III.
- ↑ Comp. Rud. Meringer and Karl Mayer: Versprechen und Verlesen. Eine psychologisch-linguistische Studie. Stuttgart, Göschen, 1895.
By contamination we understand the condensation of many sentences or words into one sentence or into one word; e. g., "I will soon him see home" is a contamination of "I will go home," "I will soon see him."
