to be in the experiments. Although its absolute value is small, yet its influence amounts to one tenth of that of the connection which binds every member to its immediate successor. It is so significant, and at the same time the decrease in the after-effect of connections which were formed over 2, 3, 7 intervening members is so gradual a one, that the assertion can be made, am these grounds alone, that even the terms which stand still further from one another may have been bound to each other subconsciously by threads of noticeable strength at the time of the learning of the series.
I will summarise the results so far given in a theoretical generalisation. As a result of the repetition of the syllable-series certain connections are established between each member and all those that follow it. These connections are revealed by the fact that the syllable-pairs so bound together are recalled to mind more easily and with the overcoming of less friction than similar pairs which have not been previously united. The strength of the connection, and therefore the amount of work which is eventually saved, is a decreasing function of the time or of the number of the intervening members which separated the syllables in question from one another in the original series. It is a maximum for immediately successive members. The precise character of the function is unknown except that it decreases at first quickly and then gradually very slowly with the increasing distance of the terms.
If the abstract but familiar conceptions of ‘power,’ ‘disposition,’ be substituted for the concrete ideas of saving in work and easier reproduction, the matter can be stated as follows. As a result of the learning of a series each member lass a tendency, a latent disposition, to draw after itself, at its own return to consciousness, all the members of the series which followed it. These tendencies are of varying strength. They are the strongest for the members which immediately follow. These tendencies are accordingly in general most easily demonstrable in consciousness. The series will return in its original form without the intervention of other influences while the forces directed to the resuscitation of the remaining members can be explicitly demonstrated only by the introduction of other conditions.
