repeated 16 times, the derived series was learned with a saving of about 100 seconds; after repetition 64 times, with a like saving of 161 seconds. Quadrupling the repetitions resulted in increasing the saving only a little more than half as much again. The increase in strength of the associations reaching over an intermediate member was in nowise proportional to the number of repetitions, for the cases studied, not even within the limits for which this was noticeably the case for associations from one member to its immediate successor. On the contrary the effect of the repetitions in the case of associations of indirect sequence decreased considerably sooner and more quickly than in the case of those of direct sequence.
There is very close agreement between the pair of values just found and the number given above (p.99, 1)—the procedure being, as here, without the exclusion of knowledge—for the learning of derived series which the day before had been learned in their original form to the point of first possible reproduction. This number, it is true, was obtained under somewhat different conditions. In the first place, not always were the same number of repetitions employed for learning, but each time as many as were required for the first possible reproduction—i.e., not exactly, but on the average, 32. Moreover, the nature of the derivation of the senses was somewhat different, as was stated above. But these differences have little weight in the case of numbers which otherwise could have little claim to exactness. I adduce therefore this value for comparison, and in addition the numbers give in Chapter VI for the influence of repetitions on the relearning of the same untransformed series. Here then is the table.
| Number of Repetitions |
Time for relearning the untransformed series after 24 hours |
Time for relearning after 24 hours series transformed by skipping one syllable |
Saving in relearning unchanged series |
Saving in learning the changed series |
Saving in changed series in % of the saving for the unchanged |
| 0 | 1270 | ||||
| 16 | 1078 | 1170 | 192 | 100 | 52% |
| 32 | 863 | 1121 | 407 | 149 | 37% |
| 64 | 454 | 1109 | 816 | 161 | 20% |
| (The nmbers of the four intermediate columns mean seconds.) | |||||
