If it is born in mind that each stanza contains 80 syllables (each syllable, however, consisting on the average of less than three letters) and if the number of repetitions here found is compared with the results presented above, there is obtained an approximate numerical expression for the extraordinary advantage which the combined ties of meaning, rhythm, rhyme, and a common language give to material to be memorised. If the above curve is projected in imagination still further along its present course, then it must be supposed that I would have required 70 to 80 repetitions for the memorisation of a series of 80 to 90 nonsense syllables. When the syllables were objectively and subjectively united by the ties just mentioned this requirement was in my case reduced to about one-tenth of that amount.
the number of repetitions. Of course the reading was done at a uniform rate of speed as far as possible, but not in the slow and mechanically regulated time that was employed for the series of syllables. The regulation of speed was left to free estimation. A single reading of one stanza required 20 to 23 seconds.
