Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/530

THE TIME TAKEN UP BY CEREBRAL OPERATIONS. results I have already published l should be considered. I there determined by two distinct methods the time it takes to see and name letters. In most of the experiments, however, the observer while seeing and naming one letter could begin to see and name the one or ones following, so that the processes overlapped and the times became much shorter, namely 279<r for B, 224 for C. The times were still further shortened (becoming 96o- for B, 89 for C) when the letters made words. Why B's times should be longer than C's under these circumstances and shorter for a single letter I do not know. We found in the preceding section that it took B 119, C 116.7 to perceive a letter. Supposing the perception- time to be the same in both cases, B needed 143^, C 176 to find the name belonging to a letter. It should be added that in later series of experiments B's time became shorter. This method of determining the relative legibility of the several letters has an advantage over that in the previous section in so far as all the letters occur in the same series ; but it is greatly complicated by the fact that the time of pronouncing the several letters may be different, as also the motion registered by the sound-key or second observer. Series were made on the German capital letters with the results given in TABLE XXXIV. ] 5 ( i R V R' V R V R' V 14. II 16 423 446 36 30 420 439 23 18 554 573 63 58 538 549 32 33 18 377 30 382 20 531 60 519 38 23 363 34 357 93 464 30 461 21 25 369 31 389 24 507 33 510 20 A 396 32 397 22 526 49 515 29 F 3 1 Numbers of one, two and three places were further used, and the time it takes to see and name them was determined. I did not take numbers of more than three places, fearing that they might not be seen and read as wholes. The results are given in Table XXXV. ; from which it will be seen that it took B 33, C 38<r longer to see and name a number of two places than of one, and B 57, C 47<r longer for a number of three than of two places. 2 1 Phil. Studim, ii. 4 ; MIND 41. 2 See Frieclrich, Phil. Studien, i. 1.