galton.org 137
Psychometric Experiments
137
difficult to get a quick conception of the word “carriage,” because there
are so many different kinds—two-wheeled, four-wheeled, open and
closed, and all of them in so many different possible positions, that the
mind possibly hesitates amidst an obscure sense of many alternatives that
cannot blend together. But limit the idea to say a laudau, and the mental
association declares itself more quickly. Say a laudau coming down the
street to opposite the door, and an image of many blended laudaus that
have done so forms itself without the least hesitation.
Next, I found that my list of 75 words gone over 4 times, had given
rise to ideas and 13 cases of puzzle, in which nothing sufficiently definite
to note occurred within the brief maximum period of about 4 seconds, that
I allowed myself to any single trial. Of these 505 only 289 were different.
The precise proportions in which the 505 were distributed in quadruplets,
triplets, doublets, or singles, is shown in the uppermost lines of Table I.
The same facts are given under another form in the lower lines of the
Table, which show how the 289 different ideas were distributed in cases
of fourfold, treble, double, or single occurrences.
TABLE I.
RECURRENT ASSOCIATIONS.
Occurring in
Total Number
of Associations
Quadruplets.
Triplets.
Doublets.
Singles
.
505
116
108
114
167
Per cent 100
23
21
23
33
Occurring
Total Number
of Different
Associations
Four times
Three
times
Twice.
Once.
289
29
36
57
167
Per cent 100
10
12
20
58
