by broad streams of reverie images. These irrelevant images constitute what we call distraction or mind-wandering; they are often often more vivid and coercive than the images obtained from the object of attention. CHAPTER X ASSOCIATION For Two.* THE problem is to determine certain characteristics of association; namely, rapidity, kind, reinforcement, error, and persistence. 1. Rapidity. Call out a key-word, for example "star", and give O exactly 8 seconds, counting from the moment of the giving of the key-word, in which to speak as many disconnected words as he possibly can. Let O write them down in a vertical column, beginning with the key-word, while they are fresh in his memory. Secure five records, using as many key-words. † Find the total number of words in each column excluding the key-word, and divide 8 by that number to get the average duration of each association. This experiment might be called chain reaction in free association. It has three objects: first, to secure * Provide coins or disks for Exp. 4, and a paper bag and weights for Exp. 5. Speed is the aim. O must not stop to consider the fitness, significance, kind of association, or anything else which may impede the rapidity of speaking. There is a great temptation to hesitate. No series should be considered successful unless O has spoken at least six words in the allotted time. The only limitation on words is that they shall be disconnected; that is, they cannot be a sentence, a familiar list of words, a prepared list, or any series of words which have a fixed connection or sequence. lists of words under definite conditions for use in the following experiments; second, to measure the rapidity of association; and third, to give a glimpse of the existence and natural flow of associations. The observer is convinced that the associations came much faster than he could express them. It is equally clear to him that he did not speak as fast as mere words could be uttered; there was a continual groping to extract one out of the many more or less remotely available words. An average observer should secure a list of about ten words in 8 seconds; the average time for each word Iwould then be .8 of a second. Each word represents a complex process or act. The average time of such acts varies very much with different conditions and individuals. We speak of one as having a quick reaction-time, and another as having a slow reaction-time. One is mentally alert, another mentally sluggish, and still another is erratic. Such individual differences can be measured in great detail by reaction experiments in association.* The more completely the observer followed the instructions and abandoned himself in the battle of imagery, the more surprising some of the words were to him. At first thought there may be neither sense nor order in them. Yet every word came according to law. These laws we shall now proceed to trace. Associations are modes of connection between per *In the laboratory, chronoscopes are used which record the time in hundredths or thousandths of a second. One single act at a time is studied, and the conditions are so varied that this act may be separated into its component elements. cepts, images, and ideas. There is difference of opinion in regard to the number and kinds of association, but this is largely a matter of how fine distinctions we wish to make. For the present purpose it is convenient to posit three kinds of association, namely, contiguity, similarity, and contrast, which include all possible kinds. These three kinds of association are spoken of as laws. The law of contiguity asserts that things which have occurred together in time or space tend to recur together. The law of similarity asserts that things which are alike tend to recall one another. The similarity may be of any kind, color, form, sound, odor, motion, use, etc. The law of contrast asserts that opposites tend to recall one another. There may be as many modes of contrast as there are of similarity. The use of this classification may be illustrated best by an actual case. The following record was made by the author when writing this section. The key-word was "fig." Fig Apple-tree Honey "Fig suggested apple (simil.). Tree struggled to appear as a separate word (contig.), but finally fused with apple and formed a compound word denoting three distinct images,-apple, tree, blossoms (contig.). The incongruity of apples and blossoms on the same tree was not noted. The images of flowers were soon accompanied by images of bees (contig.), but as the images came much faster than I could speak the words, the image of honey (contig.) was uppermost in consciousness before I could begin to speak the next word. The image of honey made me irresistibly conscious of the * This view is most serviceable for the elementary analysis of a concrete experience, regardless of what ultimate theory of association one may have. Thorndike's discussion of association in his "Elements of Psychology" would supplement this exercise very well. Juice Sweetness Malt question why honey should have followed flower (contig.), and there came to me, as a reply, consciousness of the fact that honey is the juice of a flower (contig. and simil.). This bit of forbidden reasoning, very complex, reminded me that the characteristic quality of flower-juice is sweetness (simil.). (Our imagery is much richer than our vocabulary, and our associations are often couched in words coined at the moment to serve their purpose, for instance 'flower-juice', although they may be of doubtful value for currency in speech.) There followed a bombardment by a mob of images which struggled for recognition as representatives of sweet juices or extracts (simil.). The image of sugar was distinctly in the foreground (simil.), but before I could speak, I thought of malt as an extract which contains sugar (simil.). Then a whole flock of extract-bottles in varied colors and forms flew before my mental eye (simil.). They had so equal recognition of attention that, for the moment, I could not decide to discriminate in favor of one or another in the group by mentioning it, so I compromised by including them all and said extract (simil. by whole and part). But when I heard the word extract I thought 'I'll take vanilla' (simil.), and saw myself seated on a high chair consuming a soda in the front of a drugstore with a fountain to the left, fruit-dishes to the right, and in front of me a white-jacketed waiter (clerk), with a supercilious air and limited brain capacity. (This scene was all one composite image which was suggested by soda-water (contig.). The last-mentioned feature in this impression brought a feeling of compunction which took the Phrenologist form of the question, ‘Am I a phrenologist (simil. and contr.), that I profess to judge a brain?' There followed a jumble of more or less fragmentary images of long hair, a phrenological chart, the word 'fake', etc., but these overran the time limit." Extract Vanilla Clerk man's There are two particularly conspicuous tendencies in this introspection. The first is that, although the observer was free to use any part of speech, nouns were used exclusively. The reason for this lies in the fact that economy of speech has made the object-image the |