It will be seen that numbers 8, 9, 10, n, 36, 37, 38, 54, 55, and 56 are the relevant words for 'watch'; while numbers 17, 18, 19, 26, 27, 28, 29, 44, 45, and 46 are the relevant words for 'red ink bottle.'
Series II. Snake—Doll (Cards).
- House.
- Earthquake.
- Sky.
- Telepathy.
- Clue.
- Tree.
- Radius.
- Boston.
- Gray.
- Crawl.
- Slimy.
- Bite.
- Study.
- Morning.
- Room.
- Comfort.
- Rain.
- Apple.
- Face (Bridge).
- Red (King).
- Finger (Diamond).
- Question (Joke).
- Net.
- Horse.
- Royal.
- Companion.
- Word.
- Disgrace.
- Nothing.
- Baby (Club).
- Dress (Deal).
- Calico (Card).
- Fiction.
- Suffrage.
- Shock.
- Home.
- Picture.
- Wave.
- Coil.
- Poison.
- Rattle.
- Train.
- Liberty.
- Sun.
- Washington.
- Law.
- Pencil.
- Teddy Bear (Play).
- Stuffed (Spade).
- Blue (Heart).
- Lips (Question).
- President.
- Salt.
- Tennis.
- Friendship.
- Ticket.
- Adder.
- Wriggle.
- Fang.
- Servant.
The words in parentheses were used only in the experiments where the cards were substituted for the doll. Numbers 9, 10, n, 12, 39, 40, 41, 57, 58, and 59 were relevant to 'snake'; numbers 19, 20, 21, 30, 31, 32, 48, 49, 50, and 51 to 'doll'; numbers 19, 20, 21, 22, 30, 31, 32, 48, 49, and 50 to 'cards.'
One of the authors of the paper, H. M. L., acted as experimenter throughout. The results did not come into the hands of the other author until after the entire series of experiments was finished and H. M. L. had recorded her judgments as to which box the observer had investigated in every case. H. M. L.'s decision was based partly on the average reaction times for the words referring to one object, as compared with the average reaction time for words referring to the other object; partly on the character of the associations. In one single experiment only, that is, one of the two series given to one of the observers, was this judgment incorrect. This means one error out of fifty-three experiments. In all the experiments but four, the average reaction time for words referring to the object actually looked at was longer than that for the words referring to the other object. One of these four cases was the case where H. M. L.'s judgment was incorrect; in the other three she judged correctly from the nature of the associations. It was noteworthy that the shortest two average reaction times on the entire list were those for words referring to the object seen, forming two of the four exceptions to the rule that the average reaction time to such words is long. H. M. L. concludes from this that in rare cases the dangerous words are reacted to with abnormal quickness. In both the instances here noted, the observers made no effort to prevent the significant words from suggesting the object seen, and the result was that such suggestions came more rapidly than the rest. Yet in both these cases the longest single reaction time was that for a relevant word. In all but six of the experiments, the mean variation for words referring to the object seen was longer than that for words referring to the other object; thus the reaction times
