Interference and adaptability : an experimental study of their relation with special reference to individual differences / by Arthur Jerome Culler.

  • Culler, Arthur J. (Arthur Jerome), 1883-1946.
Date:
1912
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Interference and adaptability : an experimental study of their relation with special reference to individual differences / by Arthur Jerome Culler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/92 (page 17)
    tions are not given as they constitute a simple practise curve » y regular and reaching, tor most subjects, the physiological tat The table gives the times of the first performance, the average of thei fi five and last five performances, the absolute gain in seconds and the percentage of gain. All these are given both before and after break. Plate I. gives the curves for the men and women of the regular group. The curves of the preliminary group are not given. Both the curves and the table show the practise before the break and its effect. The break, it will be recalled, was transferring an from the fingers of the left hand to the respective fingers of the right hand, and vice versa. The initial records of the practise curve are very high because the subjects were not familiar with the typewriter, and were very awk- ward at first. They improved rapidly because of the simplicity of the experiment. That the subjects do not rise as high after the break as in the initial performance of the practise curve is due to the great gain made in learning to use the machine. Four subjects, Co, Ja, Misses Ha and Wh, do actually rise higher after the break than at the beginning. The curves clearly show that in the fifty repetitions after the break the subjects did not attain the level of efficiency before the break. An extra column is therefore given in Table I. showing the difference between their final performances in the two curves. This is obtained by subtracting the average of the last five performances after the break from the average of the last five before the break. A negative sign indicates that they did not reach their practise le\ el by the given number of seconds and a positive sign indicates that they surpassed it. By this column we find that among the women McC, Hf, and Gr, equalled or surpassed their record before the break, while the rest did not equal it. Among the men of the pre- liminary group Se, Lo and Co, and among those of the regular group, Ru surpassed their previous record, while the rest did not equal it. Miss Wa and Mr. McC show the largest difference, they being six seconds or more behind their former record. The rate of improvement will be dealt with in Chap. IV. Perhaps the best index of interference of the old association and of its persistency is that of its recurrences. Whenever 1 or 3, and 7 or 9 were struck with the fingers with which they had been associated, the errors were treated as a recurrence of the former association, and as such were used as an index of interference. These recurrences are called relapses. Table II. shows the distribution of the relapses in periods of ten trials and the total number for each subject.