12
ROBERT CHEN AU LT GIVLER
on the other hand, rises almost continuously from start to finish,
with a remarkable rise on the fourth foot of the fifth group,
and a no less striking descent on the last accented syllable of
the series. But the last three groups show the same general
tendency,—that of emphasizing the motor prominence of the
fourth foot of the group. The first group of either, however,
shows almost the same kind of form, which may be due to the
persistence of the motor “set.”
Three of the subjects, A., L., and T. preferred ho-de; in
each case the tapped strokes were longer for the more pleasant ;
but in the former experiments, only one of them, A., showed
this feature. All the other subjects, B., F., N., W., and Z.
manifested a preference for de-ho; all but N, as mentioned above,
tapped shorter strokes while reciting it. Four of the subjects
found the vocal construction caused by the “-de” an unpleasant
feature. But inasmuch as there was no objective standard of
intensity or other vocal quale which was to be followed, the
matter of constriction cannot be raised to a very high impor¬
tance. One can say “ho-de” with countless degrees of energy
and the like, and usually no subject intensified an unpleasant
sensation; rather was the voice weakened and lowered to avoid
it. On the same day, also as de-ho and ho-de were given, the
combination ra-fo (both vowels long) was given. The explosive
character of the f tended upon repetition to destroy the pleasant¬
ness with which it started out.
The graphings showed a remarkable steadiness of motor reac¬
tion for this combination until the last group of five iambics
was reached.
The next two experiments were de-sto, and sto-de (vowels
both long). Curiously enough, the differences in the amount
of motor discharge did not appear until the fourth and fifth
groups, and while the ho-de graph kept rising after the third
group, and de-ho fell, here the case was altered completely;
de-sto showed an ascent, but in the middle of the line only ( !) ;
but again, the accented O produced a slower reaction than did
the E. One must remember, of course, that not only is the
accented syllable different in each of these four experiments,