or greater. Then we divided the equal judgments by 2 and
added half of them to the larger and half to the smaller judgments. In
this way we were enabled by one figure to characterize the whole
tendency of the individual. We found that in the whole student body
there was a tendency to underestimate the number of the similar or of
the repeated words. The majority of my students had a stronger
impression from the varying objects than from those which were in a
certain sense equal. Yet this tendency appeared in very different
degrees and for about a fourth of the participants the opposite
tendency prevailed. They received a stronger impression from the
uniform ideas.

I had coupled with these experimental tests a series of questions, and
had asked every subject to express with fullest possible self-analysis
his practical attitude to monotony in life. Every one had to give an
account whether in the small habits of life he liked variety or
uniform repetition. He was asked especially as to his preferences for
or against uniformity in the daily meals, daily walks, and so on.
Furthermore he had to report how far he is inclined to stick to one
kind of work or to alternate his work, how far he welcomes the idea
that vocational work may bring repetition, and so on. And finally I
tried to bring the results of these self-observations into relation
with the results of those experiments. It was here that the opposite
of the hypothesis which I had presupposed suggested itself to me with
surprising force. I found that just the ones who perceive the
repetition least hate it most, and that those who have a strong
perception of the uniform impressions and who overestimate their
number are the ones who on the whole welcome repetition in life.

As soon as I had reached this first experimental result, I began to
see how it might harmonize with known psychological facts. Some years
ago a Hungarian psychologist[37] showed by interesting experiments
that if a series of figures is exposed to the eye for a short fraction
of a second, equal digits are seen only once, and he came to the
conclusion that equal impressions in such a series inhibit each other.
In the Harvard laboratory we varied these experiments by eliminating
the spatial separation of those numbers. In our experiments the digits
did not stand side by side, but followed one another very quickly in
the same place.[38] Similar experiments we made with colors and so on.
Here, too, we fou