omically most satisfactory devices into the service of
the community, it cannot be less important from the standpoint of
national economics to study scientifically the efficiency of the
advertisements in order that the national means may in this industry,
too, secure the greatest possible effects. It is only a secondary
point that experiments of this kind are of high interest to the
theoretical scientist as well. For us the advertisement is simply an
instrument constructed to satisfy certain human demands by its effects
on the mind. It is a question for psychology to determine the
conditions under which this instrument may be best adapted to its
purpose.

The mental effect of a well-adapted advertisement is manifold. It
appeals to the memory. Whatever we read at the street corner, or in
the pages of the newspaper or magazine, is not printed with the idea
that we shall immediately turn to the store, but first of all with
the expectation that we keep the content of the advertisement in our
memory for a later purchase. It will therefore be the more valuable
the more vividly it forces itself on the memory. But if practical
books about the art of advertising usually presuppose that this
influence on the memory will be proportionate to the effect on the
attention, the psychologist cannot fully agree. The advertisement may
attract the attention of the reader strongly and yet by its whole
structure may be unfit to force on the memory its characteristic
content, especially the name of the firm and of the article. The pure
memory-value is especially important, as according to a well-known
psychological law the pleasure in mere recognition readily attaches
itself to the recognized object. The customer who has the choice among
various makes and brands in the store may not have any idea how far
one is superior to another, but the mere fact that one among them
bears a name which has repeatedly approached his consciousness before
through advertisements is sufficient to arouse a certain warm feeling
of acquaintance, and by a transposition of feeling this pleasurable
tone accentuates the attractiveness of that make and leads to its
selection. This indirect help through the memory-value is economically
no less important than the direct service.

In order to produce a strong effect on memory the advertisement must
be easily apprehensible. Psychological laboratory experiments with
exact time-measurement of the grasping of various adverti