and without similarity.  The similar and the dissimilar words were mixed.  The subjects listened to such a list of words and then had to decide without counting from the mere impression whether the similar words were more or equally or less numerous than the dissimilar words.  In other experiments the arrangement was that two different lists were read and that in the two lists a larger or smaller number of words were repeated from the first list.  Here, too, the subjects had to decide from the mere impression whether the repeated words were in the majority or not.  In every experiment the judgment referred to those words which belonged to the same group and which were in this sense uniform, or to the repeated words, and it had to be stated with reference to them whether their number was larger, equal to, or smaller than the different words.  If all replies had been correct, the judgment would have been 40 per cent equal, 30 per cent smaller, and 30 per cent larger, as they were arranged in perfect symmetry.  As soon as I had the results from the students, we figured out for every one what number he judged equal, smaller, 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.