s. Any attempt to act against this
prescription and secretly to begin counting would moreover delay the
decision so long that the final result would be an unsatisfactory
achievement anyhow. It would accordingly bring no advantage to the
candidate.

We measure with a stopwatch in fifths of a second the time for the
whole process from the subject's looking at the first card to his
laying down of the last card, and, secondly, we record the number and
the character of his mistakes, if cards are put into wrong piles. I
have made the experiment with very many persons, and results show that
those various mental traits which have been observed in the practical
ship service come clearly to light under the conditions of this
experiment. Some of the persons lose their heads entirely, and for
many of them it is a painful activity for which they require a long
time. Even if the number of mistakes is not considerable, they
themselves have the feeling that they are not coming to a satisfactory
decision, because their attention is pulled hither and thither so that
they feel an inner mental paralysis. Some chance letters stand out and
appear to them to be predominant, but in the next moment the attention
is captured by some other letters which bring the suggestion that
they are in the majority and that they present the most important
factor. The outcome is that inner state of indecision which can become
so fatal in practical life. Other subjects distribute the cards in
piles at a relatively high speed, and they do it with the subjective
feeling that they have indeed recognized at the first glance the
predominant group of letters. The exact measurement of the results,
however, shows that they commit many errors which would have been
improbable after quiet consideration. Any small group of letters which
catches their eye makes on them, under the pressure of their haste,
such a strong impression that all the other letters are inhibited for
the moment and the wrong decision is quickly made. Finally, we find a
group of persons who carry out the experiment rather quickly and at
the same time with few mistakes. It is characteristic of them to pass
through it with the feeling that it is an agreeable and stimulating
mental activity. In all cases the subjects feel themselves under the
unified impression which results from all those 48 letters of the card
together; and this is the reason why the qualitative manifoldness of a
practical life situat