which number is inferred depends on several factors. The number itself
is determined by the attitude of the subject, but the attitude is
determined largely by association. A number of facts show this. When a
person is being experimented on, it is very easy to confuse him and
make him forget how two feel and how one feels. I have often had a
subject tell me that he had forgotten and ask me to give him two
distinctly that he might see how it felt. In other words, he had
forgotten how to associate his ideas and sensations. In developing the
_Vexirfehler_ I found it much better, after sufficient training had
been given, not to give two at all, for it only helped the subject to
perceive the difference between two and one by contrast. But when one
was given continually he had no such means of contrast, and having
associated the idea of two with a sensation he continued to do so. The
one subject with whom I did not succeed in developing the
_Vexirfehler_ to any great extent perceived the difference by
comparing the sensation with one he had had some time before. I could
get him, for a few times, to answer two when only one was given, but
he would soon discover the difference, and he said he did it by
comparing it with a sensation which he had had some time before and
which he knew was two. By this means he was able to make correct
associations when otherwise he would not have done so. It has been
discovered that when a subject is being touched part of the time with
two and part of the time with one, and the time it takes him to make
his judgments is being recorded, he will recognize two more quickly
than he will one if there is a larger number of twos in the series
than there is of ones. I do not see how this could be if the sensation
of two is any more complex than that of one. But if both sensations
are units and all the subject needs to do is to associate the
sensation with an idea, then we should expect that the association he
had made most frequently would be made the most quickly.