THE SPEED OF THOUGHT. How Long it Takes an Idea to Reach the Brain.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 378, 19 June 1889, Page 3

THE SPEED OF THOUGHT. How Long it Takes an Idea to Reach the Brain.

Some of our readers have no doubt made use of the expression ; quick as thought,' but have any of them over stopped to consider how quick thought is ? A writer in the ' Nineteenth Century ' lias made some interesting calculations regarding the comparative ' length of time it takes to VI-;-;-: "' .-"."> cull to mind various everyday " " " facts. It take about two-iifths of / a second to call to nmid the country in which a wellknown town is situated, or , the language in which a familiar author 1 wrote. We can think of the name of next month in half the time we need to think of the name of last month. It takes on the average one-third of asecondtoaddnumbersjconsisting of one digit, and half a second to multiply them. Such experiments give us considerable insight into the mind. Those used to reckoning can add two to three in less time than others ; those familiar with literature can remember more quickly than others that Shakspore wrote 4 Hamlet.' It takes longer to mention a month when a season has been given than to say to what month a season belongs The time taken up in choosing a motion, ' will time.' can be measured as well as the time. taken up in perceiving. If I do not know which of the two coloured lights is to be presented, and must lift my right hand if it be red, and my left if it be blue, I need about one-thirteenth of a second to initiate the correct motion. I have aleo been able to register the sound waves made in the air by speaking, and thus have determined that in order to call up the names belonging to a printed word I need about oneninth of a second, to a letter one-sixth of a second, toapictureone-quarter of a second and to colour one- third of a second. A letter can be seen more quickly than a word, but we are so used to reading aloud that the process has become quite automatic and a word can be read with greater ease and in less time than a letter can be named. The same ex periments made on other persons give times differing but little from my own. Mental processes, however, take place more slowly in children, in the aged and in the uneducated.