The Journal of genetic psychology Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SOME MENTAL AUTOMATISMS. By E. H. Lindley And G. E. Partridge, Clark University. The following study of mental automatisms is based upon returns to a sylla... more »bus issued in December, 1895. The topic was suggested by President Hall, who had, indeed, already gathered many facts bearing upon it. The section of the syllabus relating to mental automatisms was as follows: Describe cases in which you have found yourself more or less automatically (a) trying to step on or avoid cracks in the floor or side walk, etc., especially while consciously doing or thinking of other things; (b) striving to count either figures in a pattern, posts flitting past the window of a moving car, the beat of wheels, or other noises or objects; (c) grouping uniformly recurring shapes, as in wall paper into diamond shaped patterns, squares, or other symmetrical forms; (d) bisecting lines or rows of similar things, or figures, or trying to find a middle point, or a third or quarter po1nt, etc. The returns have yielded 495 usable cases : 137 of avoiding, 155 of counting, 126 of grouping, and 77 of bisecting. Of all who answered, 81.3% testified to having automatisms ofcount- mg, 17-l% f avoiding, 66.3% of grouping, and 40.6% of bisecting. A. Avoiding. The following are typical cases : 1. F., 17. Ever since I was eight years old I remember avoiding or stepping on cracks. When the spaces between the cracks were large, I avoided them, but when small I always stepped on them. When walking along the platform at the depot, or when on a board walk, I finjl myself unconsciously doing either one, more often avoiding them. 2. F., 18. From 10 years until a year or two ago I often found myself avoiding the cracks in the sidewalk unconsciously. I often noticed that when my foot was to come on the cr...« less