TABLE 2

The 20 words were shown to the subject in random order. Each word was exposed two times for .01 second. If the subject failed to recognize the word, it was again exposed two times at .02,  .03 second, etc., at exposure times increasing in steps of .01 second until recognition occurred. However, beyond the exposure time of .10 second, it was necessary to increase the exposure steps from .01 to .10 second, because the tachistoscope employed was not calibrated for .01 second increments beyond the exposure time of .10 second.

Since the subject was instructed to respond to every exposure, whether or not he was able to distinguish the word, a full record of the subject’s pre-recognition responses was obtained. Thus, for each subject, records were secured for both the times of recognition for the twenty words and the attempted solutions preceding actual recognition.

The mean time of recognition for the 5 words representing the subject’s hypothesized level was calculated and compared with the mean time of recognition for all 20 words. In addition, the mean times of recognition for words representing each of the four hypothesized levels were calculated and plotted. A chi-square test of significance of association between hypothesized levels and time of recognition was then performed.

                                                            FINDINGS

The scores of the Dogmatism Scale presented a range of 168 - 345, with a M = 234.9. The range of scores from which 12 subjects were selected was, therefore, 168 – 178, and 335 – 345.

Similarly, the Rigidity Scale was found to have a score range of 52  - 117 and a M = 76.5.  The high and low groupings, then, were 52 – 62, and 107 – 117.

The mean recognition time for words of the subject’s hypothesized Level of Existence and for all 20 words are presented in Table 3. Mean recognition times for the words representative of each level was given in Table 4.

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