The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-10-22
SCIENCE PROVES WOMEN
THINK QUICKER THAN MEN
(Chicag go Trihnne


me peradventure of Il doubt that tn
female of the human species is ia
superior to the male i'm this resoect
her perceptions are much keener am
her thought processes are so mucl
quicker, that special faculty called
INTUITION "a sort of second sight o
reason-has commonly been attribute,
TO her.
But as a matter of fact (accorCina
10 the new psychological definition
intuition" is nothing more nor les
Than an exceedingly rapid process OF
reasoning. One might say that :
Womans mtuitions are not always
correct but the obvious reply is thai
the same is true of the conclusions
which a man reaches by his slower
mental operations. And it must be ad.
nltteo that the judgments at which
our gentle competitor arrives at a
leap, as it were-for example in her
estimate of persons-are liable to be
accurate.
mere are ways, however, in which
anybody may test this matter for him
SELF. without the aid of any psyche
logical apparatus. Cut short para
graph from this newspaper and give
II successfully to a number of persons
OF both sexes, asking each one to read
II and afterwards to write down what
he or she remembers of the context
Nicual for the reading. AS a result. it
VIII be found that the women read
quicker and remember better. The diff
ference. indeed. is striking.
a woman puts the same faculty into
operation when at a glance size takes
10 all the minutiae of another
woman costume. Houdin. the French
psychologist, says that he las known
women who were able, on seeing one
Of their own sex pass at full speed in
carriage, ito analyze her toilet from
bonnet to shoes. and to be able to
describe not only the fashion and
quality Of the stuffs but also to say if
the lace were real or only machine
made
A woman, after hastily inspecting a
furnished house, is commonly able to
describe in detail the furniture of
every room, the arrangement of
everything, even to the pattern of the
gas fixtures aud the ornaments on the
mantel shelves and the character OF
the kitchen outfit This, as in tke case
OF the analysis Of costumes, signifies
Tapidity Of perception. But rapidity
OF perception leads to swiftness of
thought, an renee the nimbleness of
mother w 0fl- so noticeable and
brilliant az enro Wment of feminine
intelligence, whether it displays itself
IN tact. in reF,rtee. or in the general
alacrity of d vacious mind.
Why She Excels at Bridge.
The game Of bridge whist. which is
more popular with the gentler sex
than any other card game has ever
been. gives women an opportunity to
show how much quicker they can
think than the men who play. They
figure out the problems more ranidly. !
and perhaps owing to this advantage |
appear actually to excel the men in
ell 4
make a good deal of money at tie |
same-bridge being the only kind of |
gambling in which, in modern days. it |
has been considered proper for women |
10 engage. What men deriSively call |
female poker" has never been ac- |
cepted socially as good FORM
machine used for measuring |
Quickness of thought consists most i'm
poTtantly of a large Dashboard disk
with round hole in the middle and
clock which, controlled by electricity,
measures time 10 the thOusandth of a
second. The person under test watches
the disk, in the middle of which a lit
tie card appears once a minute, drop
ping into view and occupying the |
place where the hole was In falling
1t completes a circuit. which sets the
clock going. The observer, the instant
she sees the card. touches a key which
stops the clock, and thus it registers
TIE exact time required for the per-
ception of the object.
How Ideas Are Timed.
Next, cards of different colors are
used. and the person under test is re-
quired TO touch the key only when the :
White one appears. This is done several ,
times TO get the average, from which ;
IS subtracted the time recorded in the :
first experiment. The difference is the !
TO nh nd /
dropped and different words printed on >
lhem, and the observer is expected to :
utter some associated word as quickly
as possible after taking in the mean :
ing Of the word shown. For instance, :
SKY appears and she says blue" ;
Again the perception time is subtracted r
and the difference is the time expended
IN forming an association of ideas.
mis- sort CT thing can be done with
out the aid Of apparatus by writing, O
pay five nouns on a piece of paper a
5uch as hat, tree, book, floor, v
and girl" Try them on a number of r
women and men, holding your watch to p
see how long it takes them to make n
me associations. These, for example, il
might be head" leaves" paper" g
wood end dress" As a rule it will n
be found that the women respond much &
more quickly than the men When &
words Of abstract meanings-such as $
hate, pleasure vice" religion. Il
and 'time"-are offered, the test is n
more difficult and proportionately more
interesting. W
A womans brain weighs five ounces 81
ess than a mans. In childhood her g
mind develops much more rapidly than "
hat of her male competitor. but ii is OF
laimed that he catches up with her W
ND passes her at seven years of age. fc
During all her life, however, she is
much more keenly conscious than he
# whatever is going around her, and
nay be said to be in closer touch with ~
Ter environment Ie
Her Mental Structure More Acute. -
Comparing the mental attributes CT nj
ne sexes a great scientific authority, al
'rof. George Romanes, says: Which dc
20 are TO consider the higher type Will Ci
epend on the value we assign to brute pc
orce. From one point of view, the pl
magnificent spider CT South America, w
rhich is large enough and strong Sd
nough to devour humming bird. de- ar
erves to be regarded as the superior is
reature. But from another point of in
lew, there is no spectacle in nature co
lore shockingly Tepulsive than the
low. agonies of the most beautiful of re
reated beings in the hairy grasp of a tn
lonster as far beneath Il i'm the scnti- tn
Mt as In the geological scale. And. pl,
Rough the contrast between man and co
oman is happily not so pronounced in te