Studies have shown that subjects are not random in their responses, even when attempting to achieve randomness. In this study, normal and schizophrenic subjects were asked to give numbers from one to nine at random and paced. They were given an interpolated task, and then retested. Some statistical tests of degree of randomness were devised and it was shown that no subject was random, but that stereotypy decreased within and over test—retest. The results are discussed in terms of learning and extinction of stereotypy. Differences between introverts and extraverts were almost significant in the opposite direction from that predicted. Schizophrenics were significantly more stereotyped than normals. Finally, it was shown that for a normal subject, his test could be identified from other subjects' tests on the basis of retest protocol, the test protocol providing a kind of psychological ‘fingerprint’.
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Ramsay et al. (1968) studied this question.