Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory by Hugo Münsterberg (100 books to read .txt) 📕

transition from black to color. And, under the conditions of the

experiment, the advantage of this more impressive transition lay

always with the color which was exposed the shorter time.

Judging from the introspective notes, the outline seems to suffer, in

competition with a colored content, some loss of power to carry the

attention and maintain its place in the ideation. “The colors tend to

diffuse themselves, ignoring the boundary,” says one. “The images fade

from the periphery toward the center,” says another. On the other

hand, one of the subjects finds that when both images are present the

color tends to fade out. This may perhaps be explained by the remark

of another subject to the effect that there is an alternate shifting

of the attention when both images are present. An attitude of

continued and definite change, we may suppose, is one in which the

color interest must yield to the interest in boundaries and definite

spatial relations.

Other interesting facts come out in the notes. One subject finds the

ideated plane farther away than the objective plane; another conceives

the two as coinciding. The movement of the eyes is by this time

distinctly perceived by the subject. The reports run as follows:

‘Eye-movements seem to follow the changes in ideation;’ ‘I find my

eyes already directed, when an image is ideated, to the corresponding

side, and am sometimes conscious of the movement, but the movement is

not intended or willed;’ ‘in ideating any particular color I find my

attention almost always directed to the side on which the

corresponding object was seen.’ This last observation seems to be true

for the experience of every subject, and, generally speaking, the

images occupy the same relative positions as the objects: the image of

the right object is seen to the right, that of the left object to the

left, and the space between the two remains tolerably constant,

especially for the full-faced figures.

This fact suggested a means of eliminating the disturbing influence of

color, and its contrasts and surprises, by the substitution of gray

figures identical in form and size and distinguished only by their

spatial position. The result appears in the table which follows

(VIII.).

Series No. VIII.—The object of this experiment was the same as that

of No. VII. Granite-gray figures, however, were substituted, for the

reasons already assigned, in place of the red and green figures. And

here the effect of additional time in the exposure is distinctly

marked, the general averages showing 32.12 seconds for the image of

the object which was exposed 10 seconds, as against 25.42 seconds for

the other.

TABLE VIII.

1 2 3 4 5 Indiv. Aver.

5 10 5 10 5 10 5 10 5 10 5 10

I. 26.5 27 24.5 30.5 26.5 28 27.5 27.5 26.5 29 26.3 28.4

II. 32.5 38.5 27 36 29 28 17 14.5 37.5 27 28.6 28.8

III. 4.5 13.5 11 1.5 10 11 7.5 14.5 12.5 8.5 9.1 9.8

IV. 23.5 40.5 27.5 34 35.5 38 35 28 17 39 27.7 35.9

V. 41 46 50 51.5 43 42.5 46 35.5 31.5 44 42.3 43.9

VI. 7.5 27 18 25 21.5 25.5 7 44.5 33.5 19 17.5 28.2

VIII. 24.5 27 34.5 32 36.5 36 34.5 38.5 28 28.5 31.6 32.4

IX. 17 46 25.5 47.5 44 47 40.5 47.5 48 48 35.0 47.2

X. 20 29 21 26.5 25.5 24.5 27.5 22 19.5 23.5 22.7 25.1

XI. 11 41.5 9.5 50 5.5 43.5 15.5 40.5 25.5 32 13.4 41.5

20.80 33.60 24.85 33.45 27.70 32.40 25.80 31.30 27.95 29.85 25.42 32.12

VII.—Absent.

5: refers to object exposed 5 seconds.

10: refers to object exposed 10 seconds.

General average: (5), 25.42 sec.; (10), 32.12 sec.

The interpretation of this difference may be made in accordance with

the principles already laid down. The ideated and actual movements

which favor the recurrence and persistence of an idea are, on grounds

generally recognized in psychology, much more likely to occur and

repeat themselves when the corresponding movements, or the same

movements in completer form, have frequently been repeated in

observation of the corresponding object.

TABLE IX.

1 2 3 4 5 Indiv. Aver.

1st 2d 1st 2d 1st 2d 1st 2d 1st 2d 1st 2d

I. 22.5 32.5 27 28 26.5 28 26.5 27.5 26 29 25.7 29.0

II. 4.5 43 9 29 3.5 38 0 43 17 44.5 6.8 39.5

III. 0 22 0 20.5 9.5 16.5 0 23.5 3.5 9.5 2.6 18.4

IV. 0 31 1 35.5 4.5 39 16.5 32.5 16 20.5 7.6 31.7

V. 24 52.5 41.5 40 12 53.5 22 55 22 50.5 24.3 50.3

VII. 1.5 52 0 48 0 54.5 0 50.5 0 46.5 0.3 50.3

VIII. 12 26 10 27.5 11.5 23.5 13.5 28.5 15.5 20 12.5 25.1

IX. 24 43.5 20 42 25 42.5 20.5 44.5 28 42.5 23.5 43.0

X. 9 45.5 19.5 30 11 33 12 38 14.5 30 13.2 35.3

XI. 12.5 35 23.5 29.5 1 49 2 44 10.5 52 9.9 41.9

11.00 38.30 15.15 33.00 10.45 37.75 11.30 38.70 15.30 34.50 12.64 36.45

VI.—Absent.

From this point on the place of Miss H. (IV.) is taken by Mr.

R. The members in each pair of objects in this group were not

exposed simultaneously.

1st: refers to object first exposed.

2d: refers to object last exposed.

General average: 1st, 12.64 sec.: 2d, 36.45 sec.

What is here called ideated movement—by which is understood the idea

of a change in spatial relations which accompanies a shifting of the

attention or a change in the mental attitude, as distinguished from

the sense of movements actually executed—was recognized as such by

one of the subjects, who says: “When the two objects are before me I

am conscious of what seem to be images of movement, or ideated

movements, not actual movements.” The same subject also finds the

image of the object which had the longer exposure not only more vivid

in the quality of the content, but more distinct in outline.

Series No. IX.—In this experiment the objects, which were of

granite-gray cardboard, were exactly alike, but were exposed at

different times and places. After the first had been exposed five

seconds alone, it was covered by means of a sliding screen, and the

second was then exposed for the same length of time, the interval

between the two exposures being also five seconds. Two observations

were made with each pair, the first exposure being in one case to the

left and in the other case to the right. The object here was, of

course, to determine what, if any, advantage the more recent of the

two locally different impressions would have in the course of

ideation. The table shows that the image of the object last seen had

so far the advantage in the ideational rivalry that it remained in

consciousness, on the average, almost three times as long as the

other, the average being, for the first, 12.64 seconds; for the

second, 36.45 seconds. And both the individual averages and the

averages for the several pairs show, without exception, the same

general tendency.

The notes show, further, that the image of the figure first seen was

not only less persistent but relatively less vivid than the other,

though the latter was not invariably the case. One subject had ‘an

impression that the images were farther apart’ than in the series

where the exposure of the two objects was simultaneous, though the

distance between the objects was in all cases the same, the time

difference being, apparently, translated into spatial terms and added

to the spatial difference. The sort of antagonism which temporal

distinctions tend, under certain conditions, to set up between ideas

is illustrated by the remark of another subject, who reports that ‘the

attention was fairly dragged by the respective images.’ And the fact

of such antagonism, or incompatibility, is confirmed by the extremely

low figure which represents the average time when both images were

reported present at the same time. The two images, separated by

processes which the time interval implies, seem to be more entirely

incompatible and mutually inhibitory than the images of objects

simultaneously perceived. For not only does the advantage of a few

seconds give the fresher image a considerable preponderance in its

claim on the attention, but even the earlier image, after it has once

caught the attention, usually succeeds in shutting out the other from

a simultaneous view.

TABLE X.

1 2 3 4 5 Indiv. Aver.

V H V H V H V H V H V H

I. 27.5 27 26.5 28 30.5 24.5 27.5 28.5 26 25 27.60 26.60

II. 45 43.5 37 40 35.5 28.5 19 15.5 30.5 30.5 33.40 31.60

III. 19 21 0 10.5 19.5 19 9 15 4.5 16 10.40 16.30

IV. 47.5 39 36 22.5 44.5 41.5 47.5 46 37 36 42.50 37.00

V. 56.5 46.5 42.5 42.5 48 45.5 48.5 48.5 53 52 49.70 47.00

VI. 31.5 28.5 30.5 30.5 22 34.5 34.5 28.5 25 26.5 28.70 29.70

VII. 55 55 55 45.5 38 20 55.5 53.5 56 56 51.90 45.80

VIII. 39.5 47 23.5 23.5 19 18.5 26.5 26.5 26 20.5 26.90 27.20

IX. 26.5 46 38 42.5 41 44 40.5 46.5 35.5 39 36.30 43.60

X. 24.5 25 26 25 25.5 23 23.5 28.5 32.5 20.5 26.40 24.40

XI. 52 52 56.5 54.5 48 49.5 45 47.5 51.5 47.5 50.60 50.20

38.60 39.14 33.77 33.09 33.77 31.68 34.27 34.95 34.31 33.60 34.94 34.49

V: Vertical. H: Horizontal.

General average: Vertical, 34.94 sec.; Horizontal, 34.49 sec.

Series No. X.—The objects used in this experiment were straight

lines, two strips of granite-gray cardboard, each ten centimeters long

and half a centimeter wide, the one being vertical and the other

horizontal. These were pasted on black cards and exposed in alternate

positions, each appearing once to the right and once to the left. The

figures in the columns represent in each case the combined result of

two such observations.

The experiments with these lines were continued at intervals through

a number of weeks, each individual average representing the result of

ten observations, or of five pairs of exposures with alternating

objects.

The striking feature in the observations is the uniformity of the

results as they appear in the general averages and in the averages for

each pair as shown at the foot of the columns. There is some variation

in the individual tendencies, as shown by the individual averages. But

the general average for this group of subjects shows a difference of

less than half a second per minute, and that difference is in favor of

the vertical line.

This series will serve a double purpose. It shows, in the first place,

that on the whole the vertical and the horizontal lines have a nearly

equal chance of recurrence in image or idea. It will serve, in the

second place, as a standard of comparison when we come to consider the

effect of variations in the position and direction of lines.

TABLE XI.

1 2 3 4 5 Indiv. Av.

F O F O F O F O F O F O

I. 24 31 26.5 28.5 27 29 22 33.5 27.5 28 25.4 30.0

II. 53.5 50 52.5 52.5 56.5 55.5 43.5 43.5 56 51.5 52.4 50.6

III. 3 21.5 4 20 11 17 3.5 27 0 20.5 4.3 21.2

IV. 26.5 30 11 48.5 12.5 53 12 51 23 51 17.0 46.7

V. 40.5 56.5 48 56 55.5 55.5 53 55.5 53.5 55.5 50.1 55.58

VI. 27.5 40.5 23 31.5 24.5 32.5 31 29 27 33.5 26.6 33.4

VII. 50.5 54 53.5 56.5 53.5 53.5 40.5 52 55 55 50.6 54.2

VIII. 1 33.5