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

consciousness together. At the foot of the columns are shown the

averages for each pair. No general averages are shown, as the problem

presented by each pair is peculiar to itself.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.]

The maximum is reached in No. 1a, where the angle has the arrowhead

form and each angle points to the other. It should be remarked that

the diagram is somewhat misleading in respect to the distance of the

figures, which in this as in the other experiments was 25 cm. The

figures therefore were far enough away from each other to be perceived

and imaged in individual distinctness. But the ‘energy’ of the lines,

especially where the lines united to form an acute angle, was often

sufficient to overcome the effect of this separation, and either to

bring the figures nearer together or to unite them into a single

object. The notes are very decisive in this regard. A few of them may

be cited: “The angles tended to join points.” “The figures showed a

tendency to move in the direction of the apex.” “The angles (2a)

united to form a cross.” “When both figures (4b) were in mind I felt

disagreeable strains in the eyeballs; one figure led me to the right

and the other to the left.” The effect of the last-named figures

(4a) seemed to be different from that of 1a and 2a, though the

apex of each angle was turned to that of the other in each of the

three cases. “The two angles,” says another subject, speaking of 4a,

“appeared antagonistic to each other.” It will be observed that they

are less acute than the other angles referred to, and the confluent

lines of each figure are far less distinctly directed towards the

corresponding lines of the opposing figure, so that the attention, so

far as it is determined in direction by the lines, would be less

likely to be carried over from the one image to the other.

On the other hand, when the angles were turned away from each other

the legs of the angles in the two figures compared were brought into

closer relation, so that in 2b, for instance, the average is even

higher than in 2a. Similarly the average in 3b, an obtuse angle,

is higher than in 3a. The notes show that in such cases the

contrasted angles tended to close up and coalesce into a single

figure with a continuous boundary. “The ends (2b) came together and

formed a diamond.” “When the angles were turned away from each other

the lines had an occasional tendency to close up.” “There was a

tendency to unite the two images (4a) into a triangle.” “The two

figures seemed to tug each other, and the images were in fact a little

closer than the objects (4a).” “The images (4a) formed a

triangle.” So with regard to the figures in 5a. “When both were in

the field there seemed to be a pulling of the left over to the right,

though no apparent displacement.” “The two figures formed a square.”

The lowest average—and it is much lower than any other average in the

table—is that of 5b, in which the contrasted objects have neither

angles nor incomplete lines directed to any common point between the

objects. In view of the notes, the tabulated record of these two

figures (5b) is very significant, and strikingly confirms, by its

negative testimony, what 1a and 2b have to teach us by their

positive testimony. The averages are, in the three cases just cited:

1a, 35.11 seconds; 2b,33.11 seconds; 5b, 15 seconds per minute.

On the whole, then, the power of the line to arrest, direct, and keep

the attention, through the greater energy and definiteness of the

processes which it excites, and thereby to increase the chances of the

recurrence and persistence of its idea in consciousness, is confirmed

by the results of this series. The greatest directive force seems to

lie in the sharply acute angle. Two such angles, pointing one towards

the other, tend very strongly to carry the attention across the gap

which separates them. (And it should be borne in mind that the

distance between the objects exposed was 25 cm.) But the power of two

incomplete lines, similarly situated, is not greatly inferior.

It thus appears that the attention process is in part, at least, a

motor process, which in this case follows the direction of the lines,

acquiring thereby a momentum which is not at once arrested by a break

in the line, but is readily diverted by a change in the direction of

the line. If the lines are so situated that the attention process

excited by the one set is carried away from the other set, the one set

inhibits the other. If, on the other hand, the lines in the one set

are so situated that they can readily take up the overrunning or

unarrested processes excited by the other set, the two figures support

each other by becoming in fact one figure. The great importance of the

motor elements of the attention process in ideation, and thus in the

persistence of the idea, is evident in either phase of the experiment.

RECAPITULATION.

Seconds Seconds.

1 Figures alike: Left 30.8 Right 31.9

2 ” unlike: Simple 27.10 Complex 34.62

3 ” ” Small 24.54 Large 33.30

4 ” ” Gray 25.61 White 29.53

5 ” ” Line 31.91 Angle 38.54

6 ” ” Plain 23.92 Marked 37.48

7 ” ” (colored) 5 seconds 27.75 10 seconds 29.15

8 ” ” (gray) 5 seconds 25.42 10 ” 32.12

9 ” ” 1st exposure 12.64 2d exposure 36.45

10 ” ” Vertical line 34.94 Hor. line 34.49

11 ” ” Full-faced 28.10 Outline 41.08

12 ” ” Figure 29.26 Int. lines 39.32

13 ” ” Figure 34.03 Vert. lines 36.40

14 ” ” Stationary 28.88 Moved 37.39

15 ” ” Gray 30.90 Colored 37.81

16 (See Table XVI.)

If we put these results into the form of propositions, we find:

1. That when the objects are similar surfaces, seen under similar

conditions, the chances of the recurrence and persistence of their

images are, on the whole, practically equal.

2. That surfaces bounded by complicated outlines have an advantage in

ideation, other things equal, over surfaces bounded by simple

outlines.

3. That as between two objects of unequal area—color, form, and other

conditions being the same—the larger object has the advantage in the

ideational rivalry.

4. That the image of a white object has a like advantage over the

image of a gray object.

5. That broken or complex lines have in ideation an advantage over

straight or simple lines.

6. That an object with varied content, other conditions remaining the

same, has an advantage over an object with homogeneous surface.

7 and 8. That an increase of the time during which the attention is

given to an object increases the chances for the recurrence of its

image or idea.

9. That of two objects to which attention is directed in succession,

the object last seen has a distinct advantage in the course of

ideation following close on the perception of the objects.

10. That lines of similar appearance and equal length, one of which is

vertical and the other horizontal, have, like surfaces of similar

appearance and form and equal dimensions, practically equal chances of

recurrence and survival in ideation, the slight difference in their

chances being in favor of the vertical line.

11. That as between two figures of similar form and equal dimensions,

one of which has a filled homogeneous content and the other is a mere

outline figure, the latter has a marked advantage in the course of

ideation.

12. That of two linear and symmetrical figures, of which one is an

outline figure with continuous boundary, and the other consists of the

same linear elements, similarly disposed, as the first, but has its

lines disconnected so that it has no continuous boundary, the latter

figure has the advantage in ideation.

13. That if, with material similar to that described in paragraph 12,

the disconnected lines are arranged so as to be vertical and

equidistant, the advantage in ideation still remains with the

disconnected lines, but is much reduced.

14. That if one of two figures, of similar appearance and form and of

equal dimensions, is kept in motion while it is exposed to view, and

the other is left at rest, the image of the moving object is the more

persistent.

15. That, under like conditions, colored objects are more persistent

in ideation than gray objects.

16. That lines and sharp angles, as compared with broad surfaces, have

a strong directive force in the determination of the attention to

their images or ideas; that this directive force is strongest in the

case of very acute angles, the attention being carried forward in the

direction indicated by the apex of the angle; but that uncompleted

lines, especially when two such lines are directed towards each

other, have a similar and not much inferior force in the control of

the course of ideation.

If we should seek now to generalize these experimental results, they

would take some such form as the following:

Abstraction made of all volitional aims and all æsthetic or affective

bias, the tendency of an object to recur and persist in idea depends

(within the limits imposed by the conditions of these experiments)

upon the extent of its surface, the complexity of its form, the

diversity of its contents, the length and recency of the time during

which it occupies the attention, the definiteness of the direction

which it imparts to the attention (as in the case of angles and

lines), its state of motion or of rest, and, finally, its brightness

and its color.

These conditions, however, are for the most part but conditions which

determine the energy, diversity, complexity and definiteness of the

active processes involved in the bestowal of attention upon its

object, and the experiments show that such active processes are as

essential in ideation as in perception. The stability of an image, or

internal sensation, thus depends on the activity of its motor

accompaniments or conditions. And as the presence of an image to the

exclusion of a rival, which but for the effect of these motor

advantages would have as strong a claim as itself to the occupation of

consciousness (cf. Series I., X.), may be treated as a case of

inhibition, the greater the relative persistence of an image or idea

the greater we may say is the ‘force’ with which it inhibits its

rival. Exclusive possession of the field involves, to the extent to

which such possession is made good, actual exclusion of the rival; and

exclusion is inhibition. Our generalization, accordingly, may take the

following form:—

The inhibitory effect of an idea, apart from volitional or emotional

bias, depends upon the energy, diversity, complexity and definiteness

of the motor conditions of the idea.

*

CONTROL OF THE MEMORY IMAGE.

BY CHARLES S. MOORE.

Since Gallon’s classic investigation in the field of mental imagery

several similar investigations have been pursued in the same

direction, chiefly, however, for the purpose of discovering and

classifying types of imagination.

Little has been done in the line of developing and studying the

problems of the memory image proper, and still less, in fact almost

nothing, is to be found bearing on the control of the visual memory

image. The general fact of this control has been presented, with

greater or less detail, based upon returns from questionaries.