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

group. The rate of decrease, however, is not continuous. There is a

marked separation into two grades of intensity, the element receiving

accentual stress standing alone, those which possess no accent falling

together in a single natural group, as shown in the following ratios:

first interval to third, 1.000:0.349; second interval to third,

1.000:0.879. One cannot say, therefore, that in such a rhythmic form

there are two quantities present, an accented element and two

undifferentiated elements which are unaccented. For the average is not

based on a confused series of individual records, but is consistently

represented by three out of four subjects, the fourth reversing the

relations of the second and third elements, but approximating more

closely to equivalence than any other reactor (the proportional values

for this subject are 1.000; 0.443; 0.461). Moreover, this reactor was

the only musically trained subject of the group, and one in whom the

capacity for adhering to the logical instructions of the experiment

appears decidedly highest.

In the amphibrachic form the average again shows three degrees of

intensity, three out of four subjects conforming to the same type,

while the fourth reverses the relative values of the first and third

intervals. The initial element is the weakest of the group, and the

final of median intensity, the relation for all subjects being in the

ratio, 1.000:1.124. The amphibrachic measure begins weakly and ends

strongly, and thus approximates, we may say, to the iambic type.

In the anapæstic form the three degrees of intensity are still

maintained, three out of four subjects giving consistent results; and

the order of relative values is the simple converse of the dactylic.

There is presented in each case a single curve; the dactyl moves

continuously away from an initial accent in an unbroken decrescendo,

the anapæst moves continuously toward a final accent in an unbroken

crescendo. But in the anapæstic form as well as in the dactylic there

is a clear duality in the arrangement of elements within the group,

since the two unaccented beats fall, as before, into one natural

group, while the accented element is set apart by its widely

differentiated magnitude. The ratios follow: first interval to second,

1.000:1.009; first interval to third, 1.000:2.084.

The values of the three elements when considered irrespective of

accentual stress are as follows: First, 1.000; second, 1.001; third,

0.995. No characteristic preponderance due to primacy of position

appears as in the case of relative duration. The maximum value is

reached in the second element. This is due to the coöperation of two

factors, namely, the proximity of the accentual stress, which in no

case is separated from this median position by an unaccented element,

and the relative difficulty in giving expression to amphibrachic

rhythms. The absolute values of the reactions in the three forms is of

significance in this connection. Their comparison is rendered possible

by the fact that no change in the apparatus was made in the course of

the experiments. They have the following values: Dactylic, 10.25;

amphibrachic, 12.84; anapæstic, 12.45. The constant tendency, when any

difficulty in coördination is met with, is to increase the force of

the reactions, in the endeavor to control the formal relations of the

successive beats. If such a method of discriminating types be applied

to the present material, then the most easily coördinated—the most

natural—form is the dactyl; the anapæst stands next; the amphibrach

is the most unnatural and difficult to coördinate.

The same method of analysis was next applied to four-beat rhythms. The

proportional intensive values of the successive reactions for the

series of possible accentual positions are given in the following

table:

TABLE XXIII.

Stress. 1st Beat. 2d Beat. 3d Beat. 4th Beat.

Initial, 1.000 0.575 0.407 0.432

Secondary, 0.530 1.000 0.546 0.439

Tertiary, 0.470 0.407 1.000 0.453

Final, 0.492 0.445 0.467 1.000

The first and fourth forms follow similar courses, each marked by

initial and final stress; but while this is true throughout in the

fourth form, it results in the first form from the preponderance of

the final interval in a single individual’s record, and therefore

cannot be considered typical. The second and third forms are preserved

throughout the individual averages. The second form shows a maximum

from which the curve descends continuously in either direction; in the

third a division of the whole group into pairs is presented, a minor

initial accent occurring symmetrically with the primary accent on the

third element. This division of the third form into subgroups appears

also in its duration aspect. Several inferences may be drawn from this

group of relations. The first and second forms only are composed of

singly accented groups; in the third and fourth forms there is

presented a double accent and hence a composite grouping. This

indicates that the position in which the accent falls is an important

element in the coördination of the rhythmical unit. When the accent is

initial, or occurs early in the group, a larger number of elements can

be held together in a simple rhythmic structure than can be

coördinated if the accent be final or come late in the series. In this

sense the initial position of the accent is the natural one. The first

two of these four-beat forms are dactylic in structure, the former

with a postscript note added, the latter with a grace note prefixed.

In the third and fourth forms the difficulty in coördinating the

unaccented initial elements has resulted in the substitution of a

dipodic division for the anapæstic structure of triple rhythms with

final accent.

The presence of a tendency toward initial accentuation appears when

the average intensities of the four reactions are considered

irrespective of accentual position. Their proportional values are as

follows: First, 1.000; second, 0.999; third, 1.005; fourth, 0.981.

Underlying all changes in accentuation there thus appears a resolution

of the rhythmic structure into units of two beats, which are

primitively trochaic in form.

The influence exerted by the accented element on adjacent members of

the group is manifested in these forms more clearly than heretofore

when the values of the several elements are arranged in order of their

proximity to that accent and irrespective of their positions in the

group. Their proportional values are as follows:

TABLE XXIV.

2d Remove. 1st Remove. Accent. 1st Remove. 2d Remove.

0.442 0.526 1.000 0.514 0.442

This reinforcing influence is greater—according to the figures just

given—in the case of the element preceding the accent than in that of

the reaction which follows it. It may be, therefore, that the position

of maximal stress in the preceding table is due to the close average

relation in which the third position stands to the accented element.

This proximity it of course shares with the second reaction of the

group, but the underlying trochaic tendency depreciates the value of

the second reaction while it exaggerates that of the third. This

reception of the primitive accent the third element of the group

indeed shares with the first, and one might on this basis alone have

expected the maximal value to be reached in the initial position, were

it not for the influence of the accentual stress on adjacent members

of the group, which affects the value of the third reaction to an

extent greater than the first, in the ratio 1.000:0.571.

The average intensity of the reactions in each of the four forms—all

subjects and positions combined—is worthy of note.

TABLE XXV.

Stress. Initial. Secondary. Tertiary. Final.

Value, 1.000 1.211 1.119 1.151

The first and third forms, which involve initial accents—in the

relation of the secondary as well as primary accent to the

subgroups—are both of lower average value than the remaining types,

in which the accents are final, a relation which indicates, on the

assumption already made, a greater ease and naturalness in the former

types. Further, the second form, which according to the subjective

reports was found the most difficult of the group to execute—in so

far as difficulty may be said to be inherent in forms of motor

reaction which were all relatively easy to manipulate—is that which

presents the highest intensive value of the whole series.

In the next group of experiments, the subject was required to execute

a series of reactions in groups of alternating content, the first to

contain two uniform beats, the second to consist of a single reaction.

This second beat with the interval following it constitutes a measure

which was to be made rhythmically equivalent to the two-beat group

with which it alternated. The time-relations of the series were

therefore left to the adjustment of the reactor. The intensive

relations were separated into two groups; in the first the final

reaction was to be kept uniform in strength with those of the

preceding group, in the second it was to be accented.

The absolute and relative intensive values for the two forms are given

in the following table:

TABLE XXVI.

Rhythm. 1st Beat. 2d Beat. 3d Beat. Value.

Syncopated Measures 13.00 15.12 16.50 Absolute.

Unaccented, 1.000 1.175 1.269 Relative.

Syncopated Measures 10.95 11.82 16.11 Absolute.

Accented, 1.000 1.079 1.471 Relative.

These averages hold for every individual record, and therefore

represent a thoroughly established type. In both forms the reaction of

the syncopated measure receives the greatest stress. In the first

form, while the stress is relatively less than in the second, it is at

the same time absolutely greater. The whole set of values is raised

(the ratio of average intensities in the two forms being 1.147:1.000),

as it has already been found to be raised in other forms difficult to

execute. To this cause the preponderance is undoubtedly to be

attributed, as the reports of every subject describe this form as

unnatural, in consequence of the restraint it imposes on an impulse to

accent the final reaction, i.e., the syncopated measure.

In the next set of experiments the series of reactions involved the

alternation of a syncopated measure consisting of a single beat with a

full measure of three beats. The same discrimination into accented and

unaccented forms in the final measure was made as in the preceding

group. The series of absolute and relative values are given in the

following table.

TABLE XXVII.

Rhythm. 1st Beat. 2d Beat. 3rd Beat. 4th Beat. Value.

Syncopated Measures 9.77 8.96 9.61 13.78 Absolute.

Unaccented, 1.000 0.915 0.983 1.165 Relative.

Syncopated Measures 11.57 11.07 11.53 21.50 Absolute.

Accented, 1.000 0.957 0.996 1.858 Relative.

These averages hold for every subject where the syncopated measure

receives accentuation, and for two out of three reactors where it is

unaccented. The latter individual variation shows a progressive

increase in intensity throughout the series.

Here, as in the preceding forms, a well-established type is presented.

Not only when accentuation is consciously introduced, but also when

the attempt is made—and in so far as the introspection of the reactor

goes, successfully made—to maintain a uniformity among the reactions

of the full and syncopated measures, the emphasis on the latter is

unconsciously increased. In the accented form, as before, there is a

clear discrimination into two grades of intensity (ratio of first

three elements to final, 1.000:1.888) while in the unaccented no such

broad separation exists (ratio of first three elements to final,

1.000:1.156).

The type of succession in each of these forms of reaction is a

transformed dactylic, in which group should now be included the simple

four-beat rhythm with final accent, which was found to follow the same

curve. The group begins with a minor stress in both of the present

forms, this stress being greater in the unaccented than in the

accented type. This preponderance I believe to be due to the endeavor

to repress the natural accent on the syncopated measure. In both forms

the intensive value of the second element is less