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

third, while the intensity of the initial reaction is greater than

that of either of these subsequent beats. This form of succession I

have called a transformed dactylic. It adheres to the dactylic type

in possessing initial accentuation; it departs from the normal

dactylic succession in inverting the values of the second and third

members of the group. This inversion is not inherent in the rhythmic

type. The series of three beats decreasing in intensity represents the

natural dactylic; the distortion actually presented is the result of

the proximity of each of these groups to a syncopated measure which

follows it. This influence I believe to be reducible to more

elementary terms. The syncopated measure is used to mark the close of

a logical sequence, or to attract the hearer’s attention to a striking

thought. In both cases it is introduced at significant points in the

rhythmical series and represents natural nodes of accentuation. The

distortion of adjacent measures is to be attributed to the increase in

this elementary factor of stress, rather than to the secondary

significance of the syncopation, for apart from any such change in the

rhythmical structure we have found that the reactions adjacent to that

which receives accentual stress are drawn toward it and increased in

relative intensity.

Further quantitative analysis of rhythmical sequences, involving a

comparison of the forms of successive measures throughout the higher

syntheses of verse, couplet and stanza, will, I believe, confirm this

conception of the mutable character of the relations existing between

the elements of the rhythmical unit, and the dependence of their

quantitative values on fixed points and modes of structural change

occurring within the series. An unbroken sequence of dactyls we shall

expect to find composed of forms in which a progressive decrease of

intensity is presented from beginning to end of the series (unless we

should conceive the whole succession of elements in a verse to take

shape in dependence on the point of finality toward which it is

directed); and when, at any point, a syncopated measure is introduced

we shall look for a distortion of this natural form, at least in the

case of the immediately preceding measure, by an inversion of the

relative values of the second and third elements of the group. This

inversion will unquestionably be found to affect the temporal as well

as the intensive relations of the unit. We should likewise expect the

relations of accented and unaccented elements in the two-beat rhythms

to be similarly affected by the occurrence of syncopated measures, and

indeed to find that their influence penetrates every order of rhythm

and extends to all degrees of synthesis.

To the quantitative analysis of the intensive relations presented by

beaten rhythms must be added the evidence afforded by the apprehension

of auditory types. When a series of sounds temporally and

qualitatively uniform was given by making and breaking an electric

circuit in connection with a telephone receiver, the members of a

group of six observers without exception rhythmized the stimuli in

groups—of two, three and four elements according to rate of

succession—having initial accentuation, however frequently the

series was repeated. When the series of intervals was temporally

differentiated so that every alternate interval, in one case, and

every third in another, stood to the remaining interval or intervals

in the ratio, 2:1, the members of this same group as uniformly

rhythmized the material in measures having final accentuation. In

triple groups the amphibrachic form (in regard to temporal relations

only, as no accentuation was introduced) was never heard under natural

conditions. When the beginning of the series was made to coincide with

the initiation of an amphibrachic group, four of those taking part in

the investigation succeeded in maintaining this form of apprehension

for a time, all but one losing it in the dactylic after a few

repetitions; while the remaining two members were unable to hold the

amphibrachic form in consciousness at all.

(b) The Distribution of Durations.

The inquiry concerning this topic took the direction, first, of a

series of experiments on the influence which the introduction of a

louder sound into a series otherwise intensively uniform exerts on the

apparent form of the series within which it occurs. Such a group of

experiments forms the natural preliminary to an investigation of the

relation of accentuation to the form of the rhythm group. The

apparatus employed was the fourth in the series already described. The

sounds which composed the series were six in number; of these, five

were produced by the fall of the hammer through a distance of 2/8

inch; the sixth, louder sound, by a fall through 7/8 inch. In those

cases in which the intensity of this louder sound was itself varied

there was added a third height of fall of two inches. The succession

of sounds was given, in different experiments, at rates of 2.5, 2.2,

and 1.8 sec. for the whole series. The durations of the intervals

following and (in one or two cases) preceding the louder sound were

changed; all the others remained constant. A longer interval

intervened between the close and beginning of the series than between

pairs of successive sounds. After hearing the series the subject

reported the relations which appeared to him to obtain among its

successive elements. As a single hearing very commonly produced but a

confused impression, due to what was reported as a condition of

unpreparedness which made it impossible for the hearer to form any

distinct judgment of such relations, and so defeated the object of the

experiment, the method adopted was to repeat each series before asking

for judgment. The first succession of sounds then formed both a signal

for the appearance of the second repetition and a reinforcement of the

apperception of its material.

In order to define the direction of attention on the part of the

observer it was made known that the factors to be compared were the

durations of the intervals adjacent to the louder sound in relation to

the remaining intervals of the series, and that all other temporal and

intensive values were maintained unchanged from experiment to

experiment. In no instance, on the other hand, did any subject know

the direction or nature of the variation in those quantities

concerning which he was to give judgment. In all, five subjects shared

in the investigation, C., E., F., H. and N. Of these C only had

musical training. In the tables and diagrams the interval preceding

the louder sound is indicated by the letter B, that following it by

the letter A. Totals—judgment or errors—are indicated by the letter

T, and errors by the letter E. The sign ‘+’ indicates that the

interval against which it stands is judged to be greater than the

remaining intervals of the series, the sign ‘=’ that it is judged

equal, and the sign ‘-‘ that it is judged less.

The first series of changes consisted in the introduction of

variations in the duration of the interval following the loud sound,

in the form of successive increments. This loud sound was at the third

position in the series. All intensive relations and the duration of

the interval preceding the louder sound remained unchanged. The

results of the experiment are presented in the following table.

TABLE XXVIII.

Ratio of A to B A Errors Total Per cent.

Other Intervals. + = - + = - B A T judgts. of errors

1.000 : 0.625 2 2 2 4 2 0 4 2 6 12 50

1.000 : 0.666 4 2 0 1 3 2 4 5 9 12 75

1.009 : 0.714 5 3 0 2 2 4 5 6 11 16 69

1.000 : 0.770 5 4 0 1 1 7 5 8 13 18 72

1.000 : 0.833 1 5 0 0 0 6 1 6 7 12 50

Totals, 17 16 2 8 8 19 19 27 46 70

The value of the interval following the louder sound is correctly

reported eight times out of thirty; that preceding it is correctly

reported sixteen times out of thirty. The influence which such a

change in intensive value introduced at a single point in a series of

sounds exerts on the apparent relation of its adjacent intervals to

those of the remainder of the series is not equally distributed

between that which precedes and that which follows it, but affects the

latter more frequently than the former in a ratio (allowing latitude

for future correction) of 2:1. In the case of interval A the error is

one of underestimation in twenty-seven cases; in none is it an error

of overestimation. In the case of interval B the error is one of

overestimation in seventeen instances, of underestimation in two. The

influence of the introduction of such a louder sound, therefore, is to

cause a decrease in the apparent duration of the interval which

follows it, and an increase in that of the interval which precedes it.

The illusion is more pronounced and invariable in the case of the

interval following the louder sound than of that preceding it, the

proportion of such characteristic misinterpretations to the whole

number of judgments in the two cases being, for A, 77 per cent.; for

B, 54 per cent. The effect on interval A is very strong. In the second

group, where the ratio of this interval to the others of the series is

3:2, it is still judged to be equal to these others in 50 per cent. of

the cases, and less in 35 per cent. Further, these figures do not give

exhaustive expression to the whole number of errors which may be

represented in the judgments recorded, since no account is taken of

greater and less but only of change of sign; and an interval might be

underestimated and still be reported greater than the remaining

intervals of the series in a group of experiments in which the

relation of the interval in question to these remaining intervals

ranged from the neighborhood of equivalent values to that in which one

was double the other. If in a rough way a quantitative valuation of

errors be introduced by making a transference from any one sign to

that adjacent to it (e.g., - to =, or = to +) equal to one, and

that from one extreme sign to the other equal to two, the difference

in the influence exerted on the two intervals will become still more

evident, since the errors will then have the total (quantitative)

values of A 46, and B 19, or ratio of 1.000:0.413.

Next, the position of the louder sound in the series of six was

changed, all other conditions being maintained uniform throughout the

set of experiments. The series of intervals bore the following

relative values: A, 0.900; B, 1.100; all other intervals, 1.000. The

louder sound was produced by a fall of 0.875 inch; all others by a

fall of 0.250 inch. The louder sound occurred successively in the

first, second, third, fourth and fifth positions of the series. In the

first of these forms it must of course be remembered that no interval

B exists. The results of the experiment are shown in the following

table:

TABLE XXIX.

Position Apparent Values. Errors. % of Errors Ditto

in B A B A T in tot. judg. quant.

Series + = - + = - B A B A

1 2 6 6 0 12 12 85.7 85.7

2 2 8 2 1 7 4 10 11 21 83.3 91.6 73.3 91.6

3 1 9 3 1 8 3 10 11 21 76.9 91.6 71.9 91.6

4 1 8 4 2 6 5 9 11 20 69.2 84.6 52.8 84.6

5 0 12 0 0 4 8 12 12 24 100.0 100.0 60.0 100.0

Totals, 4 37 9 6 31 26 41 57