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

invariable. As the phonograph records show, glass does not modify the

lower tones of the male voice to any extent.

[Illustration: PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW. MONOGRAPH SUPPLEMENT 17. PLATE X.

Opposite p. 436.

The apparatus is shown arranged for taking parallel records on the

smoked glass disc, and on the cylinder of the graphophone. On the left

is shown the microscope with which the records on the glass disc were

measured. ]

The speaking-tube used was of woven material, not of rubber, and a pad

of felt was kept in the tube near the diaphragm box. As far as

possible more damping was used at the other end of the tube, but this

had to depend on the voices of the subjects.

The best check on the performances of a diaphragm is the number per

second and character of the vibrations. The pitch may be calculated

from the rotation rate of the disc, which is very constant, as it is

driven at a low rate by the well-regulated high-speed motor of the

phonograph. But it is better to place a fork in position to write on

the disc and take a parallel record. All the records were taken with

the vowel ‘a’ (sound as in father). This vowel has a very

characteristic signature, which is easily seen, even in a very closely

packed curve, and the correctness of this is one of the best

guarantees that the fundamental of the tone is actuating the diaphragm

(though that does not mean that the diaphragm is actually giving the

vibration frequency of that fundamental).

Every record was repeated at least twice, and both records were

measured. In many of the experiments the intensities were fixed by the

conditions of the experiment. There was always the corroborative

testimony of the phonograph diaphragm; for the two were not apt to err

together. It was easy to determine if the actual intensity relations

were preserved in the phonograph (but it could not be taken for

granted). Each record was reproduced on the phonograph immediately

after it had been taken, and both subject and operator listened for

anomalies. In practice it was not hard to get records of the single

vowel used (at a small range of pitch which was never more than a

third or fourth and was nearly always much less) which represented

fairly well the relative intensities. Beside the checks spoken of

above, every record was repeated by a number of subjects, and the

comparison of the results of different voices shows uniformity.

The recording of spoken verse is another matter. It is not difficult

to test a diaphragm carefully through a small range, but to be certain

of its action at all the pitches and qualities of the speaking voice

is impossible. A stable diaphragm, glass or mica, would have to be

used, and careful corrections made for the different vowels.

At best, when the records are satisfactory, nothing can be said for

the measurements of intensity but that they represent relations of

more or less; the diaphragm has a minimum intensity, below which it

does not vibrate, and a maximum intensity, above which the amplitude

of its vibrations does not materially increase without breaking into

partials and ‘blasting.’

The disc recorder, which had for a mount a modified microscope stand,

was placed on the shoe of the disc stand and clamped. The wax and disc

records were adjusted at known starting-points and the stylus

carefully lowered, by the rack and pinion adjustment, to the surface

of the disc. After a preliminary trial of the diaphragm the apparatus

was started, and when at full speed at least two satisfactory records

of the material were taken. When the disc had made a single

revolution—a record of some ten or fifteen stanzas—the recorder was

fed inward to a new circle on the disc. After the records were taken,

a microscope with either 2 or 4 Leitz objective and a micrometer

ocular was substituted for the recorder. The phonograph recorder was

raised and drawn back to its starting point, and the disc came back to

its original position. The microscope was focussed, and adjusted by

the screw of the shoe until it had the record line in its field; the

micrometer furnished an object of reference in the field. The

phonograph, now carrying the reproducer—if possible without a horn,

as the tones are truer—was started. At the first syllable of the

record the apparatus was stopped by the device furnished on the

‘Commercial’ phonograph, and the plate was turned by adjusting the

screw at the phonograph carriage, which changed the length of the

chain connecting the two records, until the record of the first

syllable was at some chosen point in the field. In cases of records

of poetry it was found better to have a set of syllables, say ‘one,

two, three’ prefixed to the record, for this adjustment. The

phonograph was again started, and the curve-forms representing the

spoken syllables filed past the point as the phonograph repeated each

syllable. The rate was slow enough, with the objective 2, so that

there was no difficulty in observing the passing syllables. After the

conformity of the phonograph record had been noted by the operator,

and the subject had passed judgment on the phonograph as saying

satisfactorily what he had said, the curve-forms were measured with

the micrometer. The record was fed slowly through the field by means

of the chain screw on the phonograph carriage; and measurements of the

lengths of syllables gave their time values. The micrometer was passed

back and forth across the form by the shoe screw, for the measurements

of amplitude (intensity). The micrometer measurements in this case

could be made at least as rapidly as measurements of kymograph curves.

The measurements, with the powers used, are accurate to.01 sec.

The smoked disc records are to be preferred to those scratched with a

diamond, because of the superior legibility of the line, an important

item if thousands of measurements are to be made. The records are

fixed with shellac and preserved, or they may be printed out by a

photographic process and the prints preserved. The parallel set of wax

records is preserved with them. There are several ways in which the

wax records lend themselves to the study of rhythmic questions. It is

easy to change the rate, and thereby get new material for judgment, in

a puzzling case. Consonant qualities are never strong, and it is easy

so to damp the reproducer that only the vowel intensities are heard.

The application in the study of rhyme is obvious.

All the series consisted of regular nonsense syllables. The accented

and unaccented elements were represented by the single syllable ‘ta’

(‘a’ as in father). Rhymes were of the form ‘da,’ ‘na,’ ‘ga’ and ‘ka.’

In other parts of the work (cf. Table IV.) the vowel o had been used

in rhymes for contrast; but the same vowel, a, was used in these

records, to make the intensity measurements comparable.

The records of the measurements were as complete as possible. The

sonant and the interval of each element were measured, and all the

pauses except the stanza pause were recorded. The intensity of each

syllable was recorded beneath the length of the syllable, and notes

were made both from the appearance of the curve and from the

phonograph record.

2. The Normal Form of Unrhymed Verse.

To determine the influence of a subordinate factor in rhythm such as

rhyme, it is necessary to know the normal form of verse without this

factor. It is natural to assume that the simplest possible form of

material would be individual feet recorded seriatim. But on trial,

such material turned out to be very complex; the forms changed

gradually, iambs becoming trochees and trochees changing into

spondees. It is very probable that the normal foot occurs only in a

larger whole, the verse.

To corroborate the conclusions from perceived rhythms as to the

existence of variations in earlier and later parts of the verse, a

table of mean variations was prepared from the material recorded and

measured for other purposes.

TABLE VI.

MEAN VARIATIONS.

Iambic tetrameters; variations of each element from the average foot

of the entire stanza.

[Label 1: Unaccented Element of Foot.]

[Label 2: Accented Element of Foot.]

[Label 3: Percentage M.V. of Unac. El.]

[Label 4: Percentage M.V. of Ac. El.]

Hu. 8 stanzas [1] [2] [3] [4]

M.V. 1st foot 0.9688 1.3125 11.1 7.8

2d ” 0.8125 0.6563 9.3 3.9

3d ” 0.8438 1.1875 9.7 7.1

4th ” 0.9688 11.

Av. foot of all stanzas 8.69 16.88

Geo. 10 stanzas, no accents or rhymes within the verse:

M.V. 1st foot 2.725 2.775 24.6 13.3

2d ” 1.300 1.325 11.8 6.4

3d ” 1.400 2.050 12.7 9.8

4th ” 2.750 24.9

Av. foot of all stanzas 11.05 20.85

Geo. 8 stanzas, accents and rhymes within the verse:

M.V. 1st foot 1.4843 2.4687 13.1 11.5

2d ” 1.4219 2.6875 12.6 12.6

3d ” 1.7031 2.5312 15.1 11.8

4th ” 1.8594 16.4

Av. foot of all stanzas 11.31 21.38

The last element has the ‘finality-form’ and is not comparable to the

other accented elements and therefore is not given.

Dactylic tetrameters (catalectic); variations of each element from the

average foot of the entire stanza:

[Label 1: Accented elements of Foot]

[Label 2: 1st Unaccented element of Foot]

[Label 3: 2d Unaccented element of Foot]

[Label 4: Percentage M.V. of Ac. El.]

[Label 5: Percentage M.V. of 1st Unac. El.]

[Label 6: Percentage M.V. of 2d Unac. El.]

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Me., Ha., 8 stanzas, normal:

M.V. 1st foot 1.6875 1.2813 1.8125 9.70 9.76 10.5

” 2d ” 1.0613 1.0613 1.4061 6.1 8.0 8.1

” 3d ” 1.6875 1.3125 1.3750 9.7 9.9 7.9

Av. foot 17.38 13.18 17.31

Geo. 4, stanzas, abnormal type of dactylic foot:

M.V. 1st foot 1.5000 1.1250 1.2813 11.5 11.0 8.7

” 2d ” 1.5625 1.1250 1.1250 12.0 11.0 7.6

” 3d ” 1.3437 1.1873 0.8737 10.3 11.5 5.9

Av. foot 13.00 10.25 14.75

Me., Ha., G., Hu., Am., accent on 2d foot, 8 stanzas:

M.V. 1st foot 2.4688 1.3125 2.2813 12.7 12.7 11.5

” 2d ” 2.3750 1.1250 3.8438 12.2 8.7 19.3

” 3d ” 2.9688 1.3750 2.2500 15.5 10.7 11.3

Av. foot 19.44 12.88 19.88

Me., Ha., G., Hu., 19 stanzas, normal:

M.V. 1st foot 1.9474 1.2500 2.2763 10.8 8.6 11.4

” 2d ” 1.3816 1.2369 1.7766 7.7 8.5 9.3

” 3d ” 1.3158 1.2105 1.6382 7.3 8.4 8.6

Av. foot 18.00 14.24 19.05

Me., Ha., G., 6 stanzas, normal:

M.V. 1st foot 2.0000 1.2083 1.8750 10.5 10.4 10.7

” 2d ” 2.6250 1.0416 2.1666 13.8 9.1 12.3

” 3d ” 2.1250 1.3333 1.3333 11.3 11.4 7.6

Av. foot 18.92 11.58 17.50

The last foot (catalectic) is not comparable in these dactylic stanzas.

The mean variations of the table (Table VI.) were calculated as

follows: The average for all the elements of the stanza was obtained

and an average foot constructed (excluding the last sonant and the

pause of the verse). From this average foot the variations of all the

first feet were computed, then the variations of all the second feet,

etc. Then the variations of the first feet of the stanza were averaged

and percentages taken, etc.; it is this last value which goes to the

making up of the tables. In inspecting the averages the corresponding

elements of the feet should be compared. Any increased length due to a

prescribed accent within the verse, etc., appears in the averages as a

corresponding increase in the mean variation at that point, and only

the first and last feet can be compared as to the variations in the

verse as a whole. In making up the tables the material