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

appears that subject M is perfectly uniform in mechanical choice

when the fixed line is the small line—i.e. when it moves out, the

larger is placed near the center; but when the conditions of

mechanical choice would demand that, as the larger fixed line moves

out, the small variable one should move out farther, he regularly

chooses the reverse. Nevertheless, he insists that in just these

cases he has a feeling of equilibrium.

A also takes the mechanical choice as the small fixed line goes

farther from the center; but when the fixed line is large and leaves

the center, he reverses the mechanical choice—evidently because it

would take the small line too far out. As he says, ‘he is always

disturbed by too large a black space in the center.’

G almost always takes the mechanical choice;—in one whole set of

experiments, in which the fixed line is the large line, he reverses

regularly.

H takes for F. (80×10) the mechanical choice only for the positions

F. 160 and F. 200—i.e., only when F. is very far from the center

and he wishes V. (160×10) nearer. For F. (160×10) he makes six such

choices out of ten, but for positions F. 160 and F. 200 he has V. 44,

65 and 20.

S takes for F. (160×10) at F. 120, V. 185 and-70; says of V. 185,

which is also his choice for F. (160×10) at F. 80, ‘I cannot go out

further, because it is so hard to take in the whole field.’ For F.

(160×10) at F. 200, he has V. 130 and 60; says of V. 60, ‘Very

agreeable elements in connection with the relation of the two lines.’

C takes for F. (80×10) only one mechanical choice until it is at F.

120. Then always mechanical, i.e., nearer center; for F. (160×10)

makes after the position F. 40 no mechanical choice, i.e., V. is

nearer center.

It is evident from the above tables and individual cases that the

reversals from the mechanical choice occur only when the mechanical

choice would bring both lines in the center, or both near the edges,

and the subjective testimony shows from what point of view this

appears desirable. The subjects wish ‘to take in the whole field,’

they wish ‘not to be disturbed by too large a black space in the

center’; and when, in order to cover in some way the whole space, the

small line is drawn in or the large one pushed out, they have,

nevertheless, a feeling of equilibrium in spite of the reversal of

mechanical balance.

Accepting for the present, without seeking a further psychological

explanation, the type of ‘mechanical balance,’ in which amount of

space is a substitute for weight, as the one most often observed, we

have to seek some point of view from which this entire reversal is

intelligible. For even the feeling that ‘the whole field must be

covered’ would hardly account for an exact interchanging of positions.

If size gives ‘weight,’ why does it not always do so? A simple answer

would seem to be given by the consideration that we tend to give most

attention to the center of a circumscribed space, and that any object

in that center will get proportionately more attention than on the

outskirts. The small line near the center, therefore, would attract

attention by virtue of its centrality, and thus balance the large

line, intrinsically more noticeable but farther away. Moreover, all

the other moments of æsthetic pleasure, derived from the even filling

of the space, would work in favor of this arrangement and against the

mechanical arrangement, which would leave a large black space in the

middle.

The hypothesis, then, that the demand for the filling of the whole

space without large gaps anywhere enters into competition with the

tendency to mechanical balance, and that this tendency is,

nevertheless, reconciled with that demand through the power of a

central position to confer importance, would seem to fit the facts. It

is, of course, clear that neither ‘mechanical balance’ nor the balance

of ‘central’ with ‘intrinsic’ importance have been yet accounted for

on psychological grounds; it is sufficient at this point to have

established the fact of some kind of balance between elements of

different qualities, and to have demonstrated that this balance is at

least not always to be translated into the ‘mechanical’ metaphor.

C. Experiments on Movement.

In the preceding experiments the element of size was isolated, and it

was sought to discover, in pleasing combinations of objects of

different sizes, the presence of some kind of balance and the meaning

of different tendencies of arrangement. The relative value of the two

objects was taken as determined on the assumption, supported by common

sense, that under like conditions a large object is given more

attention than a small one. If the unequal objects seem to balance

each other, then the only other condition in which they differ, their

distance from the center, must be the cause of their balancing. Thus

the influence of relative position, being the only unknown quantity in

this balance-equation, is easily made out.

The following experiments will deal with the as yet quite undetermined

elements of suggested movement, perspective and intrinsic interest. By

combining objects expressing them, each with another simple object of

the same size, another equation will be obtained in which there is

only one unknown quantity, the sizes of the objects being equal and

the influence of relative position being at least clearly indicated.

1. Movement.

The experiments on suggestion of movement were made by C, O and

P. Suggestions of movement in pictures are of two kinds—given by

lines pointing in a direction which the eye of the spectator tends to

follow, and by movement represented as about to take place and

therefore interpreted as the product of internal energy. Thus, the

tapering of a pyramid would give the first kind of suggestion, the

picture of a runner the second kind. Translated into terms of

experiment, this distinction would give two classes dealing with (A)

the direction of a straight line as a whole, and (B) the expression of

internal energy by a curve or part of a line. In order to be able to

change the direction of a straight line at a given point, a strip of

tin two inches long was fastened by a pivot to the usual clasp which

slipped up and down on the vertical black strip. The tin strip could

be moved about the pivot by black threads fastened to its perforated

ends. A strip of cardboard glued upon it would then take its

direction. The first experiments, made with the usual 80×10 strip,

proved very disagreeable. The subject was much disturbed by the blunt

ends of the strip. The variable (pivoted) line was then slightly

pointed at the upper end, and in the final experiments, in which both

are oblique, both strips were pointed at each end. In Exp. III. a line

pointing at an angle from the perpendicular was set over against a

line of the same dimensions in the ordinary position.

Exp. III. (a) F. (80×10) pointed up toward center at 145°,

V. (80×10).

F. 40:—(1) 39 48 48, (2) 60 66 68, (3) 97 97, (4) 156* 168*.

F. 60:—(1) 45, (2) 60 62 65 68 90, (3) 90 94, (4) 117 128 152

F. 80:—(1) 50 44*, (2) 74 76 77, (3) 94 100 106 113 115 116,

(4) 123 124* 140 165* 169*.

F. 100:—(1) 36 58 60 65* 65 74 77 80 87, (2) 98 108 118, (3)

114* 168 186* 170 136*.

F. 120:—(1) 40 46 54 60 63 76 96 97 111, (2) 115 120 126*

137*, (3) 170 170*.

F. 140:—(1) 45 52 65 65 76 76 86 90, (2) 109 111, (3) 125

140*, (4) 168*.

F. 160:—(1) 38 50 50 60, (2) 80 90 96 98 98, (3) 176*.

F. 180:—(1) 21 23, (2) 54 70 84 90, (3) 100 100 108 114 120,

(4) 130 145*.

F. 200:—(1) -2, (2) 33 37 50, (3) 106 110 to 120 115 120 130

132 138 142.

The most striking point about these groups is the frequency of

positions far from the center when F. also is far out. At F. 120, a

position at which the mechanical choice usually prevails if F. is

smaller, a very marked preference indeed appears for positions of V.

nearer the center—in fact, there is only one opposing (first) choice.

Now, if it is not the wide space otherwise left which pulls the

variable in,—and we see from a note that the subjects have no feeling

of a large empty space in the center,—it must be that F. has the same

effect as if it were really smaller than V., that is, mechanically

‘light.’ We see, in fact, that the moment F. has passed the point,

between 80 and 100, at which both lines close together in the center

would be disagreeable, the preference is marked for inner positions of

V., and I repeat that this cannot be for space-filling reasons, from

the testimony of F. 200 (3).

And this ‘lightness’ of the line pointed in at 45° is indeed what we

should have expected a priori since we found that objective

heaviness is balanced by a movement out from the center on the

mechanical principle. If movement out and objective heaviness are in

general alike in effect, then movement in and objective lightness

should be alike in effect, as we have found to be the case from the

preceding experiments. The inward-pointed line does not actually move

in, it is true, but it strongly suggests the completion of the

movement. It enters into the ‘mechanical’ equation—it appears to

balance—as if it had moved.

The point, however, in which this ‘lightness’ of the inward-pointed

line differs from that of the small or short line is its space-filling

quality. It suggests movement in a certain direction, and, while

giving the mechanical effect of that movement as completed, seems also

in a sense to cover that space. We see from F. 180 (3), (4), and 200

(3), that the subject does not shrink from large spaces between the

lines, and does not, as in Exp. I. (a), 4 and 5, bring the variable,

which in both cases is evidently ‘heavier,’ to the center. This must

be from the fact that the empty space does not in this experiment feel

empty—it is filled with energy of the suggested movement. This view

is confirmed by the dislike which the subjects show to the position F.

40; F., being ‘lighter,’ but the object of attention as close to the

center, might well balance V. far out. But as if the whole variable

field would be in that case ‘overfilled,’ the records show 50 per

cent. of refusals to choose for this position.

In brief, then, a straight line suggesting movements in a certain

direction has the effect, in the general scheme of mechanical balance,

of a static position in which this movement has been carried out, with

the added suggestion of the filling of the space over which such

movement is suggested.

A few additional experiments were made with a point on the upper end

of V. The groups of III. (a) are maintained almost exactly: F. 120

is again strikingly ‘mechanical’; after F. 120 there are only two

mechanical choices out of nineteen; while for F. 40, as in Exp. III.

(a), out of six choices, four are either refusals or question-marked.

Exp. IV. Both lines took oblique directions, and, to