Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory, Hugo Münsterberg [top fiction books of all time TXT] 📗

exceeded the

time of absence of the suppressed image.

 

In several experiments the subjects were unable to suppress the

indicated image, which in five cases was the image at the center of a

disc and in two cases the outer portion of the disc. Further, five

failures were by one subject, D., and one each by A. and F. The

statistical report here given includes only the results of the

successful experiments. Forty-four of the one hundred and ninety-seven

were completely successful, as the suppressed image did not return

throughout the entire period. The following table shows the grouping

of the experiments according to the recurrence of the suppressed

image:

 

Returned 0 times, 44

” 1 ” 26

” 2 ” 18

” 3 ” 25

” 4 ” 16

” 5 ” 16

” 6 to 10 ” 28

” more than 10 times, 24

Total, 197

 

Seventy-three and three fifths per cent. of all the experiments have

five or fewer returns of the suppressed images.

 

The subjects suppressed the image as soon as possible after each

return, the average time taken to accomplish these later suppressions

being 6.46 sec., while the average time of absence of the suppressed

image was 32.14 sec.

 

Including the first efforts and the first absences of the suppressed

image, the average time required to suppress the image was 7.60 sec.,

and the average time of absence of the suppressed image was 41.86 sec.

 

Arranging the subjects according to the average time they required to

accomplish a suppression, we have the following order. J. and F. had

more recurrences of the suppressed image than any of the other

subjects.

 

J. 1.64 sec.

F. 2.40 “

C. 4.80 “

B. 4.98 “

I. 6.06 “

G. 11.15 “

H. 11.84 “

A. 16.05 “

K. 16.70 “

D. 25.80 “

 

Arranging them by the average absence of the suppressed image we have

this order:

 

B. 251.08 sec

D. 193.89 “

H. 81.02 “

C. 62.07 “

I. 59.72 “

K. 31.83 “

J. 31.75 “

G. 19.47 “

A. 10.44 “

F. 10.09 “

 

It is to be remarked, however, that the ability to keep the suppressed

image out of the field increased with practice and that A. and F. had

less than half the number of experiments that the rest had. D., who

had but two thirds as many as most of the other subjects and therefore

had less practice in suppressing the image, stands yet second in

respect to this ability.

 

If we compare the subjects with regard to first efforts and first

absences only, we obtain the following orders:

 

According to Ave. Time req. According to Ave. Absence

for first Suppression. of Image after first Suppression.

J. 3.59 sec. B. 270.44 sec.

B. 5.79 ” D. 190.07 “

C. 7.88 ” F. 86.07 “

I. 9.77 ” H. 73.27 “

F. 12.67 ” K. 71.90 “

H. 15.27 ” I. 53.83 “

K. 21.63 ” C. 43.08 “

G. 21.88 ” J. 32.18 “

D. 23.28 ” G. 20.39 “

A. 28.32 ” A. 11.29 “

 

Arranging the groups of images suppressed according to the average

times of all suppressions and absences we have these orders:

 

Suppression. Absences.

Central Images, 5.41 Marginal Images, 125.12

Upper ” 6.95 Sundry ” 68.78

Left ” 8.60 Left ” 51.26

Right ” 8.94 Lower ” 50.04

Lower ” 9.11 Right ” 43.93

Marginal ” 11.35 Upper ” 32.35

Sundry ” 12.09 Central ” 26.54

 

SUBJECTIVE.

 

Most of the subjects imaginatively placed the image to be suppressed

behind the screen, in a drawer, in their closed hands, pushed it

forward into the remote distance, sliced up, burned up, or pulverized

and so destroyed it. B. and D. ‘thought it away’ directly, without

mechanism or device, or got rid of it ‘by a pure act of will.’

Superposition was tried, frequently with success, but at times the

under image shone through. When the objects were colored discs one

superposed on the other, the subject spread over the whole surface the

color of the image to be retained, but at times this resulted in there

being two shades of the upper color, and a yellow above a red changed

to an orange. When red was above yellow, the red appeared more highly

illuminated. Associations with objects of the color of the retained

image were found helpful but tended to modify the original color. Such

associations also, at times, by secondary associations brought back

the suppressed image. For example, when thinking of buttercups to

enforce a yellow image, the picture of grass surrounding the flowers

brought back the suppressed green image. Concentration of the

attention on the image to be retained and an ignoring of the other

was, on the whole, the method usually and successfully followed. This

concentration was helped by imagining the image marked off into minute

squares which were carefully counted. Numerous other devices of a

similar character were used. Objects having many details and those

lending themselves readily to suggestions of action (as a china

animal) were the most helpful in enabling the subject to concentrate

his attention on their image to the exclusion of another. Some

subjects conceived themselves as tracing with a pencil the outline and

details of the retained image. Frequently, when the two images were

originally near each other and one alone was being held by close

scrutiny of its parts, when this scrutiny reached the part of the

image which was nearest the position of the suppressed image, the

suppressed image returned. The original association between the two

images was often broken up by change of the position or shape of the

one to be suppressed. But devices soon became ‘worn out’ and new ones

had to be resorted to.

 

Motor impulses played a large part in the process of suppression, such

as head and eye movement away from the image to be suppressed,

contraction of the muscles of the forehead and scalp, occasional

‘setting’ of the teeth, pressure together of the hands when they were

supposed to be holding the image and of the knees under like

circumstances. The eye traced outline and details and the more

actively it could be so employed the more successful was the

suppression. The sensations of accommodation and of focusing

previously referred to were repeated in this series. Enunciation also

was very common.

 

Frequent comparison of the image with the percept was made at the

close of experiments and showed the utmost diversity in size,

vividness and distinctness. During an experiment when the suppressed

image came back, it was rarely more than a mere blur of color; in two

or three instances the form came without color. Green was found to be

a difficult color to hold. C. had an orange after-image from a

retained yellow image, a red image having been suppressed. Between the

images of a gray disc and an orange disc, three inches apart, he had

a blue disc. J., while suppressing an orange disc and retaining a

green disc, noticed that ‘when off the fovea the whole green disc

became bright orange.’ There was always a sense of readiness on the

part of the suppressed image to slip back. As C. expressed this, “The

thing suppressed exists in the fringe of consciousness.” The recurring

image usually came back at its original position even when the

retained image was being held in a different part of the field. In

such cases the retained image at once resumed its original place.

 

G. and J. were successful in proportion as they freed themselves from

the nervous strain of anxiety as to the result.

 

V. MOVEMENTS OF A SINGLE IMAGE, THE OBJECT HAVING BEEN MOVED DURING

THE EXPOSURE.

 

In an additional series of experiments with five of the same subjects

(B., G., H., I. and K.), the object was moved during the five seconds

of exposure either right, left, up or down, a distance of about six to

eight inches, and back again. In this way the subject was supplied

with further material of a pure memory type and it was believed that

some addition to our knowledge of the nature of the control of the

image might thus be made by securing data contrasting the construction

and the more purely reminiscent work of the imagination.

 

The question proposed is as follows: Does the fact that a certain

movement of an object was presented to the optical perception give an

advantage in time, or ease, to the mental recall of that object as so

moving, over its recall as moving in other directions? The subjective

experiences during such recalls may be expected to throw light upon

the matter.

 

The subject, with closed eyes, was requested to move the mental image

of the object in the four directions indicated above, returning it

after each movement to its original position, and the time of each

movement was recorded and, as well, the report of the subject with

regard to his subjective experiences. There were sixteen hundred

movements in all, eight hundred away from the original position of the

image (two hundred in each of the four directions mentioned above) and

eight hundred in returning to the original position.

 

Besides these experiments, other movements of the object during

exposure were made, such as inversion, rotation, change from the

vertical to the horizontal position and vice versa, rolling, oblique

movements and the subjective phenomena were recorded when the subject

had repeated with the image the designated movements. In all the

experiments the objects were moved by the hand of the conductor of the

experiment.

 

Table VII. gives the time record in seconds of these experiments for

each subject under each of the four variations: Movement of the object

to right, left, up, down.

 

TABLE VII.

 

MOVEMENTS OF A SINGLE IMAGE, THE OBJECT HAVING BEEN MOVED DURING THE

TIME OF OPTICAL STIMULATION. AVERAGE TIME IN SECONDS. TEN MOVEMENTS IN

EACH DIRECTION FOR EACH SUBJECT.

 

a. Object moved to right.

 

Subject R. Return L. Return Up Return Down Return Aver.

B. 0.57 0.75 0.62 0.60 0.64

0.35 0.42 0.37 0.62 0.44

G. 0.55 0.60 0.55 0.57 0.57

0.27 0.25 0.27 0.25 0.26

H. 6.95 6.90 6.47 6.40 6.65

5.40 5.55 4.50 5.00 5.11

I. 2.05 2.10 2.05 2.22 2.10

1.15 1.35 1.32 1.57 1.35

K. 2.35 2.97 2.42 2.62 2.59

1.17 1.20 1.17 1.55 1.28

Ave. 2.49 2.66 2.02 2.48 2.52

1.67 1.75 1.53 1.80 1.69

 

Ave. to right, 2.49

Ave. of other movements, 2.52

Grand average, 2.10

 

b. Object moved to left.

B. 0.72 0.60 0.62 0.60 0.64

0.52 0.40 0.52 0.42 0.47

G. 0.67 0.45 0.55 0.67 0.59

0.42 0.35 0.35 0.37 0.37

H. 8.22 5.95 6.52 6.42 6.78

5.82 4.10 4.37 5.55 4.96

I. 2.40 1.30 2.25 2.72 2.17

1.97 1.22 0.95 1.47 1.40

K. 2.45 2.57 2.25 2.00 2.30

1.70 1.60 1.32 1.35 1.49

Ave. 2.89 2.17 2.44 2.48 2.50

2.09 1.53 1.50 1.83 1.74

 

Ave. to left, 2.17

Ave. of other movements, 2.60

Grand average, 2.12

 

c. Object moved up.

B. 0.75 0.62 0.42 0.57 0.59

0.32 0.50 0.42 0.37 0.40

G. 0.65 0.57 0.45 0.47 0.54

0.35 0.27 0.25 0.27 0.29

H. 6.77 6.25 6.85 6.15 6.57

5.27 5.55 5.30 5.30 5.35

I. 2.47 2.27 1.85 2.65 2.31

1.25 1.00 0.87 1.10 1.05

K. 3.40 2.72 1.42 2.20 2.44

1.50 1.37 1.27 1.17 1.33

Ave. 2.81 2.49 2.20 2.41 2.48

1.74 1.74 1.62 1.70 1.69

 

Ave. up, 2.20

Ave. of other movements, 2.57

Grand average, 2.08

 

d. Object moved down.

B. 0.80 0.72 0.70 0.57 0.70

0.42 0.42 0.50 0.42 0.44

G. 0.60 0.60 0.55 0.47 0.55

0.25 0.25 0.27 0.27 0.26

H. 6.77 6.80 6.80 8.77 7.29

5.90 6.35 4.55 5.55 5.59

I. 2.30 2.20 2.22 1.80 2.13

1.30 1.20 1.15 1.42