had initiated into the secret, to inhibit them voluntarily. "Up" and
"down", "right" and "left", were expressed by movements of head or eye
in those directions, "forward" by a forward movement of the head, "back"
by a corresponding movement. "Yes" was accompanied by a slight nod of
the head; "no" by two to four rapid turnings of the head to either
side.[N] "Zero" was expressed by a movement of the head describing an
oval in the air. Indeed, it was even possible to discover whether the
subject had conceived of a printed or a written zero, for the
characteristics of both were revealed in the head-movements. I was able
later to verify this graphically. With Ch. as subject, I made 70%
correct interpretations in a total of 20 tests; with von A. as subject,
72% in a total of 25 tests. And finally I was able to interpret the
signs without any errors at all. It was not absolutely necessary to look
directly at the subject's face. Even though I focussed a point quite to
one side, so that the image of the subject's face would fall upon a
peripheral portion of my retina, I still was able to make 89% correct
interpretations in a total of 20 tests.--This is not astonishing after
all, when we recall that the periphery of the retina possesses a
relatively high sensitivity for movement impressions, although its
chromatic sensitivity is very low.[O]
[Footnote N: It was Charles Darwin[7] who first pointed out that the
expressive movements (of the coarser sort) to be noted in nearly
every race and people show a great, though by no means complete,
similarity. The similarity is most pronounced in the shaking of the
head to signify negation and nodding to denote affirmation. It will
be noted that the former is essentially of the nature of a turning
toward, and the latter a turning away.[8] These same movements have
been reported in the case of the blind and deaf Laura Bridgman,[9]
and we have been explicitly assured that they were a spontaneous
development, and not acquired by imitation. For it is by imitation
and never before the completion of the first year, that our children
acquire these movements. On account of his unreliability, we can put
but little stock in the statement of Garner,[10] a writer on the
speech of monkeys, that these same gestures have been observed in
the case of those animals. My experiments show that the same
movements, greatly diminished in scope, as a rule accompany the mere
thought of "yes," "no," etc. I cannot, however, regard the assertion
as an established fact that every thought process whatsoever is
connected with some form of muscular movement, as has been
generalized by the French physiologist Fere,[11] and the American
psychologist Wm. James.[12]]
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