I repeated this series with three other persons, who had had some
psychological training. I did not use the same movement for each word in
all three cases, but indicated the word "Kiebitz", for instance, by
means of an upward movement in one case, by turning the head to the
right in another, etc. In one of the three cases the tests were almost
wholly unsuccessful. The cause for this came to light later, but it
would involve too much exposition to discuss it at this point. In the
case of the other two persons, the tests were successful beyond
expectation. I had made my various arm movements only a few times when
they presently began to raise their heads slightly when thinking of
"Irbis", and to move it to the right at the thought of "Kuerbis", etc. In
the two series of 35 tests I did not have a single error. In a number of
instances I succeeded in guessing the word upon which the subject had
decided, even before the test proper was entered upon--i. e., before the
signal for concentration had been given. Nothing surprised a subject
more than the remark: "You are intending to think of the word 'Kuerbis'",
or "You had thought of concentrating your mind upon 'Ibis' but later
decided in favor of 'Kiebitz'", yet nothing could be more simple. Before
every test the subject would consider what word he would fix upon, and
while he was saying to himself "I will choose 'Ibis'", the proper
movement would accompany his decision, although it was only very slight,
because attention had not yet attained the degree of concentration which
was employed in the test proper.
In these experiments also, the subjects, whom I know to be absolutely
trustworthy, declared that they never thought of the arm movements which
I was to make. They regarded them as being quite irrelevant. Also--with
but one exception--they thought of the objects, in so far as they imaged
them visually, as being directly before them, and not off in the
direction indicated by my arm movements. Thus they did not image the
plover ("Kiebitz") as being on the wing, when I raised my arm, or as
resting on the ground, when I pointed downward, etc. One of the subjects
had done this occasionally, but by no means regularly. He was therefore
asked to localize all objects in the same place, i. e., directly in
front of him at the level of the eye. He complied with this request, but
no change, whatever, was observed to occur in his expressive movements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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