In order to overcome the difficulty just mentioned, I selected another
subject (Miss von L.), whose power of visualizing was very slight, and
requested her to fix her mind upon four words which I had selected
because they were not, necessarily, associated with a particular image.
The order in which the words were to be thought of, was entirely
optional on her part. The words were "Form", "Inhalt", "Mass", and
"Zahl", (form, content, measure, and number), and each of them I
accompanied, with a certain definite arm movement. The subject always
pronounced the word inwardly as emphatically as possible, but without
ever imaging the corresponding arm movement. Often, it must be noted,
she did not know whether or not the movement which I made was the proper
one. And yet she, too, soon fell into line in the matter of executing
unconsciously the characteristic head movements. In a total of 50 tests,
I was able to make 10 correct guesses in the course of the first 20
tests, 8 in the next 10 tests, and 19 in the last 20 tests. Miss von L.
noted only a few of her upward head-movements, viz.: those that were
especially pronounced (movements through about 2 millimeters), but of
the others she knew nothing. The same experiment was repeated with a
psychologist, well-trained in introspection, as a subject. Success was
even greater here. But no matter how closely the subject observed
himself, he was unable to solve the puzzle.
Variations which were introduced in these tests, I will only mention in
passing. Thus, instead of making an arm movement, I, in some cases,
would tap with my foot, for "Ibis" once, for "Kiebitz" twice. The
subject could not see my feet. The involuntary movement-expression which
became associated with "Ibis" was one nod of the head, with "Kiebitz"
two nods, etc. Here our only concern was to show that unconscious change
in natural expressive movements and the acquisition of artificial ones
are possible in the case of psychically normal subjects trained in
introspection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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