Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1: Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory.
Science
Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1: Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory.
Psychology, Experimental
The observer sat with the light at his back, and by manipulation of
the cords adjusted the position of the white disc freely up and down
the screen until its center was judged to be on a level with the eye.
Its position was then read off the vertical scale by the conductor
(who sat hidden by an interposed screen), and the error of judgment
was recorded in degrees and fractions as a positive (upward) or
negative (downward) displacement. The disc was then displaced
alternately upward and downward, and the judgment repeated. From the
time of signalling that the point had been located until this
displacement the observer sat with closed eyes. These determinations
were made in series of ten, and the individual averages are in general
based upon five such series, which included regularly the results of
sittings on different days. In some cases twice this number of
judgments were taken, and on a few occasions less. The number of
judgments is attached to each series of figures in the tables. In that
which follows the individual values and their general averages are
given as minutes of arc for (_a_) the constant error or position of
the subjective horizon, (_b_) the average deviation from the objective
horizon, and (_c_) the mean variation of the series of judgments.
TABLE I.
Observer. Constant Error. Average Deviation. Mean Variation.
_A_ (100) -19.74 38.78 10.67
_C_ (90) -18.18 23.89 10.82
_D_ (100) -19.84 33.98 7.95
_E_ (50) - 4.28 72.84 6.90
_F_ (100) +46.29 46.29 2.05
_G_ (50) +14.96 35.40 8.40
_H_ (50) -27.22 27.46 5.78
_I_ (50) + 6.62 53.34 7.45
_K_ (50) + 1.08 30.26 6.59
_L_ (20) -56.70 56.70 10.39
Average: -7.70 41.89 7.69
The average subjective horizon shows a negative displacement, the
exceptional minority being large. No special facts could be connected
with this characteristic, either in method of judgment or in the past
habits of the reactor. The average constant error is less than an
eighth of a degree, and in neither direction does the extreme reach
the magnitude of a single degree of arc. Since the mean variation is
likewise relatively small, there is indicated in one's ordinary
judgments of this kind a highly refined sense of bodily orientation in
space.
II.
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