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
Perhaps least satisfactory of all is their statement (_ibid._, p. 206)
that "A brief acquaintance with the illusion sufficed to convince us
that its appearance was due to contrast of some form, though the
precise nature of this contrast is the most difficult point of all."
The present discussion undertakes to explain with considerable
minuteness every factor of the illusion, yet the writer does not see
how in any essential sense contrast could be said to be involved.
With the other observations of these authors, as that the general
effect of an increase in the width of the interrupting rod was to
render the illusion less distinct and the bands wider, etc., the
observations of the present writer fully coincide. These will
systematically be given later, and we may now drop the discussion of
this paper.
The only other mention to be found of these resolution-bands is one by
Sanford,[2] who says, apparently merely reiterating the results of
Jastrow and Moorehouse, that the illusion is probably produced by the
sudden appearance, by contrast, of the rod as the lighter sector
passes behind it, and by its relative disappearance as the dark sector
comes behind. He thus compares the appearance of several rods to the
appearance of several dots in intermittent illumination of the strobic
wheel. If this were the correct explanation, the bands could not be
seen when both sectors were equal in luminosity; for if both were
dark, the rod could never appear, and if both were light, it could
never disappear. The bands can, however, be seen, as was stated above,
when both the sectors are light or both are dark. Furthermore, this
explanation would make the bands to be of the same color as the rod.
But they are of other colors. Therefore Sanford's explanation cannot
be admitted.
[2] Sanford, E.C.: 'A Course in Experimental Psychology,'
Boston, 1898, Part I., p. 167.
And finally, the suggestions toward explanation, whether of Sanford,
or of Jastrow and Moorehouse, are once for all disproved by the
observation that if the moving rod is fairly broad (say three quarters
of an inch) and moves _slowly_, the bands are seen nowhere so well as
_on the rod itself_. One sees the rod vaguely through the bands, as
could scarcely happen if the bands were images of the rod, or
contrast-effects of the rod against the sectors.
The case when the rod is broad and moves slowly is to be accounted a
special case. The following observations, up to No. 8, were made with
a narrow rod about five degrees in width (narrower will do), moved by
a metronome at less than sixty beats per minute.
III. OUTLINE OF THE FACTS OBSERVED.
A careful study of the illusion yields the following points:
1. If the two sectors of the disc are unequal in arc, the bands are
unequal in width, and the narrower bands correspond in color to the
larger sector. Equal sectors give equally broad bands.
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