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
If, now, the eye which watches this process is kept from moving, these
relations will be reproduced on the retina. For the retinal area
corresponding to the triangle _p^{A}Op^{B}_, there will be less
stimulation from the sector _A_ than there would have been if the
pendulum had not partly hidden it. That is, the triangle in question
will not be seen of the fused color of _A_ and _B_, but will lose a
part of its _A_-component. In the same way the triangle _p^{B}OpC_
will lose a part of its _B_-component; and so on alternately. And by
as much as either component is lost, by so much will the color of the
intercepting pendulum (in this case, black) be present to make up the
deficiency.
We see, then, that the purely geometrical relations of disc and
pendulum necessarily involve for vision a certain banded appearance of
the area which is swept by the pendulum, if the eye is held at rest.
We have now to ask, Are these the bands which we set out to study?
Clearly enough these geometrically inevitable bands can be exactly
calculated, and their necessary changes formulated for any given
change in the speed or width of _A_, _B_, or _P_. If it can be shown
that they must always vary just as the bands we set out to study are
_observed_ to vary, it will be certain that the bands of the illusion
have no other cause than the interception of retinal stimulation by
the sectors of the disc, due to the purely geometrical relations
between the sectors and the pendulum which hides them.
And exactly this will be found to be the case. The widths of the bands
of the illusion depend on the speed and widths of the sectors and of
the pendulum used; the colors and intensities of the bands depend on
the colors and intensities of the sectors (and of the pendulum); while
the total number of bands seen at one time depends on all these
factors.
V. GEOMETRICAL DEDUCTION OF THE BANDS.
In the first place, it is to be noted that if the pendulum proceeds
from left to right, for instance, before the disc, that portion of the
latter which lies in front of the advancing rod will as yet not have
been hidden by it, and will therefore be seen of the unmodified, fused
color. Only behind the pendulum, where rotating sectors have been
hidden, can the bands appear. And this accords with the first
observation (p. 167), that "The rod appears to leave behind it on the
disc a number of parallel bands." It is as if the rod, as it passes,
painted them on the disc.
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