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 numbers under _L_ and _R_ denote the number of seconds
during which the left-hand image and the right-hand image,
respectively, were present in the period of introspection (60
seconds).
General average: _L_, 30.8 sec.; _R_, 31.9 sec.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
_Series No. 1._--For the purpose of obtaining something that might
serve as a standard of comparison, a series of observations was made
in which the members of every pair were exact duplicates of each
other, and were presented under exactly the same conditions, spatial
position of course excepted. The records of these observations are for
convenience placed first as Table I.
In treating the facts recorded in the accompanying tables as phenomena
of inhibition no assumption is implied, it may be well to repeat, that
the ideational images are forces struggling with each other for
mastery. Nor is it implied, on the other hand, that they are wholly
unconditioned facts, unrelated to any phenomena in which we are
accustomed to see the expression of energy. Inhibition is meaningless
save as an implication of power lodged somewhere. The implication is
that these changes are conditioned and systematic, and that among the
conditions of our ideas, if not among the ideas themselves, power is
exerted and an inferior yields to a superior force. Such force, in
accordance with our general presupposition, must be neural or
cerebral. Even mental inhibition, therefore, must ultimately refer to
the physical conditions of the psychical fact. But the reference, to
have any scientific value, must be made as definite as the case will
allow. We must at least show what are the conditions under which a
state of consciousness which might otherwise occur does not occur.
When such conditions are pointed out, and then only, we have a case of
what has been called psychical inhibition; and we are justified in
calling it inhibition because these are precisely the conditions under
which physiological inhibition may properly be inferred. And, we may
add, in order that the conditions may be intelligibly stated and
compared they must be referable to some objective, cognizable fact.
Here the accessible facts, the experiential data, to which the
psychical changes observed and the cerebral changes assumed may both
be referred, are visual objects, namely, the figures already
described.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account