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
In the second case (Fig. 3:2) the wall _W_ is in position and the eye
so adjusted in the eye-rest that the light _L_ is not seen until the
eye has moved about 10° to the right, that is, until the axis of
vision is at _Ex_. Clearly, then, the image of _L_ falls at first a
little to the right of the fovea, and continues in indirect vision to
the end of the movement. The stimulated part of the retina is _l-l'_
(Fig. 3:2). Here, then, we have no stimulation of the eye during the
first part of its movement. The corresponding appearance of the streak
is also shown. Only the correctly localized streak is seen, extending
from the light _L_ toward the right but not quite reaching _B'_. Thus
by cutting out that portion of the stimulation which was given during
the first part of the movement, we have eliminated the whole of the
false image, and the right-hand (foveal) part of the correct image.
Fig. 3:3 shows the reverse case, in which the stimulation is given
only during the first part of the movement. The wall is fixed on the
right of _L_, and the eye so adjusted that _L_ remains in sight until
the axis of vision reaches position _Ex_, that is, until it has moved
about 10°. A short strip of the retina next the fovea is here
stimulated, just the part which in case 2 was not stimulated; and the
part which in case 2 was, is here not stimulated. Now here the false
streak is seen, together with just that portion of the correct streak
which in the previous case was not seen. The latter is relatively dim.
Thus it looks indeed as if the streak given during the first part of
an eye-movement is seen twice and differently localized. But one may
say: The twice-seen portion was in both cases on the fovea; this may
have been the conditioning circumstance, and not the fact of being
given in the early part of the movement.
We must then consider Fig. 3, case 4. Here the eye moves from _B_ to
_B'_, through the same arc of 40°. The wall _W_ is placed so that _L_
cannot be seen until the axis of vision has moved from _EB_ to _EL_,
but _then L_ is seen in direct vision. Its image falls full on the
fovea. But one streak, and that the correctly localized one, is seen.
This is like case 2, except that here the streak extending from _L_ to
the right quite reaches the final fixation-point _B'_. It is therefore
not the fact of a stimulation being foveal which conditions its being
seen in two places.
It should be added that this experiment involves no particular
difficulties of observation, except that in case 4 the eye tends to
stop midway in its movement when the spot of light _L_ comes in view.
Otherwise no particular training of the subject is necessary beyond
that needed for the observing of any after-image. Ten persons made the
foregoing observations and were unanimous in their reports.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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