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
possible whatever æsthetic advantage a symmetrical arrangement might
be supposed to secure.
It thus appears that, whatever the effect in ideation of unity in the
impression, the effect is much greater when we have complexity in
unity. The advantage of unity is undoubtedly the advantage which goes
with definiteness of impression, which implies definite excitations
and inhibitions, and that concentration of energy and intensity of
effect in which undirected activity is wanting. But a bare unity, it
appears, is less effective than a diversified unity. To what extent
this diversity may be carried we make no attempt to determine; but,
within the limits of our experiment, its value in the ideational
rivalry seems to be indisputable. And the results of the experiment
afford fresh proof of the importance of the motor element in internal
perception.
TABLE XIII.
1 2 3 4 5 Indiv. Av.
F V F V F V F V F V F V
I. 25 29 26 29 29.5 26.5 25.5 30 24.5 31 26.1 29.1
II. 56 56 55 55 54 54.5 47.5 47.5 45 50 51.5 52.6
III. 2.5 5.5 2.5 8.5 6.5 5 16.5 9.5 17 15 9.0 8.7
IV. 48 48 31.5 31.5 31 46 51.5 51.5 35 52 39.4 45.8
V. 54 54 56.5 52 56 56 56 56 54 56 55.3 54.8
VI. 39 29 30 33.5 35.5 22.5 32.5 34 33.5 24.5 34.1 28.7
VII. 46 55 54.5 46.5 46.5 50 49.5 54 47 46 48.7 50.3
VIII. 9 14.5 23 20.5 23.5 22 18 14.5 16 17 17.9 17.7
IX. 43 43 46.5 46.5 45.5 45.5 43.5 43.5 46 47.5 44.9 45.2
X. 28 26.5 21 29.5 26.5 26.5 21.5 31.5 25 29 24.4 28.6
XI. 23.5 46 19.5 35.5 20 46 24 47.5 28.5 19.5 23.1 38.9
34.00 36.95 33.27 35.27 34.05 36.41 35.09 38.14 33.77 35.23 34.03 36.40
F: Figure (in outline). V: Vertical lines.
General average: Figure, 34.03 sec.; vertical lines, 36.40 sec.
_Series No. XIII._--In this series, also, both the figures of each
pair were constituted of the same elements; that is to say, both were
linear, and presented the same extent of surface (granite-gray), with
the same length of line, the total length of the lines in each figure
being twenty centimeters and the breadth of the lines being three
millimeters. But while the lines of one figure were connected so as to
form a continuous boundary, the lines of the other figure were all
vertical, with equal interspaces. And, as in the last preceding
series, the two figures were formed by a different but symmetrical
arrangement of the same lines.
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