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
_Series No. XV._--The figures in each pair of this series were
full-faced, and of the same shape and size, but one was gray and the
other colored, the gray being seen first to the left, and then to the
right. The colors used were of Prang's series (Gray, R., Y., G., B.,
V.). In No. 1 the figures were in the form of a six-pointed star, and
gray was compared with red. In No. 2 the figures were elliptical, and
gray was compared with yellow. In No. 3 a broad circular band of gray
was compared with the same figure in green. In No. 4 the figures were
kite-shaped, and gray was compared with blue. In No. 5 a circular
surface of gray was compared with a circular surface of violet. The
objects compared were exposed at the same time, under the usual
conditions.
As might perhaps be expected, the colored surfaces proved to be the
more persistent in ideation, showing a general average of 37.81
seconds per minute as against 30.90 seconds for the gray.
The distinctness of the process of color apprehension is reflected in
the notes: "In the colored images I find the color rather than the
form occupying my attention; the image seems like an area of color, as
though I were close to a wall and could not see the boundary;" and
then we have the significant addition, "yet I feel myself going about
in the colored area." Again: "In the gray the outline was more
distinct than in the colors; the color seems to come up as a shade,
and the outline does not come with it." Or again: "The gray has a more
sharply defined outline than the color." This superior definiteness in
outline of the gray figures is subject to exceptions, and one subject
reports 'the green outline more distinct than the gray.' And even so
brilliant a color as yellow did not always obscure the boundary: "The
yellow seems to burn into my head," says one of the subjects, "but the
outline was distinct." The reports in regard to this color (yellow)
are in fact rather striking, and are sometimes given in terms of
energy, as though the subject were distinctly conscious of an active
process (objectified) set up in the apprehension of this color. The
reports run: "The yellow has an expansive power; there seemed to be no
definite outline." "The yellow seemed to exert a power over the gray
to suppress it; its power was very strong; it seemed to be
aggressive."
TABLE XVI.
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