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
An interruption of any desired relative length may be introduced
between repetitions of the series by restricting the distribution of
angular distances among the cams to the requisite fraction of the
whole revolution. Thus, if an interruption equal to the duration
included between the first and last hammer-falls of the series be
desired, the indices of position in the three cases described above
will become: 360°, 270°, 180°; 360°, 240°, 180°, and 360°, 260°, 180°.
In the case of series in which the heights of fall of the various
hammers are not uniform, a special adjustment must be superimposed
upon the method of distribution just described. The fall of the hammer
occupies an appreciable time, the duration of which varies with the
distance through which the hammer passes. The result, therefore, of an
adjustment of the cams on the basis adopted when the height of fall is
uniform for all would appear in a reduction of the interval following
the sound produced by a hammer falling from a greater height than the
rest, and the amount of this shortening would increase with every
addition to the distance through which the hammer must pass in its
fall. In these experiments such lags were corrected by determining
empirically the angular magnitude of the variation from its calculated
position necessary, in the case of each higher member of the series of
distances, to make the stroke of the hammer on its anvil simultaneous
with that of the shortest fall. These fixed amounts were then added to
the indices of position of the several cams in each arrangement of
intervals employed in the experiments.
This apparatus answers a variety of needs in practical manipulation
very satisfactorily. Changes in adjustment are easily and quickly
made, in regard to intensity, interval and absolute rate. If desired,
the gradation of intensities here employed may be refined to the
threshold of perceptibility, or beyond it.
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