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
If the time-value of the simple rhythm group here depended solely on
the relation of the successive stimuli to the subjective rhythm
period, no progressive diminution should be presented, for in
proportion as the absolute value of the separating intervals decreases
the true nature of this period should be more clearly manifested. It
is scarcely to be doubted that the complexity of its content is
likewise a determinant of the temporal value of this period, and that
to this factor is to be attributed the changes which are here
presented.[4]
[4] Bolton reports a similar decrease in the temporal value of
the unit, and gives the following quantitative relations:
Average length of 2-group, 1.590 secs.
" " " 3-group, 1.380 "
" " " 4-group, 1.228 "
" " " 6-group, 1.014 "
" " " 8-group, 1.160 "
In subjective rhythmization the number of elements which compose the
unit is dependent solely on the relation of the subjective rhythm
period to the rate of succession among such elements. In objective
rhythm, as has been pointed out, a free treatment of the material is
rendered impossible by the determination of specific points of
increased stress, in virtue of which a new unit of change appears,
namely, the whole period elapsing from any one occurrence of
accentuation to its return.
But this is not the sole determinant of the numerical limits of the
simple group in such objective rhythms. The structural unit must
indeed adhere to the scheme given by the period of the recurrent
accentuation; but the point at which simple successions of this figure
give place to complex structures (at which | >q. q q_| is replaced by
| >q. q q;_q. q q_|, for example) may conceivably be hastened or
retarded by other factors than that of the simple rate of succession.
The degrees of segregation and accentuation which characterize the
rhythmic unit are elements which may thus affect the higher synthesis.
Increase in either of these directions gives greater definition to the
rhythmic figure and should tend to preserve the simple group in
consciousness. The latter relation was not made the subject of special
investigation in this research. The former was taken up at a single
point. The sounds were two in number, alternately accented and
unaccented, produced by hammer-falls of 7/8 and 1/8 inch respectively.
These were given at three rates of succession, and three different
degrees of segregation were compared together. In the following table
is given, for six subjects, the average number of elements entering
into the group-form, simple or complex, under which the rhythm was
apprehended:
TABLE IV.
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