The _Angelus_ or the _Shepherdess Knitting_ bring about feelings in
striking contrast to the feeling for the _Horse Fair_ picture. The
latter arouses suggestions of a tumultuous bodily condition, increased
muscular tonicity, muscles twitching everywhere, breathing heavier,
shoulders strained, and in comparison, great general innervation.
When the characteristic feeling had been aroused, the subjects were
requested to close their eyes and observe if possible to what extent
the feeling already aroused was dependent upon the retained images.
The results were clear. If the feeling is slight, as it is for some
subjects, the feeling tended to vanish and return with the recurring
images. If it is fairly strong, the feeling persists for some time
after visual imagery is lost. If very strong, the feeling is constant
for a still longer period and still less dependent upon the original
peripheral excitation. The feeling is always more constant than
any imagery. Not often for example is the whole picture retained.
Sometimes one prominent part only remains. Often again various kinds
of imagery aid in preserving the feeling. Besides visual, auditory,
the sounds of the horses' hoofs, of the tones of the Angelus bell, are
chiefly prominent in preserving the situation and the condition for
the feeling. Articulatory impulses again, in the tendency to repeat to
one's self such words as are descriptive of the moral meaning of the
pictures, offer sufficient clues to keep the desired feeling aroused.
When the feeling has "struck deep," subjects report motor imagery
pervading the whole system. In such cases the recurring visual imagery
has little effect upon the feeling. On the whole, the feelings for the
more quiet pictures last longer and are more easily retained than is
the case with the more exciting ones, if the original feelings are, as
to mere intensity, approximately equal.
The character and strength of these feeling-tones determine also to
a large extent the lines of association followed. Here the mutual
influences of feelings are clearly recognized. The character of the
new associated images and situations is colored by the feelings which
were connected with the original stimulations. The pictures, such, for
example, as the _Angelus_ and the _Horse Fair_, were presented to the
subjects in quick succession. These were to be merely starting-points
for association. For all the subjects who were able to report anything
definite, the feeling-tone for one was read into the associations which
were aroused by the other. The second of the two starting-points as
a rule controls the imagery. A few examples will illustrate how both
feeling-tones are retained. The _Angelus_ was presented first in these
cases, and the _Horse Fair_ second.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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