The interspaces were 150 mm. in every case, but 1 was 150 mm. wide; 2 =
110 mm.; 3 = 70 mm. All the spatial subjects found Fig. 22 worse than
Fig. 21. The irregularity and general disorder was more pronounced.
Although the rhythm had never consciously given them pleasure, and,
when not violated, was never noticed, still the threefold difference
in size violates some feeling which they can only express in rhythmic
terms. Some tried to group the three units into a larger group, but
this being unsymmetrical displeased them. Others picked out the most
satisfactorily proportioned unit and ignored the others, but any
possible apperception was irritating. The temporal subjects found it
equally poor. They felt the continual dissatisfaction of having their
expectation, that the adjacent unit should be the same, disappointed.
They all said that they could carry the feeling of repetition over
_one_ dissimilar unit (_i. e._, in an alternating series of two
different units), but that the third difference completely upset
the scheme. When only the filling varied as in Fig. 21, it could be
partially ignored, but difference in size could not be ignored, and
only the equal distances apart kept them from being a heap. They could
not _feel_ the evenness of the empty interspaces, however. They were
not consciously present in the experience at all, they merely _knew_
they must be even. There was no feeling-tone whatever to the empty
alternates.
Only one subject preferred Fig. 22 to Fig. 21, and the reason was
obvious. 1, 2, and 3 appeared as the same unit where variation in size
was apperceived as due to perspective. Thus, instead of appearing as
three units repeated, they were one set which progressed by means of
"pulsations" or regular intervals of perspective. This gave an added
richness to the rhythm, and was very pleasant. As three separate units
of different size, there was no meaning in the series whatever.
It is evident from these introspections that, although the likes and
dislikes may vary, the principles on which they are based have much in
common.
The points on which they agreed unanimously were the following:
(1) There is no feeling of repetition for three separate units. The
series may be enjoyed by means of subjective grouping of one kind or
another, but as separate elements, the feeling of repetition is broken
by adding the third.
(2) There is a distinction between perceiving or _knowing_ a
repetition, and _feeling_ it. Even though a subject is equally
conscious that elements are repeated according to some scheme in two
different cases, he may feel it in one case and not in the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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