It was not generally found possible to analyze the feeling of certainty
into a sum of elements, although certain characteristics seemed to be
persistent in it. Here again there is marked individual variation. The
general test used for the difference in degrees of confidence was the
question "On which judgment would you risk more?" This satisfied every
one as a true criterion for such distinctions, but subjects H and C
said that for them the feeling of certainty had a much more distinct
relation with the past than with the future. Perhaps for that reason,
subject H proposed the test "Which judgment could I be converted from
most easily and simply?" The distinctness of an image had something to
do with the feeling of certainty for subject C. Beyond this, he could
not characterize his feeling. Neither was he sure that the degree of
certainty varied exactly with the degree of distinctness. Subject D
found that all objects about which he made judgments of which he was
certain were present to his mind in the form of distinct images; but
did not feel that that covered all that was to be said of the feeling
of certainty. The number of images present, as visual and auditory,
seemed to increase the degree of certainty for him. Subject F could
give no characterization of his feeling of psychological certainty. His
feeling of logical certainty seemed to spring largely from a feeling of
consistency between the present experience and his past experiences.
With subjects A, B, and K the vividness of an image was a strong
determining factor in the degree of certainty felt in any judgment, but
again was not the whole story. Something they could not characterize
was also present for A and B, and, as well, a feeling of more or less
perfect congruence between an image and the general character of a
field. (This introspection developed in connection with the visual
experiments.) Among these eight subjects we have but one (K) who is
satisfied with reducing certainty to a set of elements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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