In the successive stages of the investigation thus far, the
complication experiment has been stripped down by degrees to the
simple problem of the shortest possible interval between two disparate
stimuli,--in this case shortest auditory-visual and visual-auditory
intervals, as in the one-letter experiment of Table IV and the one-pair
experiment of Table VI. The various factors in the complication
experiment which have been successively analyzed out--the interval
between members of the auditory series, the length of the visual
series, the position of the visual series in relation to the auditory
stimulus, and the auditory series itself--have all been shown to be
factors intimately connected with the way the observer attends to
the stimuli in question. From the present standpoint, it may be said
they are all factors which, being introduced into the simple interval
discrimination experiment, modify the resulting judgment with regard to
the interval, by an interference with the normal attention-processes in
the discrimination of intervals.
INTERVAL DISCRIMINATION
The method of interval discrimination deserves special consideration.
Some of the introspective observations made by observers while engaged
in the work, already reported, are instructive in this connection. In
the case of a single pair, one observer said, "I know which is first
because it gets hit first." This remark is a very apt expression of
my own experience in trying to answer the same question. "Getting
hit first" clearly means, to my mind, some kind of _action_ on the
part of the observer. He was ready, in the moment of preparation for
the experiment, to see a flash of red with his right eye (either eye
could have been used) and to hear a click with his left ear. (The
stimuli were each produced 25 cm. from the respective sense-organs.)
His preparation consisted in securing the "hair-trigger" condition in
the two parts of the cortex and conduction apparatus immediately in
question in the sensing of the two expected stimuli, and other parts
are in a shut-off-from-discharge condition. This is the interpretation
which seems to me an appropriate explanation of the feeling of special
readiness to discharge in these two directions, when the expected
stimuli shall come. The eye- and ear-muscles, in such case, are held
tense on the sides (in the organs) where the stimuli are expected.
The breath is held, and the whole trunk is under a strain. All bodily
processes, in so far as they are controlled, are directed in such wise
as to get whichever of these expected impressions shall come first, in
as short time as possible, in order to know that it is first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account