The reaction which gives the basis for the judgment may be a conscious
"hitting" of the first. Or it may be a reaction, ostensibly as a part
of the whole apperceptive process of which the auditory and visual
processes are parts. This reaction may be any one of many kinds.
Often it is a letting-go of the held breath. The exhalation or other
reaction comes in response to the whole stimulating or "setting-off"
process, and the one or the other of the two stimuli is judged to
be first by certain peculiar relations within the experience of the
moment. Such an explanation is in part suggested by the expression
of St, that the visual impression when it came before the auditory,
appeared as a "grace-note," and when it came after the auditory, as
an "after-strike." St played the piano. He himself thought that this
discrimination was a motor affair, _i. e._, a difference judged on
the basis of a difference in the motor response. The judgment of the
temporal order of the two impressions seemed to be an interpretation
or translation of the different motor responses.
A, whose method brought the shortest range in Tables IV, V, and VI,
said, "I hold my breath at the moment of expected stimulation, and it
goes at the first impression." At another time he said, "When I say
'click first' I have the feeling that the click is left, and when I say
'click last,' that the click is on the right." He interpreted this to
mean that when the click sounded first, he had moved slightly toward
it, that is, to the left, and that when the visual stimulus had come
first, he had moved slightly toward it (it was sensed by his left eye),
and this was rather away from the sound, which would have come before
the movement could have been more than initiated.
In my own case, I felt distinctly different motor responses in the
two cases. There was an immediate feeling of release in whichever
organ the stimulus first reached. A little involuntary jerk occurred
in the musculature of this sense-organ, and sometimes the head moved
slightly in the direction of the first stimulus. The condition of
the next moment from which the judgment proceeded seemed to be best
expressed thus, "I had it at a time when the other was not there." The
attention was accurately set for both. Right eye and left ear were both
distinctly innervated. The first stimulus "struck" the appropriate
organ, and the "set" of the organ was released.
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