I am persuaded that the difference in sensitivity to intervals between
auditory and visual impressions is due, in part, to a difference in
the power of "cocking the ear" to hear, as one fixates the eye to see.
The observers who got the smallest ranges between upper and lower
thresholds had the most distinct kinæsthetic sensations in the moment
of preparation, in the middle ear and about the external meatus.
All had some sensations from the side of the head in question. The
less accurate had a general feeling in the neck-muscles. Accuracy of
discrimination was in no wise connected with voluntary control of the
musculature moving the pinna. This was subject of careful enquiry with
all observers.
If this introspective evidence leads me aright, it seems that the
non-discriminable interval between auditory and visual impressions is
due principally to two things, (1) the impossibility of perfect balance
in the preparation of the attention for two expected stimuli, and (2)
the possible difference in time it takes to react to the different
impressions. The various complicating conditions which are added to
the simple interval discrimination in the cases of a complication
experiment, such as we started with in this investigation, are
chiefly interferences with the first-named factor. They disturb the
nice balances of attention. In this simple discrimination experiment,
under favorable conditions, a close approximation to a balance can
be attained. Any difference in the reaction-times to different
stimuli will remain as a constant error of displacement. It is well
known that reaction-times to visual stimuli are longer than those
to auditory. There is a retinal inertia which delays the perception
of the visual impression, in comparison with the auditory, coming
from exactly simultaneous stimuli. Having this physiological basis,
it will be relatively constant, as compared with the ever-varying
attention-differences.
THE COEXISTENCE OF MENTAL PROCESSES
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