Having given, then, these relatively fixed temperamental conditions of
reactions to different stimuli, which remain after practice (training
in the control of attention) has reduced the reactions to their
lowest terms, and has secured the conditions which are favorable for
the best balancing of the attention, there is yet one other question
very germane to the subject. It will have occurred already to any one
reading the above, that while the response to one stimulus is being
made, the other may be held in abeyance in the fringe region of the
attention-field, and that it is only brought up to clear perception
when the first has been disposed of. In other words, it may well be
that the first of two simultaneous but disparate stimuli, which gets
a start at setting-off its appropriate response in its sense-organ,
will bring out this response and be perceived before the other one
gets started,--that we do only one thing at a time,--that even in
such minute processes as this there is no possibility of division of
attention. It is hardly probable on the basis of the experimentation
already reported, that this is the case. There is some division of
attention. Otherwise there would be an equal certainty of judgment in
every case, no matter how small the separating interval. But still
the question as to how two mental processes, starting at the same
moment of time, do proceed, as compared to the progress of each of
the same processes when it holds the field alone, is very vital to
the understanding of the psychology of interval-discrimination. And
thus the question of objective time-relations is necessarily involved
in that of making judgments of the time-relations of simple mental
processes (subjective time-relations). The question is, Do these
processes, starting simultaneously, proceed just as freely as if they
were the sole occupants of the field of attention and so had the whole
energy of attention concentrated upon the single process, or do they
_interfere_ with each other?
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