In this group of experiments, I used judgments from visual and tactual
stimuli, singly and in combination. Both stimuli were given by means
of a large pendulum in the Harvard laboratory, specially constructed
for Professor Münsterberg. This pendulum is about one and a half metres
in length. It is hung in a heavy steel frame which rests upon a large
table. A curved steel bar, concentric with the swing of the pendulum,
and ninety degrees in extent, is so set to the frame that it serves
as the attachment for an electro-magnet, at any point in the swing of
the pendulum. The pendulum-rod carries an armature which fits this
magnet. By means of this magnet, the pendulum may be held at any point
between the position of rest and forty-five degrees out in either
direction; and it may be released by _breaking_ the circuit through the
magnet. The pendulum also carries a segmental screen of about seventy
degrees extent. An opening about nine by eight centimetres near the
centre of the screen affords means of tachistoscopic observations. A
sliding shutter makes the slit as narrow as may be desired. In these
experiments a black tube was set up, at right angles to the direction
of the motion of the pendulum, and at the height of the slit in the
screen. On the other side of the pendulum screen, and directly opposite
the tube, was placed a support for holding the object to be shown.
The object for the visual stimulus was one of two light gray lines on a
black background. These lines were 4 mm. wide, and one 44 mm. long, and
the other 40 mm. The work was done in a dark room. The stimulus card
was illuminated by an electric light hanging between it and the screen.
Both cards were shown the observer several times, before experimenting,
till he was sure of their lengths. Upon one being shown, in experiment,
he was asked to say whether it was the longer or shorter. The touch
apparatus was so arranged that the experimenter could at will give
the observer one or two contacts on the back of his right hand. The
contacts were made by means of an electro-magnet. This was actuated by
a current which was _made_ by the closing of a switch which was secured
by a set-screw to the same curved steel bar as bore the pendulum
magnet. This switch was closed by the pendulum in passing. It was
adjustable on the bar. Another similar switch, opened by the falling
pendulum the next instant, removed the tactual stimuli. These switches
were so placed in the course of the pendulum fall that the tactual and
visual stimuli were exactly simultaneous. The tactual judgments were,
_one_ or _two_ points touched. Results are presented in Table VII for
three observers, A, B, and Bo. The number of series which were averaged
in each case is given, in order properly to weight the results.
TABLE VII
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