Whoever has once schooled his eye to observe the limitless waste of
human motions and psychophysical efforts in social life has really no
difficulty in perceiving all this at every step. This ability to
recognize possible savings of impulse may be brought to a certain
virtuosity. Gilbreth, one of the leaders of the new movement, seems to
be such a virtuoso. When he was in London, there was pointed out to
him in the Japanese British Exhibition a young girl who worked so
quickly that there at least he would find a rhythm of finger movement
which could not any further be improved. In an exhibition booth the
woman attached advertisement labels to boxes with phenomenal rapidity.
Gilbreth watched her for a little while and found that she was able
to manage 24 boxes in 40 seconds. Then he told the young girl that she
was doing it wrongly, and that she ought to try a new way which he
showed her. At the first attempt, she disposed of 24 boxes in 26
seconds and at the second trial in 20 seconds. She did not have to
make more effort for it, but simply had fewer movements to make. If
such economic gain can be secured with little exertion in the simplest
processes, it cannot be surprising that in the case of more complex
and more advanced technical work which involves highly skilled labor,
a careful psychophysical study of motions must bring far-reaching
economic improvements.
Yet the more important steps will have to be guided by special
experimental investigations, and here the psychological laboratory
must undertake the elaboration of the details. Only the systematic
experiment can determine what impulses can be released at the least
expense of energy and with the greatest exactitude of the motor
effect. Investigations on the psychophysics of movement and the
influences which lead toward making the movement too large or too
small have played an important rôle in the psychological laboratories
for several decades. It was recognized early that the mistakes which
are made in reproducing a movement may spring from two different
sources. They result partly from an erroneous perception or memory of
the movement carried out, and partly from the inability to realize the
movement intention. One series of investigations was accordingly
devoted to the studies of those sensations and perceptions by which we
become aware of the actual movement. Everything which accentuates
these sensations must lead to an overestimation of the motion, and the
outcome is that the movement is made too small. The concentration of
attention, therefore, has the effect of reducing the actual motion,
and the same influence must result from any resistance which is not
recognized as such and hence is not subtracted in the judgment of the
perceiver. Another series of researches was concerned with the inner
attitude which causes a certain external movement effect and which may
lead to an unintended amount of movement as soon as the weight to be
lifted is erroneously judged upon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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