Harvard Psychological Studies Part 36

These twelve instances occurred with two subjects, three (to left) occurring with K. and nine (three each right, up, down) occurring with H. The cause was the same in all twelve instances, both H. and K.

reporting that (in these cases) they had great difficulty in obtaining a reasonably vivid and distinct image when directed to move the image in the direction in which the object had been moved. The attempt to move the image resulted in a vague image spread continuously over the entire area that had been covered by the moving object, and the effort to obtain the image at the desired position only was serious and took an appreciably longer time than usual. It is to be noted, also, that the time usually taken by H. is uniformly very much greater than the time taken by the other subjects. Yet, even with these instances included, the average time of all movements of the image in the direction in which the object had been moved is less than the average time of the other movements, the former being 2.41 seconds, the latter, 2.59 seconds.

TABLE VIII.

MOVEMENTS OF A SINGLE IMAGE.

I., OBJECT PREVIOUSLY MOVED; II., OBJECT NOT MOVED.

Average Time Given in Seconds.

Subjects: B. G. H.

I II I II I II To right, 0.57 1.30 0.55 1.46 6.95 7.15 Return, 0.35 0.58 0.27 0.92 5.40 4.51 To left, 0.60 1.06 0.45 1.15 5.95 6.42 Return, 0.40 0.73 0.35 0.89 4.10 4.41 Up, 0.42 1.05 0.45 0.99 6.85 5.96 Return, 0.42 0.46 0.25 0.76 5.30 4.36 Down, 0.57 1.10 0.47 0.82 8.77 5.85 Return, 0.42 0.45 0.27 0.06 5.55 4.40 General 0.54 1.13 0.48 1.10 7.13 6.34 Averages, 0.40 0.55 0.28 0.66 5.09 4.42

Subjects: I. K.

I II I II To right, 2.05 1.28 2.35 4.80 Return, 1.15 0.67 1.17 2.40 To left, 1.30 1.34 2.57 4.63 Retur, 1.22 0.62 1.60 2.73 Up, 1.85 1.62 1.42 3.29 Return, 0.87 0.86 1.27 1.90 Down, 1.80 1.36 2.30 3.27 Return, 1.42 0.72 1.25 1.56 General 1.75 1.40 2.16 4.00 Averages, 1.16 0.72 1.32 2.15

If the record of H. is omitted from Table VII., _a, c, _and _d_, and that of K. from VII., _b_ (as these are the records of the twelve exceptions), the former average becomes 1.44 seconds, the latter 1.86 seconds.

The following table affords the means of comparing the time taken in moving the image in the direction in which the object had been moved with the time taken in moving the image in the same direction when there had been no movement of the object. The averages are obtained from the records of Tables VII. and I.

We have here twenty comparisons each of movements away from the original positions and movements back to the original positions:

In the first case, 15 took less time under I., 5 took more time under I.

The 5 cases of more time occurred with two subjects (H., 3 and I., 2).

In the second case, 12 took less time under I., 8 took more time under I.

The 8 cases of more time occurred with three subjects (G., 1; H., 3; I., 4).

If we omit H.'s record and take the general averages for each subject, we find the following advantages in time in form of movements where the object had been moved;

B., 0.59 seconds.

G., 0.52 "

K., 1.84 "

But I., 0.35 seconds in favor of movements when the object had not been moved.

Combining these results, we have 0.74 sec. as the average gain in time for these four subjects.

SUBJECTIVE.

With one exception (G.), the subjects found Movements I., movements in the direction in which the object had been moved, easier than Movements II. In Movements II. the eye seemed to construct and compel the motion, which was not the case with Movements I., in which the eye followed the motion. The distance to which the image went in Movements I. seemed predetermined, and these movements seemed exact copies of the original movement of the object, being purely reminiscent and reproducing its irregularities when there were any. Also, the image was usually seen _in transitu_ both out and back, which was never the case with Movements II. Eye movement and enunciation were much less frequent and the image was more vivid and distinct in Movements I.

STUDIES IN aeSTHETIC PROCESSES.

Transcriber's Note:

Rhythmic measures in the first 2 articles of this section are transcribed as follows:

delineates measure q quarter note q. dotted quarter note e eighth note % quarter rest

Major accent of the measure is indicated by a >, either above or in front of the beat. Minor accent of the measure is indicated by ., used in the same way.

q q q q or >q q .q q represent the same rhythmic pattern.

THE STRUCTURE OF SIMPLE RHYTHM FORMS.

BY ROBERT MACDOUGALL.

I. PROBLEMS AND METHODS OF EXPERIMENTATION.

The investigation of the problems presented by the psychological phenomena of rhythm has of late years occupied much attention and been pushed in a variety of different directions. Some researches have been concerned with an a.n.a.lysis of rhythm as an immediate subjective experience, involving factors of perception, reaction, memory, feeling, and the like; others have had to do with the specific objective conditions under which this experience arises, and the effect of changes in the relations of these factors; still others have sought to coordinate the rhythm experience with more general laws of activity in the organism, as the condition of most effective action, and to affiliate its complex phenomena upon simpler laws of physiological activity and repose; while a fourth group has undertaken a description of that historical process which has resulted in the establishment of artistic rhythm-types, and has sought to formulate the laws of their construction.[1]

[1] Description: (1) Of the psychological factors of the rhythm experience: Angell and Pierce, Ettlinger, Hauptmann, Mentz, Meumann, Stumpf, Wundt, et al. (2) Of its objective conditions and products: Binet et Courtier, Bolton, Ebhardt, Hurst and McKay, Meumann, Schumann, Sievers, et al. (3) Of its physiological accompaniments: Bolton, Brucke, Dogiel, Hausegger, Mach, Mentz, Ribot, Sherrington, Scripture, Smith, et al. (4) Of its historical evolution: Bucher, Moritz, Scherer, et al.

This differentiation has already made such progress as to const.i.tute the general topic a field within which specialization is called for, instead of an attempt to treat the phenomenon as a whole. It is the purpose of this paper to describe a set of experiments having to do with the second of these problems, the const.i.tution of objective rhythm forms. In the determination of such forms it is, of course, impossible to avoid the employment of terms descriptive of the immediate experience of rhythm as a psychological process, or to overlook the constant connection which exists between the two groups of facts. The rhythm form is not objectively definable as a stable type of stimulation existing in and for itself; the discrimination of true and false relations among its elements depends on the immediate report of the consciousness in which it appears. The artistic form is such only in virtue of its arousing in the observer that peculiar quality of feeling expressed in calling the series of sensory stimuli rhythmically pleasing, or equivalent, or perfect. In no other way than as thus dependent on the appeal which their impression makes to the aesthetic consciousness can we conceive of the development and establishment of fixed forms of combination and sequence among those types of sensory stimulation which arouse in us the pleasurable experience of rhythm. The artistic rhythm form cannot be defined as const.i.tuted of periods which are 'chronometrically proportionate,' or mathematically simple. It is not such in virtue of any physical relations which may obtain among its const.i.tuents, though it may be dependent on such conditions in consequence of the subordination to physical laws of the organic activities of the human individual. The view must be subjectively objective throughout.

The need for simplicity and exactness has led to the very general employment of material as barely sensorial as could be devised for the carrying on of experiments upon rhythm. Rich tones and complex combinations of them are to be avoided, for these qualities are themselves immediate sources of pleasure, and the introduction of them into the material of experimentation inevitably confuses the a.n.a.lysis which the observer is called upon to make of his experience and of the sources of his pleasure in it. Still more objectionable than the presence of such complex musical tones in an investigation of rhythm is the introduction of the symbols of rational speech in concrete poetical forms. This element can be only a hindrance to the perception of pure rhythmical relations, in virtue of the immediate interest which the images called up by the verbal signs possess, and further, in view of the fact that the connections of significant thought impose upon the purely rhythmical formulation of the series of stimulations an unrelated and antagonistic principle of grouping, namely, the logical relations which the various members of the series bear to one another.

The demand for a simplification of the material which supports the rhythm experience, for the purpose of obtaining a more exact control over the conditions of experimentation, has been met by the invention of a variety of devices whereby the sequences of music, song and poetical speech have been replaced by elementary conventional symbols as the vehicle of the rhythmical impression or expression. On the one side there has commonly been subst.i.tuted for musical tones and rhythmical speech the most simple, sharply limited and controllable sounds possible, namely, those due to the action of a telephone receiver, to the vibrations of a tuning-fork placed before the aperture of a resonator, or to the strokes of metallic hammers falling on their anvils. On the other side, the form of the reproduced rhythm has been clarified by the subst.i.tution of the finger for the voice in a series of simple motor reactions beaten out on a more or less resonant medium; by the use--when the voice is employed--of conventional verbal symbols instead of the elements of significant speech; and--where actual verse has been spoken--by a treatment of the words in formal staccato scansion, or by the beating of time throughout the utterance. The last of these methods is a halting between two courses which casts doubt on the results as characteristic of either type of activity. There is no question that the rhythmic forms of recitative poetry differ vastly from those of instrumental music and chanted speech. The measures of spoken verse are elastic and full of changefulness, while those of music and the chant maintain a very decided constancy of relations. The latter present determinable types of grouping and succession, while it is questionable whether the forms of relations.h.i.+p in spoken verse can ever be considered apart from the emotion of the moment. In so far as the rhythmic form which these differing modes of expression embody are to be made the subject of experimental investigation their characteristic structures should be kept intact as objects of a.n.a.lysis in independent experiments, instead of being combined (and modified) in a single process.

The apparatus employed in the course of the present investigation consisted of four different pieces of mechanism, one affording the vehicle of expression throughout the series of reproduced rhythms, the others providing the auditory material of the various rhythms apperceived but not designedly reproduced. The first of these consisted of a shallow Marey tambour, placed horizontally upon a table with its rubber film upwards, and connected by means of rubber-tubing with a pneumographic pen in contact with the revolving drum of a kymograph. A Deprez electric marker, aligned with the pneumographic stylus, afforded a time record in quarter seconds. Upon this tambour, placed within comfortable reach of the reactor's hand, the various rhythm types were beaten out. The impact of the finger-tip on the tense surface of the drum gave forth a faint and pleasing but at the same time clearly discernible and distinctly limited sound, which responded with audible variations of intensity to the differing stresses involved in the process of tapping, and which I have considered preferable to the short, sharp stroke of the Kraepelin mouth-key employed by Ebhardt. The rate of revolution in the drum was so adjusted to the normal range of excursion in the pneumographic pen as to give sharp definition to every change of direction in the curve, which hence allowed of exact measurements of temporal and intensive phases in the successive rhythm groups. These measurements were made to limits of 1.0 mm. in the latter direction and of 0.5 mm. in the former.[2]

[2] Professor Binet's doubt (_L'Annee Psychologique_ 1895, p.

204) that the propulsion of air from the elastic chamber and the rebound of the pen might interfere with the significance of the graphic record is more serious in connection with the application of this method to piano playing than here; since its imperfection, as that writer says, was due to the force and extreme rapidity of the reactions in the former case. The present series involved only light tapping and was carried on at a much slower average rate.