Psychology by Robert S. Woodworth (intellectual books to read .TXT) 📖

tendons and about {240} the joints. This sense accordingly might better be called the "muscle, tendon and joint sense", but the shorter term, "muscle sense", bids fair to stick. The Greek derivative, "kinesthesis", meaning "sense of movement", is sometimes used as an equivalent; and the corresponding adjective, "kinesthetic", is common.

The muscle sense informs us of movements of the joints and of positions of the limbs, as well as of resistance encountered by any movement. Muscular fatigue and soreness are sensed through the same general system of sense organs. This sense is very important in the control of movement, both reflex and voluntary movement. Without it, a person lacks information of where a limb is to start with, and naturally cannot know what movement to make; or, if a movement is in process of being executed, he has no information as to how far the movement has progressed and cannot tell when to stop it. Thus it is less strange than it first appears to learn that "locomotor ataxia", a disease which shows itself in poor control of movement, is primarily a disease affecting not the motor nerves but the sensory nerves that take care of the muscle sense.

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EXERCISES

1. Outline the chapter, rearranging the material somewhat, so as to state, under each sense, (a) what sense cells, if any, are present in the sense organ, (b) what accessory apparatus is present in the sense organ, (c) what stimuli arouse the sense, (d) what are the elementary responses of the sense, (e) peculiar blends occurring within the sense or between this sense and another, (f) what can be said regarding adaptation of the sense, and (g) what can be said regarding after-images of the sense.

2. Classify the senses according as they respond to stimuli (a) internal to the body, (b) directly affecting the surface of the body, (c) coming from a distance.

3. What distinctive uses are made of each sense?

4. Explore a small portion of the skin, as on the back of the hand, for cold spots, and for pain spots.

5. Try to analyze the smooth sensation obtained by laying the finger tip on a sheet of paper, and the rough sensation obtained by laying the finger tip on the surface of a brush, and to describe the difference in terms of the elementary skin sensations.

6. Is the pain sense a highly developed sense, to judge from its sense organ? Is it highly specialized? highly sensitive? How does its peculiarity in these respects fit it for its use?

7. Separation of taste and smell. Compare the taste of foods when the nostrils are held closed with the taste of the same food when the nostrils are opened.

8. Make a complete analysis of the sensations obtained from chocolate ice cream in the mouth.

9. Peripheral vision. (a) Color sense. While your eyes are looking rigidly straight ahead, take a bit of color in the hand and bring it slowly in from the side, noticing what color sensation you get from it when it can first be seen at all, and what changes in color appear as it moves from the extreme periphery to the center of the field of view, (b) Form sense. Use printed letters in the same way, noticing how far out they can be read, (c) Sense of motion. Notice how far out a little movement of the finger can be seen. Sum up what you have learned of the differences between central and peripheral vision. What is the use of peripheral vision?

10. Light and dark adaptation. Go from a dimly lighted place into bright sunlight, and immediately try for an instant to read with the sun shining directly upon the page. Remaining in the sunlight, {242} repeat the attempt every 10 seconds, and notice how long it takes for the eye to become adapted to the bright light. Having become light-adapted, go back into a dimly lighted room, and see whether dark-adaptation takes more or less time than light-adaptation.

11. Color adaptation. Look steadily at a colored surface, and notice whether the color fades as the exposure continues. Try looking at the color with one eye only, and after a minute look at the color with each eye separately, and notice whether the saturation appears the same to the eye that has been exposed to the color, and to the eye that has been shielded.

12. Negative after-images. Look steadily for half a minute at a black cross upon a white surface, and then turn the eyes upon a plain gray surface, and describe what you see. (b) Look steadily for half a minute at a colored spot upon a white or gray background, and then turn the eyes upon a gray background, and note the color of the after-image of the spot. Repeat with a different color, and try to reach a general statement as to the color of the negative after-image.

13. Positive visual after-images. Look in the direction of a bright light, such as an electric light, holding the hand as a screen before the eyes, so that you do not see the light. Withdraw the hand for a second, exposing the eyes to the light, and immediately screen the eyes again, and notice whether the sensation of the light outlasts the stimulus.

14. Tactile after-images. Touch the skin lightly for an instant, and notice whether the sensation ends as soon as the stimulus is removed. If there is any after-image, is it positive or negative?

15. Tactile adaptation. Support two fingers on the edge of a table, and lay on them a match or some other light object. Let this stimulus remain there, motionless, and notice whether the tactile sensation remains steady or dies out. What is the effect of making slight movements of the fingers, and so causing the stimulus to affect fresh parts of the skin?

16. Temperature sense adaptation. Have three bowls of water, one quite warm, one cold, one medium. After holding one hand in the warm water and the other in the cold, transfer both simultaneously to the medium water and compare the temperature sensations got by each hand from this water. State the result in terms of adaptation.

17. Overtones. These can be quite easily heard in the sound of a large bell. What use does the sense of hearing make of overtones?

REFERENCES

For a somewhat fuller discussion of the topic of sensation, see Warren's Human Psychology, 1919, pp. 151-214; and for a much fuller discussion, see Titchener's Textbook of Psychology, 1909, pp. 46-224.

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For a really thorough consideration of the facts and theories of color vision, see J. Herbert Parsons, An Introduction to the Study of Colour Vision, 1915.

For a more complete statement of the Ladd-Franklin theory, see the article on "Vision", in Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, 1902.

For a recent study that has revolutionized the psychology of the sense of smell, see Der Geruch, by Hans Henning, 1916, or a review of the same by Professor Gamble in the American Journal of Psychology, 1921, Vol. 32, pp. 290-296.

For an extensive discussion of the "Psychology of Sound", sec the book with this title by Henry J. Watt, 1917.

For a full account of taste, see Hollingworth and Poffenberger's Sense of Taste, 1917.

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CHAPTER XI

ATTENTION HOW WE ATTEND, TO WHAT, AND WITH WHAT RESULTS

"Attention!" shouts the officer as a preliminary to some more specific command, and the athletic starter calls out "Ready!" for the same purpose. Both commands are designed to put the hearer in an attitude of readiness for what is coming next. They put a stop to miscellaneous doings and clear the way for the specific reaction that is next to be called for. They nullify the effect of miscellaneous stimuli that are always competing for the hearer's attention, and make him responsive only to stimuli coming from the officer. They make the hearer clearly conscious of the officer. They arouse in the hearer a condition of keen alertness that cannot be maintained for more than a few seconds unless some further command comes from the officer. In all these ways "attention" in the military sense, or "readiness" in the athletic sense, affords a good picture of the psychology of attention. Attention is preparatory, selective, mobile, highly conscious. To attend to a thing is to be keenly conscious of that thing, it is to respond to that thing and disregard other things, and it is to expect something more from that thing.

Attention is, in a word, exploratory. To attend is to explore, or to start to explore. Primitive attention amounts to the same as the instinct of exploration. Its natural stimulus is anything novel or sudden, its "emotional state" is curiosity or expectancy, and its instinctive reaction consists {245} of exploratory movements. Its inherent impulse is to explore, examine, or await.

Attention belongs fundamentally among the native forms of behavior. The child does not have to learn to attend, though he must learn to attend to many things that do not naturally get his attention. Some stimuli naturally attract attention, and others attract attention only because of previous experience and training. In considering the whole subject of attention, then, we shall in part be dealing with native responses, and in part with responses that are acquired. But the great laws of attention, which will come to light in the course of the chapter, are at the same time general laws of reaction, and belong under the head of native characteristics.

The Stimulus, or What Attracts Attention

We can attend to anything whatever, but are more likely to attend to some things than to others. As stimuli for attention, some objects are much more effective than others, and the question is, in what way one object has the advantage over another. There are several ways, several "factors of advantage", we may call them.

Change is the greatest factor of advantage. A steady noise ceases after a while to be noticed, but let it change in any respect and immediately it arrests attention. The ticking of the clock is a good example: as long as it keeps uniformly on, it is unnoticed, but if it should suddenly beat faster or louder or in a different key, or even if it should stop altogether, it would "wake us up" with a start. The change in the stimulus must not be too gradual if it is to be effective, it must have a certain degree of suddenness. It may be a change in intensity, a becoming suddenly stronger or weaker; or it may be change in quality, as in tone, or {246} color, or odor; or it may be a change in position, a movement in space. When one who is holding our arm gives it a sudden squeeze to attract our attention, that is a change of intensity; when we step from the bank into the water, the sudden change from warmth to cold, that gets our attention without fail, is a change of quality; and something crawling on the skin attracts attention by virtue of its motion. Anything moving in the field of view is also an unfailing stimulus to attention.

Strength, or high intensity of a stimulus, is another important factor of advantage. Other things being equal, a strong stimulus will attract attention before a weak one. A loud noise has the advantage over a low murmur, and a bright flash of light over a faint twinkle.

In the case of visible objects, size has about the same effect as intensity. The large features of the landscape are noticed before the little details. The advertiser uses large type, and pays for big space in the newspaper, in the effort to attract the attention of the reader.

[Footnote: Often he pays more than the space is worth; at least doubling the size of his "ad" will not, on the whole, double the amount of attention he gets, or the number of readers whose attention he will catch. The "attention value" of an advertisement has been found by Strong to increase, not as fast as