FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100  
101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>   >|  
less pronounced jerks, for the final number. Thus I would often respond with 4 instead of 8, or 3 instead of 9, or with 3 when the problem was 3+2, just as Hans had so often done. In these tests, too, the difficulty of getting the number 1, as well as the larger numbers, came to light. Thus three times in succession 17 was indicated as 4, as 9, and as 17. But after some practice I was able to give numbers as high as 58 and 96. The frequency of the errors of one unit too many and of one unit too few is also noticeable in these tests. We also found desirable corroboration, by trustworthy subjects, of the introspective observations of the author, which were reported in Chapter III, with regard to the significance of concentration and the curve of attention. It is hardly necessary to mention that no attempts were made to influence the subjects in their accounts by asking suggestive questions. The most valuable feature about these tests was that the mute horse had now been replaced, as it were, by an animal capable of speech, and that it was now possible to follow the same process both from within and from without. Two illustrations may be welcome. The one who took the part of the horse gave three taps and made the following entry: "At 3 I saw a slight upward jerk of the head on the part of the questioner". The questioner however had thought of 4, and made the following note, without knowledge of the other's entry: "I was aware of extreme tension, so that it was impossible for me to get beyond 3". Or again, the 'horse', reacting to a movement on the part of the questioner, stopped at 3, but the latter, having intended to obtain 2, made the following entry: "I noted clearly that I ceased thinking of the number too late, and did not put on the brakes, as it were, until I had arrived at 3". We see that errors here were entirely the fault of the questioner, just as had been the case in the tests with Hans. (See page 151f.). In a second group of experiments I asked a subject to fix his mind upon certain concepts, such as "up", or "down", "right" or "left", "yes" or "no", and others, in any order he pleased, but with the greatest possible degree of concentration. The subject each time had the choice of four or six concepts, and he was told to think of one of them at the signal "Now!". How he was to 'think' the concept was left entirely to him. He was also told to interpolate the series with a 'blank', that is, to think of noth
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100  
101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
questioner
 

number

 

concepts

 

errors

 

concentration

 
subjects
 
subject
 

numbers

 
movement
 

stopped


reacting

 

concept

 
intended
 

obtain

 
greatest
 

interpolate

 
thought
 
series
 

knowledge

 

impossible


tension

 

extreme

 

ceased

 

degree

 

experiments

 

choice

 

pleased

 

brakes

 

thinking

 

signal


arrived

 
animal
 

frequency

 

practice

 

noticeable

 
author
 

reported

 
Chapter
 

observations

 
introspective

desirable
 

corroboration

 
trustworthy
 
respond
 

problem

 

pronounced

 
difficulty
 

succession

 
larger
 

regard