Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory | Page 2

questions should predominate for
a while. This volume indicates, for instance, that the æsthetic processes
have attracted our attention in an especially high degree. But even if we
abstract from their important relation to the motor functions, we have
good reasons for turning to them, as the æsthetic feelings are of all
feeling processes decidedly those which can be produced in the
laboratory most purely; their disinterested character makes them more
satisfactory for experimental study than any other feelings.

Another group of researches which predominates in our laboratory is
that on comparative psychology. Three rooms of the laboratory are
reserved for psychological experiments on animals, under the special
charge of Dr. Yerkes. The work is strictly psychological, not
vivisectional; and it is our special purpose to bring animal psychology
more in contact with those methods which have found their
development in the laboratories for human psychology. The use of the
reaction-time method for the study of the frog, as described in the
fifteenth paper, may stand as a typical illustration of our aim.
All the work of this volume has been done by well-trained
post-graduate students, and, above all, such advanced students were not
only the experimenters but also the only subjects. It is the rule of the
laboratory that everyone who carries on a special research has to be a
subject in several other investigations. The reporting experimenters
take the responsibility for the theoretical views which they express.
While I have proposed the subjects and methods for all the
investigations, and while I can take the responsibility for the
experiments which were carried on under my daily supervision, I have
left fullest freedom to the authors in the expression of their views. My
own views and my own conclusions from the experiments would not
seldom be in contradiction with theirs, as the authors are sometimes
also in contradiction with one another; but while I, of course, have
taken part in frequent discussions during the work, in the completed
papers my rôle has been merely that of editor, and I have nowhere
added further comments.
In this work of editing I am under great obligation to Dr. Holt, the
assistant of the laboratory, for his helpful coöperation.
* * * * *

CONTENTS.
Preface: Hugo Münsterberg ...................................... i

STUDIES IN PERCEPTION.
Eye-Movement and Central Anæsthesia: Edwin B. Holt ........... 3
Tactual Illusions: Charles H. Rieber ......................... 47 Tactual Time
Estimation: Knight Dunlap ....................... 101 Perception of Number
through Touch: J. Franklin Messenger .... 123 The Subjective Horizon:
Robert MacDougall .................... 145 The Illusion of
Resolution-Stripes on the Color-Wheel: Edwin B.
Holt .............................................. 167
STUDIES IN MEMORY.
Recall of Words, Objects and Movements: Harvey A. Peterson ... 207
Mutual Inhibition of Memory Images: Frederick Meakin ......... 235
Control of the Memory Image: Charles S. Moore ................ 277
STUDIES IN ÆSTHETIC PROCESSES.
The Structure of Simple Rhythm Forms: Robert MacDougall ...... 309
Rhythm and Rhyme: R.H. Stetson ............................... 413 Studies in
Symmetry: Ethel D. Puffer ......................... 467 The Æsthetics of
Unequal Division: Rosewell Parker Angier .... 541
STUDIES IN ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY.
Habit Formation in the Crawfish, Camburus affinis: Robert M. Yerkes
and Gurry E. Huggins ............................. 565 The Instincts, Habits and
Reactions of the Frog: Robert Mearns
Yerkes .............................................. 579
STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY.
The Position of Psychology in the System of Knowledge: Hugo
Münsterberg ........................................... 641

PLATES.

OPPOSITE PAGE Plate I ....................................................... 20 "
II ....................................................... 24 "
III ....................................................... 28 "
IV ....................................................... 34 "
V ....................................................... 190 "
VI ....................................................... 198 "
VII ....................................................... 200 "
VIII ....................................................... 314 "
IX ....................................................... 417 "
X ....................................................... 436
Charts of the Sciences, at end of volume.
* * * * *

STUDIES IN PERCEPTION.

* * * * *

EYE-MOVEMENT AND CENTRAL ANÆSTHESIA.
BY EDWIN B. HOLT.
I. THE PROBLEM OF ANÆSTHESIA DURING EYE-MOVEMENT.
A first suggestion of the possible presence of anæsthesia during
eye-movement is given by a very simple observation. All near objects
seen from a fairly rapidly moving car appear fused. No further
suggestion of their various contour is distinguishable than blurred
streaks of color arranged parallel, in a hazy stream which flows rapidly
past toward the rear of the train. Whereas if the eye is kept constantly
moving from object to object scarcely a suggestion of this blurred
appearance can be detected. The phenomenon is striking, since, if the
eye moves in the same direction as the train, it is certain that the images

on the retina succeed one another even more rapidly than when the eye
is at rest. A supposition which occurs to one at once as a possible
explanation is that perchance during eye-movement the retinal
stimulations do not affect consciousness.
On the other hand, if one fixates a fly which happens to be crawling
across the window-pane and follows its movements