Psychological analysis and theory of hearing / by Henry J. Watt.

  • Watt, Henry J. (Henry Jackson), 1879-1925.
Date:
1914
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Psychological analysis and theory of hearing / by Henry J. Watt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    vowels and the corresponding tones ; in the middle of the scale, from below the vowel o to above the vowel e, tone and vowel are easily distinguishable. Jaensch, therefore, ascribes vowels to a separate and older sense of noise, of which he supposes them to be primary qualities. Average rates of vibration that are greater than that of any vowel and less than that of the next higher one, form a series of mixed vowel sounds, which show a decreasing resemblance to the lower vowel and an increasing resemblance to the next higher vowel, as the average pitch rises. The changes from pure vowel to pure vowel thus obtained are parallel with the changes encountered as we pass from red to yellow, etc.1 Two statements of great psychological importance are involved in these views: (1) that hearing contains two psychologically independent sub-senses—tone and noise; (2) that u, o, a, and the rest are pure vowels, forming a series of qualities in the sense of G. E. Muller2. The following objections have to be urged against the distinction of two sub-senses. It is supported by nothing more than analogy, and, at its best, that analogy is the analogy of stimuli, not of experiences. The stimuli of vowels and noises are irregular, those of tones are regular; the stimuli of colours are regular, those of neutral greys irregular. But it is to be noted that, while the former vary round an average, the latter go in pairs—those of the complementary colours. It is known that the sub-senses of vision exist independently; but there is no evidence that the sense of noise can exist without the sense of tone. And if there were such evidence, it would not be clear of ambiguity; for noises are not only, ex hypothesi, excited by tones, as brightnesses are excited by colours, but noises, when given, ex hypothesi, alone, resemble tones. It is true, as Jaensch propounds3, that each positive colour has an affinity to a neutral brightness, but it is not true, as his diagram suggests, that each neutral brightness has a resemblance to a colour, qua colour; whereas each tone resembles (or according to Kohler is) a vowel, and on Jaensch’s analogy must resemble it, because it excites it, and also each vowel resembles (or according to Kohler is) a tone or has the pitch of a tone, as Jaensch4 has shown experimentally, and as all those who have attempted to find the component tones of vowels have observed. Moreover increase of intensity of light modifies a colour in 1 Kohler, op. cit. lviii. 99; Jaensch, op. cit. 258 f. 2 I.e. “ Eine Reihe von Empfindungen, in welcher sich die Qualitat geradlaufig [d. h. in konstanter Richtung vor sich gehend] und stetig andert,” Ztsch. f. Psychol. 1896, x. 33 ff. 3 Op. cit. 2G4 ff. 4 Op. cit. 288.