The psychology of sound / by Henry J. Watt.

  • Henry J. Watt
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychology of sound / by Henry J. Watt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/260 page 3
    between the two sides, the physiology of the ear and the psychology of hearing. And, of course, the more advanced and complete study will tend to lead the way. That is at the present time undoubtedly the psychology of hearing. Let us then see what the psychological study of the other senses may lead us to expect of hearing. The senses may be divided for this purpose into three groups. III. The first group contains the senses that are distributed generally throughout the body, especially over the surface of the skin and the underlying tissues and in various other parts. These are called the cutaneous and visceral senses, and include tfie senses of pain, touch, cold and warmth. There never has been any doubt about their great psychological similarity. They can be described in almost the same terms, and if we omit unimportant variations of degree and frequency, they can be easily included under one formula. Let us consider the nature of these terms and of the resultant formula. The difference that is immediately evident to us between pain and touch, or between either of these and cold or warmth is called a difference of quality. We do not usually look upon cold and warmth as being so different from one another as they are from pain and touch, but there can be no doubt that once we compare them with such differences in mind, we must admit that they are very different from one another and really have nothing in common. We therefore say that warmth and cold also differ in quality, though we may readily allow that they may be more akin to one another than they are to the others. We are for the moment less concerned with their possible kinship than with their obvious differences. This difference is confirmed by the fact that warmth and cold are acknowledged to be physiologically separate senses. That applies in fact to all four—touch, pain, cold and warmth. Physiological research has recently discovered that each of these senses seems to be served by more than one set of organs or receptors, as physiologists now call them, in order to avoid the ambiguity of the word ‘sense,’ which is now used only in reference to experiences. The question thus arises: do these different sets of receptors for one and the same sense give sensations of different quality. And the answer is: no differences can with certainty or even with any probability be established. Thus we arrive at the highly probable conclusion: each of the cutaneous and visceral senses gives only one quality of sensation. 1—2
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3