Psychology / by Henry J. Watt.

  • Henry J. Watt
Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Psychology / by Henry J. Watt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/102 page 16
    CHAPTER I THE ELEMENTS OF SENSORY EXPERIENCE The study of experience must begin with the descrip¬ tion and classification of the simplest possible parts of its material. This is not so easy a task as it may seem. Eor how shall we tell one another what mental states we are classifying, unless we can point them out to each other; and how shall we do so, unless we have already classified them ? The escape from this difficulty lies in the fact that certain experiences follow immediately and regularly upon the stimulation of sense-organs, such as the eye and the ear. These experiences are called sensations, and the simplest, irreducible forms of them are the elements of experience. There are many different kinds of sensation, each of which is connected with a par¬ ticular group of sense-organs. A sense-organ is a receiver specially adapted to one kind of stimulus and hardly sensitive to any other. We are equipped with receivers for all the chief kinds of physical energy except electricity, so that we can take direct notice of, and, if necessary, respond to almost any change in our surroundings. Let us now review rapidly the chief classes of sensation. The simplest and most primitive sensations are those evoked by stimulation of the skin and viscera. There are four chief kinds : touch or pressure, cold, warmth, and pain.. It can easily be shown that particular points of the skin are specially sensitive to one of these four sensations, while the spaces between the points are much less sensitive. The blunt end of a cool lead- pencil drawn slowly over the surface of the skin will
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