A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins.

  • Mary Whiton Calkins
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    istic factor of my consciousness that a tone is high or low, that a voice is soprano or alto. The most notable character of the pitch-qualities (experiences of pitch) is their capacity for arrangement in recurring series, the octaves. The num¬ ber of these tonal qualities (of pitch) is variously stated. On the ground that the trained hearer can distinguish about eleven thousand different tones, most psychologists assume an equal number of pitch-qualities. But on the ground of the close resemblance between a tone and its octave it has been urged that there are only as many pitch-qualities as there are distinguishable elements in an octave.* 22 Psychologists are not agreed about the nature of our con¬ sciousness of noise. Many teach that it is a mere conglomer¬ ate of many pitch-qualities; and in favor of this view it may be urged that in most if not all noises — in the roar of the streets, and in the hum of insects — we detect what we call pitch. Other psychologists hold that a consciousness of noise, even when complex, includes some characteristic noise- quality — as, for example, the consciousness of puff, of thud, or of rumble.f These alleged noise-qualities have been distinguished as continuous or momentary, but have been, on the whole, insufficiently studied. On the other hand, experiences of pitch have been the object of minute consid¬ eration as forming an important factor of the aesthetic con¬ sciousness. The elemental consciousness of a sound-quality, a pitch or a noise, is always fused, or combined, with the elemental experience of an auditory intensity, or loudness: that is, one is conscious of every sound as more or less loud or soft. * For experiments, cf. Sanford, 67-68; Titchener, § 12 (1). f For experiments, cf. Sanford, 65; Titchener, § 12, (2) and (3).
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