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.

    90/446 page 72
    forms. The experience of surface-form may, thus, be de¬ scribed as a fusion of (i) the sensational experiences of ex¬ tensity and of sense quality due to excitation of end-organs by stimulating object; (2) the relational experiences of distinct¬ ness and of unification; and (3) the experiences, also sensa¬ tional, due to the instinctive movements of the eyeballs and hand. A study of geometrical illusions 5 testifies indirectly to the importance, in our consciousness of form and direction, of the unattended-to consciousness of pressure due to eye move- -b ments. Illusions due to over¬ estimation of small angles furnish a good example. The straight line, a-b, for instance, seems to run upward slightly from each end toward c, and the parallel lines fg and hi seem to diverge in the middle of the figure. This is presumably because the Fig. 4. smaller angles, acd, bce,fkl, a variation by Hering of the Zollner figure. hmn, and the Others, are (From Sanford, after Ladd.) overestimated; and this overestimation seems to be due to an attraction of the eye, as it follows the horizontal line inward toward the oblique lines. An inattentive consciousness of these movements seems to be part of a consciousness of form. 2. The Consciousness of Three-dimensional Form The consciousness of three-dimensional or depth form has still to be discussed.6 I am conscious not only of rectilinear and circular figures, but of cubical and spherical forms. Our present problem concerns the nature and the conditions
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image