Experimental psychology and its bearing upon culture . uct will be influenced by it quite aswell as if it were not a mere idea but were somebodysreal action. Several psychological experiments illus-trate this. If a person be made to stand erect undera blackened plate of glass or sheet of paper, and awire point or sharp piece of wood be attached to hishead so that it will quietly scratch this blackenedsurface, the swaying of his body will be recorded,and even when he tries to stand motionless, an intri-cate, irregular line will beformed, in appearance notunlike the mark left on anearthquake rec
Experimental psychology and its bearing upon culture . uct will be influenced by it quite aswell as if it were not a mere idea but were somebodysreal action. Several psychological experiments illus-trate this. If a person be made to stand erect undera blackened plate of glass or sheet of paper, and awire point or sharp piece of wood be attached to hishead so that it will quietly scratch this blackenedsurface, the swaying of his body will be recorded,and even when he tries to stand motionless, an intri-cate, irregular line will beformed, in appearance notunlike the mark left on anearthquake recorder. Anexample of such a recordappears in Fig. 42, wherethe arrow marked F givesthe direction in which thesubject was facing. Now theform of this line is differ-ent under different mentalconditions, and it is gen-erally observed that there is a tendency to movement in the direction of the objectwhich for the moment may be claiming the subjectsattention. If we ask him to think intently upon some-thing which he knows to be at his left, his whole body. Fig. 42. — Record with subjectstanding under a smokedplate. 204 Experimental Psychology begins to sway toward that side. In Figs. 43 and 44the part of the record up to the point marked by thesmall arrow shows the normal movement without any
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectpsychol, bookyear1903
