The Principles of Psychology, Vol. II
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William James
William James (1842–1910) was an American philosopher, physician, and psychologist. The brother of novelist Henry James, William James is remembered for his contributions to the fields of pragmatism and functional psychology.
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The Principles of Psychology, Vol. II - William James
The Principles of Psychology
Volume 2
by William James
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVII.
SENSATION
Its distinction from perception. Its cognitive
function--acquaintance with qualities. No pure sensations after the
first days of life. The 'relativity of knowledge'. The law of
contrast. The psychological and the physiological theories of it.
Hering's experiments. The 'eccentric projection' of sensations.
CHAPTER XVIII.
IMAGINATION
Our images are usually vague. Vague images not necessarily general
notions. Individuals differ in imagination; Gabon's researches.
The 'visile' type, 58. The 'audile' type. The 'motile' type.
Tactile images, 65. The neural process of imagination. Its
relations to that of sensation.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE PERCEPTION OF 'THINGS'
Perception and sensation. Perception is of definite and probable
things. Illusions;--of the first type;--of the second
type. The neural process in perception. 'Apperception'.
Is perception an unconscious inference? Hallucinations,
114. The neural process in hallucination. Binet's theory.
'Perception-time'.
CHAPTER XX.
THE PERCEPTION OF SPACE
The feeling of crude extensity. The perception of spatial order.
Space-'relations'. The meaning of localization. 'Local
signs'. The construction of 'real' space. The subdivision
of the original sense-spaces. The sensation of motion over
surfaces. The measurement of the sense-spaces by each other.
Their summation. Feelings of movement in joints. Feelings
of muscular contraction. Summary so far. How the blind
perceive space. Visual space. Helmholtz and Reid on the
test of a sensation. The theory of identical points. The
theory of projection. Ambiguity of retinal impressions;--of
eye-movements. The choice of the visual reality. Sensations
which we ignore. Sensations which seem suppressed. Discussion
of Wundt's and Helmholtz's reasons for denying that retinal sensations
are of extension. Summary. Historical remarks.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE PERCEPTION OF REALITY
Belief and its opposites. The various orders of reality.
'Practical' realities. The sense of our own bodily existence is
the nucleus of all reality. The paramount reality of sensations.
The influence of emotion and active impulse on belief. Belief
in theories. Doubt. Relations of belief and will.
CHAPTER XXII.
REASONING
'Recepts'. In reasoning, we pick out essential qualities.
What is meant by a mode of conceiving. What is involved in the
existence of general propositions. The two factors of reasoning.
Sagacity. The part played by association by similarity.
The intellectual contrast between brute and man: association by
similarity the fundamental human distinction. Different orders of
human genius.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE PRODUCTION OF MOVEMENT
The diffusive wave. Every sensation produces reflex effects on the
whole organism.
CHAPTER XXIV.
INSTINCT
Its definition. Instincts not always blind or invariable.
Two principles of non-uniformity in instincts: 1) Their inhibition by
habits; 2) Their transitoriness. Man has more instincts than
any other mammal. Reflex impulses. Imitation. Emulation.
Pugnacity. Sympathy. The hunting instinct. Fear.
Acquisitiveness. Constructiveness. Play. Curiosity.
Sociability and shyness. Secretiveness. Cleanliness.
Shame. Love. Maternal love.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE EMOTIONS
Instinctive reaction and emotional expression shade imperceptibly into
each other. The expression of grief; of fear; of hatred.
Emotion is a consequence, not the cause, of the bodily expression.
Difficulty of testing this view. Objections to it discussed.
The subtler emotions, 468. No special brain-centres for emotion.
Emotional differences between individuals. The genesis of the
various emotions.
CHAPTER XXVI.
WILL
Voluntary movements: they presuppose a memory of involuntary movements.
Kinæsthetic impressions, 488. No need to assume feelings of
innervation. The 'mental cue' for a movement may be an image of
its visual or auditory effects as well as an image of the way it feels.
Ideo-motor action. Action after deliberation. Five types
of decision. The feeling of effort. Unhealthiness of will:
1) The explosive type; 2) The obstructed type. Pleasure
and pain are not the only springs of action. All consciousness
is impulsive. What we will depends on what idea dominates in
our mind. The idea's outward effects follow from the cerebral
machinery. Effort of attention to a naturally repugnant idea is
the essential feature of willing. The free-will controversy.
Psychology, as a science, can safely postulate determinism, even if
free-will be true. The education of the Will. Hypothetical
brain-schemes.
CHAPTER XXVII.
HYPNOTISM
Modes of operating and susceptibility. Theories about the hypnotic
state. The symptoms of the trance.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
NECESSARY TRUTHS AND THE EFFECTS OF EXPERIENCE
Programme of the chapter. Elementary feelings are innate.
The question refers to their combinations. What is meant by
'experience'. Spencer on ancestral experience. Two ways
in which new cerebral structure arises: the 'back-door' and the
'front-door' way. The genesis of the elementary mental categories.
The genesis of the natural sciences. Scientific conceptions
arise as accidental variations. The genesis of the pure sciences.
Series of evenly increasing terms. The principle of mediate
comparison. That of skipped intermediaries. Classification.
Predication. Formal logic. Mathematical propositions.
Arithmetic. Geometry. Our doctrine is the same as
Locke's. Relations of ideas _v._ couplings of things The
natural sciences are inward ideal schemes with which the order of
nature proves congruent. Metaphysical principles are properly only
postulates. Æsthetic and moral principles are quite incongruent
with the order of nature. Summary of what precedes. The
origin of instincts. Insufficiency of proof for the transmission
to the next generation of acquired habits. Weismann's views.
Conclusion.
INDEX.
PSYCHOLOGY.
CHAPTER XVII.
SENSATION.
After inner perception, outer perception! The next three chapters will
treat of the processes by which we cognize at all times the present
world of space and the material things which it contains. And first, of
the process called Sensation.
SENSATION AND PERCEPTION DISTINGUISHED.
_The words Sensation and Perception_ do not carry very definitely
discriminated meanings in popular speech, and in Psychology also their
meanings run into each other. Both of them name processes in which we
cognize an objective world; both (under normal conditions) need the
stimulation of incoming nerves ere they can occur; Perception always
involves Sensation as a portion of itself; and Sensation in turn never
takes place in adult life without Perception also being there. They are
therefore names for different cognitive _functions_, not for different
sorts of mental _fact_. The nearer the object cognized comes to being a
simple quality like 'hot,' 'cold,' 'red,' 'noise,' 'pain,' apprehended
irrelatively to other things, the more the state of mind approaches
pure sensation. The fuller of relations the object is, on the contrary;
the more it is something classed, located, measured, compared, assigned
to a function, etc., etc.; the more unreservedly do we call the state
of mind a perception, and the relatively smaller is the part in it
which sensation plays.
_Sensation, then, so long as we take the analytic point of view,
differs from Perception only in the extreme simplicity of its object or
content._[1] Its function is that of mere _acquaintance_ with a fact.
Perception's function, on the other hand, is knowledge _about_[2] a
fact; and this knowledge admits of numberless degrees of complication.
But in both sensation and perception we perceive the fact as an
_immediately present outward reality_, and this makes them differ from
'thought' and 'conception,' whose objects do not appear present in this
immediate physical way. _From the physiological_ _point of view both
sensations and perceptions differ from 'thoughts'_ (in the narrower
sense of the word) _in the fact that nerve-currents coming in from
the periphery are involved in their production. In perception these
nerve-currents arouse voluminous associative or reproductive processes
in the cortex; but when sensation occurs alone, or with a minimum of
perception, the accompanying reproductive processes are at a minimum
too._
I shall in this chapter discuss some general questions more especially
relative to Sensation. In a later chapter perception will take its
turn. I shall entirely pass by the classification and natural history
of our special 'sensations,' such matters finding their proper place,
and being sufficiently well treated, in all the physiological books.[3]
THE COGNITIVE FUNCTION OF SENSATION.
_A pure sensation is an abstraction;_ and when we adults talk of our
'sensations' we mean one of two things: either certain _objects_,
namely simple _qualities_ or _attributes_ like _hard, hot, pain;_ or
else those of our thoughts in which acquaintance with these objects
is least combined with knowledge about the relations of them to other
things. As we can only think or talk about the relations of objects
with which we have _acquaintance_ already, we are forced to postulate
a function in our thought whereby we first become aware of the _bare
immediate natures_ by which our several objects are distinguished.
This function is sensation. And just as logicians always point out
the distinction between substantive terms of discourse and relations
found to obtain between them, so psychologists, as a rule, are ready to
admit this function, of the vision of the terms or matters meant, as
something distinct from the knowledge about them and of their relations
_inter se_. Thought with the former function is sensational, with the
latter, intellectual. Our earliest thoughts are almost exclusively
sensational. They merely give us a set of _thats_, or _its_, of
subjects of discourse, with their relations not brought out. The
first time we see _light_, in Condillac's phrase we _are_ it rather
rather than see it. But all our later optical knowledge is about what
this experience gives. And though we were struck blind from that first
moment, our scholarship in the subject would lack no essential feature
so long as our memory remained. In training-institutions for the blind
they teach the pupils as much _about_ light as in ordinary schools.
Reflection, refraction, the spectrum, the ether-theory, etc., are all
studied. But the best taught born-blind pupil of such an establishment
yet lacks a knowledge which the least instructed seeing baby has. They
can never show him what light is in its 'first intention'; and the loss
of that sensible knowledge no book-learning can replace. All this is so
obvious that we usually find sensation 'postulated' as an element of
experience, even by those philosophers who are least inclined to make
much of its importance, or to pay respect to the knowledge which it
brings.[4]
But the trouble is that most, if not all, of those who admit it,
admit it as a fractional _part_ of the thought, in the old-fashioned
atomistic sense which we have so often criticised.
Take the pain called toothache for example. Again and again we feel it
and greet it as the same real item in the universe. We must therefore,
it is supposed, have a distinct pocket for it in our mind into which it
and nothing else will fit. This pocket, when filled, is the sensation
of toothache; and must be either filled or half-filled whenever and
under whatever form toothache is present to our thought, and whether
much or little of the rest of the mind be filled at the same time.
Thereupon of course comes up the paradox and mystery: If the knowledge
of toothache be pent up in this separate mental pocket, how can it be
known _cum alio_ or brought into one view with anything else? This
pocket knows nothing else; no other part of the mind knows toothache.
The knowing of toothache _cum alio_ must be a miracle. And the miracle
must have an Agent. And the Agent must be a Subject or Ego 'out of
time,'--and all the rest of it, as we saw in Chapter X. And then begins
the well-worn round of recrimination between the sensationalists and
the spiritualists, from which we are saved by our determination from
the outset to accept the psychological point of view, and to admit
knowledge whether of simple toothaches or of philosophic systems as
an ultimate fact. There are realities and there are 'states of mind,'
and the latter know the former; and it is just as wonderful for a
state of mind to be a 'sensation' and know a simple pain as for it to
be a thought and know a system of related things.[5] But there is no
reason to suppose that when different states of mind know different
things about the same toothache, they do so by virtue of their all
_containing_ faintly or vividly the original pain. Quite the reverse.
The by-gone sensation of my gout was painful, as Reid somewhere says;
the _thought_ of the same gout as by-gone is pleasant, and in no
respect resembles the earlier mental state.
Sensations, then, first make us acquainted with innumerable things, and
then are replaced by thoughts which know the same things in altogether
other ways. And Locke's main doctrine remains eternally true, however
hazy some of his language may have been, that
"though there be a great number of considerations wherein things
may be compared one with another, and so a multitude of relations;
yet they all _terminate in_, and are concerned about, those simple
ideas[6] either of sensation or reflection, which I think to be the
whole materials of all our knowledge.... The simple ideas we receive
from sensation and reflection are the _boundaries_ of our thoughts;
beyond which, the mind whatever efforts it would make, is not able to
advance one jot; nor can it make any discoveries when it would pry
into the nature and hidden causes of those ideas."[7]
The nature and hidden causes of ideas will never be unravelled till
the _nexus_ between the brain and consciousness is cleared up. All
we can say now is that sensations are _first_ things in the way of
consciousness. Before conceptions can come, sensations must have
come; but before sensations come, no psychic fact need have existed,
a nerve-current is enough. If the nerve-current be not given, nothing
else will take its place. To quote the good Locke again:
"It is not in the power of the most exalted wit or enlarged
understanding, by any quickness or variety of thoughts, to invent or
frame one new simple idea [i.e. sensation] in the mind.... I would
have any one try to fancy any taste which had never affected his
palate, or frame the idea of a scent he had never smelt; and when
he can do this, I will also conclude that a blind man hath ideas of
colors, and a deaf man true distinct notions of sounds."[8]
The brain is so made that all currents in it run one way. Consciousness
of some sort goes with all the currents, but it is only when new
currents are entering that it has the sensational _tang_. And it is
only then that consciousness directly _encounters_ (to use a word of
Mr. Bradley's) a reality outside itself.
The difference between such encounter and all conceptual knowledge is
very great. A blind man may know all _about_ the sky's blueness, and
I may know all _about_ your toothache, conceptually; tracing their
causes from primeval chaos, and their consequences to the crack of
doom. But so long as he has not felt the blueness, nor I the toothache,
our knowledge, wide as it is, of these realities, will be hollow
and inadequate. Somebody must _feel_ blueness, somebody must _have_
toothache, to make human knowledge of these matters real. Conceptual
systems which neither began nor left off in sensations would be like
bridges without piers. Systems about fact must plunge themselves into
sensation as bridges plunge their piers into the rock. Sensations are
the stable rock, the _terminus a quo_ and the _terminus ad quem_ of
thought. To find such termini is our aim with all our theories--to
conceive first when and where a certain sensation may be had, and then
to have it. Finding it stops discussion. Failure to find it kills the
false conceit of knowledge. Only when you deduce a possible sensation
for me from your theory, and give it to me when and where the theory
requires, do I begin to be sure that your thought has anything to do
with truth.
_Pure sensations can only be realized in the earliest days of life._
They are all but impossible to adults with memories and stores of
associations acquired. Prior to all impressions on sense-organs the
brain is plunged in deep sleep and consciousness is practically
non-existent. Even the first weeks after birth are passed in almost
unbroken sleep by human infants. It takes a strong message from the
sense-organs to break this slumber. In a new-born brain this gives
rise to an absolutely pure sensation. But the experience leaves its
'unimaginable touch' on the matter of the convolutions, and the next
impression which a sense-organ transmits produces a cerebral reaction
in which the awakened vestige of the last impression plays its part.
Another sort of feeling and a higher grade of cognition are the
consequence; and the complication goes on increasing till the end of
life, no two successive impressions falling on an identical brain, and
no two successive thoughts being exactly the same. (See Vol. I, p. 230
ff.)
_The first sensation which an infant gets is for him the Universe._
And the Universe which he later comes to know is nothing but an
amplification and an implication of that first simple germ which,
by accretion on the one hand and intussusception on the other,
has grown so big and complex and articulate that its first estate
is unrememberable. In his dumb awakening to the consciousness of
_something there_, a mere _this_ as yet (or something for which
even the term _this_ would perhaps be too discriminative, and the
intellectual acknowledgment of which would be better expressed by
the bare interjection 'lo!'), the infant encounters an object in
which (though it be given in a pure sensation) all the 'categories
of the understanding' are contained. _It has objectivity, unity,
substantiality, causality, in the full sense in which any later object
or system of objects has these things._ Here the young knower meets
and greets his world; and the miracle of knowledge bursts forth, as
Voltaire says, as much in the infant's lowest sensation as in the
highest achievement of a Newton's brain. The physiological condition
of this first sensible experience is probably nerve-currents coming
in from many peripheral organs at once. Later, the one confused Fact
which these currents cause to appear is perceived to be many facts,
and to contain many qualities.[9] For as the currents vary, and the
brain-paths are moulded by them, other thoughts with other 'objects'
come, and the 'same thing' which was apprehended as a present _this_
soon figures as a past _that_, about which many unsuspected things have
come to light. The principles of this development have been laid down
already in Chapters XII and XIII, and nothing more need here be added
to that account.
THE RELATIVITY OF KNOWLEDGE.
To the reader who is tired of so much _Erkenntnisstheorie_ I can only
say that I am so myself, but that it is indispensable, in the actual
state of opinions about Sensation, to try to clear up just what the
word means. Locke's pupils seek to do the impossible with sensations,
and against them we must once again insist that sensations 'clustered
together' cannot build up our more intellectual states of mind. Plato's
earlier pupils used to admit Sensation's existence, grudgingly, but
they trampled it in the dust as something corporeal, non-cognitive,
and vile.[10] His latest followers seem to seek to crowd it out of
existence altogether. The only reals for the neo-Hegelian writers
appear to be _relations_, relations without terms, or whose terms
are only speciously such and really consist in knots, or gnarls of
relations finer still _in infinitum_.
"Exclude from what we have considered real all qualities constituted
by relation, we find that none are left.
Abstract the many relations
from the one thing and there is nothing.... Without the relations it
would not exist at all.[11]
The single feeling is nothing real."
"On the recognition of relations as constituting the _nature_ of
ideas, rests the possibility of any tenable theory of their reality."
Such quotations as these from the late T. H. Green[12] would be matters
of curiosity rather than of importance, were it not that sensationalist
writers themselves believe in a so-called 'Relativity of Knowledge,'
which, if they only understood it, they would see to be identical
with Professor Green's doctrine. They tell us that the relation of
sensations to each other is something belonging to their essence, and
that no one of them has an absolute content:
"That, e.g., black can only be felt in contrast to white, or at
least in distinction from a paler or a deeper black; similarly a
tone or a sound only in alternation with others or with silence; and
in like manner a smell, a taste, a touch, only, so to speak, _in
statu nascendi_, whilst, when the stimulus continues, all sensation
disappears. This all seems at first sight to be splendidly consistent
both with itself and with the facts. But looked at more closely, it is
seen that neither is the case."[13]
The two leading facts from which the doctrine of universal relativity
derives its wide-spread credit are these:
1) The _psychological fact_ that so much of our actual knowledge _is_
of the relations of things--even our simplest sensations in adult life
are habitually referred to classes as we take them in; and
2) The _physiological fact_ that our senses and brain must have periods
of change and repose, else we cease to feel and think.
Neither of these facts proves anything about the presence or
non-presence to our mind of absolute qualities with which we become
sensibly acquainted. Surely not the psychological fact; for our
inveterate love of relating and comparing things does not alter the
intrinsic qualities or nature of the things compared, or undo their
absolute givenness. And surely not the physiological fact; for the
length of time during which we can feel or attend to a quality is
altogether irrelevant to the intrinsic constitution of the quality
felt. The time, moreover, is long enough in many instances, as
sufferers from neuralgia know.[14] And the doctrine of relativity,
not proved by these facts, is flatly disproved by other facts even
more patent. So far are we from not knowing (in the words of Professor
Bain) "any one thing by itself, but only the difference between it
and another thing," that if this were true the whole edifice of our
knowledge would collapse. If all we felt were the _difference_ between
the _C_ and _D_, or _c_ and _d_, on the musical scale, that being the
same in the two pairs of notes, the pairs themselves would be the same,
and language could get along without substantives. But Professor Bain
does not mean seriously what he says, and we need spend no more time on
this vague and popular form of the doctrine.[15] The facts which seem
to hover before the minds of its champions are those which are best
described under the head of a physiological law.
THE LAW OF CONTRAST.
I will first enumerate the main facts which fall under this law, and
then remark upon what seems to me their significance for psychology.[16]
[Nowhere are the phenomena of contrast better exhibited, and their
laws more open to accurate study, than in connection with the sense
of sight. Here both kinds--simultaneous and successive--can easily be
observed, for they are of constant occurrence. Ordinarily they remain
unnoticed, in accordance with the general law of economy which causes
us to select for conscious notice only such elements of our object as
will serve us for æsthetic or practical utility, and to neglect the
rest; just as we ignore the double images, the _mouches volantes_,
etc., which exist for everyone, but which are not discriminated
without careful attention. But by attention we may easily discover
the general facts involved in contrast. We find that _in general the
color and brightness of one object always apparently affect the color
and brightness of any other object seen simultaneously with it or
immediately after_.
In the first place, if we look for a moment at any surface and then
turn our eyes elsewhere, the complementary color and opposite degree
of brightness to that of the first surface tend to mingle themselves
with the color and the brightness of the second. This is _successive
contrast_. It finds its explanation in the fatigue of the organ of
sight, causing it to respond to any particular stimulus less and
less readily the longer such stimulus continues to act. This is
shown clearly in the very marked changes which occur in case of
continued fixation of one particular point of any field. The field
darkens slowly, becomes more and more indistinct, and finally, if
one is practised enough in holding the eye perfectly steady, slight
differences in shade and color may entirely disappear. If we now turn
aside the eyes, a negative after-image of the field just fixated at
once forms, and mingles its sensations with those which may happen to
come from anything else looked at. This influence is distinctly evident
only when the first surface has been 'fixated' without movement of
the eyes. It is, however, none the less present at all times, even
when the eye wanders from point to point, causing each sensation to
be modified more or less by that just previously experienced. On this
account successive contrast is almost sure to be present in cases of
simultaneous contrast, and to complicate the phenomena.
A _visual image is modified not only by other sensations just
previously experienced, but also by all those experienced
simultaneously with it, and especially by such as proceed from
contiguous portions of the retina_. This is the phenomenon of
_simultaneous contrast_. In this, as in successive contrast, both
brightness and hue are involved. A bright object appears still brighter
when its surroundings are darker than itself, and darker when they are
brighter than itself. Two colors side by side are apparently changed by
the admixture, with each, of the complement of the other. And lastly,
a gray surface near a colored one is tinged with the complement of the
latter.[17]
The phenomena of simultaneous contrast in sight are so complicated
by other attendant phenomena that it is difficult to isolate
them and observe them in their purity. Yet it is evidently of the
greatest importance to do so, if one would conduct his investigations
accurately. Neglect of this principle has led to many mistakes being
made in accounting for the facts observed. As we have seen, if the eye
is allowed to wander here and there about the field as it ordinarily
does, successive contrast results and allowance must be made for
its presence. It can be avoided only by carefully fixating with the
well-rested eye a point of one field, and by then observing the changes
which occur in this field when the contrasting field is placed by its
side. Such a course will insure pure simultaneous contrast. But even
thus it lasts in its purity for a moment only. It reaches its maximum
of effect immediately after the introduction of the contrasting field,
and then, if the fixation is continued, it begins to weaken rapidly
and soon disappears; thus undergoing changes similar to those observed
when any field whatever is fixated steadily and the retina becomes
fatigued by unchanging stimuli. If one continues still further to
fixate the same point, the color and brightness of one field tend to
spread themselves over and mingle with the color and brightness of the
neighboring fields, thus substituting '_simultaneous induction_' for
simultaneous contrast.
Not only must we recognize and eliminate the effects of successive
contrast, of temporal changes due to fixation, and of simultaneous
induction, in analyzing the phenomena of simultaneous contrast, but we
must also take into account _various other influences which modify its
effects_. Under favorable circumstances the contrast-effects are very
striking, and did they always occur as strongly they could not fail to
attract the attention. But they are not always clearly apparent, owing
to various disturbing causes which form no exception to the laws of
contrast, but which have a modifying effect on its phenomena. When,
for instance, the ground observed has many distinguishable features--a
_coarse grain, rough surface, intricate pattern,_ etc.--the contrast
effect appears weaker. This does not imply that the effects of contrast
are absent, but merely that the resulting sensations are overpowered
by the many other stronger sensations which entirely occupy the
attention. On such a ground a faint negative after-image--undoubtedly
due to retinal modifications--may become invisible; and even weak
objective differences in color may become imperceptible. For example, a
faint spot or grease-stain on woollen cloth, easily seen at a distance,
when the fibres are not distinguishable, disappears when closer
examination reveals the intricate nature of the surface.
Another frequent cause of the apparent absence of contrast is the
presence of narrow dark intermediate fields, such as are formed by
_bordering a field with black lines, or by the shaded contours of
objects_. When such fields interfere with the contrast, it is because
black and white can absorb much color without themselves becoming
clearly colored; and because such lines separate other fields too far
for them to distinctly influence one another. Even weak objective
differences in color may be made imperceptible by such means.
A third case where contrast does not clearly appear is where the _color
of the contrasting fields is too weak or too intense_, or where there
is _much difference in brightness between the two fields_. In the
latter case, as can easily be shown, it is the contrast of brightness
which interferes with the color-contrast and makes it imperceptible.
For this reason contrast shows best between fields of about equal
brightness. But the intensity of the color must not be too great, for
then its very darkness necessitates a dark contrasting field which
is too absorbent of induced color to allow the contrast to appear
strongly. The case is similar if the fields are too light.
_To obtain the best contrast-effects, therefore, the contracting fields
should be near together, should not be separated by shadows or black
lines, should be of homogeneous texture, and should be of about equal
brightness and medium intensity of color._ Such conditions do not
often occur naturally, the disturbing influences being present in case
of almost all ordinary objects, thus making the effects of contrast
far less evident. To eliminate these disturbances and to produce the
conditions most favorable for the appearance of good contrast-effects,
various experiments have been devised, which will be explained in
comparing the rival theories of explanation.
* * * * *
There are _two theories--the psychological and the
physiological_--which attempt to explain the phenomena of contrast.
Of these the _psychological one_ was the first to gain prominence.
_Its most able advocate has been Helmholtz. It explains contrast
as a_ DECEPTION OF JUDGMENT. In ordinary life our sensations have
interest for us only so far as they give us practical knowledge.
Our chief concern is to recognize objects, and we have no occasion
to estimate exactly their absolute brightness and color. Hence we
gain no facility in so doing, but neglect the constant changes in
their shade, and are very uncertain as to the exact degree of their
brightness or tone of their color. When objects are near one another
"we are inclined to consider those differences which are clearly and
surely perceived as greater than those which appear uncertain in
perception or which must be judged by aid of memory,"[18] just as we
see a medium-sized man taller than he really is when he stands beside
a short man. Such deceptions are more easily possible in the judgment
of small differences than of large ones; also where there is but one
element of difference instead of many. In a large number of cases of
contrast, in all of which a whitish spot is surrounded on all sides
by a colored surface--Meyer's experiment, the mirror experiment,
colored shadows, etc., soon to be described--the contrast is produced,
according to Helmholtz, by the fact that "a colored illumination or a
transparent colored covering appears to be spread out over the field,
and observation does not show directly that it fails on the white
spot."[19] We therefore believe that we see the latter through the
former color. Now
"Colors have their greatest importance for us in so far as they are
properties of bodies and can serve as signs for the recognition
of bodies.... We have become accustomed, in forming a judgment in
regard to the colors of bodies, to eliminate the varying brightness
and color of the illumination. We have sufficient opportunity to
investigate the same colors of objects in full sunshine, in the blue
light of the clear sky, in the weak white light of a cloudy day, in
the reddish-yellow light of the sinking sun or of the candle. Moreover
the colored reflections of surrounding objects are involved. Since
we see the same colored objects under these varying illuminations,
we learn to form a correct conception of the color of the object in
spite of the difference in illumination, i.e. to judge how such an
object would appear in white illumination; and since only the constant
color of the object interests us, we do not become conscious of the
particular sensations on which our judgment rests. So also we are
at no loss, when we see an object through a colored covering, to
distinguish what belongs to the color of the covering and what to
the object. In the experiments mentioned we do the same also where
the covering over the object is not at all colored, because of the
deception into which we fall, and in consequence of which we ascribe
to the body a false color, the color complementary to the colored
portion of the covering."[20]
We think that we see the complementary color through the colored
covering,--for these two colors together would give the sensation of
white which is actually experienced. If, however, in any way the white
spot is recognized as an independent object, or if it is compared with
another object known to be white, our judgment is no longer deceived
and the contrast does not appear.
"As soon as the contrasting field is recognized as an independent
body which lies above the colored ground, or even through an adequate
tracing of its outlines is seen to be a separate field, the contrast
disappears. Since, then, the judgment of the spatial position, the
material independence, of the object in question is decisive for the
determination of its color, it follows that the contrast-color arises
not through an act of sensation but through an act of judgment."[21]
In short, the apparent change in color or brightness through contrast
is due to no change in excitation of the organ, to no change in
sensation; but in consequence of a false judgment the unchanged
sensation is wrongly interpreted, and thus leads to a changed
_perception_ of the brightness or color.
* * * * *
In opposition to this theory has been developed one which attempts to
explain all cases of contrast as depending purely on _physiological
action of the terminal apparatus of vision. Hering is the most
prominent supporter of this view._ By great originality in devising
experiments and by insisting on rigid care in conducting them, he has
been able to detect the faults in the psychological theory and to
practically establish the validity of his own. Every visual sensation,
he maintains, is correlated to a physical process in the nervous
apparatus. Contrast is occasioned, not by a false idea resulting from
unconscious conclusions, but by the fact that the excitation of any
portion of the retina--and the consequent sensation--depends not only
on its own illumination, but on that of the rest of the retina as well.
"If this psycho-physical process is aroused, as usually happens, by
light-rays impinging on the retina, its nature depends not only on
the nature of these rays, but also on the constitution of the entire
nervous apparatus which is connected with the organ of vision, and on
the state in which it finds itself."[22]
When a limited portion of the retina is aroused by external stimuli,
the rest of the retina, and especially the immediately contiguous
parts, tends to react also, and in such a way as to produce
therefrom the sensation of the opposite degree of brightness and the
complementary color to that of the directly-excited portion. When a
gray spot is seen alone, and again when it appears colored through
contrast, the objective light from the spot is in both cases the same.
Helmholtz maintains that the neural process and the corresponding
_sensation_ also remain unchanged, but are differently _interpreted_;
Hering, that the neural process and the sensation are themselves
changed, and that the 'interpretation' is the direct conscious
correlate of the altered retinal conditions. According to the one, the
contrast is psychological in its origin; according to the other, it is
purely physiological. In the cases cited above where the contrast-color
is no longer apparent--on a ground with many distinguishable features,
on a field whose borders are traced with black lines, etc.,--the
psychological theory, as we have seen, attributes this to the fact
that under these circumstances we judge the smaller patch of color to
be an independent object on the surface, and are no longer deceived
in judging it to be something over which the color of the ground is
drawn. The physiological theory, on the other hand, maintains that the
contrast-effect is still produced, but that the conditions are such
that the slight changes in color and brightness which it occasions
become imperceptible.
* * * * *
The two theories, stated thus broadly, may seem equally plausible.
Hering, however, has conclusively proved, by experiments with
after-images, that the process on one part of the retina does modify
that on neighboring portions, under conditions where deception of
judgment is impossible.[23] A careful examination of the facts of
contrast will show that its phenomena must be due to this cause. _In
all the cases which one may investigate it will be seen that the
upholders of the psychological theory have failed to conduct their
experiments with sufficient care._ They have not excluded successive
contrast, have overlooked the changes due to steady fixation, and have
failed to properly account for the various modifying influences which
have been mentioned above. We can easily establish this if we examine
the most striking experiments in simultaneous contrast.
Of these one of the best known and most easily arranged is that known
as _Meyer's experiment_. A scrap of gray paper is placed on a colored
background, and both are covered by a sheet of transparent white paper.
The gray spot then assumes a contrast-color, complementary to that of
the background, which shines with a whitish tinge through the paper
which covers it. Helmholtz explains the phenomenon thus:
"If the background is green, the covering-paper itself appears to be
of a greenish color. If now the substance of the paper extends without
apparent interruption over the gray which lies under it, we think that
we see an object glimmering through the greenish paper, and such an
object must in turn be rose-red, in order to give white light. If,
however, the gray spot has its limits so fixed that it appears to be
an independent object, the continuity with the greenish portion of the
surface fails, and we regard it as a gray object which lies on this
surface."[24]
The contrast-color may thus be made to disappear by tracing in black
the outlines of the gray scrap, or by placing above the tissue paper
another gray scrap of the same degree of brightness, and comparing
together the two grays. On neither of them does the contrast-color now
appear.
Hering[25] shows clearly that this interpretation is incorrect, and
that the disturbing factors are to be otherwise explained. In the first
place, the experiment can be so arranged that we could not possibly be
deceived into believing that we see the gray through a colored medium.
Out of a sheet of gray paper cut strips 5 mm. wide in such a way that
there will be alternately an empty space and a bar of gray, both of the
same width, the bars being held together by the uncut edges of the gray
sheet (thus presenting an appearance like a gridiron). Lay this on a
colored background--e.g. green--cover both with transparent paper, and
above all put a black frame which covers all the edges, leaving visible
only the bars, which are now alternately green and gray. The gray bars
appear strongly colored by contrast, although, since they occupy as
much space as the green bars, we are not deceived into believing that
we see the former through a green medium. The same is true if we weave
together into a basket pattern narrow strips of green and gray and
cover them with the transparent paper.
Why, then, if it is a true sensation due to physiological causes, and
not an error of judgment, which causes the contrast, does the color
disappear when the outlines of the gray scrap are traced, enabling us
to recognize it as an independent object? In the first place, it does
not necessarily do so, as will easily be seen if the experiment is
tried. The contrast-color often remains distinctly visible in spite
of the black outlines. In the second place, there are many adequate
reasons why the effect should be modified. Simultaneous contrast is
always strongest at the border-line of the two fields; but a narrow
black field now separates the two, and itself by contrast strengthens
the whiteness of both original fields, which were already little
saturated in color; and on black and on white, contrast-colors show
only under the most favorable circumstances. Even weak objective
differences in color may be made to disappear by such tracing of
outlines, as can be seen if we place on a gray background a scrap of
faintly-colored paper, cover it with transparent paper and trace its
outlines. Thus we see that it is not the recognition of the contrasting
field as an independent object which interferes with its color, but
rather a number of entirely explicable physiological disturbances.
The same may be proved in the case of holding above the tissue paper a
second gray scrap and comparing it with that underneath. To avoid the
disturbances caused by using papers of different brightness, the second
scrap should be made exactly like the first by covering the same gray
with the same tissue paper, and carefully cutting a piece about 10 mm.
square out of both together. To thoroughly guard against successive
contrast, which so easily complicates the phenomena, we must carefully
prevent all previous excitation of the retina by colored light. This
may be done by arranging thus: Place the sheet of tissue paper on a
glass pane, which rests on four supports; under the paper put the first
gray scrap. By means of a wire, fasten the second gray scrap 2 or 3 cm.
above the glass plate. Both scraps appear exactly alike, except at the
edges. Gaze now at both scraps, with eyes not exactly accommodated, so
that they appear near one another, with a very narrow space between.
Shove now a colored field (green) underneath the glass plate, and the
contrast appears at once on both scraps. If it appears less clearly
on the upper scrap, it is because of its bright and dark edges, its
inequalities, its grain, etc. When the accommodation is exact, there is
no essential change, although then on the upper scrap the bright edge
on the side toward the light, and the dark edge on the shadow side,
disturb somewhat. By continued fixation the contrast becomes weaker
and finally yields to simultaneous induction, causing the scraps to
become indistinguishable from the ground. Remove the green field and
both scraps become green, by successive induction. If the eye moves
about freely these last-named phenomena do not appear, but the contrast
continues indefinitely and becomes stronger. When Helmholtz found that
the contrast on the lower scrap disappeared, it was evidently because
he then really held the eye fixed. This experiment may be disturbed by
holding the upper scrap wrongly and by the differences in brightness of
its edges, or by other inequalities, but not by that recognizing of it
'as an independent body lying above the colored ground,' on which the
psychological explanation rests.
In like manner the claims of the psychological explanation can be
shown to be inadequate in other cases of contrast. Of frequent use
are revolving disks, which are especially efficient in showing good
contrast-phenomena, because all inequalities of the ground disappear
and leave a perfectly homogeneous surface. On a white disk are arranged
colored sectors, which are interrupted midway by narrow black fields in
such a way that when the disk is revolved the white becomes mixed with
the color and the black, forming a colored disk of weak saturation on
which appears a gray ring. The latter is colored by contrast with the
field which surrounds it. Helmholtz explains the fact thus:
"The difference of the compared colors appears greater than it really
is either because this difference, when it is the only existing one
and draws the attention to itself alone, makes a stronger impression
than when it is one among many, or because the different colors of the
surface are conceived as alterations of the one ground-color of the
surface such as might arise through shadows falling on it, through
colored reflexes, or through mixture with colored paint or dust. In
truth, to produce an objectively gray spot on a green surface, a
reddish coloring would be necessary."[26]
This explanation is easily proved false by painting the disk with
narrow green and gray concentric rings, and giving each a different
saturation. The contrast appears though there is no ground-color, and
no longer a single difference, but many. The facts which Helmholtz
brings forward in support of his theory are also easily turned against
him. He asserts that if the color of the ground is too intense, or
if the gray ring is bordered by black circles, the contrast becomes
weaker; that no contrast appears on a white scrap held over the
colored field; and that the gray ring when compared with such scrap
loses its contrast-color either wholly or in part. Hering points out
the inaccuracy of all these claims. Under favorable conditions it is
impossible to make the contrast disappear by means of black enclosing
lines, although they naturally form a disturbing element; increase
in the saturation of the field, if disturbance through increasing
brightness-contrast is to be avoided, demands a darker gray field, on
which contrast-colors are less easily perceived; and careful use of the
white scrap leads to entirely different results. The contrast-color
does appear upon it when it is first placed above the colored field;
but if it is carefully fixated, the contrast-color diminishes very
rapidly both on it and on the ring, from causes already explained.
To secure accurate observation, all complication through successive
contrast should be avoided thus: first arrange the white scrap, then
interpose a gray screen between it and the disk, rest the eye, set the
wheel in motion, fixate the scrap, and then have the screen removed.
The contrast at once appears clearly, and its disappearance through
continued fixation can be accurately watched.
Brief mention of a few other cases of contrast must suffice. The
so-called mirror experiment consists of placing at an angle of 45º a
green (or otherwise colored) pane of glass, forming an angle with two
white surfaces, one horizontal and the other vertical. On each white
surface is a black spot. The one on the horizontal surface is seen
through the glass and appears dark green, the other is reflected from
the surface of the glass to the eye, and appears by contrast red. The
experiment may be so arranged that we are not aware of the presence of
the green glass, but think that we are looking directly at a surface
with green and red spots upon it; in such a case there is no deception
of judgment caused by making allowance for the colored medium through
which we think that we see the spot, and therefore the psychological
explanation does not apply. On excluding successive contrast by
fixation the contrast soon disappears as in all similar experiments.[27]
_Colored shadows_ have long been thought to afford a convincing proof
of the fact that simultaneous contrast is psychological in its origin.
They are formed whenever an opaque object is illuminated from two
separate sides by lights of different colors. When the light from one
source is white, its shadow is of the color of the other light, and
the second shadow is of a color complementary to that of the field
illuminated by both lights. If now we take a tube, blackened inside,
and through it look at the colored shadow, none of the surrounding
field being visible, and then have the colored light removed, the
shadow still appears colored, although 'the circumstances which
caused it have disappeared.' This is regarded by the psychologists as
conclusive evidence that the color is due to deception of judgment.
It can, however, easily be shown that the persistence of the color
seen through the tube is due to fatigue of the retina through the
prevailing light, and that when the colored light is removed the color
slowly disappears as the equilibrium of the retina becomes gradually
restored. When successive contrast is carefully guarded against, the
simultaneous contrast, whether seen directly or through the tube, never
lasts for an instant on removal of the colored field. The physiological
explanation applies throughout to all the phenomena presented by
colored shadows.[28]
If we have a small field whose illumination remains constant,
surrounded by a large field of changing brightness, an increase or
decrease in brightness of the latter results in a corresponding
apparent decrease or increase respectively in the brightness of the
former, while the large field seems to be unchanged. Exner says:
"This illusion of sense shows that we are inclined to regard as
constant the dominant brightness in our field of vision, and hence to
refer the changing difference between this and the brightness of a
limited field to a change in brightness of the latter."
The result, however, can be shown to depend not on illusion, but on
actual retinal changes, which alter the sensation experienced. The
irritability of those portions of the retina lighted by the large field
becomes much reduced in consequence of fatigue, so that the increase
in brightness becomes much less apparent than it would be without this
diminution in irritability. The small field, however, shows the change
by a change in the contrast-effect induced upon it by the surrounding
parts of the retina.[29]
The above cases show clearly that _physiological processes, and not
deception of judgment, are responsible for contrast of color_. To say
this, however, is not to maintain that our perception of a color is
never in any degree modified by our judgment of what the particular
colored thing before us may be. We have unquestionable illusions of
color due to wrong inferences as to what object is before us. Thus Von
Kries[30] speaks of wandering through evergreen forests covered with
snow, and thinking that through the interstices of the boughs he saw
the deep blue of pine-clad mountains, covered with snow and lighted by
brilliant sunshine; whereas what he really saw was the white snow on
trees near by, lying in shadow].[31]
Such a mistake as this is undoubtedly of psychological origin. It is
a wrong _classification_ of the appearances, due to the arousal of
intricate processes of association amongst which is the suggestion of a
different hue from that really before the eyes. In the ensuing chapters
such illusions as this will be treated of in considerable detail. But
it is a mistake to interpret the simpler cases of contrast in the light
of such illusions as these. These illusions can be rectified in an
instant, and we then wonder how they could have been. They come from
insufficient attention, or from the fact that the impression which we
get is a sign of more than one possible object, and can be interpreted
in either way. In none of these points do they resemble simple
color-contrast, which _unquestionably is a phenomenon of sensation
immediately aroused_.
* * * * *
I have dwelt upon the facts of color-contrast at such great length
because they form so good a text to comment on in my struggle
against the view that sensations are immutable psychic things which
coexist with higher mental functions. Both sensationalists and
intellectualists agree that such sensations exist. They _fuse_, say
the pure sensationalists, and _make_ the higher mental function;
they _are combined_ by activity of the Thinking Principle, say the
intellectualists. I myself have contended that they _do not exist_ in
or alongside of the higher mental function when that exists. The things
which arouse them exist; and the higher mental function also knows
these same things. But just as its knowledge of the things supersedes
and displaces their knowledge, so it supersedes and displaces them,
when it comes, being as much as they are a direct resultant of whatever
momentary brain-conditions may obtain. The psychological theory of
contrast, on the other hand, holds the sensations still to exist in
themselves unchanged before the mind, whilst the 'relating activity' of
the latter deals with them freely and settles to its own satisfaction
what each shall be, in view of what the others also are. Wundt says
expressly that the Law of Relativity is "not a law of sensation but
a law of Apperception;" and the word Apperception connotes with him
a higher intellectual spontaneity.[32] This way of taking things
belongs with the philosophy that looks at the _data_ of sense as
something earth-born and servile, and the 'relating of them together'
as something spiritual and free. Lo! the spirit can even change the
intrinsic quality of the sensible facts themselves if by so doing it
can relate them better to each other! But (apart from the difficulty of
seeing how changing the sensations should relate them better) is it not
manifest that the relations are part of the 'content' of consciousness,
part of the 'object,' just as much as the sensations are? Why ascribe
the former exclusively to the _knower_ and the latter to the _known_?
The _knower_ is in every case a unique pulse of thought corresponding
to a unique reaction of the brain upon its conditions. All that the
facts of contrast show us is that the _same real thing_ may give us
quite different sensations when the conditions alter, and that we
must therefore be careful which one to select as the thing's truest
representative.
* * * * *
_There are many other facts beside the phenomena of contrast_ which
prove that _when two objects act together on us the sensation which
either would give alone becomes a different sensation_. A certain
amount of skin dipped in hot water gives the perception of a certain
heat. More skin immersed makes the heat much more intense, although
of course the water's heat is the same. A certain extent as well
as intensity, in the quantity of the stimulus is requisite for any
quality to be felt. Fick and Wunderli could not distinguish heat
from touch when both were applied through a hole in a card, and so
confined to a small part of the skin. Similarly there is a _chromatic
minimum_ of size in objects. The image they cast on the retina must
needs have a certain extent, or it will give no sensation of color
at all. Inversely, more intensity in the outward impression may make
the subjective object more extensive. This happens, as will be shown
in Chapter XIX, when the illumination is increased: The whole room
expands and dwindles according as we raise or lower the gas-jet. It is
not easy to explain any of these results as illusions of judgment due
to the inference of a wrong objective cause for the sensation which we
get. No more is this easy in the case of Weber's observation that a
thaler laid on the skin of the forehead feels heavier when cold than
when warm; or of Szabadföldi's observation that small wooden disks
when heated to 122° Fahrenheit often feel heavier than those which are
larger but not thus warmed;[33] or of Hall's observation that a heavy
point moving over the skin seems to go faster than a lighter one moving
at the same rate of speed.[34]
Bleuler and Lehmann some years ago called attention to a strange
idiosyncrasy found in some persons, and consisting in the fact that
impressions on the eye, skin, etc., were accompanied by distinct
sensations of _sound_.[35] _Colored hearing_ is the name sometimes
given to the phenomenon, which has now been repeatedly described. Quite
lately the Viennese aurist Urbantschitsch has proved that these cases
are only extreme examples of a very general law, and that all our
sense-organs influence each other's sensations.[36] The hue of patches
of color so distant as not to be recognized was immediately, in U.'s
patients, perceived when a tuning-fork was sounded close to the ear.
Sometimes, on the contrary, the field was darkened by the sound. The
acuity of vision was increased, so that letters too far off to be read
could be read when the tuning-fork was heard. Urbantschitsch, varying
his experiments, found that their results were mutual, and that sounds
which were on the limits of audibility became audible when lights of
various colors were exhibited to the eye. Smell, taste, touch, sense
of temperature, etc., were all found to fluctuate when lights were
seen and sounds were heard. Individuals varied much in the degree and
kind of effect produced, but almost every one experimented on seems to
have been in some way affected. The phenomena remind one somewhat of
the 'dynamogenic' effects of sensations upon the strength of muscular
contraction observed by M. Féré, and later to be described. The most
familiar examples of them seem to be the increase of _pain_ by noise
or light, and the increase of _nausea_ by all concomitant sensations.
Persons suffering in any way instinctively seek stillness and darkness.
* * * * *
Probably every one will agree that the best way of formulating all such
facts is physiological: it must be that the cerebral process of the
first sensation is reinforced or otherwise altered by the other current
which comes in. No one, surely, will prefer a psychological explanation
_here_. Well, it seems to me that _all_ cases of mental reaction
to a plurality of stimuli must be like these cases, and that the
physiological formulation is everywhere the simplest and the best. When
simultaneous red and green light make us see yellow, when three notes
of the scale make us hear a chord, it is not because the sensations of
red and of green and of each of the three notes enter the mind as such,
and there 'combine' or 'are combined by its relating activity' into
the yellow and the chord, it is because the larger sum of light-waves
and of air-waves arouses new cortical processes, to which the yellow
and the chord directly correspond. Even when the sensible qualities of
things enter into the objects of our highest thinking, it is surely
the same. Their several _sensations_ do not continue to exist there
tucked away. They are _replaced_ by the higher thought which, although
a different psychic unit from them, knows the same sensible qualities
which they know.
The principles