< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
749
INVOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS.

sists in thinking of a building or locality in the neighborhood; a very good record obtained in this way appears in Fig. 9.

The peculiar line of Fig. 10 was obtained in an experiment in which a book was slowly carried about the room, the subject being required to continuously read from the page. It is evident that the hand followed the movement of the attention, not precisely

Fig. 9.— ↤ Thinking of a Locality. Time, 120 seconds. Also illustrates initial hesitancy followed by steady movement toward the object of thought.

in a circle, but in an irregular outline, closing in upon itself. The great differences between individuals which the experience of the muscle-reader would lead us to expect are not lacking here. Some movements are direct and extensive, others circuitous Fig. 10.—Reading from Printed Page, the page being moved about the subject. and brief. Fig. 11 is a good type of a small movement, though it is quite constantly toward the object of the attention. This may be contrasted with another record in which there is a movement of six and a half inches in forty-five seconds. In some cases the first impulse carries the hand toward the object of thought, and is followed by considerable hesitation and uncertainty. A marked example of this tendency may be seen in Fig. 12. There is, too, an opposite type, in which the initial movements are variable, and the significant movement toward the object of thought comes later, when there is perhaps some fatigue. This tendency appears somewhat in Figs, 4 and 9.[1]

How far these movements are involuntary or unconscious must be largely determined by the subjective experiences of those who execute them. While here, as elsewhere, there is some difference

  1. ↑ A further point of importance for future research is the effect of the position of the subject upon the ease of the movement. A sufficient number of experiments were made to show that such an effect exists, and as a result a position was chosen allowing as nearly as possible of equally easy movements in all directions.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.