Studies in Psychology Contributed by Colleagues and Former Students of Edward Bradford Titchener

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917. Excerpt: ... /. Procedure During the autumn of 1909 the writer began, in the psychological laboratory of the University of Tennessee, a series of experiments on the consciousness of meaning. The experiments were of the familiar 'reaction' type. The instruction, which was read to the observer at the beginning of each experimental period, ran as follows: Close your eyes and hold yourself as passive as possible, both mentally and physically. After saying 'Ready, ' 'Now, ' I shall pronounce a word. Give it your immediate, full attention with the definite purpose of understanding its meaning. As soon as you are satisfied that the meaning has been grasped, react with 'Yes.' Then recount by introspection your complete experience. Be in no hurry to react, and let your occupation with the word be as natural as possible. Among the observers who participated were Messrs. W. S. Adkins A), W. E. Bryan (B) and F. M. Davis ( ), all students of the university, the first two of the class of 1910, the third of the class-of 1911; also Miss Sabra Vought (V), the university librarian. The observers worked separately with the experimenter in a quiet room. The duration of each sitting was approximately one hour, at various times of the day between nine and six o'clock. The experiments whose results are here recorded form part of a comprehensive investigation which was continued over a period of two years.1 We shall limit our report to four series of experiments in which the meaning of words was the subject of investigation. In the first three of these series the words were presented orally by the experimenter, and the reaction-time was taken with a stop-watch. In the fourth series, begun in May 1910, and continuing into June, the words, printed by hand on cards with letters approximately...