Lapse of Meaning with Visual Fixation

Abstract

We report in this paper the results of an experimental study of the lapse or falling away of meaning with continuous visual fixation. An investigation similar to our own has already been made by Severance and Washburn.' Their method was, in brief, to ask the 0 to stare fixedly at a printed word for a period of 3 min., and to report changes of meaning which occurred in course. We desired, however, to determine the average time required for the meaning to lapse, and thus to bring the investigation into accord with that of Bassett and Warne, who studied the lapse of verbal meaning with auditory repetition.2 We hoped also to determine more fully the nature of the attitudes, of the meanings themselves, and of the course of the experiences which occur in an experimental situation of this kind. Method. We employed a reaction method. The apparatus consisted of the Dearborn-Langfeld tachistoscope3 which, by means of a piano-player magnet, was electrically operated in connection with a telegraph key, a lip key, and Titchener's electromagnetic stop-watch control.4 The connections were so arranged that, when the key was pressed, the spring of the tachistoscope was released, the word exposed, and the stop watch actuated; when the current through the lip key was made, by O's opening his lips in reaction, the watch was stopped.5 As stimuli we employed common and familiar nouns, such as face, pen, sign, fish, etc. All were monosyllables. They were typewritten on strips of paper, every strip bearing Io words; 5 of these strips, or 50 words, constituted a series; and there were 5 series, making 250 words in all. In addition to these there was a preliminary series of 20 words which was employed as a practice series. The Os were Miss R. Brown (B), Miss D. Johannsen (J), and Professor H. P. Weld (W). The two former were members of the senior class, and were majoring in psychology. Miss V. Don served as E. The instructions, which were typewritten, and were given to the 0 at the beginning of every experimental period, were as follows: I shall present to you a familiar word. Take this word naively (i. e., passively, uncritically), as it comes. Fixate it steadily, and give it maximal attention until its meaning has disappeared. At the close of the experiment you will be asked (I) to state the meaning that the word had, and (2) to report what happened during the experimental interval. It was our purpose to continue the experiment until the O's attitude, as indicated by the average reaction time of a series, became fairly constant. For W 3 series were sufficient; for the other two Os 5 series were required. Results. We give, in Table I., the reaction times and m.v. as determined by series for every 0. The table shows that, as the experiment progressed,