PART II
Section A. Here simultaneous stimulations of different sense-organs were given, and the situation became at once more complex. For some time only colors and tactual surfaces were employed. Later tones from tuning-forks and noises were added. Forms with different colors as fillings still further complicated the experience. Odors as a rule were unsatisfactory, being so strong as entirely to inhibit all noticeable effects from the other senses.
For all subjects at first the feeling-tone related only to the one object directly attended to. Some effort is required to detect the feeling-tone for these slight stimulations, and while this is being done, the feeling for the other sensation tends to vanish. If, while enjoying the soothing contact with the plush, a chosen color is disclosed in the frame and attended to sufficiently to obtain from it a decided feeling, there is a distinct awareness of the dropping of the feeling for the touch. To some subjects, whatever the combinations used, this almost constantly occurred for perhaps a month. Often again there seemed to result a total "feeling of the situation," when the attention was on neither stimulating object.
Frequently, too, the attempted introspection at this point failed to fix upon any feeling-tone at all definite. The condition was one of confusion and bewilderment. The state of mind when one cannot feel at all definitely seems to correspond closely to that state of mental confusion when thought processes are in a jumble, with no path for the moment leading anywhere. All these difficulties were overcome, partially at any rate, by continued training. It was not as if introspection revealed the fact that there was nothing to be found, and this was frequently reported by the subjects. After some time the touch character could be retained, and its peculiar value for feeling did not disappear when other things came in and contributed an affective element of their own. The old law of the opposition, or mutual exclusiveness, of feelings would thus seem to mean little more than that we, generally speaking, experience one thing at a time. Without a special analytical purpose in view, we do not find many distinct elemental feelings, as we do not, until we psychologize, find elements of cognitive character separable. It has been, and is now, commonly supposed that myriads of ideational elements, partially analyzable at any rate, go to make up what we choose to call a single perception. This experience as a whole is of some affective nature; but, as generally stated, of one unanalyzable sort always. It is true just in the same sense as in the cognitive state, perception. In the sense that every perception is unique, in this sense every affective state is likewise a unit. The evidence I submit, however, is that one may be the subject of analysis into elemental parts just as much as the other. Affection, as Titchener defines it at the beginning of his treatment of feelings, is merely a "tilt of the whole organism." If this is the ultimate statement, then there are no combinations, and no relations of feelings except that of mutual exclusion from the field of awareness. He has taken only one of the above possible attitudes toward affective states. Geiger, in his study of very complex emotions, however, has taken the other attitude, and bases his whole position upon it. This present experimental test furnishes evidence that the latter position is also a legitimate, and perhaps more desirable position, if feeling shall have scientific analytical treatment.
In this investigation, after considerable training, the subjects, with a single exception, were all convinced that both feeling-tones, for tactual and visual impressions, could be present at once. When three or more were given at once, confusion as to the state of feeling was usually so great that valuable introspection was always rendered exceedingly difficult. Impressions from the same field, as, for example, colors presented in chosen forms as enclosures, were most often taken as one object with one feeling-tone. This even was by no means always the case. When it was thus taken, the experience was still reported as more complex than either element alone had produced.
When the feeling-tones for simultaneous stimulations from two different sources came out sufficiently clearly, the kind of feeling was described in some such terms as indicated in Part I, Section A, except that almost invariably the introspection was more difficult. The relations of these various feeling-components of an affective experience are numerous. There is a frequent tendency to read one into the other. The soft soothing feeling coming from plush, if in the particular experience the color be the more prominent partial element, tends often to make the subject enjoy more the color, because there seems to be added to it a soft yielding surface texture. Frequently also, as in the case of red above, the warmth it suggests is intensified.
In cases of feelings of opposite nature occurring together, the stronger generally prevails, finally in most cases effacing all specific tone for the weaker element. An odor, for example, even when always unpleasant, becomes less so when one looks at a pleasant color, when a feeling-tone can, or often even when it cannot, be detected for the color at the time. Again, when a very unpleasant form or tactual impression is being felt, a slightly unpleasant color tends to arouse often in this situation, as if by contrast, a simultaneously pleasant element in the total experience.
For many subjects frequently there results what I shall call a "Total Mood." This, as to its feeling-character, can be merely different from, more than, less than, or the same as either component or of both together. To some the feeling is proportionate to the degree of concentration of attention, and in all such cases rarely does the whole complex situation afford a feeling equal to that given by either component alone, the extra stimulation for the time being simply a disturbing factor. To others the shifting of the focus of attention from one to another of the external objects of interest, or from one feeling-element to the other, is not at all disturbing, "any more than is any general state of satisfied self-contemplation." This kind of experience is often and distinctly reported, not as the enjoyment of two where the discernible elements persist wholly unrelated, but rather an enjoyment (or disagreeable experience as the case may be), simply from two sources of stimulation, a total mood with similar or harmonious constituents. The red color and the tactual feeling for plush afford this. Similarly the unpleasant color above combines with certain odors or with the sandpaper. Yellow, however, does not as a rule produce a feeling that peaceably "falls in with" the tactual impression brought about by the plush. Low tones tend to combine thus with the red color or with the softest plush in the same kind of Total Mood. The feeling-tones usually for pleasant high tones are described as "falling in with" the feeling for yellow when the feeling exists as described above, and as nearer to that of the feeling for the green color than for the particular deep shade of red. What may be termed the "Congruity or Incongruity of Feeling-Tones" is perhaps a good name to designate feeling-tone relations. It implies neither mutual exclusiveness nor total fusion, and some such term is necessary.
The various phenomena of fusion, summation, partial reënforcement, merely simultaneous, independent coexistence, partial and total inhibition, of one by the other occur. The feeling-tone for yellow tends most readily to fuse with the feeling-tone for high tones and upright ovals. This is not so marked for the green, but more so for all other colors than for the red. Red harmonizes and tends to fuse, for most subjects, with the feeling-tones for soft plush, low tones, and circular forms. This harmonizing, however, is not all that contributes to the amount of feeling in these complex cases. Subjects often prefer the low tones with yellow, even though there is less harmony. So also upright ovals are in themselves generally so much more pleasant than the circles that red is preferred thus presented, though its feeling-character is more akin to that suggested by the circles. These are cases where the intensity itself of the feeling-tone is preferred, even though what is felt to be an harmonious combination is lessened.
When the situation admits of a complete fusion, the one resulting feeling is almost always greater. When summation of unpleasant stimuli occurs, the singleness of the attention process is not a prominent feature of the experience. Rather each unpleasant element exists throughout, each in turn intensifying the whole undertone of feeling, but also remaining a feeling-tone of a particular kind. Partial reënforcement is descriptive of that state when both feeling-tones contribute to a feeling of the same kind, yet do retain some individual characteristics which stand out for themselves. The general state of pleasantness, for example, is increased by both elements contributed by a low tone and the yellow color, yet one retains its soothing and the other its exciting character. Again, the feeling-tone for green may occur when its relation, on the other hand, to a pleasantly sounding tuning-fork is not at all noticed. Subjects find in such cases always more effort required to note both the feeling-tones, and there is probably some diminution in quantity of feeling for each of the simultaneous elements. Other subjects have preferred to call this partial inhibition. Cases of total inhibition have been noted above, and are by far the most frequent, as would naturally be expected. When sandpaper is being applied, and no repose is felt in the body, a color, suddenly presented, for a moment pleases the eye, but quickly loses all feeling-character, and can only be "intellectually perceived."
Again, the way in which subjects will take certain combinations seems to depend entirely upon the person. Beautiful colors, presented in disagreeable forms, bring about for some a feeling altogether worse than does an unpleasant color in the same form. To others there is always the tendency to enjoy the color and to "reconstruct" the form, or stress in it those elements only which do suggest symmetry and definiteness. All feel, when two or more elements contribute to the feeling-experience, that a total mood generally serves as the undertone for them. When there is a clear strife between the two, they both can exist as equal partial tones with an undertone of unpleasantness in the failure to coördinate them. There are still other cases where the total result cannot well be called a fusion or summation. For example, when an unpleasant color in an unpleasant form, or for Subject D, a pleasant color in an unpleasant form, is presented, the feeling for the whole is often out of all proportion to the value of each alone, or of what might be expected from the simple summation. The uncommon revulsion here was frequently so striking that the subjects would afterwards laugh heartily over the strength with which it first appeared.
Section B. Introspection here as to the physiological accompaniments referring exclusively to one of the two or more existing feeling-tones is still more meagre, but at times very definite. When the elements of a total feeling fuse there is of course no reference to the particular processes which bring this about. It is then simply a general response to a situation. When, however, distinct, or opposing feeling-tones are present and detected, they do often mean opposing inclinations to action. The yellow color can retain its exciting tone, and refer clearly to such activities as opening wide the eyes, incipient smiling tendencies, and general alertness of facial expression, when a soothing touch is also felt as suggesting a toning-down of the body and a general relaxation of the muscles of the abdomen. This is the most frequently noticed effect. Tactual impressions are accompanied by pervading organic feelings in the trunk, while visual and auditory stimulations, in their incipient stages, at least, have the more pronounced effect upon facial muscles of expression, and general sensations in the head. When any of these feelings are particularly strong, however, the sensations, whose feeling-tones seem to constitute the feeling in question, tend to pervade the entire system and to usurp the whole bodily activity. The motor tendencies noticed above for the irregular forms are also reported when the color itself remains pleasant. Yellow, possessing more of this activity itself, is least pleasant when exposed in these forms. The opposition of tendencies is noticed, yellow meaning its own peculiar kind of aggressive movement, and the bad form at the same time calling for that irregular kind of unpleasant adjustment. Red does not "intrude itself" nor demand action, and is always less strikingly in opposition to the form than is the case with yellow or green or blue. Forms, almost perfect, relate themselves to feelings of tension. One feels that he cannot quite take them as perfect figures, and this strain and inability to take them for what they suggest provokes a decidedly unpleasant feeling. Very irregular forms become "grotesque" or ludicrous, and the bodily change is indicated as a "jumble of partially carried out reactions."
In many cases sensations or motor tendencies are noted all over the body during the existence of these complex states. At such times they are not recognized as referring to either feeling-tone in particular. When also a favorite color is presented to a subject who is experiencing a disagreeable feeling from sandpaper, the touch is so pervasive usually that he feels that this "controls the whole response" and inhibits any reaction, or even any suggested reaction to the color. When there does fail to be even any possible incipient motor suggestion, as a rule the feeling-tone for the object is extremely vague if it exists at all, and the object appears for the time "dead" or "valueless." Subjects speak of their own inability to respond in such cases. It is not at all as if the color is definitely bad, but rather as if one cannot do two different things with the same muscular apparatus at once. As often, as has before been noted, does the opposite occur. Colors in definitely characterized forms illustrate the relations of similar activities when feeling-tones occur together. Yellow is preferred in upright ovals, for both accentuate the same demand for activity, and calling for the same kind of response, tend to fuse into a single object. Yellow and plush do not harmonize, and in many cases where both retain their feeling-tones, distinct activities in different parts of the body are aroused simultaneously. With the circles the feeling-tone for yellow does not agree with that for form. The yellow becomes almost unpleasant at times. Circles are "heavy," "stable," "on their own axes." A yellow thus enclosed seems "too fat," too "unnaturally heavy," not free and light, and the effect is less pleasing. Circles suit the red better than they do the yellow or the green or the blue, and tend to be seen as one object, or to fuse, more readily than red in an upright oval form. The feeling-tones for red and for upright ovals are both very pleasant, but not as much in harmony, and consequently usually taken as two different feelings.
As a general result of introspective analysis at this point, when different feeling-tones did occur together, they were described in terms similar to those used when each alone was experienced. The bodily references, when found, were of the same character, the only difference being that there was much difficulty in determining to which feeling-tone the response referred. In many instances, however, again it seemed quite certain that different kinds of adaptation in different parts of the body were suggested which seemed to correspond to distinct affective qualities. Also distinct feeling-tones, each of which alone could call forth a similar kind of action, when given together tended to accentuate the total unified response. The upright ovals mean alertness and soaring motions with a general suggestion of drawing the shoulders up. The yellow color accentuated this. The circle with the soothing red, or the fusion of feelings for red and plush, pleases in quite another fashion.