Arranging them by the average absence of the suppressed image we have this order:
| B. | 251.08 | sec. |
| D. | 193.89 | " |
| H. | 81.02 | " |
| C. | 62.07 | " |
| I. | 59.72 | " |
| K. | 31.83 | " |
| J. | 31.75 | " |
| G. | 19.47 | " |
| A. | 10.44 | " |
| F. | 10.09 | " |
It is to be remarked, however, that the ability to keep the suppressed image out of the field increased with practice and that A. and F. had less than half the number of experiments that the rest had. D., who had but two thirds as many as most of the other subjects and therefore had less practice in suppressing the image, stands yet second in respect to this ability.
If we compare the subjects with regard to first efforts and first absences only, we obtain the following orders:
| According to Ave. Time req. for first Suppression. | According to Ave. Absence of Image after first Suppression. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. | 3.59 | sec. | B. | 270.44 | sec. | |
| B. | 5.79 | " | D. | 190.07 | " | |
| C. | 7.88 | " | F. | 86.07 | " | |
| I. | 9.77 | " | H. | 73.27 | " | |
| F. | 12.67 | " | K. | 71.90 | " | |
| H. | 15.27 | " | I. | 53.83 | " | |
| K. | 21.63 | " | C. | 43.08 | " | |
| G. | 21.88 | " | J. | 32.18 | " | |
| D. | 23.28 | " | G. | 20.39 | " | |
| A. | 28.32 | " | A. | 11.29 | " | |
Arranging the groups of images suppressed according to the average times of all suppressions and absences we have these orders:
| Suppression. | Absences. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | Images, | 5.41 | Marginal | Images, | 125.12 | |
| Upper | " | 6.95 | Sundry | " | 68.78 | |
| Left | " | 8.60 | Left | " | 51.26 | |
| Right | " | 8.94 | Lower | " | 50.04 | |
| Lower | " | 9.11 | Right | " | 43.93 | |
| Marginal | " | 11.35 | Upper | " | 32.35 | |
| Sundry | " | 12.09 | Central | " | 26.54 | |
SUBJECTIVE.
Most of the subjects imaginatively placed the image to be suppressed behind the screen, in a drawer, in their closed hands, pushed it forward into the remote distance, sliced up, burned up, or pulverized and so destroyed it. B. and D. 'thought it away' directly, without mechanism or device, or got rid of it 'by a pure act of will.' Superposition was tried, frequently with success, but at times the under image shone through. When the objects were colored discs one superposed on the other, the subject spread over the whole surface the color of the image to be retained, but at times this resulted in there being two shades of the upper color, and a yellow above a red changed to an orange. When red was above yellow, the red appeared more highly illuminated. Associations with objects of the color of the retained image were found helpful but tended to modify the original color. Such associations also, at times, by secondary associations brought back the suppressed image. For example, when thinking of buttercups to enforce a yellow image, the picture of grass surrounding the flowers brought back the suppressed green image. Concentration of the attention on the image to be retained and an ignoring of the other was, on the whole, the method usually and successfully followed. This concentration was helped by imagining the image marked off into minute squares which were carefully counted. Numerous other devices of a similar character were used. Objects having many details and those lending themselves readily to suggestions of action (as a china animal) were the most helpful in enabling the subject to concentrate his attention on their image to the exclusion of another. Some subjects conceived themselves as tracing with a pencil the outline and details of the retained image. Frequently, when the two images were originally near each other and one alone was being held by close scrutiny of its parts, when this scrutiny reached the part of the image which was nearest the position of the suppressed image, the suppressed image returned. The original association between the two images was often broken up by change of the position or shape of the one to be suppressed. But devices soon became 'worn out' and new ones had to be resorted to.
Motor impulses played a large part in the process of suppression, such as head and eye movement away from the image to be suppressed, contraction of the muscles of the forehead and scalp, occasional 'setting' of the teeth, pressure together of the hands when they were supposed to be holding the image and of the knees under like circumstances. The eye traced outline and details and the more actively it could be so employed the more successful was the suppression. The sensations of accommodation and of focusing previously referred to were repeated in this series. Enunciation also was very common.