Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 / Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory.

by Unknown

This analysis of several æsthetically pleasing but asymmetrical arrangements of space strongly suggests that the elements of large size, deep perspective, suggested movement, and intrinsic interest are in some way equivalent in their power to arouse those motor impulses which we believe to constitute the basis of æsthetic response. It is the purpose of these experiments to follow up the lines of these suggestions, reducing them to their simplest forms and studying them under exact conditions.

But before describing the instruments and methods of this experimental treatment, I wish to speak of the articles on the 'Æsthetics of Simple Form,' published as Studies from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory, by Dr. Edgar Pierce.[15] These articles, sub-entitled 'Symmetry' and 'The Functions of the Elements' seem at first sight to anticipate the discussions of this paper; but a short analysis shows that while they point in the same direction, they nevertheless deal with quite different questions and in a different manner. In the statement of his problem, indeed, Dr. Pierce is apparently treading the same path.

He says: "Can a feeling of symmetry, that is, of æsthetical equality of the two halves, remain where the two sides are not geometrically identical; and if so, what are the conditions under which this can result—what variations of one side seem æsthetically equal to the variations of the other side?" Some preliminary experiments resulted in the conclusion that an unsymmetrical and yet pleasing arrangement of a varied content rests on the pleasure in unity, thus shutting out the Golden Section choice, which depends on the pleasure in variety. That is, the choices made will not in general follow the golden section, but 'when the figure consists of two halves, the pleasure must be a feeling of æsthetical symmetry.'

The final experiments were arrangements of lines and simple figures on a square, black background in which the center was marked by a white vertical line with a blue or a red line on each side. On one side of these central lines a line was fixed; and the subject had to place on the other side lines and simple figures of different sizes and different colors, so as to balance the fixed line. The results showed that lines of greater length, or figures of greater area must be put nearer the center than shorter or smaller ones—'A short line must be farther than a long one, a narrow farther than a wide, a line farther than a square; an empty interval must be larger than one filled, and so on.' And for colors, "blue, maroon and green, the dark colors, are the farthest out; white, red and orange, the bright colors, are nearest the center. This means that a dark color must be farther out than a bright one to compensate for a form on the other side. The brightness of an object is then a constant substitute for its distance in satisfying our feeling of symmetry."

Now from these conclusions two things are clear. By his extremely emphasized central line, and his explicit question to the subjects, 'Does this balance?' the author has excluded any other point of view than that of mechanical balance. His central fulcrum is quite overpowering. Secondly, his inquiry has dealt only with size and color, leaving the questions of interest, movement, and perspective untouched. But just the purpose of this experimental study is to seek for the different and possibly conflicting tendencies in composition, and to approximate to the conditions given in pictorial art. It is evident, I think, that the two studies on symmetry will not trespass on each other's territory. The second paper of Dr. Pierce, on 'The Functions of the Elements,' deals entirely with the relation of horizontal and vertical positions of the æsthetic object and of the subject to æsthetic judgments, and has therefore no bearing on this paper.

For his apparatus Dr. Pierce used a surface of black cloth stretched over black rubber, 1 m. square. Now an investigation which is to deal with complicated and varied relations, resembling those of pictures, demands an instrument resembling them also in the shape of the background. A rectangle 600 mm. broad by 400 mm. high seemed to meet this requirement better than the square of Dr. Pierce. Other parts, also, of his instrument seemed unfitted for our purpose. The tin, 5 cm. broad and confined to the slits across the center of the square, gave not enough opportunity for movement in a vertical direction, while the scale at the back was very inconvenient for reading. To supply these lacks, a scale graduated in millimeters was attached on the lower edge of the board, between a double track in which ran slides, the positions of which could be read on the scale. To the slides were attached long strips of tin covered with black cloth. On these strips figures glued to small clamps or clasps could be slipped up or down; this arrangement of coördinates made it possible to place a figure in any spot of the whole surface without bringing the hands into the field of view. The experiments were made in a dark room, in which the apparatus was lighted by an electric globe veiled by white paper and hung above and behind the head of the subject, so as not to be seen by him and to cast no shadow: in this soft light of course the black movable strips disappeared against the black background. A gray paper frame an inch and a half wide was fitted to the black rectangle to throw it up against the black depths of the dark room—thus giving in all details the background of a picture to be composed.

The differences in method between the two sets of experiments were fundamental. In Dr. Pierce's experiments the figures were pulled from one side to the other of the half-square in question, and the subject was asked to stop them where he liked; in those of the writer the subject himself moved the slides back and forth until a position was found æsthetically satisfactory. The subject was never asked, Does this balance? He was indeed requested to abstract from the idea of balance, but to choose that position which was the most immediately pleasing for its own sake, and so far as possible detached from associations.

I have said that Dr. Pierce intentionally accentuated the center. The conditions of pictorial composition suggest in general the center only by the rectangular frame. Most of my experiments were, therefore, made without any middle line; some were repeated with a middle line of fine white silk thread, for the purpose of ascertaining the effect of the enhanced suggestion of the middle line.

But the chief difference came in the different treatment of results. Dr. Pierce took averages, whereas the present writer has interpreted individual results. Now, suppose that one tendency led the subject to place the slide at 50 and another to place it at 130 mm. from the center. The average of a large number of such choices would be 90—a position very probably disagreeable in every way. For such an investigation it was evident that interpretation of individual results was the only method possible, except where it could be conclusively shown that the subjects took one and only one point of view. They were always encouraged to make a second choice if they wished to do so, as it often happened that one would say: 'I like both of these ways very much.' Of course, individual testimony would be of the highest importance, and a general grouping into classes and indication of the majority tendency would be the only way to treat the results statistically. And indeed in carrying out the experiments this caution was found absolutely necessary. In all but one or two of the sections, the taking of averages would have made the numerical results absolutely unintelligible. Only the careful study of the individual case, comparison of various experiments on the same person to find personal tendencies, and comparison of the different tendencies, could give valuable results for the theory of symmetry.

The first question to be taken up was the influence of right and left positions on choice. A long series of experiments was undertaken with a line 80×10 mm. on one side and a line 160×10 mm. on the other, in which the positions of these were reversed, and each in turn taken as fixed and variable, with a view to determining the effect of right and left positions. No definite conclusions emerged; and in the following experiments, most of which have been made for both right and left positions, the results will be treated as if made for one side alone, and, where averages are taken, will be considered as indifferently left or right.