THE MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF FEELINGS

BY JOHN A. H. KEITH

The object of this investigation was to ascertain the mutual influence of simultaneous stimuli that appealed to different senses with regard to the intensity of their feeling values. The investigation covers combinations: (1) of colors and active touches, (2) of colors and passive touches, (3) of tones and active touches, (4) of tones and passive touches, (5) of colors and tones.

The basis of appreciation was a numerical scale[83] as follows:

The color series began with the one hundred thirty-six colors as put out by the Milton Bradley Co. This series consists of ninety pure spectrum colors, ten whites, blacks, and grays, and thirty-six broken spectrum colors. The colors were exposed at the back of a semicircular black-lined box for about two seconds. The subject was seated at a convenient distance, about three and a half feet, from the colors. In order to have a constant light, all experiments were conducted in a dark room with an electric light suspended over the subject's head. The whole series was used for ten times in order to get the range of judgments. Then twenty-eight colors, covering as fully as possible the range from 1 to 7, were selected for further experiment in combination.

At the same time a series of thirty-six touches, from velvet to sandpaper, was being employed as the colors were. From this number fourteen were finally selected.

Similarly, by using a reed box, with reeds ranging from 128 to 1024 vibrations per second and separated from each other by four vibrations, from a much larger series twenty-seven tone-combinations were finally selected.

Moreover, from time to time, each selected series was given alone; and on the basis of these readings, averaging from thirty to forty, the "standard" for each stimulus was made. Tables I to III give a brief description of the stimuli and also the "standards" for each of two subjects, F. and M.