Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 2

by Unknown

Provided units stay on the same level, however, a difference in plane does not prevent their being in one series, provided the plane varies regularly, and the variation is not too great. The variation in plane of a few inches, used with these shapes, did not prevent their being taken as one series, although it much facilitated their being taken as two, if desired.

These experiments have all pointed to the fact that our pleasure in repeated space forms is an immediate experience. We do not look over the series and merely recognize that regular repetitions occur, but there is an immediate feeling of repetition, analogous to our feeling of auditory rhythm. This feeling does not always accompany a recognition that certain repetitions occur, but is a distinct experience in itself dependent upon certain conditions in the series. The series excites a certain response in the observer, which, if it corresponds with his rhythmic organization, is pleasant, and if not, is otherwise.

With a certain class of subjects this rhythmic response is very noticeable, and they feel it as a conscious part of the experience. With others, the symmetrical properties of the series are the more prominent, and they detect no rhythmic response until the necessary objective conditions for such a rhythm are violated. Then they feel it as keenly as the other type.

In a series of units, there is a rhythmic discharge of energy on each, the fixed temporal intervals being regulated by the alternating space. When the units are too near together, or when the alternating spaces vary irregularly in size, this rhythm is disturbed. If the alternating spaces vary regularly in size, a richer rhythm is introduced, which increases the pleasure up to a certain point when more variation makes it too complicated, and confusion results. When one element alternates with another, the one on which more energy is expended for any reason becomes the principal unit. The other has less significance as to its content than as to its size, for on this depends the regularity of the rhythm. Variations in the content of alternating figures must be cautious not to disturb, by the extra attention necessary to take them in, the rhythm of the whole. Variation in the principal unit may take place almost without limit, provided there is an equal amount of interest in each, thus making a rhythm of equal discharges. There must be an alternation of two, i. e. of discharge of attention and rest. However rich the rhythm is made by greater and lesser accents or groupings, the rhythm must fall eventually into a discharge of attention, and a rest-period. In the temporal type of subject, to whom the actual motion across the series is a necessary factor of the pleasure, this discharge and rest-period of attention is exactly inverse to the motion across the alternate and rest upon the unit. That is, on the principal unit is the discharge of the attention, but the rest-period of the motion across; while the alternate unit supplies the field which is travelled over, but requires but little attention.

The rhythm of the series may be not only of the units, but inside the units as well, in groups of elements. The rhythm inside such a group may be of two kinds: (1) a rhythm, which is at the same time restrained and coördinated about a central point or line, and (2) a rhythm which goes back and forth from edge to edge, and has a tendency to overstep its limits, thereby carrying on the series with more activity. The former is more connected with odd-number groups, and the latter with even, although modifications in their arrangement may reverse the effect. Since the eye moves more slowly and intricately over a curve than over a straight line,[86] it may be that that is the reason why an arched series is taken as the unit of a series, rather than the vertical supports (as it invariably is in some unfinished experiments not recorded here), whereas in a series of lintels the horizontal line of the lintels requires less muscular adjustment to perceive it than the vertical support, therefore the latter are taken as the units.

In any case, the unit of the series which attracts the most attention and interest, for whatever reason, is taken as the principal unit, and may vary in details, while the alternate must be invariable, except in certain cases where it meets other demands. There may be rhythm in a series, and at the same time symmetry with respect to a middle point. In such a case a balance must be obtained between the two different motor responses.

A series of analogies between the rhythm of sounds and of visual objects, will illustrate more forcibly the similar demands of both.

(1) Auditory Rhythm: Periodicity is necessary. Accentuation may be supplied by the subject, but there must be fixed temporal intervals, and if the temporal conditions are not fulfilled, no impression of rhythm is possible.[87]

Visual Repetition: Alternate spaces must be of invariable size, or the series is broken up. Different degrees of interest may attach to the principal unit, or the subject may group them in different ways, but the alternate spaces must be uniform, or there is no feeling of rhythmic repetition.

(2) Auditory Rhythm: Sounds must recur within a certain rate. When succession falls below, or rises above a certain rate, no impression of rhythm results.[88] A certain voluminousness is necessary for very slow measures, to make the separate elements connect themselves in a series.[89]