only by means of 'internal repetition' for herself of the note sung (das Bedürfniss bestand, sie innerlich nachzusingen).[1] This innerliches Nachsingen, in a case where the real note is already heard, is probably motor, a supposition supported by the fact that the woman was a "skilful singer herself." Her quicker recognition of piano tones might be because of the motor practice in hand-execution; (6) this point of view affords us an additional reason for the fact, which all admit, that the best recognitions are for notes of moderate pitch — not very high or very low — for, being of most frequent occurrence, these notes exercise the attention most, and so get most easily and readily accommodated to. And it is also easy to see that, for this reason, their discrimination becomes finer and better; (7) in the experiments already referred to, Féré found different dynamogenic effects to follow the hearing of the different notes of the musical scale, and the greatest effect to follow the notes in the middle of the gamut. Can this be no more than a coincidence?
Finally, if 'motor associates' be at the bottom of pure-tone recognition, we would expect something of the same kind in the case of color and odor qualities. This is the sphere of Lehmann's results in Benennungsassociation to which v. Kries appeals. Now Féré claims to have demonstrated this very point, i.e., that color discrimination and recognition are improved by muscular exercise. He found it possible to bring back purple-recognition to purple-blind hysterics, simply by muscular movement. It is a ready deduction, also, from the opposite fact that the different colors, beginning with red, have diminishing dynamogenic effect as measured on the squeeze-dynamometer.
IV. SUMMARY.
I have endeavored in this paper to maintain the following positions:
1. The law of "sensori-motor association" — "every sensational state is a complex of sensor and motor elements, and any influence which strengthens the one tends to strengthen the other also."
- ↑ Loc. cit., p. 273.
