Reaction-time and attention in the hypnotic state / [G. Stanley Hall].

  • Hall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley), 1844-1924.
Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reaction-time and attention in the hypnotic state / [G. Stanley Hall]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    material stimuli1 or physical contact. Although G. Schneider has distinctly asserted that the psychological cause of hyp- notism must be found in attention, Dr. G. M. Beard of New York has urged this theory more radically and consistently than any one since Braid, in 1877 and in a number of publi- cations since. On the other hand, the opinion has been ex- pressed in nearly all of the many recent studies of Reaction- time or the Personal Equation, that the most effective way of reducing this was by a strong concentration of attention upon the expected stimulus and the intended reaction. Although fatigue, practice, and strength of the stimulus are co-factors in determining reaction-time, it is thought that by opening certain nerve-tracts or by preparatory innervation of the reacting muscles, the 'attention acts as a special agent in this acceleration.2 Thus it had long seemed desirable to submit the hypnotic to the test of the physiological theory of attention. To this end the first object with A. B. was to determine the simple reaction-times in the normal and in the abnormal state respectively. For this purpose the following arrangement of apparatus was found serviceable. The primary electric current was made to pass through a Halske hammer in such a way as to be interrupted whenever the finger of the operator broke the contact with the platinum-point of the screw, by pressing down the spring which held the lever against it. The breaking of this primary circuit released a steel rod rib- rating 107 times per second, which had been drawn and held in a slightly bent position by a magnet in the same circuit, and at the same instant gave a distinct shock to the left forefinger of the hypnotic subject through a second- ary or alternative circuit (Nebenscliliessimg). He was directed to press the lever of a relay key with his right forefinger (which closed the primary current and arrested the vibration of the rod by drawing it firmly to the magnet again), as soon as possible after feeling the shock in the left forefinger, haring been placed in another room that he might not hear the click of the operator’s key and react from a quicker perceived auditory impression. Thus the time during which the rod was vibrating would represent the reaction-time desired. To record these vibrations a tinsel pen was fastened to the end of the rod and allowed to play upon the surface of a hori- 1 See Note entitled “Recent German Researches on Hypnotism, by the writer (Mind XXL 98), for digest and literature of these researches up to the date of writing. 2 Cf. inter alia, Wundt, Grundz. der Physiol. Psychology, 2te Anil. ii. 256, ' and Hermann, Handb. der Physiologic, ii. 286, &c.