What is the origin of the movements involved in these records? To
what extent are they movements of the hand, of the arm, or of the
entire body? Casual observation is sufficient to show that with a
given position of the arm, certain movements are much more readily
made than others; and the involuntary tendencies will naturally
follow the lines of least resistance. If, for instance, you hold your
arm nearly on a level with the shoulders and in line with them, you
perceive at once that movements of the hand to the front are much
more readily made than to the rear, and movements toward the body
more readily than those away from the body; the tendency of the hand
is to move forward in a circle of which the shoulder is the centre.
What we require is a position in which movements in any one direction
are as readily made as in any other; and this may be approximated,
though only approximated, by holding the hand at an angle of about
45° with the line joining the shoulders, and with the elbow bent at
an angle of about 120°. This was the position in most of the tests,
and the usual result was a movement toward the object of attention;
but when the object attended to lies in back of the subject, this
tendency is sometimes outweighed by the natural tendency for the arm
to move forward, and the result may be a movement _forward_, but a
less direct movement forward than when the object of attention is
to the front. In a good subject, however, the involuntary tendency
is strong enough to prevail, and a movement _backward_ results. An
instance of this, obtained under other but comparable circumstances,
appears in Fig. 14. It is to be noted that in this figure the tracing
marked I. was obtained with the subject seated, and the metronome
beating behind him; the hand after some hesitation moves backward
slowly towards the metronome to a moderate extent. In tracing II.,
with the subject also seated, the metronome is to the front, and
the hand moves directly and quickly towards it. We conclude that
the position of the body is an important factor in the resultant
movements, but that it does not interfere with their accepted
psychological interpretation.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--COUNTING THE STROKES OF A
METRONOME. Subject seated. In tracing I. the metronome
is at the rear. Time of record, 105 seconds. Direction
of the attention ←. Subject facing →. In tracing II.
the metronome was to the front. Time of record 45
seconds. Direction of the attention →. Subject facing
→. ⅘ size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--COUNTING THE STROKES OF A
METRONOME. Time of record, 45 seconds. The upper
tracing shows the movements of the head recorded upon
a plate resting on the head. The lower tracing shows
the usual record of the hand upon the automatograph.
Direction of the attention →. Subject facing →.]
When observing the subject during a test, we may note the movements
of the body as a whole, and of the arm or hand. The movement of
the body is an irregular swaying with the feet as the centre of
the movement; this swaying is most readily recorded by fixing the
recording-plate upon the subject's head, and having the recording-rod
held in a suitable position above it. It was found that in connection
with the swaying movements there were general movements towards the
object of attention; and such movements were as readily made when
the object was to the front, to the rear, or to either side. To
determine how far this movement is the same in head and hand, it is
necessary to record both simultaneously. Fig. 15 illustrates the
correspondence of the two movements. It thus becomes clear that the
swaying of the body as a whole constitutes an important factor of
these automatograph records; that the movements of the head (being
farther away from the centre of motion) are more extensive than those
of the hand; and that both head and hand are sensitive organs for the
expression of involuntary movements. That the muscle-reader is aware
of this fact is obvious from the usual positions which he maintains
towards his subject in reading the direction of the hidden object.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--COUNTING THE STROKES OF A
METRONOME. Right hand holds the pencil, and left hand
holds the record plate. Direction of metronome →.
Subject facing →. In the upper tracing the subject was
standing; time of record, 90 seconds. In the lower
tracing the subject was sitting; time of record, 90
seconds.]
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--THINKING OF A BUILDING.
Right hand holds pencil, and left hand holds record
plate. Subject facing ↑. In tracing I., direction of
the attention ↑; in tracing II., direction of the
attention ↓. Time of each record, 60 seconds. II. shows
respiration records.]
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--COUNTING THE STROKES OF A
METRONOME. Right hand holds pencil, left hand holds
record plate. Direction of the attention from A to B ↑,
from B to C →, from C to D ↓, from D to E ←. Time of
each portion, 45 seconds.]
To eliminate the record of the swaying of the body, we may experiment
with the subject seated; we obtain a distinctive record in which
certain phases of the fluctuations have almost disappeared, and
in which the record approximates to a straight line (tracing II.
of Fig. 14). One may also eliminate the record of the swaying by
dispensing with the automatograph, and simply holding the recording
plate in one hand and the recording device or pencil in the other;
for then the plate and pencil sway together, and naturally no record
of it is made. The relatively fine movements thus obtained are shown
in Fig. 16; the contrast between this record and such records as
Figs. 4, 5, 6, is mainly the contrast between a record in which
the general swaying of the body is registered, and one from which
it has been eliminated. It is interesting to note that in records
thus taken, there is but a slight difference in the result when the
subject is standing and when he is sitting; which is a further proof
that the swaying of the body has been eliminated. (Compare these with
Fig. 14.) Traces of periodic oscillations are noticeable in Fig. 16;
these are due to movements of respiration, and in tracing II. of
Fig. 17, they are unusually distinct and regular, about twenty to
the minute. In this case the forearm of the hand holding the record
plate was braced against the body, while the recording hand was held
free from it; and thus the abdominal movements were registered. The
movements toward the object of attention appear throughout. Fig.
17 shows a movement towards the rear of the subject, as well as
towards the front; which again shows that under suitable conditions,
involuntary movements may be recorded in one direction as readily
as in another. Fig. 18 presents a most beautifully regular movement
in all four directions. As the metronome, the strokes of which the
subject was counting, was carried from one corner of the room to
another and so on around the room, the hand involuntarily followed
it and recorded an almost perfect square. So striking and regular and
so varied an involuntary movement, in conformity with changes in the
direction of attention, one can expect to secure but seldom, and then
only with a good subject.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--THINKING OF A BUILDING. Both
hands hold record plates, the pencils being held fixed
above them. Time of record 35 seconds. Direction of
the attention ↓. Subject facing ↓. I., left hand: II.,
right hand.]
The outline presented in Fig. 19 was obtained in a test in which
the movements of the hands were separately recorded, in order to
determine the degree of correspondence between them. The result
shows a marked general resemblance, indicating in part a common
origin of the two movements. The next figure, Fig. 20, shows that
this correspondence is dependent in part upon the similarity of the
positions of the two hands. The hand that is held away from the body
moves more extensively; but the form of the movements remain similar.
The records reproduced in Figs. 14-22 and 26 were obtained upon the
same subject, though with slightly varying conditions, and are fairly
comparable with one another, and thus illustrate the analysis of the
resultant movements into their component factors.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--THINKING OF A BUILDING. Each
hand holds record plate. Time of record, 35 seconds.
Direction of the attention ↓. Subject facing ↓. I.,
left hand held extended far out. II., right hand held
close to body.]
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--THINKING OF ONE'S FEET. Record
plate vertical. Time of record, 45 seconds. Direction
of the attention ↓. II., thinking of a point overhead.
Time of record, 45 seconds. Recording plate vertical.
Direction of the attention ↑.]
Involuntary movements are not limited to the horizontal plane;
vertical movements may be recorded by holding the recording device
in a slanting position, and fixing the record plate upon the wall.
The main characteristic of such a record is the sinking of the arm
through fatigue; the movement is rapid and coarse (tracing I. of
Fig. 20). If the attention be directed to the front, we obtain a
resultant of the tendency to move towards the object of attention,
and of the sinking of the arm, as appears in the diagonal line of
Fig. 22. Fig. 21 illustrates an interesting point similar to that
illustrated in Fig. 14. When the attention is directed downward, the
hand falls rapidly (tracing I.); but when the attention is directed
upward, very little movement at all takes place,--the tendency to
move towards the object of attention constantly counteracting the
tendency for the arm to fall (tracing II.).
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--COUNTING THE STROKES OF A
METRONOME. Record plate vertical. Pencil held in
extended right hand. Time of record, 20 seconds.
Direction of the attention ←. Subject facing ←.]
V
While I have not been altogether successful in determining by this
method the relative efficiency of different sense-impressions
in holding the attention, the successful results are especially
interesting. In Fig. 23 the tracing marked I. shows the movement of
the hand during the thirty-five seconds that the subject was counting
the strokes of a metronome; tracing II. shows the movement while
counting for twenty-five seconds the oscillations of a pendulum. The
latter movement is in this case much more extensive than the former,
thus indicating that the visual impression held the attention much
better than the auditory. The subject of this record is a well-known
writer and novelist; and his description of his own mental processes
entirely accords with this result; he is a good visualizer, and
visual impressions and memory-images dominate his mental habits.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--I. COUNTING THE STROKES OF A
METRONOME. Automatograph record. Time of record, 35
seconds. Direction of the attention →. Subject facing
→. II. COUNTING PENDULUM OSCILLATIONS. Automatograph
record. Time of record, 25 seconds. Direction of the
attention →. Subject facing →.]
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--FROM A TO A´, READING
COLORS; FROM A´ ON, COUNTING PENDULUM OSCILLATIONS.
Automatograph record. Time of record, from A to A´,
35 seconds; from A´ on, 25 seconds. Direction of the
attention→. Subject facing →.]
We may next turn to Fig. 24. The subject was asked to call the names
of a series of small patches of color hanging upon the wall in front
of him. He did this with some uncertainty for thirty-five seconds,
and during this time his hand on the automatograph moved from A to
A´. At the latter point he was asked to count the oscillations of a
pendulum; this entirely changed the movement, the hand at once moving
rapidly toward the pendulum. The pendulum was a more attractive
sense-impression than the colors. The special point of interest in
this record is, that upon examination the subject's color-vision
proved to be defective, and thus accounted for the failure of the
colors to hold his attention.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--COUNTING PENDULUM
OSCILLATIONS. Time of record, 35 seconds. The record
from B to C is continuous with that of A to B.
Direction of the attention →. Subject facing →. The
subject, a child of eleven years. Record reduced to ⅘
of original size.]
An important problem relates to the possible correlation of types
of involuntary movements with age, sex, temperament, disease, and
the like. A few observations upon children are interesting in this
respect. They reveal the limited control that children have over
their muscles, and their difficulty to fix the attention when and
where desired. Their involuntary movements are large, with great
fluctuations, and irregularly towards the object of attention. Fig.
25 illustrates some of these points; in thirty-five seconds the
child's hand moved by large steps seven inches toward the pendulum,
and the entire appearance of the outline is different from those
obtained upon adults.
[Illustration: FIG. 26.--THINKING OF LETTER O. Pencil
held in hand; record on table. I., subject standing;
II., subject seated.]
Much attention has recently been paid to automatic writing, or the
unconscious indication of the _nature_, not merely the _direction_
of one's thoughts, while the attention is elsewhere engaged. I
attempted this upon the automatograph by asking the subject to view
or think of some letter or geometric figure, and then searching the
record for some trace of the letter or figure; but always with a
negative result. While unsuccessful in this sense, the records prove
of value in furnishing a salient contrast to the experiments in
which the attention was fixed in a definite direction. For example,
the subject is thinking of the letter O; he does not think of it as
in any special place, and the record (Fig. 26) likewise reveals no
movement in any one direction. Two records are shown quite similar
in significance, and illustrating as well the difference between the
movements while standing and while sitting.