Archives of Psychology, Vol. 2 PDF Download

Author: R. S. Woodworth
Publisher: Forgotten Books
ISBN: 9780666179494
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 716

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Book Description
Excerpt from Archives of Psychology, Vol. 2: 1908-11 In the pages which follow are presented some data relating to the problem of the hearing of primitive peoples. The study was made in connection with other experiments on the inferior races at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. During the period of the Exposition, the writer, in the capacity of Assistant Superintendent of the Sections of Anthropometry and Psychometry, under the Division of Anthropology, in cooperation with Dr. (now Professor) R. S. Woodworth, who was his immediately superior officer, was commissioned to make a study, so far as practicable, of the mental and physical status of the alien races stationed on the Exposition grounds. In the arrangements for the tests, the entire problem of the hearing of these people was assigned to me - the ways and means of testing their hearing, together with the turn and scope the particular study of hearing should take. When it came to the question of selecting the tests to be made, there was little of historical precedent to aid in making a choice. Dr. Charles Myers, in the only extended report on the hearing of primitive peoples extant, had examined three phases of hearing, namely: (1) The upper threshold of pitch, (2) the acuity for tones of medium pitch, and (3) the perception of interval. In addition to these three tests, a number of others, which might have brought out interesting and instructive results, suggested themselves to me. These related to space perception, tone memory and imagery, and clang preferences. The scope of our work, however, was subject to certain definite limitations. In all, there were stationed at the Exposition in one capacity or another, something like one thousand individuals of various races, whom it might be possible to measure. There were two of us to carry on the work. One of two alternatives, consequently, must be pursued, (a) to restrict the number of measurements which should be made of each individual or (b) to confine the measurements to a few representative individuals and races. We chose the first in the hope that with relatively large groups some fairly definite information could be obtained. In consequence of this limitation of the number of measurements, it was thought advisable to confine the number of tests of hearing to three or four. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.