xlii Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



The Intensifying Effect of Attention. 



Professor Miinsterberg and Mr. N. Kozaki describe experimental 

 studies which show that all stimuli appear relatively less when the at- 

 tention is from the outset directed to them. Intensities are estimated 

 relatively. Just as weights are underestimated when by reason of a 

 preparatory innervation we lift them with too great a tension of the 

 muscles, so if the sensations of tension in the sense organ are prev- 

 iously strengthened by expectant attention the stimulus will appear 

 weaker than it would if the stimulus itself were to arouse reflexly all 

 the corresponding muscular tensions. 



Rhythm. 1 



This article is prefaced by an introduction on Rhythm in general. 

 "The pleasure that individuals take in the rhythmic flow of words and 

 sounds, has been ascribed to the ' ' Unifying activity of the feelings" by 

 one author; to the "Sense of order" by another; and to ' ' The feelings of 

 equality" by still another. The author of this paper remarks that "to 

 regard rhythm as the manifestation or form of the most fundamental 

 activity of the mind seems a clearer view than to regard it as the ulti- 

 mate fact itself." He goes on to sum up briefly some general con- 

 clusions which are sufficiently suggested by the following sub-heads. 

 " Rhythms in Nature," "Physiological Rhythms," "Attention and 

 Periodicity," "Rhythmic Speech," "Time Relations," "Intensity 

 of Sounds," " Qualities of Sound," "Emotional Effects of Music on 

 Savages and Children," "Place of Rhythm in Music and Poetry," 

 " Esthetic Forms," " Philosophies of Verse." We then come to the 

 more important experimental work. 



"The first and most important object of these experiments was to 

 determine what the mind did with a series of simple auditory impres- 

 sions in which there was absolutely no change of intensity, pitch, 

 quality or time-interval. Regular variations with respect to the in- 

 tensity or time-interval of the sounds in this series, which will be 

 called a rhythmic series, were then to be tried separately and together, 

 with the purpose of determining what values these properties of sound 

 have in forming a rhythmical series." 



For this purpose a machine was devised which should furnish this 

 constant repetition of a sound of the desired pitch, intensity and du- 

 ration. A break at regular intervals in the primary circuit of an 



^haddkus L. Bolton, Demonstrator and Fellow in Psychology, Clark 

 University. Amcr. Journal of Psychology, Jan., 1894. 



