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Kansas University Weekly.
From the Psychology Class.
Prof. Templin has for some time required a weekly written contribution from each member of the Sophomore psychology class, containing some original psychological observation. Below are given some specimens of their work:
AN ILLUSION-About a week ago I experienced an interesting illusion. The water in the river was very muddy and was flowing over the dam, as it appeared, in a great black mass. I stood at the east side of the bridge, commanding a good view of the dam. I looked steadily at the water, just where it flowed over the dam, and the bridge and dam seemed to be moving steadily west, instead of the water flowing east. The illusion was so complete that I could not, by trying, make it appear that the bridge and the dam were stationary. The dam seemed to be moving toward the west, and to be just slipping from under the water.
D. R.
TIME—I tried some very unsatisfactory experiments trying persons' knowledge of the passage of time, asking them to tell me, from some signals that I gave them, when they thought a minute had passed. With one exception they guessed less than a minute, but I found that several things influenced the decision. If I asked a person to close his eyes and kept him sitting with them closed while a number of persons looked at him, the time was very short. One boy opened his eyes in 12 seconds. However, if they kept their eyes open and kept up a conversation they came much nearer the correct time, from 52 to 57 seconds. One person upon whom I experimented was warned that he would open them too soon so he kept them shut one minute and 12 seconds, but confessed that he thought it over a minute. W. H.
THE SUB-CONSCIOUS—A few mornings ago I wished for a particular reason to rise at four o'clock. I had never risen so early in my life, I think, and there was no alarm clock in the house. I went to bed, however, with the thought firmly fixed in my mind that I must wake at four. I slept soundly but toward morning I had a dream of being at home and of my mother calling me, saying "It is four o'clock. Get up!" I woke with a start and, on looking at the clock, found that the time was exactly four o'clock. I suppose that the thought of getting up at that hour was so firmly
impressed upon my mind that I retained a sort of consciousness of it, even in my sleep, and perhaps the sound of a clock's striking four. although it did not figure in my dream, may have helped to wake me just at that time.
E. G.
HABIT-Going back to Shattuck Military school a year after I had been graduated I had the following experience: About twenty or thirty of the Alumni formed into a company under the command of the oldest "old boy" present. He marched us up the main street at Faribault and when we were opposite a mud puddle gave us a flank command that put us into this mud. The old habit of obeying the command had such a hold on us that we walked right into that mud. R.M.
MEASURING TIME—Last Wednesday, on account of the heavy storm which came up a short time after noon, most of the classes were dismissed about half past twelve. The students, unable to go home at once, were forced to wait in the hall. An unusual anxiety to go home could be noticed. It was their custom to wait until one o'clock to go but it was now very difficult to spend the time in mere waiting—an illustration of the fact that time spent in idleness is measured as being of much greater duration than that spent in active employment.
N. C.
THE MAN IN THE MOON—From a child I have been told about the old man in the moon and I have watched his face until it seems almost human. This week a friend said the face was a woman's, not a man's. I was shown the outlines of her face, her hair and her neck, until the entire head was very distinct and real. After gazing at it for some time I thought of the "old man in the moon" but by no attempts could I again see his face. The woman's face was so decided that I could not bring his back. On the following evening, at my will, I could see the one and then the other. It seems to me that the reason for my not being able to recall the man's face on the first evening was because I had my attention so fixed upon the other and it was so newly impressed upon my mind. I think the sensations were equally strong but on the first evening the notion of the woman's face was formed much clearer than that of the man's, so it was the predominant sensation. M. McG.