Excerpt from Visual Imagery and Attention, an Analytical Study: Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology in Graduate School of the University of Illinois, 1916

The small objects which were exaggerated when imaged were a picture of Queen Elizabeth, a pin, a lemon, a key, a cake of soap, a dinner favor, a tomato, a maple leaf, and two flies. The image of a snake was under sized. The two medium-sized objects which were exaggerated in imagery were a coat and a bag. Of the large objects, a king, a giraffe, and Ceres were exaggerated, while a tower, a valley, a castle, a horse, a temple, a tabernacle, King Arthur, a crusader, a baron, a Serf, Marmion, the Delphic oracle, the Nile, and three forest scenes were under-sized when imaged. With 15 of the 17 images that were dwarfed there was a visual background. With II of the 15 that were exaggerated there was no visual background or only a shade or haze, while in 2 more cases the scene was vague.

Objects of a certain size are probably perceived with less effort than objects or scenes considerably larger or smaller. Perception of the small objects may involve unpleasant mus culat strain resulting from the convergence of the eyes. This is especially true when the object is close to the observer. Large objects or scenes necessitate considerable ocular move ment if all the different details are to be clearly perceived. In some cases, images seem to show a tendency to take that size which, in actual perception, would involve the least ocular strain.

Although the three kinds of images did not present marked differences as regards color, stability, and size, certain other peculiarities were more characteristic of one sort of imaged object than of another. We distinguish six cases.

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.