Reaction-times / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
[between 1902 and 1909?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reaction-times / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/24 (page 220)
    General Conclusions. It appears, then, that the auditory reaction-times of the young Murray Island adult and of the young English townsman are almost identical, and that the visual and choice-visual reaction-times of the former are respectively 20° and GO*7 longer than those of the latter. This lengthening of the visual and choice-visual reaction-times among the Murray Islanders is probably due to similar causes. The visual reactions were really nearer recognition- than simple-reactions. Owing to the nature of the visual stimulus and the mode of its release, these reactions were clearly more difficult to execute than the simple auditory reactions. Their large average and the few aberrant values also go to indicate that in the visual reactions the attention was more firmly fixed on the expected stimulus than on the prescribed movement. In the visual, then, as in the choice-visual reactions, the attendant psychical conditions were more complex than in the auditory reactions, and in both the former reactions the Murray Islanders proved to be slower than the English. On the other hand, the young Sarawak adults reacted more quickly than the English or the Murray Islanders, the difference in rapidity between them and the English being about 200-. The number of Murray Islanders, who gave fairly consistent reaction-times, was not appreciably different from that of the English or of the Sarawak natives. The results of every islander who was examined were capable of being satisfactorily recorded, with the exception of Canoe and Kaniu, who after prolonged trials could not be induced to react correctly in the choice-visual experiments. It is difficult to decide how far these failures were due to lack of ability or to lack of interest. My impression was that Canoe was not doing his best and that Kaniu was considerably less intelligent than most of the islanders. The young Murray Island adults reacted more quickly than the children. They reacted not only more quickly but more regularly than the older men. Indeed, whether considered as a class or individually, the older islanders reacted far less consistently than the younger. These differences did not appear among the English, where a pro¬ portionally smaller number of men over thirty-five years of age was examined, none of whom was really old, while in Murray Island the data include those of some unquestionably aged people. The small number of abnormally long or short reaction-times occurring among the children is worthy of notice. Their reactions were as reliable as those of the younger adults. An interesting point, elicited by the carrying out of reaction-times in Murray Island, was the well-marked variety of temperament among the reagents. A dull steady-going islander, having plodded through a series of reactions with moderate speed but with satisfactory regularity, would be followed by a highly strung excitable individual, who