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A Quantitative Description of the Stimulus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

J. A. Lynch
J. A. Lynch*
Affiliation:
The Rice Institute, Houston, Texas
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Abstract

A formula for the stimulus is derived. The essential postulates and assumptions are based on Gestalt theory.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , June 1938 , pp. 95 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © 1938 The Psychometric Society

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References

* Notice the factor K as it is interpreted by diagram 2.

* The negative value of M indicated as cd can represent either oven-fatigue or deepened hypmotic sleep from which it takes time to revive any kind of activity; ac can represent activity below consciousness on the over-concentration pole; and bc can stand for lowered activity on the distraction pole. These two kinds of subconscious activity would evidently have different characteristics,Consciousness could also be defined arbitrarily by drawing the line at any desired level.

* The significance of this inequality is apparent from diagram 2.

* K, above, incorporates the factor described as statistical intelligence (equation II). As expected, when that is increased the L-curve spreads out to the right, toward greater (complexity and intensity).

* Dunlap, Knight, Habits Their Making and Unmaking. Liveright, 1932. pp. 78-80.

† Gestalts are spatio-temporal. Therefore, this statement does not necessarily rest upon the law of effect. R. H. Wheeler’s third and sixth laws could be interpreted this way.

* The objection to Dunlap’s theory is that he puts into the “response” elements which functionally belong to the “stimulus.”

* i, and i, following the formula introduced on the first page of this paper.