Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/161



In a recent number of the Psychologische Studien, Professor Wirth publishes an article entitled "Zur Messung der Klarheitsgrade der Bewusstseinsinhalte," which is a reply to my "Critique of Professor Wirth's Methods of Measurement of Attention." The Reply consists of twelve sections, consecutively numbered; and the reader naturally infers that it presents twelve different objections to my Critique. As a matter of fact, the contents of the sections are not sharply differentiated, and the argument of one is sometimes repeated in others. Hence I shall not attempt to take them up in order, but shall merely refer in parenthesis to the particular section in which the point under discussion receives the greatest emphasis. I shall, furthermore, confine myself to the four articles mentioned in my previous paper. Wirth's book, "Die experimentelle Analyse der Bewusstseinsphanomene" (§1), arrived here after my manuscript had gone to print, and I was, therefore, unable to reply to it, although this explanation may seem inadequate to my opponent, who devotes more than a page to my work on "The Measurement of Attention" some half year before its appearance (§6 and §10). I do not deny that Wirth's book clears up some of the obscurities here mentioned, just as his Reply is in some respects an illuminating and welcome commentary upon his own work; but these facts do not affect the validity of my original criticism. I am sure, too, that my article contains nothing to justify the personal attacks scattered throughout Wirth's pages. The charges are not only absolutely untrue to fact, but they are also unsuitable for public discussion and refutation. I shall make no reference to them in what follows.

The keynote of Wirth's article is the complaint that he has