Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/533

Rh "Wir bezeichnen dieses Gegenwartigsein eines unanschaulich gegebenen Wissens als Bewusstheit." (p. 210.) This "Bewusstheit" which is characterized by the "Wissen" that it contains cannot be further analyzed. However, in his discussion of this imageless and sensationless state of consciousness Ach brings out the following facts concerning it: (a) Its constituent parts (Bestandteile) fade with repetition, (b) The intensity of the Bewusstheit decreases with practice and familiarity, (c) The whole process may be designated as a lessening of concentration of attention.

(6) The further fact is to be noticed that the Bewusstheit is always immediately preceded or accompanied by sensations (Spannungsempfindungen), visual, acoustic, kinæsthetic, etc., or by a memory image of such sensations. The clear, unequivocal content of the imageless consciousness does not, however, in Ach's judgment warrant describing it in terms of indistinct sensation or memory representations.

(7) It would appear then that this imageless content is not a derived consciousness but is, as Wood worth puts it, an original consciousness having a distinct quality of its own.

Another study throwing light upon the problem of the necessary elements functional in voluntary movement is that by Downey. (Controlled Processes in modified Handwriting. Psy. Rev. Monographs, Vol. 9, No. i, pp. 1-148.) Downey studied handwriting under modified conditions, such as elimination of visual control by blind-folding, mirror writing, inverted writing, embarrassment of motor control with and without vision, etc.,—and also under conditions of distraction. The more important results bearing upon this study may be summarized as follows:

(1) Throughout the tests the reagents fell into two groups, one emphasizing visual, the other "grapho-motor" control.

(2) "Individual variation was the extent to which the subject had recourse to grapho-motor control either conscious or automatic." (pp. 51-52.) But "when the break up in the motor coördination was sufficient to demand the acquiring of a new writing reaction the former reagents (grapho-motor group) tended to use consciously more motor material than did the latter (visual group). The form of the break-up usually occasioned intensification of the visual control." (p. 140.)

(3) In the distraction tests the grapho-motor group "showed the strongest tendency to write more or less automatically; the second group the strongest tendency to control writing consciously." (pp. 125-126.)

(4) "Mirror writing increased the tendency to rely on grapho-motor control, a surrender partly to motor automatism but partly also a control by motor anticipation," but "in