Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/63

 ANTAGONISTIC REACTIONS. 49 during the interval from stimulus to reaction. 1 The chrono- scope was tested each day by the control-hammer. The great majority of the experiments were made with auditory stimuli the sound of an electric bell, or some simple noise, such as the tapping of a telegraph key. In all the experi- ments of Table I., graphic as well as chronoscopic, the stimulus was given by the tapping of the key. A few re- actions were made as a rule with an ordinary telegraph key before the graphic experiments began in order to accustom the subjects to the reaction procedure. I am able to present results from thirty-three persons, twenty-five men, eight women. The majority of the subjects are very highly educated, a large number being employed in scientific work as teachers or investigators. Among these five give unmistakable and fairly constant evidence of the antagonistic form of reaction. In five cases this form is present, but is intermittent. In eighteen cases there is no trace on the curve of anything else than the immediate lifting of the finger, the curve where it falls being in some instances more rounded, in others more angular. In five cases the record is doubtful and difficult of interpretation. In other words, excluding these doubtful cases, we find decided evidence of antagonistic reaction in about a third of the individuals who have been tested. It does not appear to have any special relations to age, sex or temperament. In some of the cases the subject knew beforehand the object of the experiments ; in others he was ignorant both before and during the experiments that the reaction movement was anything else than simple. Experiments made with two individuals showed that the phenomenon appeared both with auditory and visual stimuli. The following tables summarise the quantitative results, gained from six individuals who show the antagonistic form of reaction. I should have been glad to present a larger number of experiments, secured both by the graphic and the chronoscopic methods. But such an investigation is subject to decided limitations. The experiments were with few ex- ceptions gained from persons who could not spare much time from their ordinary employments. On the other hand the taking and measurement of the reaction curves demands a great expenditure of time. The curve of reaction, being dependent on the subject's pressure, is subject to constant variation in the successive experiments, and account has to 1 Cf. Kraepelin, Ueber die Beeinflussung einfacher psychischer Vorgdnge durch einige Arzneimittel, s. 14. 4