The Hearing of Primitive Peoples Volume 11; An Experimental Study of the Auditory Acuity and the Upper Limit of Hearing of Whites, Indians, Filipinos, Ainu and African Pigmies (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ...promoting temporal segregation. All subjects found the work on the very slow rhythms extremely fatiguing, and it was hardly possible at the slowest rates to run through more than 3 or 4 series of minimal changes at one sitting. Extremely close attention is required at these slow rates to get any rhythm at all. 1 Meumann, Phil. Stud., 10, 302, 1894. CHAPTER V Duration In the investigation of the effect on rhythm of variations in the duration of the sounds, I did not find so much agreement between different individuals as in the case of variations in intensity. Individual differences, while quite marked in the case of duration, are yet not so great as to prevent certain generalizations. The investigation of the effect of duration in rhythm was carried on in the same way as the investigation of the effect of intensity, except that instead of using sounds of different intensity, the intensity of all sounds was kept constant and their duration alone varied. As has already been shown, in the case of two-membered rhythms, if we start out with a trochaic rhythm, in which the louder sound begins the measure, by gradually increasing the interval after the louder sound, we arrive at an iambic rhythm, in which the louder sound ends the measure. I found no exception to the possibility of changing in this manner from trochaic to iambic. Similarly, in the case of rhythm in which we have differences in duration of the sounds but not in intensity, if we start with a trochaic rhythm with the longer sound beginning the measure, by increasing the interval after the longer sound and decreasing the interval before it, we will arrive at an iambic rhythm, with the longer sound second. In this case, the longer sound ordinarily seems to the subject to be accented. I found no excepti...