12. Psychical contrasts appear also in other spheres of sensation so far as the conditions for their demonstration are favorable. They are also especially marked in the case of feelings and may arise under proper conditions in the case of spacial and temporal ideas. Sensations of pitch are relatively most free, for most persons have a well developed ability to recognize absolute pitch and this tends to overcome contrast. In the case of feelings the effect of contrast is intimately connected with their general attribute of developing toward certain opposites. Pleasurable feelings especially are intensified by unpleasant feelings immediately preceding, and the same holds for many feelings of relaxation following feelings of strain, as, for example, a feeling of fulfilment after expectation. The effect of contrast in the case of spacial and temporal ideas is most obvious when the same spacial or temporal interval is compared alternately with a longer and with a shorter interval. In the two cases the interval appears different, in comparison with the shorter it appears greatest in comparison with the longer, smaller. Here too the contrast between spacial ideas can be removed by bringing an object between the contrasted figures in such a way that it is possible easily to relate them both to it.
13.We may regard the phenomena that result from the apperception of impressions whose real character differs from that expected, as special modifications of psychical contrast. For example, we are prepared to lift a heavy weight, but in the actual lifting of the weight it proves to be lighter, or the reverse takes place and we lift a heavy weight instead of a light one as we expected: the result is that in the first case we underestimate, in the second overestimate the real weight. If a series of exactly equal weights of different sizes are made so that they look like a set of weights varying regularly from a lighter to a heavier, they will appear to be different in [p. 260] weight when raised. The smallest will seem to be the heaviest and the largest to be the lightest. The familiar association that. the greater volume is connected with the greater mass aids the contrast. The varying estimations of the weight, however, is the result of the contrast between the real and the expected sensation. B. COMPLEX APPERCEPTIVE FUNCTIONS. (Synthesis and Analysis.)
14. When the simple processes of relating and comparing are repeated and combined several times, the complex psychical functions of synthesis and analysis arise. Synthesis is primarily the product of the relating activity of apperception, analysis of the comparing activity.
As a combining function apperceptive synthesis is based upon fusions and associations. It differs from the latter in the fact that some of the ideational and affective elements that are brought forward by the association are voluntarily emphasized and others are pushed into the background. The motives of the choice can be explained only from the whole previous development of the individual consciousness.
As a result of this voluntary activity the product of this synthesis is a complex whole whose components all come from former sense-perceptions and associations, but in which the combination of these components usually varies more or less from the actual impressions and the combinations of these impressions that, are immediately presented in experience.
The ideational elements of a compound thus resulting, from apperceptive synthesis may be regarded as the substratum for the rest of its contents, and so we call such a compound in general an aggregate idea. When the combination of the elements is peculiar, that is, markedly different from the products of the fusion and associations, the aggregate idea and each of its relatively independent ideational components [p. 261] is called an idea of imagination or image of imagination. Since the voluntary synthesis of elements may vary more or less, according to the character of the motives that gave rise to it, from the combinations presented in sense-perception and association, it is obvious that practically no sharp line of demarcation can be drawn between images of imagination and those of memory. But we have a more essential mark of the apperceptive process in the positive characteristic of a voluntary synthesis than in the negative fact that the combination does not correspond in character to any particular sense-perception. This positive characteristic gives also the most striking external difference between images of imagination and those of memory. It consists in the fact that the sensational elements of an apperceptive compound are much more like those of an immediate sense-perception in clearness and distinctness, and generally in completeness and intensity.
This is easily explained by the fact that the reciprocally inhibitory influences which the uncontrolled associations exercise on one another, and which prevent the formation of fixed memory-images, are diminished or removed by the voluntary emphasizing of certain particular ideational compounds.
It is possible to mistake images of imagination for real experiences. With memory-images this is possible only when they become images of imagination, that is, when the memories are no longer allowed to arise passively, but are to -some extent produced by the will. Generally, too, there are voluntary modifications in them or a mixing of real with imagined elements. All our memories are therefore made up of "fancy and truth" [ 1 ].
Memory-images change under the influence of our feelings and volition to images of imagination, and we generally deceive ourselves with their resemblance to real experiences. [p. 262]