Mental Development in the Child and the Race
Chapter 3: Distance and Colour Perception by Infants
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§ 1. Experimental
THE method called 'dynamogenic' has been explained in earlier pages. The application of it to particular questions now demands attention, as far as the present writer has attempted to apply it.
It is evident, as was said before in speaking of the infant's responses in reaching for
objects, that in any particular case the element of distance is a variable quantity to be
considered with the influence of the particular stimulus in question. In investigating the
infant's colour sensations, therefore, we have the formula
D = c/d
in which c denotes colour, d, distance, and D, strength of
dynamogeny, as already explained.
I undertook at the beginning of my child H.'s ninth month to experiment with her with a view to arriving at the exact state of her colour perception, employing this new method. The arrangements consisted in this instance in giving the infant a comfortable sitting posture, kept constant by a band passing around her chest and fastened securely to the back of her chair. Her arms were left bare and quite free in their
(49) movements. Pieces of paper of different colours were successively exposed, at varying distances, front, right, and left. This was regulated by a framework, consisting of a horizontal rod graded in inches, projecting from the back of the chair at a level with her shoulder and parallel with her arm when extended straight forward, and carrying on it another rod, also graded in inches, at right angles to the first. This second rod was thus a horizontal line directly in front of the child, parallel with a line connecting her two shoulders, and so equally distant for both hands. This second rod was made to slide upon the first, so as to be adjusted at any desirable distance from the child. On this second rod the colours, etc., were placed in succession, the object being to excite the child to reach for the colour.
So far from being distasteful to the infant, I found that, with pleasant suggestions thrown about the experiments, the whole procedure gave her very evident gratification, and the affair became one of her pleasant daily occupations. After each sitting she was given a reward of some kind.
The accompanying tables give the results, both for colour and distance, of 217
experiments. Of these 111 were with five colours and 106 with ordinary newspaper (chosen
as a relatively neutral object, which would have no colour value and no association to the
infant). In the tables R stands for 'refusal' to reach out for the object, A
for 'acceptance' with effort, N for the entire number of experiments with each
colour respectively, and n for the entire number with all the colours at each
distance respectively. So
A / N =the proportion of acceptances or efforts for any colour, and R
/ n = the proportion of refusals for each distance.
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Table I
| Distance, Inches | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Totals | Ratio A/N |
| R. A. | R. A. | R. A. | R. A. | R. A. | R. A. | R .A. | R. A. N | ||
| Blue | 0 - 1 | 0 - 4 | 0 - 5 | 1 - 3 | 2 - 4 | 1 - 5 | 3 - 1 | 7 - 23 - 30 | .766 |
| Red | 0 - 1 | 0 - 3 | 2 - 2 | 1 - 4 | 1 - 7 | 1 - 7 | 1 - 5 | 10 - 25 - 35 | .714 |
| White | 0 - 0 | 0 - 0 | 0 - 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 - 5 | 1 - 1 | 3 - 0 | 4 - 7 - 11 | .636 |
| Green | 0 - 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 - 1 | 2 - 1 | 1 - 4 | 1 - 2 | 2 - 0 | 6 - 9 -15 | .60 |
| Brown | 0 - 1 | 0 - 2 | 2 - 1 | 3 - 2 | 0 - 3 | 3 - 1 | 2 - 0 | 10 - 10 - 20 | .50 |
| Totals | 0 - 3 | 0 - 10 | 4 - 9 | 7 - 11 | 4 - 23 | 7 - 16 | 15 - 2 | 37 - 74 - 111 | .66 |
| Ratio R/n |
0 | 0 | .30 | .39 | .15 | .31 | .88 | Total .33 |
Table II
| Distance, Inches | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Totals | Ratio A/N |
| R.A. | R.A. | R.A. | R.A. | R.A. | R.A. | R.A. | R.A.N | ||
| Newspaper | 0 - 17 | 0 - 28 | 1 - 33 | 25 - 2 | 26 - 80 - 106 | .754 | |||
| Colour | 0 - 3 | 0 - 10 | 4 - 9 | 7 - 11 | 4 - 23 | 7 - 16 | 15 - 2 | 37 - 74 - 111 | .666 |
| Totals | 0 - 3 | 0 - 10 | 4 - 9 | 7 - 28 | 4 - 51 | 8 - 49 | 40 - 4 | 63- 154 - 217 | .71 |
| Ratio R/n | .31 | .20 | .07 | .14 | .91 | Total .29 |
(51) been taken -- on which points the next paragraph may be read -- to conclude important results for the perception of colour and distance. The following inferences, indeed, seem to be safely drawn.
Colour. -- The results are evident in the tables (I. and II.), especially the columns marked Ratio A and Ratio R. N n The colours range themselves in an order of attractiveness, i.e. blue, red, white, green, and brown. Disregarding white, the difference between blue and red is very slight compared to that between any other two. This confirms Binet as against Preyer, who puts blue last, and also fails to confirm Preyer in putting brown before red and green. Brown to my child -- as tested in this way -- seemed to be about as neutral as could well be. A similar distaste for brown was noticed in the child observed by Miss Shinn. [1] White, on the other hand, was more attractive than green and slightly more so than red. I am sorry that my list does not include yellow. The newspaper was, at reaching distances up to 14 inches, as attractive as any of the colours, and even more so; but this is probably due to the fact that the newspaper experiments came after a good deal of practice in reaching after colours, and a more exact association between the stimulus and its distance; an influence which I have remarked upon in the general discussion, above, [1] of the formula for the method. At 15 inches and over, accordingly, the newspaper was refused in more than 93 per cent of the cases, while blue was refused at that distance in only 75 per cent, and red in 83 per cent.
Distance.[2] -- In regard to the question of distance, the child persistently refused to reach for anything put 16 inches or more away from her. At 15 inches she refused 91 per
(52) cent of all the cases, go per cent of the colour cases, and, as I have said, 93 per cent of the newspaper cases. At nearer distances we find the remarkable uniformity with which the safe-distance association works at this early age. At 14 inches only 14 per cent of all the cases were refused, and at 13 inches only about 7 per cent. The fact that there was a larger percentage of refusals at 10 and 12 inches than at 13 and 14 inches, is seen from the table Q.) to be due to the influence of the brown, which was refused consistently when more than IO inches away. The fact that there were no refusals to reach for anything exposed within reaching distance (IO inches) -- other attractive objects being kept away -- shows two things: (I) the very fine estimation visually of the distance represented by the arm length, thus emphasizing the element of muscular sensations of arm movement in the perception of distance generally; and (2) the great uniformity at this age of the phenomenon of 'sensorimotor suggestion ' [3] upon which this method of child study is based.- In respect to the first point, it will be remembered that the child does not begin to reach for anything that it sees until the fourth or sixth week; so it is evident at what a remarkably fast rate this association is formed between arm movements and those obscure factors of size, perspective, light and shade, etc., which signify distance to the eye; in such a way that the inhibition of arm movement by sensations from the other sense, vision, is secured so early.
In regard to the relative use of the two hands in these and other experiments, -- this is a topic to which I may devote the next brief chapter. [4]
Endnotes
- Loc. cit., p. 47.
- See also the remarks in Chap. IV., § 2.
- See below, Chap. VI.; § 3.
- Many of the results of these experiments have been confirmed by Mr. R. E. Marsden (see his papers in The Psychological Review, 1903, pp. 37, 297), using the same method.
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§ 2. Critical
It is in place to recall the criticisms already offered [1] upon the colour experiments of Preyer and Binet. I think the method thus applied successfully obviates many of the difficulties of earlier methods. There are certain other requirements of proper procedure, however, which, so far as I am aware, have never been duly weighed by those who have experimented with young children.
In the first place, fatigue is a matter of considerable importance, not only on this method but on any other. Again, the child is peculiarly susceptible to the appeals of change, novelty, chance, or happy suggestion; and often the failure to respond to a stimulus is due to distraction or to discomfort rather than to lack of intrinsic interesting quality. In respect to fatigue, I would say that the first signs of restlessness, or arbitrary loss of interest, in a series of stimulations, is sufficient warning, and all attempts at further experimenting should cease. Often the child is in a state of indisposition, of trifling nervous irritability, etc.; this should be detected beforehand and then nothing should be undertaken. No series longer than three trials should be attempted without changing the child's position, resting its attention with a song or a game, etc., and thus leading it fresh to its 'task' again. Further, no single stimulus, as a colour, should be twice repeated without a change to some other; since the child's eagerness or alertness is somewhat satisfied by the first effort and a new thing is necessary to bring him out to full exercise again. Further, after each effort or two the child should be given the object reached for to hold or play with for a moment; otherwise he grows to apprehend that the whole affair is a
(54) case of Tantalus. In all these matters, very much depends upon the knowledge and care of the experimenter, and his ability to keep the child in a normal condition of pleasurable muscular exercise throughout. [2]
Coming to colour experiments, several requirements would appear to be necessary for exact results. Should not the colours chosen be equal in purity, intensity, lustre, illumination, etc. ? In reference to these qualitative differences, -- those which are really important in order to keep our symbol constant as respects all but the qualitative colour influence, -- I think only that degree of care need be exercised which good comparative judgment provides. Colours of about equal objective intensity, of no gloss, of relatively evident spectral purity, under constant illumination, -- this is all that is required; for the variations due to the grosser influences I have mentioned, such as condition of attention, physical unrest, disturbing noises, sights, etc., are of greater influence than any of these more recondite objective variations in the stimulus. Intensity and lustre, however, are certainly important. It is possible, by carefully choosing a room of pretty constant daylight illumination, and setting the experiments at the same hour each day, to secure a regular degree of brightness if the colours themselves are equally bright; and lustre may be ruled out by using coloured wools or blotting-papers. The papers used by myself were coloured blotting-papers, which I selected by their empirical properties as good for the purpose. The omission of yellow is due to the absence, in my neighbourhood, of a yellow paper that satisfied me. I did not care to introduce another element of
(55) uncertainty in the way of change of texture or general character as to shape, form, etc., as an altogether different object would have done.
The most valid criticism, therefore, on the tables is that which exposes the small number of experiments; and an examination of the table proves it well taken. It has been suggested to me by a friend [3] that the results at 11, 12, 13, and 14 inches might be taken together for each colour; since the element of distance would not give important variations within these limits. This, it will be seen, however, on calculation, does not alter the order of colour preference, except to lay more emphasis on white.
On the whole, therefore, I attach some little importance[4] to the experiments apart from their illustrative value and their possible stimulating effect upon others who may care to extend them. Their main purpose in the progress and plan of this book is seen in their witness to the regularity of operation of the principle of suggestion or dynamogenesis.
Endnotes
- Above, Chap. II., § I.
- It is on account of my extreme care in these points that the number of experiments recorded in the tables in this chapter is so small; as it was, they extended over a period of more than six months. I was then obliged to separate myself from the child, and so the series came to an end.
- Mrs. C. Ladd Franklin, who wrote to me kindly about the papers as originally published in Science.
- For example, Preyer's contention (repeated in his 4th ea., p. 14), that the child has no colour 'distinctions' in his first two years is disproved by these results, which indicate different colour perceptions in and after the ninth month.
