The
results of the experiments in sorting the cards confirmed this
self-observation in such frequent cases that it may indeed be hoped
that a more extended test of this method will prove its practical
usefulness. It is clear that the field is a wide one, as these
different types of mental dispositions must be of consequence not only
in the ship service, but also to a certain degree in the railroad
service and in many other industrial tasks.
We have emphasized from the start that as a matter of course such a
tested function, while it is taken in its complex unity, is
nevertheless not the only psychophysical disposition of significance.
This is as true for the ship officer as it was for the motorman of the
electric car. If we were to study all the mental dispositions
necessary or desirable for the ship officer, we should find many other
qualities which are accessible to the psychological investigation. The
captain of the ship, for instance, is expected to recognize the
direction of a vessel passing in the fog by the signals of the
foghorn. But so far no one has given any attention to the
psychological conditions of localization of sound, which were for a
long while a much-studied problem of our psychological laboratories.
We know how this localization is dependent upon the comparison of the
two ears and what particular mistakes occur from the different
sensibility of the two ears.
Pages:
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88