Yet the more important steps will have to be guided by special
experimental investigations, and here the psychological laboratory
must undertake the elaboration of the details. Only the systematic
experiment can determine what impulses can be released at the least
expense of energy and with the greatest exactitude of the motor
effect. Investigations on the psychophysics of movement and the
influences which lead toward making the movement too large or too
small have played an important role in the psychological laboratories
for several decades. It was recognized early that the mistakes which
are made in reproducing a movement may spring from two different
sources. They result partly from an erroneous perception or memory of
the movement carried out, and partly from the inability to realize the
movement intention. One series of investigations was accordingly
devoted to the studies of those sensations and perceptions by which we
become aware of the actual movement. Everything which accentuates
these sensations must lead to an overestimation of the motion, and the
outcome is that the movement is made too small. The concentration of
attention, therefore, has the effect of reducing the actual motion,
and the same influence must result from any resistance which is not
recognized as such and hence is not subtracted in the judgment of the
perceiver. Another series of researches was concerned with the inner
attitude which causes a certain external movement effect and which may
lead to an unintended amount of movement as soon as the weight to be
lifted is erroneously judged upon.
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