「構え」について : 視野闘爭による探索的研究

Abstract

The concept of set has been so ubiquitous and so undetermined that we can find, for instance in Gibson's critical review, at least more than thirty terms concerning set cited to explain the controversy in the history of psychology. Whatever the definition may be, the fact of set is, from our point of view, that the response of an organism to its environment is determined and modified by its set. It means nothing other than the dynamic interactions of systems. In the so-called binocular rivalry, where two visual systems interact, the observer is able to control the process of rivalry voluntarily. This effect of the " set of voluntary control" indicates an interaction between a higher system and a lower system-the latter in itself including an interaction of two visual systems. A series of preliminary experiments was worked out searching the way for the discovery of the laws of these interactions. A modified haploscopic apparatus was used to produce binocular rivalry of two figures (fig. 1). The duration t_1 and t_r of the appearance of the left and the right figure respectively were noted during a certain duration T (usually 60 seconds) of inspection, and a conventional index P_r=100×[(t_r+1/2 {T-(t_r+t_i)}]/T was derived. Two conditions of set were defined as follows, the condition V in which subjects were instructed to facilitate the appearance of the one figure and to inhibit that of the other voluntarily, and the cordition N in which they were instructed to observe the phenomena as, naturally as possible. The effect of " V " was defined as the difference of Pr between V and N. The experiments were divided into three parts : 1. Establishment of V and N as a stationary state each in itself in order to obtain a stable V-effect. 2. Determination of the functions of stimulus intensity in the set N. This made it possible to exemplify an aspect of interaction of the two visual systems. 3. Examination of the interaction between the voluntary "control" system and the visual " rivalry " system. This was possible by putting the stimulus intensity functions of the set N into the set V. Although our results are as yet not complete enough to permit a precise quantification of such laws of interactions as described above, they show some necessities and possibilities of further experimentation on this problem.