Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song by F. W. Mott
page 57 of 82 (69%)
Stricker by introspection and concentration of attention upon his own
speech-production came to the conclusion that the primary revival of words
was by the feeling of movements of the muscles of articulation; but there
is a fallacy here, for the more the attention is concentrated upon any
mental process the more is the expressive side brought into prominence in
consciousness. This can be explained by the fact that there is in
consequence of attention an increased outflow of innervation currents to
special lower executive centres, thence to the muscles, but every change of
tension in the speech muscles is followed by reciprocal incoming
impressions appertaining to the sense and feeling of the movement. The more
intense the sense of movement, the greater will be the effect upon
consciousness. In fact, a person who reads and thinks by articulating the
words, does so because experience has taught him that he can concentrate
his attention more perfectly; therefore his memory or understanding of the
subject read or thought of will be increased. Very many people think and
commit to memory by this method of concentrating attention; they probably
do not belong to the quick, perceptive, imaginative class, but rather to
those who have power of application and who have educated their minds by
close voluntary attention. Galton found a large proportion of the Fellows
of the Royal Society were of this motor type. But the fact that certain
individuals make use of this faculty more than others does not destroy the
arguments in favour of the primary revival of words in the great majority
of persons by a subconscious process in the auditory centre, which is
followed immediately by correlated revival of sensori-motor images.
Although the sensori-motor images of speech can be revived, it is almost
impossible without moving the hand to revive kinæsthetic impressions
concerned in writing a word. Both Ballet and Stricker admit this fact, and
it tends to prove that the sense of hearing is the primary incitation to
speech.

DigitalOcean Referral Badge