Evening star., 1927-09-25
WORDS HELD KEY TO IMAGES
AS MENTAL RESEARCH RESULT
Dr.. F. Russell BichoWski
Finds People Talk Con-
tinuaIIy to Selves.
BorderIand Between First
Sensation and Completed
Picture Is Probed.

Do YOU talk to yourself?
The chances are that YOU do. You
may not know anything about it-but
you probably are carrying on a con
verSatiOn with yourself most of the
lime.
Otherwise. it is likely YOU are doing
something which YOU will be even
more loath To admit t-still without
knowing anything about it,
If YOU weren't talking to yourself
or doing this other thing. the world
around YOU would be a hopeless blur
of forms and colors without definite
meaning. A tree would not be a tree
but an incoherence of brown, green
and twisting cylinders.
implications of Theory.
Such. at least. are the implications
of a theory of the mechanism of con-
sciousness which has been worked out
by DR.. f. Russell Bichowski. a mem
ber of the staff of the Naval Research
Laborato tory, who for several years has
followed this complicated branch of
psychology as personal hobby. DR..
Bichowski believes that his expert.
mCnts. carried on with volunteer sub.
jects among his friends. have result.
ed in what is tantamount to a new
theory OF consciousness. or at least a
more definite understanding of pre-
viously held theories. particularly
those OF the German imagist school
Consciousness he defines as "an
awareneSs of actual physical relations
existing in the BRAIN"
This, however is a long way from
the beginning. Persons who are not
psychologists, Of course. take the fact
of consciousness for granted. The
average man looks out of the window
and sees in'the pasture certain com.
hination of white and black arranged
on roughly cylindrical shape. 1t is
a COW. SO far AS he is aware he
knows instantly that it is COW. He
does not think about it. so far as he
knows, the slightest fraction of a
second. He has seen cows all his life
and knows exactly what it is.
Rather Complicated Function.
But actually very intricate piece
Of machinery, the human brain. has
to perform rather complicated func.
ton before the observer knows that
the black and white spots arranged on
the roughly cylindrical form consti-
tute COW. The time element hardly
enters into the mental processes which
transform the incoherent mass of
shape and color into a COW, and the
individual is not aware of them.
1t is In the vastly complicated bor-
derland between the first sensation re-
ceived by eye and ear AMI the COM
pleted image, when the individual
knows what he is looking at, that DR..
B1chowskis experiments have been
In the case of the COW in the pas.
ture, according to DR.. Bichowski. the
first sensations of color and form
transmitted from the eye to the brain
are incoherent. There is nothing to
hold them together Something must
happen in the brain to coordinate
these sensations into a definite picture
of something.
Must Say Word.
Generally. DIR. Bichowski has found
from his experiments, the observer
first must say the word cow before
he knows that he is looking at cow
The repeating of this word is like press.
ing a button in the brain, releasing
which automatically bring
the color and form sensations together
into the completed imaoe of a COW.
Ordinarily the word Cow" isn't
spoken audibly. 1t is formed in the
nraln by the familiar group of sensa-
tions. but it shut off before it actually
reaches the lips. Nevertheless, this
talking to ones self.
mentally. Words. he believes, are the
mental buttons, the pressing of which
makes possible coherent images.
In some individuals the structure of
works out in a different
way, DIR. Bichowski finds. One of his
subjects was unable to form an image
of cow from the first incoherent sen.
sation until he first had formed the
image of a ship. In early youth this
individual had spent a great deal of
tir4-a on shipboard and had received
his first impressions of cows in nau-
teal surroundings. His mental proc
esses, set in definite groove by these