{"title":"\"That imperfect instrument\": Galton's whistle, Bierce's damned thing, and the phenomenon of superior nonhuman sensory range.","authors":"Gregory Burton","doi":"10.1037/hop0000230","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When the Galton whistle was introduced in the 1870s, it was the first demonstration many had encountered of the phenomenon that nonhumans sometimes exceed humans in sensory range, for example perceiving ultraviolet light and ultrasonic signals. While some empirical research had explored this possibility beforehand, this area of perceptual research progressed slowly. A horror short story by Ambrose Bierce in 1893, \"The Damned Thing,\" used the concept of superior nonhuman sensory range as a twist ending, seemingly anticipating scientific discoveries to come or at least understanding the implications of the early findings well in advance of the field. This article analyzes Bierce's possible sources, with Bierce representing the general educated nonscientist and providing insights into the spread of this concept into public and scientific awareness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":51852,"journal":{"name":"History of Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"History of Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1037/hop0000230","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
When the Galton whistle was introduced in the 1870s, it was the first demonstration many had encountered of the phenomenon that nonhumans sometimes exceed humans in sensory range, for example perceiving ultraviolet light and ultrasonic signals. While some empirical research had explored this possibility beforehand, this area of perceptual research progressed slowly. A horror short story by Ambrose Bierce in 1893, "The Damned Thing," used the concept of superior nonhuman sensory range as a twist ending, seemingly anticipating scientific discoveries to come or at least understanding the implications of the early findings well in advance of the field. This article analyzes Bierce's possible sources, with Bierce representing the general educated nonscientist and providing insights into the spread of this concept into public and scientific awareness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
期刊介绍：
History of Psychology features refereed articles addressing all aspects of psychology"s past and of its interrelationship with the many contexts within which it has emerged and has been practiced. It also publishes scholarly work in closely related areas, such as historical psychology (the history of consciousness and behavior), psychohistory, theory in psychology as it pertains to history, historiography, biography and autobiography, and the teaching of the history of psychology.
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