Pelman Sense Exercises

Some Home Experiments

(You are not expected to work the experiments, mentioned in the next paragraph. They are offered as interesting side lights on the subject.)

The influence which one sense exerts upon another is illustrated by the fact that it is almost impossible to distinguish between port and sherry in the dark, or with one’s eyes shut. You may verify this experiment for yourself. Also if beef and mutton be cut in very thin slices, and eaten in the dark, most people cannot discover any difference. You may even find it difficult to distinguish between a thin slice of pork and that of the breast of a turkey.

Similarly coffee in a glass does not taste the same as in a cup. Most people would not drink wine out of a tumbler for they would feel it tasted differently from its familiar flavor in a glass. Here it is a combination of sight, touch, and taste which produces the effect. Similarly beer is most likable in a metallic mug; though in this case perhaps there is an electro-chemical effect produced by contact between this liquid and the metal.

Seeing and Not Seeing

The exercises up to the present have had the object of training the perceptive powers in a general sense with a view to the acquisition of accuracy and speed. Of course the notion of comprehensive vision, seeing and hearing all that is worthwhile, has not been forgotten, but emphasis has been laid on the difference between mere seeing and real observing. A professor once undertook to show his pupils the difference between these two visual acts. Taking a graduated glass he filled it with a certain liquid. He then inserted a finger in the liquid, and afterwards was observed to put a finger in his mouth.

The pupils were requested to file past the table, accurately to repeat his action, and return to their seats. They did so; each man receiving from his finger, in restrained silence, a horrible dose of asafoetida, which he was careful to see his successor should not miss.

When the class had all resumed their seats with pallid faces and sinking stomachs, the professor after scanning them sadly for a moment, remarked, with a weary smile: “Gentlemen, Gentlemen, you did not observe that the finger I put in the graduated glass was not the finger I put in my mouth.” Real observing has another meaning, namely interpretation. We must understand what we see and hear.

Take the question of character. What qualities strike you when you meet an individual? To know him externally by seeing him is one thing; it is another to divine some of the elements that make up his personality. Does he suggest egotism or altruism? Is he refined or vulgar? Is he shy and reserved by temperament or does he pose? Would you trust him? If he is careless in dress is it indicative of greater attention to matters of thought?

We shall now introduce some more advanced exercises, quite as interesting and profitable as those which have already been given.

A General Test

The ideal of efficient sense perception is not merely to perceive completely under test, or special conditions, but to do so under normal conditions. For this your senses must be in a state of perpetual efficiency, so that you are always observing well. There are two ways of finding this out.

One is with old objects and the other is with new ones. Very few men can describe the pattern of the paper on the walls of the rooms in which they live or work. Very few women indeed could match the pattern of the dinner set they place upon the table every day. They might recall the color or some vague idea that there were flowers in it. They see the general effect, but not the details. Their senses are not highly efficient.

With reference to new subjects: let us suppose you had an interview with Mr. Lee, of the Cape Linen Co., yesterday. Can you remember the details of his face, the color of his eyes, the cut of his clothes, the tone of his voice, the table, the room, or many other of the thousand and one things which your senses sensed You can remember very few; again because your senses are not efficient,

Study Details

Think of three objects which you see daily; your breakfast table, the face of a friend, a certain stationer’s shop or a building; anything indeed that makes an appeal to you. During the next three days inspect the selected objects closely, and in the evening try to visualize each object with as much detail as possible. Then select some object connected with your calling; and when you feel you know it in this intimate manner, add other objects and treat them in the same way. The value of all this is twofold. You will, in time, accumulate an enormous treasury of observational material; and your senses will reach, eventually, a very high state of efficiency.

Analysis in Business

This method of close analysis is of high commercial importance. We have known of cases where minute investigation of a commodity supposed to be perfect has revealed defects, which, when remedied, greatly increased the utility of the article, and naturally increased its selling price.

You are now in a position to choose some small object for close analysis, preferably an object that is of importance to you in some way. A piece of superfine paper, a pen, a lock, anything will do that possesses detail. As you make your discoveries one by one, write them down on a slip of paper. In reporting on the exercise you should state the object selected, the length of time spent in analysis, and the number of new discoveries you made. A “discovery” is, of course, something you did not know before. The exercise should be practiced until the habit of analysis has been developed.

As an illustration of the possible commercial value of close observation, we give the following simple account of the way in which some improvements were effected in a lead test tube. The narrative is an indication of the great possibilities arising out of the attention of a trained mind, when focussed on an imperfect object – and many scores of articles in the commercial world are seriously imperfect.

A Doctor’s Training

Below we give an example of the way in which a Pelman-trained doctor adapted the principles of perception to his own professional needs.

1. Examine the Tongue. A brief observation should enable one to note: (a) the shape and color, and whether the surface is dry or moist,

(b) whether it is protruded in a straight line,

(d) whether or not the tongue is tremulous.

II. The artist, and the student of Medicine, will find it useful to observe any anatomical peculiarities. For example, the shape of the head and face offers much scope for observation

(a) is there any want of symmetry in the head?

(b) are the two sides of the face alike?

(e) what is the facial angle? (The angle formed by a line drawn downward from the forehead to the nostrils and another drawn horizontally from the nostrils to the ear. The ideal Greek facial angle is a right angle.)

(d) are there any peculiarities in the shape of the ear, or in the manner in which it is united to the head?

III. On a patient being announced, glance at him and state:

(a) the build; spare, medium or full habit;

(b) observe his manner of walking; does he walk straight, or does he tend to deviate? If his gait is abnormal, would you classify it as:

spastic (spasmodic)?

ataxic (disorderly)?

or reeling?

An acute observer will be able to write fully on all these points after a momentary glance.

IV. On shaking hands, a careful observer should note instantly:

(a) the strength of the grip,

(b) any clamminess or heat,

(d) shape, stunted, spade-like, joints large, enlargement of the finger ends?

V. His manner of speech. Is it:

(a) scanning, ‘

(b) lolling,

(d) syllable-stumbling?

VI. The eye. A glance should suffice to determine:

(a) whether the pupils are equal or not,

(b) the condition of the Sclerotic (the “white”),

VII. The face:

(a) is the skin dry or smooth,

(b) undue pallor or redness,

(d) when he smiles is there any sign of paralysis?

Ear Training

(a) The human voice offers an unusual opportunity for training the, sense of sound by providing a great number of inflections, tones, half-tones, all of them indicative of change in feeling and thought on the part of the speaker. To study the voice in relation to character is therefore a fine exercise in both hearing and judgment.

Why are some voices so disturbing and others so restful?

Why are some so irritatingly monotonous

How would you classify voices?

Such questions, which you can ask yourself as you listen, may take you a considerable distance in the science and art of reading character. Unfortunately there is no book on the subject, but this fact allows greater scope for originality.

(b) 1. Ask a friend to give you verbally the telephone numbers of three people known to him; then try to repeat the three (1) immediately after hearing them; (2) five minutes after hearing them.

Exercise

For this exercise it is necessary that you should select a street which you know very well indeed – or a section of a street if the one chosen be a very long one. Write down the following from memory:

(a) How many drug stores there are in it?

(b) How many saloons on the corners?

(e) How many shoe stores?

The object of the exercise is to test your unconscious observation.