Manipulation of Projected Afterimages by Means of the Physiological Theory Imposed on the Observer

3 previous experiments have shown that Ss presented with a theory of visual afterimages (AIs) emphasizing their outside origin produce more “immature” images than Ss presented with the opposite, subject-centered type of theory. In the present experiment with 29 20-yr.-old students, one subgroup (Retinal) was told that the AI is an exclusively retinal affair, the other subgroup (CNS) that it is shaped by the same parts of CNS as control central mental functions. The results indicated that possibilities of individual expression via the AI were constricted by the retinal theory and broadened by the CNS theory. The personal experience mobilized by the CNS Ss included anxiety to some extent, but their reactions above all implied an increased sensitivity to primitive modes of experiencing which were allowed to penetrate the afterimage in the form of positive color elements.