| Title |
“That Imperfect Instrument”: Galton's Whistle, Bierce's Damned Thing, and the Phenomenon of Superior Nonhuman Sensory Range
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
History of Psychology, May 2023
|
| DOI | 10.1037/hop0000230 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Gregory Burton |
| 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) 2022 APA, all rights reserved). |
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Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 December 2022.
All research outputs
#6,218,032
of 25,392,582 outputs
Outputs from History of Psychology
#65
of 302 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#105,462
of 407,379 outputs
Outputs of similar age from History of Psychology
#2
of 7 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,392,582 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 75th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 302 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.4. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its peers.
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