Dalla «Tavola d’inquadramento degli effetti di campo» alla chiarificazione dei fenomeni da privazione sensoriale. Ricerche di base e applicazioni educative

Abstract

From the «Table to Frame and Foresee the Field Effects» to the Clarification of Sensory Deprivation Phenomena. Basic Research and Educational Applications

The phases leading to the construction of the «Table to frame and foresee field effects» (Bonaiuto, 1965) are outlined by firstly focusing on the main phenomenal qualities (colour, size, shape, position, texture, speed, etc.); the opposite phenomena of «assimilation» and «contrast», and the temporal relations between «inducer» and «induced», for which the effects are disthinguished as «proactive» or after-effects, «synactive» or simultaneous effects and «retroactive» or precessive effects. The structural condition favourable to assimilation turns out to be the unitariness of structure, while contrast appears favoured by the counterpositioning of the parts (multiplicity, duality). Examination of the existing literature led to ascertaining various effects and authors, with relative dates, corresponding to the various boxes of the «table». Furthemore, new effects have been envisaged such as the retroactive ones of colour, for both assimilation and contrast. This organised body of knowledge formed the basis for clarifying the conditions that can modify the field effects during short-term sensory (or sensory-motor) deprivation. These conditions have been reinterpreted as homogeneity saturation, which can drive the subject towards the opposite effect, i.e. structural heterogeneity. This was the cause of the series of main consequences found in the experiments, with the shift from structural unitariness to multiplicity; and thus with the reduction of perceptual constancies, illusions, after-effects, masking phenomena; and with the refinement of perceptual thresholds. The author also reports on the technique and effects of heterogeneity saturation and on the psychological applications on the psychology of motivations as well as on environmental design and psycho-pedagogy.