THE CONCEPT OF THE ‘RADIUS OF ACTION’ IN THE CAUSAL IMPRESSION

In Michotte's experiments, in which a phenomenal object A appears to strike a phenomenal object B, launching B into motion, there is a certain distance outside which the movement of B becomes phenomenally autonomous. The distance within which B appears to move under the influence of A is referred to as the ‘radius of action’ (r.a.) of A upon B. Michotte originally suggested that the r.a. was a complex function of the speed of B, but Yela's experimental work seemed to show that r.a. is a spatial translation of a temporal constant, i.e. that the length of r.a. bears a relation of simple proportionality to the speed of B. Experiments by the present author failed to confirm Yela's findings, but seemed rather to confirm Michotte's original suggestion. Possible explanations of the differences between Yela's findings and the present results are suggested.