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Previous studies had borne witness that perception is phenomenal in character. This investigation has sought to probe the larger problem of the order and regularity of all natural events as manifested in the limited area of perception. Eighteen adult subjects participated in a series of individual experimental sittings. Picture material of varied complexity was projected tachistoscopically at exposures of 2.5 ms speed, proceeding through a graded series of focal steps from complete out-of-focus to clear in-focus. Subjects dictated into the Ediphone at each focal step a verbatim record of that perceptual experience, accumulating altogether a total of 958 protocols from which qualitative evaluations were subsequently deduced. On the basis of the analysis of the protocol records, it was found that perception is a process in time whose course spans an orderly sequence of developments and whose termination marks a formidable achievement of organization in which some parts have been elevated to dominance and others have been depressed to subordination. The acme of perception is accomplished in the interpretative stage. The out-of-focus to in-focus methodology, particularly when coupled with tachistoscopic projection, proves highly fruitful for an exploration of the perceptual process. An exposure speed of 2.5 ms is entirely adequate for perceptual purposes and is sufficient to demonstrate the fact that perception involves vastly more than vision alone. The significant findings for adult subjects justify a repetition of the entire study, appropriately modified, with juvenile subjects of a variety of age representations. At this point we take departure in full assurance that the future will not soon impoverish perception of its rich stores of experimental materials—at least, not for the student who is curious still about this most momentous of all phenomena.

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