ere quantity of the presented material. The psychologist would
ask how the mere mass of the offering influences the attention, how
far the feeling of pleasure in the fullness, how far the aesthetic
impression of repetition, how far the associative thought of a
manifold selection, how far the mere spatial expansion, affects the
impression. In any case, as soon as it is acknowledged as desirable to
produce with certain objects the impression of the greatest possible
number, the experimental psychologist stands before the concrete
problem of how a manifoldness of things is to be distributed so that
it will not be underestimated, perhaps even overestimated as to
quantity. Again, the laboratory experiment would not proceed with real
window displays or real exhibitions, but would work out the principle
with the simplified experimental means.

An investigation in the Harvard laboratory, for instance, tested the
influence which various factors have upon the estimation of a number
of objects seen.[52] The question was how far the form or the size or
the distribution makes a group of objects appear larger or smaller.
The experiment was started by showing 20 small cards on a black
background in comparison with another group of cards the number of
which varied between 17 and 23. At first the form of these little
cards was changed: triangles, squares, and circles were tried. Or the
color was changed: light and dark, saturated and unsaturated colors
were used. Or the order was varied: sometimes the little cards lay in
regular rows, sometimes in close clusters, sometimes widely
distributed, sometimes in quite irregular fashion. Or the background
was changed, or the surrounding frame, or the time of exposure, and so
on. Each time the subjects had to estimate whether the second group
was the larger or equal or the smaller. These experiments indicated
that such comparative estimation was indeed influenced by every one of
the factors mentioned. If the experiments show that an irregular
distribution makes the number appear larger or a close clustering
reduces the apparent number, and so on, the business man would be
quite able to profit from such knowledge. The jeweler who shows his
rings and watches in his window wishes to produce with his small stock
the impression of an ample supply. He lacks the psychology which might
teach him whether he would act more wisely in having the rings and the
watches separated, or whether he should mix the