Criteria for presentation
1. the oral presentation: quality, clarity, and accuracy
2. the effectiveness of the presentation: time
management, organization, and presentation style
3. the quality of discussion: the quality of discussion
questions, leading discussion, and responding
questions
4. the effective use of teaching technology or other
equipment.
Time arrangement

about 30 minutes
 10 minutes for presenting Hock’s study
 20 minutes for discussion

Please turn in the slides from
PowerPoint to me (a hard copy or an
electric copy).
A History of Psychology
Chapter three:
Physiological Influence on Psychology
I. The Importance of the Human
Observer

A. Measurement errors

1. Maskelyne’s assistant
(Kinnebrook): 1795

The time required for a star to
pass from one point to another
were slower than his own

Maskelyne fired Kinnebrook
I. The Importance of the Human
Observer

A. Measurement errors
 2. Bessel: 1784-1846
 the personal equation
(differences in observation
times among all observers)
 We must consider the nature of
the observer
 An issue in all the science
I. The Importance of the Human
Observer

B. Locke and Berkeley


Had discussed the subjective nature of human
perception
C. Scientists began to focus on the
psychological processed of sensing and
perceiving
II. Developments in Early
Physiology

A. 1830s physiology
 1. became experimentally oriented
 2. Johannes Muller (1801-1858)
Productive: every 7 weeks 1 paper
 advocate the use of experimental
method
 1833-1840: Handbook of the
Psychology of Mankind

II. Developments in Early
Physiology
2. Johannes Muller (1801-1858)
 The theory of specific energies of nerves
 Each sensory nerve has its own specific
energy
 consequent research
 to localize functions within the nervous
system
 to pinpoint sensory receptor mechanisms
II. Developments in Early
Physiology
II. Developments in Early
Physiology

Techniques for study the brain

1. Extirpation


2. Clinical method


A technique for determining the function of a given part of an
animal’s brain by removing or destroying the resulting behavior
change. (Hall and Flourens)
examination of brain structures to detect damaged areas assumed
to be responsible for behavioral conditions that existed while the
patient was still alive. (Broca)
3. Electrical Stimulation

exploring the cerebral cortex with weak electric current to observe
motor responses (Fritsch and Hitzig)
II. Developments in Early
Physiology

B. Research on brain function

1. Marshall Hall (1790-1857)

Scottish physician

Observed movement of
decapitated animals (Extirpation)


Concluded different levels of
movement depend on different
parts of the nervous system
II. Developments in Early
Physiology

B. Research on brain function

2. Pierre Flourens (1794-1867)

professor of natural history in Paris

used extirpation
II. Developments in Early
Physiology

B. Research on brain function

3. Paul Broca (1824-1880)


1861: the clinical method
Broca’s area: speech center
II. Developments in Early
Physiology

B. Research on brain
function

4. Gustav Fritsch and
Eduard Hitzig


Gustav Fritsch
1870: electrical
stimulation method
stimulation of certain
cortical areas results in
motor responses
Eduard Hitzig
II. Developments in Early
Physiology

C. Research on Brain Functions:
Mapping from the outside

1. Franz Josef Gall (1758-1828)




Interested in: the outside of brain
Larger brainsmore intelligent?
Failed in his attempt to map the brain
from outside
But, it made possible to localize specific
brain functions
II. Developments in Early
Physiology

D. Research on the nervous system

1. Luigi Gaivani (1737-1798)
 Suggested nature of nerve impulse
is electrical.

2. accepted electrical nature of nerve
impulse as fact

3. viewed central nervous system is a
switching station
III. The Beginnings of
Experimental Psychology

A. Four German physiologists directly
responsible for initial application of
experimentation to mind




Hermann Helmholtz
Ernst Weber
Gustav Fechner
Wilhelm Wundt
III. The Beginnings of
Experimental Psychology

Why Germany?

1. German intellectual history

experimental physiology established

experimental physiology recognized to a
unique degree

the German temperament

adoption of the inductive method

ready acceptance of biology as a science
III. The Beginnings of
Experimental Psychology

Why Germany?

2. broad definition of science

3. greater opportunities to learn and practice the
new techniques

4. a great many universities and the most advanced
scientific laboratory equipment
III. The Beginnings of
Experimental Psychology

Why Germany?

5. one could earn a living as a research scientist

6. German educational reform



principles of academic freedom in research and teaching
encouraged growth of universities and faculty positions
7. Results
 series of discoveries in the science
 German professors ruled science in Europe
IV. Hermann Helmholtz (1821-1894)

A. Helmholtz’s life



1. born in Potdam, Germany
2. 1838: enrolled at a Berlin
medical institute
3. seven years as army
surgeon


continued to study mathematics
and physics
published articles
IV. Hermann Helmholtz (1821-1894)


4. faculty member in several universities
5. areas of contribution: physics, physiology, and
psychology

invented the ophthalmoscope

wrote on a diversity of topics

indirectly contributed to inventions of the wireless
telegraph and radio
IV. Hermann Helmholtz (1821-1894)

B. The contributions of Helmholtz: the
neural, vision, and audition

1. first empirical measurement of the rate of
conduction of the neural impulse (90
feet/second)

2. reaction times for sensory nerves in
humans
IV. Hermann Helmholtz (1821-1894)

B. The contributions of Helmholtz: the neural,
vision, and audition

3. revised and extended a theory of color vision

4. research on audition

5. his study of the senses strengthened the
experimental approach to the study of
psychological problems
V. Ernst Weber (1795-1878)

A. his life

1. born in Wittenberg,
Germany

2. 1815: PhD at
University of Leipzig

3. 1817-1871: taught
anatomy and psychology
at Leipzig
V. Ernst Weber (1795-1878)

A. his life

4. primary research interest: higher senses of
vision and hearing

5. explored new fields: skin senses and
muscular sensations

6. of special importance: the application of
experimental methods of physiology to
problems of psychology
V. Ernst Weber (1795-1878)

B. Two-point thresholds

1. The threshold at which two points of
stimulation can be distinguished as such

2. first systematic experimental
demonstration of the concept of threshold
V. Ernst Weber (1795-1878)

C. Just noticeable differences

1. just noticeable difference concept
 The smallest difference that can be detected between
two physical stimuli

2. contribution of muscle sensations to ability to
distinguish between weights

3. discrimination depends on the relative difference
between and not on the absolute weights of objects
V. Ernst Weber (1795-1878)

4. perception of a stimulus is not directly
correlated to the physical stimulus

5. revealed a way to investigate the mindbody relationship

6. demonstrated the usefulness of
experimental methods as a means of
studying psychological phenomena
VI. Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)

A. his life

1. born in southeastern
Germany

2. 1817: began medical
studies at University of
Leipzig

3. attended Weber’s lectures
on physiology
VI. Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)

A. his life

4. 1833: appointed professor

5. several years of depression, followed by
delusions of grandeur


developed the idea of the pleasure principle
6. remained at Leipzig, with at least one
scholarly work each year, until his death
VI. Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)

B. Mind and body: A quantitative relationship
 1. 1850: insight about the law governing
the mind-body connection

a quantitative relationship between a mental
sensation and material stimulus

effects of stimulus intensities are relatives to
the amount of sensation that already exists
VI. Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)

B. Mind and body: A quantitative relationship

2. Fechner proposed two ways to measure sensation


A: a stimulus is present or absent, sensed or not sensed
B: measure the stimulus intensity at which subjects reported
that the sensation first occurs.


the absolute threshold: the point of intensity below which no
sensation is reported and above which subjects do experience a
sensation
3. differential threshold of sensitivity: The point of
sensitivity at which the least amount of change in a
stimulus gives rise to a change in sensation.
VI. Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)

B. Mind and body: A quantitative relationship


4. the number of just notice difference
(jnd) can be used as an objective measure
of the subjective magnitude of sensation
C. 1860: Elements of Psychophysics
 outstanding original contribution to the
development of psychology as a science
VI. Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)

D. In brief, Fechner

1. provided the prerequisites for a science

2. precise and elegant techniques of
measurement

3. provoked Wundt’s plan for an
experimental psychology
VII. The Formal Founding of
Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)




1. started the first laboratory and first journal
in experimental psychology
2. viewed Fechner’s work as the first in
experimental psychology
3. announced his goal to establish a new
discipline
4. Fechner was the originator; Wundt was the
agent and promoter