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M.A.(Psy) EXPERIMENTALPSYCHOLOGY

EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

Course Code: MAP 602

Semester: First

SLM Unit : 1-2

E-Lesson 1

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OBJECTIVES INTRODUCTION 3

After studying this unit, you will be able to: Explain the basic concepts Experimental psychology examines relationships between human behavior and Discuss the design of experimental methods the mind.

Elaborate the viewpoints of psychologists, Physiologists. The law states that the change in a stimulus that will be just noticeable is a constant ratio Discuss the design of experimental methods of the original stimulus.

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> Meaning and Scope of Experimental Psychology

> History of Experimental Psychology EXPERIMENTALPSYCHOLOGY

> Ernst Heinrich Weber

> Gustav Theodor Fechner

> Contribution of Wundt

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Meaning of Experimental Psychology Scope of Experimental Psychology

• Experimental psychology refers to work done • The scope of Experimental Psychology is wide by those who apply experimental methods to p ning with the invention of new tools and instru sychological study and the processes that und ments for experiments. erlie it. • Therefore, it is in the fitness of things that exp • Experimental psychologists employ human par erimental psychology constitutes compulsory p ticipants and animal subjects to study a great art of courses of psychology for the under-grad many topics, including sensation & perception, uate and post-graduate students in universities memory, cognition, learning, motivation, emoti everywhere in the world on; developmental processes, social psycholo gy, and the neural substrates of all of these.

www.cuidol.in Unit-1-2 MAP602 All right are reserved with CU-IDOL NATURE OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 6 1. Experimental psychology is important because the findings discovered by psychologists play a vital role in our understanding of the human mind and behavior.

2. Experimental psychology is the scientific and empirical approach to the study of the mind.

3. The experimental approach means that tests are administered to participants, with both control and experimental conditions.

4. Experimental psychology is concerned with testing theories of human thoughts, feelings, actions, and beyond any aspect of being human that involves the mind.

5. This ultimately meant that mental perception is responsive to the material world – the mind doesn’t passively respond to a stimulus (if that was the case, there would be a linear relationship between the intensity of a stimulus and the actual perception of it), but is dynamically responsive to it.

6. Wilhelm Wundt is often credited with being “the father of experimental psychology” and is the founding point for many aspects of it. He began the first experimental psychology lab, scientific journal, and ultimately formalized the approach as a science.

www.cuidol.in Unit-1-2 MAP602 All right are reserved with CU-IDOL HISTORY OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 7  CHARLES BELL • Charles Bell was a British physiologist, whose main contribution was research involving the nervous system. • He wrote a pamphlet summarizing his research on rabbits. • His research concluded that sensory nerves enter at the posterior (dorsal) roots of the spinal cord and motor nerves emerge from the anterior (ventral) roots of the spinal cord.

 ERNST HEINRICH WEBER • Weber was a German physician who is credited with being one of the founders of experimental psychology. • Weber's main interests were the sense of touch and kinesthesis. • His most memorable contribution to the field of experimental psychology is the suggestion that judgments of sensory differences are relative and not absolute.

 GUSTAV FECHNER: • Fechner published in 1860 what is considered to be the first work of experimental psychology, "Elemente der Psychophysik." • Some historians date the beginning of experimental psychology from the publication of "Elemente.

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PSYCHOLOGY 8

 OSWALD KÜLPE

• Oswald Külpe is the main founder of the Würzburg School in Germany. • He was a pupil of Wilhelm Wundt for about twelve years. Unlike Wundt, Külpe believed experiments were possible to test higher mental processes.

 WÜRZBURG SCHOOL

•The work of the Würzburg School was a milestone in the development of experimental psychology. •The School was founded by a group of psychologists led by Oswald Külpe, and it provided an alternative to the structuralism of Edward Titchener and Wilhelm Wundt.

 George Trumbull Ladd

•Experimental psychology was introduced into the United States by George Trumbull Ladd, who founded Yale University's psychological laboratory in 1879. In 1887

www.cuidol.in Unit-1-2 MAP602 All right are reserved with CU-IDOL UNDERSTANDING EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 9 . Experimental psychologists are interested in exploring theoretical questions, often by creating a hypothesis and then setting out to prove or disprove it through experimentation.

.They study a wide range of behavioral topics among humans and animals, including sensation, perception, attention, memory, cognition and emotion.

. In a sense, all psychologists can be considered experimental psychologists since research is the foundation of the discipline, and many psychologists split their professional focus among research, patient care, teaching or program administration.

. Experimental psychologists, however, often devote their full attention to research its design, execution, analysis and dissemination.

.Experimental psychologists use basic and applied research to explore questions about human and animal behavior.

. They often use their scientific findings to provide insights that create safer workplaces and transportation systems, improve teaching and learning methods, promote healthy child development and improve substance abuse treatment programs, to list a few examples www.cuidol.in Unit-1-2 MAP602 All right are reserved with CU-IDOL ERNST HEINRICH WEBER

10 Ernst Heinrich Weber, German anatomist and physiologist whose fundamental studies of the sense of touch introduced a concept that of the just-noticeable difference, the smallest difference perceivable between two similar stimuli that is important to psychology and sensory physiology

 Ernst Heinrich Weber was born on 24 June 1795 in Witte nberg, Saxony, Holy Roman Empire.

At a young age, Weber became interested in physics and t he sciences after being heavily influenced by Ernst Chladni, a physicist often referred to as the “father of acoustics”.

In 1811, he began medicine at the University of Wittenberg.

He devoted his life to science and research.

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Fechner was born at Groß Särchen, near Mukau, in Low er Lusatia. Fechner, along with Wilhelm Wundt and Hermann von H elmholtz, is recognized as one of the founders of modern experimental psychology His clearest contribution was the demonstration that because the mind was susceptible to measurement and mathematical treatment, psychology had the potential to become a quantified science. In 1970, the International Astronomical Union named a crater on the far side of the moon after Fechner.

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www.cuidol.in Unit-1-2 MAP602 All right are reserved with CU-IDOL GUSTAV THEODOR FECHNER 12 Fechner Day • In 1985 the International Society for Psychophysics called its annual conference Fechner Day. • The conference is now scheduled to include 22 October to allow psychophysicists to celebrate the anniversary of Fechner's waking up on that day in 1850 with a new approach into how to study the mi nd.

Family and later life Little is known of Fechner's later years, nor of the circumstances, cause, and manner of his death.

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Wundt's aim was to record thoughts and sensations, and to analyze them into their constituent elements, in much the same way as a chemist analyses chemical compounds, in order to get at the underlying structure. The school of psychology founded by Wundt is known as voluntarism, the process of organizing the mind. Wundt contributed to the development of psychology was to do his research in carefully controlled conditions, i.e. experimental methods. This encouraged other researchers such as the be haviorists to follow the same experimental approach and be more scientific.

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14  Experimental Psychology - Experimental psychology examines relationships between human behavior and the mind.

 Experimental Method Design - Lab experiments are very common in psychology.

 Design of Experiments - Sound methodology is essential to the study of complex behavioral and mental processes.

 Modern Experimental psychology - Began with the adoption of experimental methods at the en d of 19th century.

 Physical stimuli - In phyisology, a stimulas is a dectable change.

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1. You are required to prepare origin and history of Experimental Psychology. 15 ______2. You are suggested to identify the applications of Experimental Method Design. ______

3. You are suggested to list out the contributions of Ernst Heinrich Weber and their practical applications ______4. You are required to prepare the report on “Contribution of Fechner for Experimental psychology”. ______www.cuidol.in Unit-1-2 MAP602 All right are reserved with CU-IDOL SUMMARY

• Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological 16 study and the processes that underlie it. • Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in cluding sensation & perception, memory, cognition, learning, motivation, emotion; developmental processes, social psychology, and the neural substrates of all of these. • Experimental psychology was introduced into the United States by George Trumbull Ladd, who founded Yale University's psychological laboratory in 1879. In 1887, Ladd published Elements of Physiological Psychology, the first American textbook that extensively discussed experimental psychology. • Ernst Weber was a German physiologist and psychologist. He was regarded as a predecessor of experiment al psychology and one of the founders of Psychophysics, the branch of psychology that studies the relations between physical stimuli and mental states. He is known chiefly for his work on investigation of subjective sensory response (sensations) to the impact of external physical stimuli: weight, temperature, and pressure. • Galton was a child prodigy he was reading by the age of two; at age five he knew some Greek, Latin and long division, and by the age of six he had moved on to adult books, including Shakespeare for pleasure and poetry, which he quoted at length. Later in life, Galton proposed a connection between genius and insanity based on his own experience:

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17 1. Write down the topics studied in experimental psychology. (For more information see SLM) Ans: subjects to study a great many topics, including sensation & perception, memory, cognition, learning, motivation, emotion; developmental processes, social psychology, and the neural substrates of all of these.

2. Which is the first textbook published for experimental Psychology? (For more information see SLM) Ans: Elements of Physiological Psychology, the first American textbook that extensively discussed experimental psychology.

3. Who was Ernst Weber? (For more information see SLM) Ans: Ernst Weber was a German physiologist and psychologist.

4. At which age Galton moved to adult book? (For more information see SLM) Ans: By the age of six he had moved on to adult books, including Shakespeare for pleasure and poetry,

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18 1. Which of the following examines relationships between human behavior and the mind? (a) Expatriation (b) Experimental psychology (c) Cognitive conditioning (d) All the above

2 Which of the following is not the Experimental Method Design? (a) Lab Experiment (b) Field Experiment (c) Quasi-Experiment (d) Descriptive Experiment

3 Portrait of Galton by Octavius Oakley in the year………………… (a) 1840 (b) 1845 (c) 1880 (d) 1921

Answers: 1.(b) 2.(d) 3.(a)

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“References of this unit have been given at the end of the book”.

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THANK YOU

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