CLASSIC THEORIES

The Beginning of Experimental Psychology

HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ (1821– 1894)

 Physics, Physiology and Psychology

 His work along with Fechner and Wundt - instrumental
in beginning the new psychology
 Emphasized a mechanistic and deterministic approach
 Human being like a machine
 He liked technical analogies – such as comparing the
transmission of nerve impulses to the operation of
telegraph
NERVE IMPULSE

 Earlier assumption: nerve impulse was instantaneous; traveled too

fast to be measured
 First empirical measurement of the rate of conduction by stimulating
a motor nerve and the attached muscle in the leg of a frog
 Arranged a demonstration so that the precise moment of stimulation
and of the resulting movement could be recorded
 Nerves of different length, he recorded the delay between
stimulation of the nerve near the muscle and the muscle’s response,
and did the same for stimulation farther from the muscle
 These measurements yielded the conduction speed of the neural
impulse: 90 feet per second.
 He also experimented on the reaction times for sensory nerves
in human subjects
 Studied the complete circuit : from stimulation of a sense
organ to the resulting motor response
 The findings showed: enormous individual differences— as well
as differences for the same person from one trial to the next
 He demonstrated that the speed of conduction was not
instantaneous ; it suggested that thought and movement follow
each other at a measurable interval and do not occur
simultaneously
 He was interested in the measurement itself and not its
psychological significance
 Implications of his research for the new psychology were
recognized by others (reaction-time ; successful line of research)
 Helmholtz’s work- Earliest instances of experimentation and
measurement for a psychophysiological process.
THEORY OF VISION

 Thomas Young (1802); eye detects different colors –three types

of receptors- sensitive to single hue
 Trichromatic Theory; any color can be reproduced by mixing
various quantities of 3 colors judiciously selected from different
points along the spectrum
 Young-Helmholtz’s theory of color vision-Trichromatic or
Tristimulus
 We have different types of cones (color sensitive cells) in ultra
range of light wavelength in retina
 We can receive three types of colors (red, green & blue); and that
cones vary the ratio of neural activity
 Perception of color- is because of the joint action of the three
receptor types
 Light of the particular wavelength-different stimulation of each
receptor type - overall pattern of stimulation- rich sense of color
 Failed to explain certain aspects of color vision
 Occurrence of negative afterimages: sensation of complimentary
color that occurs after one stares at a stimulus of a given color
RESONANCE/ PLACE THEORY

 1857
 Perception of sounds depends on where each component
frequency produces vibrations along the basilar membrane
 The pitch of a musical tone - places where membrane vibrates
 The sounds of different frequencies cause different places
among the basilar membrane to vibrate
 The vibrations in turn stimulates the hair cells- the sensory
receptors for sound.
 Sound does produce pressure waves
 These wave peaks produce maximal displacement at various
distance along the Basilar membrane, depending on the
frequency of the sound
 High frequency - maximum displacement at the narrow end of
Basilar Membrane near the oval window
 Lower frequencies - maximal displacement toward the wider,
farther end of the basilar membrane
 Unable to explain our ability to discriminate among very low frequency sounds
 Unable to explain the difference of frequencies by as little as 1 or 2 Hz . Basilar
displacement is nearly identical
ERNST WEBER (1795–1878)

 Ernst Weber, born in Wittenberg, Germany

 He earned his doctorate at the University of Leipzig in 1815
 His primary research interest was the physiology of the sense
organs, an area in which he made outstanding contributions.
 Applied physiology’s experimental methods to problems of a
psychological nature.
 Previous research-sense organs-Vision and hearing
 New fields, notably cutaneous (skin) senses and muscular
sensations
TWO-POINT THRESHOLD

 A significant contribution to the new psychology - Weber’ s

experimental determination of the accuracy of the two-point
discrimination of the skin— that is, the distance between two
points that must be spanned before subjects report feeling two
distinct sensations
 The smallest separation at which two points applied
simultaneously to the skin can be distinguished from one
 Without looking at the apparatus, which resembles a drawing compass,
subjects are asked to report whether they feel one or two points
touching the skin.
 When the two points of stimulation are close together, subjects report a
sensation of being touched at only one point.
 As the distance between the two sources of stimulation is increased,
subjects report uncertainty about whether they feel one or two
sensations.
 A distance is reached where subjects report two distinct points of touch.
 The point at which the two separate sources of stimulation can be
distinguished – two-point threshold
 The first systematic, experimental demonstration of the concept of
threshold (the point at which a psychological effect begins to be
produced), an idea widely used in psychology from its beginnings to the
present day
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l7KbtRwvBk

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqgL3DIMulc
JUST NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCE

 Psychology’s first quantitative law

 The smallest difference between weights that could be detected
 He asked his subjects to lift two weights—a standard weight and
a comparison weight—and to report whether one felt heavier
than the other
 Small differences - judgments of sameness
 Large differences - judgments of disparity between the weights
 The just noticeable difference between two weights was a constant ratio,
1:40, of the standard weight.
 41 grams - 40 grams, 82-gram - 80 grams
 Weber then asked how muscle sensations might contribute to a person’s
ability to distinguish between the weights
 Accurate discrimination- when subjects lifted the weights themselves (by
receiving muscular sensations in hands and arms) than placing the
weights in their hands.
 Hefting the weights - tactile (touch) and muscular sensations, whereas
when the weights were placed in the palms, only tactile sensations were
experienced.
 Difference between lifting and placing weights - a ratio of 1:40 and a ratio of
1:30;
 Conclusion - internal muscular sensations have an influence on the subjects’
ability to discriminate
 Thus, he suggested that discrimination among sensations depended on their
relative difference or ratio
 Visual discrimination - the ratio was smaller than for the muscle sense
experiments
 He proposed a constant ratio for the just noticeable difference between two
stimuli that would be consistent for each of the human senses.
 No direct correspondence between a physical stimulus and our perception of it
 Weber was interested only in the physiological processes and did not appreciate the
significance of his work for psychology.
 A method for investigating the relationship between body and mind—between the
stimulus and the resulting sensation
 His experiments stimulated additional research and focused the attention of later
physiologists on the usefulness of the experimental method for studying
psychological phenomena
 Weber’s research on thresholds and the measurement of sensations was of
paramount importance to the new psychology and has influenced virtually every
aspect of psychology to the present day
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_nY1TM2RZM
GUSTAV THEODOR FECHNER (1801–1887)

 Gustav Theodor Fechner was a scholar who followed diverse

intellectual pursuits during a remarkably active life
 Physiologist for 7 years
 Physicist for 15
 Psychophysicist for 14
 Experimental estheticist for 11
 Philosopher for 40
 Invalid for 12
MIND AND BODY; QUANTITATIVE RELATIONSHIP

 October 22, 1850-While lying in bed that morning, Fechner had a

flash of insight about the connection between mind and body
 Mind and body - A quantitative relationship between a mental
sensation and a material stimulus
 An increase in the intensity of a stimulus does not produce a
one-to-one increase in the intensity of the sensation
 A geometric series characterizes the stimulus and an arithmetic
series characterizes the sensation
 The effects of stimulus intensities are not absolute but are
relative to the amount of sensation that already exists
 The amount of sensation (the mental quality) depends on the amount of
stimulation (the physical quality)
 To measure the change in sensation we must measure the change in
stimulation.
 Thus, it is possible to formulate a quantitative or numerical relationship
between the mental and material worlds.
 Fechner, crossed the barrier between body and mind by relating one to the
other empirically-making it possible to conduct experiment on the mind.
 The question was how to measure precisely both the subjective (mental
sensation) and the objective (the physical stimulus)?
WAYS TO MEASURE SENSATION

 First: a stimulus is present or absent, sensed or not sensed

 Second: the stimulus intensity at which subjects report that the
sensation first occurs; absolute threshold of sensitivity—a
point of intensity below which no sensation is reported and
above which subjects do experience a sensation
 The idea of absolute threshold is useful but its usefulness is
limited because only one value of sensation-its lowest level can
be determined.
 To relate both intensities, we must specify full range of stimulus values and
their resulting sensation values.
 Differential threshold of sensitivity: the least amount of change in a
stimulus that gives rise to a change in sensation.
 For each of the human senses there is a certain relative increase in stimulus
intensity that always produces an observable change in the intensity of the
sensation
 Measure the discrimination ability
 Measure the differential threshold
 The sensation (the mind or mental quality) as well as the stimulus (the body
or material quality) can be measured
 Equation: S = K log R
 S = magnitude of the sensation
 K = constant
 R= magnitude of the stimulus.
 The relationship is logarithmic; one series increases arithmetically and the
other geometrically
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVhiezByMSU
METHODS OF PSYCHOPHYSICS

 The immediate result of Fechner’s insight was his research on

psychophysics: the relationship between the mental [psycho-]
and material [physics] worlds.
 Experiments on lifted weights, visual brightness, visual distance,
and tactile distance; developed fundamental methods used in
psychophysics research today
 METHOD OF AVERAGE ERROR OR
METHOD OF ADJUSTMENT
 Having subjects adjust a variable stimulus until they perceive it to be
equal to a constant standard stimulus.
 Over a number of trials, the mean, or average, value of the differences
between the standard stimulus and the subjects’ setting of the variable
stimulus represents the error of observation.
 This technique is useful for measuring reaction times as well as visual
and auditory discriminations. In a larger sense, it is basic to much
psychological research
 Every time we calculate a mean we are essentially using the method of
average error.
METHOD OF CONSTANT STIMULI

 The method of constant stimuli involves two constant

stimuli, and the aim is to measure the stimulus
difference required to produce a given proportion of
correct judgments
 Eg: subjects first lift a standard weight of 100 grams and
then lift a comparison weight of say, 88, 92, 96, 104, 108
grams. The subjects must judge whether the second
weight is heavier, lighter, or equal to the first
METHOD OF LIMITS

 In the method of limits, two stimuli (for example, two

weights) are presented to the subjects
 One stimulus is increased or decreased until subjects
report that they detect a difference.
 Data are obtained from a number of trials, and the just
noticeable differences are averaged to determine the
differential threshold.
WILHELM WUNDT (1832–1920)

 Wilhelm Wundt- a 29-year researcher in physiology and a part-

time lecturer at the University of Heidelberg

 Was trying to make his way in the world by teaching basic

laboratory techniques to undergraduate students

 In his makeshift lab at home- was attempting to conduct research

to spark the development of the new science of psychology
 Inspired by Friedrich Bessel, the German astronomer, had called the
“personal equation,” the errors of measurement among astronomers that
led to the firing of David Kinnebrook.
 Developed Gedankenmesser, meaning “thought meter” or “mind gauge,”
and he used it to measure the mental process of perceiving the two stimuli
 Conclusion: It was impossible to perceive two things at the same moment:
it took one-eighth of a second to register both stimuli sequentially
 Consciousness holds only a single thought, a single perception. When it
appears as if we have several percepts simultaneously, we are deceived by
their quick succession
THE FOUNDING FATHER OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY

 Founder of psychology as a formal academic discipline

 Established the first laboratory
 Edited the first journal
 Began experimental psychology as a science
 His investigated areas became basic chapters in textbooks
 Opposition to his view of psychology does not detract from his
stature or achievements as its founder
THE LEIPZIG YEARS

 Wundt in 1875 - professor of philosophy at the University of

Leipzig- worked prodigiously for 45 years
 Established a laboratory at Leipzig in 1881
 Started the journal Philosophical Studies, the official publication
of the new laboratory and the new science.
 In 1906 retitled his journal Psychological Studies
 Now equipped with a handbook, a laboratory, and a scholarly
journal, psychology was well under way.
 Wundt’s lab drew a large number of students to Leipzig to work
with him
 Became pioneers, spreading their versions of psychology
 Expansion in US, Italy, Russia, Japan
 Leipzig laboratory influenced the development of modern
psychology, serving as the model for new laboratories and
continuing research
CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE
 Relied on the experimental methods- natural sciences (physiologists) and applied
them in psychology
 Subject matter - consciousness
 Consciousness included many different parts and could be studied by the method
of analysis or reduction
 Did not agree- idea that the elements of consciousness were static (atoms of the
mind), which were passively connected by some mechanical process of association.
 Believed- consciousness was active in organizing its own content
 The study of the elements, content, or structure of consciousness alone would
provide only a beginning to understanding psychological processes
 VOLUNTARISM
 Because he focused on the Mind’s self-organizing capacity, he called his system
Voluntarism
 Came from the word volition, defined as the act or power of willing
 The power of the will to organize the mind’s contents into higher level thought
processes- Voluntarism
 Did not emphasize on the elements themselves (empiricists and associationists)
 Emphasized on the process of actively organizing or synthesizing those elements
 The conscious mind has the power to synthesize elements into higher-level
cognitive processes
 The elements of consciousness were basic – without them- nothing for the mind to
organize.
MEDIATE AND IMMEDIATE EXPERIENCE

 Mediate experience provides us with information or knowledge about

something other than the elements of an experience
 Based on experience-Not direct
 This is the usual form in which we use experience to acquire knowledge
about our world
 Immediate experience is unbiased or untainted by personal
interpretation-occurred in consciousness
 Based on sensation and perception
 Basic human experiences—such as the experiences of redness or of
discomfort—form the states of consciousness (the mental elements) that
the mind actively organizes.
 Wundt’s goal was to analyze the mind into its elements, its component
parts, just as the natural scientists were working to break down their subject
matter—the physical universe (Periodic table)
 Wundt may have been striving to develop a “periodic table” of the mind
 Psychologists should be concerned with the study of immediate experience
rather than mediate experience
 METHOD OF INTROSPECTION

 Psychology as the science of conscious experience

 The method of a scientific psychology must involve observations of
conscious experience
 However, only the person having such an experience can observe it
 Introspection—the examination of one’s own mental state- internal
perception- not a new idea, it could be traced to Socrates
 Wundt’s innovation was the application of precise experimental control
over the conditions under which introspection was performed
 Physics - to study light and sound
 Physiology - to research on the sense organs
 Similar to Fechner’s psychophysics research methods- when subjects compared 2
weights and reported whether one was light or heavier - introspecting
 Rules and conditions:
Observers must be able to determine when the process is to be introduced
Observers must be in a state of readiness or strained attention
It must be possible to repeat the observation several times
It must be possible to vary the experimental conditions in terms of the controlled
manipulation of the stimuli.
 The last condition - essence of the experimental method: varying the
conditions of the stimulus situation and observing the resulting changes in
the subjects’ reported experiences.
 Introspection—internal perception— the focus is within the observer: his or
her conscious experiences.
 Believed that Introspection would provide all the raw data necessary for the
problems of interest to psychology, just as external perception provided data
for sciences (astronomy and chemistry)
 In external perception, the focus of observation is outside of the observer
 PRACTICING INTERNAL PERCEPTION
 Practicing internal perception under stringent experimental conditions:
to produce accurate observations
capable of being replicated (external perception)
 Believed that training to perform internal perceptions should be rigorous. (10,000 individual
introspective observations to provide meaningful data before joining Wundt's laboratory
research)
Make observations mechanically
quickly attend to the conscious experience being observed
not need to pause—to think about or reflect on the process (and introduce personal
interpretation) but could report their conscious experiences immediately and automatically.
interval between observing and reporting the immediate experience would be minimal.
 The type of introspective report- quantitative judgments made in
psychophysical research (size, intensity, and duration of various
physical stimuli)
 Objective measurements provided by sophisticated laboratory
equipment, and many of these measurements were of reaction
times recorded quantitatively.
 Less work on subjective or qualitative nature (pleasantness of a
stimulus, the intensity of an image, or the quality of a sensation)
ELEMENTS OF CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE

 Defined the subject matter and methodology-next he outlined

his goals:
analyze conscious processes into their basic elements
discover how these elements are synthesized or organized
determine the laws of connection governing the organization
of the elements.
Sensation
 Elementary form of experience
 Aroused whenever a sense organ is stimulated and the resulting impulses reach the brain
 Sensations are classified by intensity, duration, and sense modality.
Feelings
 Elementary form of experience
 Sensations and feelings are simultaneous aspects of immediate experience
 Feelings are the subjective complements of sensations but do not arise directly from a sense
organ
 Sensations are accompanied by certain feeling qualities; when sensations combine to form a
more complex state, a feeling quality will result.
 TRIDIMENSIONAL THEORY OF FEELINGS

 Wundt’s explanation for feeling states based on three dimensions:

pleasure/displeasure
tension/relaxation,
excitement/depression.
 Experiments on metronome- a device that can be programmed to produce audible clicks at
regular intervals
 After experiencing a series of clicks, he felt that some rhythmic patterns were more
pleasant than others. Concluded, that any pattern of sound is a subjective feeling of
pleasure or displeasure.
 feeling state : located on a continuum ranging from highly agreeable to highly
disagreeable
 Noticed a second kind of feeling while listening to the metronome’s click. A slight tension
in anticipation of each successive sound, followed by relief after the awaited click had
occurred
 Feeling state: concluded that in addition to pleasure/displeasure there is a continuum of
tension/ relaxation.
 Further he felt mildly excited when he increased the Rate of clicks, and calmer, even
somewhat depressed, when he reduced the rate of clicks.
 Feeling state: continuum of excitement/ depression.
 Every elementary feeling can be defined on these dimensions
 Emotions: Compound of feelings-can be broken down into mental elements through this
 ORGANIZING THE ELEMENTS OF
CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE
 Despite his emphasis on the elements of conscious experience, he
recognized that when we look at objects in real world, our Perception
have a unity and wholeness
 Apperception. The process of organizing mental elements into a
whole is a creative synthesis - which creates new properties from the
building up or combining of the elements
 Active process
 Consciousness: the mind acts on elements (sensations and feelings) in
a creative way to make up the whole.
 HERMANN EBBINGHAUS (1850–1909)

 Wundt claimed it was impossible to conduct experiments on the

higher mental processes
 After few years a German psychologist working alone, isolated from
any academic center of psychology, began to experiment successfully
on the higher mental processes.
 First psychologist to investigate learning and memory experimentally
 Showed that Wundt was wrong on that point, but also changed the
way in which association, or learning, could be studied.
 Inspired by Fechner’s mathematical approach
 RESEARCH ON LEARNING

 Before Ebbinghaus: to study learning was to examine associations

that were already formed- how connections had been established
 He focused on initial formation of association
 Objectified the study of learning- by controlling the conditions
under which chain of ideas were formed
 Work on learning and forgetting: genius of experimental
psychology
 First time studied a truly psychological problem
 Broadened the scope of experimental psychology
 Five years of research- the only subject
 Basic measure of learning-adapted a technique from the associationists who had proposed
frequency of associations as a condition of recall.
 He reasoned that the difficulty of learning material could be measured by this frequency, by
counting the number of repetitions needed for one perfect reproduction of the material
 Measuring memory-by counting the number of trials or repetitions required to learn the
material.
 Influence of Fechner: assessed sensation indirectly by measuring the stimulus intensity
necessary to produce a just noticeable difference in sensation.
 Material to be learned: devised similar, but not identical, lists of syllables.
 He repeated the task – to get accuracy of his results
 Trial to trial and obtained an average measure
 Regulated his personal habits as well, kept them constant; followed unvarying routine,
same learning time

Nonsense Syllables
 Syllables presented in a meaningless series to study memory processes
 Alternates for everyday words: existing association could affect the learning
 NONSENSE SYLLABLES
 To control the prior association/ learning:
uniformly unassociated material
completely homogeneous, (of the same kind)
equally unfamiliar—few associations
 Typically two consonants with a vowel in between (lef, bok, or yat)
 According to the criteria-wrote all possible combinations - 2,300 syllables – from which he
drew at random the stimulus materials to be learned
 Some of the syllables were four, five, or six letters long
 Meaningless series of syllables
 Entire list of stimulus words would be meaningless—deliberately constructed to be free of
prior connections or associations.
 SEVERAL STUDIES

 Several studies using his meaningless series of syllables: determined the

influence of various experimental conditions on human learning and retention
 Difference between the speed of memorizing lists of syllables versus the
speed of memorizing material that had more apparent meaning
Memorized stanzas of Byron’s poem, “Don Juan.” Each stanza has 80
syllables- 9 readings to memorize one stanza.
Then memorized a meaningless series of 80 syllables -required nearly 80
repetitions
Meaningless or unassociated material is approximately 9 times harder to
learn than meaningful material.
 Effect of the length of the material to be learned on the number of repetitions
necessary for a perfect reproduction
Findings: longer material requires more repetitions and more time to learn
• When he increased the number of syllables to be learned, the average time to
memorize a syllable increased
Learning time per syllable as well as total learning time both increase with
longer lists of syllables
Careful control of the experimental conditions
 FORGETTING CURVE

 Other variables to influence learning and memory:

the effect of overlearning
associations within lists
reviewing material
the time elapsed between learning and recall.
 The effect of time: forgetting curve
Material is forgotten rapidly in the first few hours after learning and more
slowly thereafter
GEORGE ELIAS MULLER (1850–1934)

 Among the founders of experimental psychology

 Professor at the University of Göttingen, Germany, worked with his student
Alfons Pilzecker
 Inspired by Gustav Fechner, Wilhelm Wundt and Hermann Ebbinghaus
 Early advocate of:
 Mental function results from the action of matter
 Learning and memory should thus exhibit lawful properties 
 Learning does not induce suddenly
 Permanent memory takes time to be fixed (or consolidated); memory remains
vulnerable to disruption for a period of time after learning
 Seminal monograph “Experimentelle Beiträge zur Lehre vom Gedächtnis”
(Experimental Contributions to the Science of Memory); 1900
 300-pages; 40 experiments; carried out between 1892 and 1900
 Designed to identify the laws that govern memory formation and retrieval
METHODOLOGY

 Used lists of nonsense syllables of Ebbinghaus (1885)

 Ebbinghaus used method of complete mastery (number of trials needed to
reproduce all of the syllables in a list twice without error)
 Difference in method:
1. They trained their subjects using nonsense syllables that were presented
as paired associates
Lists were read aloud with emphasis on every odd-numbered syllable,
thus creating pairs of emphasized and non-emphasized syllables: e.g. A-
b-C-d-E-f were used for training
2. Instead of counting the number of trials necessary to reproduce the
paired associates correctly, they fixed the number of training trials
Quantified memory by determining the percentage of correctly
recalled syllables, the percentage of incorrect answers, and the
percentage of recall failures
3. They constructed a sophisticated apparatus for determining the response
latency for recall (time span between a stimulus and a response or
reaction)
THE CONSOLIDATION THEORY
 Began with a simple observation
 Volunteers occasionally reported a strong tendency for syllable pairs to come
to mind repeatedly between training sessions, despite efforts to suppress this
intrusion
 Effect was strongest immediately after training, decayed during the
subsequent minutes, and was not present after 1 day
 Concluded that these mistakes were because of perseveration of recently
learned material
 Perseveration was result of transient activity in the brain that encoded the
associative memory; functioned as a short-term form of memory
THE INTERFERENCE THEORY/ RETROACTIVE
INHIBITION
 10 experiments to test the hypothesis that perseveration reflected an
internal, physiological process that serves to strengthen associative
memories
 Perseveration is the repetition of a particular response (such as a word,
phrase or gesture) regardless of the absence of stimulus
 whether the material used to suppress perseveration had to be
similar to the learned material
 CONCLUSION

 People were less likely to recall a memory item if in the interim, the retrieval
cue that was used to test that item had become associated to another
memory
 The storage of new experiences interferes with memories encoded earlier in
time.
 Perseveration was thought to be necessary to more firmly fix a trace into
long-term storage.
 If another effortful activity intervened (such as learning a second list of
items), the perseverative process for the earlier memories was thought to
be dampened
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EBBINGHAUS’S
AND MULLER’S METHODS
Ebbinghaus Muller
 Learning without  Learning with association
association  Measurement: Ratio of
 Measurement: Complete correct and wrong answers
Mastery with failure to recall
 OSWALD KULPE (1862-1915)

 Interested in many areas including music, history, philosophy and

psychology
 5 books on philosophy
 University of Leipzig-Majoring in history
 Attended Wundt’s lecture and got interested in Psychology
 Received Doctorate in 1887 and remained his assistant for 8 years
 In 1894, moved to University of Wurzberg
 SYSTEMATIC EXPERIMENTAL INTROSPECTION
 Subjects were given problems to solve and then were asked to report on
mental processes they engaged in to solve them
 They were asked to describe type of thinking involved at different stages of
problem solving- BASICALLY, HOW THEY THOUGHT OR JUDGED.
 Report the mental experiences while waiting for the problem to be
presented, during and after as well
 Subjects could introspect reliably, but they could not say how or why they
did so. 
 His method used retrospective reports of subjects’ cognitive processes after
they had completed an experimental task – Systematic experimental
introspection
 IMAGELESS THOUGHTS

 Introspection indicated imageless thoughts

 For Kulpe, thought can occur without any sensory or imaginal content
(searching, doubting, confidence and hesitation)
 How judgments were made!
 Wundt’s elements of sensations, images and feelings are not enough to
account for judging
 Appeared to be a mental act of judging that was independent of what is
being judged- imageless thoughts
 Became Wundt’s worthy opponent
 Disagreed- thoughts are based on sensations, images, feelings
 To him, some thoughts were imageless
 Disagreed- Higher mental processes could not be studied experimentally
 Systematic Experimental Introspection - what happened in between the
presentation of a stimulus and the formation of introspectable mental
content
 MENTAL SET

 Focusing subjects on a particular problem created a determining tendency

that persisted until the problem was solved
 It was operative but subjects were unaware
 Could be induced experimentally by asking subjects to solve different
tasks or solve problems
 Instructions can direct the subject’s attention to certain stimuli and away
from others
DIFFERENCES IN INTROSPECTION
Kulpe’s Systematic
Wundt’s Introspection
Experimental Introspection
 Conscious experience as it is  Retrospective report
occurring  Dividing the experience into
 Complete experience time periods
 Opposed subjective feelings  Supported subjective feelings
of subjects  Active role of the
 Limited role of experimenter experimenter
THANK YOU