Chapter 5 - The establishment of experimental psychology

Question 1

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 1

German physiologist who was very influential in the development of experimental psychology and became Helmholtz assistant
- believed different thinking tasks could be measured using reaction time

Question 2

mental chronometry

Answer 2

measuring the rate of information processing and making inferences about the basic elements of consciousness

Question 3

Völkerpsychologie

Answer 3

a non-experimental branch of psychology developed by Wundt that uses comparative and historical methods
- Wundt used products of human nature: mythology, religion, language, and introspection to understand völkerpsychologie

Question 4

subtractive method

Answer 4

measures and compares reaction times to isolate and estimate specific mental processes in cognitive tasks
- the average reation time of an easy task, then subtracted from the reaction time of a discriminatory task
- developed by Donders but mostly researched by James McKeen Cattell

Question 5

motor time

Answer 5

the extra time required because motor/difficult things are asked of someone (argued by Cattell)

Question 6

will time

Answer 6

the extra time required because an extra mental process is present (argued by Wundt)

Question 7

associations

Answer 7

measuring the difference in brain speed or in thinking between people (studied by Cattell)

Question 8

creative synthesis (psychological causality)

Answer 8

combining elements of consciousness in ways one has never experienced before
- psychic causation: the psyche itself is the cause of your reaction

Question 9

physical causality

Answer 9

the more often one is exposed to a certain situation, the quicker the person can react to it

Question 10

voluntaristic psychology

Answer 10

apperception with its creative synthesis and introspection

Question 11

Edward Titchener

Answer 11

one of Wundt’s students who disagreed with his coception of psychology
- proponent of structuralism
- one of the first scientists t believe that women were scientifically as intelligent as men

Question 12

structuralism

Answer 12

psychology in which introspection is used to discover the structure of phenomena before looking at their function

Question 13

stimulus error

Answer 13

the layer of extra interpretation to what one says they feel, when using introspection
- not observing their own behavior but interpreting it

Question 14

Osward Külpe

Answer 14

disagreed with Wundt’s subtractive method
- believed it would not measure ‘higher’ mental processes, but rather make people think differently through suggestions

Question 15

imageless thoughts

Answer 15

assume certain transitory states that are not definable in terms of specifically identifiable sensations or feelings
- according to Wundt, this was not possible

Question 16

direct association tasks

Answer 16

participants are asked to provide immediate associations to a given stimulus without engaging in reflective or elaborative thinking
- used by Külpe to study reaction times

Question 17

apperceptual tasks

Answer 17

a task that involves the integration of new sensroy information with existing cognitive structures and experiences
- emphasizes the role of higher mental processes
- used by Wundt

Question 18

Hermann Ebbibghaus

Answer 18

studied the human memory by studying how long it took people to remember something
- experiments consisted of nonsense syllables