Chapter 9 Study Questions

Question 1

1. Describe Wilhelm Wundt’s (1832–1920) early experiment with his thought meter.

Answer 1

Wilhelm Wundt, a prominent figure in the history of psychology, conducted an early experiment with his “thought meter” in 1862, which involved studying the time it took to shift attention between stimuli. This experiment led him to believe that experimental psychology was not only feasible but also necessary to understand the central mental processes

Question 2

2. Briefly describe his work, including the nature of voluntarism

Answer 2

Wundt’s thought meter experiment highlighted the concept of selective attention and voluntary control processes these two concepts would form the basis for Wundt’s idea of Will, which was the idea that humans could direct their attention anywhere they wanted. This focus on understanding consciousness and the mental laws that governed it and focus on will lead to the first school of psychology in Wundt’s voluntarism.

Question 3

3. Summarize his contributions with respect to the goals of psychology including the nature of mediate and immediate experience

Answer 3

Wundt’s contributions to the goals of psychology included emphasizing the study of both simple and complex conscious phenomena. He believed that experimentation could be used to study basic processes, while naturalistic observation was necessary for understanding higher mental processes. Wundt distinguished between mediate and immediate experiences, highlighting the importance of studying consciousness as it occurred, without the mediation of recording devices.

Question 4

4. Summarize his contributions with respect to the role of introspection

Answer 4

Wundt employed experimental introspection, using laboratory instruments to make internal perception more precise. He emphasized the use of introspection as a technique to determine whether a person was experiencing a specific sensation or not, rather than using it in a more philosophical and less objective manner.

Question 5

5. Summarize his contributions with respect to the two elements of mental experience

Answer 5

Sensations and feelings. He believed that all sensations were accompanied by feelings and developed a tridimensional theory of feeling, categorizing feelings based on attributes such as pleasantness-unpleasantness, excitement-calm, and strain-relaxation.

Question 6

6. Summarize his contributions with respect to perception, apperception, and creative synthesis

Answer 6

Wundt proposed that perception was a passive process influenced by physical stimulation, anatomical makeup, and past experiences, whereas apperception was an active and voluntary process controlled by the individual’s will. He introduced the concept of creative synthesis, emphasizing the role of active attention in arranging and rearranging mental elements according to the individual’s will.

Question 7

7. Summarize his contributions with respect to mental chronometry (i.e., the use of reaction time as a dependent variable), including the work of Franciscus Cornelius Donders

Answer 7

Wundt employed reaction time as a dependent variable to study various mental processes. He built upon the work of Franciscus Cornelius Donders, who conducted experiments on reaction time, including simple reaction time, discrimination reaction time, and choice reaction time. However, Wundt eventually abandoned his reaction-time studies due to the complexity of the variables involved.

Question 8

8. Summarize his contributions with respect to psychological versus physical causation

Answer 8

He emphasized the qualitative difference between the two. He argued that psychological events, being influenced by the will, could not be predicted or understood in terms of physical causation. He introduced the principles of the heterogony of ends and contrasts to explain the complexity of psychological experiences.

Question 9

9. Summarize his contributions with respect to Völkerpsychologie

Answer 9

Wundt focused on the study of cultural products to deduce the nature of higher mental processes. He examined various cultural phenomena, including language, morals, art, and religion, to understand how they shaped human behavior.

Question 10

10. Describe the general problem of the misunderstanding of Wundt’s work

Answer 10

Many representations of Wundt’s theories were fictional and did not accurately reflect his true contributions to psychology. The misinterpretation of his work led to an underestimation of the rich source of ideas that Wundt had provided to the field of psychology. However, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in Wundt’s original contributions, particularly in the context of contemporary cognitive psychology.

Question 11

11. Briefly describe the life and work of Edward Bradford Titchener (1867–1927)

Answer 11

Edward Bradford Titchener (1867–1927) was a prominent figure in psychology known for his development of Structuralism

Question 12

12. Describe the following aspects of his work his behaviour toward women colleagues and students

Answer 12

Titchener had a complex relationship with women in the field. While he did admit several female students and supported their academic pursuits, he also excluded women from his own organization, the Experimentalists, until two years after his death. This exclusionary policy led to criticisms from some female psychologists, notably Christine Ladd-Franklin

Question 13

13. Describe the following aspects of his work his view of Structuralism’s goals and methods

Answer 13

Titchener viewed Structuralism’s goal as the meticulous description of the elements of immediate conscious experience. He aimed to determine the “what, how, and why” of mental life, focusing on the careful analysis of the basic mental elements

Question 14

14. Describe the following aspects of his work his use of introspection

Answer 14

Titchener’s use of introspection was more rigorous than that of his mentor Wundt. He emphasized training observers to report on the elemental aspects of their experiences, avoiding interpretations and associations. He later modified his approach to include reports of everyday experiences from untrained observers

Question 15

15. Describe the following aspects of his work mental elements

Answer 15

He identified mental elements as sensations, images, and affections. These elements were described based on attributes such as quality, intensity, duration, clearness, and extensity

Question 16

16. Describe the following aspects of his work the law of combination

Answer 16

Titchener rejected Wundt’s notions of apperception and creative synthesis in favor of traditional associationism. He postulated the law of contiguity as the basic law of association, emphasizing that mental elements combine based on their previous co-occurrences

Question 17

17. Describe the following aspects of his work the context theory of meaning

Answer 17

Titchener proposed the context theory of meaning, suggesting that meanings arise from the contextual associations of mental elements. He emphasized that the elicited images form the context that gives core experiences their meaning

Question 18

18. Describe the following aspects of his work neurological correlates of mental events

Answer 18

Titchener had a somewhat equivocal position regarding the neurological correlates of mental events. He generally adhered to a psychophysical parallelism view, but at times, he seemed to embrace Spinozian double aspectism or epiphenomenalism, considering physiological processes as providing a substrate for psychological processes

Question 19

19. Describe the following aspects of his work the decline of structuralism

Answer 19

Structuralism’s decline was attributed to several factors, including the unreliability of introspection, the exclusion of significant areas of psychological study such as abnormal behavior and personality, and a lack of interest in practical applications. These limitations led to the eventual demise of the structuralist school, paving the way for the emergence of functionalism

Question 20

20. Briefly describe the life and work of Franz Clemens Brentano (1838–1917), including his work in act psychology

Answer 20

Franz Clemens Brentano was born in 1838 in Germany. He began his career in the Catholic Church but eventually left due to philosophical disagreements and a desire to marry. He became a professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna, where he made significant contributions to psychology. Brentano’s work in act psychology emphasized the importance of mental processes and intentionality. He believed that the mind’s activities were essential to understanding psychology, and he emphasized the study of mental processes rather than their biological components. Brentano’s notion of intentionality remained central in modern cognitive science and the study of artificial intelligence.

Question 21

21. Briefly describe the life and work of Carl Stumpf (1848–1936)

Answer 21

Carl Stumpf, born in 1848 in Bavaria, Germany, was a prominent experimental psychologist and musician. He made significant contributions to acoustical perception and theoretical psychology, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between psychology and philosophy. Stumpf believed that psychology should focus on the study of meaningful mental phenomena as they occurred naturally, rather than breaking them down into elements.

Question 22

22. Carl Stumpf’s influence on Gestalt psychology

Answer 22

His work influenced the later development of Gestalt psychology, with his emphasis on the holistic study of mental events. Stumpf’s chair at the University of Berlin was eventually passed on to Wolfgang Köhler, a key figure in the Gestalt psychology movement.

Question 23

23. Who is Clever Hans and how is he related to Stumpf?

Answer 23

Clever Hans was a horse owned and trained by Wilhelm von Osten in Berlin. Hans became famous for his apparent ability to solve arithmetic problems by tapping his hoof or shaking his head in response to questions. The case of Clever Hans gained attention, leading to an investigation by a committee appointed by Stumpf. Stumpf assigned Oskar Pfungst, a graduate student, to study Hans’s performance. Pfungst discovered that Hans was picking up on subtle cues provided unconsciously by questioners, leading to the phenomenon now known as the Clever Hans effect. This case demonstrated the influence of unintentional cues on animal behavior and subsequently had implications for the study of psychological experimentation and experimenter bias.

Question 24

24. Briefly describe the life and work of Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), including his views on the appropriate methodology for psychology and his goal.

Answer 24

Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) was a prominent philosopher and psychologist born in what is now the Czech Republic. He studied under Wundt, Brentano, and Stumpf, and later became a professor at Freiburg. Husserl was known for his development of phenomenology, emphasizing the importance of understanding subjective experiences without always relating them to external objects. He advocated for a rigorous phenomenological analysis before engaging in experimental psychology, critiquing the experimentalists’ tendency to apply natural science models to the study of consciousness. Husserl sought to create a taxonomy of the mind, focusing on mental essences to comprehend how humans experience themselves and the world.

Question 25

25. Briefly describe the life and work of Oswald Külpe (1862–1915), including his concepts of imageless thought and mental sets. Describe the other findings of the Würzburg school.

Answer 25

Oswald Külpe (1862–1915) was a German philosopher and psychologist associated with the Würzburg school. Initially a student of Wundt, Külpe later diverged from Wundt’s ideas. He proposed the concept of imageless thought, suggesting that thoughts could occur without corresponding mental images. Külpe also introduced the notion of mental sets, demonstrating how instructions and past experiences could influence an individual’s cognitive processes without their conscious awareness. His systematic experimental introspection methods aimed to study higher mental processes such as thinking. The Würzburg school, led by Külpe, challenged Wundt’s ideas and promoted the study of mental sets and problem-solving processes. They emphasized the motivational properties of problem-solving and distinguished between mental contents and mental acts, contributing to the eventual development of cognitive psychology.

Question 26

26. Briefly describe the life and work of Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909), especially his methods of studying memory and the basic findings of this work.

Answer 26

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909) was a renowned German psychologist known for his pioneering work on memory. He conducted groundbreaking research using nonsense material or syllables, which allowed him to study learning as it occurred. Ebbinghaus meticulously created a pool of 2,300 such syllables, which he used to investigate the processes of learning and memory experimentally. His work led to the development of psychology’s first retention curve, illustrating the rate of forgetting over time. He also discovered the benefits of distributed practice over massed practice and explored the impact of meaningfulness on learning and memory. Ebbinghaus’ fundamental contributions to the field of psychology, especially in the area of memory, remain highly influential today.

Question 27

27. Summarize the work of Muller and his findings on memory

Answer 27

Georg Elias Müller (1850–1934) was another significant figure in psychology, known for his extensive research on memory and psychophysics. His work shed light on how individuals organize information into meaningful patterns when trying to remember, and he was the first to document the concept of retroactive inhibition, where new learning can lead to the forgetting of previously learned material. In addition to his contributions to memory research, Müller made significant advancements in the area of color vision and was known for his rigorous scientific methods and innovative laboratory equipment, such as the memory drum.

Question 28

28. Briefly describe the life and work of Hans Vaihinger (1852–1933) and his “as if” philosophy.

Answer 28

2Hans Vaihinger (1852–1933) was a philosopher known for his influential work “The Philosophy of ‘As If,’” in which he proposed the concept of “as if” philosophy. According to Vaihinger, human beings often create fictional concepts and theories to give meaning to their experiences, even if these fictions do not necessarily correspond to reality. He argued that such fictions were essential for societal living, enabling individuals to make sense of the world and engage in practical activities. Vaihinger’s approach emphasized the utility of fictional ideas, concepts, and theories in human cognition and emphasized their role in various domains, including science, mathematics, and morality.