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Academic Family Tree

With thanks to Lewis O. Harvey, Jr., Professor of
Psychology, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Note: The "marriage" date (m.) below refers to the date the degree was conferred.
©Lewis O. Harvey, Jr.
TREE
EXPERIMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY
SECTION

RESEARCH INTERESTS

ACADEMIC FAMILY TREE

INFANT VISION SLIDESHOW

INDIVIDUAL
DIFFERENCES
AND
COVARIANCE
CHANNELS


VISION
AND THE
CEREBRAL
HEMISPHERES


Herbart1 Herbart2

Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841)
Herbart, in Königsberg and Göttingen, Germany, sought to develop the mathematical and empirical, as well as the metaphysical, aspects of psychology. Although he was not an experimentalist, he generated concepts necessary for the first measurement of sensory threshold. He was the first (I believe) to discuss subliminal (below threshold, unconscious) as well as liminal (above threshold, conscious) perception.

Weber1 Weber2

Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1878)
Weber, in Leipzig, Germany, discovered a method for measuring the existence of internal, mental events, and discovered scientific psychology's first empirical constant. He created the concept of a just noticeable difference (jnd), suggesting that the awareness of a difference in sensation measured the existence of a difference in sensation. Weber reported that the increase in a stimulus needed to produce a just-noticeable difference is constant: dR = C*R. Weber also formulated the theory of signs (Lokalzeichentheorie).

Fechner1 Fechnerr2

Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887) In 1860, Fechner (also in Leipzig, Germany) published his book Elements of Psychophysics. Fechner described a set of methods for studying and quantifying the relationship between sensory stimuli and perceptual experiences. The realization that the relationships between stimulus events and mental events might be reducible to simple laws apparently occurred to Fechner while lying in bed on the morning of October 22nd, 1850. This early work on the relationship between sensation and perception and the accuracy of the perceptual representations of sensory stimuli made up a substantial portion of the bedrock of early experimental psychology. Now, scientists celebrate Fechner Day (October 22nd) each year with scientific meetings and other events in remembrance of this contribution to our field.

"Fechner's career spanned the origins of experimental psychology. His many contributions to the founding of the field include, the development of the first theory of hypothesis testing, the first measurement of a feature of the mind, the technical foundations for descriptive statistics, and ideas about consciousness that inspired Freud. Yet for all their diversity these many original contributions to psychology follow from a fundamental belief in the unity of the physical and mental worlds. In summary, these four creations of Fechner became the foundation for a century, and more, of psychological theorizing and research. What would psychology be like without Signal Detection Theory, Psychoanalysis, Experimental Memory, Attention, and Aesthetics? These are all major fields of inquiry that profit directly from Fechner's originality, integration of mathematics and experimental design, and deep conviction that the mental and physical worlds are part of a single reality. This is a measure of genius." -- Stephen W. Link (Fechner Day 2001). Fechner's Pillars: Contributions to Hypothesis Testing, Statistics, Psychoanalysis, and Cognition. Proceedings of the 17th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Psychophysics.

Wundt 1 Wundt 2 Wundt 3

Wilhelm Max Wundt, is credited with opening the first laboratory of experimental psychology in Leipzig, Germany (1879), thus considered by many to be the founding father of modern psychology. Wundt vigorously developed psychology as an empirically based discipline. Emil Kraepelin, the great psychiatric pioneer, was a student and collaborator of Wundt; as such, early in clinical psychiatry was greatly influenced by Wundt.

Titchner 1 Titchner 2 Titchner 3

Edward Titchener was born in Chichester, England and graduated from Oxford, 1890. He studied in Leipzig (Ph.D. 1892) under Wundt (whose Principles of Physiological Psychology he translated) and in 1892 he became head of the new psychological laboratory at Cornell, where he was research professor from 1910.

Wooten Volbrecht Bashinski Werner

From left: Billy Wooten, Vicki Volbrecht, Howard Bashinski, John S. Werner.
Not Included: Curtis D. Hardyck & Mark Rosenzweig, Undergraduate Advisors, U.C.Berkeley

Peterzell in vision lab

Dave Peterzell circa 1991, University of Boulder,
Colorado, in front of apparatus for measuring
infant contrast sensitivity.


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