LESSON 01

INTRODUCTION TO EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

Topic: 1-5

Topic No. 1
Introduction to the Course
The course has the following objectives;
 To familiarize course participants with the field of Experimental Psychology, Experimental
Research, and various types of Experimental designs
 To initiate an understanding of cognitive processes
 To develop an investigative and experimental approach among students

At the end of course you will be able to:

 Understand and describe important findings of experimental research
 Plan and design experiments
 Develop an interest in experiments and an experimental approach to investigation
 Learn about mental processes such as Perception, Learning, Memory, Reasoning, Problem
Solving and Language

The course content

 Definition and history of Experimental Psychology
 Research designs and their procedures
 Cognitive processes; Sensory and Perceptual Processes, Learning and Memory, Reasoning,
Decision Making, Problem Solving, Language and Motivation
 Classical as well as contemporary experiments will be discussed such as the famous
experiment of little Albert who learned to fear furry animals through classical conditioning
(Watson, 1920) and the attachment of infants experiment (Harlow, 1950)

Topic No. 2
Functions, Aims and Characteristics of Science
The goal of scientific psychology is to understand why people think and act as they do. In
contrast to nonscientists, who rely on informal and secondary sources of knowledge,
psychologists use a variety of well-developed techniques to gather information and develop
theoretical explanations? The curiosity is at the bases of this exercise. Nonscientific people also
have curiosity like children to know about the reasons for certain happenings but the difference
is that scientists use objective and empirical methods and obtain information through these
methods.

The scientific method is a valid way to acquire knowledge about the world around us. What
characteristics of the scientific approach make it a desirable way to learn about and arrive at
beliefs about the nature of things? Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to contrast
science with other modes of fixing belief, since science is only one way in which beliefs are
formed. More than one hundred years ago, the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce
(1877) compared the scientific way of knowing with three other methods of developing beliefs.
He called these the authority, tenacity, and a priori methods.

1) Authority method
According to Peirce, the simplest way of fixing belief is to take someone else’s word on faith. A
trusted authority tells you what is true and what is false. Young children believe what their
parents tell them simply because mother and father are always right. As children get older, they
may discover, unhappily, that Mom and Dad are not always correct when it comes to
astrophysics, macroeconomics, computer technology, and other specialized fields of knowledge.

Although this may cause children to doubt some of their parents’ earlier proclamations, it may
not result in utter rejection of this method of fixing belief. Instead, some other authority may be
sought. Religious beliefs are formed by the method of authority. Long after children have
rejected their parents as the source of all knowledge, particularly about religious doctrine, they
may still believe that the religious scholars are authority on matters of faith and next world.

Believing the news you see on television means that you accept CNN or some other news
network as an authority. You may believe your professors because they are authorities. Since
people lack the resources to investigate everything they learn, much knowledge and many beliefs
are fixed by the method of authority.

2) Tenacity method
Another method of fixing belief is one in which a person steadfastly refuses to alter acquired
knowledge, regardless of evidence to the contrary. The method of tenacity, as it was termed by
Peirce, is commonly seen in racial bigots who rigidly cling to a stereotype even in the presence
of a good counterexample. Although this method of maintaining a belief may not be entirely
rational, we cannot say it is completely without value. The method of tenacity allows people to
maintain a uniform and constant outlook on things, so it may relieve them from a certain amount
of stress and psychological discomfort.

3) A priori method
The third nonscientific method of fixing belief discussed by is a priori. In this context, the term a
priori refers to something that is believed without prior study or examination. Propositions that
seem reasonable are believed. This is an extension of the method of authority. However, there is
no one particular authority being followed blindly in this method. The general cultural outlook is
what seems to fix belief a priori. People once believed the world was flat, and it did seem
reasonable to suppose that the sun revolved around the earth as does the moon. Indeed, the world
does look flat if you are not in a spacecraft.

The scientific method fixes belief on the basis of experience. Science is based on the assumption
that events have causes and that we can discover those causes through controlled observation.
This belief, that observable causes determine events, is known as determinism. If we define
scientific psychology (as well as science in general) as a repeatable, self-correcting undertaking
that seeks to understand phenomena on the basis of empirical observation, then we can see
several advantages to the scientific method over the methods just outlined. Let us see what we
mean by empirical and self-correcting and examine the advantages associated with those
aspects of science.

 The first advantage of the scientific method is its emphasis on empirical observation. None
of those other methods relies on data (observations of the world) obtained by systematic
observation.
 The second advantage of science is that it offers procedures for establishing the
superiority of one belief over another. People can hold different beliefs and only way this
problem can overcome is through basing a belief in data. In principle, anyone can make an
empirical observation, which means that scientific data can be public and can be repeatedly
obtained. Through public observations, new beliefs are compared with old beliefs, and old
beliefs are discarded if they do not fit the empirical facts. This does not imply that each and
every scientist instantaneously drops outmoded beliefs in favor of new opinions. Changing
scientific beliefs is usually a slow process, but eventually incorrect ideas are weeded out.

Note: Empirical, public observations are the cornerstone of the scientific method, because they
make science a self-correcting endeavor. Science is also progressive because it builds upon
previous knowledge and takes it forward.

It is important to understand the following terms in order to understand the scientific nature of
experimental Psychology;
 Empirical: Scientific method relies on experience more than on other means of knowledge.

 Objective: A way of obtaining knowledge by means of objective observation (wholly

depend on data).

 Self-Correcting: New evidence is constantly being discovered that may contradict existing
knowledge.

 Progressive: New evidence adds to existing knowledge and takes it forward, building upon
what we already know.

 Tentative: It never claims to have the whole truth on any question as new information may
make current knowledge obsolete at any time.

 Parsimonious: one should use the simplest explanation possible to account for a given
phenomenon.

 Concerned with Theory: Its major concern is the development of a theory of how
something works.

Empirical approach
 Science uses an empirical approach. Empiricism states that the only source of knowledge
comes through our senses.
 These include sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell as well as kinetic senses.
 Cognitive psychology is study of our cognitive, processes that underlie the acquiring and
retaining of knowledge of world.
 Hence there is much overlap between Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Psychology.

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.

Experimental approach can be applied in many areas, such as child, social, positive and
educational psychology. While every branch of psychology strives to understand human
behavior and thought, experimental psychology solely focuses on controlled experiments with
designated variables, test subjects and statistical results.

Topic No. 3
Historical Background of Experimental Psychology
“Psychology has a long past, but only a short history”
Hermann Ebbinghaus

Origin of Experimental Psychology

Philosophy and Physiology

 The development of a scientific Psychology was based on Dualism theory which says that
mind and body are separate entities and operate according to different principles.
 The earlier philosopher, Descartes (1596–1650) gave idea of mutual interaction: the body
could affect the mind, and the mind could influence the body.
 Darwin’s revolutionary theory sparked interested in the relationship between biology and
psychology.
 In the early 1900’s, pioneering psychologists started using natural science to analyze and
explain the human mind. For example, E. B. Titchener coined the phrase associationism,
which referred to the idea that complex cognitive processes could be explained through
simple mental activities. This theory was central to reductionist-driven structuralists.
 It is to be noted that Psychology emerged as science taking inspiration from developments in
natural and physical sciences and served as aspiration of earliest psychologists to become a
science.
 Break from philosophy was seen as a move towards becoming scientific.
 We must remember that human mind and behavior is too complex to be studied in same way
as science studies natural phenomena. There are two problems; one is that a human mind is
studying its own mental processes; hence objectivity is not at same level as human mind
studying a lower level of matter or consciousness. Second problem is devising methods that
ensure empirical standards that science demands.
 Philosophers and other theorists have speculated about human thought processes for more
than twenty-three centuries. For example, the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 –322 BC)
examined topics such as perception, memory, and mental imagery. He also discussed how
humans acquire knowledge through experience and observation. Aristotle emphasized the
importance of empirical evidence, or scientific evidence obtained by careful observation and
 experimentation. His emphasis on empirical evidence and many of the topics he studied are
consistent with twenty-first-century cognitive psychology. In fact, Leahey (2003) suggests
that Aristotle could reasonably be called the first cognitive psychologist. However,
psychology as a discipline did not emerge until the late 1800s.
 Experimental psychology emerged as a modern academic discipline in the 19th century when
Wilhelm Wundt introduced a mathematical and experimental approach to the field. A
central researcher in the history of psychology is Wilhelm Wundt (pronounced “Voont”),
who lived in Leipzig, Germany between 1832 and 1920.
 Historians often give credit to Wundt for creating the new discipline of psychology—a
discipline that was separate from philosophy and physiology. Within several years, students
journeyed from around the world to study with Wundt, who taught about 28,000 students
during the course of his lifetime.
 Wundt proposed that psychology should study mental processes, using a technique called
introspection. Introspection, in this case, meant that carefully trained observers would
systematically analyze their own sensations and report them as objectively as possible.
Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.

Reference; Cognition by Margaret Matlin, seventh e Edition. Wiley and sons, Inc. pages 4-7.

Topic No. 4
Major contributions to early period of Experimental psychology
Other major contributions to early period of Experimental psychology are;
 Another important German psychologist, named Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909),
focused on factors that influence human memory. He used non sense syllables to study
memory processes such as recency effect.
 William James (1842–1910). James was not impressed with Wundt’s introspection
technique or Ebbinghaus’ research with nonsense syllables. Instead, James preferred to
theorize about our everyday psychological experiences. He is best known for his textbook
Principles of Psychology, published in 1890. The particular school of thought in Psychology
developed under influence of James is called Functionalism that emphasizes purpose and
function of a mental phenomenon rather than examining structures in brain.
 Gustav Fechner, 1801-1887 was a German experimental psychologist who developed the
idea of the “just noticeable difference” (JND), which is considered to be the first empirical
psychological measurement. Fechner was a student of Ernst Weber, (1795–1878), a
German physician whose work on measuring properties of physical stimuli such as light and
weight that are bases for sensory experience led to understanding of relationship between
physical stimuli and psychological experience. Taking forward Weber’s work, Fechner
initiated the study of Psychophysics in Experimental Psychology.
 Two good source books on history of Experimental Psychology are;
o A History of Modern Experimental Psychology; From James and Wundt to Cognitive
Science by George Mandler, 2007, MIT Press, Massachusetts, USA, London, England.
o A classic book; History of Experimental Psychology by Edwin G. Boring, published
1929 and 1950.

Topic No. 5
The Nature of Scientific Explanation
Science is basically a method of attaining knowledge and there are two ways to learn about
human behavior: Non-empirical Methods (Non-scientific Methods) and Empirical Methods
(Scientific Methods)
 Non empirical methods are not necessarily based on experience and can rely on authority or
intuition
 Empirical methods are based on logic and scientific investigation.

The four goals of scientific methods are;

1) Description; for example, an interesting study these days could be how people of a certain
area interact or shop when lock down is released during pandemic. Another example can be
how mothers use touch to calm down crying babies.
2) Explanation; for example, aggression is learned through modeling, an act or belief that is
reinforced it will re occur or success experiences build self-efficacy.
3) Prediction; examples of predictions in experiments; such as, those who received training
will do better in examinations. Exercise will reduce blood pressure and inducing hope will
lead to better recovery
4) Control; for example, how children are taught to share their toys or can anxiety be reduced
through technique of muscle relaxation?