Mental Chronometry

1879

Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920)

In the new field of Experimental Psychology, precision measurements of mental processes were extremely important. The pursuit of precision resulted in research programs typically referred to as reaction-time experiments or mental chronometry. Contributing to this was the puzzling phenomenon in astronomy that came to be called the personal equation, or the individually differing reports of observed astronomical phenomena. This led to an inquiry into the physiological and psychological differences among astronomers. In physiology, Hermann von Helmholtz showed that it was possible to measure the speed of the nervous impulse in humans (1850). This was important for psychology, as it indicated that it might be possible to measure the speed of mental acts.

The Hipp Chronoscope, developed by the clockmaker and inventor Matthias Hipp for use in military ballistics, was modified to measure the subjectively experienced difference between simultaneously presented stimuli in human reaction-time studies. Physiologist and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt used such experiments to make time a subject for scientific research. The reaction-time experiment allowed Wundt to extend his research beyond the domain of sensory physiology into a program that investigated elementary aspects of human psychological experience. As a result, he was able to obtain funds to open the first laboratory of psychological science in the world, at Germany’s University of Leipzig in 1879. Thus Wundt is usually credited with being the founder of scientific psychology.

Wundt was soon joined by other investigators who also used an array of precise measurement technologies to study basic psychological phenomena. For example, at almost the same time as Wundt opened his laboratory, Italian psychologist Gabriele Buccola began using reaction-time experiments to understand the disordered mental processes of asylum patients. The perceived ability to understand “the speed of thought” gave the new field of psychology enhanced visibility in an ever more technological world.

SEE ALSO Just-Noticeable Difference (1834), Sensory Physiology (1867), Experimental Psychology (1874)

Wundt’s control hammer, used to calibrate the Hipp Chronoscope, 1895.

Hermann von Helmholtz as a young man.