Deck 6: Wundt and the Establishment of Experimental Psychology

Question 1

Which of the following was NOT proposed in the Preface of Wundt's early textbook,Contributions to the Theory of Perception,where he described the program that would occupy him for the rest of his life?

A) an experimental psychology to introspectively study the facts of consciousness
B) a psychology for studying the higher mental functions based on historical, comparative, and ethnographic analyses
C) a psychology of individual differences, applying facts of general psychology toward an understanding of single personalities
D) the systematic study of reaction times

Answer 1

a psychology of individual differences, applying facts of general psychology toward an understanding of single personalities

Question 2

As indicated by studies in Wundt's laboratory,what was the maximum number of individual units that could be apperceived at once?

A) 1
B) 2 or 3
C) 4 to 6
D) 15 to 20

Answer 2

4 to 6

Question 3

Wundtian introspective studies analyzed consciousness in terms of

A) sensations and feelings.
B) sensations and perceptions.
C) sensations and judgments.
D) feelings and judgments.

Answer 3

sensations and feelings.

Question 4

Wundtian psychology was mistakenly characterized for many years in English-speaking countries as "structuralism" for all of the reasons below EXCEPT

A) most of Wundt's original writings were never translated into English.
B) his student and translator Titchener emphasized only those aspects of his theory that were consistent with structuralism.
C) most of Wundt's students were American and they emphasized the "structural" as opposed to the "functional" aspects of his theories.
D) Wundt's works tended to be overlooked following the antagonisms of World War I.

Question 5

James McKeen Cattell is known for which of the following?

A) his invention of the "subtractive" method for reaction time research
B) his disagreement with Wundt on the matter of spirituality caused him to leave Leipzig
C) his writing of Principles of Physiological Psychology, one of the first experimental psychology textbooks
D) his invention of apparatus and techniques for measuring reaction times more accurately, and in a wider and more interesting variety of situations, than had ever been done before

Question 6

In Wundt's theory,a creative synthesis accompanies acts of

A) perception.
B) apperception.
C) unconscious inference.
D) discrimination.

Question 7

Wundt and his students found that it took a subject about one-tenth of a second longer to respond to a stimulus when concentrating attention on the expected stimulus,as opposed to when concentrating on the required response.To what process did they attribute the extra time?

A) perception
B) apperception
C) sensation
D) anticipation

Question 8

Which of the following was NOT an essential aspect of Wundt's research on mental chronometry?

A) the measurement of reaction times
B) the differentiation between perception and apperception
C) the subtractive procedure
D) the introspective analysis of memory

Question 9

One of the Wundtian mental chronometry experiments had one condition in which the subject was required to make a different response to each of two different stimuli,and another in which two stimuli were randomly presented but only one had to be responded to.The mental process presumably required for the first task,but not for the second,was

A) perception.
B) apperception.
C) cognition.
D) association.

Question 10

Wundt's "thought meter" experiment challenged which of the following?

A) the commonsense assumption that when ideas are "registered" in consciousness, they also become subject to focused attention and rational analysis in terms of underlying principles and laws
B) the commonsense assumption that when two different stimuli strike our senses at the same time, we become consciously aware of both of them at the same instant
C) the commonsense assumption that apperceived ideas may be combined and organized in many different ways
D) the commonsense assumption that response times can be used to make inferences about consciousness and other central processes

Question 11

One of the major topics covered in Wundt's Völkerpsychologie was

A) language.
B) mental chronometry.
C) the tri-dimensional theory of feeling.
D) the study of memory for nonsense syllables.

Question 12

Wundt classified feelings according to what three basic dimensions?

A) brightness-dullness, tension-relaxation, and activity-passivity
B) tension-relaxation, pleasantness-unpleasantness, and visual-auditory
C) pleasantness-unpleasantness, tension-relaxation, and activity-passivity
D) action-non-action, brightness-dullness, and pleasant-unpleasantness

Question 13

Johann Zöllner,Wundt's older colleague and one-time supporter at Leipzig,came to bitterly oppose him because of Wundt's

A) emphasis on a nonexperimental Völkerpsychologie.
B) skeptical analysis of "spiritualistic" phenomena.
C) highly restrictive introspection methods.
D) support for women in experimental psychology.

Question 14

Which were the four basic dimensions of sensations in Wundt's scheme?

A) size, clarity, interest, direction
B) height, width, depth, time
C) mode, quality, intensity, duration
D) activity, tension, agreeableness, frequency

Question 15

According to Wundt,voluntaristic psychology was

A) a nonexperimental branch of psychology that focused on the communal and cultural products of human nature.
B) a type of experimental psychology that focused first on discovering the "structure" of the mental phenomena before looking at the "function."
C) an approach to psychology that described events working at the periphery of conscious experience, events such as apperception, creative synthesis, psychic causality, and will.
D) an approach to psychology focusing on the functional and practical aspects of behavior.

Question 16

Why was Wundt's landmark book Principles of Physiological Psychology (1874)important?

A) It was the first genuine "textbook" describing under one cover several recent developments in the area of experimental psychology.
B) It focused attention on the originality and variety of Wundt's own experiments.
C) It introduced the work of early female psychologists.
D) It established the importance of unconscious motivation.

Question 17

In recent years,Wundt's theories have been newly appreciated for their relevance to which current psychological specialty?

A) psycholinguistics
B) evolutionary psychology
C) intelligence testing
D) psychophysics

Question 18

Wundt's introspective techniques required his subjects to

A) restrict their introspecting to relatively simple and immediately recallable stimulus situations.
B) be especially attentive to their emotional life.
C) concentrate on recalling events from childhood.
D) let their thoughts wander freely as they introspected.

Question 19

Who is often regarded as the "father" of modern academic and experimental psychology?

A) Edward Bradford Titchener
B) Wilhelm Wundt
C) Sigmund Freud
D) William James

Question 20

For Wundt,the most basic unit of thought is

A) any word which expresses a distinct concept.
B) a "general impression" that is independent of words.
C) a "train" of associated ideas.
D) an unconscious sensation.

Question 21

Which of the following is NOT true about Wundt's Völkerpsychologie?

A) It focused on the collective as opposed to the individual products of human psychology.
B) It encouraged the use of historical and comparative methods of analysis.
C) The study of language was an important aspect of it.
D) It encouraged the experimental and laboratory-based study of memory.

Question 22

Ebbinghaus's finding that memory for a learned task drops off most steeply immediately after the learning and then declines more slowly exemplifies the __________.

A) forgetting curve
B) method of savings
C) psychophysical law
D) stimulus error

Question 23

Titchener insisted that introspectors should avoid imposing "meaning" or "interpretation" on their subjects,thereby eliminating what he called

A) the reaction time.
B) apperception.
C) the stimulus error.
D) the forgetting curve.

Question 24

In Wilhelm Wundt's terminology,the occurrence of a(n)__________ was a specific instance of what he more generally called __________.

A) creative synthesis; psychic causality
B) dream; unconscious motivation
C) delayed reaction time; perceptual blocking
D) imageless thought; mental sets

Question 25

The book by Wilhelm Wundt often credited with launching experimental psychology as a separate discipline was

A) Elements of Psychophysics.
B) Principles of Physiological Psychology.
C) The Interpretation of Dreams.
D) Psychology: A Briefer Course.

Question 26

Who among the following was a doctoral student of Titchener's who conducted an important study of the sense of smell?

A) Margaret Floy Washburn
B) Eleanor Acheson McCulloch Gamble
C) Christine Ladd-Franklin
D) Mary Whiton Calkins

Question 27

Experimental psychologist Narziss Ach expanded introspective psychology by

A) asking subjects to associate to stimulus words freely rather than in a highly specific manner.
B) asking subjects to associate numbers to letters rather than associating letters to numbers.
C) asking subjects to introspect about their early childhood memories.
D) performing directed-association studies that revealed the importance of determining tendencies or mental sets.

Question 28

__________ was an accomplished American mathematician and vision researcher who challenged Titchener's policies on his invitation-only group of Experimentalists.

A) Christine Ladd-Franklin
B) Eleanor Gibson
C) Margaret Floy Washburn
D) Dorothea Jameson

Question 29

Titchener's group,known as the "Experimentalists," were notable for

A) the unique experiments they carried out at Leipzig.
B) not allowing women to join their membership.
C) carrying out experimental tests of Wundt's Völkerpsychologie.
D) creating the "new" brand of experimental psychology in the United States.

Question 30

Structuralism was an approach to experimental psychology that

A) focused on the function of the mind rather than the biology of the brain.
B) focused on what the mind is rather than what the mind is for.
C) was completely in keeping with the Wundtian framework.
D) focused solely on physiology, omitting subjective introspection.

Question 31

Which piece of experimental apparatus did James McKeen Cattell invent?

A) a clock rigged to make a sound when its pendulum reached its farthest swing
B) a lip-key used to help record reaction times for verbal responses
C) a series of embedded figures that cannot be perceived by color blind subjects
D) a "tachistoscope" that presented stimuli to subjects for just small fractions of a second

Question 32

Titchener strongly advocated an approach to psychology he called

A) functionalism.
B) introspection.
C) structuralism.
D) empiricism.

Question 33

The title (in translation)of the psychology journal founded by Wilhelm Wundt in 1881 was

A) Philosophical Studies.
B) Psychical Studies.
C) The German Journal of Experimental Psychology.
D) The Psychological Review.

Question 34

For Wundt,the most striking conclusion from his early "thought meter" experiment was that

A) both the sound and the sight of a pendulum reaching its farthest extent could be registered in his consciousness simultaneously.
B) if he concentrated on the sound he was unable to process the sight.
C) if he concentrated on the sight the sound seemed quieter.
D) separate and measurable acts of attention were required to register first the sound and then the sight of the pendulum's position.

Question 35

All of the following became famous after directly studying with Wilhelm Wundt EXCEPT

A) James McKeen Cattell.
B) Oswald Külpe.
C) Hermann Ebbinghaus.
D) Edward Titchener.

Question 36

Ebbinghaus's innovative method for studying memory experimentally made use of

A) directed association.
B) mental chronometry.
C) nonsense syllables.
D) structural introspection.

Question 37

Wundt's former student Oswald Külpe started his own laboratory,where research focused on which of the following subjects?

A) the forgetting curve and word association
B) mental chronometry and psychic causality
C) imageless thought and directed association
D) association tests and the forgetting curve

Question 38

Which of the following senses proved most difficult for Titchener and his students to study with their introspective method?

A) vision
B) audition
C) smell
D) taste

Question 39

Introspective studies showing that prior instructions can influence thought without directly entering into subjects' conscious associational processes were said to reveal

A) mental sets.
B) unconscious motivation
C) restricted association.
D) the process of apperception.

Question 40

For Wundt,the most important units of analysis in the study of language are what?

A) single words, which are constructed out of various combinations of individual sounds or phonemes
B) the simplest individual spoken sounds, or phonemes, that can be distinguished from one another by speakers of the particular language
C) sentences, each of which contains a general thought or idea, sometimes using different words to express the same idea
D) the grammatical rules that dictate how words must be put together to convey meaningful thoughts

Question 41

Match the definition with the term.
nonsense syllable

A)consonant-vowel-consonant combinations,such as taz,bok,and lef,used to study memory
B)during introspection,imposing meaning or interpretation on mental contents,rather than reducing them to their most basic elements
C)the finding that memory for a learned task first drops off steeply and then declines more slowly

Question 42

Match the definition with the term.
feelings

A)can be categorized according to dimensions of pleasantness-unpleasantness,ten-sion-relaxation,and activity-passivity
B)can be categorized according to mode,qualities,intensities,and durations
C)process that occurs when ideas are "registered" in consciousness,accompanied by self-awareness,and become subject to focused attention
D)the observation and systematic reporting of subjective inner experiences

Question 43

Wundt's former student Oswald Külpe went on to establish his own laboratory which conducted introspective experiments on __________,which Wundt objected to because __________.

A) memory; memory was supposedly a "higher" function insusceptible to experimental analysis
B) imageless thought; the studies entailed introspection of mental tasks that Wundt believed were too complex for accurate introspective analysis
C) dream images; dreams were too vague and individualized to be appropriate objects of introspection
D) mental patients; Wundt believed psychology should concentrate on normal as opposed to abnormal topics

Question 44

Match the definition with the term.
mental chronometry

A)an approach that argues psychology should focus introspectively on discovering the elements of consciousness rather than their functions
B)an approach to psychology that emphasizes conscious experiences of will or voluntary effort
C)nonexperimental psychology that explores communal and cultural products of human nature using comparative and historical methods
D)the use of reaction time experiments to measure the speed of information pro-cessing and make inferences about basic elements of consciousness

Question 45

Why did Oswald Külpe came to disagree with his former teacher Wundt?

A) He thought Wundt's concept of Völkerpsychologie was misguided.
B) He opposed Wundt's outspoken German nationalism.
C) He rejected the use of introspection as a research method.
D) He believed the finding of mental sets called into question the assumptions of mental chronometry.

Question 46

Match the definition with the term.
Völkerpsychologie

A)an approach that argues psychology should focus introspectively on discovering the elements of consciousness rather than their functions
B)an approach to psychology that emphasizes conscious experiences of will or voluntary effort
C)nonexperimental psychology that explores communal and cultural products of human nature using comparative and historical methods
D)the use of reaction time experiments to measure the speed of information processing and make inferences about basic elements of consciousness

Question 47

Match the definition with the term.
personal equations

A)a technique where average reaction time for a simple task is subtracted from the average time for a more complex task,with the difference taken to been the time required for a "higher" mental function
B)consistent individual differences in reaction times,first noted in discrepancies be-tween observers taking astronomical transit readings.
C)the notion that apperceived ideas may be combined and organized in many ways,including some that have never been experienced before
D)the notion that there are different rules in place for apperceptive processes that are not reducible to mechanistic causality

Question 48

Hermann Ebbinghaus was particularly pleased because the results of his memory experiments

A) revealed a forgetting curve whose shape resembled Fechner's psychophysical law.
B) confirmed Wundt's opinion about the highly complex nature of normal memory.
C) showed that imageless thoughts and mental sets were important aspects of the process of remembering.
D) suggested the possibility for a new memory-based test of intelligence.

Question 49

Match the definition with the term.
introspection

A)can be categorized according to dimensions of pleasantness-unpleasantness,ten-sion-relaxation,and activity-passivity
B)can be categorized according to mode,qualities,intensities,and durations
C)process that occurs when ideas are "registered" in consciousness,accompanied by self-awareness,and become subject to focused attention
D)the observation and systematic reporting of subjective inner experiences

Question 50

E.B.Titchener's attitudes towards women in psychology are best summarized by which statement?

A) He respected and supported women as graduate students but denied them access to the most prestigious professional networks.
B) He made no gender-based distinctions in his treatment of women.
C) He supervised a few women graduate students but only grudgingly because he had to do so at a publicly funded land grant university.
D) He became an outspoken advocate of granting talented women full participation in all of psychology's professional societies.

Question 51

Match the definition with the term.
stimulus error

A)consonant-vowel-consonant combinations,such as taz,bok,and lef,used to study memory
B)during introspection,imposing meaning or interpretation on mental contents,rather than reducing them to their most basic elements
C)the finding that memory for a learned task first drops off steeply and then declines more slowly

Question 52

Match the definition with the term.
sensations

A)can be categorized according to dimensions of pleasantness-unpleasantness,ten-sion-relaxation,and activity-passivity
B)can be categorized according to mode,qualities,intensities,and durations
C)process that occurs when ideas are "registered" in consciousness,accompanied by self-awareness,and become subject to focused attention
D)the observation and systematic reporting of subjective inner experiences

Question 53

Hermann Ebbinghaus's study of memory is considered historically important because

A) it demonstrated the existence of unconscious and repressed memories.
B) it first highlighted the existence of false memories.
C) it provided an acceptable experimental approach to a "higher" mental function.
D) it confirmed ancient ideas about memories as stored in separate "compartments."

Question 54

Match the definition with the term.
forgetting curve

A)consonant-vowel-consonant combinations,such as taz,bok,and lef,used to study memory
B)during introspection,imposing meaning or interpretation on mental contents,rather than reducing them to their most basic elements
C)the finding that memory for a learned task first drops off steeply and then declines more slowly

Question 55

Match the definition with the term.
structuralism

A)an approach that argues psychology should focus introspectively on discovering the elements of consciousness rather than their functions
B)an approach to psychology that emphasizes conscious experiences of will or voluntary effort
C)nonexperimental psychology that explores communal and cultural products of human nature using comparative and historical methods
D)the use of reaction time experiments to measure the speed of information processing and make inferences about basic elements of consciousness

Question 56

Match the definition with the term.
apperception

A)can be categorized according to dimensions of pleasantness-unpleasantness,ten-sion-relaxation,and activity-passivity
B)can be categorized according to mode,qualities,intensities,and durations
C)process that occurs when ideas are "registered" in consciousness,accompanied by self-awareness,and become subject to focused attention
D)the observation and systematic reporting of subjective inner experiences

Question 57

Match the definition with the term.
subtractive method

A)a technique where average reaction time for a simple task is subtracted from the average time for a more complex task,with the difference taken to been the time required for a "higher" mental function
B)consistent individual differences in reaction times,first noted in discrepancies be-tween observers taking astronomical transit readings.
C)the notion that apperceived ideas may be combined and organized in many ways,including some that have never been experienced before
D)the notion that there are different rules in place for apperceptive processes that are not reducible to mechanistic causality

Question 58

Match the definition with the term.
psychic causality

A)a technique where average reaction time for a simple task is subtracted from the average time for a more complex task,with the difference taken to been the time required for a "higher" mental function
B)consistent individual differences in reaction times,first noted in discrepancies be-tween observers taking astronomical transit readings.
C)the notion that apperceived ideas may be combined and organized in many ways,including some that have never been experienced before
D)the notion that there are different rules in place for apperceptive processes that are not reducible to mechanistic causality

Question 59

Match the definition with the term.
creative synthesis

A)a technique where average reaction time for a simple task is subtracted from the average time for a more complex task,with the difference taken to been the time required for a "higher" mental function
B)consistent individual differences in reaction times,first noted in discrepancies be-tween observers taking astronomical transit readings.
C)the notion that apperceived ideas may be combined and organized in many ways,including some that have never been experienced before
D)the notion that there are different rules in place for apperceptive processes that are not reducible to mechanistic causality

Question 60

Match the definition with the term.
voluntaristic psychology

A)an approach that argues psychology should focus introspectively on discovering the elements of consciousness rather than their functions
B)an approach to psychology that emphasizes conscious experiences of will or voluntary effort
C)nonexperimental psychology that explores communal and cultural products of human nature using comparative and historical methods
D)the use of reaction time experiments to measure the speed of information processing and make inferences about basic elements of consciousness

Question 61

Match the (lettered)student with the (numbered)teacher.
Oswald Külpe

A)Eleanor Acheson McCulloch Gamble
B)Henry J.Watt
C)James McKeen Cattell

Question 62

Match the publication with the author.
Margaret Floy Washburn

A)Grundzüge der Physiologischen Psychologie (Principles of Physiological Psychol-ogy)
B)The Animal Mind
C)"The Applicability of Weber's Law to Smell"

Question 63

Match the study with the researcher.
James McKeen Cattell

A)introspective studies that found imageless thoughts free of sensations or feelings
B)measured verbal association times and found that reaction times varied greatly not only between tasks,but between different subjects
C)used nonsense syllables to study memory

Question 64

Match the definition with the term.
directed association

A)introspective accounts of consciousness free of identifiable sensations or feelings
B)preliminary orientations toward stimuli,which are outside of conscious awareness,but influence a subject's associations
C)the association of stimulus words according to specific instructions rather than in a completely free fashion

Question 65

Match the study with the researcher.
Oswald Külpe

A)introspective studies that found imageless thoughts free of sensations or feelings
B)measured verbal association times and found that reaction times varied greatly not only between tasks,but between different subjects
C)used nonsense syllables to study memory

Question 66

Match the (lettered)student with the (numbered)teacher.
Edward Bradford Titchener

A)Eleanor Acheson McCulloch Gamble
B)Henry J.Watt
C)James McKeen Cattell

Question 67

Match the study with the researcher.
Wilhelm Wundt

A)an experiment with a "thought meter," which challenged the idea that when two separate stimuli strike our sense at the same time we become consciously aware of them at the same instant
B)extensive introspective studies of the elements of consciousness that produced an estimated 43,000 distinct elements of sensory experience
C)introspective analyzes of the basic elements of smell,which produced an estimat-ed just noticeable difference for intensities of smell

Question 68

Define Völkerpsychologie.

Question 69

Match the definition with the term.
mental set

A)introspective accounts of consciousness free of identifiable sensations or feelings
B)preliminary orientations toward stimuli,which are outside of conscious awareness,but influence a subject's associations
C)the association of stimulus words according to specific instructions rather than in a completely free fashion

Question 70

Match the study with the researcher.
Eleanor Acheson McCulloch Gamble

A)an experiment with a "thought meter," which challenged the idea that when two separate stimuli strike our sense at the same time we become consciously aware of them at the same instant
B)extensive introspective studies of the elements of consciousness that produced an estimated 43,000 distinct elements of sensory experience
C)introspective analyzes of the basic elements of smell,which produced an estimat-ed just noticeable difference for intensities of smell

Question 71

Match the idea with the researcher who championed it.
Edward Bradford Titchener

A)advocated structuralism as the proper task of experimental psychology,which privileged discovering the contents of consciousness rather than their functions
B)believed that the higher mental processes,particularly memory,could be studied experimentally
C)found that certain introspectors reported imageless thoughts,ones that contained no identifiable sensations or feelings

Question 72

Match the study with the researcher.
Hermann Ebbinghaus

A)introspective studies that found imageless thoughts free of sensations or feelings
B)measured verbal association times and found that reaction times varied greatly not only between tasks,but between different subjects
C)used nonsense syllables to study memory

Question 73

Match the study with the researcher.
Edward Bradford Titchener

A)an experiment with a "thought meter," which challenged the idea that when two separate stimuli strike our sense at the same time we become consciously aware of them at the same instant
B)extensive introspective studies of the elements of consciousness that produced an estimated 43,000 distinct elements of sensory experience
C)introspective analyzes of the basic elements of smell,which produced an estimat-ed just noticeable difference for intensities of smell

Question 74

Match the publication with the author.
Wilhelm Wundt

A)Grundzüge der Physiologischen Psychologie (Principles of Physiological Psychol-ogy)
B)The Animal Mind
C)"The Applicability of Weber's Law to Smell"

Question 75

Match the idea with the researcher who championed it.
Hermann Ebbinghaus

A)advocated structuralism as the proper task of experimental psychology,which privileged discovering the contents of consciousness rather than their functions
B)believed that the higher mental processes,particularly memory,could be studied experimentally
C)found that certain introspectors reported imageless thoughts,ones that contained no identifiable sensations or feelings

Question 76

Match the publication with the author.
Eleanor Acheson McCulloch Gamble

A)Grundzüge der Physiologischen Psychologie (Principles of Physiological Psychol-ogy)
B)The Animal Mind
C)"The Applicability of Weber's Law to Smell"

Question 77

Match the idea with the researcher who championed it.
Oswald Külpe

A)advocated structuralism as the proper task of experimental psychology,which privileged discovering the contents of consciousness rather than their functions
B)believed that the higher mental processes,particularly memory,could be studied experimentally
C)found that certain introspectors reported imageless thoughts,ones that contained no identifiable sensations or feelings

Question 78

Match the (lettered)student with the (numbered)teacher.
Wilhelm Wundt

A)Eleanor Acheson McCulloch Gamble
B)Henry J.Watt
C)James McKeen Cattell

Question 79

Match the definition with the term.
imageless thoughts

A)introspective accounts of consciousness free of identifiable sensations or feelings
B)preliminary orientations toward stimuli,which are outside of conscious awareness,but influence a subject's associations
C)the association of stimulus words according to specific instructions rather than in a completely free fashion

Question 80

Explain why the Experimentalists were a controversial group.