william wundt

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please could you give me some information on the experiments william wundt carried out as i need this for an essay that i am doing. and i seem unable to find any information on the subjects he studied and results he accuired. thank you Tanya

-- Tanya Thomas (tannythom31@hotmail.com), November 09, 2001

Answers

There is a very clear description of Wundt first experiment (1861) in Raymond Fancher's _Pioneers of Psychology_. In brief, Wundt rigged up a pendulum clock so that it would strike a bell just when the pendulum reached the extreme end of its swing. Contrary to his expectation, he found that he heard the bell not when he saw the pendulum at its extreme position, but rather as it was swinging away from that position. He concluded that seeing the pendulum and hearing the bell required separate, sequential acts of attention.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), November 10, 2001.

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