Laboratory Experience in Psychology

Acknowledgments

Editor's Foreword

Introduction

Origin and Aims

Beginner's Needs

The Notion of an Experiment

A Topic for Study

The Evidence of our Senses

Practices and Conventions Adopted


1. Demonstrations and Eyewitness Accounts: Fidelity of Report

The Setting and Introductory Talk

Demonstrations

Summary of Evidence from One Class

Review of Reports from Classes

Discussion of Detailed Results

What Has Been Achieved

What should Be Brought under Control


2. Serial Reproduction, and the Assessment of Changes of Meaning

Manual

Summary of Quantitative Results

Weaknesses in the Quantitative Method

What is an Idea

Variations in Procedure

Effects of Individual Differences

The Importance of Meaning and the Effect of Lapse of Time


3. The Control or Exclusion of Meaning


1. The First Route

"Obliviscence" and the Exclusion of Coherent Meaning

"Association" and Pointers to Meaning for Individuals

"Nonsense Syllables" and the Growth of Meaning

"Inkblots" and the Evocation of Meaning in the Non-representational


2. A Second Route

"Silhouettes" and the Emergence of Meaning

The Nature of the Perceptual Response

The Nature of Recognition and the Need to Get Beneath Recognition to Reach the Evidence of the Senses

"Controlled Association" and the Establishment of a Set


4. Getting Beneath Recognition

"Of Sensations Commonly Ascribed to Touch"

Descriptions of Recognized and Unrecognized Objects

The Effects of not Being Allowed to Use Names

Qualities Perceived in Handling

Active Processes Necessary

Link with Anatomy


5. "Weight": A Study of Physical and Perceptual Dimensions


1. How is Weight Appreciated

Comparison between Human Judgments and Weighing Machines

Discrepancies

Roles of Size and Density


2. Focus on Weight, Size and Density

How is Size Involved

How is Density Perceived

Physical Weight Not Directly Experienced


6. "Extent" and "Density", and a Paradigm of Perceptual Learning

Comparison between Scattered Areas and Areas within One Boundary

Systematic Error and Available Information

Qualitative Change not Necessarily Reflected in Quantitative Measures

Behavior in the Face of the Unfamiliar

A Paradigm of Perceptual Learning


7. "Length": And the Development of a Frame of Reference


1. A Final Attempt at Complete Control

Subject's Response Limited to Comparisons between Two Lengths

Variety of Conditions

Attempt to Balance Effects and to Prevent Learning

Development of Patterns in Responses


2. Effects of Conditions on Extent and Size

Effects Relative and Absolute

The Need for Further Exploration


8. Discussion and Findings

Recapitulation

Has an Experiment Been Achieved

What is the Evidence of the Senses

Observing and Recording

The Principle of the Three Records

Statistical Method

The Value of Descriptive Statistics

Objections to Standard Methods of Statistical Inference

Human Response to Control in a Laboratory

Index