MARION WHITE McPHERSON

The Persistence of the Apparatus of the Leipzig Laboratory  in the United States:
1950 - 1980

WUNDT's prodigiousness prompts inquiry about the nature and extent of his legacy, but formulating answers to such questions is complex because intellectual heritages are uneven. The death of knowledge is rarely, if ever, absolute in as much as concepts and procedures abandoned during one era reappear in subsequent ones.

WUNDT's estate reflects this erraticism and some segments of it have expanded and some have collapsed during different eras. GRAUMANN (1979) has recently pointed out that his influence was not confined to psychology but is apparent in anthropology, sociology, and psychoanalysis. Unfortunately practical considerations limit this paper to a mere sample of WUNDT's effects on formal laboratory procedures, a domain that WUNDT perceived as only one component of the field.

Some of the instruments that were in service in the inaugural laboratory have not undergone any basic modifications and are still in use. CAUDLE (1979) identified nineteen pieces of equipment in which the similarity between the modern and early design is striking. Here is a photograph+) of an early, although undated, Galton whistle (Archives of the History of American Psychology) and here is one as pictured in a modern apparatus catalogue (Marietta Apparatus Company). Again, we have a slide of four Koenig tuning forks (Archives of the History of American Psychology) and one of a set in a current apparatus catalogue (Lafayette Instrument Company). This is an aesthesiometer of the Ebbinghaus-Jastrow design (Archives of the History of American Psychology), and here is a contemporary one (Lafayette Instrument Company). The calibration of the latter is easier to read and the tips have "a coating of vinyl to minimize the influence of temperature".

Some of the pioneer equipment has been modified only by improving the means of activating and powering the device. This is a picture of a manually operated color mixer (Archives of the History of American Psychology). At the present time visual stimuli are exposed in the same format as previously but the irregular energy output of the human has been strengthened and regulated by means of a solid state motor (Lafayette Instrument Company).

WUNDT began experimenting with the complication apparatus in 1861 (TITCHENER, 1905), and this is a picture of all that remains of a complication apparatus that is housed in the Akron archives. It was manufactured by Zimmermann in Leipzig. This is a photograph of one as produced in the 1970's (Marietta Apparatus Company). Electricity has replaced gravity as a force, but the task of the research participants remains as was originally.

The modernization of laboratory apparatus has certainly modified the Gestalt. For example, here is a turn of the century work table (Archives of the History of American Psychology) and here is a 1979 version (Lafayette Instrument Company). In spite of the contrasts many of the parts are clones, identical twins, or of strong familial resemblance.

The fate of research topics that were popular in the WUNDT laboratory was as variable as was the equipment. Many problems were moved backstage, but not obliterated, during the heyday of behaviorism. Some of them survived even though they did so at a just noticeable or possibly just not noticeable level. Reaction time research offers a clear illustration of this invulnerability. The number of investigations indexed as reaction time in the Psychological Abstracts suggests that experimentation on this topic persisted between 1927 and 1975 at a level of merely .2 or 1 % of the total. In 1976 an increase in interest in the subject began and by the end of the first six months of 1979 there were 133 of 14,707 papers or 1 % categorized as reaction time studies.

This barely perceptible but nonetheless durable viability of chronometry is not the fate of all problems that were dealt with in WUNDT's laboratory. In fact, beginning in the 1950's some psychologists came to realize that some of their predecessor's inquiries were not antiquarian but were instead fundamental. Such basics as psychophysics, imagery, and physiological measurements began to reappear on the research stage and to be integrated into the concern with problems that had replaced the earlier preoccupation with theories.

Classical psychophysics was reintroduced into the psychological literature in the early 1950's under the label of signal detection (Tanner & Swets, 1954). In this design three observers, and these individuals are referred to specifically as observers, were asked to indicate the appearance on a background of uniform brightness of stimuli of different intensities but of constant duration and size. These procedures for collecting data are those of the method of single stimuli, a form of the constant methods as developed by FECHNER (GUILFORD, 1936).

The data were manipulated mathematically in a manner that purports to distinguish between sensitivity and response bias. The affirmation that calculations could make such a discrimination led to the application of this traditional psychophysical technique to such nontraditional areas as distinguishing between the awareness of gastric motility and reports of hunger (Stunkard & Koch, 1964), assessing the recognition of galvanic skin responses by both trained and untrained personnel (STERN, 1972), as well as the ability of advanced music students to detect differences in music played on an expensive and an inexpensive violin (VATTANO, CROSS, & MORGAN, 1976).

Imagery was reintroduced into contemporary psychology as an adjunct to therapy. WOLPE's Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition (1958) was the first in a series of systems of intervention which require patients to image, usually merely to visualize, aversive stimuli. Different procedures have been devised to follow this phase of imagining and they range from inducing relaxation to the opposite, that is, the conjuring of images of extremely unpleasant consequences. The names given to each technique vary with the nature of the events that follow the initial fantasy and include such labels as systematic desensitization (WOLPE, 1958), covert sensitization (CAUTELA, 1967), and impulsive therapy (STAMPFL & LEVIS, 1967).

Proponents of these methods are prone to cast them in a learning theory frame. The conditioning of ALBERT (WATSON & RAYNER, 1920) has been presented as a prototype (WOLPE, 1958), even though behaviorism was not a progenitor of ideation. The covert components of these methods are neglected and paradoxically the generic term behavior therapy or behavior modification is used to designate a sequence of events that begins with imagery. For example, the paper "Essentials of Impulsive Therapy: A Learning-Theory-Based Psychodynamic Behavioral Therapy" by STAMPFL & LEVIS, 1967.

As might be anticipated the use of these techniques has prompted some experimentation on imagery per se. and in a few instances investigators have reached far back in time. For example, DRUMMOND, WHITE & ASHTON (1978) used a questionnaire developed as early as 1909 to assess imagery (BETTS, 1909).
They were interested in the effects of vividness on habituation rate as measured by changes in skin conductance and they used the long form of the questionnaire even though a shortened version had been developed for research convenience twelve years earlier (SHEEHAN, 1967).

Much of the reactivation of physiological measurements has, as in the case of imagery, taken place in conjunction with the formulation of therapy programs. During recent years there has emerged a body of literature including controversy (for example, BLANCHARD & YOUNG, 1973) on biofeedback that specifies both the variables that maximize the detection of physiological process as well as their amenability to manipulation by the experiencing individual. As in the case of imagery, descriptions emphasize learning to the neglect of self-observation as in the chapter "Biofeedback and Behavior" in Theory and Practice in Behavior Therapy (YATES, 1907).

The vectors of treatment, imagery, and physiological monitoring have not only meshed, but the have been integrated into the contemporary scene. To illustrate - from data based on the voluntary control of the salivary response WHITE (1978) arrived at several conclusions including the opinion that "salivation can be controlled by practitioners and nonpractitioners of transcendental meditation" (p. 196).

Approximately one month from now the Psychonomic Society will hold its twentieth annual meeting. If WUNDT could attend! He might not perceive the ideal of a fully automated experiment, but he certainly would not find the equipment completely unfamiliar. He could well be annoyed by the reoccurrence of themes of practical application and he could well be fully perplexed by such titles as "Prior Contingent Experience and Memory for a CR" (WICKENS, TUBER & WICKENS, 1979) as well as "'US Overshadowing' as a Mechanism in the Lithium-Mediated Proximal US Preexposure Effect" (BATSON & BEST, 1979).

On the other hand we would be familiar with many, many topics. For instance, he will have access to a session consisting of seven papers devoted exclusively to psychophysics as well as one consisting of fourteen presentations of attention. At least two papers that deal with audition as calculated by the method of signal detection will be offered. There is also the opportunity to listen to "An Analysis of Reaction Time in Same-Different Matching Tasks" (Proctor, 1979). WUNDT might savor "Auditory-Visual Conflict in the Perceived Duration of Tones and Lights" (WALKER & SCOTT, 1979) as well as "Stimulus Repetition Effects in Choice Reaction Time" (SCHNUR, LUBOW, & SHANON, 1979). The bill of fare also offers a presentation of how "Visual Imagery Modifies Visual Sensitivity" (KUNEN & MAY, 1979).

WUNDT would encounter the phrase social psychophysiology and could attend a report of differences in autonomic variability and habituation between people who abused children and those who neglected them (DOERR & DISBROW, 1979). He could also listen to a description of "Eye Accommodation, Personality, and Autonomic Balance" (GAWRON, 1979).

One would like to know if WUNDT would endorse what he heard. Possibly more intriguing is the question of what proportion of these papers, small or large, would provide him with new information.

+) Copies of the photographs referred to in the text are available from the author on request.
Reference List
Archives of the History of American Psychology, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio. Apparatus Collection.
BATSON, J. D. & BEST, M. R.: "US overshadowing" as a mechanism in the lithium-mediated proximal US preexposure effect. Program for the Psychonomic Society Twentieth Annual Meeting, 1929, 248. (Abstract)
BETTS, G. H.: The distribution and functions of mental imagery, New York: Columbia Iniversity Teachers College, Contributions to Education Series, No. 26, 1909.
BLANCHARD, E. B. & YOUNG, L. D.: Self-control of cardiac functioning: A promise as yet unfulfilled. Psychological Bulletin, 1973, 79, 145 - 163.
CAUDLE, P. M.: Basic laboratory apparatus, 1879 - 1979: Some old instruments never die, they just get re-designed. Paper presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Philadelphia, April 1979.
CAUTELA, J. R.: Covert Sensitization. Psychological Reports, 1967, 20, 459 - 468.
DOERR, H. O. & DISBROW, M.: Psychophysiological patterning approaches in a study of predictive variables in child abuse. Program for the Psychonomic Society Twentieth Annual Meeting, 1979, 234. (Abstract)
DRUMMOND, P., WHITE, K. & ASHTON, R.: Imagery vividness affects habituation rate. Psychophysiology, 1978, 15, 193 - 195.
GAWRON, V. J.: Eye accommodation, personality and autonomic balance. Program for the Psychonomic Society Twentieth Annual Meeting, 1979, 261. (Abstract)
GRAUMANN, C.: Experiment, statistics, history; WILHELM WUNDT's  conception of psychology. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York, Sept 1971.
GUILFORD, J. P.: Psychometric methods. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1936.
KUNEN, S. & MAY, J. G.: Visual imagery modifies visual sensitivity. Program for the Psychonomic Society Twentieth Annual Meeting, 1979, 251. (Abstract)
Lafayette Instrument Company-Catalog No. 1177. Lafayette, Indiana, 1977.
Marietta Apparatus Company-Catalog No. 66. Marietta, Ohio, no date.
PROCTOR, R. W.: An analysis of reaction times in same-different matching tasks. Program for the Psychonomic Society Twentieth Annual Meeting, 1979, 262. (Abstract)
Psychological abstracts. Washington: American Psychological Association, 1927 - 1979 (61 vols).
SCHNUR, P., LUBOW, R. E. & SHANON, B.: Stimulus repetition effects in choice reaction time. Program for the Psychonomic Society Twentieth Annual Meeting, 1979, 247. (Abstract)
SHEEHAN, P. W.: A shortened form of BETTS' questionnaire upon mental imagery. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1967, 23, 386 - 389.
STAMPFL, R. G. & LEVIS, D. J.: Essentials of impulsive therapy: A learning-theory-based psychodynamic behavioral therapy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1967, 72, 496 -503.
STERN, R. M.: Detection of one's own spontaneous GSRs. Psychonomic Science, 1972, 29, 354 - 356.
STUNKARD, A. & KOCH, C.: The interpretation of gastric motility. I. Apparent bias in the reports of hunger by obese persons. Archives of General Psychiatry, 1964, 11, 74 - 82.
TANKER, W. P. Jr. & SWETS, J. A.: A decision-making theory of visual detection. Psychological Review, 1954, 61, 401 - 409.
TITCHENER, E. B.: Experimental psychology, Volume II. Quantitative experiments Part II. Instructors manual. New York: Macmillan, 1905.
VATTANO. P. J., CROSS, H. A. & MORGAN, R. J.: Perception of qualitative differences in violins. Psychology of Music, 1976, 4, 3 - 8.
WALKER, J. T. & SCOTT, K. J.: Auditory-visual conflict in the perceived duration of tones and lights. Program for the Psychonomic Society Twentieth Annual Meeting, 1979, 243. (Abstract)
WATSON, J. B. & RAYNER, R.: Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1920, 3, 1 - 14.
WHITE, K. D.: Salivation: The significance of imagery and its voluntary control. Psychophysiology, 1978, 15, 196 - 203.
WICKENS, C. D., TUBER, D. S. & WICKENS, D. D.: Prior non-contingent experience and memory for a CR: Data and theory. Program for the Psychonomic Society Twentieth Annual Meeting, 1979, 239. (Abstract)
WOLPE, J.: Psychotherapy by reciprocal inhibition, Stanford; Stanford University Press, 1958.
YATES, A. J.: Behavior Therapy. New York; Wiley, 1970.