Contribution of Weber in
development of scientific psychology
Ernst Heinrich Weber was a German physician who is considered one of the
founders of experimental psychology. He was an influential and important figure
in the areas of physiology and psychology during his lifetime and beyond. His
studies on sensation and touch, along with his emphasis on good experimental
techniques gave way to new directions and areas of study for future
psychologists, physiologists, and anatomists..
Weber's entire work on experimentation relating to psychophysics can be divided
under three categories:-
● The first category of his experiment was related to temperature sense.
● Another category of his experiments related to touch sense.
● The most important contribution was his experiments on muscle sense.
In the 1820s or 1830s Weber began studying the tactile senses, the two-
point threshold and weight perception. He found that weight
discrimination was much finer with active lifting than when the weights
were placed on supported hands. Weber was mainly interested in knowing
to what extent muscle sense contributes in discrimination of weight. By his
experiments we found out:
● The more senses we use, more precise decision we make.
● He also found out that the ability to discriminate small differences in
stimuli depends not only on the intensity of the stimulus alone but also on
the ratio of difference to the standard weight.
, He also found that the just-noticeable difference (jnd) of the change in the
magnitude of a stimulus (viz., small weights held in the hand) is
proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus (e.g., 5%), rather than being
an absolute value (e.g., 5 grams). The smallest difference between the two
physical stimuli is known as just noticeable difference or difference
threshold which later came to be known as Weber's Law. Weber also found
out that the just noticeable difference of the two weights was a constant
ratio of 1:40 of the standard weight. The webers law was originally
postulated to describe researches on weight lifting and was later applied to
the measurement of sensation by Weber’s student Gustav Theodor
Fechner, who went on to develop from the law
the science of psychophysics.
Contribution of Fechner
• Gustav Theodor Fechner was a German
experimental psychologist, philosopher, and physicist. An early pioneer
in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics, he inspired
many 20th-century scientists and philosophers. He is also credited with
demonstrating the non-linear relationship between psychological sensation
and the physical intensity of a stimulus which became known as
the Weber–Fechner law. In 1834 he was appointed professor of physics at
Leipzig. But in 1839, he contracted an eye disorder while studying the
phenomena of color and vision, and, after much suffering, resigned.
Subsequently, recovering, he turned to the study of the mind and its
relations with the body, giving public lectures on the subjects dealt with in
his books. Whilst lying in bed, Fechner had an insight into the relationship
between mental sensations and material sensations. This insight proved to
be significant in the development of psychology as there was now a
quantitative relationship between the mental and physical worlds.
, Fechner’s . (1860; Elements of Psychophysics), established his lasting importance
in psychology. In this work he postulated that mind and body, though appearing
to be separate entities, are actually different sides of one reality. He started from
the monistic thought that bodily facts and conscious facts, though not reducible
one to the other, are different sides of one reality. His originality lies in trying to
discover an exact mathematical relation between them. The most famous
outcome of his inquiries is the law known as the Weber–Fechner law which may
be expressed as follows:
"In order that the intensity of a sensation may increase in arithmetical
progression, the stimulus must increase in geometrical progression."
The law has been found to be immensely useful, but fail for very faint and for very
strong sensations. He also developed experimental procedures, still useful
in experimental psychology, for measuring sensations in relation to the
physical magnitude of stimuli. Most important, he devised an equation to express
the theory of the just-noticeable difference, advanced earlier by Ernst Heinrich
Weber. This theory concerns the sensory ability to discriminate when two stimuli
(e.g., two weights) are just noticeably different from each other. Later research
has shown, however, that Fechner’s equation is applicable within the midrange of
stimulus intensity and then holds only approximately true.
Some other contributions:
• The Fetchner Color Effect
In 1838, he also studied the still-mysterious perceptual illusion of what is still
called the Fechner color effect, whereby colors are seen in a moving pattern of
black and white. The English journalist and amateur scientist Charles Benham, in
1894, enabled English-speakers to learn of the effect through the invention of the
spinning top that bears his name. Whether Fechner and Benham ever actually
met face to face for any reason is not known.
• Fechner's paradox
development of scientific psychology
Ernst Heinrich Weber was a German physician who is considered one of the
founders of experimental psychology. He was an influential and important figure
in the areas of physiology and psychology during his lifetime and beyond. His
studies on sensation and touch, along with his emphasis on good experimental
techniques gave way to new directions and areas of study for future
psychologists, physiologists, and anatomists..
Weber's entire work on experimentation relating to psychophysics can be divided
under three categories:-
● The first category of his experiment was related to temperature sense.
● Another category of his experiments related to touch sense.
● The most important contribution was his experiments on muscle sense.
In the 1820s or 1830s Weber began studying the tactile senses, the two-
point threshold and weight perception. He found that weight
discrimination was much finer with active lifting than when the weights
were placed on supported hands. Weber was mainly interested in knowing
to what extent muscle sense contributes in discrimination of weight. By his
experiments we found out:
● The more senses we use, more precise decision we make.
● He also found out that the ability to discriminate small differences in
stimuli depends not only on the intensity of the stimulus alone but also on
the ratio of difference to the standard weight.
, He also found that the just-noticeable difference (jnd) of the change in the
magnitude of a stimulus (viz., small weights held in the hand) is
proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus (e.g., 5%), rather than being
an absolute value (e.g., 5 grams). The smallest difference between the two
physical stimuli is known as just noticeable difference or difference
threshold which later came to be known as Weber's Law. Weber also found
out that the just noticeable difference of the two weights was a constant
ratio of 1:40 of the standard weight. The webers law was originally
postulated to describe researches on weight lifting and was later applied to
the measurement of sensation by Weber’s student Gustav Theodor
Fechner, who went on to develop from the law
the science of psychophysics.
Contribution of Fechner
• Gustav Theodor Fechner was a German
experimental psychologist, philosopher, and physicist. An early pioneer
in experimental psychology and founder of psychophysics, he inspired
many 20th-century scientists and philosophers. He is also credited with
demonstrating the non-linear relationship between psychological sensation
and the physical intensity of a stimulus which became known as
the Weber–Fechner law. In 1834 he was appointed professor of physics at
Leipzig. But in 1839, he contracted an eye disorder while studying the
phenomena of color and vision, and, after much suffering, resigned.
Subsequently, recovering, he turned to the study of the mind and its
relations with the body, giving public lectures on the subjects dealt with in
his books. Whilst lying in bed, Fechner had an insight into the relationship
between mental sensations and material sensations. This insight proved to
be significant in the development of psychology as there was now a
quantitative relationship between the mental and physical worlds.
, Fechner’s . (1860; Elements of Psychophysics), established his lasting importance
in psychology. In this work he postulated that mind and body, though appearing
to be separate entities, are actually different sides of one reality. He started from
the monistic thought that bodily facts and conscious facts, though not reducible
one to the other, are different sides of one reality. His originality lies in trying to
discover an exact mathematical relation between them. The most famous
outcome of his inquiries is the law known as the Weber–Fechner law which may
be expressed as follows:
"In order that the intensity of a sensation may increase in arithmetical
progression, the stimulus must increase in geometrical progression."
The law has been found to be immensely useful, but fail for very faint and for very
strong sensations. He also developed experimental procedures, still useful
in experimental psychology, for measuring sensations in relation to the
physical magnitude of stimuli. Most important, he devised an equation to express
the theory of the just-noticeable difference, advanced earlier by Ernst Heinrich
Weber. This theory concerns the sensory ability to discriminate when two stimuli
(e.g., two weights) are just noticeably different from each other. Later research
has shown, however, that Fechner’s equation is applicable within the midrange of
stimulus intensity and then holds only approximately true.
Some other contributions:
• The Fetchner Color Effect
In 1838, he also studied the still-mysterious perceptual illusion of what is still
called the Fechner color effect, whereby colors are seen in a moving pattern of
black and white. The English journalist and amateur scientist Charles Benham, in
1894, enabled English-speakers to learn of the effect through the invention of the
spinning top that bears his name. Whether Fechner and Benham ever actually
met face to face for any reason is not known.
• Fechner's paradox
