In Pursuit of Precision: The Calibration of Minds and Machines in Late Nineteenth-century Psychology

Abstract

A prominent feature of late nineteenth-century psychology was its intense preoccupation with precision. Precision was at once an ideal and an argument: the quest for precision helped psychology to establish its status as a mature science, sharing a characteristic concern with the natural sciences. We will analyse how psychologists set out to produce precision in 'mental chronometry', the measurement of the duration of psychological processes. In his Leipzig laboratory, Wundt inaugurated an elaborate research programme on mental chronometry. We will look at the problem of calibration of experimental apparatus and will describe the intricate material, literary, and social technologies involved in the manufacture of precision. First, we shall discuss some of the technical problems involved in the measurement of ever shorter time-spans. Next, the Cattell-Berger experiments will help us to argue against the received view that all the precision went into the hardware, and practically none into the social organization of experimentation. Experimenters made deliberate efforts to bring themselves and their subjects under a regime of control and calibration similar to that which reigned over the experimental machinery. In Leipzig psychology, the particular blend of material and social technology resulted in a specific object of study: the generalized mind. We will then show that the distribution of precision in experimental psychology outside Leipzig demanded a concerted effort of instruments, texts, and people. It will appear that the forceful attempts to produce precision and uniformity had some rather paradoxical consequences.

Roles of Instruments in Psychological Research.

“…See, for example, Rand B. Evans's work on Edward B. Titchener (http:// vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/essays/data/art11/index.html). , 2002Rogers, 1995;Sokal, 1987;Zenderland, 1998) and focused more closely on the ways in which apparatus and the research practices centered around them have in certain important respects constituted psychology's history (e.g., Albert & Gundlach, 1997;Benschop, 1998;Benschop & Draaisma, 2000;Danziger, 1990;Derksen, 2001;Gigerenzer, 1992). Nonetheless, the number of such studies has remained relatively small.…”

Replication and Pedagogy in the History of Psychology V: The Metronome and Wilhelm Wundt’s Search for the Components of Consciousness

“…Wundt's research on the nature of consciousness, and its emphasis on temporal processes and their measurement, is an integral part of his theory of mind and situates Wundt's work in the extensive tradition of 19th century German 'Pursuits of Precision' (Benschop and Draaisma 2000). Replication of his laboratory practices thus adds to the understanding of that tradition and of Wundt's seminal place within it.…”

Science Education and the Material Culture of the Nineteenth-Century Classroom: Physics and Chemistry in Spanish Secondary Schools

“…Castellón has preserved a resistance box and a Thomson galvanometer built by the English maker Elliott Brothers (Catalogue numbers R-0033 and R-0018). The Alicante collection includes a five-fold finger reaction apparatus with stopper contacts (Catalogue number JJ-0030), marketed by the Leipzig maker E. Zimmermann, who had a major role in the development of Wilhelm Wundt's programme of experimental psychology (Benschop and Draaisma 2000). The presence of these items suggests that the institutos were not only spaces for pedagogical communication, but might have also been sites for research.…”