Biography of Ernst Weber

Psychology Online. Net in the year he received a doctoral degree at the University of Leipzig, in which he studied anatomy and physiology for a year. The main subject of his scientific interests was the physiology of feelings. It was in this field of scientific research that he made the most outstanding discoveries. Before Weber, the study of the senses was limited exclusively by vision and hearing.

Weber extended the boundaries of science, he began to study the sensitivity of muscle and skin. Especially important was its transfer to the psychology of experimental methods of physiology. The two -point threshold is one of the weber's contributions to the new psychology was an experimental determination of the accuracy of tactile sensations, namely the distance between the two points of the skin, in which a person feels two separate touches.

Subjects who cannot see a special device are asked to inform how many touches they felt. When two points of irritation are close to each other, the subjects note only one touch. As the distance between the two sources of irritation increases, the participants in the experiment begin to experience uncertainty regarding whether they felt one or two touches. At a certain, sufficiently large distance between two points, the subjects confidently report two different touches.

This experiment demonstrated the presence of the so -called two -point threshold - a certain moment in which two independent sources can be recognized. Weber's experiments became the first experimental confirmation of the theory of the threshold, according to which there is a moment of the beginning of the occurrence of a physiological and psychological reaction. This theory is also popular today.

The German philosopher Johann Friedrich Herbart applied the theory of the threshold to the study of consciousness1, suggesting that there is a certain point of transition from unconscious to conscious. Therefore, in chapter 13, we will return to this theory again. The precisely determined difference is another significant scientific contribution of Weber in the development of mathematical methods of measurement in psychology.

Weber set himself the goal of setting the magnitude of a barely noticeable difference - the smallest difference in the weight of the two cargo that a person is able to recognize. He asked the participants in the experiment to raise two cargoes and determine which one is harder. The weight of one was the same at all stages of the experiment, the weight of the other changed all the time.

If the difference was insignificant, the weight was recognized the same, but at a certain stage of increasing the difference, it was recognized. In other words, the subjects distinguished the load weighing 41 grams from the cargo in if the load was 80 grams, then in order for the subject to distinguish it, the load was required already 82 grams. Then Weber investigated the ability to distinguish weight by muscle sensations.

He found that the subjects more precisely distinguish between the difference in the weight of the cargo, when they raise them themselves, receiving muscle sensations through the hands, shoulder and forearm than when the load is put into their hands. Raising the scales also implies the tactile touch and muscle sensation, while when putting weight in his hands with another face, a person experiences only tactile sensations.

Since the smallest difference in weight can be distinguished when raising goods by a ratio of 1: 40, and not when putting goods in the hands of a ratio of 1: 50, Weber concluded that in the first case, internal muscle sensations affect the ability of the subject. Based on these experiments, Weber came to the conclusion that, in all likelihood, the ability to distinguish does not depend on the absolute difference in the weight of the two cargo, but on the relative.

He also conducted experiments on the visual definition of differences and found that here the ratio of values ​​is less than in the case of muscle sensations.

Weber suggested that to determine the barely noticeable difference between the two stimuli, you can introduce a certain constant coefficient - its own for each of the senses. Weber's research proved the lack of direct correspondence between the physical stimulus and our perception of this stimulus. However, like Helmholtz, Weber was only interested in physiological processes and did not think about the significance of his research for psychology.

His work has paved the way for the research of the relationship between bodily sensations and thinking, between the irritant and the subsequent perception of irritation. It was a real breakthrough in science. Now the only thing that was needed was worthy, in proportion to the importance of the newly developed method, to apply it. Weber's work was experimental in the most strict sense of the word.

It was carried out in specially created conditions, the stimuli proposed to participants in the experiment varied repeatedly, while each result was recorded. Weber's experiments inspired many researchers to use the experimental method as a means of studying psychological phenomena.Weber's studies in the field of measurement of the sensation threshold were of paramount importance; His proof of the measurability of sensations was influenced by almost all aspects of modern psychology.

Schulz, S. Schulz History of Modern Psychology. The description of the main subject of his scientific interests was the physiology of feelings. Invested files.