Modern Psychophysical and Scaling Methods and Experimentation

Introduction

This book, Modern Psychophysical and Scaling Methods and Experimentation, consists of very essential subject matter for the students of psychology at the Post-Graduate and Research levels. Psychophysical and scaling methods are basic for any psychological measurement, without which there is no psychological measurement of any type.

Historical Background

Scientists for a very long time were perplexing over the mind-body problem. At last, Fechner found out a solution after working for more than ten years. Fechner's hypothesis was that if the mind is to be studied, then physical energy that causes change in the mental energy must be studied. His important discovery was that there is a corresponding relationship between physical energy and mental energy. Any physical energy in the form of stimulation may cause a corresponding change in the mental energy in the form of response. Fechner said that this applies to all sensory experiences.

Development of Instruments and Methods

Hence, instruments for the study of sensory responses, reaction time, visual perception, judgments of mental abilities were invented, and test materials of various types were designed and validated. All these have enriched the field of psychophysics, and modern psychophysical and scaling methods were developed.

Contributions of Psychophysicists

Psycho-materians like Stevens and others applied the basic theory in all their studies and brought out an enormous amount of materials. Thus, psychophysics developed very rapidly.