Rand B. Evans

An Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge

Part I. The Materials of our Knowledge and Especially the Operations of the Soul: Section 1 Section 2. Analysis and generation of the operations of the soul Section 3. Simple and complex ideas Section 4 Section 5. Abstractions Section 6. Some judgments that have been erroneously attributed to the mind, or the solution of a metaphysical problem Part II. Language and Method: Section 1. The origin and progress of language Section 2. Method.

Psychological instruments at the turn of the century.

Psychology at the turn of the last century was primarily a natural science in its approach. Its goals paralleled those of experimental physiology and physics that had been so successful earlier in the 19th century. The use of scientific instruments to produce stimuli and record responses in psychological experiments became the hallmark for this new psychology of the laboratory. The origins, role, and significance of some of these instruments are discussed as well as the role of instrument makers and their patrons.

Effect of Duration upon Detection with Gated and Continuous Noise and Signal

A 2AFC procedure was used to study the effect of duration on signal detectability under two conditions: gated noise and signal, and continuous noise and gated signal. The durations employed were 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 msec, with (2E/N0)12 held constant. Each observed performed under both conditions. In the gated noise‐and‐signal condition, the data show a higher d′ at short durations than they do for a continuous noise. At long durations, the d′s are about equal. [Work supported through a contract with the U. S. Navy Bureau of Ships and a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.]

The Virtual Laboratory: A New On-Line Resource for the History of Psychology

The authors provide a description of the Virtual Laboratory at Department III of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. The Virtual Laboratory currently provides Internet links to rooms that present texts, instruments, model organisms, research sites, and biographies. Existing links provide access to a library of journals, handbooks, monographs, and trade catalogues; research institutes and laboratories; biographies and bibliographic essays; and essays by contemporary researchers. Historians of psychology are encouraged to submit photographic material and essays to the Virtual Laboratory.

The life cycle of psychological ideas.

Reading is a hobby to open the knowledge windows. Besides, it can provide the inspiration and spirit to face this life. By this way, concomitant with the technology development, many companies serve the e-book or book in soft file. The system of this book of course will be much easier. No worry to forget bringing the life cycle of psychological ideas understanding prominence and the dynamics of intellectual change book. You can open the device and get the book by on-line.

Titchener’s Relativistic View of Observation and Psychological Processes

Hunt makes some very significant points on earlier introspective psychologies which have been either missed, ignored, or misinterpreted by earlier writers on the subject. This is particularly true of the introspective psychology of Edward Bradford Titchener. The nature of Titchener’s psychology was widely misinterpreted and misconstrued even in his own lifetime and has fared even worse since his death. E. G. Boring (1927) called Titchener’s psychology a “cardinal point in the national scientific orientation”: The clear-cut opposition between behaviorism and its allies, on the one hand, and something else, on the other, remains clear only when the opposition is between behaviorism and Titchener, mental tests and Titchener, or applied psychology and Titchener. (p. 489)

ROC Curves for Multiple‐Signal Levels in a Detection Task

Seven signal levels were presented to four observers in a pseudorandom fashion. A 500‐Hz tone was used, and the signal duration was maintained at 100 msec with a rise‐decay time of 10 msec. Wide‐band (100–3000 Hz) continuous noise was used as the masker. The listening interval was indicated by a light, and observers were instructed to clarify or rate the loudness of the masked signal by using one of 10 ordered push buttons. On some trials noise alone was present; on the remaining trials (2E/N0)12 ranged from 2.0–5.0. Receiver operating characteristics were plotted for each signal level, and a remarkably small number of trials was needed to yield satisfactory curves. The multiple‐level rating procedure yields smooth curves for seven signal levels in about the same time previously needed for only one level. The observers task, to rate the loudness of the stimulus, appeared to be simpler than that of earlier studies, in which he was asked to rate his “certainty” that a signal was present. [Work supported by...

Psychometric Functions for the Antiphasic Binaural Conditions N0Sπ and NπS0

Psychometric functions for N0Sπ and NπS0 were determined, using a 2AFC procedure. The signal was a 500‐Hz, 150‐msec tone, and the masker, a continuous wide‐band noise (100–3000 Hz). The function for NπS0 showed the bend at high levels reported earlier [L. A. Jeffress and A. D. Gaston, Jr., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 38, 929(A) (1965)] for measured interaural time differences. The function for N0Sπ was similar to that described by Green [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. (to be published)]. [Work supported through a contract with Bureau of Ships and a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.]

Effect of Duration upon Detection with Gated Noise and Signal

A 2AFC procedure was used to study the effect of duration on signal detectability, with noise and signal gated simultaneously. Durations employed were 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 msec. The data do not show the near constancy of detection with duration for constant signal energy over the range found by Green, Birdsall, and Tanner [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 29, 523–531 (1957)] for gated signal and continuous noise. Instead, for constant signal energy, they indicate a tendency to peak at about 20 msec (reciprocal of the critical bandwidth?). [Work supported through a contract with the U. S. Bureau of Ships and a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.]