Wundt's system

aims

researching immediate conscious experience

• e.g. feeling cold vs reading a thermometer

• method: introspection (intended to be scientific)

• trained postgrads to report immediate experiences they were having after a stimulus

• Olympian Model: would clear minds then report what came to mind after circumstances

mental chronometry

• experimental method (reaction time)

• for human presentation, Wundt’s lab studied: positive + negative afterimages, visual contrast + illusions, perceptions of size, depth and motion

New Psychology

• focused on elements of consciousness (general ‘mind’)

• sensations: connected to 5 sensory modalities

• feelings have 3 dimensions: pleasurable-unpleasurable, exciting-depressing + relaxing-straining

association and apperception

• apperception: to perceive a new experience into the body of knowledge one possesses

• apperception = attention, association does not need attention

• voluntarism: immediate consciousness requires ACTIVE process of intention (Brentano)

• apperception can lead to ‘creative synthesis’ (we construct reality)