A Source Book in the History of Psychology

More than a quarter of the articles are translated into English for the first time. A fine, well-balanced contribution to the history of psychology. * Scientific American * This is without any question the best, and perhaps the only really good, selection of primary material relevant to the history of experimental psychology... The principal translators, Mollie D. Boring and Don Cantor, should share with the editors the credit for an important job very well done. * Science * The history of psychology contains magic names. Important passages from many of them are reprinted in this book, which is really a compendium of ideas for research; for one has the uncomfortable feeling when reading it that there are hints whose import one does not yet recognize. * British Journal of Psychology * An excellent job of judicious compression has been practised without losing the meaning and the flavour of the original... In each case the passage quoted has had a formative influence on the history of the subject... This is a fascinating book. * Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology * This is an exceptional compilation... Not only does it provide students with selections from important sources which they almost certainly would not otherwise read, but it whets the appetite to search further in the early literature of many topics of contemporary psychological interest... This book is an admirable collection which does great credit to the judgment of its editors...this book embodies intellectual standards not always upheld in the subject today. * Times Literary Supplement *

Richard J. Herrnstein was Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Edwin G. Boring was Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

PART I: SENSORY SPECIFICATION * Aristotle on the Five Senses, ca. 350 BCE * Isaac Newton on the Seven Colors of the Spectrum, 1675 * Isaac Newton on the Color Circle, 1704 * Thomas Young on Newton and the Excitation of the Retina by Colors, 1802 * John Locke on Primary and Secondary Qualities, 1690 * Charles Bell on Spinal Nerve Roots, 1811 * Francois Magendie on Spinal Nerve Roots, 1822 * Charles Bell on the Specificity of Sensory Nerves, 1811 * Johannes Muffler on the Specific Energies of Nerves, 1838 * Ernst Heinrich Weber on the Sense of Touch and Common Sensibility, 1846 * Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz on the Three-Color Theory of Vision and Visual Specific Nerve Energies, 1860 * Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz on the Resonance Theory of Hearing and Auditory Specific Nerve Energies, 1863 * Max von Frey on the Four Cutaneous Senses, 1904 * Edward Bradford Titchener on the Number of Sensory Elements, 1896 PART II: PSYCHOPHYSICS AND SENSORY MEASUREMENT * Pierre Bouguer on the Differential Threshold for Illumination, 1760 * Charles Eduard Joseph Delezenne on the Differential Threshold for the Pitch of Tones, 1827 * Ernst Heinrich Weber on Weber's Law, 1834 * Gustav Theodor Fechner on Fechner's Law, 1860 * Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau on the Measurement of Sensation, 1872 * Joseph Remi Leopold Delboeuf on Sensed Contrast as the Measure of Sensation, 1883 * Edward Bradford Titchener on the Sense Distance as the Measure of Sensation, 1905 PART III: THE RETINAL IMAGE AND THE ORIENTATION OF PERCEIVED OBJECTS * Epicurus on Perception of Objects as Mediated by the Images that Emanate from the Objects, ca. 300 BCE * Johannes Kepler on the Crystalline Humor as a Lens and the Inversion of the Retinal Image, 1604 * William Molyneux on the Inverted Retinal Image, 1692 * Johannes Miller on Subjective Visual Size and Position in Relation to the Retinal Image, 1826 * George Malcolm Stratton on Visual Localization and the Inversion of the Retinal Image, 1897 PART IV: THE VISUAL PERCEPTION OF SIZE AND DISTANCE * Rene Descartes on the Visual Perception of Size, Shape, and Distance, 1638 * George Berkeley on the Visual Perception of Distance and Magnitude, 1709 * Charles Wheatstone on Binocular Parallax and the Stereoscopic Perception of Depth, 1838 PART V: NATIVISTIC AND EMPIRISTIC THEORIES OF SPACE PERCEPTION * Immanuel Kant on the A Priori Nature of Space, 1781 * Rudolf Hermann Lotze on Local Signs in Their Relation to the Perception of Space, 1852 * Ernst Heinrich Weber on Sensory Circles and Cutaneous Space Perception, 1852 * Ewald Hering on the Nativistic Theory of Visual Space Perception, 1864 * Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz on Empiricism in Perception, 1866 * Max Wertheimer on the Phi Phenomenon as an Example of Nativism in Perception, 1912 PART VI: OBJECTIVE REFERENCE * George Berkeley on the Role of Association in the Objective Reference of Perception, 1709 * Thomas Reid on the Distinction between Sensation and Perception, 1785 * Thomas Brown on Sensation, Perception, and the Associative Explanation of Objective Reference, 1820 * John Stuart Mill on the Permanent Possibilities of Sensation, 1865 * Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz on Perception and the Unconscious Conclusion, 1866 * Edward Bradford Titchener on the Context Theory of Meaning, 1910 * Edwin Bissell Holt on Response as the Essence of Cognition, 1915 * Max Wertheimer on Objects as Immediately Given to Consciousness, 1923 PART VII: CEREBRAL LOCALIZATION * Rene Descartes on the Interaction of Mind and Brain, 1650 * Franz Joseph Gall on Phrenology, the Localization of the Functions of the Brain, 1825 * Pierre Jean Marie Flourens on the Functions of the Brain, 1824 * Paul Broca on the Speech Center, 1861 * Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig on Cerebral Motor Centers, 1870 * John Hughlings Jackson on Dissolution of the Nervous System, 1884 * Shepherd Ivory Franz on the Variability of the Motor Centers, 1915 * Karl Spencer Lash!ey on Cerebral Equi