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( Psychophysics)
History ยท Areas Many of the classical techniques and theory of psychophysics were formulated in 1860 when Gustav Theodor Fechner published Elemente der Psychophysik. He coined the term "psychophysics", and described research relating physical stimuli with how they are perceived and set out the philosophical foundations of the field. Fechner wanted to develop a theory that could relate matter to the mind, by describing the relationship between the world and the way it is perceived [1] Fechner's work formed the basis of psychology as a science. Wilhelm Wundt, the founder of the first laboratory for psychological research, built upon Fechner's work. One author[2] has argued that the medieval scientist Alhazen should be considered the "founder of psychophysics." Although al-Haytham made many subjective reports regarding vision, there is no evidence that he used quantitative psychophysical techniques and such claims have been rebuffed.[3] Psychophysicists usually employ experimental stimuli that can be objectively measured, such as pure tones varying in intensity, or lights varying in luminance. All the senses have been studied vision, hearing, touch (including skin and enteric perception), taste, smell, and the sense of time. Regardless of the sensory domain, there are three main topics in the psychophysical classification scheme absolute thresholds, discrimination thresholds, and scaling.
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