Object Details
- Description
- Wilhelm Wundt, the influential professor of psychology at the University of Leipzig, conducted early and important studies of the time that different people took to respond to different stimuli. For this he developed a complication pendulum. As Stoelting would later explain, this instrument presented “a series of visual stimuli, any series of which may be accompanied by some disparate stimulus, such as sound, pressure, etc.” Stoelting went on to say that the observer’s task “is to determine the position of the pointer on the scale the instant the bell or other stimulus is brought into action. The speed of the pointer is governed by the position of the pendulum bob, and may be set to actuate the stimulus at any point on the dial.”
- This example was made by Krille. Only a few parts of the original remain.
- Ref: C. H. Stoelting Co., Psychological and Physiological Apparatus and Supplies (Chicago, 1930), p. 165.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- used at
- Cornell University
- maker
- Krille, Carl
- date made
- 1890s
- Credit Line
- Cornell University Department of Psychology
- Physical Description
- metal, brass (overall material)
- wood (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 15 in x 23 9/16 in x 14 5/16 in; 38.1 cm x 59.90006 cm x 36.39998 cm
- weight: 6 1/8 in x 1 1/2 in; 15.5575 cm x 3.81 cm
- Object Name
- Apparatus, Testing, Psychological
- complication pendulum, parts
- complication pendulum
- Other Terms
- Apparatus, Testing, Psychological; Medicine
