Focusing on the various aspects of human behaviour, the book introduces the nature and theories of sensation, perception, learning, memory, psychophysics and other areas involved in psychology. It also highlights the importance of cognitive processes such as thinking, reasoning and problem-solving. Besides, the book provides essential knowledge and skills for using statistical tools in organising and computing research data. Designed in an easy-to-understand and illustrative manner, this book is primarily aimed at undergraduate students of psychology. The text will also prove useful to all those students who have been introduced with this subject for the first time.

The typical survey course in psychology has time for only limited presentation of the research on which our knowledge is based. As a result, many students come away with a limited understanding of the role of experiments in psychological science. Where do experiments come from and how are they conducted? What are the pitfalls and how can we avoid them? What advantages do they have over intuition, authority, and common sense as guides to knowing and acting? What distinguishes research-based psychology from psychobabble? What have we learned from experimentation in psychology? This book presents, in more depth than textbook treatment permits, the background, conduct, and implications of a selection of classic experiments in psychology. The selection is designed to be diverse, showing that even for research in vastly different areas of study, the logic of research remains the same—as do its traps and pitfalls. This book will broaden and deepen the understanding of experimental methods in psychological research, examining where the research questions come from, how questions can be turned into experiments, and how researchers have faced the problems presented by research in psychology.

This book combines the salient features of the methodology of experiments in psychology, the concepts of general experimental psychology, and the advantages of laboratory manual. It aims at developing in the student the understanding and skill to pose a problem, and to plan and conduct an experiment to answer it. Complete reports of a number of experiments have been given which, though based on hypothetical data, will enable students to realise that every step has a rationale behind it. Accounts of related problems and, in several cases, description of the ways to answer them, supplement the detailed reports. Aware of the importance of group experiments in the world of today, the author has included experiments highlighting some special features of group experiments like selection of sample, design of group experiments and treatment of group data. The author has also taken care to avoid use of costly apparatus to carry out the experiments worked out in the book, depending largely on locally improvised materials. This is an unvaluable book for students and teachers of psychology, especially for those in Indian universities.

Originally published in German in 1923, this English edition was first published in 1931. From the translators preface: "Experimentelle Psychologie is characterized by an excellent summarizing of the most recent experimental data and by a spirit of fairness which it exhibits in organizing facts under general theoretical principles. Besides informing the reader, it stimulates him by critical remarks and suggestions for further thinking and experimentation." Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.