Open Access

JSON Export

{"created":"2022-01-31T15:01:30.370570+00:00","id":"lit28744","links":{},"metadata":{"alternative":"Studies from the Yale Psychological Laboratory","contributors":[{"name":"Scripture, Edward W.","role":"author"}],"detailsRefDisplay":"Studies from the Yale Psychological Laboratory 5: 93-103","fulltext":[{"file":"p0093.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"PRINCIPLES OF LABORATORY ECONOMY.\nBY\nE. W. Scripture.\nOne of the most difficult portions of the work of the experimental psychologist is the development of the technical methods required by the science. One set of these methods comprises those involved in managing a laboratory. The following results of an experience of four years as a student in the laboratories of Leipzig and Worcester and of six years as director of the Yale laboratory may be of value to others. The material comprises the substance of what I am accustomed to say on this subject in a few lectures of the regular technical course for specialists in psychology.\nGeneral plan.\nTwo distinct kinds of work fall upon the laboratory ; they may with fairness be characterized as : i, college work ; 2, university work.\nCollege work.\nIn a college the aim is to provide an outline-knowledge of the subject sufficient for general culture. Research or advanced courses are quite out of the question.\nIn a small college the resources must necessarily be limited. With an appropriation of a few hundred dollars the instructor can get along with one or two rooms, an equipment of tables and chairs, apparatus for time-records, sight, hearing, etc. What can be done on the subject of the senses at small expense is shown in Sanford\u2019s Course in Experimental Psychology, Part I, Boston 1898. However, it must be borne in mind that the book covers only a portion of the science and it is very important that the instructer should not give the impression that this is all of psychology. In a laboratory with moderate means the mechanical skill and ingenuity of the instructor come especially into play. With a fair supply of tools the trained man can give a more interesting and valuable course at a small expense than an unskilled man with far greater facilities. The frequent inquiries concerning the amount requisite for starting a college laboratory may be met with the statement that it all depends on the man employed. Success with only S300 or $500 a year is possible for a skillful man who has had a thorough training, and\n93","page":93},{"file":"p0094.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"94\nE. IF. Scripture,\nwho has had experience as an assistant in a larger laboratory. With $500 at the start, about $200 should be put aside for running expenses and for unforeseen contingencies. For $50 a good lathe and a number of small tools can be obtained. If the electric current is available in the building, a hand-feed arc lamp can be imported for about $5, a resistance coil for $2.50, a pair of condensing lenses for $1.50, a simple objective for \u00a71 ; the rest of the lantern can be made as indicated in these Studies, 1896 IV 84. If electricity is not available, a different luminant may be used. An English oil-lantern need not be expensive ; an acetylene lantern is not excessively costly and is very successful ; an oxy-hydrogen lantern for compressed gases, though more costly, is very satisfactory, especially if fitted with the Linnemann burner for zircon-plates. The slides can be made by the instructor or by an interested student ; a very large number of experiments can be performed with the lantern instead of with \u201cdemonstration\u201d apparatus. For a few dollars each the following articles may be obtained : color wheel, Kolbe\u2019s color cylinders, color discs, Bradley\u2019s pseudoptics, stereoscopes, stereoscopic diagrams, etc. More costly but necessary pieces are : recording drum, tuning fork, telegraph keys, batteries, etc.\nFor the larger colleges a more elaborate equipment is necessary. Comparisons are constantly drawn between the various departments, and merely as a matter of self-preservation the psychological laboratory must offer courses equal in attractiveness and value to those of physics, chemistry and biology. A lecture-room with at least a single lantern and a satisfactory equipment of demonstration apparatus should be provided. The elementary laboratory course should be followed by a carefully planned course in psychological measurements. Part of the course in measurements given at Yale is printed in these Studies, 1896 IV 89-139. The appropriation and yearly income of the laboratory must be quite considerable, if the lectures are to be on an impressive scale and the two laboratory courses are to be really valuable.\nUniversity work.\nThe university student chooses to study psychology cither because he will need it in connection with philosophy, pedagogy or medicine, or because he expects to be a psychologist himself. The laboratory should furnish instruction for both classes of students.\nIn the first place a general lecture-course should be provided with full demonstrations of all the most important methods and results in all the fields of psychology. The apparatus required must necessarily be of a distinctly high grade. The university student demands the best in-","page":94},{"file":"p0095.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"Principles of laboratory economy.\n95\nstruction. Moreover, if the other departments, such as physics can show better, brighter and more numerous pieces of apparatus the students are apt to draw disparaging conclusions. The students are no longer a \u201cclass\u201d tobe taught; they are an \u201caudience\u201d that must be led. When a speaker, whether on account of himself or on account of meager equipment, loses the interest or the respect of his audience, the instruction ceases to be effective.\nLaboratory courses, like those already mentioned, should also be given. For the special students in psychology a course of lectures on the theory of statistics and measurements should also be given in connection with practical exercises in the laboratory. These exercises should be most carefully planned to show the development of the final methods of measurement from the fundamental operations. For example, the subject of time might begin with timing and regulating a clock ; thereupon would follow the timing of a tuning fork, the determination of the errors of markers, keys, etc. When this has been learned simple reactions can be measured under the various conditions of stimulation, attention, etc. Finally, the more complex processes are to be recorded. Similar methods could be followed for sight, hearing, volition, emotion, etc.\nThe object of the laboratory instruction is often misunderstood. It is not to teach facts of psychology ; these should be treated in a lecture-course. The objects are : (i) the cultivation of the powers of introspective and external observation; (2) the development of dexterity in carrying out psychological experiments and measurements; (3) training in the computation and adjustment of measurements. Students who make a specialty of psychology should also be trained in the construction and care of apparatus, in machine-design, use of tools, lathe work, vise work, etc.\nAnother department of university work lies in research. The art of research is probably the most difficult thing to teach. Some persons have the notion that anybody can successfully undertake researches with no preliminary training. Research is an art, as much an art as painting or singing. Any one can daub paints, sing tunes and investigate the mind, but the results differ from a painting by Correggio, a song by Patti, or an investigation by Helmholtz. The director of a laboratory for research must be a man with an inborn tact at overcoming obstacles of apparatus and in extricating himself from intricacies of method. He must be a man of vivid imagination ; just as a painter must compose and constantly modify the ideal picture in his mind\u2019s eye, so the scientist must outline, invent and modify mentally the whole apparatus and method employed before he begins the actual work. Just as a painter must acquaint him-","page":95},{"file":"p0096.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"96\nE. IP. Scripture,\nself with the minutest details of preparing and mixing paints, of perspective, shading, varnishing, etc., so must the psychological investigator have in mind just as many kinds and combinations of apparatus, manipulations and methods as he can possibly learn. This is the ideal which the special student should always have in mind. The young investigator should go through a preliminary apprenticeship in assisting more advanced workers, and should prove himself a well qualified man before attempting to conduct work.\nBuilding.\nIf possible the laboratory should be situated in a building back from the street, preferably in the suburbs. If it is in a building with other departments it should have the top floor, and the smaller rooms for observation should be at the back. Just as freedom from shaking is the indispensable condition for many physical experiments, so freedom from noise is the fundamental requisite for the successful prosecution of many psychological investigations. Of course, where only demonstrational work is required such conditions are unattainable and unnecessary.\nIn regard to the general plan of a scientific building reference may be made to Durm\u2019s Handbuch der Architektur, IV. Theil, 6. Halb-Band, 2. Heft: Geb\u00e4ude f\u00fcr Erziehung, Wissenschaft und Kunst.\nLecture-room.\nOne of the first cares of the instructor will probably be the lecture-room. Although one like that to be described will seldom be attainable, the main requirements are the same for most cases and they can be met in ways as nearly like the ideal ones as possible. All seats in the room should command a good view of the experiment table. In a small institution a large table in an ordinary lecture-room would be sufficient. With large classes, however, the seats must rise toward the back ; the rise should be about 12''1\" at the second row with a regularly increasing rise for each succeeding row. If the seats are arranged in curves, a rather flat hyperbola ought to be chosen. Before the windows black shades or shutters for darkening should be placed. The many elaborate arrangements in use are generally very costly ; recourse is generally had to common spring rollers. For further suggestions see Wein-hold\u2019s Physikalische Demonstrationen and Frick-Lehmann\u2019s Physikalische Technik.\nThe ceiling and walls of the room should be as white as possible. The researches in school-hygiene have shown that dark colors, panelings, rows of blackboards and any other arrangement that lessens the diffusion","page":96},{"file":"p0097.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"Principles of laboratory economy.\n97\nof light must be most scrupulously avoided.1 The daylight should come from the left and back. Artificial illumination should be indirect or semi-indirect ; that is, the light from the luminous body should not fall directly on the books of the students, but should be diffused by being first sent against the ceiling or by passing through translucent globes.2\nThe method of completely indirect illumination can be perhaps best used in the case of an arc light. The reflector beneath the lamp hides it completely from view and sends the light to the ceiling, whence it is dispersed around the room. The ceiling should be newly whitened each year ; a special reflector, however, may be used above the lamp instead of the ceiling. In the combined method of illumination part of the light passes directly through a lower globe of translucent glass while part is reflected upward. For lecture-rooms the completely indirect illumination seems preferable.\nOther sources of light, such as the Auer gas incandescent lamp, the electric incandescent lamp, etc., may be treated in like manner. Further details and literature may be found in the article by Bayr. A good account of arc-lighting is given in a pamphlet, Ucbcr Bogenlampen f\u00fcr zerstreutes Licht, published by the manufacturers, K\u00f6rting &: Mathiesen in Leutzsch, near Leipzig.\nA fundamental piece of apparatus for the lecture-room is the lantern. A general sketch of the principles involved has been given in these Studies, 1896 IV 82-88 ; further details may be found in Wright\u2019s Optical Projection.\nAnother fundamental factor of the lecture-room is the experimenter\u2019s table. This should be a table, or rather a counter, about 5 x 0.9 x 0.9 meters in size. Better than one table are two tables, each two meters long, placed endwise with an intervening space of about a meter which can be covered by a hinged leaf ; this allows very tall apparatus to be set up on the floor between other apparatus. The space under the table is utilized for drawers and open closets where tools and apparatus of constant use are kept.\nThe fundamental rule in regard to the use of the table is : never allow any projection to be fastened to the top. Nails must not be driven in ; they are sure to be forgotten and to get in the way at some critical moment, perhaps to overturn or scratch some valuable piece of apparatus. All nails and screws should be driven into blocks of wood which are fastened to the edge of the table by clamps. This rules applies to all\n1\tBurnham, Outlines of school hygiene, Pedagog. Seminary, 1892 II 9.\n2\tBayr, lieber Beleuchtungsversuche, etc., Zt. f. Schulgesundheitspflege, 1898 XI 129.\n7","page":97},{"file":"p0098.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"98\nE. JF. Scripture,\ntables in the laboratory except when, after trial, it is decided to set up some permanent piece of apparatus.\nWorkshop.\nAs the progress of psychology depends to a great degree on the way in which this department is managed, money invested in a proper equipment of tools will often bring better returns than if spent in ordering instruments from dealers. In fitting up this room we should take into consideration its purpose and that becomes clear when we take note of a few facts about apparatus. Apparatus in use industrially, such as electric motors, telegraph keys, batteries, etc., can be obtained readily and cheaply in America. On the contrary, apparatus that is in use only for scientific purposes can be obtaind here only at exhorbitant prices if at all, and owing to the lack of trained workmen it is generally of the poorest quality. All such instruments already in use, e. g., kymographs, tuning-forks, time-markers, etc., must be gotten directly from the European makers. In addition to these two classes there is apparatus for special purposes which must either be ordered front instrument makers or made in the laboratory workshop. The difficulty and delay in sending designs to Germany or France and the great disadvantage of not being able to supervise the various stages of construction are readily apparent. It is highly desirable in a large laboratory to set up a workshop and to provide a proper artisan to take charge of it. The work to be done will be the making of all special research-apparatus, also the repairing and testing of all instruments received from elsewhere. This course is the one followed by nearly all European laboratories of physics and physiology ; the high wages and lack of skill of the American mechanic tend to throw the psychologist more on his own resources.\nThe size and equipment of such a workshop depend on the character of the instructor and the importance of the part played by research.\nThe first necessity of the workshop is sufficient light, both by day and by night ; that is, there must be sufficient windows and lamps so arranged that there are no deep shadows into which the work in hand can happen to get. Nevertheless, no very bright or blinding lights are to be permitted. The room is preferably placed on the north side, otherwise the .south windows must be well provided with curtains. The lamps are not to be placed in the middle of the room, but to be scattered over the walls and around the tables.\nThe most important and essential article in the workroom is the workbench, which should be placed on the lightest side of the room, preferably in the corner. It is to be a very strong table of oak, or ash, which is","page":98},{"file":"p0099.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"Principles of laboratory economy.\n99\nfastened by braces built into the wall, so that in filing, sawing and chiseling in the vise no noticeable shaking of the bench occurs. The size should be about 2\"\u2019 x 0.7\u201c; the height should be 0.75\u201c to\u2122 0.80. The regular mechanic\u2019s height, 0.9\u201c, is to be reduced because this requires continual standing, which is a great hardship to persons of sedentary habits, such as will necessarily often be at work at the bench. The vise is to be placed at the right front corner of the table and, if possible, opposite the middle of the window. A smaller vise may be placed on the left-hand side of the table. Next in importance to the work-bench is the lathe. It is to be placed before the window on the north side of the room. There should also be a grindstone, with pulley in case power is at hand. In one corner there may be a forge beside which is a heavy anvil on an oaken block. By the eastern wall of the room there should be a carpenter\u2019s bench unless a separate room is to be given over to carpenter-work. Around the walls are the tool cases. The tools should, as far as possible, be put in straps or leaned up against grooved boards or laid in order on the shelves of the cases. The cases and the walls of the room are to be painted with a light color for sake of illumination. The floor is to be varnished; this protects it against too rapid wear, lightens the cleaning, and avoids the odors that arise from the absorption of gases by unvarnished floors. A stone floor is inadmissible. Further details in regard to the workshop may be found in Lehmann\u2019s Physikalische Technik.\nElectrical connections.\nAn essential for first-class work in psychology is the protection of the person experimented upon from all sources of disturbance. This generally involves the separation of the experimenter from the one experimented on and often involves the use of two or more separate rooms between which the only connection is by means of electric wires.\nThe experience of telegraphy and telephony has shown that the proper method of connection is by means of wires to a central station from each point involved. Wires should be brought from each room to a switchboard in some convenient place where they can be connected in any way desired. A switchboard on the plan of a telephone switchboard with 56 terminals is used at Yale; each wire is joined to a terminal and numbered. By means of flexible connectors any combination desired can be made and yet any unused wire left untouched. The wiring should be done strictly in accordance with the regulations of the board of underwriters, a copy of which can be obtained from the nearest fire insurance office. It is not advisable to use wire of a diameter less than 2.7mm (No. 12, American gauge).","page":99},{"file":"p0100.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"100\nE. IV. Scripture,\nCollection of apparatus.\nOn account of moisture and dust the apparatus should not be kept in rooms frequently used. It is best to devote a special room to this purpose. 1 he floor should be of wood and the cleaning should be done with a moist cloth. The cases for holding the instruments are to be furnished with glass doors which should be kept tightly closed. Each piece of apparatus should have a name or a number and a specified place in the case or cases ; small gummed labels or jeweller\u2019s tags are useful for this purpose. Small cards with the names of the pieces are fastened on the shelves of the cases by card-pins.\nEach piece of apparatus should be entered under its name in the inventory and the apparatus book. The latter should contain for each piece a complete record of its purchase, its use, its constants, where it is to be sent for repair, where to obtain parts, where to find literature on its use, etc. For this purpose a regular letter file can be used ; all the data\u2014bills, printed descriptions, etc.\u2014can be filed with the rest of the account.\nIsolated room.\nTo obtain the quiet necessary for most psychological investigations an isolated room may be provided, where the person experimented upon can be kept indefinitely in perfect external darkness and quiet. A description of the Yale room and suggestions for improvement may be found in these Studies, 1893 I 271, 1896 IV 16, and in Scripture\u2019s New Psychology, 136, London 1897.\nOther rooms.\nThe other rooms will vary so much in arrangement with the construction of the laboratory that little can be said definitely. I would suggest : i. an optical room with black walls, heliostat window and photometer arrangements; 2. a time room with clock, chronograph, chronoscope and other equipment ; 3. a photographic room.\nSelection of apparatus.\nLet us suppose that the appropriation has been obtained and that the director has, after carefully planning an ideal laboratory, made up his mind to adjust himself to the actual situation. The next thing to do is to select apparatus. For this purpose he should obtain catalogues from the chief makers and also lists of the apparatus possessed by other laboratories. The catalogues should be carefully studied. The director must at any time know just where to obtain each piece at the lowest price for the best quality. For example, electrical tuning-forks will","page":100},{"file":"p0101.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"Principles of laboratory economy.\nIOI\nbe described and illustrated in 15 or 20 catalogues, whereas there are not more than two places from which they can be bought to the best advantage. The list of needed apparatus is finally made out ; when added up, it will be found to be four or five times the entire appropriation. A process of selection must now be instituted. I venture to propose a rule, almost self-evidently proper, yet often neglected : select those pieces that for each dollar of cost will bring a maximum return in time of use and- in results obtained. For example, let us suppose it necessary to choose between the Ellis harmonical C$65), a color-apparatus for ex-centric parts of the retina (S15), and a kymograph ($175).\nIt would hardly be justifiable to occupy more than half an hour of a lecture-course in experiments for which the harmonical can be used. Let us suppose that the class includes forty persons. 1'he time-value of the harmonical can then be said to be J4 x 40 = 20 efficient hours per year. Let the deterioration and interest on investment on all the instruments be placed at 10% per year. The cost of the harmonical is thus $6.50 for 20 hours, or about $0.33 per hour per student. The color apparatus would be used for about the same time, giving a cost of So.08 per hour per student. The kymograph is, as we all know, in constant demand ; in a busy laboratory where research is going on it will probably be used not less than 2 hours per day for 35 weeks of the academical year, or over 400 hours for research. For lectures on time, memory, motion, etc., it will be used for a total of, say, 5 hours per year for 40 persons, or 200 hours more. This makes 600 hours per year for $17.50 or about $0-03 per hour. Thus the kymograph is ten times as profitable as the harmonical, and nearly three times as profitable as the color apparatus.\nThis method can be applied to every piece of apparatus, every tool, every piece of furniture, etc., yielding a definite answer in each case. The trouble, of course, lies in estimating beforehand the amount of use to which an instrument will be put. The success with which this is done is what is known in the commercial world as \u201c business sagacity,\u201d \u201c business tact and experience,\u201d etc.\nPerhaps in this connection it may be desirable to state the results of experience at the Yale laboratory with a few of the more important parts of the equipment. One of the most profitable parts is the lantern equipment, representing an investment of about S400, and used on about 60 occasions per year for periods of 10 to 30 minutes for classes of 60 to 130 students. Fully as profitable is the lathe equipment ($100) with motor ($I5\u00b0)> shafting, belting, grindstone and the various accessories. The circular saw is also of creditable efficiency. The extensive equipment of small tools and supplies of all sorts is of special value where apparatus is","page":101},{"file":"p0102.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"102\nE. \u00cfV. Scripture,\nmade. The total workshop equipment is worth about $400 exclusive of the constantly replenished supplies ; it is in use eight hours a day by the mechanic and approximately four hours a day by workers in the laboratory. When we consider that much of our best research work and many of our demonstrations would be impossible without the aid of the workshop, we are forced to conclude that this equipment is very profitable in spite of the large expense for wages and materials. Moreover, in a new science where new pieces of apparatus are required for every important advance, the cheapest way of getting such apparatus is by making it in the laboratory. In regard to apparatus such high returns for investments are not to be expected ; our most profitable pieces have been the recording drum for hand or motor, 100 v. d. electric fork, spark coil, multiple key, chronoscope, kymograph, piston recorder, etc. Apparatus used for research should be judged by the value of the results obtained.\nIn business there are losses as well as profits ; in managing a laboratory we cannot always make the most judicious selections. Nevertheless, by applying these principles of laboratory economy we can make the money invested bring much larger returns than by spending it hap-hazard. The difference between an economically managed business and a loosely managed one is the difference between success and failure. Laboratory economy does not, after all, differ fundamentally from business economy. High grade efficiency cannot be attained anywhere unless the man at the head knows his business down to the minutest details. The best laboratory is not the one on which most money has been expended, but is the one that yields the largest net result in scientific research and in instruction for each dollar expended.\nEconomy in investigation.\nIn a large laboratory with many investigations going on, it becomes a very difficult task to adjust matters economically. Each investigator thinks only of his own needs and is generally oblivious to the fact that when a piece of apparatus is monopolized by him it is lost to every one else. He is likely, for example, to set up the kymograph in such a way that no one else can use it, whereas with just the same labor it might be arranged for every one. He should be taught to choose and arrange his apparatus so as to produce a minimum disturbance. Suppose that he wishes to produce a click for a warning-signal and that there are two sounders and only one relay in the apparatus case. The relay is generally the easiest to adjust ; by taking it, however, he would get no better sound and would render it impossible for any else to use relay currents. The investigator should learn to use the cheapest materials at hand. If","page":102},{"file":"p0103.txt","language":"en","ocr_en":"Principles of laboratory economy.\n103\nfor example, he wishes to conduct a telephone-current, he should not follow his first impulse to use very large, silk-covered, expensive flexible cords made for incandescent lamps, but should content himself with common office wire.\nStill more important is it for the student to learn how to plan and execute his researches. The ignorant method of piling up indiscriminate measurements in large quantities leads to nothing. The problem for investigation should be first definitely stated. As soon as the work is sufficiently advanced to involve measurements, the investigator should make clear to himself whether the work is to consist in a determination of a single quantity or in a full investigation. In the former case he must, before making his final measurements, examine and consider all possible sources of error, and should carefully estimate and adjust them so as to obtain the required degree of accuracy. The instructions for this work and for carrying out the measurements are to be found in Weinstein\u2019s Physikalische Maassbestimmungen, Berlin 1886, Volume I., to page 282, omitting certain parts that refer to full investigations. In the case of a full investigation, where the object is the determination of a function expressing the dependence of one quantity on other quantities, the work becomes much more complicated. The student should be familiar with the whole first volume of Weinstein. This work by Weinstein is rather voluminous and it-contains no psychological examples ; it is to be hoped that a smaller work on the subject will be written specially for the use of psychologists, economists and biologists.\nAny attempt to carry out serious investigations without a knowledge of the principles involved results in a wasteful piling up of figures without any adequate return in the way of laws or facts established. Such an extravagant procedure has become impossible in sciences like physics ; it must soon become so in experimental psychology.\nThe proper understanding of methods of measurement and investigation requires a familiarity with at least the elements of analytical geometry and calculus. The student can get along with what is contained in Nernst-Schoenflies\u2019s Einf\u00fchrung in die mathematische Behandlung der Naturwissenschaften, or, in regard to calculus, with Fisher\u2019s Infinitesimal Calculus, although a more extended study like that involved in working through such familiar books as Stegemann-Kiepert\u2019s Differential- und Integralrechnung or Schloemilch\u2019s Compendium der Analysis with the examples given by Fuhrmann, Naturwissenschaftliche Anwendung der Differential-und Integralrechnung, is highly desirable. Without at least an elementary acquaintance with calculus and a familiar working knowledge of the science of measurements higher scientific work will remain unintelligible and inaccessible to the student of experimental psychology.","page":103}],"identifier":"lit28744","issued":"1897","language":"en","pages":"93-103","startpages":"93","title":"Principles of laboratory economy","type":"Journal Article","volume":"5"},"revision":0,"updated":"2022-01-31T15:01:30.370576+00:00"}