Classic experiments in psychology

pt. 1. Introduction: about experiments

A brief history of experimental psychology

pt. 2. Psychobiology: Hermann von Helmholtz and the nerve impulse

Paul Broca and the speech center

Karl Lashley : brain mechanisms and learning

James Olds : reward systems in the brain

Vincent Dethier : feeding in a fly

S.P. Grossman : chemical coding in the brain

Roger Sperry and the bisected brain

pt. 3. Motivation and emontion: Neal Miller : fear as a learnable drive

Neal Miller : conflict

David McClelland on achievement motivation

Harry Harlow : a tale of two mothers

Nikolaas Tinbergen : the study of instinct

Teitelbaum and Epstein: hunger, thirst, and the brain

Schachter and Singer : cognition and emotion

Herman and Polivy : human hunger and cognition

Walter Mischel and self-control

pt. 4. Learning: Edward Thorndike and the law of effect

Ivan Pavlov and classical conditioning

Wolfgang Khöler and the mentality of apes

Edward Tolman and cognitive maps

B.F. Skinner and operant conditioning

John Garcia : conditioned taste aversion

Albert Bandura : imitation and social learning

Gordon Paul : learning theory in the clinic

Martin Seligman : learned helplessness

Lepper et al. on the costs of reward

pt. 5. Memory: Hermann Ebbinghaus on memory

Frederic Bartlett : meaning and memory

Brenda Milner and the case of H.M.

Lloyd and Margaret Peterson : short-term forgetting

Elizabeth Loftus : leading questions and false memories

Gordon Bower on state-dependent memory

Collins and Quillian : the structure of semantic memory

pt. 6. Cognition: F.C. Donders and reaction time

The cautionary tale of Clever Hans

A.S. Luchins on not being mindless

George Miller on the magic number seven

Festinger and Carlsmith : cognitive dissonance

Roger Shepard and mental rotation

Richard Herrnstein : concepts in pigeons

Tversky and Kahneman : the framing of decisions

pt. 7. Perception: Ernst Weber : the muscle sense and Weber's law

Gustav Fechner and the measurement of mind

Max Wertheimer on apparent movement

Selig Hecht and adaptation to the dark

H.K. Hartline : lateral inhibition in the retina

Georg von Békésy : the mechanics of hearing

Jerome Bruner : motivation and perception

Gibson and Walk : the visual cliff

Lettvin et al. : what the frog's eye tells the frog's brain

pt. 8. Social psychology: Theodore Newcomb : attitude change at college

Muzafer Sherif : prejudice and the robbers' cave

Kurt Lewin : tensions in the life space

Solomon Asch on conformity

Festinger et al. : when prophesy fails

Stanley Milgram on obedience to authority

Latané and Darley : the unresponsive bystander

Benjamin Franklin : mesmer and animal magnetism.