3 Review(s)

It gives me immense pleasure to forward this book to students ofexperimental psychology.Practicals of experimental psychology are essential forunderstanding the discipline of scientific psychology. Without suchobjective thinking no research can be done. At any cost importanceof practicals should not be underestimated and practicals should bewholeheartedly conducted by the students. Progress of psychology asa sound science is impossible without it.These experiments are included in various syllabi like graduation,post-graduation of psychology, and education. It is possible toconduct some of these experiments with the help of computers.However, for understanding development of basic models andtheories through various stages, it is essential to develop theimportant skills of experiments. Some simple experiments are alsodiscussed so that they can be introduced in junior colleges thoughthey may not be included in the syllabi.Today’s students are tomorrow’s teachers. Hence, there should beno ambiguity in understanding the purpose, procedure, preparationand conduct of the experiment. It is essential that they should beaware of even minor points regarding preparing and arranging thematerial required to conduct the experiments. Students shoulddevelop insight regarding all these things and their impact ondependent variable of the experiment. For example while pasting theplain paper to the memory drum, if it is not done in perfect way , theindicators of glue will give extra hint for remembering the stimulusadjacent to it. It can play the role of isolation and the whole shape ofserial learning curve may change substantially. Minor detailsregarding how to use various instruments in the laboratory, how toprepare lists of learning material, various operations of theinstrument, adjusting time etc should be carefully considered. Everyprecaution should be taken to avoid such mistakes. Experimentalpsychology practicals demand lot of devotion, time and energy.It is beyond imagination to cover all the possible experiments.One can generate multiple experiments on the basis of varioustheories and models. Hence, these are only representativeexperiments which are generally conducted and can be conducted inpsychology laboratory of most of the colleges. Once the student orteacher gets interested in experiments she will be able to generatenumber of new experimental plans. For example we may change theindependent variable, or dependent variable and add or reduce somedimensions, introduce a different method of taking trials, giving orhiding some information, changing the position of rest period, andthink of different new ways of conducting experiments. Obviously, itis essential to have sound knowledge of theory and previous findingsof research for that.