[tips] H1N1 vaccine effect-walking backwards
Submitted to me by a Canadian friend working in Doha,Qatar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR5p_bD3uLc woman disabled by flu vaccine. Michael --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
[tips] 10 worst ideas of Psychology
1.Negative reinforcement -trying to be like physics wannabes 2.Fundamental attribution error-depends on if one lives in an individualistic culture 3,Developmental stages- very vague;where does one stop and the other begins -continous or discrete 4.Intelligence-what is it? Whites think that it has to do with the 3Rs and abstract thinking The term should be abolished from the language 5. Statistical significance 6.Need for achievement (Nach)-McC;elland took this idea to India,it was a major flop 7.Stimulus and Response-very difficult to distinguish: cannot have one without the other 8.Psychology as a science 9.Academic transfer-the idea that teaching critical thinking skills will turn out better students -most students just want a good grade. 10,Learning and conditioning.This takes the prize.There is no such thing as conditioning in the real world.As a matter of fact this is a topic that we can do without.Learning and conditioning are artifacts of our domrstication.L and C do not exist in the real world of animals where everything come about through fix action patterns.The closet to any form of learning that exist in the wild are tropisms and habituation. Michael"omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
[tips] No Einstein in Your Crib? Get a Refund - NYTimes.com
"Parent alert: the Walt Disney Company is now offering refunds for all those "Baby Einstein" videos that did not make children into geniuses. They may have been a great electronic baby sitter, but the unusual refunds appear to be a tacit admission that they did not increase infant intellect." For the rest, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/education/24baby.html?hp Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ == --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
[tips] Before Fechner
The British Egyptologist E Wallis Budge in his works Egypt-the light of the world has some interesting facts about early Egyptian science.Interestingly enough the ideas of Fechner and the other structuralists were already know by those Egyptians and Africans.As I have reiterated many times bfore Psychology began as a science in Africa. And was underdevelopped by the Eurocentric paradigm. Michael"omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
Re:[tips] categories of intelligence
I have a question What's the difference between Sternberg's practical intelligence and the construct of crystallized intelligence (Horn/Catell)? Seems like Sternberg focuses on tacit knowledge but can't that be considered a subset of crystallized? Steve Steven Hall Butte Community College CSUC mrstev...@aol.com --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
[tips] Pub Manual v6 what is shipping now?
So, if I purchase copy of the Publication Manual of the APA, 6th edition, what printing is now shipping? How long do we wait to make sure we get what we want? What ISBN do I list for students to ensure they buy the right printing? Is it an ISBN number change? Inquiring minds want to know! Thanks! Paul C. Bernhardt Department of Psychology Frostburg State University Frostburg, Maryland --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)<>
[tips] Return to baseline
Baseline measures are usually taken prior to putting an experimental variable into effect. It is assumed that any changes below or above the baseline are due to the manipulation of the experimental vriable.There is a type of experimental design where the experimental variable is withdrawn and see if behavior returns to baseline,With this observation the certainty of the experimental variable effects is assured.My question is that although the withdrawal of medical treatment raises some ethical concerns,are the cases in psychological experimental where the attempts to return to baseline can be construed as a desirable experimental outcome? Michael "omnicentric" Sylvester,PhD Daytona Beach,Florida --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
RE: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date
Hi Or a more pessimistic interpretation ... it is a sign of an immature discipline that its current members do not recognize (a) the foundations of their ideas, and (b) when they are rediscovering the wheel. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca Department of Psychology University of Winnipeg Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 CANADA >>> "William Scott" 23-Oct-09 8:12 AM >>> Fechner, schmechner. Ask the graduate students if they know who Donald Hebb was. You'll get the same response. Maybe it's the sign of a maturing science. It's more important to know the facts than the names of those who discovered them. Or maybe it's something else. Bill Scott >>> "Wuensch, Karl L" 10/22/09 10:26 PM >>> I am probably the only faculty member at my institution who even mentions Fechner in the Intro class. When I refer to Fechner with my graduate students they give me that "WTF are you talking about" look. When I ask who has ever heard of Fechner, not a single hand is raised. So sad. A few will say they remember hearing of Weber, but none can comment on his contributions to the discipline. Cheers, Karl W. -Original Message- From: Gerald Peterson [mailto:peter...@vmail.svsu.edu] Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 8:20 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date Is psychophysics being taught at the undergrad level? I was introduced to Fechner in an undergrad Exper. Psych class and then in the capstone History and Systems class, but I don't see references to psychophysical methods in most Experimental psych texts. I would think it would be covered in our S&P class. I do mention Fechner and Weber in Intro tho. Gary Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychology Saginaw Valley State University University Center, MI 48710 989-964-4491 peter...@svsu.edu - Original Message - From: "William Scott" To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 5:44:39 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date A long time ago an old friend introduced me to the tradition of serving cake in class on Fechner day. I recommend it. Some places can even put a photo in the icing. Fechner's mug makes everyone take a small piece so one cake can stretch through a large class. Bill Scott >>> "Christopher D. Green" 10/22/09 5:28 PM >>> The Zend-Avesta was a religious text (after a manner of speaking) by Fechner, in which he outlined his "daylight" view of science (a kind of pan-psychist, post-Romantic view of the world), as opposed to he called the "twilight view" (of materialism). (The Avesta is a sacred text of Zoroastrians, who (to a first approximation) worship the sun.) He also wrote abook about the "soul life" of plants. Neither has ever been translated to my knowledge, but Michael Heidelberger's biography of Fechner is an excellent source (if a bit dense). Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ == Ken Steele wrote: > > > I have been wondering about the report of that dream, because it is > repeated so often--but without attribution. I looked at the 1966 > English translation of Elements of Psychophysics (Vol I) and no > mention of the date or a dream occurs in the text. (The translation > of the volume was NIH-funded to celebrate the centennial of the > publication of E of P. I guess we will need to wait until 2066 to see > the translation of Vol. II). > > E G Boring does the introduction to the translation and repeats the > dream story--without attribution of course. Even more irritating is > an article by Boring (1961), in which the date/dream story is > higlighted several times, still without attribution. > > However, Boring (1929/1950) does provide an interesting bit of info in > his Experimental Psychology. Fechner wrote a book, "Zend-Avesta, oder > uber die Dinge des Himmels und des Jenseits," which was published in > 1851. > > Boring (1929/1950, p. 279) notes: "Oddly enough this book contains > Fechner's program of psychophysics..." > > 1851 would be a year after the famous dream and the dream/idea would > still be fresh. The "Elements" contains mainly the results of the > program > > Google books has the Zend-Avesta online but my rusty knowledge of > German and the old font system have managed to block my efforts to > find the psychophysics section. Perhaps another scholar will have > better luck. > > Happy Fechner's Day, > > Ken > > Boring, E. G. (1961). Fechner: Inadvertent founder of psychophysics. > Psychometrika, 26, 3-8. > > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to you
Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date
Bill, Learning names and dates is not learning history. They are just the foundation to learning it. Similarly, learning basic math is not learning science, but it is a foundation upon which (much of) science rests. Just like one cannot really get started doing (modern) science without mathematics, one cannot really get started learning history without knowing names and dates. The real history comes when one is able to put those people and their arguments and evidence into a wider historical context that allows us to really get at what they were trying to do and why. I'm not surprised that most students don't know Donald Hebb (and I say that as one who attended McGill myself). What is more worrying to me is that most (even graduate) students only barely know the names of Wundt and James, and even when they do, can hardly tell you anything about who they were or what they did. Only rarely do they know names like Hull and Tolman. Watson typically fares a bit better (due to "Little Albert"). Skinner better still. After the 1960s, psychology splintered in so many different directions that students generally only know the names of the people most closely associated with "their" area. From the "formative" era of psychology, Weber, Fechner, Mueller, Stumpf, Hall, Cattell, Baldwin, Titchener, Angell, Dewey, Munsterberg, Jastrow, Scripture, Witmer, Goddard, Terman, Thorndike, Koehler, Koffka, Wertheimer, etc. all draw blank stares for the most part. (One of my favorites in this regard is David Shakow, who is probably the single most important person in the training of every (PhD) clinical psychologist in North America today, and virtually no one knows his name.) As you say, it is, of course, important for students of psychology to learn psychological "facts" (if one can say such phrase so baldly without giggling). And I don't think it is worthwhile getting into the ancient debate about how much history the "working scientist" need know. (There is a great, classic article by Stephen Brush called "Should the History of Science Be Rated X?" (/Science/, 1974) that addresses this issue: http://tinyurl.com/ykeug52 ). But it seems to me that knowing a bit (and we are only talking about a tiny bit here) of the history of the science that one undertakes can't do any harm (if only to prevent one from going down previously explored blind alleys, and making previously-exploded invalid assumptions about what one is doing. As Santayana said (almost): Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. Santayana didn't have a logical (well, statsitical) proof of this, but I think a sketch of one would look something like this: Most of the smart people in history have come up with highly plausible explanations of the phenomena they have studied. Most of those candidate explanations, plausible as they were, have turned out to be false. When people later in history contemplate the same phenomena, they are likely to set upon the same plausible candidate explanations just because of their very plausibility. Knowing history will allow one to dismiss such explanations relatively quickly, despite their initial plausibility. Those who don't know their history, however, are more likely to commit great time and resources to pursuing the same (false) candidate explanations time and time again. Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ == William Scott wrote: > Fechner, schmechner. Ask the graduate students if they know who Donald Hebb > was. You'll get the same response. Maybe it's the sign of a maturing science. > It's more important to know the facts than the names of those who discovered > them. > > Or maybe it's something else. > > Bill Scott > > > "Wuensch, Karl L" 10/22/09 10:26 PM >>> > I am probably the only faculty member at my institution who even > mentions Fechner in the Intro class. When I refer to Fechner with my > graduate students they give me that "WTF are you talking about" look. When I > ask who has ever heard of Fechner, not a single hand is raised. So sad. A > few will say they remember hearing of Weber, but none can comment on his > contributions to the discipline. > > Cheers, > > Karl W. > > -Original Message- > From: Gerald Peterson [mailto:peter...@vmail.svsu.edu] > Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 8:20 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Subject: Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date > > > Is psychophysics being taught at the undergrad level? I was introduced to > Fechner in an undergrad Exper. Psych class and then in the capstone History > and Systems class, but I don't see references to psychophysical methods in > most Experimental psych texts. I would think it would be covered in our S&P > class. I do mention Fechn
RE: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date
Fechner, schmechner. Ask the graduate students if they know who Donald Hebb was. You'll get the same response. Maybe it's the sign of a maturing science. It's more important to know the facts than the names of those who discovered them. Or maybe it's something else. Bill Scott >>> "Wuensch, Karl L" 10/22/09 10:26 PM >>> I am probably the only faculty member at my institution who even mentions Fechner in the Intro class. When I refer to Fechner with my graduate students they give me that "WTF are you talking about" look. When I ask who has ever heard of Fechner, not a single hand is raised. So sad. A few will say they remember hearing of Weber, but none can comment on his contributions to the discipline. Cheers, Karl W. -Original Message- From: Gerald Peterson [mailto:peter...@vmail.svsu.edu] Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 8:20 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date Is psychophysics being taught at the undergrad level? I was introduced to Fechner in an undergrad Exper. Psych class and then in the capstone History and Systems class, but I don't see references to psychophysical methods in most Experimental psych texts. I would think it would be covered in our S&P class. I do mention Fechner and Weber in Intro tho. Gary Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychology Saginaw Valley State University University Center, MI 48710 989-964-4491 peter...@svsu.edu - Original Message - From: "William Scott" To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 5:44:39 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date A long time ago an old friend introduced me to the tradition of serving cake in class on Fechner day. I recommend it. Some places can even put a photo in the icing. Fechner's mug makes everyone take a small piece so one cake can stretch through a large class. Bill Scott >>> "Christopher D. Green" 10/22/09 5:28 PM >>> The Zend-Avesta was a religious text (after a manner of speaking) by Fechner, in which he outlined his "daylight" view of science (a kind of pan-psychist, post-Romantic view of the world), as opposed to he called the "twilight view" (of materialism). (The Avesta is a sacred text of Zoroastrians, who (to a first approximation) worship the sun.) He also wrote abook about the "soul life" of plants. Neither has ever been translated to my knowledge, but Michael Heidelberger's biography of Fechner is an excellent source (if a bit dense). Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ == Ken Steele wrote: > > > I have been wondering about the report of that dream, because it is > repeated so often--but without attribution. I looked at the 1966 > English translation of Elements of Psychophysics (Vol I) and no > mention of the date or a dream occurs in the text. (The translation > of the volume was NIH-funded to celebrate the centennial of the > publication of E of P. I guess we will need to wait until 2066 to see > the translation of Vol. II). > > E G Boring does the introduction to the translation and repeats the > dream story--without attribution of course. Even more irritating is > an article by Boring (1961), in which the date/dream story is > higlighted several times, still without attribution. > > However, Boring (1929/1950) does provide an interesting bit of info in > his Experimental Psychology. Fechner wrote a book, "Zend-Avesta, oder > uber die Dinge des Himmels und des Jenseits," which was published in > 1851. > > Boring (1929/1950, p. 279) notes: "Oddly enough this book contains > Fechner's program of psychophysics..." > > 1851 would be a year after the famous dream and the dream/idea would > still be fresh. The "Elements" contains mainly the results of the > program > > Google books has the Zend-Avesta online but my rusty knowledge of > German and the old font system have managed to block my efforts to > find the psychophysics section. Perhaps another scholar will have > better luck. > > Happy Fechner's Day, > > Ken > > Boring, E. G. (1961). Fechner: Inadvertent founder of psychophysics. > Psychometrika, 26, 3-8. > > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
[tips] How to control your email
If you ever get email that your usual junk email filter doesn't catch, there is a solution even if you are on Outlook Web Access (and other web access to email probably have similar controls, if you poke around). Click the Options button will give you access to junk email controls. Clicking it you can access block lists to which you can add a specific email address if the user of that address happens to offend you. Here is a link to a pretty clear explanation of it at Arizona State University's site: http://help.asu.edu/node/181 It isn't perfect, I can't screen out responses by others to that person. So, over the weekend I'll still see mysterious responses to in threads that don't appear to have an originating message. Maybe a solution to that will emerge over time. You have the power to control your email, and it only takes a few minutes to exercise it and never have to deal with postings that you find obnoxious ever again. Paul Bernhardt --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)<>
Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date
A great "psychophysics" demonstration you can do in class uses money and hapiness (rather than calibrated lights or sounds). First, ask students to imagine that they have been given $100. Ask them to get a sense of how happy that would make them. Then ask them to imagine that they have been given $200. Ask them is the happiness of getting $200 is TWICE that of getting $100, or if it seems somewhat less than twice as happy. Most will answer the latter. Voila! The non-linear relationship between physical and psychological intensity. Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ == John Kulig wrote: > I still do Fechner. I used to briefly do the DL and JND concepts when I > taught intro (I believe Gleitman's text still covers him). When I taught > History of Psych I did more, starting with Herbart and Leibnitz' concepts on > petite perceptions, a few staged DL demos, then Weber & Fechner. I used to > have an essay question on whether he or Wundt founded psychology. He's hard > to avoid in measurement classes (though the books ignore him). I tie him to > the challenge of scaling brightness or loudness, and then discuss the > challenge of scaling more ambitious things such as beauty or happiness. > > Fenchner's metaphysical ramblings as Dr. Mises and the 'day' and 'night' > views are also worth doing, as I (after Boring) paint a picture of the > Germans as struggling with the relationship between the objective/physical > versus the subjective/psychological, hence the only country where psychology > could have started. So you can still get a tremendous amount of mileage out > of Fechner in undergraduate classes. > > btw right before Fechner I show my favorite Calvin & Hobbs cartoon, doing > pushups and counting (something like) "20" "514" and then saying (something > like) "exercise is more gratifying when you count like it feels like" > > -- > John W. Kulig > Professor of Psychology > Plymouth State University > Plymouth NH 03264 > -- > > - Original Message - > From: "Karl L Wuensch" > To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" > Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:25:56 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern > Subject: RE: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date > > I am probably the only faculty member at my institution who even > mentions Fechner in the Intro class. When I refer to Fechner with my > graduate students they give me that "WTF are you talking about" look. When I > ask who has ever heard of Fechner, not a single hand is raised. So sad. A > few will say they remember hearing of Weber, but none can comment on his > contributions to the discipline. > > Cheers, > > Karl W. > > -Original Message- > From: Gerald Peterson [mailto:peter...@vmail.svsu.edu] > Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 8:20 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Subject: Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date > > > Is psychophysics being taught at the undergrad level? I was introduced to > Fechner in an undergrad Exper. Psych class and then in the capstone History > and Systems class, but I don't see references to psychophysical methods in > most Experimental psych texts. I would think it would be covered in our S&P > class. I do mention Fechner and Weber in Intro tho. Gary > > > > > Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D. > Professor, Department of Psychology > Saginaw Valley State University > University Center, MI 48710 > 989-964-4491 > peter...@svsu.edu > > - Original Message - > From: "William Scott" > To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" > Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 5:44:39 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern > Subject: Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date > > A long time ago an old friend introduced me to the tradition of serving cake > in class on Fechner day. I recommend it. Some places can even put a photo in > the icing. Fechner's mug makes everyone take a small piece so one cake can > stretch through a large class. > > Bill Scott > > > "Christopher D. Green" 10/22/09 5:28 PM >>> > The Zend-Avesta was a religious text (after a manner of speaking) by > Fechner, in which he outlined his "daylight" view of science (a kind of > pan-psychist, post-Romantic view of the world), as opposed to he called > the "twilight view" (of materialism). (The Avesta is a sacred text of > Zoroastrians, who (to a first approximation) worship the sun.) He also > wrote abook about the "soul life" of plants. > > Neither has ever been translated to my knowledge, but Michael > Heidelberger's biography of Fechner is an excellent source (if a bit > dense). > > Chris > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date
I still do Fechner. I used to briefly do the DL and JND concepts when I taught intro (I believe Gleitman's text still covers him). When I taught History of Psych I did more, starting with Herbart and Leibnitz' concepts on petite perceptions, a few staged DL demos, then Weber & Fechner. I used to have an essay question on whether he or Wundt founded psychology. He's hard to avoid in measurement classes (though the books ignore him). I tie him to the challenge of scaling brightness or loudness, and then discuss the challenge of scaling more ambitious things such as beauty or happiness. Fenchner's metaphysical ramblings as Dr. Mises and the 'day' and 'night' views are also worth doing, as I (after Boring) paint a picture of the Germans as struggling with the relationship between the objective/physical versus the subjective/psychological, hence the only country where psychology could have started. So you can still get a tremendous amount of mileage out of Fechner in undergraduate classes. btw right before Fechner I show my favorite Calvin & Hobbs cartoon, doing pushups and counting (something like) "20" "514" and then saying (something like) "exercise is more gratifying when you count like it feels like" -- John W. Kulig Professor of Psychology Plymouth State University Plymouth NH 03264 -- - Original Message - From: "Karl L Wuensch" To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:25:56 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: RE: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date I am probably the only faculty member at my institution who even mentions Fechner in the Intro class. When I refer to Fechner with my graduate students they give me that "WTF are you talking about" look. When I ask who has ever heard of Fechner, not a single hand is raised. So sad. A few will say they remember hearing of Weber, but none can comment on his contributions to the discipline. Cheers, Karl W. -Original Message- From: Gerald Peterson [mailto:peter...@vmail.svsu.edu] Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 8:20 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date Is psychophysics being taught at the undergrad level? I was introduced to Fechner in an undergrad Exper. Psych class and then in the capstone History and Systems class, but I don't see references to psychophysical methods in most Experimental psych texts. I would think it would be covered in our S&P class. I do mention Fechner and Weber in Intro tho. Gary Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychology Saginaw Valley State University University Center, MI 48710 989-964-4491 peter...@svsu.edu - Original Message - From: "William Scott" To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 5:44:39 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [tips] Fechner Day! -- that darn date A long time ago an old friend introduced me to the tradition of serving cake in class on Fechner day. I recommend it. Some places can even put a photo in the icing. Fechner's mug makes everyone take a small piece so one cake can stretch through a large class. Bill Scott >>> "Christopher D. Green" 10/22/09 5:28 PM >>> The Zend-Avesta was a religious text (after a manner of speaking) by Fechner, in which he outlined his "daylight" view of science (a kind of pan-psychist, post-Romantic view of the world), as opposed to he called the "twilight view" (of materialism). (The Avesta is a sacred text of Zoroastrians, who (to a first approximation) worship the sun.) He also wrote abook about the "soul life" of plants. Neither has ever been translated to my knowledge, but Michael Heidelberger's biography of Fechner is an excellent source (if a bit dense). Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ == Ken Steele wrote: > > > I have been wondering about the report of that dream, because it is > repeated so often--but without attribution. I looked at the 1966 > English translation of Elements of Psychophysics (Vol I) and no > mention of the date or a dream occurs in the text. (The translation > of the volume was NIH-funded to celebrate the centennial of the > publication of E of P. I guess we will need to wait until 2066 to see > the translation of Vol. II). > > E G Boring does the introduction to the translation and repeats the > dream story--without attribution of course. Even more irritating is > an article by Boring (1961), in which the date/dream story is > higlighted several times, still without attribution. > > However, Boring (1929/1950) does provide an interesting bit of info in > his Experimental Psychology. Fechner wrote a book, "Zend-Avesta, oder > ub