An Introduction to Psychology / Translated from the Second German Edition

The book presents a concise introduction to experimental psychology, defining the science as the descriptive analysis of conscious processes and their governing laws. It emphasizes experimental methods and uses simple demonstrations, notably metronome studies of rhythmic attention, to illustrate perceptual and attentional organization. It analyzes the basic elements of mental life—sensations, feelings, memory images, and volitional impulses—and examines how associations and apperceptive combinations produce recognition, thought, and language. Later chapters treat principles that shape mental processes, such as creative resultants, heterogony of ends, conditioning relations, and the relation between physical and psychical elements, while considering implications for concepts of mind.