PSYC85H3 Chapter 4: PSYC08 Ch. 4 The Nineteenth-Century Transformation of Psychology
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One important strand in this development was j. f. Herbart"s attempt to cast a psychological theory in purely mathematical terms. Herbart was also one of the first to apply psychology to practical problems, by showing how his psychology implied a particular approach to education. Fechner"s psychophysics, which hypothesized a mathematically precise relation between stimulus values and sensation that could be tested by means of experimental data. Scientific work on the psychophysiology of perception led to important theories of colour vision by hermann von helmholtz, ewald hering, and christine ladd-franklin. The study of brain injuries by paul broca suggested that particular functions could be localized in specific areas of the brain. By efforts of francis galton & herbert spencer, some of the more controversial implications of the theory of evolution were drawn out. Kant did not believe that psychology could be a true science because it could not be mathematical.
