Perera – Reaction timing
instrumentation
Paper presented in a symposium at the 1999 meeting of
the Eastern Psychological Association in
Chaired by Dr. Haupt and
entitled (il Simposio?): The
Muller - Wundt Controversy over the Measurement of
Reaction Time.
OUTLINE (Sommario):
QUOTATION FROM THE
Appropriate because of the current bombing of
BUILDING MUSEUMS ON THE INTERNET:
Barnard Hipp
THE HIPP CHORONOSCOPES
Variations
Hipp Reaction Time Setup
Hipp Operation
Tuning Fork Escapement - Problems
Start and Stop Solenoids - Problems
THE WET
CALIBRATION OF THE HIPP
Control Hammer
Contact Pendulum
IMPROVEMENTS AND CHANGES IN THE HIPP
DESIGN
Amerika Chronoscope
D'Arsonoval Chronoscope
Dunlap Chronoscope
CHRONO 'GRAPHS'
Smoked-drum / tuning fork
Phonograph Chronograph
PENDULUM CHRONOSCOPES
Barnard Pendulum Chronoscope
Vernier Chronoscope
GALVANOMETER CHRONOSCOPE
THE HUMAN FACTOR
Cattell with Wundt
Cattell at
THE COLUMBIA PSYCHOLOGY
DEPARTMENT
Keller's Introductory Classes
Emphasis on wiring diagrams
Knowledge of electronics
Knowledge of Army Surplus
Brenner's Shop
German Precision
Brenner Label
FINAL SOLUTIONS TO THE TIMING
PROBLEM
Atomic Counter
Quartz Crystal Oscillator
Accurate Timer
Expensive
Hard to Interface
Hunter Timers
DISTRIBUTE BIBLIOGRAPHY..........
DEMONSTRATION OF:
Hipp Chronoscope
Pendulum Chronoscope
Vernier Chronoscope
APPROXIMATE TEXT OF PAPER:
PSYCHOLOGICAL
REACTION TIMING
Copyright (c) 1999
Thomas Perera Ph. D.
Draft of paper for EPA presentation,
I would like to start out by reading
an adaptation of the introduction to the magnificent book: Sense, Mind, and Measure: The Collection of
Old Scientific Instruments of the laboratory for Experimental Psychology,
They write:
"The Methods and spirit of Wundt's Laboratory were spread by many renowned European
and American Psychologists. It is through
an understanding of the methodology of Wundt's
Laboratory that we can gain an insight into the development of Experimental
Psychology itself."
"The Psychological instruments
which were the last word in technology have vanished from modern psychological
laboratories. After multiple rennovations and house cleanings, most modern laboratories
show no signs of any of the early apparatus."
"I do regret that we have
replaced that bountiful variety of switches, outlets, dials, wires, rods,
tubes, supports, motors, threads, pens, those often imaginitive
forms made of brass, wood, glass, rubber, plastic, and what-not for the boring
monotony of computer screens and keyboards."
"That is why we have worked so
hard to preserve and restore the psychological apparatus in our museum."
(THE
CAPITALIZED HEADINGS ARE THE SLIDES WHICH I PRESENTED)
Lacking the wealth of original
instruments in the
BARNARD WEB HIPP
I have been searching out and
restoring some of the earliest research apparatus from the forgotten
storerooms of Barnard College of Columbia
University and I have made photographs and descriptions of the various
instruments accessible to everyone on the internet as the "Barnard College History of Psychology
Collection".
BARNARD HIPP
Barnard's most prized exhibit is
this wonderful Hipp Chronoscope. It
was used at
** HIPP TYPES & OPERATION
EUROPEAN HIPP
WOODEN COVERED
WOODEN COVERED MECHANISM
There were many primarily cosmetic
refinements of the Hipp Chronoscope and in its direct
descendants as shown in these slides during it's 100
year production from the 1840's to the 1940's.
HIPP SETUP: WORD STIMULUS, VOICE
RESPONSE
Here is a complete early reaction
time experimental setup. A word stimulus is suddenly exposed and the subject
responds by speaking loudly at this electromechanical voice key. The Hipp does the
timing.
HIPP FRONT VIEW
Let me describe the operation of the
Hipp and the intracacies of
its mechanism. This front view shows the
two dials. The upper one reads in
milliseconds and the lower one increments one step for each (100ms) complete
revolution of the upper dial. The
mechanism is powered by a heavy weight which hangs down below the mechanism.
START KEY
START AND STOP LEVERS
Some Hipp
Chronoscopes were equipped with a key to start the mechanism as shown
here. Others such as the Barnard Hipp which I will be demonstrating are started by simply
pulling on a string. The string pulls the start lever and gives one of the
gears a real kick-start which overcomes the resistance of the vibrating tuning
fork escapement and starts it oscillating.
CLOSE-UP OF TUNING FORK ESCAPEMENT:
The tuning fork escapement had to
oscillate at 1000 Hz and this required a very delicate adjustment as you will
hear when I demonstrate it. All too
easily, the frequency could shift to 500 Hz and the experimenter had to be
constantly on guard to listen for this event and discard affected trials. This
was one of the more easily managed sources of timing error with the Hipp Chronoscopes.
START AND STOP SOLENOIDS
CLUTCH CLOSE-UP
PULL-IN / RELEASE TENSION SPRING
FINE ADJUSTMENT DIAL
PULL-IN / RELEASE KYMOGRAPHIC
TRACINGS
The major problem affecting accuracy
came from the need to exactly equalize the rise and fall times of the start and
stop solenoids. These solenoids moved this tiny bar from the stationary clutch
face to the moving clutch face and back again.
Adjustments were made by varying the return-spring tension using these
fine calibrated settings.
Keeping the Hipp
calibrated was a tedious and difficult task. Due to variations in the above
parameters and in the wet batteries used to power the solenoids, it was
necessary to calibrate the Hipp every 20 or 30
trials.
THE "CROW'S FOOT WET
The batteries consisted of Zinc and
Copper electrodes immersed in a solution of copper sulfate. I have one such battery for you to inspect up
here at the front of the room. Changes in room temperature, electrolyte
concentration, and deposits on the electrodes caused the voltage and current
output of the batteries to vary widely.
** CALIBRATION OF THE HIPP
CONTROL HAMMER
The device which was used most
frequently for calibrating the Hipp Chronoscope was
the Control Hammer. The Control Hammer
provided an accurate and repeatable set of contact-closures as a hammer
literally fell past the electrical contacts.
Due to limitations of size, it could only be used to calibrate time
intervals up to 160 ms.
CONTACT PENDULUM CALIBRATOR
The Contact Pendulum was a second
device used for calibrating chronoscopes and chronographs for longer time
intervals than 160ms. It was capable of
generating accurate signals separated by up to 2.5 seconds. Its operation was based on the constant
oscillation period of a pendulum of known length. Dr. Galanter
reports that at
The Hipp
continued to be used for 100 years but improvements were made and the improved
instruments found their way into psychological research labs as their finances
allowed.
FURTHER EVOLUTION OF THE HIPP
AMERIKA CHRONOSCOPE
The first improvement was to replace the weight-driven mechanism with a
wind-up spring driven mechanism while retaining the 1000 Hz tuning fork
escapement.
D'ARSONOVAL CHRONOSCOPE
Next, a Foucault swinging weight governor was used to regulate the speed
of the spring-driven mechanism. This
produced a device called the D'Arsonoval Chronoscope.
DUNLAP CHRONOSCOPE
The next evolutionary step in chronoscope design was the Dunlap or
John's Hopkins Chronoscope which used a synchronous electric motor which synchronized itself to the
pulses produced by a tuning-fork oscillator.
DUNLAP CHRONOSCOPE IN EXPERIMENTAL
SETUP
In this slide you can see a complete reaction time setup with the tuning
fork that drove the Dunlap Chronoscope over on the right. Professor Galanter was responsible for such a Dunlap Chronoscope at
Finally, the Springfield Electric Company began producing the Standard
Electric Timer which is still being sold.
It was/is a Hipp-like mechanism with a constantly
running synchronous electric motor which derived its extreme accuracy from the
stability of the 60 Hz line voltages.
INSIDE A
The electrically-operated clutch
mechanism simply freed-up or stopped a wheel which was constantly trying to
rotate as a result of the constantly-running electric motor. This mechanism was therefore very similar to
the original Hipp mechanism.
Electronic counters eventually
replaced the electromechanical
** CHRONO 'GRAPHS'
PICTURE OF CHRONOGRAPH & HIPP
ELECTRICAL TUNING FORK AND SINE WAVE
TRACING ON SMOKED DRUM
ChronoGRAPHS which wrote a tuning-fork produced stream of timing oscillations on a
black smoked sheet of paper and imposed start and stop signals on the
oscillations were introduced in the same time frame as the Hipp. They provided reliability and high degrees of
accuracy but were extremely tedious to use because of the need to count each of
the 1000 oscillations-per-second marks in a measured time interval. Because of this, 50, 100, and 200 Hz models
were common.
PHONOGRAPH CHRONOGRAPH
For psychology departments that
didn't have the money to buy the expensive Hipp
Chronoscopes or Kymographic Chronographs, equipment
manufacturers made devices that converted a standard phonograph into a
chronograph.
** PENDULUM CHRONOSCOPES
WEB BARNARD PENDULUM
This is a very early reacton timer.
Presenting the visual stimulus also releases a pendulum which swings
along a calibrated scale until the subject stops it by pressing this bar which
pinches the pendulum and brings it to a stop.
BARNARD PENDULUM STIMULUS / TRIGGER
BARNARD PENDULUM HAND - CALIBRATED
SCALE
BARNARD PENDULUM ADDED-ON SOLENOID
ELECTROMAGNETIC STOP
As you can see the pendulum
apparatus was modified by the addition of electromagnets to allow electrical
signals to instantaneously stop it's swing.
WEB BARNARD VERNIER CHRONOSCOPE
CLOSE-UP OF EXPERIMENTER'S AND
SUBJECT'S FINGERS ON KEYS
Another pendulum based mechanism was
this vernier chronoscope. The two pendulums are set
to slightly different lengths using a calibration rod which precisely positions
each one at the proper length. One has
an oscillation period of .80 sec and one has a period of .78 sec. The experimenter presses a button which
starts the left one swinging and this is the stimulus to which the subject
responds by pressing a button and releasing the second pendulum. The experimenter then counts the number of
swings before they become synchronized and this number gives the number of
1/50'ths or .02's of a second that the two start times differ from each other.
** THE GALVANOMETER CHRONOSCOPE
MIRROR GALVANOMETER CHRONOSCOPE
Another type of chronoscope was made
from a mirror galvanometer. It was appropriate only for very brief time
intervals. An electrical voltage was
impressed on a sensitive mirror galvanometer
when the stimulus was
presented. The galvanometer began to
swing and to move a reflected beam of light.
When the subject responded, the galvanometer decellerated
and the position that the beam of light reached at the point of reversal of
direction gave an accurate indication of the duration of the voltage from
stimulus onset to response onset.
** THE HUMAN FACTOR IN REACTION TIME
RESEARCH
CATTELL AND WUNDT
Finally, I would like to mention an
all-but-forgotten aspect of improving accuracy in reaction time research. Clearly, the most accurate reaction timing
devices are irrelevant if the subject daydreams, slouches, fidgets, and dozes
during the experiment. Every fidget increases the variability of the individual
reaction times. A highly trained and
motivated subject, then, may be as important as the
refinements in instrumentation
accuracy.
Cattell, shown standing on the right started out as a student of Wundt's in the
1880's and gradually set out on his own to bring accurate reaction time
research to the United States, first at
Pennsylvania in 1887 and then at Columbia in 1890.
As a young man, he dedicated himself
to becoming a 'professional' reaction time subject. In the same manner as an olympic athlete trains for the olympics,
Cattell trained for his research sessions.
He insisted that "inexperienced
persons, children, or the insane be barred from participation." Cattell followed a
strict and repetitive personal schedule from day to day consisting of constant
exercise, personal discipline, and planned repetitiveness.
PORTRAIT OF A MUCH OLDER CATTELL
In this portrait which hangs in the
Psychology Department at
** THE TRADITION OF TECHNICAL
PRECISION AT
KELLER'S INTRODUCTORY CLASS
At
These electronic counters could be
bought for a small fraction of their original cost either directly from the
Government or from Radio Row in New York City, a dilapidated series of surplus
stores which, sadly, were torn down to allow the construction of the world
trade center.
In those days, one's skills in electronics,
mechanical construction, draftsmanship, and photography were as revered as
one's knowledge of psychology. Notice
that the left side of the blackboard is filled with cumulative record graphs
and the right side has a complex electrical wiring diagram...
At
diameter of the propellor
shaft while under weigh to allow the installation of undersize shaft seals and
stop a leak. (These skills might account
for the survival of his U-boat in a war where most were lost.
He brought these skills and the
associated Helmholtz, Muller tradition of
"PRECISE" German workmanship to
BRENNER LABEL
Prone to screaming outbursts of rage
at our ineptitude with 'HIS' lathes, he terrified both students and faculty
alike into emulating his obsession with precision and accuracy.
** FINAL SOLUTIONS TO THE TIMING
PROBLEM
When I entered the field of
psychology over 40 years ago, the issues surrounding accurate timing had
finally been solved.
Ten years earlier, the development
of the Atomic Bomb for WW-2 had required the development of high speed
electronic counting circuits capable of capturing and counting the brief and
rapid emissions of radioactive particles at rates of up to 100,000 events
per-second.
DECADE COUNTER SYSTEM
Still earlier, in the 1920's, radio
engineers had discovered that quartz crystals could be made to oscillate at
extremely stable frequencies of 100,000 cycles per second and higher.
When the 100,000 cycles-per-second
crystal oscillator was fed into a high speed counter, it became a clock which
counted time in super-accurate steps of 1/100,000 of a second. (A hundredth of
a
millisecond.) For measuring reaction times, all that remained was to turn on the
clock when the stimulus was presented, and turn it off when the response
occurred.
ELECTRONIC DECADE TIMER - PRINTER
ATTACHED
One problem with these new counter/timers
was that they were extremely expensive.
This is the first timer brought into the
Another problem was that
psychologists had no training in electronics and found it extremely difficult
to interface the electromechanical relay programming equipment they had been
using with the delicate high rise-time high-impedance pulse requirements of the
electronic circuits.
LATER STYLE ELECTRONIC TIMER
EARLY HUNTER TIMER
LATER HUNTER KLOCK-COUNTER TIMER
These devices eliminated the early
problems with reaction timing and allowed precise and repeatable measurements.
DISTRIBUTE THE BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEB
SITE LISTING
DEMONSTRATION OF
DEMONSTGRATION OF HIPP
CHRONOSCOPE
DEMONSTRATION OF PENDULUM
CHRONOSCOPE
DEMONSTRATION OF VERNIER
CHRONOSCOPE
THE BARNARD
COLLEGE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY COLLECTION.
This collection consists of color
photographs and descriptions of major early psychological research instruments.