What psychophysical methods did Fechner use? How did psychophysics influence the development of psychology?
Fechner gave the concept of psychophysics. It is the relationship, between physical and mental worlds. The first method is average error in which the subjects are exposed to a stimulus until they perceive it to be equal to a standard stimulus.
This experiment is repeated over a number of times until the difference in the mean values of the variable stimulus, and the standard stimulus, represents the error in observation.
The second method is continuous stimuli in which stimulus is given constantly and the stimulus difference produces the proportion of correct judgments. For example if subjects were given the weights 50, 52,54,56,58 against the standard weight 55. The subjects must judge, whether the second weight, is heavier, lighter or same than the first.
The third method is limits, in which two stimuli are given to the subject. The stimuli considered here are weights. The stimulus is increased and decreased until the subjects are able to detect the difference. Results are obtained, and the mean is taken out to determine the just noticeable difference from, which the differential threshold is averaged out.