Chronoscope

CHRONOSCOPE, n. (from Greek chronos- time and skopeo- I look, observe). The chronoscope is an instrument for measuring very short intervals of time. The simplest type of chronoscope is the stopwatch. A more complex type is electric clocks that mark time intervals with accuracy up to 1/1000 of a second (see figure). Chronoscopes of this type are used in astronomy to determine the magnitude of an observer's error in determining the time of a star's passage through the meridian; in experimental psychology to measure the time of psychological reaction (the beginning of a responsive action to any irritation); in military affairs to determine the velocity of projectiles, etc. The most commonly used type of chronoscope in experimental psychology is Hipp's chronoscope (see Hipp's chronoscope), Schulze's chronoscope, Ach's chronotyper, and Shirokogo's chronometer (USSR). To verify the readings of the chronoscope, special control instruments are used: Hipp's Fall-apparatus, Wundt's control hammer, and others. The study of the time of psychological processes with the help of a chronoscope (chronoscopy) is one of the basic laboratory methods of experimental psychology and is currently used mainly in the study of volitional processes. Introduced first by Wundt, the chronoscopic method has found wide application in many branches of experimental psychology. It was used by Donders (1868) to measure simple and complex reactions; L. Lange investigated the time of motor and sensory reaction using this method (1888), etc. Wundt and his students attempted to study almost all psychological processes using the chronoscopic method: apperception, associations, thinking, will, etc., however, Külpe (1889-1892) pointed out the inadmissibility of the formal and mechanistic analysis of psychological processes allowed in these studies by the Wundtian school. Subsequently, the chronoscopic method came to be used predominantly only in the study of volitional processes. The most valuable works in this regard belong to N. Ach, Michot, and others, in the USSR to K. N. Kornilov. In clinical associative experiments, the chronographic method of registering reaction times is often used (see Chronograph).