Der Tastsinn und das Gemeingefühl

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July 14, 2026

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Ernst Heinrich Weber's work, particularly Der Tastsinn und das Gemeingefühl (1851), is foundational to experimental psychology. Weber's research focused on sensory perception, introducing the concept of the "just-noticeable difference". This is the smallest detectable difference between two similar stimuli.1

Weber observed that this difference is a ratio of the original stimulus's intensity. For example, a greater weight must be added to a 100-pound load than to a 10-pound load for the change to be noticed. This principle, later quantified as Weber's law, has been crucial in understanding sensory physiology and has influenced fields like psychophysics.12

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Ernst Heinrich Weber
Weber’s findings were elaborated in Der Tastsinn und das Gemeingefühl (1851; “The Sense of Touch and the Common Sensibility”), which was considered by the English psychologist E.B. Titchener to be “the foundation stone of experimental psychology.” Weber’s empirical observations were expressed mathematically by Gustav Theodor Fechner, who called his formulation…
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Weber’s findings were elaborated in Der Tastsinn und das Gemeingefühl (1851; “The Sense of Touch and the Common Sensibility”), which was considered by the English psychologist E.B. Titchener to be “the foundation stone of experimental psychology.” Weber’s empirical observations were expressed mathematically by Gustav Theodor Fechner, who called his formulation…
Read More