Experimental psychology emerged as a modern academic discipline in the 19th century when Wilhelm Wundt introduced a mathematical and experimental approach to the field. Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.[2] Other experimental psychologists, including Hermann Ebbinghaus and Edward Titchener, included introspection among their experimental methods.

Charles Bell was a British physiologist, whose main contribution was research involving the nervous system. He wrote a pamphlet summarizing his research on rabbits. His research concluded that sensory nerves enter at the posterior (dorsal) roots of the spinal cord and motor nerves emerge from the anterior (ventral) roots of the spinal cord. Eleven years later, a French physiologist Francois Magendie published the same findings without being aware of Bell's research. Due to Bell not publishing his research, this discovery was called the Bell-Magendie law. Bell's discovery disproved the belief that nerves transmitted either vibrations or spirits.