Wudnt had a major contribution in the field of psychology through his methodological contributions. In one way or the other, he was associated with developments and improvements and not just primary breakthroughs. The achievement by Wudnt (1969) was an organizational one as he acted as the critical catalyst in the studies of psychology. One of the most profound ways that he contributed to the development of psychology was through his laboratory research in which he carefully controlled the conditions for the experiments.
Considering the nature of the laboratory experiments that Wudnt conducted, there were a number of limitations that accompanied them. Considering that in these experiments the conditions are controlled, Wudnt would decide on time, participants and even procedures using particular procedures. The limitations he faced include the artificiality associated with organizing the experiments that would mean that the outcome was unnatural behavior and as thus was not directly reflecting the real life (Wundt, 1969). In most cases, the findings of a laboratory experiment are generalized so as to meet the criteria of a real life setting. The other limitation was that the demand traits or rather the effects of the experimenter, Wudnt, were sort of bias in one way or the other since he knew what he was experimenting on and the expected result. This would have led to the bias of the results as well as making them be just confounding variables.
According to Wudnt (1969), mediate experiences were experiences that were providing information concerning a particular element or subject and not just the elements of that particular experience whereas immediate experience was interpretation free and unbiased. To illustrate, mediate experiences give information and does not give the direct result that one is looking for and is obtained from measuring equipment and thus cannot be direct.
James would have used the concept of experiments to bring out illustrations to his metaphorical works. Considering that he uses metaphors and analogies, it would be convenient for him to use laboratory experiment, virtually, to dictate conditions for his works and give mediate views.
References; Wundt, W. M. (1969). Principles of physiological psychology. Рипол Классик.