Brief historical reconstruction of the first university laboratory of experimental psychology in Peru.

Abstract

The experimental laboratory and the Institute of Psychology and Psychotechnics at the University of San Marcos, which housed it, were inaugurated on November 14, 1935. German professor Walter Blumenfeld (1887-1967), who was in charge of this establishment, assumed the chair of Experimental Psychology, was responsible for designing exams for university applicants and conducted psychotechnical research. This article aims to reconstruct the equipment and daily work of this first laboratory at the university. Blumenfeld's work and the establishment of this laboratory are credited with making the academic study of psychology possible in Peru-a field previously regarded as unknowable-and paving the way for psychology to become a university degree in 1955. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).