Wundt(1832-1920) designed a psychology laboratory in the University of Leipzig which was to earn a reputation of being the world largest and best equipped and was to become the standard for scientific psychology laboratories throughout the world.

Wundt lab has a historical importance not only its reputation as the first and well-equipped experimental psychology lab but also its tremendous influence on the later development of psychology. Wundt lab attracted students from around the world, many of whom returned to their countries and contributed to the development of psychology there by establishing experimental psychology programs and psychology laboratories. By 1900, more than a hundred psychological laboratories had been established worldwide, and psychology was widely recognized as an important and independent academic subject. Today, little more than a century after Wundt started his Leipzig lab, psychology is one of the most frequently studied subjects in Western Universities.

Subject matters conducted at his psychology lab are also of special importance in the development of psychology. Experimental works conducted at his lab included: (1) timing mental processes, (2) time-sense, (3) analysis of sensation, and (4) attention, memory, and the association of ideas. Particularly, his focus on the precise measurement of mental processes or mental chronometry became the central issue in psychological research from the 1870's into the 1950's. His insistence on precision of measurement along with his other studies including sensation and memory has continued to influence the design of psychological experiments to the present (e.g., reaction time studies in various fields of psychology including cognitive and perceptual psychology, and clinical psychology; studies regarding sensation and perception; memory studies using tachistoscope devices, etc.).