The ground covered by psychophysiology throughout the decades
prior to its constitution as an independent discipline has not
been well documented, despite its historical interest. A
bibliometric study of the research published in scientific journals
by 66 of the most relevant psychophysiologists from 1930 to
1964, analyzing the contents of the records indexed in the PsycINFO
database, gives us an image of the state of the emergent discipline
during that period. This study reveals that this was a period
of consolidation, marked by the refinement of instruments and
procedures, the characterization of measurements, and the
establishment of the basic relationships between physiological
and psychological variables, the development and validation
of basic constructs such as activation, or interest in the study
of psychopathology. In these years the foundations of
psychophysiology were laid, leading to the formalization of
the discipline at the end of the period.