Wilhem Wundt
(1832-1920)
Founded the first psychology
laboratory in 1879 in Leipzig Germany. Although considered a Structuralist,
this is an incorrect perception brought about by Titchner. He considered his
view to be "voluntarism" and strongly opposed mind-body dualisms.
Wundt is often criticized for his use of introspection, although this method
played a smaller role in his research than most people think. Wundt studied a
number of issues including sensation and perception, response times, attention,
"semantic memory", and emotions.
Academic appointments:
1857-1863 University of Heidelberg (lecturer in the Dept. of Physiology)
1863-1871 Resignation and Hiatus
1871-1874 Return to University of Heidelberg
1874-1875 University of Zurich (Chair of Inductive Philosophy)
1875-1917 University of Leipzig
1889 Served as university rector
Major publications:
1873 & 1874 Grundzuge der Physiologischen Psychologie (Principles of
Physiological Psychology).
1896 Grundriss der Psychcologie (Foundations of Psychology)
1900 to 1920 Volkerpsychologie (Cultural or Ethic Psychology). 10
volumes
1911 Einfuhrung in die Psychologie (An Introduction to Psychology)
1920 Erlebtes und Erkanntes (What I Have Experienced and Discovered)
Other achievements:
1881 Established the journal: Philosophische Studien (Philosophical
Studies)
1881-1902 Editor of Philosophische Studien
He was the director of 186 Ph.D. theses, 70 in philosophy and the rest in
psychology. One of which was...
Edward
B. Titchener (1867-1927)
An Englishman who brought
Structuralism to America. For Titchener, a dualist, psychology was the
"science of the mind". Titchener employed introspection more heavily
than Wundt. Titchener felt that sensations, images, and feelings were the basic
elements of thought. The goal of psychology was to understand these elements
and how they interacted in different combinations. His brain is still on
display in the psychology department at Cornell.
Academic appointments:
1892
1892-1927 Cornell
University
Major publications:
Titchener, E. B. (1901-1905). Experimental Psychology.
Titchener, E. B. (1910). A Text Book of Psychology.
Titchener, E. B. (1912). The schema of introspection. American
Journal of Psychology, 23, 485-508.
Boring, E. G., & Titchener, E. B. (1923). A model for the demonstration of facial expression. American Journal of Psychology, 34, 471-485.
Other achievements:
1892-1897
Chair of Cornell’s Department of
Psychology.
1894-1927 Editor of Studies
from the Department of Psychology of
1894-1917 Editor of Mind
1895-1920 Associate Editor of American
Journal of Psychology
1904 Established The Experimentalists, an elite group of experimental
psychologists. This eventually became the Society for Experimental
Psychologists, which was to be one of the models for the Psychonomic
Society.
1917 Turned down a position at
Harvard
1921-1925 Editor of American Journal of Psychology
1927 Credited with helping found the Journal of General Psychology,
although he was never listed in any editorial capacity.
He was the mentor for 58 students. One of which was...
Edwin
G. Boring (1886-1968)
One of psychology's first great
historians. While he was Titchener's most loyal student, he did break with him
on some important points. For instance, Boring was a monist and a physicalist.
He married Lucy Day, another Titchener student, and their first son was born on
Titchner's birthday. His research interests focused on psychophysical issues,
such as the size-constancy problem and the moon illusion. He is also well-known
for his young/old woman illusion.
Academic appointments:
1913-1918 Cornell University (instructor)
1918-1919 U.S. Army
1919-1922
1921
1922-1968 Harvard University
Major publications:
Boring, E. G. (1921) The stimulus-error. American Journal of Psychology, 32,
449-471.
Boring, E. G. (1929). A History
of Experimental Psychology
Holway, A. H., & Boring, E. G. (1941) Determinants of apparent
visual size with distance variant. American
Journal of Psychology, 54, 21-37.
Boring, E. G. (1953). A History of Introspection. Psychological
Bulletin, 50, 169-189.
Other achievements:
1919-1922 secretary for the American Psychological Association
1921-1925 / 1947-1967 editorial board for the American Journal of Psychology
1924-1950 director of the Harvard Psychological Laboratory
1926-1946 editor of the American Journal of Psychology
1928 President of the American Psychological Association
1929 Secretary of the American International Congress of Psychology
1934 Established Psychology as a separate department at Harvard.
1936 The Department of Psychology became completely independent of Philosophy.
1936-1938 Chair of Harvard's Department of Psychology.
1965-1968 Editorial board for the Journal of the History of the Behavioral
Sciences.
S. S.
Stevens (1906-1973)
Most noted for the development of
"Stevens' Law", an establishment of psychophysical and other
psychological dimensions as following a power function rather than a
logarithmic function. Boring said of him "Of all the graduate students who
have worked with me, he is the one whose ultimate success I had the most
certain belief, in whose future I made the largest investment of identification."
Academic appointments:
1933-1973 Harvard University
Major publications:
Stevens, S. S., & Galanter, E. H. (1957) Ratio scales
and category scales for a dozen perceptual continua. Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 54, 377-411.
Stevens, S. S. (1957). On the psychophysical law. Psychological
Review, 64, 153-181.
A collection of S. S. Stevens’ papers can be found at
the University of Utah.
Other achievements:
1936 Founding member of the Psychological Round Table
1940 Election to the Society for Experimental Psychologists
1943 Warren Medal
1946 Election to the National Academy of Sciences
1948 Presidential Certificate of Merit
1959 Election to the American Philosophical Society
1959 Founding member of the Psychonomic Society
1960 APA award for distinguished scientific contribution.
1962 Named Professor of Psychophysics at Harvard
1965-1971 Editorial board for Psychological Review.
1966-1971 Editorial board for Perception & Psychophysics
He was the mentor for a number
students. One of which was...
Leo Postman
(1918-2004)
Participant in the “New
Look” in perception
A verbal learner instrumental in
developing interference theories of forgetting
Academic appointments:
1946-1950 Harvard University
1947 Indiana University
1950-1987 University of California at Berkeley
Major Publications
Allport, G. W., & Postman
(1947). The Psychology of Rumor.
Postman, L. (1962). Psychology in the Making: Histories
of Selected Research Problems.
Postman, L., Bruner, J.S., & McGinnies, E. (1948). Personal
values as selective factors in perception. Journal
of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 43, 142-154.
Postman, L., Stark, K., & Fraser, J. (1968). Temporal
changes in interference. Journal of
Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 7, 672-694.
Postman, L., & Underwood, B.J. (1973). Critical issues
in interference theory. Memory &
Cognition, 1, 19-40.
Solomon, R. L., & Postman, L. (1952). Frequency of
usage as a determinant of recognition threshold for words. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 43, 195-201.
Other Achievements
1957-1963 Member of The Group for the Study of Verbal Behavior.
1950s Chair of the Department of
Psychology at
1959-1964 Consulting editor for Psychological Bulletin.
1959-1985 Editorial board of the Journal of General Psychology.
1960-1963 Co-Editor of the American
Journal of Psychology.
1960-1964 Editorial board of Psychological Review.
1961-1968 Editorial board of the Journal
of Experimental Psychology.
1962 Founding Editor of the Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior
which became the Journal of Memory and Language in 1985.
1962-1968 Editor of the Journal
of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior.
1968 President of the
Western Psychological Association
1969-1987 Editorial board of the Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal
Behavior
1968-1974 Associate Editor for the Journal of Experimental Psychology
1976-1987 Editorial board of the American Journal of Psychology.
1983-1987 Editorial board for Memory & Cognition
1968 President of the Western
Psychological Association
1974 Received the Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental Psychologists
1987 Recipient of the
He was the mentor for 30 students.
One of which was...
Rose T.
Zacks
Well known for her work on
frequency estimation, as well as, with Lynn Hasher, their theory of inhibitory
decline that accompanies cognitive aging.
Academic appointments:
1967-1971 Temple University
1972-present
Major Publications
Hasher, L. & Zacks, R. T.
(1979). Automatic and effortful processes in memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108, 356-388.
Hasher, L. & Zacks, R. T.
(1984). Automatic processing of fundamental information: The case of frequency of
occurrence. American Psychologist, 39, 1372-1388.
Zacks, R.T., Radvansky, G.A., & Hasher, L. (1996).
Studies of directed forgetting in older adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition,
22, 143-156.
Zacks, R.T., Hasher, L., & Li, Z. K. H. (2000) Human
memory. In F. I. M. Craik & T. A. Salthouse (Eds.) Handbook of Cognition and Aging, 2nd Edition (pp.
293-357).
Other Achievements
1986-1989 Program Committee for the Midwestern Psychological Association
1988 Program Moderator for the Midwestern Psychological Association
1989-1992 Officer of the Midwestern Psychological Association
1990-1991, 2001-2004 Editorial board for Memory & Cognition
1992-1995 Associate Editor for the Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Learning, Memory, and Cognition
1994-1995 President of the Midwestern Psychological Association
1995-2000 Officer of the Psychonomic Society
1995-2000, 2007-present Editorial board for the Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
1996-1999 Editorial board for Journal
of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences
1997-1998, 2007-present Editorial
board for Psychology and Aging
1999-2000 Chair of the Psychonomic
Society
2003-2007 Editor of
Psychology and Aging
Me