Tangen, Ken

Did you really think I’d create a category of “Great Minds” and not include myself? 🙂

Terman, Lewis

Born on a farm in central Indiana (12th of 14 kids), Lewis M. Terman (1877-1956) began his education in a 1-room school and ended with a Ph.D. from Clark University. Suffering from tuberculosis, he took became a school principal in San Bernadino, California (for its warm climate) and taught at a local teacher’s college (which later became UCLA).

In 1910, Terman accepted a position at Stanford, where he stayed until 1942. It was at Stanford that Terman learned of Binet and Simon’s intelligence test. Finding the scoring uneven, Terman revised and Americanized the test. In the 1916 revision, known as Stanford-Binet, Terman coined the term “intelligence ratio,” and suggested it be multiplied by 100 for the “IQ.”

Terman embarked on a longitudinal study of 1470 gifted children (average IQ was 151; average age was 11). Contrary to the popular that gifted children end up losers (“early ripe, early rot”), he found that most became college graduates, and many obtained advanced degrees.

To popularize the view of gifted-is-good, Terman helped establish a TV game show (Quiz Kids) to show how good looking, well mannered and friendly intelligent children were. Fortunately, the revelation that the show was rigged didn’t occur until after Terman’s death.

Thales

Although his accomplishment may be apocryphal, Thales (645-625 BC) is credited with stating mathematics first theorems, founding physics by searching for a physis (primary element), and predicting the eclipse of the sun of May 28, 585 BC.

Although Aristotle called him the first philosopher, Thales of Miletus is better known as the first scientist. He was one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece and noted for his knowledge of mathematics, astronomy and physics.

Located approximately 25 miles south of Aydin, Turkey, Miletus was a large, prosperous city with 4 harbors. The city sat on the end of peninsula and was a prominent center of Ionian culture and commerce. Miletus later became the home of Homer and where Hippodamus introduced the idea of a planned city grid. In close proximity, the city sported a 5000 seat theater (which the Romans later expanded to 15000 seats) and natural springs (which Emperor Marcus Aurelius built into a bath complex for his wife Faustina). Today, the city is a landlocked site of ruins but still a popular tourist attraction.

Only slightly younger than Solon, Thales came to notoriety for correctly predicting an eclipse of the sun. Although he probably only predicted a solar event would occur sometime during the year of 585 BC, his accomplishment reached mythological proportions because the eclipse of May 28, 585 BC was nearly total. In addition, it occurred during a battle which Greece eventually won.

It’s not clear whether his prediction was based on astronomy and geometry or by dumb luck, but Thales became a prominent figure of his day, and, as was the custom many apocryphal accounts of amazing accomplishments were attributed to him. For example, Thales is said to have cornered the market in olive oil because of his ability to accurately predict the weather. He also was credited with falling into a well because he was too intent on looking at the stars, measuring the pyramids of Egypt by their shadow, introduced geometry, calculated the sun’s course, believed that the earth was flat, divided the year into 365 days, and discovered the seasons of the year.

It is difficult to differentiate man from myth. Although 300 fragments of Solon’s poems have survived, none of Thales writings have survived. He apparently founded no major school, yet his reputation as a thinker and scientist is substantial. Aristotle called him the first philosopher but his philosophy had more to do with what today would be called science (the nature of the universe and its origins). The mathematical principles attributed to him may well have imported by Thales from Egypt, not personally discovered independently. But these principles, sometimes called Thales’ Theorems (e.g., opposite angles are equal, circle is bisected by its diameter, etc.), form the basis of modern geometry.

In many ways, the primary contribution of Thales was his approach questioning, not the answers themselves. He wanted to find the basic elements from which the complex universe had been derived. Perhaps it was the proximity of Miletus to the sea or the influence of Egyptian thought, but Thales maintained that the cosmos could be reduced to water. Everything comes from water and eventually returns to that fundamental state.

Surprisingly, Thales did not rely on mythical explanations or refer to the powers of pantheistic gods. It was a materialistic explanation that tried to explain the world with simple, natural phenomena.

Thorndike, Edward

Born in Willamsburg, Massachusetts, Edward Lee Thorndike attended Wesleyan University, and studied under James as Harvard. His initial animal studies used chickens as subjects but Thorndike’s landlady objected to their presence in his room.

After James unsuccessfully tried to find additional lab space at Harvard, he allowed his basement to be used as Thorndike’s lab. The James’ children were delighted with that solution, and volunteered to feed and play with the animals.

Although Thorndike took his two best chickens with him to Columbia, he soon turned his attention to the puzzle-solving abilities of cats and dogs in puzzle-boxes. Thorndike’s contention was that learning is the process of creating S-R connections (“bonds”). According to him, learning is not insight but trial and error attempts to find the correct response. Once the correct response is discovered it is “stamped in.”

In contrast to the belief that a human mind should be trained (with good literature, etc.), Thorndike proposed three laws of learning: readiness, exercise and effect. The Law of Readiness held that the subject must be able and ready to perform the task (the cat must be hungry, the child ready to read).

The Law of Exercise proposed that practice strengthens bonds and disuse weakens bonds. The Law of Effect noted that the consequences of a behavior strength (or weaken) the S-R bonds. The great satisfaction experienced, the greater the bond strength. With great dissatisfaction (punishment), the bonds are “stamped out.” According to Thorndike, punishment doesn’t always stamp out bonds but rewards always help strengthen bonds.

In place of the trained mind approach to education, Thorndike advocated the “transfer of training.” According to his theory, learning new tasks is related to how similar they are to previously learned tasks. That is, transfer depends on how many identical elements are held in common.

Similarly, Thorndike’s definition of intelligence is the amount of transfer capacity. He identified three types of intelligence: abstract, social and mechanical. Abstract intelligence is show by the manipulation of words, concepts and symbols. Social intelligence is required for tact and leadership, and mechanical intelligence is shown in the ability to use tools and machines. There is no general mental ability as far as Thorndike was concerned.

In Thorndike’s later years, the Law of Exercise was modified to include feedback. Learning is not blind practice but practice with immediate feedback. Thorndike applied many of his ideas to education, and was a leader in school reform.

Titchner, Edward

Born in Chichester, England (with a well known family name and no money), Edward B. Titchener attended college (Malvern College and then Oxford) on scholarships. He studied in Wundt’s lab, then moved to Cornell where he stayed for the rest of his life.

Titchener translated Wundt’s work into English, and in the process stripped it of all but its elementalism. Titchener reinterpreted Wundt as being interested only in the structure of the mind, and in how elements are combined together. Under Titchener, structuralism became a major school of thought in psychology.

Titchener proposed that there are 3 elements of consciousness: sensations, images and affections. He rejected Wundt’s tridimensional theory of emotion in favor of a single dimension of pleasure-unpleasure.

For Titchener, the basic elements of experience included quality (its distinguishing characteristics), intensity (amount), and duration (length of sensation). In addition, he held that a sensation could be judged on its clearness. Titchener proposed that there are 3 general stages of attention: involuntary (e.g., sudden noise), secondary (direct, voluntary attention to an object), and derived (i.e., a habit is formed by the repetition of a stimulus).

Tolman, Edward

Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Edward Chace Tolman received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from MIT. Impressed by James writings, Tolman changed to psychology (earning his Ph.D. at Harvard). Best known for introducing the term “intervening variables,” he also was a pioneer investigate of cognitive maps.

Although he had no systematic theory, Tolman called himself a purposeful behaviorist. He held that behavior is purposeful, goal directed, and molar (not reducible to instincts or reflexes).

A Quaker and a pacifist, Tolman opposed WWI (which may have cost him his teaching job) but worked as a non-combatant in the Office of Strategic Services during WWII. A man of principle, Tolman was suspended from UC Berkeley when he refused to sign California’s loyalty oath. Eventually, his position was upheld by the courts, and he was reinstated.

Volta, Alessandro

In 1801, Napoleon honored the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta’s work on electricity by making him a count. A professor of physics, Volta built the first electrophorus and the first electric battery. He experimented with igniting gasses using an electric spark, and with animal electricity. In contrast to Galvani, Volta did not believe in animal electricity. He maintained that the flow of electricity was between two metals Galvani had placed on either side of the frog’s leg. The frog was simply a detector (a conductor) of the electricity.

Watson, John

Born in Greenville, S Carolina, Watson was a student of both Angell and Loeb but was greatly influenced by the writings of Pavlov. Applying the principles of classical conditioning to all learning, Watson became the focal point of behaviorism.

From white rats in mazes to “Little Albert,” Watson emphasized S-R conditioning. Ignoring high mental processes altogether, Watson explained all behavior in terms of stimulus-response.

Although he initially allowed for three innate emotions (fear, rage and love), Watson generally denied the influence of heredity on behavior. He initially maintained that some instincts are present, changed to their appearing only in infants, and finally rejected instincts completely. Watson also rejected Thorndike’s law of effect (too subjective), and proposed that thinking was nothing more than subvocalized speech.

Watson’s emphasis on S-R connections has not lasted as long as his insistence on observable behavior. Describing the mind as a mystery box, Watson directed psychology’s attention away from speculative theories to experimental observations.

Watson differentiated between overt learned behavior (talking, etc.), and overt unlearned behavior (digestion, etc.). He characterized thinking as covert learned behavior; covert because it was subvocalized, learned because it was speech. Last, reflexes represented covert and unlearned behavior.

In an attempt to apply behaviorism to practical problems, Watson proposed “experimental ethics,” a classical conditioning rehabilitation program for inmates. Assuming that personality was nothing more than a collection of habits, Watson’s program aimed to change habitual antisocial behaviors.

In 1920, Watson achieved fame of a different sort. Sued by his wife for divorce (he had been having an affair with his lab assistant, Rosalie Raynor), Watson was forced to resign from Johns Hopkins. He turned to commercial advertising and pioneered the area of marketing research.

Watt, Henry

Watt, Henry (1879-1935)   A student of Kulpe, Henry Watt performed word association experiments, and proposed that the key to solving these problems is in the instructions of the task.

Weissmuller Albert

Weiss, Albert P (1879-1931)   Born in Germany but raised in America, Weiss attempted to explain behavior in terms of atoms, electrons and protons. His emphasis on physiological processes and an organism’s interaction with the environment helped establish bisocial behaviorism.

Weber

As a pioneer of experimental psychophysics, Ernest H. Weber noted that the skin registers changes in temperature, not constant readings. Similarly, he showed that if 2 pin points are placed close enough together, they are perceived as one pin prick. Weber had subjects hold weights in each hand and report whether they were identical or different. He found that people could not detect a change in weight until there was a 1:40 ratio. Weber’s jnd (just noticeable difference) was the first reliable law of psychophysics.

Wertheimer, Max

Born in Prague, Maz Wertheimer studied law and philosophy at the University of Prague, and psychology under Stumpf and Kulpe. Best known for his explanation of the “phi phenomenon” (e.g., the apparent motion made by flashing lights in sequence), Wertheimer was a founder of Gestalt psychology.

In 1910, on a train ride from Vienna to Germany, Wertheimer noted that it’s possible to perceive motion when none exists. So interesting was this new idea that when the train stopped in Frankfurt, Wertheimer got off, bought a toy stroboscope which flashes pictures to make them look like they are moving, and checking into a hotel to experiment with his insight.

Wertheimer followed up his informal exploration with formal experiments using a tachistoscope. He found that when two flashes of an image are 200 milliseconds apart they are perceived as separate images, and at 30 milliseconds the images appeared simultaneous.

Although Wundt had maintained that apparent movement was a function of eye movement, Wertheimer noted that eyes can’t move in two directions at once. His solution was to propose an isomorphic model. That is, according to Wertheimer, the movement occurs in the brain. He held that the mind comes with preset principles of organization it uses to interpret sensations. For Wertheimer apparent motion was evidence that people don’t respond to isolated segments of sensation but to the whole (Gestalt) of the situation.

Gestalt principles of perceptual organization include proximity, similarity, continuity, and pragnanz (literally, good form). Using visual illusions, Gestalt psychologists were able to show that the perceptual models of the day were inadequate. Extending that view, they proposed that people perceive and think in nonlinear ways, actively influence perception, and use insight as well as trial and error learning.

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Woodworth, Robert

Educated at Amherst, Harvard and Columbia, Robert Woodworth is best known for his S-O-R paradigm. In contrast to the behaviorist’s S-R (stimulus-response) model, Woodworth’s “dynamic psychology” insisted that the organism plays an important part in the process (S-O-R).

Although interested in cause-effect relationships, Woodworth noted that consciousness and other aspects of the individual were important for an understanding of how and why people behave as they do. For Woodworth, any model of behavior must include mechanism (how things are done) and drive (why things are done).

During WWI, Woodworth applied his ideas to the development of the Personal Data Sheet. Essentially the first large scale personality inventory, the PDS was used to predict the emotional stability of soldiers in combat.

Wundt, Wilhelm

As a child, Wundt was shy, awkward, and didn’t do well in school (including flunking a year of high school). Yet thanks in no small measure to Wundt’s efforts, psychology was transformed from a subsection of philosophy into its own independent science.

In contrast to Freud, Wundt’s major contribution was practical, rather than theoretical. His intent was to create a new science and he approached the matter systematically. First he established experimental psychology. Wundt began the first laboratory exclusively dedicated to the experimental study of psychology. Although others (Weber, Fechner, Fritsch & Hitzig) had conducted psychological experiments, Wundt’s program was composed of interlocking studies, held together by his theory of volition.

Second, Wundt developed a non-experimental psychology (what today would be called social psychology or cultural anthropology). He called it Volkspsychology (folk psychology). It included the nonexperimental study of higher thought processes, art, myths, rituals and stages of development.

Although Wundt clearly intended to integrate the two branches, he never achieved his goal. He didn’t delineate how the two areas interact and his followers emphasized only the experimental branch. They ignored Wundt’s more global theoretical work, including his articles on philosophy, logic, ethics and metaphysics.

For folk psychology, Wundt used historical analysis and naturalistic observation. In contrast, his experimental studies of simple mental processes used introspection, reaction-time, and word association experiments. For Wundt, introspection was systematic observation. Trained observers reported the sensations they experienced; personal interpretation was not allowed. Within the context of the procedure, Wundt emphasized the objective, internally consistent, replicable study of psychology. Like Muller and Helmholtz, Wundt tried reaction time to study the stages of a perception but discarded the procedure as too unreliable.

Wundt proposed a tri-dimensional theory of emotion that places subjective feelings on three dimensions: excitement-calm; pleasure-displeasure; and tension-relaxation. These feelings and sensations can be clustered together in compounds and compounds form the apperceptive mass. When feelings cause action, it is called volition or will.