D. E. Broadbent – författare

Originally published in 1973, this book contains the 1971 William James Lectures at Harvard, the first by that name to be given by a British psychologist. In addition, there are reprints of four shorter lectures which had not been easily available before. Together the resulting collection gave a broad picture of a number of advances in human psychology in the previous ten years. Memory, attention, language, and the processes of decision are discussed, and typical recent ideas and experiments described. Each topic is presented, however, with continual reference to the reasons why the research was done, its implications for philosophy and for scientific method, and its connection with an attitude to politics and life as a whole. The author not only describes little known facts about the way people take decisions or remember, but also argues that we are living through a change in our attitudes to human nature: and that proper concern for human values, or understanding of people with minds different from our own, must demand a more scientific and less intuitive analysis of man.

Experiments on human beings still strike many of us as cold-blooded and inhuman; this book tries to explain why some scientists devote themselves to this approach. It makes the connection between measurements of reaction time or of ability to see a written word in a brief flash, and our political and personal beliefs.

Donald E. Broadbent is well recognised as a major influence on cognitive psychology today. This reissue is an opportunity to see his exceptional writing in print again and should be read with equal interest by psychologists as well as laymen who would like to know about some of the more practical aspects of psychological enquiry of the time.

Originally published in 1973, this book contains the 1971 William James Lectures at Harvard, the first by that name to be given by a British psychologist. In addition, there are reprints of four shorter lectures which had not been easily available before. Together the resulting collection gave a broad picture of a number of advances in human psychology in the previous ten years. Memory, attention, language, and the processes of decision are discussed, and typical recent ideas and experiments described. Each topic is presented, however, with continual reference to the reasons why the research was done, its implications for philosophy and for scientific method, and its connection with an attitude to politics and life as a whole. The author not only describes little known facts about the way people take decisions or remember, but also argues that we are living through a change in our attitudes to human nature: and that proper concern for human values, or understanding of people with minds different from our own, must demand a more scientific and less intuitive analysis of man.

Experiments on human beings still strike many of us as cold-blooded and inhuman; this book tries to explain why some scientists devote themselves to this approach. It makes the connection between measurements of reaction time or of ability to see a written word in a brief flash, and our political and personal beliefs.

Donald E. Broadbent is well recognised as a major influence on cognitive psychology today. This reissue is an opportunity to see his exceptional writing in print again and should be read with equal interest by psychologists as well as laymen who would like to know about some of the more practical aspects of psychological enquiry of the time.

Original blurb from 1961: For most laymen the science of behaviour hardly exists. Few people have any clear idea of its methods, its history or, above all, its significance. Beside the popular interest aroused, for example, by the achievements of Freud, the work of the behaviourists is almost unknown. Yet this is a science which is of the highest importance, has practical applications of immediate use, and offers the hope of profound insights into the human mind.

What distinguishes the behaviourists is their insistence on exact scientific verification. Introspection may suggest a theory but only objective experiments will be admitted as evidence in its favour. The observation of how a rat behaves in a maze may seem a far cry from the study of mankind but it has the supreme advantage that what is observed can be exactly recorded and analysed. Progress by such methods is slow but what is discovered is much less likely to be upset by future discoveries than is work based on subjective judgments.

Some of the results already obtained are fruitful and suggestive. Mr Broadbent’s treatment of rewards and punishments is most striking, both for the importance of the results and for the precision of the methods by which they are obtained. To reward a child for doing something or to punish him for abstaining might seem to be equally effective methods, to be distinguished only on ethical grounds. Mr Broadbent, however, sets out modern evidence and opinion about the means by which each method operates and so demonstrates that there exist sharp and general rules governing the situations in which each is likely to be effective. He describes the state of ‘neurotic’ conflict produced when a reward and a punishment are both associated with the same object and again a series of simple, controlled experiments throws light on a basic human problem.

The science of behaviour is closely linked with other branches of research such as the theory of information and the development of electronic and mechanical ‘brains’, and this common field of research promises exciting results. Mr Broadbent shows how behaviourism has grown towards such sophisticated developments from the beginnings of such men as Watson and Pavlov.

To any intelligent reader this book will give not only the pleasure of watching a series of brilliantly devised experiments gradually giving birth to a new and important science, but also the insight which comes from examining such basic concepts as memory and learning, of discovering how much of what we think we know is merely an unexamined assumption, and of being forced to think again in precise terms. For anyone willing to make this effort Behaviour is an exceptionally rewarding book.

Original blurb from 1961: For most laymen the science of behaviour hardly exists. Few people have any clear idea of its methods, its history or, above all, its significance. Beside the popular interest aroused, for example, by the achievements of Freud, the work of the behaviourists is almost unknown. Yet this is a science which is of the highest importance, has practical applications of immediate use, and offers the hope of profound insights into the human mind.

What distinguishes the behaviourists is their insistence on exact scientific verification. Introspection may suggest a theory but only objective experiments will be admitted as evidence in its favour. The observation of how a rat behaves in a maze may seem a far cry from the study of mankind but it has the supreme advantage that what is observed can be exactly recorded and analysed. Progress by such methods is slow but what is discovered is much less likely to be upset by future discoveries than is work based on subjective judgments.

Some of the results already obtained are fruitful and suggestive. Mr Broadbent’s treatment of rewards and punishments is most striking, both for the importance of the results and for the precision of the methods by which they are obtained. To reward a child for doing something or to punish him for abstaining might seem to be equally effective methods, to be distinguished only on ethical grounds. Mr Broadbent, however, sets out modern evidence and opinion about the means by which each method operates and so demonstrates that there exist sharp and general rules governing the situations in which each is likely to be effective. He describes the state of ‘neurotic’ conflict produced when a reward and a punishment are both associated with the same object and again a series of simple, controlled experiments throws light on a basic human problem.

The science of behaviour is closely linked with other branches of research such as the theory of information and the development of electronic and mechanical ‘brains’, and this common field of research promises exciting results. Mr Broadbent shows how behaviourism has grown towards such sophisticated developments from the beginnings of such men as Watson and Pavlov.

To any intelligent reader this book will give not only the pleasure of watching a series of brilliantly devised experiments gradually giving birth to a new and important science, but also the insight which comes from examining such basic concepts as memory and learning, of discovering how much of what we think we know is merely an unexamined assumption, and of being forced to think again in precise terms. For anyone willing to make this effort Behaviour is an exceptionally rewarding book.