The Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Theory

Abstract

In this book I have tried to bring together a number of different lines of research, in a general theory of behavior that attempts to bridge the gap between neurophysiology and psychology, as well as that between laboratory psychology and the problems of the clinic. The book is written, consequently, with the hope that it will be intelligible to the clinician and the physiologist as well as to psychologists. The development of psychological theory can be a cooperative affair, and has often been so in the past — witness Helmholtz, Jackson, Pavlov, Freud. The clinician and the physiologist frequently have direct access to data of first importance for psychology, sometimes without recognizing the fact. Though I have done my best, it may be chimerical to hope that my discussion is extensive and clear enough to stand on its own feet, for the non-psychological reader. The reader who needs it will find more of the details of psychological theory in Morgan (1943) on physiological psychology, Hilgard and Marquis (1940) on the theory of learning, Woodworth (1938) on "experimental" (normal human adult) psychology, and Moss (1942) or Maier and Schneirla (1935) on animal psychology. Of these, Morgan is most directly relevant, and in several places I have assumed a knowledge of fact to the extent provided by his text. It is a pleasure to record my indebtedness to the colleagues who have read and improved the contents of this book. I owe much to students in a seminar at Harvard University in the summer of 1947, and in another at McGill University in the following winter. Part or all of the manuscript was read by Professor Harlow W. Ades, Professor Frank A. Beach, Dr. J. C. Beebe-Center, Professor R. B. MacLeod, Dr. Francis McNaughton, Dr. G. A. Miller, Dr. Karl Pribram, Professor H. E. Rosvold, and Professor R. W. Sperry, and their help is gratefully acknowledged. I am much indebted to Professor Edwin G. Boring, Professor George Clark, Professor K. C. S. Lashley, and Dr. J. C. R. Licklider for their painstaking and detailed criticism of a large part of the manuscript, improving both matter and style. My greatest debt, perhaps, is to the weekly colloquium and the persistent theoretical debate at the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology between 1942 and 1947, and to a small group taking part therein who have also read the entire manuscript and have contributed greatly to it — Professor Henry W. Nissen, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Blum, and Dr. Austin Riesen. This board of critics should also include my wife, and to it, for the positive contributions made as well as for some of the changes and deletions forced on me, both the reader and I owe much. Finally I should like to express my gratitude to those who have helped with clerical work in the preparation of this book, in its various stages — particularly, Alice Sellers, Therese Mahoney, and Margaret Halliday. The McGill University Research Fund supported some of the experimental work that is briefly reported here, and also made it possible to secure additional clerical assistance. D. O. Hebb Montreal April, 1949