Kenneth Spence
Kenneth Wartinbee Spence | |
---|---|
Born | Chicago, Illinois, United States | May 6, 1907
Died | January 12, 1967 | (aged 59)
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | McGill University Yale University |
Known for | Contiuous Account of Discrimination Learning Hull-Spence Learning Theory |
Spouse | |
Children | |
Awards | 1929 Prince of Wales Gold Medal in Mental Sciences, McGill University 1930 Governor General's Medal for Research, McGill University Robert M. Yerkes |
Kenneth Wartinbee Spence (May 6, 1907 – January 12, 1967) was a prominent American psychologist known for both his theoretical and experimental contributions to learning theory and motivation. As one of the leading theorists of his time,[1] Spence was the most cited psychologist in the 14 most influential psychology journals in the last six years of his life (1962 – 1967).[2] A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Spence as the 62nd most cited psychologist of the 20th century.[3]
Personal history
Spence was born in
Spence sustained a back injury during a track competition while attending
Spence eventually returned to
While at Yale, Spence collaborated with Walter Shipley to test Clark L. Hull's blind alley maze learning in rats, a contribution which led to further publications while pursuing his PhD.[1] Spence applied to a postdoctoral fellowship to study mathematics after the completion of his graduate training, but his application was rejected by a biologist on the grounds that psychology would never reach a level of precision to require sophisticated mathematical knowledge.[4]
Professional contributions
Discrimination learning
After his PhD, Spence accepted a position as National Research Council at Yale Laboratories of Primate Biology[1][4] in Orange Park, Florida from 1933 to 1937.[4] There, Spence examined discrimination learning in chimpanzees.[4] From this and further research, Spence developed the continuous learning account of two-choice discrimination learning in rats.[4] As reported by Lashley (1929), rats in a two-choice discrimination task demonstrated an extended period of chance performance, followed by a sudden leap to a high percentage of accurate responding.[2] Lashley explained this phenomenon by suggesting that the rat's essential learning emerged from testing and confirming the correct hypothesis "during the rapidly changing portion of the function, with the practice preceding and the errors following being irrelevant to the final solution."[2] In contrast, Spence proposed that essential learning was produced through increases in the excitatory tendencies of task-relevant characteristics of the display, and decreases in inhibitory tendencies of the non-relevant characteristics of the display – a continuous learning account not directly detected by the choice measure.[2]
Motivation
Spence moved to the
Spence's contributions to Hull's Principles of Behavior are commemorated in the book's foreword, where Hull stated: "To Kenneth L. Spence I owe a debt of gratitude which cannot adequately be indicated in this place; from the time when the ideas here put forward were in the process of incubation in my graduate seminar and later when the present work was being planned, on through its many revisions, Dr. Spence has contributed generously and effectively with suggestions and criticisms, large numbers of which have been utilized without indication of their origin." The variable for incentive motivation (K) was said to have been chosen in honor of Kenneth Spence.[5]
Teaching
Spence directed a total of 75 PhD theses,[2] producing faculty members in every major psychology department in the United States.[2] Students of Spence at Iowa referred to their degrees as PhDs in "theoretical-experimental psychology"[1] due to Spence's emphasis on methodological rigor.
Influential publications
Discrimination learning
- The Nature of Discrimination Learning in Animals, 1936.[6]
- The Differential Response in Animals to Stimuli Varying Within a Single Dimension, 1937.[7]
- Continuous Versus Non-continuous Interpretations of Discrimination Learning, 1940.[8]
Theoretical
- The Nature of Theory Construction in Contemporary Psychology, 1944.[9]
- The Postulates and Methods of Behaviorism, 1948.[10]
- Theoretical Interpretations of Learning, 1951.[11]
- Mathematical Formulations of Learning Phenomena, 1952.[12]
- Behavior Theory and Conditioning, 1956.[13]
Eyelid conditioning
- Anxiety and Strength of the UCS as Determiners of the Amount of Eyelid Conditioning, 1951.[14]
- Cognitive and Drive Factors in the Extinction of the Conditioned Eyeblink in Human Subjects, 1966.[15]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Amsel, Abram (1995). "Kenneth Wartinbee Spence". Biographical Memoirs. 66: 335–351.
- ^ .
- S2CID 145668721.
- ^ PMID 4864832.
- ^ PMID 4861576.
- doi:10.1037/h0056975.
- doi:10.1037/h0062885.
- doi:10.1037/h0054336.
- doi:10.1037/h0060940.
- PMID 18910282.
- ^ Spence, Kenneth (1951). "Theoretical interpretations of learning". Handbook of Experimental Psychology: 690–729.
- PMID 14920650.
- ^ Spence, Kenneth (1956). Behavior Theory and Conditioning. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- PMID 14880670.
- PMID 5976738.