University

Galton and subsequent investigators find wide divergences in people's subjective reports of mental imagery. Such individual differences might be taken to explain the peculiarly irreconcilable disputes over the nature and cognitive significance of imagery which have periodically broken out among psychologists and philosophers. However, to so explain these disputes is itself to take a substantive and questionable position on the cognitive role of imagery. This article distinguishes three separable issues over which people can be "for" or "against" mental images. Conflation of these issues can lead to theoretical differences being mistaken for experiential differences, even by theorists themselves. This is applied to the case of John B. Watson, who inaugurated a half-century of neglect of image psychology. Watson originally claimed to have vivid imagery; by 1913 he was denying the existence of images. This strange reversal, which made his behaviorism possible, is explicable as a "creative misconstrual" of Dunlap's "motor" theory of imagination.

Hundreds of researchers have made significant contributions to cognitive science. What follows is a set of short academic biographies of people whom we believe should be counted on anyone's list of important contributors; the work of many of them is discussed in the Companion. Not every important figure is included; and some people are included, especially from the history of cognitive science, who would not describe, or could not have described, themselves as cognitive scientists despite their considerable impact on the field. We trust that the list will be useful to students doing research in cognitive science and to readers who wish to familiarize themselves with the work of specific contributors.

SOCIAL psychology has, as a rule, dealt with various phases of social experience from the psychological standpoint of individual experience. The point of approach which I wish to suggest is that of dealing with experience from the standpoint of society, at least from the standpoint of communication as essential to the social order. Social psychology, on this view, presupposes an approach to experience from the standpoint of the individual, but undertakes to determine in particular that which belongs to this experience because the individual himself belongs to a social structure, a social order.
-- from Mind, Self and Society from the Perspective of a Social Behaviorist

This collection is dedicated to the preservation of the history and apparatus from the early days of the Barnard College Psychology Department. Barnard College, a four-year women's college, was founded in 1889 and the first courses in psychology were offered in 1906 over the strenuous objections of many faculty and administrators who maintained that psychology was not a fitting topic for young women. We have digitized the documents and apparatus which have been stored in the departmental archives for nearly 100 years and placed them on the internet in a form that makes them accessible to historians and students. This museum was created in 1995 and, as time permits, more of this information will be digitized and made available.

According to legend, the inventor who revolutionized electrical technology came into this world precisely at midnight as the sky was illuminated by a powerful lightning storm. From these prophetic beginnings, Nikola Tesla has since plunged into relative obscurity. Modern society has benefited greatly from the contributions of Tesla. Amongst his 111 patents, Tesla designed the first practical methods for generating alternating current, which has enabled the long distance transmission of electricity. He created the “Tesla coil,” a popular device for demonstrating high frequency and high voltage phenomena. He designed new electric lighting systems and incandescent lamps. Tesla also revolutionized the field of radio communications with his four-circuit transmitter/receiver and novel designs for intensifying and transforming signals.

The Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) is a part of the Niels Bohr Institute for Astronomy, Physics and Geophysics, University of Copenhagen, and shares premises in the city with the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita), which has programs in condensed matter and astrophysics in addition to the subjects listed below. Most experimental activity takes place at CERN, Brookhaven, and DESY as well as other facilities in Europe and overseas.
The NBI has a long tradition of international collaboration and is a meeting ground for scientists from all over the world. Short term visitors at the NBI number more than 150 per year, not including participants in the many symposia, workshops, and schools arranged each year. As a result, the NBI has the infrastructure needed to care for many foreign visitors and has a network of international contacts with the nearly 2000 physicists who have spent longer periods at the NBI and Nordita. The scientific staff at the NBI now comprises 25 permanent scientists, about 25 temporary scientists including long-term visitors, and 21 Ph.D. students.

"Highlights of Nursing in Virginia" was originally compiled by Mabel E. Montgomery, RN, Katherine R. Gary, RN and Marie Schmidt, RN members of the Special Anniversary Observances Committee of the Virginia Nurses' Association and published in 1975. Under the guidance of Evelyn C. Bacon, Chair of the VNA History Committee, revisions were begun to the "Highlights" in the 1990s. This edition was completed by the Joint History Committee of the Virginia Nurses' Association and the Virginia League of Nursing, under the leadership of Corinne F. Dorsey in November of 2000.

The most primitive electrical and magnetic phenomena -- the attraction of dry light material such as chaff to rubbed amber, and the attraction of iron to loadstone -- were no doubt observed before recorded history began. However, as far as I can find, these phenomena were not recorded by the Egyptians or any other pre-Greek civilization. The first definite statement is by Thales of Miletus (about 585B.C.) who said loadstone attracts iron because it has a soul. The prevailing view at the time was that movement of any kind indicated life, or a soul, or a god. In fact, it was advanced thinking on Thales’ part to think that the loadstone’s moving of the iron was caused by itself rather than by the intervention of some god. Actually Miletus was a very multicultural environment -- a flourishing commercial city in Asia Minor (now part of Turkey), trading with Babylon and also Egypt, where Thales travelled. This mixture of cultures meant that there was not a strongly repressive religious orthodoxy, as was often the case in primitive (and not so primitive) societies, so freedom of inquiry was tolerated. Sad to report, this did not lead to a more enlightened political system -- it was a slave based society, with bloody rebellion and repression.

This exhibit, "From Quackery to Bacteriology: The Emergence of Modern Medicine in 19th Century America," traces the development of medicine through printed works: from heroic medicine at the beginning of the century to quackery movements, the experience of the Civil War, and ending with improvements in medical education and the formulation of the germ theory at century's end. Other topics covered in the exhibit include women's health, mental health, public health, and preventative medicine as advocated through physical fitness and nutrition.

The UK Centre for the History of Nursing is a new venture that for the first time provides a focus for nursing history in Europe. Its task is to build awareness of the importance of nursing history through education and research.