are you teaching students about Egon Brunswik?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : History & Theory of Psychology : One Thread

As a long time advocate of the importance of the contributions of Egon Brunswik I occasionally urge a publisher to consider reprinting his 1956 book ( "Perception and the Representative Design of Experiments"). I wonder how many of those interested in the history and theory of psychology would like to join me in this effort. You can advise me (positvely or negatively) by sending mail to the above address. I will appreciate your help. You will be interested to know that a compilation of his papers with comentaries and extensions will soon be published by Oxford University Press (Hammond & Stewart, Eds).

-- Kenneth R. Hammond (krhammond@earthlink.net), April 21, 2001

Answers

Although I have done some research on Egon Brunswik, I have never included coverage of him in my history of psychology courses. Moreover, I don't think that I have seen any references to him in history of psychology textbooks. I'm not sure why the work of Brunswik is typically not presented in history courses. Perhaps it is because his ideas are difficult (although that should not be an excuse) or because they were generally not picked up by other researchers when first presented. The soon-to-be-published volume of his papers may help raise Brunswik's profile. And I certainly would support you in an effort to have "Perception and the Representative Design of Experiments" reprinted.

This question has made me think about Brunswik in the context of my history course and my students next term will likely hear something about him.

For those interested in learning more about Brunswik, and how his work has influenced current research on human decision making, the Brunswik Society's web site is: www.brunswik.org

-- Nancy Innis (ninnis@uwo.ca), April 21, 2001.


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