1. Gazzaniga, M.S.

(1967):
The split brain in man.

Michael Gazzaniga, along with Roger
Sperry, cut the corpus callosum that
connects the two hemispheres of the
brain. They found that the hemispheres
of the brain were still able to operate,
albeit isolated from one another, as there
was no longer any connection between
them. This resulted in the discovery of
the specific functions of the left and right
brain and hemispheres.
2. Rosenzweir, M.R.,
Bennett, E.L., and
Diamond, M.C. (1972):
Brain changes in
response to experience.

Rosenzweir, Bennett, and Diamond
studied the brain activity of rats placed
in normal cages and rats placed in cages
with toys, ladders, tunnels, etc. They
found that the latter group, which had
experienced with toys, had affected
activity of cholinesterase in the brain,
and eventually that cerebral cortex
volume had increased. This resulted in
the discovery of memory traces.
3. Bouchard, T., Lykken, D.,
McGue, M., Segal, N., and
Tellegen, A. (1990):
Sources of human
psychological
differences.

Bouchard, Lykken, McGue, Segal, and
Tellegen all studied various pairs of
twins. They discovered that identical
twins raised together had the most
similar IQ in comparison to identical
twins raised apart or fraternal twins.
This led to the discovery that both
genetics and environmental factors
influenced intelligence.

4. Gibson, E.J., and Walk,
R.D. (1960): The visual
cliff.

Walk and Gibson built a special table
covered by glass that had a big drop on
one side. They took infants ranging from
6 to 14 months and encouraged them to
crawl over the shallow or deep side of
the table. They found that most of their
subjects would not crawl over the deep
side. This led to the discovery that
infants developed depth perception at a
very young age, which was later
estimated to be at around 2 months.
5. Fantz, R.I. (1961): The
origin of form
perception.

Fantz tooks infants and exposed them to
various shapes and surroundings. His
studies found that infants preferred to
look at complex patterns, three
dimensions, and human faces and voices.
His research led to the discovery of form
perception.
6. Aserinsky, E., and
Kleitman, N. (1953):
Regularly occurring
periods of eye mobility
and concomitant
phenomena during sleep.

Aserinsky and Kleitman observed the
twitching eyes of sleeping subjects for
certain periods of time and measured
their brain activity during that period.
They discovered that sometime during
Stage Two of sleep, subjects would have
twitching eyes, brain waves similar to
beta waves, body conditions near
waking levels, and dreams. This led to
the discovery of REM sleep.
7. Hobson, J.A., and
McCarley, R. W. (1977):
The brain as a dream-
state generator: an
activation-synthesis
hypothesis of the dream
process.

Hobson and McCarley proposed that
brain activity during REM sleep resulted
in dream synthesis. The higher centers of
the cortex are active during these
periods, while the frontal lobes are not,
resulting in the often-bizarre nature of
dreams. This idea would later become
the activation-synthesis hypothesis.



8. Spanos, N. P. (1982):
Hypnotic behavior: a
cognitive, social,
psychological
perspective.

Spanos theorized that hypnotic behavior
is actually within the voluntary behavior
of conscious humans. He stated that
people believed that they were being
hypnotized because their behavior fit
their standards of hypnotic behavior.
This explanation led to the cognitive and
social perspectives concerning hypnotic
behavior.
9. Pavlov, I. P. (1927):
Conditioned reflexes.

Pavlov discovered that dogs would
salivate whenever they say their food.
Thus, he would ring a bell whenever a
dog saw their food and salivated.
Eventually, the dog would salivate at the
sound of the ringing bell alone. This
experiment led to the process of classical
conditioning, and established Pavlov as
one of the founders of behavioral
psychology.

10. Watson, J. B. and
Rayner, R. (1920):
Conditioned emotional
responses.





Watson and Rayner showed a white rat
to a baby named Little Albert while
simultaneously playing a loud noise
which scared Little Albert and caused
him to cry. Eventually, after presenting
this scenario to the baby several times,
Little Albert would cry upon sight of the
rat, having been conditioned to be
scared of it. This experiment proved that
phobias could be learned through
classical conditioning.
11. Skinner, B.F.
(1948): Superstition in
the pigeon.
Skinner attempted to create a
pigeon-guided missile during
WWII. This missile consisted of a
missile with a picture of a target
which would be reflected inside
the missile, where a pigeon,
trained to recognize the target
through operant conditioning,
steered the missile by pecking at
the target. To Skinners dismay,
the U.S. government canceled the
project, causing Skinner to
complain that no one would take
us seriously. This proved to be
somewhat true, as the experiment
did show signs of success.
12. Bandura, A., Ross,
D., and Ross, S.A. (1961):
Transmission of
aggression through
imitation of aggressive
models.

Bandura conducted a study which
involved having a preschool child in a
room in which the experimenter and a
model interact with toys in front of the
child. In one condition, the model played
with the toys in a non-aggressive
manner, ignoring the Bobo inflated doll
that was placed nearby. In another
condition, the model beat the Bobo doll
in an aggressive manner. After watching
the model, the child was observed alone
in the same room. Children exposed to
the first condition ignored the Bobo doll,
while children exposed to the second
condition beat the Bobo doll in the same
manner as the model had. Bandura used
this study to conclude that behavior can
be learned through observation, and
later used it to create the social learning
theory.
13. Rosenthal, R. and
Jacobson, L. (1966):
Teachers expectancies:
determinates of pupils
IQ gains.

Rosenthal and Jacobson gave teachers at
a California elementary school IQ tests,
telling them that certain students
(actually randomly chosen) would
improve. At the end of the study, the
chosen students actually improved. This
study led to the creation of the
Pygmalion effect, which states that if a
person has greater expectations placed
on them, they will perform better.
14. Gardner, H. (1983):
Frames of mind: the
theory of multiple
intelligences.

Gardner proposed that intelligence is not
made up of one entity instead, they are
split into nine different kinds. Every
individual possesses a unique blend of
these intelligences. This theory led to the
creation of many others that propose
different kinds of intelligence.
15. Tolman, E. C.
(1948): Cognitive maps
in rats and men.

Tolman taught three groups of rats the
same maze, one at a time. The first group
of rats were placed in the maze and
reinforced with food upon getting out.
The second group of rats were treated
like the first, but they never received any
food reinforcement until the eleventh
trial. The third group of rats underwent
the same treatment, but were never
reinforced. At first, the first group of rats
tried solving the maze while the other
groups just wandered around, but upon
receiving reinforcement, the second
group of rats were able to solve the maze
almost immediately. Tolman concluded
that the rats in the second group had
learned the maze and created a cognitive
map while wandering around. They had
stored the information, but had never
demonstrated it, as there was no reason
to. The map remained latent (hidden)
until the rats had a reason to use it.
Tolman called this latent learning,
learning that remains hidden until its
application becomes useful.
16. Loftus, E. F. (1975):
Leading questions and
the eyewitness report.

In an experiment, Loftus showed
subjects a 3-minute video clip taken
from the movie Diary of a Student
Revolution, in which 8 demonstrators
run into a classroom, noisily confront the
professor, who is in the middle of a
lecture, and then leave. After the video
ended, 2 questionnaires were
distributed containing a key question
(Was the leader of the 4 demonstrators
who entered the classroom male? or
Was the leader of the 12 demonstrators
who entered the classroom male?) and
90 filler questions. Half of the subjects
were asked Was the leader of the 4
demonstrators who entered the
classroom male? while the other half
was asked Was the leader of the 12
demonstrators who entered the
classroom male? After a week, subjects
were given a new set of questions, the
key question being How many
demonstrators did you see entering the
classroom? The people who had
incorrectly answered 4 now answered
6.4, and the people who had incorrectly
answered 12 now answered 8.9. Loftus
proposed that this error was due to the


18. Piaget, J. (1954):
The development of
object concept.

Through studying his three children,
Piaget proposed that children form
schemes (mental concepts) as they
experience new situations, objects, and
events. Piaget believed that children first
try to understand new things in terms of
schemes they already possess through
assimilation. The process of altering or
adjusting old schemes to fit new info and
experiences is called accommodation.
Piaget also proposed that there are four
main stages of cognitive development:
the sensorimotor stage, in which infants
begin to interact with objects, the
preoperational stage, in which children
are able to interact with objects, but are
not capable of logical thought, the
concrete operations stage, in which
children are capable of logical thought,
but not abstract thought, and the formal
operations stage, in which children are
capable of abstract thought. Piagets
theory provided the basis of
understanding cognitive development in
subjects trying to compromise what they
had actually seen with later information.
This proved that what people see and
hear about an event after it has occurred
can easily affect the accuracy of their
memories of the event.
17. Harlow, H.F.
(1958): The nature of
love.

Harlow isolated eight baby rhesus
monkeys shortly after their birth, placing
each in a cage with two surrogate
mothers a block of would covered in
soft padding and terry cloth and a wire
mesh containing food, both heated.
Harlow recorded the amount of time the
monkeys spent with each mother.
Although the latter mother held food,
the monkeys tended to spend more time
with the former mother, thus leading
Harlow to conclude that comforting
contact was an important part of love.
the 20
th
century.
19. Kohlberg, L. (1963):
The development of
childrens orientations
toward a moral order:
sequence in the
development of moral
thought.

Kohlberg outlined a theory of the
development of moral thinking by
looking how people of various ages
responded to stories about people
caught up in moral dilemmas. Kohlberg
proposed three levels of moral
development based on his findings:
preconventional morality (often found in
very young children), in which behavior
is governed by its consequences,
conventional morality (found in most
children and adults), in which behavior
is judged by social norms, and
postconventional morality (found in
20% of the adult population), in which
behavior is judged by his own principles.
Kohlbergs theory provided the basis of
understanding moral development in the
20
th
century.
20. Langer, E. J., and
Rodin, J. (1976): The
effects of choice and
enhanced personal
responsibility for the
aged: a field experiment
in an institutional setting.

Langer and Rodin gave each of the
residents in a nursing home a
houseplant. Decisions about the care of
the plant (how much water and sun it
should receive, etc.) were up to the
residents. Residents in the experimental
group were allowed to make other
choices as well, such as whether they
wanted to watch a movie, etc., while
residents in the control group were told
that the staff would take care of the
plants and were not encouraged to make
their own choices. At the end of the
study, it was revealed that the residents
in the experimental group were more
vigorous, active, and associable than
those in the control group. This revealed
that having more control over your
lifestyle reduces stress.