Has psychology “found its true path”? Methods,objectivity, and cries of “crisis” in early twentieth-century French psychology

This article explores how French psychologists understood the state of their field during the first quarter of the twentieth century, and whether they thought it was in crisis. The article begins with the Russian-born psychologist Nicolas Kostyleff and his announcement in 1911 that experimental psychology was facing a crisis. After briefly situating Kostyleff, the article examines his analysis of the troubles facing experimental psychology and his proposed solution, as well as the rather muted response his diagnosis received from the French psychological community. The optimism about the field evident in many of the accounts surveying French psychology during the early twentieth century notwithstanding, a few others did join Kostyleff in declaring that all was not well with experimental psychology. Together their pronouncements suggest that under the surface, important unresolved issues faced the French psychological community. Two are singled out: What was the proper methodology for psychology as a positive science? And what kinds of practices could claim to be objective, and in what sense? The article concludes by examining what these anxieties reveal about the type of science that French psychologists hoped to pursue.     

A quantitative test of Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism

The evolution of altruism is a fundamental and enduring puzzle in biology. In a seminal paper Hamilton showed that altruism can be selected for when rb - c > 0, where c is the fitness cost to the altruist, b is the fitness benefit to the beneficiary, and r is their genetic relatedness. While many studies have provided qualitative support for Hamilton's rule, quantitative tests have not yet been possible due to the difficulty of quantifying the costs and benefits of helping acts. Here we use a simulated system of foraging robots to experimentally manipulate the costs and benefits of helping and determine the conditions under which altruism evolves. By conducting experimental evolution over hundreds of generations of selection in populations with different c/b ratios, we show that Hamilton's rule always accurately predicts the minimum relatedness necessary for altruism to evolve. This high accuracy is remarkable given the presence of pleiotropic and epistatic effects as well as mutations with strong effects on behavior and fitness (effects not directly taken into account in Hamilton's original 1964 rule). In addition to providing the first quantitative test of Hamilton's rule in a system with a complex mapping between genotype and phenotype, these experiments demonstrate the wide applicability of kin selection theory.     

On Hans,Zou and the others: wonder animals and the question of animal intelligence in early twentieth-century France

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the advent of widespread pet ownership was accompanied by claims of heightened animal abilities. Psychical researchers investigated many of these claims, including animal telepathy and ghostly apparitions. By the beginning of the twentieth century, news of horses and dogs with the ability to read and calculate fascinated the French public and scientists alike. Amidst questions about the justification of animal cruelty in laboratory experiments, wonder animals came to represent some extraordinary possibilities associated with their kind. Psychologists speculated on the feats of wonder animals. They considered the possibility that these animals shared consciousness and intelligence with humans, and that—if confirmed—their alleged amazing abilities could lead to a new understanding of cognition for all animals. This article focuses on the few years during which claims of wonder animals occupied a significant place in French psychology and psychical research. It argues that as explanations involving deception or unconscious cues gained increased acceptance, the interest in wonder animals soon led to a backlash in comparative psychology that had repercussions for all animals, particularly those used in experimentation, in that it contributed to the decline of research addressing cognitive abilities in non-human species.     

Ella Thea Smith and the Lost History of American High School Biology Textbooks

Two influential articles published in the 1970s suggested that pressure from Christian fundamentalists, subsequent to the Scopes trial of 1925, forced American high school biology textbook authors and publishers to significantly limit discussion of the topic of evolution. The conclusions reached by these studies have become foundational for historians examining the interplay between science and religion in the United States in the twentieth century. However, a reexamination of key twentieth century biology textbooks suggests that the narrative that the treatment of the theory of evolution was held hostage to anti-rational cultural forces is largely a myth, created first as part of a public relations effort by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) to differentiate, defend, and promote its work, and later as part of an attempt by scholars to sound a warning concerning the rise of the religious right. A focus on this narrative has not only allowed biologists to sidestep uncomfortable questions regarding the race-biased and class-biased assumptions embedded within the concept of evolutionary progress, it has also limited reliance on the texts in question as reliable reflections of the cultural assumptions of educators and scientists. A reexamination of the most popular American biology textbooks from 1907 to 1963, particularly the work of Ella Thea Smith, provides evidence in support of these contentions.     

Senescence, Growth, and Gerontology in the United States

This paper discusses how growth and aging became interrelated phenomena with the creation of gerontology in the United States. I first show that the relation of growth to senescence, which had hardly attracted scientific attention before the twentieth century, started to be investigated by several experimental scientists around the 1900s. Subsequently, research on the connection between the two phenomena entered a new domain through the birth of gerontology as a scientific field comprised of various disciplines, many of which addressed growth. Due to gerontologists’ efforts, the association between aging and growth became stronger and more multifaceted within the discursive and organizational matrix constituting the new science, leading to a broader definition of senescence with an ambiguous connection to chronological age. Furthermore, as gerontologists borrowed the cultural agendas as well as research methods from studies of growth, aging began to be defined as a phenomenon that could be actively controlled and managed in both social arenas and laboratory environments.     

The Life and Creative Path of A.N. Leontiev

1. As in any science, in psychology analysis is the first and most important stage of investigation. The principal goal of psychology in the nineteenth century was to delineate several components within the infinite variety of mental phenomena and to determine the principles of interaction among them, enabling us to predict, and to reproduce, certain mental states. This remains our most important objective today. Despite all the achievements of the twentieth century, this objective is just as remote today as it was a hundred years ago.     

Why American Marine Stations?:The Teaching Argument

SYNOPSIS: Traditionally, historians have stressed the influenceof European laboratories on the development of American marinestations. While there is some justification for this interpretation,more attention must be directed at the original teaching imperativefor marine studies. Several marine stations emerged in the 1870swith no direct influence from Europe and with a complete commitmentto the education of secondary school teachers. Later in thecentury and early in the twentieth century this same patternwas repeated at several locations on both the east coast andthe west coast. All of these institutions were designed to presenta new pedagogical approach for biology in the United States.Originally as adjuncts to natural history museums and societiesand then as important innovations to teach laboratory methodsin American colleges and universities, marine biology stationsdeveloped research options only secondary to their primary educationalorientation.     

How to measure inclusive fitness

Although inclusive fitness (Hamilton 1964) is regarded as the basic currency of natural selection, difficulty in applying inclusive fitness theory to field studies persists, a quarter-century after its introduction (Grafen 1982, 1984; Brown 1987). For instance, strict application of the original (and currently accepted) definition of inclusive fitness predicts that no one should ever attempt to breed among obligately cooperative breeders. Much of this confusion may have arisen because Hamilton's (1964) original verbal definition of inclusive fitness was not in complete accord with his justifying model. By re-examining Hamilton's original model, a modified verbal definition of inclusive fitness can be justified.     

100 years of psychology of concepts: the theoretical notion of concept and its operationalization

The operationalization of scientific notions is instrumental in enabling experimental evidence to bear on scientific propositions. Conceptual change should thus translate into operationalization change. This article describes some important experimental works in the psychology of concepts since the beginning of the twentieth century. It is argued that since the early days of this field, psychologists' theoretical understanding of concepts has been modified several times. However, in all cases but one, these theoretical changes did not translate into changes in the operationalization of the notion of concept learning.     

Are Animals Just Noisy Machines?: Louis Boutan and the Co-invention of Animal and Child Psychology in the French Third Republic

Historians of science have only just begun to sample the wealth of different approaches to the study of animal behavior undertaken in the twentieth century. To date, more attention has been given to Lorenzian ethology and American behaviorism than to other work and traditions, but different approaches are equally worthy of the historian’s attention, reflecting not only the broader range of questions that could be asked about animal behavior and the “animal mind” but also the different contexts in which these questions were important. One such approach is that represented by the work of the French zoologist Louis Boutan (1859–1934). This paper explores the intellectual and cultural history of Boutan’s work on animal language and the animal mind, and contextualizes the place of animal behavior studies within late-nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century French biology. I explore the ways in which Boutan addressed the philosophical issue of whether language was necessary for abstract thought and show how he shifted from the idea that animals were endowed with a purely affective language to the notion that of they were capable of “rudimentary” reasoning. I argue that the scientific and broader socio-cultural contexts in which Boutan operated played a role in this transition. Then I show how Boutan’s linguistic and psychological experiments with a gibbon and children provide insights into his conception of “naturalness.” Although Boutan reared his gibbon at home and studied it in the controlled environment of his laboratory, he continued to identify its behavior as “natural.” I specifically demonstrate the importance of the milieu of the French Third Republic in shaping Boutan’s understanding not only of animal intelligence and child education, but also his definition of nature. Finally, I argue that Boutan’s studies on the primate mind provide us with a lens through which we can examine the co-invention of animal and child psychology in early-twentieth-century France.     

Bionomics: Vernon Lyman Kellogg and the Defense of Darwinism

Bionomics was a research approach invented by British biological scientists in the late nineteenth century and adopted by the American entomologist and evolutionist Vernon Lyman Kellogg in the early twentieth century. Kellogg hoped to use bionomics, which was the controlled observation and experimentation of organisms within settings that approximated their natural environments, to overcome the percieved weaknesses in the Darwinian natural selection theory. To this end, he established abionomics laboratory at Stanford University, widely published results from his bionomic investigations, and encouraged other biological researchers to adopt bionomics. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Some history of heredity-vs-environment, genetic inferiority at Harvard(?), and The (incredible) Bell Curve

This article discusses some historical and intellectual roots of American behaviorism in psychology and its anti-heredity, environmentalist bias, as well as the early ‘justification’ for pure line theory in genetics and some interrelations between the two fields. Next, I discuss the heritability concept, its promotion, its critique and the importance of distinguishing it from, rather than confusing or conflating it with, the heredity concept. Then, briefly I consider some of the history and problems associated with the intelligence concept, as well as the capital importance of biological controls in studies of human heredity. And finally, I document the incredibility of The Bell Curve and the appalling inadequacy of its reception. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

From Aviation Psychology To Space Psychology

Without doubt, a name such as the aerospace century can be given, along with many others, to the twentieth century. In our country, which is the native land both of aviation and of astronautics, such genuinely humanitarian sciences as aviation medicine and, later, space biology and medicine, of which aviation and space psychology are component parts, emerged and grew simultaneously with technological development.     

A place that answers questions: primatological field sites and the making of authentic observations

The ideals and realities of field research have shaped the development of behavioural primatology over the latter half of the twentieth century. This paper draws on interviews with primatologists as well as a survey of the scientific literature to examine the idealized notion of the field site as a natural place and the physical environment of the field as a research space. It shows that what became standard field practice emerged in the course of wide ranging debate about the techniques, personal qualities and site conditions best suited to the scientific study of the natural behaviour of apes and monkeys. Although the laboratory was a constant presence in this debate, the export of techniques from the laboratory to the field was limited, due to concerns that experimental manipulation would destroy the naturalness of the behaviour. The paper goes on to demonstrate the central significance given by primatologists to the unique social, historical and ecological circumstances of particular field sites, and to sketch some of the complexities that fieldworkers contend with in trying to realize their ideals. Primatologists seek field sites that answer their questions; but once their studies become long term, they also need to find questions that answer to ever changing conditions at those sites.     

Adult male-offspring play interactions within a captive group of Orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus)

A family of four Sumatran Orang-utans was studied for three months under captive conditions. Thirty discrete playful interactions between a 19-year-old male and his four-year-old male offspring were analyzed from films and notes. Ten behaviors occurred in a typical play-bout, the most frequent of which were hand contact and mouth contact. Developmental studies of the motor patterns involved in orang-utan social behavior are greatly needed, as the orang is the least understood of the great apes. This research is supported by the following sources: National Institute of Health grants to the Emory University experimental psychology program (H0 00208) and to the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center (HD00165), and a faculty research grant to the third author from Emory University's McCandless Fund for Biological Research.     

Evolution of extraordinary female-biased sex ratios: the optimal schedule of sex ratio in local mate competition

Female-biased sex ratio in local mate competition has been well studied both theoretically and experimentally. However, some experimental data show more female-biased sex ratios than the theoretical predictions by Hamilton [1967. Science 156, 477-488] and its descendants. Here we consider the following two effects: (1) lethal male-male combat and (2) time-dependent control (or schedule) of sex ratio. The former is denoted by a male mortality being an increasing function of the number of males. The optimal schedule is analytically obtained as an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) by using Pontrjagin's maximum principle. As a result, an ESS is a schedule where only males are produced first, then the proportion of females are gradually increased, and finally only females are produced. Total sex ratio (sex ratio averaged over the whole reproduction period) is more female-biased than the Hamilton's result if and only if the two effects work together. The bias is stronger when lethal male combat is severer or a reproduction period is longer. When male-male combat is very severe, the sex ratio can be extraordinary female-biased (less than 5%). The model assumptions and the results generally agree with experimental data on Melittobia wasps in which extraordinary female-biased sex ratio is observed. Our study might provide a new basis for the evolution of female-biased sex ratios in local mate competition.     

Patterns of introduction of non-indigenous non-marine snails and slugs in the Hawaiian Islands

The native snails of the Hawaiian Islands are disappearing. One cause is predation by introduced carnivorous snails. Habitat destruction/modification is also important, facilitating the spread of other non-indigenous snails and slugs. Eighty-one species of snails and slugs are recorded as having been introduced. Thirty-three are established: 12 freshwater, 21 terrestrial. Two or three species arrived before western discovery of the islands (1778). During the nineteenth century about one species per decade, on average, was introduced. The rate rose to about four per decade during the twentieth century, with the exception of an especially large number introduced in the 1950s as putative biocontrol agents against the giant African snail, Achatina fulica. The geographical origins of these introductions reflect changing patterns of commerce and travel. Early arrivals were generally Pacific or Pacific rim species. Increasing trade and tourism with the USA, following its annexation of Hawaii, led to an increasing proportion of American species. More general facilitation of travel and commerce later in the twentieth century led to a significant number of European species being introduced. African species dominated the 1950s biological control introductions. The process continues and is just part of the homogenization of the unique faunas of tropical Pacific islands.     

Unifying the theories of inclusive fitness and reciprocal altruism

Inclusive fitness and reciprocal altruism are widely thought to be distinct explanations for how altruism evolves. Here we show that they rely on the same underlying mechanism. We demonstrate this commonality by applying Hamilton's rule, normally associated with inclusive fitness, to two simple models of reciprocal altruism: one, an iterated prisoner's dilemma model with conditional behavior; the other, a mutualistic symbiosis model where two interacting species differ in conditional behaviors, fitness benefits, and costs. We employ Queller's generalization of Hamilton's rule because the traditional version of this rule does not apply when genotype and phenotype frequencies differ or when fitness effects are nonadditive, both of which are true in classic models of reciprocal altruism. Queller's equation is more general in that it applies to all situations covered by earlier versions of Hamilton's rule but also handles nonadditivity, conditional behavior, and lack of genetic similarity between altruists and recipients. Our results suggest changes to standard interpretations of Hamilton's rule that focus on kinship and indirect fitness. Despite being more than 20 years old, Queller's generalization of Hamilton's rule is not sufficiently appreciated, especially its implications for the unification of the theories of inclusive fitness and reciprocal altruism.     

Human impacts on fisheries resources and abundance in the Danish Wadden Sea, c1520 to the present

For the past 30 years, the Danish Wadden Sea area has been protected by fishery and hunting regulations, pollution controls and settlement restrictions. Nevertheless, todays Wadden Sea is a depleted ecosystem when we compare it with past abundance and diversity of marine animal populations. This review indicates that the abundance of finfishes has undergone a long-term decline since the seventeenth century. The review also indicates a trajectory of ecological decline since the early twentieth century that seems to be related to: (1) fishing extractions which focused on undersized fish throughout the first half of the twentieth century; (2) habitat destruction, which was most marked in the first half of the twentieth century; and (3) pollution, which was worst in the third quarter of the twentieth century. Historical investigation reveals that we need to fundamentally revise present-day baselines about the potential species richness and abundance of the Wadden Sea.