Stanley Smith Stevens

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Stanley Smith Stevens (born November 4, 1906 - January 18, 1973 ) was an American psychologist .

academic career

In 1927 Stanley Smith Stevens enrolled at the University of Utah and in 1929 moved to Stanford University , from which he received an AB degree in 1931 . After a further two years as an assistant to Edwin G. Boring at Harvard University , he received his doctorate in psychology. He continued his psychological research from 1932-1934 under Hallowell Davis at Harvard Medical School and moved from 1935 to 1936 to the faculty of physics at Harvard. He then moved to the "Psychological Department" founded in 1934 and in 1938 became Assistant Professor of Psychology. In 1940, at the request of the US Air Force, he founded the psychoacoustics laboratory to examine strong noise levels on people. In 1946 he was appointed full professor of psychology. At his own insistence, his title was changed to "Professor of Psychophysics " in 1962 .

Scientific work

In 1936, Stanley Smith Stevens proposed the unit sone as the unit of measurement for the subjective loudness of a sound and, together with John Volkmann and Edwin Newman, developed the Mel scale for perceived pitch. The measurement problems of these two scales led to a general treatise on scale systems.

With the Handbook of Experimental Psychology he wrote the standard work of experimental psychological research in 1951. It was not until 1957 that he introduced the Stevens power function .

The main work is the posthumously completed work Psychophysics by his wife as editor .

Other works

  • Volume and intensity of tones. Harvard University, 1933. ( Dissertation ).
  • with Fred Warshofsky: Sound and hearing. Time-Live, New York City 1965.
  • As a translation: sound and hearing. Time-Live International, Reinbek 1966, ISBN 3-499-18015-4 .

Memberships

In 1946, Stevens was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences . In 1958 he was accepted into the American Philosophical Society .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c George A. Miller: Biographical Memoirs, Stanley Smith Stevens , Volume 47. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC 1975, ISBN 978-0-309-02245-3 , pp. 424-459.
  2. ^ Stanley Smith Stevens: A scale for the measurement of the psychological magnitude: loudness . In: APA Journals (Ed.): Psychological Review . 43, No. 5, 1936, pp. 405-416. ISSN  0033-295X .
  3. ^ Stanley Smith Stevens, John Volkman, Edwin Newman: A scale for the measurement of the psychological magnitude of pitch . In: Acoustical Society of America (Ed.): The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America . 8, No. 3, 1937, pp. 185-190. ISSN  0001-4966 . doi : 10.1121 / 1.1915893 .
  4. ^ Stanley Smith Stevens: On the theory of scales of measurement . In: Science . 103, 1946, pp. 677-680. doi : 10.1126 / science.103.2684.677 . PMID 17750512 .
  5. ^ Stanley Smith Stevens: Handbook of experimental psychology . Chapman & Hall, New York 1951, p. 1436.
  6. ^ Stanley Smith Stevens: On the psychophysical law . In: APA Journals (Ed.): Psychological Review . 64, No. 3, 1957, pp. 153-181. ISSN  0033-295X . doi : 10.1037 / h0046162 .
  7. ^ Stanley Smith Stevens: Psychophysics . Introduction to its perceptual, neural, and social prospects. Ed .: Maxine Stevens. John Wiley & Sons, New York 1975, ISBN 0-471-82437-2 .
  8. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter S. (PDF; 1.4 MB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved February 9, 2018 .
  9. ^ Member History: Stanley Smith Stevens. American Philosophical Society, accessed December 5, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Stevens, Stanley Smith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1906
DATE OF DEATH 18th January 1973