Lashley, Karl S

Lashley, Karl S(pencer)

(born June 7, 1890, Davis, W.Va., U.S.—died Aug. 7, 1958, Paris, France) U.S. psychologist. He taught at the Universities of Minnesota (1920–29) and Chicago (1929–35) and at Harvard University (1935–55). In Brain Mechanisms and Intelligence (1929), he demonstrated that certain types of learning are mediated by the cerebral cortex as a whole, refuting the view that every psychological function is localized at a specific place on the cortex, and he showed that some parts of the brain system (e.g., the visual system) can take over the functions of other parts. He also studied the cortical basis of motor activities and the relation between brain mass and learning ability. His paper “The Problem of Serial Order in Behavior” (1951) played a major supporting role in the revolt against simple associative psychology.