Monitor on Psychology - February 2012 - (Page 21)

tourists visit the maze at Hampton Court Palace in London on July 14, 1933. the maze — first built in the 1690s — was an inspiration for the rat maze developed at Clark University in the late 1890s. less important for its conclusions than for the fact that it initiated a flood of research using mazes. Over the next few decades, versions of the Hampton Court Maze and many variations of it appeared throughout the academic landscape, as research psychologists used the maze to explore the basic processes of learning. Rats weren’t the only subjects making their way through the twists and turns; Human maze studies began appearing, ranging from simple table-top devices that blindfolded humans tried to learn by running a stylus through grooves cut into wood, to human-size mazes in the spirit of Hampton Court. One such study was attempted by E.G. Boring, psychology’s famous historian. As a graduate student at Cornell, the center of Titchenerian introspective psychology, Boring constructed an outdoor maze similar to the Hampton maze but with a circular design (“walls” were created with wooden stakes and wire). Blindfolded, Boring and several fellow grad students wound their way through the maze, rattling off introspective reports about the experience as they went along. They even tied sacks of flour to their backs with holes piercing the bottom so they could later trace their progress (if only they had taken pictures). The results were inconclusive. Boring later said that the main outcome of 21 F e b ru a ry 2 0 1 2 • M o n i t o r o n p s y c h o l o g y Getty Images

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - February 2012

Monitor on Psychology - February 2012
Letters
President’s column
Contents
From the CEO
APA files two briefs in support of same-sex couples
New registry seeks to understand addiction recovery through ‘crowdsourcing’
APA launches a database of tests and measures
Watch for new member benefit: “APA Access”
Apply now for APA’s Advanced Training Institutes
PsycTHERAPY, APA’s new database, brings therapy demos to life
In Brief
APA scientists help guide tobacco regulation
A-mazing research
‘A machine for jumping to conclusions’
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Righting the imbalance
The beginnings of mental illness
Science Directions
Improving disorder classification, worldwide
Protesting proposed changes to the DSM
Interventions for at-risk students
Harnessing the wisdom of the ages
Anti-bullying efforts ramp up
Hostile hallways
R U friends 4 real?
Support for teachers
Speaking of Education
Record keeping for practitioners
Going green
At the intersection of law and psychology
Division Spotlight
Grants help solve society’s problems
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - February 2012