斯宾塞(1907-1967),
美国新行为主义心理学家,由于对条件作用和学习的理论和实验研究而著名。1955年当选为国家科学院院士,1956年获美国心理学会颁发的杰出科学贡献奖。
Kenneth Wartinbee Spence , a neobeahvioral psychologist, was known for
his theoretical and experimental studies of conditioning and learning.
His analyses and interpretations of the theories of other psychologists
also were very influential. Spence was elected to the National Academy
of Sciences in 1954 and was a fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and the American Psychological Association (APA).
Spence's contributions fall into three major categories: (1) learning
and motivation theory, (2) the experimental psychology of learning and
motivation, and (3) methodology and philosophy of science. (In some of
the writings on methodology and philosophy of science Gustav Bergmann
was a major collaborator.) In this latter area one of Spence's
contributions was to help clarify for all of us the role in psychology
of operationism and the nature of theory construction, and to point out
the difficulties that exist in the formulation of psychological
theories. Among his insights was that psychologists, unlike physical
scientists, are faced with the necessity of constructing theories even
at the level of trying to establish the basic laws of behavior; because
of the nature of their observations and the fact that they do not work
in closed systems, psychologists cannot in most cases begin with simple
empirically derived generalizations.
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http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/biomems/kspence.html