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Instituting the science of mind: intellectual economies and disciplinary exchange at Harvard's Center for Cognitive Studies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2007
Abstract
Focusing on Harvard's Center for Cognitive Studies as a case, this article uses economies of research tool exchange to develop a new way of characterizing cross-disciplinary research. Throughout its life from 1960 to 1972, the Center for Cognitive Studies hosted scholars from several disciplines. However, there were two different research cultures at the Center. With its directors and patrons committed to a philosophy that equated creative science with eclectic search for and invention of new tools, the Center's initial interdisciplinary research culture emphasized the exchange of ideas and methods. Several years later, once its work was well under way, the Center's culture became multidisciplinary. Rather than emphasizing the sharing, invention, location, discussion and stabilization of new research techniques, the Center's multidisciplinary economy involved researchers working in parallel.
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- Research Article
- Information
- The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , December 2007 , pp. 567 - 597
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- Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2007
References
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23 Bruner has reflected that there had been ‘times when I thought I would have been better off in the seventeenth century, when it was more usual to follow one's curiosity than the straighter arrow of specialized study. I am not a good “discipline” man and do not like boundaries’. J. S. Bruner, In Search of Mind: Essays in Autobiography, New York, 1983, 8.
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32 C. Dollard, ‘Strategy for advancing the social sciences’, in The Social Sciences at Mid-Century, Freeport, NY, 1952, 12–20, 18. For discussion of Dollard and his relationship with Stouffer see E. C. Lagemann, The Politics of Knowledge: The Carnegie Corporation, Philanthropy, and Public Policy, Middletown, CT, 1989.
33 The yearly expenditure figures given above are only approximate since the available data give total project allocations. Most lasted over several years and the data do not specify the expenditure burn rate. Figures given above are thus calculated as a fraction of the total grant with the assumption that funds would be used at an equal rate year to year. Summary Report of the Behavioral Sciences Division, 1952–3. Papers of Paul Herman Buck, Box: Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences 1952–late 1960s, Folder: Misc. Harvard University Archives.
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42 C. Kluckhohn, ‘Comment on Margaret Mead “The comparative study of culture and the purposive cultivation of democratic values”’, in Science, Philosophy and Religion (ed. L. Bryson and L. Finkelstein), New York, 1942, 72–6; idem, Mirror for Man: The Relation of Anthropology to Modern Life, New York, 1949. See also V. Yans-McLaughlin, ‘Science, democracy, and ethics: mobilizing culture and personality for World War II’, in Malinowski, Rivers, Benedict and Others: Essays on Culture and Personality (ed. G. W. Stocking, Jr.), Madison, WI, 1986, 184–217.
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45 J. B. Conant, ‘Memorandum to the Carnegie Corporation’, n.d. (receipt acknowledged 11 July 1946). Carnegie Corporation Grant Files. Series 1, Box 163. Folder: Harvard University Laboratory of Social Relations.
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50 Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, First Annual Report, 1960–1961, 1–2.
51 Bruner initially presented the results of his research on the R & D group at a conference in 1958. For his paper in the conference proceedings see J. S. Bruner, ‘The conditions of creativity’, in Contemporary Approaches to Creative Thinking (ed. H. E. Gruber, G. Terrell and M. Wertheimer), New York, 1962, 1–30.
52 J. Bruner and G. Miller to J. W. Gardner, 7 April 1960. Papers of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Letters to/from, 1959–60, Box 6, Folder: Center for Cognitive Studies. Harvard University Archives.
53 ‘Weekly Log’, 28 November 1960, Center for Cognitive Studies, Correspondence; Center for Cognitive Studies, Budget and Equipment Papers, Harvard University Archives.
54 The Center's pattern of intellectual exchange worked in many ways like that of the souk (baazar) in Sefrou, Morocco described by C. Geertz and L. Rosen. Geertz and Rosen argued that the conditions of trade in the souk in Sefrou are linked to its energetic and intimate social patterns. For Geertz this is because market information is poorly distributed and goods are non-standard, so buyers organize their activities by developing close relationships with vendors and through constant, intensive and lengthy negotiations with each transaction. This pattern and the relationships that develop through it help people acquire information about the goods under negotiation and also the market in general. Rosen adds that these negotiations construct not just the marketplace in Sefrou but also the wider social world. Through these interchanges people establish prices for goods, as well as (re)negotiate their relationships with one another and the wider community. Researchers at the Center traded intellectual tools in a souk-like fashion, constituting both their local culture and the (professional) identities of the participants. C. Geertz, ‘Suq: the bazaar economy in Sefrou’, in Meaning and Order in Moroccan Society: Three Essays in Cultural Analysis (ed. C. Geertz, H. Geertz and L. Rosen), Cambridge, 1979, 123–313; L. Rosen, Bargaining for Reality: The Construction of Social Relations in a Muslim Community, Chicago and London, 1984.
55 N. Chomsky and G. A. Miller, ‘Finitary models of language users’, in Handbook of Mathematical Psychology (ed. R. D. Luce, R. Bush and E. Galanter), New York, 1963, 419–91; N. Chomsky and G. A. Miller, ‘Introduction to the formal analysis of natural languages’, in ibid., 269–332.
56 J. S. Bruner to M. J. Aschner, 28 June 1961. J. S. Bruner, General Correspondence, 1962–4, Box A, Folder: Aschner. Harvard University Archives.
57 G. A. Miller, ‘Language and psychology’, in New Directions in the Study of Language (ed. E. H. Lenneberg), Cambridge, 1964, 89–107, 94.
58 See, for instance, Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, Third Annual Report, 1962–1962, 5.
59 D. French, quoted in Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, First Annual Report, 1960–1961, 4.
60 See R. R. Olver, ‘A developmental study of cognitive equivalence’, Ph.D. dissertation number 0261491, Harvard University, 1962.
61 G. A. Miller, ‘Project Grammarama’, in idem The Psychology of Communication, New York, 1967, 125–87.
62 G. A. Miller, ‘Computers, communication and cognition’, in The Psychology of Communication, New York, 1967, 93–124.
63 For instance, see Chomsky, N., ‘Three models for the description of language’, IRE Transactions on Information Theory (1956), IT-2, 113–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
64 N. Chomsky, Syntactic Structures, The Hague, 1957, 18–25. The original proof appears in Chomsky, op. cit. (63).
65 G. A. Miller, Lecture Notes for Psychology 165: Psychology of Speech and Communication. 4–18 October 1957. Harvard University Archives, HUC 8957.272.165, Box 1247, Folder: Miller: Lecture Notes for Psych 165.
66 Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, Third Annual Report, 1962–1963, 39.
67 Miller, op. cit. (62).
68 A sampling of this line of Bruner's research follows. Historians of science will be familiar with the results of the paper with Postman for it is central to Thomas Kuhn's discussion of gestalt-switching. T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd edn, Chicago, 1970, 62–4; Bruner and Goodman, op. cit. (27); Bruner and Postman, op. cit. (27); Bruner, J. S. and Potter, M. C., ‘Interference in visual recognition’, Science (1964), 144, 424–5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Bruner, J. S., ‘On perceptual readiness’, Psychological Review (1957), 64, 123–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed The eye camera and associated research is discussed in Mackworth, J. F. and Mackworth, N. H., ‘Eye fixations recorded on changing visual scenes by the television eye-marker’, Journal of the Optical Society of America (1958), 48, 439–55CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Mackworth, N. H., ‘A stand camera for line-of-sight recording’, Perception and Psychophysics (1967), 2, 119–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
69 Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, First Annual Report, 1960–1961, 8.
70 Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, Second Annual Report, 1961–1962, 5.
71 Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, Second Annual Report, 1961–1962, 5.
72 D. A. Norman, interview, 2 August 1997. See also D. A. Norman and W. J. M. Levelt, ‘Life at the Center’, in The Making of Cognitive Science: Essays in Honor of George A. Miller (ed. W. Hirst), Cambridge and New York, 1988, 100–9.
73 J. S. Bruner, interview, 7 May 1997.
74 Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, Second Annual Report, 1961–1962, 5.
75 D. A. Norman, interview, 2 August 1997.
76 Bruner, op. cit. (51). This work was a part of a quickly growing research area concerned with understanding creativity and using group-brainstorming to produce innovation among businessmen, engineers, scientists and students. See, for instance, W. J. J. Gordon, Synectics, New York, 1961; A. F. Osborn, Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of the Creative Process, rev. edn, New York, 1953.
77 NIH Grant Application, ‘Studies in cognition’, 13 December 1965, 4. Center for Cognitive Studies, Grant Requests, Proposals and Reports, Folder: NIH Proposal.
78 Center for Cognitive Studies, Annual Report, 1965–6, 39–40.
79 For discussion of the role of behaviourism in establishing the disciplinary autonomy of psychology see J. M. O'Donnell, The Origins of Behaviorism: American Psychology, 1870–1920, New York, 1985.
80 Cohen-Cole, J.. ‘The reflexivity of cognitive science: the scientist as model of human nature’, History of the Human Sciences (2005), 18, 107–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
81 D. A. Norman, interview, 8 August 1997; Norman and Levelt, op. cit. (72), 100–9.
82 On Postman see Papers of J. S. Bruner, General Correspondence, 1948–51, Box Meikle–Postman, Folder Postman, Harvard University Archives. On Mackworth see Papers of the Center for Cognitive Studies, Correspondence. Harvard University Archives.
83 J. S. Bruner et al., Studies in Cognitive Growth, New York, 1966; J. S. Bruner, ‘The growth and structure of skill’, in Beyond the Information Given: Studies in the Psychology of Knowing (ed. J. M. Anglin), New York, 1973; N. Chomsky, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Cambridge, MA, 1965; P. M. Greenfield and J. S. Bruner, ‘Culture and cognitive growth’, in Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research (ed. D. A. Goslin), Chicago, 1969, 633–54; Miller, op. cit. (61); Mackworth, op. cit. (68).
84 R. A. Harris, The Linguistics Wars, New York and Oxford, 1993, 68, 271.
85 D. Norman and W. Levelt remark that ‘the Center for Cognitive Studies gathered together a vibrant group of people with unconventional knowledge and interests, stuck them together in one place, gave them excellent research, meeting, and support facilities, and then allowed what was to happen to happen. There were frequent meetings and seminars, a continual stream of visitors, and, for members of the Center, no responsibilities. All of the ingredients were present: facilities, people, an active spirit, and critical mass. The Center offered a true demonstration of the critical mass theory of research, the notion that work proceeds best when there are enough people interested in the same or closely related topics so there is always an audience for new ideas, an audience that can criticize in depth, suggest, and help generate the next generation of ideas’. Norman and Levelt, op. cit. (72), 101. Also Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies Annual Reports (especially before 1965); NIH Grant Application, ‘Studies in Cognition’, 13 December 1965, 3–4. Center for Cognitive Studies, Grant Requests, Proposals & Reports, Folder: NIH Proposal; D. A. Norman, interview, 2 August 1997; Center for Cognitive Studies, ‘Final Report 1965–1972’, Carnegie Corporation Grant Files, Series 2, Box 606: Harvard University – Thought Processes, Columbia University Archives; Bruner, op. cit. (23); Bruner, op. cit. (2).
86 Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, Third Annual Report, 1962–1963, 8.
87 NIH Grant Application, ‘Studies in Cognition’, 13 December 1965. Center for Cognitive Studies, Grant Requests, Proposals & Reports, Folder: NIH Proposal, 4–5. Harvard University Archives.
88 The history of that curriculum, ‘Man: A Course of Study’, is narrated in P. B. Dow, Schoolhouse Politics: Lessons from the Sputnik Era, Cambridge and London, 1991.
89 Interview, name withheld.
90 Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, First Annual Report, 1960–1961, 10.
91 J. S. Bruner to P. Achinstein, 15 December 1969. Papers of J. S. Bruner, General Correspondence, 1965–71, Box A. Harvard University Archives.
92 For other recent examples of the relationship between architecture and research culture see Leslie, S. W. and Knowles, S., ‘“Industrial Versailles”: Eero Saarinen's corporate campuses for GM, IBM, and AT&T’, Isis (2001) 92, 1–33Google Scholar; A. J. Levine, ‘Life in the Lewis Thomas Laboratory’, in The Architecture of Science (ed. P. Galison and E. Thompson), Cambridge, MA, 1999, 413–22.
93 J. S. Bruner to R. Stanger, 9 February 1962. Papers of J. S. Bruner, General Correspondence, 1961–2, Box N–Z, Folder S. Harvard University Archives. Although, in the last couple of years before the move to William James, the Center had an outpost on Garden Street, the split that entailed did not draw energy from the Center's Kirkland Street home base because the majority of the Center's activities remained in the original location.
94 Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, Fifth Annual Report, 1964–1965, 7–8.
95 Interview with D. A. Norman, 2 August 1997.
96 One was G. Miller. Interview, 25 September 1997.
97 D. Aaronson, personal communication, 23 August 1997; interview with M. Potter, 8 October 1997; interview with G. Miller, 25 September 1997.
98 J. Bruner to H. Himmelweit, 22 March 1971. Papers of J. S. Bruner, General Correspondence, 1965–71, Head Start–I, Folder: Himmelweit, Hilde. Harvard University Archives.
99 N. Pusey, handwritten memo to himself outlining a meeting with Bruner and Miller, 12 January 1962. Papers of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Letters to and from, 1961–2, Box 2, Folder: Cognitive Studies, Center for, Harvard University Archives.
100 Bruner to B. Woolf, 26 October 1970. J. S. Bruner, Personal Correspondence and Papers, N–P, Folder: NICHHD 03049 Request for Renewal. Harvard University Archives.
101 Bruner mentions this group briefly in ‘Founding the Center for Cognitive Studies’, op. cit. (2). For details on Bread and Roses see Nancy Hawley, ‘Dear Sisters’, 8 October 1970, Annie Popkin Papers, Box 2, folder 39, Schlesinger Library; A. Echols, Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967–1975, Minneapolis, 1989; A. H. Popkin, ‘Bread and roses: an early moment in the development of socialist-feminism’, Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis, 1978.
102 Rose Olver, interview, 8 September 1998.
103 Among the numerous accounts these events have received are D. Ravitch, The Troubled Crusade: American Education 1945–1980, New York, 1983; R. N. Smith, The Harvard Century: The Making of a University to a Nation, New York, 1986. The full story remains clouded, however, as Harvard's administrative records on the event are sealed until at least 2029.
104 J. Bruner to D. Kahneman, 22 March 1971. J. S. Bruner, General Correspondence, 1965–71, Kagan–Kennedy, Folder: Kahneman, Daniel. Harvard University Archives.
105 U. Neisser, Cognitive Psychology, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1967, 5.
106 Center for Cognitive Studies, ‘Final Report 1965–1972’, Carnegie Corporation Grant Files, Series 2, Box 606: Harvard University – Thought Processes, Columbia University Archives.
107 Bruner, op. cit. (2), 97.
108 Harvard University Center for Cognitive Studies, Seventh Annual Report, 1966–1967 (Cambridge, MA), 1.
109 Among these are Willem Levelt's role in founding the Max Planck institute in Nijmegen and Jacques Mehler's in the Journal of Cognition, and G. Miller in the programme in cognitive science at Princeton. In addition, Howard Gardner shaped Project Zero at Harvard and D. Norman shaped the programme at UCSD along the lines they saw at the Center. D. A. Norman, interview, 2 August 1997; H. Gardner, To Open Minds, New York, 1989, 54–5.
110 See, for instance, M. Poovey, ‘Interdisciplinarity at New York University: innovation without planning’, in Schools of Thought: Twenty-Five Years of Interpretive Social Science (ed. J. W. Scott and D. Keats), Princeton, 2001, 288–312; M. Strathern, ‘Genetics Knowledge Park: an interdisciplinary experiment’, Princeton University, 12 April 2004.
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