APA Historical Database: Selected Entries

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On October 17:

1869 — Robert S. Woodworth was born. Woodworth was one of the first to consider the motivational state of the organism to be a critical intervening variable. His experiments in motivation and physiological psychology led to influential texts in general, systematic, and experimental psychology. APA President, 1914; American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal, 1956.

1920 — Norman Guttman was born. Guttman's work bridged Skinnerian behaviorism and physiological psychology. He studied stimulus control of operant behavior, stimulus generalization, perceptual processes in stimulus-response relations, and shapes of generalization gradients.

1931 — The first of a series of thirty 15-minute weekly radio lectures titled "Psychology Today" was broadcast over New York's WEAF and approximately 50 NBC-affiliated stations. The first lecture, an overview of scientific and applied psychology, was delivered by James R. Angell. The series was coordinated by Walter V. Bingham for the National Advisory Council on Radio in Education.

1938 — Lauretta Bender's Visual Motor Gestalt Test, commonly called the Bender Gestalt Test, was published.

1962 — The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development was authorized by Public Law 87-838.

1979 — President Carter signed Public Law 96-88, creating the U.S. Department of Education. Section 209 of the law created the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Shirley Hufstedler was the first secretary of the new department.

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