ROGER WOLCOTT SPERRY - The National Academies Press

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Photo by Lois MacBird; courtesy of the California Institute of Technology
ROGER WOLCOTT SPERRY August 20, 1913–April 17, 1994 BY THEODORE J. VONEIDA “W HERE DOES behavior come from? What is the purpose of consciousness?” Questions such as these, which appeared on the first page of Sperry’s class notes in a freshman psychology course at Oberlin College, represent an accurate preview of a career that included major contributions to fundamental issues in neurobiology, psychology, and philosophy. Indeed, his first paper, published in the Journal of General Psychology in 1939, entitled “Action Current Study in Movement Coordination,” begins: “The objective psychologist, hoping to get at the physiological side of behavior, is apt to plunge immediately into neurology trying to correlate brain activity with modes of experience,” and continues, setting the stage for much that was to follow: “The result in many cases only accentuates the gap between the total experience as studied by the psychologist and neural activity as analyzed by the neurologist.” Roger Sperry was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and spent his early years on a nearby farm, where he developed a lifelong interest in nature. After the death of his father, the family moved to West Hartford, where he attended high school and established an all-state record in the javelin throw. 315
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ROGER WOLCOTT SPERRY - The National Academies Press

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