Biography and contributions

James J. Jenkins (born 1923), American psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 professor, played a significant role in the development of cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....

. Trained as an industrial psychologist, his early career was shaped by his Fellowship at the Social Science Research Council

Social Science Research Council

The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...

’s 1953 summer meeting that established the discipline of psycholinguistics

Psycholinguistics

Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...

. He initially attempted to apply a modified version of behaviorism

Behaviorism

Behaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking, and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior...

 to the problems of language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

 behavior, and while his “mediational” approach was very influential, he became convinced that it could not provide an adequate account of the structural nature of language as articulated by Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...

. He continued research on language and cognition

Cognition

In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...

, eventually focusing on topics concerning speech perception

Speech perception

Speech perception is the process by which the sounds of language are heard, interpreted and understood. The study of speech perception is closely linked to the fields of phonetics and phonology in linguistics and cognitive psychology and perception in psychology...

 (in collaboration with his wife, Winifred Strange). His research was marked by an interest in new and even radical ideas (e.g., those advocated by James J. Gibson), a keen appreciation of the value of studying real-world problems (as in his early research on aphasia

Aphasia

Aphasia is an impairment of language ability. This class of language disorder ranges from having difficulty remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read, or write....

), and a willingness to give up cherished theories when the facts drove him to do so. "If you're not making any progress toward understanding the problem," he said, "you've got to change." He had an infectious enthusiasm for both research and teaching, and his impact on young psychologists was tremendous. He supervised 46 PhD students in his first academic position at the University of Minnesota and through his career served as advisor or co-advisor of 82 PhD’s. He is beloved by his students, whom he encouraged to follow their own diverse interests. His students made many important contributions to psychological research (as just one example, the influential work on abstraction in memory done by his students John Bransford and Jeffrey Franks).

Academic career

Jenkins enlisted in the Army in 1942 and was trained as a meteorologist, receiving a B.S. in physics from the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

 in 1944. After serving as a weatherman in the Army Air Forces in the U.S and the South Pacific, he returned to William Jewell College

William Jewell College

William Jewell College is a private, four-year liberal arts college of 1,100 undergraduate students located in Liberty, Missouri, U.S. It was founded in 1849 by members of the Missouri Baptist Convention and other civic leaders, including Robert S. James, a Baptist minister and father of the...

 to earn an A.B. in psychology in 1947. He then earned a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

 in 1950, studying industrial psychology under Donald G. Paterson (who trained even more Ph.D.’s in his career than Jenkins did). He remained at the University of Minnesota as a professor in the Psychology Department from 1950 to 1982. From 1965 to 1973, he was founding Director of the newly established Center for Research in Human Learning of the University of Minnesota, where he remained as Director of Training until 1982. In that year, he moved to the University of South Florida

University of South Florida

The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...

, first as Chair of the Department of Psychology, and then as Distinguished Research Professor until he became Emeritus

Emeritus

Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...

 in 2000. He served as an Adjunct Research Professor at the City University of New York

City University of New York

The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...

 from 2000 through 2008. He was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences is an American interdisciplinary research body in Stanford, California focusing on the social sciences and humanities . Fellows are elected in a closed process, to spend a period of residence at the Center, released from other duties...

 in 1957-58 and 1964-65 (where he and a group of distinguished scholars ended a night-long celebration of their year together by attempting to watch the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

), and a Visiting Professor at the University of Colorado

University of Colorado

The University of Colorado system is a system of public universities in Colorado consisting of three universities in four campuses: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and University of Colorado Denver in downtown Denver and at the Anschutz Medical Campus in...

, Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, and the City University of New York.

Honors and professional activities

Jenkins is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

American Association for the Advancement of Science

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...

, the American Psychological Society/Association for Psychological Science

Association for Psychological Science

The Association for Psychological Science , previously the American Psychological Society, is a non-profit international organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in research, application, teaching, and the improvement of...

, the American Psychological Association

American Psychological Association

The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...

 and the Acoustical Society of America

Acoustical Society of America

The Acoustical Society of America is an international scientific society dedicated to increasing and diffusing the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications.-History:...

. He is a member of the Society of Experimental Psychologists

Society of Experimental Psychologists

The Society of Experimental Psychologists , originally called the Society of Experimentalists, is an academic society for experimental psychologists. It was founded by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1904 to be an ongoing workshop in which members could visit labs, study apparatus, and hear and...

 and the Psychonomic Society

Psychonomic Society

The Psychonomic Society is one of the primary societies for general scientific experimental psychology in the United States. Although open to all areas of experimental psychology, its members typically study areas related to cognitive psychology, such as learning, memory, attention, motivation,...

, the Midwestern and Southeastern Psychological Associations, the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and the International Society for Ecological Psychology. He served as Chairman of the Society of Experimental Psychologists (1972-73), Chairman of the Psychonomic Society Board of Governors (1978-79), Chairman of the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association (1969-1971), President of the Midwestern Psychological Association (1967-68), President of Division 3 (Experimental) of the American Psychological Association (1973-74), among other contributions to professional societies. He was Consulting Editor, Associate Editor, or Editor of several major professional journals and member of several NIH and NIE

NIE

NIE or Nie may mean:* Nie , a Chinese family name**Nie Er, Chinese composer**Nie Rongzhen, Chinese Marshal*NIE , a Polish weekly magazine by Jerzy Urban...

 grant panels, member of the National Research Council

National Research Council

National Research Council may refer to:* National Research Council , Canada's leading organization for scientific research and development...

 for four years, and Chairman of the Social Science Research Council Committee on Linguistics and Psychology (1960-1962). His academic honors include the previously mentioned Fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the Social Science Research Council Fellowship at the seminal 1953 Social Science Research Council Summer Institute in Psycholinguistics, as well as an SSRC Faculty Fellowship, a Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

 Faculty Grant, a Citation for Achievement from William Jewell College (1968), a Phi Kappa Phi

Phi Kappa Phi

The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is an honor society established 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study and to promote the "unity and democracy of education"...

 (University of South Florida Chapter) Artist/Scholar Award (1985), a Sigma Xi

Sigma Xi

Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society is a non-profit honor society which was founded in 1886 at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a handful of graduate students. Members elect others on the basis of their research achievements or potential...

(USF Chapter) Outstanding Research Award (1987), and an Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota (2001).

Selected publications

(From over 200 books, chapters, journal articles, and technical reports; see footnote 8 for a complete bibliography).

Schuell, H., & Jenkins, J. J. (1959). The nature of language deficit in aphasia. Psychological Review, 66, 45-67.

Jenkins, J. J. (1963). Mediated associations: Paradigms and situations. In C. N. Cofer and B. S. Musgrave (Eds), Verbal behavior and learning. New York: McGraw-Hill. Pp 210-245.

Greenberg, J. H., & Jenkins, J. J. (1964). Studies in the psychological correlates of the sound system of American English: I. Measuring linguistic distance from English. II. Distinctive features and psychological space. Word, 20, 156-177.

Jenkins, J. J. (1964). A mediational account of grammatical phenomena. Journal of Communication, 14, 86-97.

Jenkins, J. J., & Palermo, D. S. (1964). Mediation processes and the acquisition of linguistic structure. In U. Bellugi and R. W. Brown (Eds), The acquisition of language. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Serial No. 92, 29, No. 1, 141-169.

Palermo, D. S., & Jenkins, J. J. (1964). Word association norms: Fourth grade through college. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Schuell, H., Jenkins, J. J., & Jimenez-Pabon, E. (1964). The problem of aphasia in adults: Diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. New York: Hoeber.

Fodor, J. A., Jenkins, J. J., & Saporta, S. (1967). Psycholinguistics and communication theory. In F. E. X. Dance (Ed.), Human Communication Theory. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, pp. 160-201. (Precis of a never-published book.)

Jenkins, J. J., Foss, D. J., & Greenberg, J. H. (1968). Phonological features as cues in learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77, 200-205.

Dember, W. N., & Jenkins, J. J. (1970). General Psychology: Modeling behavior and experience. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Halwes, T., & Jenkins, J. J. (1971). The problem of serial order in behavior is not resolved by context-sensitive associative memory models. Psychological Review, 78, 122-129.

Hyde, T. S., & Jenkins, J. J. (1973). Recall for words as a function of semantic, graphic, and syntactic orienting tasks. Journal of verbal Learning and verbal Behavior, 12, 471-480.

Jenkins, J. J. (1974). Remember that old theory of memory? Well, forget it! American Psychologist, 29, 785-795.

Miyawaki, K. M., Strange, W., Verbrugge, R.R., Liberman, A. M, Jenkins, J. J., & Fujimura, O. (1975). An effect of linguistic experience: The discrimination of [r] and [l] by native speakers of Japanese and English. Perception & Psychophysics, 18, 331-340.

Jenkins, J.J. (l979). Four points to remember: A tetrahedral model of memory experiments. In L.S. Cermak and F.I.M. Craik (Eds.) Levels of processing in human memory. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum Associates, pp. 429-446.

Strange, W., Jenkins, J. J., & Johnson, T. L. (1983). Dynamic specification of coarticulated vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 74, 695-705.

Jenkins, J.J. (1985). Acoustic information for objects, places and events. In W.H. Warren & R.E. Shaw (Eds.) Persistence and change. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum. 115-138.

Jenkins, J. J., (1986). Beyond methodolatry. In B. Baars (Ed.), The cognitive revolution in psychology. New York: The Guilford Press, 237-252.

Jenkins, J.J. (1991). Teaching psychology in large classes: Research and personal experience. Teaching of Psychology, 18, 74-80.

Jenkins, J. J., Strange, W., & Miranda, S. (1994). Vowel identification in mixed-speaker silent-center syllables. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 95, 1030-1043.

Jenkins, J. J. & Tuten, J. T. (1998). On possible parallels between perceiving and remembering events. In R. R. Hoffman, M. F. Sherrick, & J. S. Warm (Eds.) Viewing psychology as a whole: The integrative science of William N. Dember, Washington, DC: APA Books. pp. 291-314.

Jenkins, J. J., & Strange, W. (1999). Perception of dynamic information for vowels in syllable onsets and offsets. Perception & Psychophysics, 61, 1200-1210.

External links

• University of Minnesota Archives, James J. Jenkins papers, 1970s by Karen Spilman