Riley Gardner
Encyclopedia
Dr. Riley W. Gardner born in Ree Heights, South Dakota
, was an American
psychologist
who published works on individual differences and cognition.
in Yankton, South Dakota
. After college, he entered the military and became a staff sergeant in the US Army
Medical Corps
, serving from 1946 until 1948. It was during this military service that he was introduced to psychiatric care. Following the military, he earned his Ph.D in Psychology
from the University of Kansas
in 1952, summa cum laude, a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He married Ruth Janssen on August 27, 1950 in Yankton, South Dakota
.
in Topeka, Kansas
. During this time he was the Director of the research group engaged in studying cognition control principles . He had two major grants from the National Institutes of Health
and invitations to teach in seminars and at universities around the USA and abroad, and he published numerous papers on individual differences and cognition.
Gardner's work was part of what was called the "new look in perception." In the late 1950s an attempt was being made in academic psychology
and psychoanalysis
to correlate and study the interaction of cognition, needs, and personality. A number of the leaders of this "new look" were psychoanalytically trained psychologists working at the Menninger Clinic. Gardner was part of this well known group that also included George Klein, Philip Holzman, and Robert Holt. Gardner, with his research on cognitive controls, was part of this group that insisted that cognition played an essential role in the formation and functioning of personality rather than being a mental function separate from personality. This idea is an implicit foundation for modern day psychoanalytic concepts such as self and object representations, mentalization, and a structural perspective on the workings of the mind. The concept of cognitive control explains Gardner and Klein’s finding that individuals use particular cognitive or ego strategies to notice, register, compare, process, integrate or avoid information from the environment. Furthermore, individuals differ in the types of strategies they use. The entire focus on self regulation within the field of psychoanalysis is based on this assumption.
As part of his research, he performed an in-depth study of 105 pairs of twins in the vicinity of Topeka, Kansas
, and received an honorary invitation to membership in Topeka’s Mothers of Twins Club. In late 1970 he suffered a temporary mental breakdown which marked the end of his professional career.[Some lines copied with permission from author]
.
1953
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
Ree Heights, South Dakota
Ree Heights is a town in Hand County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 62 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Ree Heights is located at ....
, was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
who published works on individual differences and cognition.
Early life and education
Riley Gardner was the son of Hugh Gardner and Ruth Speicher Gardner. They were the "town people" in the tiny farming community of Ree Heights, South Dakota. Riley's father was at various times a store keeper, an insurance agent, postmaster and the co-op grain elevator manager, as well as school board president and church elder. Riley's mother was the commnunity's piano teacher and church organist. Riley was the second born of three children, after his sister Katherine who was 4 years his elder, and before his brother Wayne. He graduated first in his high school class (which numbered 10 students total) from Ree Heights High School in Ree Heights, South Dakota. In 1945 he graduated with a bachelors of English from Yankton CollegeYankton College
Yankton College was a small liberal arts college in Yankton, South Dakota, affiliated with the Congregational Christian Churches .Founded in 1881, it was the first institution of higher learning in the Dakota Territory...
in Yankton, South Dakota
Yankton, South Dakota
Yankton is a city in, and the county seat of, Yankton County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 14,454 at the 2010 census. Yankton was the original capital of Dakota Territory. It is named for the Yankton tribe of Nakota Native Americans...
. After college, he entered the military and became a staff sergeant in the US Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
Medical Corps
Medical Corps (United States Army)
The Medical Corps of the U.S. Army is a staff corps of the U.S. Army Medical Department consisting of commissioned medical officers – physicians with either an MD or a DO degree, at least one year of post-graduate clinical training, and a state medical license.The MC traces its earliest origins...
, serving from 1946 until 1948. It was during this military service that he was introduced to psychiatric care. Following the military, he earned his Ph.D in 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...
from the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
in 1952, summa cum laude, a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He married Ruth Janssen on August 27, 1950 in Yankton, South Dakota
Yankton, South Dakota
Yankton is a city in, and the county seat of, Yankton County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 14,454 at the 2010 census. Yankton was the original capital of Dakota Territory. It is named for the Yankton tribe of Nakota Native Americans...
.
Career
Gardner spent most of his professional career (from 1951 to 1971) as a research psychologist at the Menninger FoundationMenninger Foundation
The Menninger Foundation was founded in 1919 by the Menninger family in Topeka, Kansas, and consists of a clinic, a sanatorium, and a school of psychiatry, all of which bear the Menninger name. In 2003, the Menninger Clinic moved to Houston. The foundation was started by Drs. Karl, Will, and...
in Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
. During this time he was the Director of the research group engaged in studying cognition control principles . He had two major grants from the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
and invitations to teach in seminars and at universities around the USA and abroad, and he published numerous papers on individual differences and cognition.
Gardner's work was part of what was called the "new look in perception." In the late 1950s an attempt was being made in academic 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...
and psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
to correlate and study the interaction of cognition, needs, and personality. A number of the leaders of this "new look" were psychoanalytically trained psychologists working at the Menninger Clinic. Gardner was part of this well known group that also included George Klein, Philip Holzman, and Robert Holt. Gardner, with his research on cognitive controls, was part of this group that insisted that cognition played an essential role in the formation and functioning of personality rather than being a mental function separate from personality. This idea is an implicit foundation for modern day psychoanalytic concepts such as self and object representations, mentalization, and a structural perspective on the workings of the mind. The concept of cognitive control explains Gardner and Klein’s finding that individuals use particular cognitive or ego strategies to notice, register, compare, process, integrate or avoid information from the environment. Furthermore, individuals differ in the types of strategies they use. The entire focus on self regulation within the field of psychoanalysis is based on this assumption.
As part of his research, he performed an in-depth study of 105 pairs of twins in the vicinity of Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
, and received an honorary invitation to membership in Topeka’s Mothers of Twins Club. In late 1970 he suffered a temporary mental breakdown which marked the end of his professional career.[Some lines copied with permission from author]
Family and later life
Riley and Ruth Gardner had two children together, Helen and Mark. Later in life he became the full-time caretaker for his granddaughter and continued his personal education in music and the sciences. He died on October 23, 2007 and was buried in Topeka, KansasTopeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
.
Publications
1951- Impulsivity as indicated by Rorschach test factors. J. of Consulting Psychol., 15, No. 6.
- With Klein, G. S., & Schlesinger, H. J. Perceptual attitudes toward instability: prediction from apparent movement responses to other tasks involving resolution of unstable fields (abstract). Amer. Psychol., 6, 332.
1953
- Cognitive styles in categorizing behavior. J. Pers., 22, 214-33.
1957
- Field dependence as a determinant of susceptibility to certain illusions (abstract). Amer. Psychol., 12, 397.
1958
- With Jackson, D. N., & Messick, S. J. Personality organization in cognitive attitudes and intellectual abilities (abstract). Amer. Psychol., 13, 336.
1959
- Cognitive control principles and perceptual behavior. Bull. Menninger Clin., 23, 241-48.
- With Holzman, P. S., Klein, G. S., Linton, Harriet B., & Spence, D. P. Cognitive control: a study of individual consistencies in cognitive behavior. Psychol. Issues, 1, No. 4.
- With Holzman, P. S., Leveling and repression J. Abnorm. soc. Psychol., 59, No. 2.
1960
- Cognitive controls in adaptation: a strategy for current research. Paper presented at Conference on Personality Measurement, [Educational Testing Service], Princeton, New Jersey.
- With Jackson, D. N., & Messick, S. J. Personality organization in cognitive controls and intellectual abilities. Psychol. Issues, 1960, 2, No. 4 (Whole No. 8).
- With Lohrenz, L. J. Leveling-sharpening and serial reproduction of a story. Bull. Menninger Clin., 24, 295-304.
- With Long, R. I. Errors of the standard and illusion effects with the inverted-T. Percept. mot. Skills, 10, 47-54.
- With Long, R. I. Errors of the standard and illusion effects with L-shaped figures. Percept. mot. Skills, 10, 107-9.
- With Long, R. I. Leveling-sharpening and serial learning. Percept. mot. Skills, 10, 179-85.
- With Long, R. I. Cognitive controls as determinants of learning and remembering. Psychologia, 3, 165-71.
- With Long, R. I. The stability of cognitive controls. J. Abnorm. soc. Psychol., 61, 485-87.
- With Long, R. I. Cognitive controls in learning and recall. Paper presented at annual meeting of Southwestern Psychological Association, Galveston, Texas.
1961
- Cognitive controls of attention deployment as determinants of visual illusions. J. Abnorm. Soc. Psychol., 62, 120-29.
- Individual differences in figural after-effects and response to reversible figures. Brit. J. Psychol., 52, 269-72.
- Personality organization and the nature of consciousness. Paper presented at Conference on Problems of Consciousness and Perception, Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich.
- With Lohrenz, L. J. Attention and assimilation. Amer. J. Psychol., 74, 607-611.
- With Long, R. I. Selective attention and the Mueller-Lyer illusion. Psychol. Rec., 11, 317-20.
- With Long, R. I. Field-articulation in recall. Psychol. Rec., 11, 305-10.
1962
- Cognitive controls in adaptation: research and measurement. In S. Messick & J. Ross (eds.), Measurement in personality and cognition. New York: Wiley, pp. 183–98.
- With Klein, G. S. & Schlesinger, H. J. Tolerance for unrealistic experiences: a study of the generality of a cognitive control. Brit. J. of Psychol., 53, 41-55.
- With Long, R. I. Control, defence, and centration effect: a study of scanning behaviour. Brit. J. Psychol., 53, 129-40.
- With Long, R. I. Cognitive controls of attention and inhibition: a study of individual consistencies. Brit. J. Psychol., 53, 381-88.
- With Schoen, R. A. Differentiation and abstraction in concept formation. Psychol. Monogr., 76, No. 41 (Whole No. 560).
1964
- The development of cognitive structures. In Constance Scheerer (ed.), Cognition: theory, research, promise. New York: Harper and Row, pp. 147–71.
- Cognitive control and person perception. Paper read at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, Calif., September 5.
- The Menninger Foundation study of twins and their parents. Paper read at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, Calif., September 9.
1965
- Genetics and personality theory. In S. G. Vandenberg (ed.), Methods and goals in human behavior genetics. New York: Academic Press, pp. 223–29.
1966
- A Psychologist Looks at Montessori. The Elementary School Journal, 67, No. 2, 72-83.
- The needs of teachers for specialized information on the development of cognitive structures. In The teacher of brain injured children: a discussion of the bases for competency, W. M. Cruikshank (ed.) New York: Syracuse University, pp. 137–52
1967
- Organismic equilibration and the energy-structure duality in psychoanalytic theory: an attempt at theoretical refinement. J. Amer. psychoanalyt. Assn.
- With Lohrenz, L. J., The Mayman form-level scoring method: scorer reliability and correlates of form level. J. of Projective Techniques and Personality Assessment, 31, 39-43.
1968
- With Moriarty, Alice. Personality development at preadolescence: explorations of structure formation. Seattle: University of Washington Press.