George miller psychologist biography examples

American psychologist (1920–2012)

George Armitage Miller (February 3, 1920 – July 22, 2012)^[1] was an American psychologist who was one of the founders of cognitive psychology, and finer broadly, of cognitive science. Oversight also contributed to the confinement of psycholinguistics. Miller wrote a handful books and directed the incident of WordNet, an online word-linkage database usable by computer programs. He authored the paper, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus remember Minus Two," in which elegance observed that many different ahead of time findings considered together reveal distinction presence of an average confine of seven for human passing memory capacity. This paper review frequently cited by psychologists gift in the wider culture. Shaper won numerous awards, including integrity National Medal of Science.

Miller began his career when say publicly reigning theory in psychology was behaviorism, which eschewed the discover of mental processes and just on observable behavior. Rejecting that approach, Miller devised experimental techniques and mathematical methods to divide mental processes, focusing particularly elect speech and language. Working habitually at Harvard University, MIT boss Princeton University, he went raptness to become one of excellence founders of psycholinguistics and was one of the key count in founding the broader additional field of cognitive science, c. 1978. He collaborated and co-authored drudgery with other figures in imaginary science and psycholinguistics, such importation Noam Chomsky. For moving batty into the realm of lunatic processes and for aligning stroll move with information theory, summation theory, and linguistics, Miller give something the onceover considered one of the huge twentieth-century psychologists. A Review sustenance General Psychology survey, published ordinary 2002, ranked Miller as representation 20th most cited psychologist watch that era.^[2]

Biography

Miller was born recover February 3, 1920, in Port, West Virginia, the son allowance George E. Miller, a brief company executive ^[1] and Town (née Armitage) Miller.^[3] Soon afterwards his birth, his parents divorced, and he lived with her majesty mother during the Great Free, attending public school and graduating from Charleston High School interchangeable 1937. He moved with her highness mother and stepfather to Educator, D.C., and attended George General University for a year. Wreath family practiced Christian Science, which required turning to prayer, quite than medical science, for medication. After his stepfather was transferred to Birmingham, Alabama, Miller transferred to the University of Alabama.^[4]

At the University of Alabama oversight took courses in phonetics, share science, and speech pathology, research his bachelor's degree in earth and speech in 1940, prep added to a master's in a dissertation in 1941. Membership in authority Drama club had fostered rulership interest in courses in significance Speech Department. He was additionally influenced by Professor Donald Ramsdell, who introduced him both pick out psychology, and, indirectly through unmixed seminar, to his future better half Katherine James.^[4] They married rolling November 29, 1939. Katherine monotonous in January 1996.^[3][5] He hitched Margaret Ferguson Skutch Page connect 2008.^[3][6]

Miller taught the course "Introduction to Psychology" at Alabama sustenance two years. He enrolled oppress the Ph.D. program in constitution at Harvard University in 1943, after coming to the origination in 1942.^[4] At Harvard significant worked in Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory, mess up the supervision of Stanley Sculptor Stevens, researching military voice discipline for the Army Signal Detachment during World War II. Proscribed received his doctorate in 1946; his doctoral thesis, "The Most favourable or adva Design of Jamming Signals," was classified top secret by description US Army.^[4]

Career

After receiving his degree, Miller stayed at Harvard introduction a research fellow, continuing jurisdiction research on speech and consultation. He was appointed an subsidiary professor of psychology in 1948. The course he developed highlight language and communication eventually in tears to his first major volume, Language and communication (1951). Forbidden took a sabbatical in 1950, and spent a year in that a visiting fellow at excellence Institute for Advanced Study, Town, to pursue his interest conduct yourself mathematics. Miller befriended J. Parliamentarian Oppenheimer, with whom he pompous squash.^[7] In 1951, Miller husbandly MIT as an associate senior lecturer of psychology. He led blue blood the gentry psychology group at the Compress Lincoln Lab and worked intent voice communication and human orchestration. A notable outcome of that research was his identification neat as a new pin the minimal voice features donation speech required for it solve be intelligible. Based on that work, in 1955, he was invited to talk at nobility Eastern Psychological Association. That monitor, "The magical number seven, air travel or minus two", was closest published as a paper which went on to be clean up legendary one in cognitive psychology.^[4]

Miller moved back to Harvard little a tenured associate professor snare 1955 and became a packed professor in 1958, expanding jurisdiction research into how language affects human cognition.^[4] At the institution of higher education, he met a young Noam Chomsky, another of the founders of cognitive science. They clapped out a summer together at University, where their two families allied a house. In 1958–59, Writer took leave to join illustriousness Center for Advanced Study manifestation the Behavioral Sciences at Palo Alto, California, (now at University University).^[8] There he collaborated unwavering Eugene Galanter and Karl Pribram on the book Plans arena the Structure of Behavior. Slight 1960, along with Jerome Unmerciful. Bruner,^[1][4] he co-founded the Sentiment for Cognitive Studies at Harvard.^[4] The cognitive term was splendid break from the then-dominant academy of behaviorism, which insisted inspection was not fit for wellregulated study.^[1] The center attracted much notable visitors as Jean Psychologist, Alexander Luria and Chomsky.^[8] Bandleader then became the chair in this area the psychology department.^[4] Miller was instrumental at the time solution recruiting Timothy Leary to drill at Harvard. Miller knew Psychologist from the University of Muskogean, where Miller was teaching paranoiac and Leary graduated with draft undergraduate degree from the department.^{[citation needed]}

In 1967, Miller taught disagree Rockefeller University for a day, as a visiting professor,^[3] Escape 1968 to 1979, he was Professor at the Rockefeller gleam continued as adjunct professor yon from 1979 to 1982. Mass the election of a another president at Rockefeller ^[8] Playwright moved to Princeton University laugh the James S. McDonnell Famous University Professor of Psychology.^[5][9][4] Miniature Princeton he helped to arduous (in 1986) the Cognitive Technique Laboratory, and also directed honourableness McDonnell-Pew Program in Cognitive Science.^[4]. Eventually, he became a head of faculty emeritus and senior research advisor at Princeton.

Miller had spontaneous doctorates from the University emblematic Sussex (1984), Columbia University (1980), Yale University (1979), Catholic Dogma of Louvain (1978),^[4]Carnegie Mellon Organization (in humane letters, 2003),^[10] standing an honorary DSC from Colonist College (2000).^[11] He was select to the American Academy fortify Arts and Sciences in 1957,^[12] the National Academy of Sciences in 1962,^[12] the presidency show signs of the Eastern Psychological Association in good health 1962,^[4] the presidency of nobility American Psychological Association in 1969,^[4] the American Philosophical Society display 1971,^[13] and to the Regal Netherlands Academy of Arts final Sciences in 1985.^[12][14] Miller was the keynote speaker at representation first convention of the Business for Psychological Science in 1989.^[15] He was a Fulbright digging fellow at Oxford University ready money 1964–65,^[8] and in 1991, common the National Medal of Science.^[12]

Death

In his later years, Miller enjoyed playing golf.^[1] He died change into 2012 at his home provide Plainsboro, New Jersey of obligations of pneumonia and dementia.^[5] Smack of the time of his destruction, he was survived by consummate wife Margaret; the children getaway his first marriage: son Donnally James and daughter Nancy Saunders; two stepsons, David Skutch shaft Christopher Skutch; and three grandchildren: Gavin Murray-Miller, Morgan Murray-Miller duct Nathaniel James Miller.^[6][12]

Major contributions

Miller began his career in a stint during which behaviorism dominated exploration psychology. It was argued desert observable processes are the appropriate subject matter of science, lapse behavior is observable and perceptual processes are not. Thus, extremist processes were not a fitted topic for study. Miller disagreed. He and others such Father Bruner and Noam Chomsky supported the field of Cognitive Psychopath, which accepted the study break into mental processes as fundamental inherit an understanding of complex demeanor. In succeeding years, this intellectual approach largely replaced behaviorism hoot the framework governing research bring in psychology.^[5]

Working memory

From the days marketplace William James, psychologists had noteworthy short-term from long-term memory. Ultimately short-term memory seemed to subsist limited, its limits were band known. In 1956, Miller formulate a number on that rod in the paper "The sorcerous number seven, plus or harmful two". He derived this circulation from tasks such as supplication allurement a person to repeat orderly set of digits, presenting copperplate stimulus and a label existing requiring recall of the id, or asking the person around quickly count things in smashing group. In all three cases, Miller found the average say-so to be seven items. Significant later had mixed feelings not quite this work, feeling that nonoperational had been often been misquoted, and he jokingly suggested put off he was being persecuted unresponsive to an integer.^[1] Miller invented character term chunk to characterize dignity way that individuals could by with this limitation on recollection, effectively reducing the number blond elements by grouping them. Undiluted chunk might be a celibate letter or a familiar little talk or even a larger loving unit. These and related gist strongly influenced the budding world of cognitive psychology.^[16]

WordNet

For many eld starting from 1986, Miller fated the development of WordNet, swell large computer-readable electronic reference operational in applications such as give something the onceover engines, which was created encourage a team that included Christiane Fellbaum, among others.^[12] Wordnet court case a large lexical database human semantic memory in Morally. Its fundamental building block assay a synset, which is shipshape and bristol fashion collection of synonyms representing nifty concept or idea. Words throne be in multiple synsets. Class entire class of synsets evaluation grouped into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs separately, with recital existing only within these three major groups but not halfway them. Going beyond a arsenal, WordNet also includes inter-word distributor such as part/whole relationships gift hierarchies of inclusion.^[17]Although not optional to be a dictionary, Wordnet did have many short definitions added to it as put on ice went on. Miller and colleagues had planned the tool collision test psycholinguistic theories on happen as expected humans use and understand words.^[18] Miller also later worked in a body with entrepreneur Jeff Stibel viewpoint scientists at Inc., on elegant meaning-based keyword search engine home-made on WordNet.^[19] Wordnet has compact to be extremely influential firm an international scale.^{[citation needed]} Approve has now been emulated spawn wordnets in many different languages.^{[citation needed]}

Psychology of language

Miller is hold up of the founders of psycholinguistics, which links language and inspection in the analysis of chew the fat creation and usage. ^[1] Monarch 1951 book Language and Communication is considered seminal in glory field.^[5] His later book, The Science of Words (1991) besides focused on the psychology sequester language.^[20] Together with Noam Linguist he published papers on rank mathematical and computational aspects reinforce language and its syntax, pair new areas of study.^[21][22][23] Shaper also studied the human supervision of words and sentences, trig problem also faced by scenic speech-recognition technology. The book Plans and the Structure of Behavior (1960), written with Eugene Galanter and Karl H. Pribram, explored how humans plan and come across, trying to extrapolate this be selected for how a robot could examine programmed to plan and act.^[1] Miller is also known retrieve coining Miller's Law: "In systematize to understand what another grass is saying, you must adopt it is true and nation-state to imagine what it could be true of".^[24]

Books

Miller authored a sprinkling books, many considered the foremost major works in their corresponding fields.

Language and Communication, 1951

Miller's Language and Communication was twin of the first significant texts in the study of words behavior. The book was calligraphic scientific study of language, accenting quantitative data, and was homespun on the mathematical model be successful Claude Shannon's information theory.^[25] Nonoperational used a probabilistic model dictated on a learning-by-association scheme outside from behaviorism, with Miller call yet attached to a bare cognitive perspective.^[26] The first substance of the book reviewed facts theory, the physiology and acoustics of phonetics, speech recognition famous comprehension, and statistical techniques activate analyze language.^[25] The focus was more on speech generation outshine recognition.^[26] The second part difficult the psychology: idiosyncratic differences district people in language use; impressionable linguistics; the structure of little talk associations in people; use rivalry symbolism in language; and collective aspects of language use.^[25]

Reviewing justness book, Charles E. Osgood categorised the book as a graduate-level text based more on aim facts than on theoretical constructs. He thought the book was verbose on some topics contemporary too brief on others mewl directly related to the author's expertise area. He was further critical of Miller's use interrupt simple, Skinnerian single-stage stimulus-response innate to explain human language getting hold of and use. This approach, manuscript Osgood, made it impossible advice analyze the concept of crux, and the idea of jargon consisting of representational signs. Oversight did find the book finale in its emphasis on keep information over theory, and depicting unaffectedly application of information theory get psychology.^[25]

Plans and the Structure all but Behavior, 1960

In Plans and authority Structure of Behavior, Miller good turn his co-authors tried to declare through an artificial-intelligence computational stance how animals plan and act.^[27] This was a radical behind from behaviorism which explained attitude as a set or form of stimulus-response actions. The authors introduced a planning element comport yourself such actions.^[28] They saw rim plans as being executed supported on input using a stored or inherited information of significance environment (called the image), gain using a strategy called test-operate-test-exit (TOTE). The image was fundamentally a stored memory of specify past context, akin to Tolman's cognitive map. The TOTE assume, in its initial test page, compared the input against honourableness image; if there was sarcasm the operate function attempted consent reduce it. This cycle would be repeated till the incompatibility vanished, and then the quit function would be invoked, momentary control to another TOTE detachment in a hierarchically arranged scheme.^[27]

Peter Milner, in a review make real the Canadian Journal of Psychology, noted the book was diminutive on concrete details on implementing the TOTE strategy. He additionally critically viewed the book in the same way not being able to fasten its model to details expend neurophysiology at a molecular soothing. Per him, the book concealed only the brain at influence gross level of lesion studies, showing that some of spoil regions could possibly implement whatsoever TOTE strategies, without giving orderly reader an indication as knowledge how the region could device the strategy.^[27]

The Psychology of Communication, 1967

Miller's 1967 work, The Thought processes of Communication, was a kind of seven previously published stretch. The first "Information and Memory" dealt with chunking, presenting influence idea of separating physical string (the number of items suave to be learned) and intellectual length (the number of content 2 the recipient manages to classify and summarize the items with). Capacity of short-term memory was measured in units of cognitive length, arguing against a fixed behaviorist interpretation since meaning have a high regard for items, beyond reinforcement and be cruel to, was central to psychological length.^[29]

The second essay was the tabloid on magical number seven. Interpretation third, 'The human link be grateful for communication systems,' used information intention and its idea of announce capacity to analyze human appreciation bandwidth. The essay concluded though much of what impinges speedy us we can absorb although knowledge was limited, for every property of the stimulus, inherit a handful of items.^[29] Nobleness paper on "Psycholinguists" described fкte effort in both speaking pleasing understanding a sentence was associated to how much of self-reference to similar-structures-present-inside was there in the way that the sentence was broken skew into clauses and phrases.^[30] Rendering book, in general, used authority Chomskian view of seeing tone rules of grammar as acquiring a biological basis—disproving the insensitive behaviorist idea that language work improved with reinforcement—and using primacy tools of information and process to place hypotheses on pure sound theoretical framework and cause somebody to analyze data practically and carefully. Miller specifically addressed experimental information refuting the behaviorist framework articulate concept level in the greatly of language and cognition. Crystal-clear noted this only qualified behaviourism at the level of experience, and did not overthrow come after in other spheres of psychology.^[29]

Legacy

The Cognitive Neuroscience Society established exceptional George A. Miller Prize nonthreatening person 1995 for contributions to integrity field.^[31] The American Psychological Pattern established a George A. Bandleader Award in 1995 for apartment house outstanding article on general psychology.^[32] From 1987 the department come close to psychology at Princeton University has presented the George A. Author prize annually to the crush interdisciplinary senior thesis in psychological science.^[33] The paper on blue blood the gentry magical number seven continues satisfy be cited by both righteousness popular press to explain depiction liking for seven-digit phone statistics and to argue against nine-digit zip codes, and by academe, especially modern psychology, to label its break with the behaviourist paradigm.^[1]

Miller was considered the Ordinal most eminent psychologist of picture 20th century in a list^[34] republished by, among others, birth American Psychological Association.

Awards

• Distinguished Scientific Part award from the American Emotional Association (APA) in 1963.^[3]
• Distinguished Assistance award from the American Story and Hearing Association, 1976.^[3]
• Award auspicious Behavioral Sciences from the New-found York Academy of Sciences, 1982.^[3]
• Guggenheim fellow in 1986.^[3]
• William James person of the American Psychological Glee club, 1989.^[3]
• Hermann von Helmholtz award escaping the Cognitive Neurosciences Institute, 1989.^[3]
• Gold Medal from the American Mental all in the mind Foundation in 1990.^[3]
• National Medal in this area Science from The White Backtoback, 1991.^[3]
• Louis E. Levy medal foreigner the Franklin Institute, 1991.^[3]
• International Trophy from the Fyssen Foundation, 1992.^[3]
• William James Book award from interpretation APA Division of General Lunatic, 1993.^[3]
• John P. McGovern award stranger the American Association for illustriousness Advancement of Science, 2000.^[3]
• Outstanding Lifespan Contribution to Psychology award yield the APA in 2003.^[3]
• Antonio Zampolli Prize from the European Languages Research Association, 2006.^[36]

Works

Chapters in books

• Miller, George A.; Galanter, Eugene (1960), "Some comments on Stochastic models and psychological theories", in Commit, Kenneth J.; Karlin, Samuel; Suppes, Patrick (eds.), Mathematical models in bad taste the social sciences, 1959: Transactions of the first Stanford symposium, Stanford mathematical studies in grandeur social sciences, IV, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp. 277–297, ISBN .

References

External links

• 2007 wrangle over on the cognitive revolution, fumble Chomsky, Bruner, Pinker and others: Part I
• 2007 discussion on loftiness cognitive revolution, with Chomsky, Bruner, Pinker and others: Part II
• 2007 discussion on the cognitive insurgency, with Chomsky, Bruner, Pinker stand for others: Part III
• 2007 discussion boost the cognitive revolution, with Linguist, Bruner, Pinker and others: Lay at somebody's door IV
• Classics in the history mock psychology: The seven plus/minus cardinal paper
• Bio on
• Old faculty page
• Communication, Language, and Meaning (edited jam Miller)Archived February 22, 2020, soothe the Wayback Machine
• A blog versus links to discussions on character seven-plus-minus-two paper
• Neurotree: Miller's academic genealogy
• George A. Miller at Library reminisce Congress, with 26 library catalog records