Psychology Advances On Three Fronts

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 27

Psychology Advances On Three Fronts

Although no startling discoveries were reported to the eighteenth International Psychology Congress in Moscow, Dr. R. A. M. Gregson, reader in psychology at the University of Canterbury, found dramatic evidence of progress in three main directions. He listed them as follows: —

(1) “Detailed understanding of how the nervous system works and how we retain and handle complicated experiences. It is no longer possible to say where psychology stops and physiology begins. It is in those parts of the work where psychology is taught and treated as a biological science with strong physiological links that most progress is being made. (2) “Rapidly expanding use of mathematical theory in psychology. I was one of three dozen speakers on problems in sensation and perception, and all but twq of these papers were strongly mathematical and similar in content, although the research was independent.

(3) “Applied psychology is

facing new challenges. The Russians held a special symposium with a small American contribution on problems of psychology in space flight It is obvious that flying around the world in a capsule or to the moon will impose strange demands on human beings, and this offers fascinating scope for psychologists working in close association with engineers and medical men.” Dr. Gregson, who was New Zealand member of the committee of 50 which planned the congress, said there were 6000 delegates, half from inside the Soviet, Union. Magnificent facilities were offered in Moscow University, and a Kremlin hall enabled the whole 6000 to be seated for a reception and a ballet performance. But sheer numbers caused problems of communication. Dr. Gregson took two days to locate a colleague studying sense of smell in birds. About 500 papers were given during the congress. Dr. Gregson gave lectures and talked with psychologists in America, England, Denmark and Sweden on his way to Moscow.