Purpose

Today in the History of Psychology is a resource, organized in calendar format, for highlighting significant events in the history of psychology. It is a helpful tool for both students and instructors. The goal of this resource is to provide an interactive online hub for information about events and people that helped shape the discipline. 

Background

Today in the History of Psychology, originally developed by Warren Street,  began as a calendar to commemorate meaningful and interesting events in the history of psychology (see a brief history of Today in the History of Psychology written by Warren Street). The Society for the Teaching of Psychology now maintains this resource to help provide students of psychology insights into the events that shaped the field. A brief summary of the additions to the resource can be found on the Update Report page.

How to Use

Content is organized by day. To find events for a particular day, open the Search by Month folder in the Navigator window to the right. Open the folder for the month you are interested in and then select the day. Another way to use this resource is to search by name using the search bar in the top right corner of this page. For instance, if you search "Stroop" you will get the following search results:

Become a Contributor

If you would like to contribute information to Today in the History of Psychology, email Chris Koch (ckoch@georgefox.edu) to become a writer.

You can then click on either date to read the entire entry.

Today in the History of Psychology News

January 21st is Squirrel Appreciation Day. Did you know that there are over 40 articles with squirrels as subjects listed in PsycINFO. The first publication was in 1909 by Covlin and Burford? In that article, they examined the squirrel's ability to discriminate color. The most recent publication was in 2019 by Le, Garvin, Barber, and Francis in which they examined the impact of low-frequency noise on vigilance and foraging behavior.

Colvin, S. S., & Burford, C. C. (1909). The color perception of three dogs, a cat and a squirrel. The Psychological Review: Monograph Supplements, 11(1), 1–48. doi: 10.1037/h0093012

Le, M.-L. T., Garvin, C. M., Barber, J. R., & Francis, C. D. (2019). Natural sounds alter California ground squirrel, Otospermophilus beecheyi, foraging, vigilance and movement behaviours. Animal Behaviour, 157, 51–60. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.08.014

Acknowledgements