by Ruth Littmann, Daily Staff Writer
Dr. James McConnell, a retired University psychology professor, died of a heart attack Monday at age 64.
Famous for his introductory college psychology textbook, Understanding Human Behavior, McConnell performed unique experiments on flatworms which focused on learning and memory transfer.
McConnell’s work was very controversial because it was very complex and hard to duplicate, said Biological Psychology Professor William Stebbins. But it’s very interesting. If it ever is verified, it will be quite revolutionary.
McConnell retired in 1988 after working after 32 years at the University.
I just loved his class said LSA senior Sheri Fink,
Sheri Fink is an American journalist who writes about health, medicine and science.
referring to an honors introductory psychology class McConnell taught. But That class wsa the reason why I majored in psychology.
Jon Zimring, who graduated from the University last year and studied under McConnell, said,
McConnell had the reputation for being a maverick. He didn’t want to do things according to the set mrthod.
He really believed in what he was teaching, Zimring added, referring to McConnell’s commitment to behaviorism.
James McConnell. Worm Runner’s Digest
today, Science stands fair to join Religion, Motherhood and the Flag as a domain so sacrosanct and so sanctomonious, that leg-pulling isn’t allowed, levity is forbidden, and smiling is scowled at.
could survive the jibes of his colleagues unless armored by a penetrating insight into the cosmic comicness of this whole affair called science.
The fascination of these animals derives from the fact that they are the lowest creatures in the evolutionary hierarchy who possess a brain of sorts and a true central nervous system, with bilateral symmetry, but at the same time the highest ranking among organisms which reproduce by fission
But, planarians are multi-talented. Hermaphrodites, they function as males in their youth, but in maturity decide they will propagate the race as females, and lay eggs.
At one stage in its life-cycle, usually during the mating season, the planarian becomes a cannibal and devours everything it can grab, including its own discarded tail, which has been in the process of growing a new head.
The name of the journal, The Worm Runner’s Digest, seems an appropriate pun in the light of both natural cannibalism and the cannibalism experiments on transfer of learning.
There have been through the years many facets to the Digest. In Vol. I, No.1, the November, 1959 issue, is a sober and scientific article on the apparatus needed to house, transport, and experiment with planarians. And there is another treatise on the experimental procedures to be followed in working with planarians; this article includes a complete data sheet for recording experimental results. Another perfectly straightforward paper appears, The Feeding and Care of Planaria. Somehow, everything is not as cut and dried as it at first seems. The paper, written by Margaret Clay of the Planarian Research Group, concludes:
If you follow these directions and everything dies, try again, using your own common sense variations. It took Mother Nature thousands of years to really get living things growing successfully, you know, and even with her help, it may take you a few weeks to catch on.
Whenever you do not wish to show the extent of your ignorance on a particular subject, always say that it is beyond the scope of your paper. It works.
