Michael Posner (psychologist)

{{short description|American psychologist (born 1936)}} {{for|other people of the same name|Michael Posner (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox scientist | name = Michael Posner | image = Michael I Posner.jpg | caption = Posner in 2017 | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1936|09|12}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | fields = Psychology | workplaces = University of Oregon Weill Medical College in New York (Sackler Institute) | alma_mater = University of Washington University of Michigan | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = Stanislas Dehaene Jon Driver Vicki Hanson Wendy Kellogg Daniel Levitin | known_for = Neuroscience | website = | awards = Karl Spencer Lashley Award {{small|(1998)}} Grawemeyer Award in Psychology (2001) National Medal of Science (2008) National Academy of Sciences (2011) John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science (2012) }}

'''Michael Ira Posner''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|oʊ|z|n|ər}}; born September 12, 1936) is an American psychologist who is a researcher in the field of attention, and the editor of numerous cognitive and neuroscience compilations. He is emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Oregon (Department of Psychology, Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences), and an adjunct professor at the Weill Medical College in New York (Sackler Institute). A ''Review of General Psychology'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Posner as the 56th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century |journal=Review of General Psychology |volume=6 |issue=2 |year=2002 |pages=139–152 |doi=10.1037/1089-2680.6.2.139 |url=http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug02/eminent.aspx |last1=Haggbloom |first1=Steven J. |last2=Warnick |first2=Renee |last3=Warnick |first3=Jason E. |last4=Jones |first4=Vinessa K. |last5=Yarbrough |first5=Gary L. |last6=Russell |first6=Tenea M. |last7=Borecky |first7=Chris M. |last8=McGahhey |first8=Reagan |last9=Powell III |first9=John L. |last10=Beavers |first10=Jamie |last11=Monte |first11=Emmanuelle|s2cid=145668721 |citeseerx=10.1.1.586.1913 }}</ref>

== Education and career == In 1957, Posner received his BS in physics and in 1959, his MS in psychology from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. In 1962, he received his PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.<ref name=cv>{{cite web|title=Posner CV 2014|url=https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/b/8619/files/2014/07/Posner-CV-2014r-2838egn.pdf|publisher=University of Oregon Psychology Department|access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref>

Posner joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin as an assistant professor of psychology. In 1968, he joined the faculty of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon as an associate professor of psychology. He retired from teaching at Oregon in 2000 with the rank of emeritus professor. In 2003, Posner founded and became coordinator of the Brain, Biology and Machine Initiative at the University of Oregon.<ref name=cv />

Posner studied the role of attention in high-level human tasks such as visual search, reading, and number processing. More recently he investigated the development of attentional networks in infants and young children. A test of an individual's capability to perform attentional shift was formulated by him and bears his name—the Posner cueing task.<ref name=cueing>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1080/00335558008248231 | last1 = Posner | first1 = M. I. | title = Orienting of attention | journal = Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology | volume = 32 | issue = 1 | pages = 3–25 | year = 1980 | pmid = 7367577 | s2cid = 2842391 }}</ref>

In ''Chronometric Explorations of Mind'', published in 1976, Posner applied the subtractive method proposed 110 years earlier by Franciscus Donders to the study of several cognitive functions such as attention and memory. The subtractive method is based on the assumption that mental operations can be measured by decomposing complex cognitive tasks in sequences of simpler tasks. The method assumes that the effect of each mental operation is additive and that it is possible to isolate the effect of a single mental operation by comparing two tasks that differ only by the presence or absence of that mental operation. (See Mental chronometry for additional information on Donders' experiment.)<ref name=rvw>{{cite journal | last=BAINBRIDGE | first=LEANNE | title=Review of: "Chronometric Explorations of Mind". By M. I. POSNER. (Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1978.) [Pp. xiii + 271.] £1050 | journal=Ergonomics | publisher=Informa UK Limited | volume=26 | issue=1 | year=1983 | issn=0014-0139 | doi=10.1080/00140138308963319 | pages=111–112}}</ref>

Posner applied the same subtractive principle to the study of attentional networks using PET (Positron Emission Tomography), a neuroimaging technique that produces three-dimensional functional maps of the brain. In ''Images of Mind'', published with Marcus Raichle in 1994, Posner investigated brain localization of cognitive functions by looking at the patterns of brain activation in progressively more complex cognitive tasks.<ref name=rvw2>{{cite book | title=Images of mind| date=1999 | url=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1994-97426-000 }}</ref> Posner won the 2001 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology, along with Marcus Raichle and Steven Petersen.<ref name=grawemeyer>{{cite web | title=Psychology – Grawemeyer Awards | website=Grawemeyer Awards | url=http://grawemeyer.org/psychology/#toggle-id-3| access-date=2021-02-15}}</ref>

In 2005, the American Psychological Association published an edited volume in tribute to Posner's work. As reported by Steven W. Keele and Ulrich Mayr in that volume, "In May 2003, 10 speakers and a large audience gathered at the University of Oregon in Eugene to pay tribute to the enormously influential contributions Michael Posner has made to the disciplines of psychology and cognitive neuroscience."<ref name=volume>{{cite encyclopedia|title=A Tribute to Michael I. Posner|last1=Keele|first1=Steven W.|last2=Mayr|first2=Ulrich|editor1-last=Mayr|editor1-first=Ulrich|editor2-last=Awh|editor2-first=Edward|editor3-last=Keele|editor3-first=Steven W.|encyclopedia=Developing Individuality in the Human Brain: A Tribute to Michael I. Posner|url= https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4318019?tab=1|date=2005|publisher=American Psychological Association|isbn=978-1-59147-210-0|pages=273|access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=A Tribute to Michael I. Posner|last1=Keele|first1=Steven W.|last2=Mayr|first2=Ulrich|url=http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4318019s.pdf|publisher=American Psychological Association|access-date=10 April 2021}}</ref>

== Awards == The impact of Posner's theoretical and empirical contributions has been recognized through fellowship in the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Cognitive Science Society,<ref name=cogsci>{{cite web | title=Fellows of the Society | website=Cognitive Science Society | date=2021-01-05 | url=https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/society-awards/ | ref={{sfnref | Cognitive Science Society | 2021}} | access-date=2021-02-15}}</ref> the Society of Experimental Psychologists,<ref name=exppsych>{{cite web | title=SEP | website=The Society of Experimental Psychologists | date=1999-12-24 | url=http://www.sepsych.org/fellows.php | ref={{sfnref | The Society of Experimental Psychologists | 1999}} | access-date=2021-02-15}}</ref> the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,<ref name=aaas>{{cite web|title=Michael I. Posner|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/michael-i-posner|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref> and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.<ref name=aroundtheo>{{cite web | title=Michael Posner's pioneering work draws another national award | website=Media Relations | date=2012-01-18 | url=https://uonews.uoregon.edu/archive/news-release/2012/1/michael-posners-pioneering-work-draws-another-national-award | ref={{sfnref | Media Relations | 2012}} | access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref>

In 1979, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded Posner a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1979–1980.<ref name=guggenheim>{{cite web | title=Michael I. Posner | website=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/michael-i-posner/ | ref={{sfnref | John Simon Guggenheim Foundation}} | access-date=2021-02-14}}</ref> Posner was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2011.<ref name=nas>{{cite web|title=Michael Posner|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/51547.html|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref>

In 2008, Posner was named as the winner of the National Medal of Science for Behavioral and Social Science.<ref name=medalofscience>{{cite web|title=Psychologist wins National Medal of Science|url=https://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/12/posner|publisher= American Psychological Association|access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref> The citation read "For his innovative application of technology to the understanding of brain function, his incisive and accurate modeling of functional tasks, and his development of methodological and conceptual tools to help understand the mind and the development of brain networks of attention".<ref name=medal2>{{cite web|title=Michael I. Posner: 2008 National Medal of Science|url=https://nationalmedals.org/laureate/michael-i-posner/|publisher=National Science and Technology Medals Foundation|access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref>

In 2012, the National Academy of Sciences honored Posner with the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science "For outstanding contributions to the understanding of spatial attention and for pioneering investigations of the neural basis of cognition using non-invasive functional brain imaging methods".<ref name=carty>{{cite web|title=John J. Carty Awards| url=http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/john-j-carty-award.html|publisher=National Academies of Science|access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref> In 2014, he was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.<ref name="BA Fellow">{{cite web | url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/british-academy-announces-42-new-fellows/2014585.article | title=British Academy announces 42 new fellows | publisher=Times Higher Education | date=18 July 2014 | access-date=18 July 2014}}</ref>

==Selected publications== *{{cite book | last = Posner | first = Michael I. | title = Chronometric Explorations of Mind | publisher = Lawrence Erlbaum Associates | year = 1976 | location = Hillsdale, N.J }} *{{cite book | last = Posner | first = Michael I. |author2=Raichle, ME | title = Images of Mind | url = https://archive.org/details/imagesofmind0000posn | url-access = registration | publisher = Scientific American Books | year = 1994 | isbn = 9780716750451 }} *{{cite journal |last1=Posner|first1=Michael I.|last2=Rothbart|first2=Mary K|last3=Tang|first3=Yiyuan| title=Developing self-regulation in early childhood | journal= Trends in Neuroscience and Education| volume=2 | issue=3–4 | date=2013-09-01 | issn=2211-9493 | doi=10.1016/j.tine.2013.09.001 | pages=107–110 |pmid=24563845| url= | pmc=3927309 }} *{{cite journal|last=Posner|first=Michael I.|title=Orienting of attention (The 7th Sir F.C. Bartlett Lecture)|journal=Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology|volume=32|issue=1|doi=10.1080/00335558008248231|pmid=7367577|pages=3–25|date=1980|s2cid=2842391}} *{{cite journal|last1=Posner|first1=Michael I.|last2=Petersen|first2=Steven E.|title=The attention system of the human brain|journal=Annual Review of Neuroscience|doi=10.1146/annurev.ne.13.030190.000325|pmid=2183676|volume=13|issue=1|pages=25–42|date=1990|s2cid=2995749 }}

== See also == *Two-alternative forced choice

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == *Posner's website: https://web.archive.org/web/20071118022750/http://www.neuro.uoregon.edu/ionmain/htdocs/faculty/posner.html *{{Google Scholar id|4X4X4xkAAAAJ}} {{Psychology}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Posner, Michael I.}} Category:21st-century American psychologists Category:20th-century American psychologists Category:American cognitive neuroscientists Category:Fellows of the Society of Experimental Psychologists Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:University of Washington alumni Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:University of Oregon faculty Category:Living people Category:1936 births Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Category:Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society Category:Members of the National Academy of Medicine Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Category:Weill Medical College of Cornell University faculty Category:The Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science laureates Category:APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology recipients