Donald O. Hebb

Abstract

was a prominent Canadian psychologist. His seminal book The Organization of Behavior, published in 1949, established Hebb's position in psychology, and led to him being described as the father of neuropsychology, although that title might also belong to Alexander Luria, and of neural networks. Hebb's interest lay in learning and how information is retained in memory. He sought to understand the function of the brain and its relationship to the activities of the mind. His research involved studies of brain damage as well as sensory deprivation. Putting together his studies of the biological functions of the brain with his work on behavior, Hebb proposed a theory of how brain functions underlie the higher functions of the mind. His proposal of "cell assemblies" as the foundation of memory "engrams" not only addressed the mind-body problem, but also laid the foundation for the development of artificial neural networks and the construction of computational devices that mimic the learning of living systems. Hebb's work has had wide-ranging implications for the study of learning, memory, and brain functions. His contribution to human knowledge is significant, not only in the theory and its applications, but also in the approach to research that he held and taught his students, namely that even when a theory is wrong (as he often thought his own were) if it was testable it had value and would lead to better understanding. The key to this view is humility, the willingness to put aside a theory once it is proven wrong by experimental data. With such an attitude, the scientific method surely advances knowledge in a positive direction.