Re: brains, telphones and microprocessors

Graham Nuthall (G.Nuthall who-is-at educ.canterbury.ac.nz)
Mon, 04 Oct 1999 08:14:26 +1200

Thorndike's telephone switchboard metaphor was in reaction against those
who were using a machine metaphor:
" ...as a machine of which the different faculties are parts. By training
the machine is made to work more efficiently and economically" ... "or in a
still cruder type of thinking, the mind is a storage battery which can be
loaded with will power or intellect or judgement, giving the individual a
surplus of mind to expend" (Thorndike, Principles of Teaching, 1904)

>(Thorndike and Woodworth 1901) "The mind consisting not of large capacities
>such as memory and reasoning waiting to be developed. but of "multitudious
>sperate individual functions", a kind of switch board with innummerable
>wires connecting discrete points."
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: George McKinlay <mckinlay who-is-at unr.edu>
>To: <xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu>
>Sent: Saturday, October 02, 1999 1:34 AM
>Subject: brains, telphones and microprocessors

>> I remember reading an interesting analogy between the human brain and a
>telephone system, needless to say
>> it was a rather dated piece of work (the analogy I mean) but it did so
>much smack of the "brain as
>> computer" model that I thought it would be rather fun to do a little
>comparison... now my problem (among
>> others) is that my brain doesn't store information like a computer does;
>so I have this rather vague
>> recollection about that work...
>> Anybody out there know the source of my telephonic analogy
>> Of course any other trivial trivia about treating the brain like a hunk
>of silicon would also be
>> appreciated

Graham Nuthall
Professor of Education
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand
Phone 64 3 3642255 Fax 64 3 3642418
http://www.educ.canterbury.ac.nz/learning.html