AbstractsPsychology

The development of electrophysiological methods during the last twenty years has resulted in a great change in our conception of the central nervous system. The older picture, based on the anatomical findings of Cajal and on the Sherrington reflex, was that signals from the receptors made their way to the cortex via the well-defined sensory pathways, were then sorted out as by an immense switchboard, and if they had a clear route continued through to the motor system. The problem of learning was to discover the laws whereby the connections of the hypothetical switchboard became changed.