Lawrence Weiskrantz

Lawrence Weiskrantz (born 28 March 1926) is a British psychologist, who discovered the phenomenon of blindsight, which is the voluntary visually evoked response to a stimulus presented within a scotoma.^[1]

Early life

Weiskrantz originally attended Girard College, a boarding school in Philadelphia, due in part to the death of his father when he was six. After graduating, he attended Swarthmore College and served in World War II. Shortly before his graduation, he was awarded a Catherwood fellowship at Oxford University.^[2]

Career

Weiskrantz became Professor of Psychology at Oxford University where he remained a full professor until his retirement in the 1990s.^[3] As of 2014, he is currently Professor Emeritus at Oxford University. Weiskrantz has expressed a lifelong interest in the writings and research of the Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria, whom he had met and befriended while Luria was still doing research.^[3] The two remained colleagues until Luria's death in 1977.^[3] Weiskrantz is generally credited with having discovered the phenomenon of blindsight following his book on this subject in 1986, which is the voluntary visually evoked response to a stimulus presented within a scotoma.^[3]

• Part-time Lecturer, Tufts University, 1952
• Research Associate, Inst. of Living, 1952–55
• Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, US National Research Council, 1955–56
• Research Associate, University of Cambridge, 1956–61
• Assistant Director of Research, Cambridge, 1961–66
• Reader in Physiological Psychology, Cambridge Univ., 1966–67.
• Founding President of the European Brain and Behaviour Society, 1969
• Professor of Psychology, Oxford University, and Fellow, Magdalen College, Oxford, 1967–1993; Professor Emeritus, 1993–.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1980. He was on its council in 1988–1989 and its Ferier lecturer in 1989.

Publications

• Analysis of Behavioural Change, 1967
• The Neuropsychology of Cognitive Function, 1982
• Animal Intelligence, 1985
• Blindsight, 1986
• Thought Without Language, 1988
• Consciousness Lost and Found, 1997

External links

• Lawrence Weiskrantz on Psychreg

References

1. Weiskrantz, Lawrence (1986). Blindsight: A Case Study and Implications. Oxford University Press.
2. "Professor Lawrence Weiskrantz". Magdalen College - University of Oxford. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
3. Weiskrantz, Lawrence (1999). Consciousness lost and found : a neuropsychological exploration (Repr. ed.). Oxford, Angleterre: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198524588.

Who's Who (UK) 2006