ABSTRACT

Before the 1980s, few researchers in cognitive psychology consulted with researchers interested in understanding the brain. Similarly, few brain researchers were interested in how the mind works. This state of affairs led philosopher Mario Bunge to make the statement that the study of cognition had been brainless, and the study of the brain had been mindless. More than 30 years later, and despite remarkable improvements in neuroimaging technology, the same criticisms that were leveled against cognitive psychology could be applied to I/O psychology. I/O psychology has been a brainless science. Despite the emergence of areas such as social cognition (Fiske & Taylor, 1991) and social cognitive neuroscience (Lieberman, 2007) that begin to span the distance between our field and neuroscience, in I/O psychology, we have yet to pay serious attention to the importance of the brain.