ABSTRACT
Gordon Bower has influenced cognitive psychology in many significant ways. Probably no one else possessed the broad mastery of the literature that was needed to repeatedly update Hilgard’s classic Theories of Learning. The fifth edition of that volume lists more than 1,200 references, on topics ranging from neurophysiology through experimental research on both animals and humans, through mathematical models, to educational applications. Generations of psychology students have profited from Bower’s ability to extract the central concepts from that broad literature, and to repackage the concepts in crystal-clear prose. On a more personal level, a remarkable number of graduate students took their first toddling steps in research under Bower’s eye, and then raced off in all directions to help shape cognitive psychology as we know it today.
