E. G. Boring

Edwin Garrigues (Gary) Boring (23 October 1886 – 1 July 1968) was an American experimental psychologist, Professor of Psychology at Clark University and at Harvard University, who later became one of the first historians of psychology. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Boring as the 93rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century, tied with John Dewey, Amos Tversky, and Wilhelm Wundt.

Boring was born on October 23, 1886 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in a Quaker family interested in science. His elder sister was the zoologist, Alice Middleton Boring. In 1904, Boring attended Cornell University, where he studied electrical engineering. He earned a M.E. degree in electrical engineering in 1908 and then took a job at Bethlehem Steel Company in Pennsylvania. Boring returned to Cornell for an A.M. in physics, but he was instead drawn to the world of psychology by I. Madison Bentley’s animal psychology course.

Boring notes that his interest in psychology had already begun in 1905, when he took an elementary psychology class as an elective while pursuing his engineering degree. Bentley's course was under the professorship of Edward B. Titchener and captured Boring's attention. On one test Boring received back, Titchener had even written "You have the psychological point of view!" (p. 31). It was that remark that stuck with him and guided him toward psychology when he arrived at Cornell for the second time.

Boring's minor research strayed too far from Titchener's definition of psychology. It was at Titchener's suggestion that he decided to do his thesis on visceral sensibility. He conducted the study by placing a stomach tube in his own stomach to learn more about the sensations of the alimentary tract. The results indicated that the stomach and esophagus were more sensitive to temperature and pressure than had been realized. The studies indicate his interest, from an early age, in the physical and experimental components of psychology. In 1914, Boring's efforts were rewarded when he received his Ph. D.

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