Victor S. Johnston (born 4 May 1943) is a prominent
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
-born
psychologist whose work emphasis is emotion, and event related potentials. His areas of study include
cognitive engineering
Cognitive engineering is a method of study using cognitive psychology to design and develop engineering systems to support the cognitive processes of users.
History
It was an engineering method used in the 1970s at Bell Labs, focused on how peopl ...
,
biopsychology, and
cognitive psychology. His major research interests are
evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evol ...
,
and
genetic algorithms
In computer science and operations research, a genetic algorithm (GA) is a metaheuristic inspired by the process of natural selection that belongs to the larger class of evolutionary algorithms (EA). Genetic algorithms are commonly used to gene ...
. Dr. Johnston states, "The human brain did not evolve to accurately represent the world around us; it evolved only to enhance the survival of our genes." According to Johnston, the combination of emotions with symbolic thought produces meaning. But with this capacity comes the ability to develop meanings for things that do not exist. Little girls develop the ability to attach emotional feelings to dolls, and pretend that their toys live. Little boys learn how to pretend to hunt and fight and attach emotions to them. We learn feelings of desire, fear, and wonder by wandering to the limits of our play. Imagination allows us to create technology, mathematics, and art, but with it can also come terrifying thoughts that could cause harm to us. We grow to learn the difference between most of our thoughts and what they represent, but most of us get fooled into believing the reality of some things that don't exist at all
Dr. Johnston received his B.Sc. in psychology, 1964, Queens University,
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
, N. Ireland; and Ph.D. in psychopharmacology, 1967,
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
.
His doctoral research on the biochemistry of Schizophrenia was awarded the A.E. Bennett Neuropsychiatric Research Foundation Awar
Honors
*Awarded New Mexico Software Author of the Year Award, New Mexico Entrepreneurs Association,
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos and
Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force Bas ...
(1995).
*
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
Inventor of the Year Award (1995) for ''FacePrints'' software.
*US patent (1994) for ''FacePrints'' software that can evolve faces in a compute
*Doctoral research on the biochemistry of Schizophrenia was awarded the A.E. Bennett Neuropsychiatric Research Foundation Award (196
Academic appointments
*Professor,
New Mexico State University
New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's ...
, 1988–present
*Associate Professor, NMSU, 1980-1987
*Assistant Professor, NMSU, 1969-1980
*Postdoctoral Fellow,
Stanford University, 1970-1971
*Co-Director of Yale in
Holloman Research Facility,
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
of Medicine, 1967-1969
Publications
*JOHNSTON, V. S., and Bradley, R. J. Molecular Pharmacology of Hallucinogens. In Wortis (Ed.) Recent Advances in Biological Psychiatry, 10, 1968.
*SMYTHIES, J. R., Johnston, V. S., & Bradley, R. J. Behavioral models of psychosis.
British Journal of Psychiatry
The ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering all branches of psychiatry with a particular emphasis on the clinical aspects of each topic.
The journal is owned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and publ ...
,115, 55-68,1969.
*DELGADO, J. M. R., Johnston, V. S., Wallace, J. D., and Bradley, R. J.: Operant Conditioning of Amygdala Spindling in the Free Chimpanzee. Brain Research, 22:347-362, 1970.
*JOHNSTON, V. S., Hart, M., and Howell, W. The nature of the medial wall deficit in the rat. Neuropsychologia, 12, 497-503, 1974.
*JOHNSTON, V. S., and Chesney, G. L. Electrophysiological correlates of meaning. Science, 186, 944-946, 1974.
*PRIBRAM, K. H., Day, R. U., and Johnston, V. S.: Selective Attention: Distinctive Brain Electrical Patterns produced by Differential Reinforcement in Monkey and Man. In D. I. Mostofsky (Ed.) Behavior Control and Modification of Physiological Activity, Prentice Hall, 1976.
*JOHNSTON V. S., Holcomb P. J.: Probability Learning and the P3 Component of the Visual Evoked Potential in Man. Psychophysiology 17(4):396-400, 1980.
*JOHNSTON V.S., Partridge, D., and Lopez, P. A neural theory of cognitive development. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 100, 485-509, 1983. PARTRIDGE, D., Johnston, V.S. and Lopez, P.: Computer Programs as Theories in Biology. J. Theor. Biol., 108:539-64, 1984.
*JOHNSTON, V. S., Miller, D. and Burleson, M.: Multiple P3s to Emotional Stimuli and Their Theoretical Significance. Psychophysiology, 23:684-94, 1986.
*PARTRIDGE, D., Johnston, V. S. and Lopez, P.: Experiments with a Cognitive Industrial Robot. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 27:435-448, 1987.
*JOHNSTON, V. S., Burleson, M., and Miller D. Emotional value and late positive components of ERP's. in Current Trends in Event-Related Potential Research. (E.E.G. Supp. 40) Eds. R. Johnson Jr., J.W. Rohrbaugh & R.Parasuraman. 1988.
*JOHNSTON, V. S.: Evaluating a New Technique for Improving Eyewitness Identification. Final Report for National Institute of Justice Grant No. 90-IJCX0025, 1990.
*JOHNSTON, V. S., and Wang, X. T.: The Relationship between Menstrual Phase and the P3 Component of ERPs. Psychophysiology, 28:400-409, 1991.
*CALDWELL, C. and Johnston, V. S.: Tracking a Criminal Through "Face-Space" with a Genetic Algorithm. In: R. K. Belew and L. B. Booker (eds), Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Genetic Algorithms. pgs 416-421. San Diego, CA:
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers is a Burlington, Massachusetts (San Francisco, California until 2008) based publisher specializing in computer science and engineering content.
Since 1984, Morgan Kaufmann has published content on information technology ...
, 1991.
*WANG, X. T., Johnston, V. S., and Oliver, J. C.: Evoked Brain Potential Studies of Emotional and Cognitive Processes. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 24:406-414, 1992.
*WANG, X. T. & Johnston, V. S.: Adaptive Changes in Cognitive and Emotional Processing with Reproductive Status. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 42:39-47, 1993.
*JOHNSTON, V. S., and Franklin, M.: Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder? Ethology and Sociobiology, 14(3):183-199, 1993.
*JOHNSTON, V. S. Method and apparatus for generating composites of human faces U.S. Patent # 5,375,195, 1994.
*WANG, X. T. & Johnston, V. S.: Perceived Social Context and Risk Preference: A Re-examination of Framing Effects in a Life-Death Decision Problem. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 8:279-293, 1995.
*JOHNSTON, V. S., and Oliver-Rodriguez, J. C: Facial Beauty and the Late Positive Component of Event-related Potentials.
Journal of Sex Research
The ''Journal of Sex Research'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of human sexuality and the field of sexology in general. It is published by Routledge on behalf of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. In 1963, th ...
. 34, 188-198, 1996.
*JOHNSTON, V. S., and Caldwell, C: Tracking a criminal suspect through face space with a genetic algorithm. In Back, T, Fogel, D, Michalewicz, Z. (eds.) Handbook of Evolutionary Computation; Oxford University Press. 1997.
*OLIVER-RODRIGUEZ, J. C., Guan, J., and Johnston, V.S. Gender differences in Late Positive components evoked by Human Faces. Psychophysiology, 36: 176-185, 1999.
*JOHNSTON, V. S. Why We Feel: The Science of Human Emotions. Perseus Press: Reading, Mass. 1999
Books
*''Why We Feel, the Science of Human Emotions'' (200
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Victor
Evolutionary psychologists
American science writers
Irish emigrants to the United States
1943 births
Living people
Alumni of Queen's University Belfast
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh