Table of Contents

Contextualism
Its Definition, Origins, Current Manifestations and Allies
Philosophy of Science and Psychology
The Metaphilosophy of Stephen Pepper
Philosophic Contextualism and Modified Contextualism Described
Philosophic Contextualism and Academic Psychology
A Comparison and Evaluation
Developmental Contextualism and Academic Psychology
A Comparison and Evaluation
Functional Contextualism and Academic Psychology
A Comparison and Evaluation
Are Mainstream Psychology and the Various Contextualisms in Competition, and Should They Be?
Underdetermination, Incommensurability and Relativism
Downplaying Ontology

About the Author

Robert Proctor is Professor of Psychology at Purdue University at West Lafayette. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1975. Dr. Proctor has been teaching and conducting research in the field of attention and human performance for nearly 30 years. He conducts research on basic and applied aspects of human performance, with an emphasis on stimulus-response compatibility effects and the relation between perception and action. Dr. Proctor is member of several journal editorial boards. He has co-authored four books and co-edited two. Attention: Theory and Practice is his second book with Dr. Addie Johnson; the first, Skill Acquisition and Human Performance, was published by Sage in 1995. Together, these two authors brought an integrated perspective and broad experience to bear in crafting this book. Dr. Proctor is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society and an honorary fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.