One response to questions about the future of psychology is to attempt an answer to another question: What have we learned from psychology’s past? Originally published in 1984, reissued here with a new preface, this book presents a collection of original papers by authorities with international reputations in various fields of psychology at the time. Contributors were invited to appraise the past of their own research specialties, with an eye toward the future. The emphasis is upon the more scientific areas of psychological research.

The catalyst for this book was an international conference honoring Gustav A. Lienert held in 1981. Psychologists from both Western and Eastern Europe, North and South America, and representing fields as different as psychophysics is from clinical psychology, or animal memory from human decision making, described their research and argued the prospects for the future of experimental psychology. Most of the arguments found their way into this book where readers could confront the different viewpoints at the time and those reading it today can see how accurate their predictions were for the future.