Michael H. Posner

Michael H. Posner
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Name	Michael H. Posner
Birth date	12 September 1936
Birth place	Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Fields	Cognitive psychology, Cognitive neuroscience
Workplaces	University of Oregon, Weill Cornell Medicine
Alma mater	University of Washington, Harvard University
Doctoral advisor	Frank A. Geldard
Known for	Attention, Executive functions, Neuroimaging
Awards	National Medal of Science (2009), William James Fellow Award (1990)

Michael H. Posner. Michael I. Posner is an American psychologist renowned for his pioneering research on the human attention system and its neural substrates. His work, utilizing techniques like event-related potentials and positron emission tomography, helped establish the field of cognitive neuroscience. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Oregon and an adjunct professor at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Biography

Michael I. Posner was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Washington, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1957. He then pursued his doctoral degree at Harvard University, receiving his Ph.D. in psychology in 1962 under the supervision of Frank A. Geldard. Following his graduate work, he held positions at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Bell Labs before joining the faculty at the University of Oregon in 1965, where he spent the majority of his career. He has also held significant roles at the Sackler Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.

Research and contributions

Posner's research fundamentally transformed the understanding of attention from a unitary concept to a network of specialized brain systems. In the 1970s and 1980s, his cueing paradigm experiments dissected spatial attention into components of disengagement, shifting, and engagement of mental focus. He proposed the influential model of three separable attention networks: the alerting network, the orienting network, and the executive attention network, each with distinct anatomical correlates like the frontal lobe and parietal lobe. His collaboration with Marcus Raichle at Washington University in St. Louis was seminal in using positron emission tomography to image the human brain during cognitive tasks, providing some of the first evidence for the neural basis of word processing. Later work explored the development of attention in infancy and its modification through training, such as with the Attention Network Test.

Awards and honors

Posner has received numerous prestigious awards for his scientific contributions. He was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Barack Obama in 2009. The American Psychological Association honored him with the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in 1980 and the William James Fellow Award in 1990. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Other notable honors include the American Psychological Foundation's Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology and the Society of Experimental Psychologists' Howard Crosby Warren Medal.

Selected publications

Among his extensive body of work, several publications are considered landmark texts. His 1978 book, "Chronometric Explorations of Mind," co-authored with Gordon D. Logan, detailed mental chronometry methods. The 1990 article "The Attention System of the Human Brain," published in the Annual Review of Neuroscience with Steven E. Petersen, is a highly cited synthesis of his network theory. Other significant books include "Images of Mind" with Marcus Raichle, which showcased early neuroimaging findings, and "Educating the Human Brain" with Mary K. Rothbart, focusing on the development of attention and temperament.

Academic appointments

Throughout his career, Posner has held key academic and research positions. He was a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon from 1965 until his retirement, where he also directed the Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences. He served as the editor of the journal Cognitive Psychology. Since 2001, he has been an adjunct professor of psychology in psychiatry at the Sackler Institute of Weill Cornell Medicine. He has also held visiting professorships at institutions like the University of Oxford and the University of California, Irvine.

Category:American psychologists Category:Cognitive neuroscientists Category:University of Oregon faculty Category:National Medal of Science laureates