Shepherd Ivory Franz

Franz was the editor of multiple psychological journals and he contributed research to the concepts of neuroplasticity, afterimages and cerebral localization.

[2] Franz attended graduate school with Edward Thorndike and studied under James McKeen Cattell.

[4] Franz was then a physiology professor at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences and a psychologist at the Government Hospital for the Insane.

[5] Beginning in 1922, Franz coordinated a comprehensive six-month course in neuropsychiatry for physicians in the Veterans Bureau.

[1] By 1924, the hospital had shifted to a more psychoanalytic focus and Franz's salary and title were reduced after an employee in one of the laboratories left a door unlocked and a Bunsen burner ignited.

In 1902, Franz conducted a number of experiments on cats to figure out the relation of cerebrum's frontal lobes to the production and retention of simple sensorimotor habits.

He used two tasks: one requiring a specific operant response which was to turn a button 90 degrees for the animal to receive the food.

(cite) After the animal had learned these two behaviors enough to demonstrate them quickly after not practicing for a week, their frontal lobes were removed and the experiment was repeated after surgery recovery.

[5] The psychology department at the University of California, Los Angeles is housed in Franz Hall.