Sidney L. Pressey
Sidney Leavitt Pressey (Brooklyn, New York, December 28, 1888 – July 1, 1979) was professor of psychology at Ohio State University for many years. He is famous for having invented a teaching machine many years before the idea became popular. "The first.. [teaching machine] was developed by Sidney L. Pressey... While originally developed as a self-scoring machine... [it] demonstrated its ability to actually teach". Pressey joined Ohio State in 1921, and stayed there until he retired in 1959. He continued publishing after retirement, with 18 papers between 1959 and 1967. He was a cognitive psychologist who "rejected a view of learning as an accumulation of responses governed by environmental stimuli in favor of one governed by meaning, intention, and purpose". In fact, he had been a cognitive psychologist his entire life, well before the "mythical birthday of the cognitive revolution in psychology". He helped create the American Association of Applied Psychology and later helped merge this group with the APA, after World War Two. In 1964 he was given the first E. L. Thorndike Award. The next year he became a charter member for National Academy of Education. After his retirement he created a scholarship program for honor students at