Donald Olding Hebb

(1904–85). A lifelong loyal Canadian, Hebb's theory that the brain is a multitude of nets reconciled the mass action ideas of Lashley and the holistic phenomena beloved of Gestalt psychologists with specific functional locations. He gave learning a physical basis in modified conductivities with use of synapses, and generally promoted a strongly physiology-based empiricist theorizing. His book The Organisation of Behaviour (1949) was among the most influential books on brain and mind in the 20th century. It is both a clear account of the power of interactive neural nets to learn and generalize, and recognize or remember complex scenes or situations from small samples, but also to form concepts with 'cell assemblies'. Hebb's work is the basis and direct inspiration of modern connectionism. This radical departure from digital serial processing is steering the brain sciences and artificial intelligence on a course that promises many more dramatic theoretical and practical successes.

(Published 1987)

— Richard L. Gregory

Bibliography
• Hebb, D. O. (1949). The Organisation of Behaviour.
• Valentine, E. R. (1989). 'Neural nets: from Hartley and Hebb to Hinton'. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 33.

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