Stanley Smith Stevens facts for kids

Stanley Smith Stevens (born November 4, 1906 – died January 18, 1973) was an American psychologist. He started Harvard University's Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory, where he studied how we hear sounds (this field is called psychoacoustics). He is also known for introducing Stevens's power law, which helps explain how we sense things like brightness or loudness.

Stevens wrote a very important textbook called Handbook of Experimental Psychology in 1951. He also helped create the Psychonomic Society, a group for psychologists. In 1946, he shared his idea about different levels of measurement (like nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales). Scientists use these ideas a lot. Stevens also helped develop the use of operational definitions in psychology, which means clearly defining how something is measured.

In 2002, a survey ranked Stevens as the 52nd most referenced psychologist of the 20th century. He was a member of several important groups, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Early Life and Education

Stevens was born in Ogden, Utah. His parents were Stanley and Adeline Stevens. He went to schools linked to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. After his parents passed away in 1924, he spent three years on a mission for his church in Switzerland and Belgium.

He studied at the University of Utah from 1927 to 1929. Then, he went to Stanford University for two years, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology in 1931.

After moving to Massachusetts to start his Ph.D., he left the Latter-day Saint church. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University in 1933. He worked there as an assistant in psychology from 1932 to 1934.

In 1934, he spent a year studying how the body works (physiology) at Harvard Medical School. In 1935, he was a research fellow in physics at Harvard for a year. In 1936, Stevens became an instructor in experimental psychology at Harvard University.

He married Maxine Leonard in 1930, and they had a son, Peter Smith Stevens, in 1936. Later, in 1963, he married Geraldine Stone, who had worked with him in the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory.

Bringing Scientists Together

Stevens was important in organizing a group called the "Science of Science discussion group" in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This group met several times in 1940 and 1941. Stevens was known for writing clearly about science. He brought together many scientists who wanted to make scientific language easier to understand. The group was also inspired by a big science meeting held at Harvard University in 1939, which included many famous scientists from different fields.

His Scientific Work

Stevens's main work was in psychophysics and psychoacoustics. Psychophysics studies how our physical senses (like sight and hearing) respond to physical stimuli (like light and sound). Psychoacoustics focuses specifically on how we hear and process sounds.

One of his most important ideas was defining four types of measurement scales:

• Nominal: This scale uses names or labels, like types of fruit (apple, banana).
• Ordinal: This scale puts things in order, like small, medium, large.
• Interval: This scale has equal differences between points, like temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit.
• Ratio: This scale is like interval but also has a true zero point, like height or weight.

These scales help scientists understand different kinds of data.

See also

• The Logic of Modern Physics