Leon James

Background

I took my psych 100 course back in 1956. It was taught by Dr. Donald Hebb at McGil University. It was a large lecture hall class of 800 students. I was amazed when I came up with an A+ grade near the very top of the class. This decided my fate. I was following the pre-med program but I switched to majoring in psychology. Dr. Wallace Lambert, a social psychologist, was my mentor all the way to my Ph.D. that I got in 1962. My dissertation topic was the phenomenon of semantic satiation. I demonstrated in several linked experiments that when people repeat a word over and over the word loses meaning and I was able to trace this effect in several areas including verbal learning, problem solving, bilingualism, popular songs, advertising, and stuttering.

Education

• PhD, Psychology, McGill University, 1962

Courses

• PSY 408: Teaching General Psychology
• PSY 409: General Psychology: Advanced Topics
• PSY 459: Social Psychology: Advanced Topics

Research

After several years of research on semantic satiation and psycholinguistics I became very interested in the new field of ethnomethodology. I started studying how we can assist people in keeping records of their daily life. I constructed a record keeping instrument that I called the Daily Round Archives. I focused especially on how to analyze "talking turn practices" in everyday exchanges. I created and taught a new graduate course titled Psycholinguistics and Ethnosemantics, which however is no longer offered. Later I became interested in the theistic psychology of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). My focus was the attempt to develop a modern day behavioral version of his psychology. In the last few years I've been exploring online instruction and teaching online courses.