Robert F. Simmons: In Memoriam

at that time. William James’ Principles of Psychology seemed to me to be a high-water mark for psychologists who were interested in the various problems of conscious psychology. The fact that the whole current of psychology has turned to the more rewarding (but to me less inspiring) study of more easily observed behavior seemed to leave a great gap in the study of human behavior. The problem then and now associated with consciousness appears to be the impossibility of formulating experimentally answerable questions. Studying cognitive processes by synthesizing them on computers seems to offer some hope that eventually we may come to understand enough about the difference between organisms and machines that a question about consciousness may be asked.