astronomy

G. C. Grindley

G. C. Grindley is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand G. C. Grindley rather than just read about it. In short: Gwilym Cuthbert Grindley (1903–1976) was a British psychologist, best known for pioneering work in what later became known as operant conditioning. Grindley has been cited as one of the first scientists to develop the concept of optical flow.

Key takeaways

G. C. Grindley belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect G. C. Grindley to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of G. C. Grindley from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gwilym Cuthbert Grindley (1903–1976) was a British psychologist, best known for pioneering work in what later became known as operant conditioning. Grindley has been cited as one of the first scientists to develop the concept of optical flow.

Biography Grindley's academic career began at the University of Bristol, where he studied physics; his first publications were on emission spectra, based on work with A. M. Tyndall. However, he became interested in animal learning, and began work under Conwy Lloyd Morgan, who was then emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethics at Bristol. He carried out pioneering research on learning in chickens, working within the framework of Pavlovian conditioning. These studies included a very early investigation of what is now called conditioned reinforcement, according to Mackintosh the first to investigate this phenomenon. Grindley subsequently moved to a faculty post at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge, and in 1932 published his best known paper, on learning in guinea pigs. This was in effect an investigation in operant conditioning, though that name was not in use at the time, and the work was done independently of the contemporaneous development of operant conditioning procedures in rats by B. F. Skinner. Skinner acknowledged Grindley as one of a number of researchers who independently developed operant techniques in the 1920s. In 20th-century reviews of the literature of comparative psychology, he is widely recognized as a pioneer of the discipline. Grindley remained at Cambridge for the rest of his career, as a lecturer in the Department of Experimental Psychology; his subsequent research was on processes of visual perception and visual cognition, particularly visual attention. Grindley was one of the eight founder members of the Experimental Psychology Group, which later became the Experimental Psychology Society. In 1947 he made a donation of £1000 (over £40,000 at 2021 values ) to the Group to enable it to found a journal, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. At his death, he left a significant bequest to the Society, which used it to found a system of grants to research students for conference attendance, known as "Grindley grants". Among colleagues, Grindley was always referred to as "C", or, in his later years, "old C".

Selected publications The Intelligence of Animals (1950) The Sense of Pain in Animals (1959)

References

External links Cartoon of Grindley on the Experimental Psychology Society website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with G. C. Grindley

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what G. C. Grindley claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to G. C. Grindley before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about G. C. Grindley ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of G. C. Grindley

In research: G. C. Grindley appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses G. C. Grindley in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: G. C. Grindley is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1903 births, 1976 deaths, 20th-century British psychologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for G. C. Grindley outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study G. C. Grindley in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what G. C. Grindley means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain G. C. Grindley out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is G. C. Grindley in simple terms?

Why does G. C. Grindley matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study G. C. Grindley?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on G. C. Grindley.