Cattell, James Mckeen

(born May 25, 1860, Easton, Pa., U.S.—died Jan. 20, 1944, Lancaster, Pa.) U.S. psychologist.

He studied with Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig and later assisted Francis Galton in London. Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania (1888–91) and Columbia University (1891–1917), where Edward L. Thorndike was his student, he oriented U.S. psychology toward use of objective experimental methods, mental testing, and applied psychology. Much of his career was devoted to editing and publishing scientific periodicals; he was a founder of Psychological Review (1894), edited Science for 50 years (from 1894), and founded the directory American Men of Science (1906).