Karl Spencer Lashley pioneered the study of brain mechanisms of learning and memory. He was born in 1890 in Davis, West Virginia, and entered the University of West Virginia at the age of fifteen. As a freshman he signed up for a class in zoology under the distinguished neurologist John Black Johnston, and within a few weeks he "knew that I had found my life work." After graduation in 1910, he obtained a teaching fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh and received his M.S. degree there. Lashley then went to Johns Hopkins University to study for his doctorate in zoology under Herbert S. Jennings. He elected a minor in psychology with John B. Watson, the founder of behaviorism. His work with Watson convinced him to make his career in psychology. This was the critical time in Lashley's development as a scientist. In his own words...