Karl S. Lashley (1890–1958), born in Davis, West Virginia, was
an American psychologist and behaviorist well-remembered for his
influential contributions to the study of learning and memory.
His failure to find a single biological locus of memory (or
"engram", as he called it) suggested to him that memories were
not localized to one part of the brain, but were widely
distributed throughout the cortex. While working toward his
Ph.D. in genetics at Johns Hopkins University, Karl Lashley
became associated with the influential psychologist John B.
Watson. During three years of postdoctoral work on vertebrate
behavior (1914-17), he began formulating the research program
that was to occupy the remainder of his life. In 1920 he became
an assistant professor of psychology at the University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, where his prolific research on brain
function gained him a professorship in 1924. He was later a
professor at the University of Chicago (1929-35) and Harvard
University (1935-55) and also served as direct