Contributions to the History of Psychology: LXVIII. Louis Pons: From Physics to Psychophysics and Cognitive Psychology

Abstract

Professor Louis Pons (1928-1989), Doctor of Physics, turned toward psychological research in 1975, after some time spent in the United States where he had begun to collaborate with researchers of the National Institute of Mental Health. His first publications in psychophysics centered on the influence of acoustic parameters on various cognitive indices through the free word-association technique. After founding the Cognitive Psychology Laboratory at the University of Caen, he improved this technique and used it to describe psychological characteristics of a number of mental and neurological diseases as well as the effects of various pharmacological agents. His works constitute groundwork for the field of word association and its application in psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacology. As a person, Louis Pons was an enthusiast with a profound sense of friendship and of giving, who devoted himself to help those who suffered socially and morally.