Although he was very much involved in the study of philosophy, however, Costello was also a professor of Psychology\u2014 in fact, he was the only professor in Trinity\u2019s Philosophy and Psychology department until 1927.<\/p>\n
The College Archives has several items from his teaching days, including exams for his Abnormal Psychology classes and the syllabus for Intro to General Psychology.\u00a0 There\u2019s also a newspaper article he might have used as a reading for Abnormal Psychology in Spring 1944.\u00a0 Of course, Costello didn\u2019t have access to PDFs, electronic course reserves, or even Xerox copies during his 36 years at Trinity, so we can only wonder how he shared the clipping with his class.<\/p>\n
Another find is a sheet of notes on \u201cMemory Training,\u201d which he presumably handed out during the first class of Elementary Psychology.\u00a0 Some of the tips:<\/p>\n
- \n
- \u201cTrust your memory.\u00a0 Think habitually and definitely that you are going to remember.\u201d<\/li>\n
- \u201cIn learning a disconnected series, form quick associations, the more bizarre the better.\u00a0 Get a picture that gets them all in.\u201d<\/li>\n
- \u201cBe rigidly exact in recall.\u201d<\/li>\n
- \u201cLearn to forget the useless.\u201d<\/li>\n
- \u201cPractise.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Costello_1\"](\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/files\/2014\/07\/Costello_1-227x300.jpg\")
<\/a>In addition to items that show how he taught psychology, there are also two journals that demonstrate how he learned the subject as an undergrad at Earlham College in 1907. \u00a0Although they didn\u2019t have computers or today\u2019s brain scanning technology, Costello and his fellow students were still looking for ways to objectively study seemingly subjective phenomena, and these journals document their experiments.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Most of the time, the students were each other\u2019s lab rats, and the experiments literally brought them closer together. In one experiment, for example, Costello had to shave the back of his lab partners\u2019 hand and count the \u201chair stalks\u201d in order to determine the location of \u201cpressure spots.\u201d In another, \u201cDistribution of Taste Sensitivity over the Tongue,\u201d he had to identify prominent papillae on his partner\u2019s tongue and then drop different flavored liquids on each one to determine which papillae sensed which kinds of flavors. \u00a0\u00a0Should we be thankful that the field of psychology\u2019s changed a bit since then?<\/p>\n
![\"Costello_2\"](\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/files\/2014\/07\/Costello_2-227x300.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Costello_3\"](\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/files\/2014\/07\/Costello_3-218x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTo learn more about these journals and the rest of the Costello collection, please stop by the Watkinson and ask for the finding aid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[Posted as 1 of 10 in a series on the College Archives by Emma Paine, a graduate student intern from Simmons College] Professor Harry Todd Costello was recently featured on this blog in connection to his work in the field of philosophy, specifically his connection to the famous philosopher Bertrand Russell.\u00a0 He served as Russell\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":594,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}