The University of Barcelona pays posthumous tribute to Nicholas Mackintosh

A posthumous honor to the psychologist who revolutionized educational methods in the United Kingdom.

The University of Barcelona presents the Medalla d'Or to Nicholas Mackintosh.

Recently we have received the news that on November 11 will be held the ceremony for the awarding of the Gold Medal of the University of Barcelona to Nicholas J. MackintoshProfessor Emeritus of the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge from 1981 to 2002.

Mackintosh had been proposed Doctor Honoris Causa by the UB months before his death.

The career of Nicholas Mackintosh

Professor Mackintosh, who died in February 2015, was internationally recognized for his contributions in the field of psychometrics, intelligence and the study of learning processes in animals.s. Some of his main works as an author are the books The Psychology of Animal Learning (1974), about Comparative Psychology, and Cyril Burt: Fraud or Famed (1995), although his most important text is arguably IQ and Human Intelligence (1998), which served to recognize and focus on the problem of underachievement in multi-ethnic schools in the UK and which, moreover, pointed to conclusions whose impact goes far beyond Experimental Psychology.

Nicholas Mackintosh helped to discover many of the psychological mechanisms through which intelligence is expressed and, through this type of research, made it possible to change our conception of the nature of cognition, learning and intellect. For his career as a researcher, he was awarded the Biological Medal and the President's Award from the British Psychological Society in 1981 and 1986, respectively.

Regarding his relationship with the Universitat de Barcelona, it is worth mentioning his collaboration with Victoria Díez Chamizo, professor of the Department of Basic Psychology of the UB, in research focused on associative conditioning and learning, the results of which served to reinforce the hypothesis that spatial learning has many similarities with simple associative learning.

His role as a trainer and lecturer

Beyond his trajectory as a researcher, from his role as a teaching mentor and lecturer he emphasized the need to recognize the limitations of the research conducted on the concept of "intelligence" and the G-factor construct, so as not to venture conclusions simply because they coincide with the political or ideological motivations of each individual. Similarly, Nicholas Mackintosh was critical of the overreaching that the application of neuroscience to specific legal courses could have.

In addition, he devoted much of his life to he devoted much of his life to teaching undergraduate classes and participating in lectures attended by younger students, both at Cambridge and at many other universities throughout the world.He was a regular attendee at Cambridge and at many other universities around the world.

Where and when is the event being held?

The medal presentation ceremony will take place on on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 at 12:00 noon, in the auditorium of the historic building of the University of Barcelona (Plaça de la Universitat). You can find more information about the event by clicking on this link.