| Roland Clark Davis | |
| Birth Date: | December 20, 1902 |
| Birth Place: | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Death Place: | Yellow Springs, Ohio |
| Nationality: | American |
| Field: | Psychology |
| Work Institutions: | University of Virginia Indiana University |
| Alma Mater: | Columbia University |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Robert S. Woodworth Albert Poffenberger |
| Doctoral Students: | Oran Wendle Eagleson |
Roland Clark Davis (December 20, 1902– February 23, 1961) was an American psychologist recognized for his innovation in instrumentation and measurement of electrophysiological phenomena.[1] Davis contributed to the measurement of electrodermal activity, gastric reflexes, and muscle action potentials.[2] Davis published over 70 articles on psychophysiology and related topics across a 30-year career[3] [2] and mentored many graduate students at Indiana University Bloomington from 1931 through 1961.[4]
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 30, 1902,[5] Roland Clark Davis was the eldest child of William Chalmers Davis and Effie Estelle Clark.[6] Davis earned his A.B. in English from Harvard in 1924 and his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1930.[7] Upon leaving Columbia, Davis briefly worked as a research associate for the University of Virginia.[7] Davis married Francis Oliver Meacham on September 12, 1927, in Petersburg, Virginia.[8] They had two children, Susan Oliver and Christopher Meacham.[7] In 1931, Davis was hired as an Acting Associate Professor at Indiana University[4] where he established his psychophysiology laboratory in Science Hall.[1] Davis died on February 23, 1961, at the age of 58 in Yellow Springs, Ohio.[9] He was returning home from a meeting at the Fels Research Institute when he suffered a heart attack.[1] [2]
At Columbia, Davis was mentored by Robert Sessions Woodworth and Albert Poffenberger.[1] In his 1930 dissertation, “Factors Affecting the Galvanic Reflex,” Davis reviewed hundreds of published articles on the galvanic skin response (GSR), producing an extensive and systematic review of GSR.[10]
Davis was the first to use a vacuum tube as a way to control the electrical current during measurement of the GSR.[11] Davis also developed a device that provided an uninterrupted measurement of arterial blood pressure that would not interfere with the subject’s true blood pressure,[12] and he is credited with introducing the cathode-ray oscilloscope technique for measuring muscle action potentials.[1] In collaboration with Douglas Ellson, Irving Saltzman, and Cletus Burke, Davis also developed a lie-detection device.[13] [2]
Using gastric balloons and a landmine detector to track the progress of steel balls through the gastrointestinal tracts of volunteers, Davis produced evidence that stomach contractions were largely absent when the stomach was empty, a finding that directly refuted the popular hypothesis of the time that hunger produced the most intense stomach contractions.[2] Davis also used the electrogastrogram (EGG) to study the effects of particular drugs on gastric activity.[1]
Davis also challenged the theory of homeostasis,[14] arguing that the relevant terms needed to be more precisely defined and that responses could be adaptive even if they were not homeostatic:“Homeostasis can be maintained for one variable only at the expense of heterostasis in at least one other”.[1]
Davis was recognized as a leader in the Department of Psychology, and he was one of the few members of the senior faculty to remain in his position through World War II.[4] Davis was also one of the founding members of the Society for Psychophysiological Research.[2] At Indiana University, Davis directed the master's and doctoral theses of 29 graduate students, including Oran Wendle Eagleson.[4]
A Vacuum Tube for Stabilizing the Current During Measurements of the Galvanic Reflex (1929) [11]
Factors Affecting the Galvanic Reflex (1930) [10]
Electrical Skin Resistance Before, During, and After a Period of Noise Stimulation (1932) [15]
Modification of the Galvanic Reflex by Daily Repetition of a Stimulus (1934) [16]
Apparatus for Recording Autonomic States and Changes (1954) [17]
Response Patterns (1957) [18]
An Exploration of Somatic Response Patterns: Stimulus and Sex Differences (1957) [12] The Pattern of Somatic Response During a Repetitive Motor Task and its Modification by Visual Stimuli (1957) [19]
The Domain of Homeostasis (1958) [14]
A Cathode-Ray Oscilloscope Apparatus for the Psychological Laboratory (1931) [20]
Properties of Electrodes Used in Recording Action Potentials from the Intact Organism (1936) [21]
Methods of Measuring Muscle Tension (1942) [22]
An Integrator and Accessory Apparatus for Recording Action Potentials (1948) [23]
Adaptation of the Muscular Tension Response to Gunfire (1949) [24]
Autonomic and Muscular Response and Their Relationship to Simple Stimuli (1955) [25]
American Psychology 1800-1885 (1936) [26]
Physiological Psychology: A View of Fifty Years (1958) [27]