Charles Henry Turner
American zoologist who studied insect behaviour and learning
American zoologist who earned a University of Chicago PhD in 1907, reported that bees and cockroaches learn from experience and described how ants circle before entering their nests. He did most of this work while teaching high school in St. Louis.
Why this person matters
Turner studied learning and memory in insects and published about 49 papers on invertebrates, most while teaching at Sumner High School in St. Louis. His work bears on comparative psychology.
Main contributions
Learning and memory in insects
In 1908 he reported that a burrowing bee found its nest again using landmarks, and that bees can adapt their foraging to a schedule. He found that cockroaches learn by trial and error but forget fairly quickly.
Turner's circling
He described the wide arcs that ants make before entering their nests, later called Turner's circling. His book The Homing of Ants appeared in 1907.
Invertebrate research
He published about 49 papers on invertebrates, including three in Science. Most were written while he taught at Sumner High School.
Context and limits
His bee colour vision experiments used red cardboard, which bees do not see as a colour, so they could not establish colour vision. Historians debate whether he chose high school teaching or could not find a permanent academic post. His suggestion that invertebrates show outcome awareness was a suggestion, not a demonstrated finding. He is allied to psychology through comparative work on learning.
In your introductory course
Learning.He appears in learning and comparative chapters as an early researcher on trial-and-error learning in invertebrates.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 6.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1892
He received a master's degree from the University of Cincinnati.
- 1907
He earned his PhD at the University of Chicago and published The Homing of Ants.
- 1908
He began teaching at Sumner High School in St. Louis.
Sources
- University of Cincinnati, Black biologist provides early insight on insectsUniversity. Institutional biography inspected.
- Wikipedia, Charles Henry Turner (zoologist)Reference work. Reference article inspected.