Donald Hebb
Pioneer of Neuropsychology
Intro
Donald Olding Hebb was a Canadian psychologist whose groundbreaking research on brain functions helped bridge the fields of psychology and neuroscience. Eventually, he established the field we now know as neuropsychology. He is most well known for his classic 1949 book, "The Organization of Behaviour: a Neuropsychological Theory", where he proposed biological explanations of behaviour and processes relating to the mind; most notably, Hebb’s Rule.1 As one of the most cited researchers of the 20th century 2, Hebb’s work has paved the way for explaining critical processes such as learning and memory through understanding brain functions. Commonly known as the father of neuropsychology, Hebb’s contributions have played a pivotal role in establishing psychology as a biological science, and have left a long-lasting impact on fields that continue to build on his findings today, such as developmental psychology, education, cognitive science, and computer science.
A large brain, like a large government, may not be able to do simple things in a simple way.
– Donald Olding Hebb3
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Dr. Sekoul Krastev is a decision scientist and Co-Founder of The Decision Lab, one of the world's leading behavioral science consultancies. His team works with large organizations—Fortune 500 companies, governments, foundations and supernationals—to apply behavioral science and decision theory for social good. He holds a PhD in neuroscience from McGill University and is currently a visiting scholar at NYU. His work has been featured in academic journals as well as in The New York Times, Forbes, and Bloomberg. He is also the author of Intention (Wiley, 2024), a bestselling book on the science of human agency. Before founding The Decision Lab, he worked at the Boston Consulting Group and Google.
