Charles Witt Telford received an M.S. in Psychology from the University of Idaho in 1927. His thesis: The Relative Value of a Psychological Examination and an Entrance Test in Predicting School Grades. He received his Ph.D. as well.

He is also the joint author of several books on psychology, beginning with Dynamics of Mental Health (1963), which by the third edition was called Psychol ogy of Adjustment (1971), and with the fourth edition (1975) it became Adjustment and Personality. James M. Sawrey is the senior author and C. W. Telford is joint author.

Telford and Sawrey also co-authored a text Educational Psychology: Psychological Foundations of Education 3rd ed., (1968) and The exceptional Individual: Psychological and Educational Aspects (1967) [4th ed., 1981]. Telford, Sawrey and Arthur T. Jersild co-authored another text: Child Psychology, 7th ed. (1975).

Publications and related literature

Emphasis throughout this handbook is placed on th e practical rather than the theoretical. The supervisor needs a practical knowledge of the human mind and human emotions. He must be able to apply this knowledge quickly to the problem that explodes unexpectedly or to the chronic complaints that challen ge his best thinking

As members of the Pacific Coast Consultants, the authors conducted supervisory training programs in industry. It soon became evident that there was need for a handbook that could be used as a training manual and as an everyday sou rce of information for the supervisor on the job. The book, therefore had its conception and trial "in the field." Most of its materials have been used successfully in guiding supervisors and middle management personnel toward a more effective use of th eir abilities for a more satisfactory, more productive workday.

Certain basic facts presented are common to many situations. Others may apply especially to your field. All are valuable and useful through adaptation when the thoughtful supervisor dev elops the habit of putting these practical aspects into his daily work.

Jersild, A. T., Telford, C. W., & Sawrey, J. M. (1975). Child Psychology. (7th edition). Prentice-Hall: New Jersey.

Sawrey, J. M. & Telford, C. W. (1959) Educational Psychology. Allyn & Bacon, 3rd imp [1958]

Sawrey, J. M. & Telford, C. W. (1971). Psychology of adjustment. 3rd Ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

This introductory text on adjustment presents a comprehe nsive coverage of the general nature of problems of adjustive behavior. The roles of motivation and learning are emphasized.

Sawrey, J.M. & Telford, C. W. (1975). Adjustment and Personality. (4th edition). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon I nc.

The period between the first edition of this book in 1963 and this fourth edition has witnessed a consistent shift from an emphasis on mental illness to an enphasis on mental health. There has been a trend toward the study of normal and superior individuals as well as the developmental sequences and processes that lead to psychological maturity, superior integration, and adjustment. This increased interest in normal and superior functioning has resulted in several attempts conceptualize psychological and social normality and supernormality more adequately. Superior adjustment and creativity are conceived of today as the expression of superior psychological health rather than as the absence of pathology (from preface).

Telford, C. W. (1931). The refractory phase# of voluntary and associative responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 14, 1-36.

-Mentioned in Schmidt, R. A. (1988). Motor Control and Learning. (Second edition). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publish ers, Inc.,:

Given two reaction times RT₁ and RT₂ and two stimuli S₁ and S₂:

Experimenters have been inter ested in the RT of the second of the two stimuli. The critical comparison has been between RT₂ when it is preceded by S₁ verses RT₂ when S₁ is not pre sented at all; that is, the "control RT₂" is a measure of RT₂ when the subject does not have S₁ presented at all. Using this method, experimenters have shown repeatedly that the response to the second of the two closely space stimuli is considered longer than RT₂ in the control condition. Apparently S₁ and RT₁ cause a great deal of interference with the processing of RT₂ and S₂. This important phenomenon was discovered by Telford (1931), who named it the psychological refractory period (PRP).^*

# Is this related to a 1899 event where Francis Gotch describes a "refractory phase" between nerve impulses?

*In a way, this label is unfortunate. The original idea was that the delay in the subject's response to the second of two closely spaced stimuli was analogous to the delay found when a single nerve fiber is electrically stimulated twice in rapid succession in physiological experiments. If the second stimulus is very close to the first (within .5 msec), no response at all will be recorded from the se cond stimulus. This effect has been termed refractory period, meansing that the nerve was insensitive to additional stimulation while it "recovered" from the effects of the first stimulus. These neuronal processes have little to do with the psyc hological refractory period, as the time courses are very much longer in the behavioral work (e.g., 200 msec.) (Schmidt, R. A., 1988, p. 109-110).

Telford, C.W. & Sawrey, J.M. (1967). The Exceptional Individual: Psychological and Educational Aspects. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hill, Inc.

Telford, C.W. & Sawrey, J.M. (1971). The Exceptional Individual. (Rev. Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hill, Inc.

Telford, C.W. & Sawrey, J.M. (1972a). Psychology as a natural science. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Telford, C.W. & Sawrey, J.M. (1972b). The Exceptio nal Individual. (2nd edition). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hill, Inc.

The second edition of this textbook reflects the shift in the attitude of our culture toward deviant people. The 1967 edition anticipated this shift in the general direction of a decreasing emphasis on the specific categories of exceptionality, the diminshing importance fo etiological classifications in social and educational remedial programs, and an increasingly humanistic point of view in dealing with the socially devalued class of deviant people. (from preface).

Telford, C. W, y Sawrey, J. M. (1973). El individuo excepcional. Madrid: Prentice-Hall.

Telford, C. W. y Sawrey, J. M. (1978). O Individuo Excepcional. Rio de Janeiro (3a.Edicao), Zahar (Ed.).

Telford, C. W. and Spangler, H. (1935). Training effects in motor skills. Journal of experimental psychology. 19 (1), 141-147.

On the web

Mentions of the psychological refractory period:
Greenwald, A. G., & Shulman, H. G. (1973). On doing two things at once: II. Elimination of the psychological refractory period effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 101, 70-76.

Byrne, M. D., & Anderson, J. R. (in press). Serial modules in parallel: The psy chological refractory period and perfect time-sharing. To appear in Psychological Review.

Meyer, D.E., & Kieras, D.E. (1994). EPIC computational models of psychological refractory- period effects in human multiple-task performance. (EPIC Tech. Rep. No. 2, TR-94/ONR-EPIC-2). Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, Department of Psychology. Mentioned at: http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi95/proceedings/papers/dek_bdy.htm

Google Search on "psychological refractory period telford"

Citeseer Search on "psychological refractory period"

"Insight carries the implicatio n of at least the appearance of suddenness." - C.W. Telford

"Compassion is the ultimate and most meaningful embodiment of emotional maturity. It is through compassion that a person achieves the highest peak and the deepest reach in his or her sear ch for self-fulfillment." - Arthur Jersild

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