Every scientific field has its stars, and one of the joys—or, for the more competitive among us, frustrations—of academic life is frequently being gobsmacked by how brilliant they are as they advance through their amazing careers.  For many decades now, one of the brightest luminaries in cognitive psychology has been Larry Barsalou, and I’m delighted to introduce this online tribute to him.

Ever since he got his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1981, Larry has been a pioneer in studying the human conceptual system and its roles in perception, memory, language, and thought.  Right out of the gate, he wrote a seminal paper about ad hoc categories, which are constructed on the spot, like “things to sell at a garage sale” or, more colorfully, “ways to escape being killed by the mafia.”  That paper, which is still among his most cited, quickly led to a provocative idea that he and many others continued to explore all the way up to now—namely, that even though familiar concepts like “dog” and “lemon” have fairly stable structures in long-term memory, they’re similar to ad hoc categories insofar as their retrieval is quite flexible, with different features being activated to different degrees on different occasions, depending on multiple factors but especially the current context and the agent’s goal.

After spending nearly 20 years building his reputation as a highly productive and influential cognitive psychologist, in the late 1990s Larry turned his attention to the budding field of grounded cognition and immediately became one of its strongest leaders.  This field’s main claim is that cognition does not involve computation over amodal symbols, as traditionally assumed; instead, it relies on simulations in modal systems for perception, action, and introspection.  Beginning with a breakthrough target article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences in 1999, Larry has not only supported the grounded cognition framework with numerous experiments employing both psychological and neuroscientific methods; he has also elaborated and defended it, sometimes against fierce critics, in a series of theoretical and review papers in prominent journals such as Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Annual Review of Psychology, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, and Journal of Cognition.

Always on the lookout for new research projects, during the past few years Larry has applied the grounded cognition framework to a remarkably diverse set of topics ranging from abstract concepts to emotion, meditation, stress management, and self-regulation.  His current obsession is “SAM,” which stands for the Situated Assessment Method—a psychometric approach to studying individual differences in a variety of health-related domains such as social connectedness, social support, loneliness, climate anxiety, motives for eating and drinking, and, believe it or not, trichotillomania (i.e., hair-pulling disorder).  These new areas of investigation are certainly quite different from those funny ad hoc categories that he informed us about over 40 years ago, but it’s possible to trace a line back to them—a line that, like Ariadne’s thread, winds its way along a complex path through the myriad discoveries and insights of one of the best researchers in cognitive psychology.

Personally, I’ve benefited tremendously from Larry’s brilliance.  In much of my own work I’ve tried to contribute to the branch of neurolinguistics that focuses on word meaning, and there are countless times when I’ve gotten confused about one issue or another, but then found clarity after consulting some of Larry’s papers on the subject.  Even more valuable to me, though, is the friendship I’ve been lucky enough to form with him, since it’s allowed us to exchange views about novels, music, politics, the climate crisis, family relationships, and many other topics of mutual interest.  I only wish West Lafayette weren’t so far from Glasgow, so I could see him in person more often.

This online tribute to Larry features appreciative posts from many other people who have benefited from his expertise, guidance, and kindness.  Some of his most successful students and postdocs are here, including Anna Borghi, Diane Pecher, Rene Zeelenberg, Léo Dutriaux, and Guy Dove.  Several friends and collaborators are also present, including Christoph Scheepers, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Alex Martin, and Ken McRae.

Even though Larry is nearing the end of his awesome career, he’s not there yet, and I’m sure all of us, among countless others in the cognitive science community, look forward to seeing what further contributions he’ll make.

Finally, thanks to Laura Mickes for facilitating this Digital Event sponsored by the Psychonomic Society.