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Major Appointments
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Manhattan State Hospital, New York, 1923–1925
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New York University, New York, 1931–1952
Major Honors and Awards
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Babcock was elected to the New York Academy of Science and was a Diplomate of the American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology.
Landmark Clinical, Scientific, and Professional Contributions
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In the 1930s, Babcock began a longitudinal study of syphilitic patients, a project that was less notable for its outcomes (many of which were not subsequently replicated) than for its methodology. Classic neurological studies from the time of Paul Broca and Karl Wernicke were centered around clinical case observation. In a departure from this classic tradition, Babcock adopted the methods of scientific psychology to study the cognitive effects of neurological disease. Her research methods were well characterized and repeatable, she utilized standardized psychometric measures, and she incorporated normal control comparison groups in her research. Anticipating later batteries of neuropsychological tests, Babcock attempted to quantify deficits in discrete mental abilities and used an “efficiency index” to summarize the overall functioning of her patients.
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Babcock based her efficiency index on the idea that intellectual function varies over time. More specifically, people may exhibit a higher level of intellectual function while healthy and in the prime of life, than they do after suffering neurological or psychiatric disorders. Babcock believed that mental disorders do not affect tests of prior knowledge acquisition (e.g., vocabulary). She further identified a number of tests that she thought were sensitive to mental disorders, including tests familiar to contemporary neuropsychologists (e.g., reverse digit span and various reasoning tasks). Babcock quantified mental efficiency by contrasting performance on these two kinds of tests, a forerunner of the hold-don’t hold test comparison (Hold-Don’t Hold Tests).
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Babcock’s contemporary influence is also evident in her story memory format. In this format, a story is initially presented and recall is tested. The story is presented a second time followed by 10 min of interpolated activity and a final recall test. This format has been adopted in some contemporary memory batteries and has the advantage of allowing the neuropsychologist to test both immediate and delayed recall, as well as learning with repetition. Although the original Babcock Story is rarely used today, some current memory batteries incorporate its format (Wechsler Memory Scale All Versions). In this and other respects, Babcock’s work continues to influence clinical and scientific neuropsychology.
Short Biography
Little has been written concerning Babcock’s personal life. She was born in 1877 in Westerly, Rhode Island. She began her career late in life, earning her doctoral degree in her 50s. Prior to this, she lived a traditional life as a homemaker. She initially gained experience working in psychiatric facilities, but after earning her doctorate, she spent the balance of her career on the faculty at New York University. Despite her late beginning, Babcock’s work was an important forerunner to the emergence of neuropsychology as a scientific field. Babcock died on December 12, 1952.
References and Readings
Hartman, D. E. (1991). Reply to reitan: Unexamined premises and the evolution of clinical neuropsychology. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 6, 147–165.
Stringer, A. Y., & Cooley, E. L. (2002). Neuropsychology: A twentieth-century science. In A. Y. Stringer, E. L. Cooley, & A.-L. Christensen (Eds.), Pathways to prominence in neuropsychology: Reflections of twentieth century pioneers (pp. 3–26). New York: Psychology Press.
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Stringer, A.Y. (2018). Babcock, Harriet (1807–1952). In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_596
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_596
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