I grew up in a log cabin on the outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio. Ma and Pa were poor but honest folk who did their best to bring us up right...
Well, ok, maybe not quite that. I did grow up in the suburbs of Cleveland, and Bullwinkle J. Moose was a formative influence in my life. I ultimately went off to New College in Sarasota, FL, where I started out and nearly finished as a biology major. The aspect of biology that most interested me, however, was the relationship between brain and behavior, and biologists of that time had very little interesting to say about the topic. By accident, browsing in the library stacks, I discovered early cognitive psychology texts such as Donald Broadbent's Perception and Communication and Daniel Kahneman's Attention and Effort. Reading these allowed me to grasp ways that one could study cognitive processes in a rigorous fashion even without having a measure of brain activity. (IMO, these books are still worth reading 30-40 years after they were written). This was the beginning of my career as a cognitive psychologist, which took more formal shape while getting my PhD at Michigan State University and in a fellowship in cognitive neuropsychology at Johns Hopkins University.
My family:
More than anything, I like being at the ocean. It is where I feel most content and at peace. The ideal plan for our family is to buy a beach house at the shore and spend summers there, and we are saving towards that goal. Send your contributions to Dagenbach Beach House, co Dale Dagenbach, Dept of Psychology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109. There's some truth to the rumor that I've at times suggested that North Carolina would be a better state if the eastern 40% fell under the waves and brought the shore that much closer to here.
I used to dabble at painting, but it has been so many years since I've had time that it stretches things to include that here. Maybe in the future...
Like many of my colleagues in the Psychology Department, I am accomplished musically. I consider myself a master of the cd, cassette tape player, record player (those vinyl thingies), and the FM-Stereo receiver. With those instruments, you might find me enjoying music of a variety of different styles ranging from the Velvet Underground (old) to Elvis Costello (somewhat old) to Mozart (very old). (The description is either eclectic or confused -- take your choice).
Good pasta. I'd be happy to swap good recipes that don't take a lot of effort with you.
Gratuitous cruelty to man or beast. I don't like people who cause unmotivated or uncalled for pain or anguish for others. Go ahead, call me narrow-minded. See if I care.
Hmm... I guess that's pretty mild for a set of dislikes. The truth is, there's not a whole lot that I dislike passionately. Oh, well. I'm working on it.
Don't let me be misunderstood by Eric Burdon and the Animals (1965)
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