Morgan, Conwy Lloyd (1852-1936)

English psychologist. Of immense influence in the field of comparative psychology, he carried out observational studies of animals in natural settings. In 1894 he was the first to describe trial-and-error learning in animals.

In trial-and-error learning an animal learns a trick, for example, how to lift a latch to open a gate, by making several attempts without any insights into what the trick involves. Eventually it lifts the latch, an act that is immediately reinforced by the freedom that follows.

Morgan was appointed professor of geology and zoology at the University College of Bristol (later the University of Bristol) in 1884. In 1899, following the publication of two influential books, Animal Life and Intelligence (1890) and An Introduction to Comparative Psychology (1894), he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the first to be elected for research in psychology. Recognizing the tendency of previous researchers, notably G J Romanes (1848-1894), to attribute human characteristics to animals, he developed rigorous procedures of control and analysis in order to avoid such prejudice.