George A. Miller, Psychologist

George Miller grew up in West Virginia during the Great Depression.  He was born in Charleston, West Virginia, on February 3rd 1920.  His parents were divorced in 1927, and he and his mother resided in Charleston with her parents.  In the fall of 1937, he was at George Washington University when he became interested in psychology after talking to a freshman enrolled there.

He was raised a Christian Scientist so he rejected the text based on its anatomical drawings.  He graduated high school in 1937, and then moved to Washington, D.C., where he attended George Washington University.  His stepfather transferred in 1938 to Alabama, so Miller transferred to University of Alabama for one year.

In 1939, he encountered Donald Ramsdell, the Professor of Psychology at the University of Alabama.  Ramsdell was laid back and enjoyed lecturing from his home.  Miller was not interested in psychology seminars; rather he was interested in Kurt Goldstein’s “The Organism.”

His work at the University of Alabama was made worthwhile by his pursuit of Katherine James.

Ramsdell took Miller under his wing by offering Miller a job after he had completed his Masters level coursework.  This was Miller’s first position as a psychology instructor.  He was then married to Katherine James.  In June of 1942, Miller went to Harvard.

Upon his arrival in Boston, he found things to be hostile.  His work would soon begin with the famous psychologist Gordon Allport.  While at Allport’s office, he met Wendell Garner.  A friendly competition ensued with Garner and Miller pouring over Woodworth’s Experimental Psychology.  They also carried out extensive work with military research and the study of war.

S. Smith Stevens was a good influence on Miller in the sense that he made sure Miller communicated his ideas clearly and concisely.  There was palpable tension in the Department of Psychology, the experimentalists, Stevens, John G. Beebe in the center and E.G. Boring on one side and the social clinical psychologists, Gordon Allport, Henry Murray and Robert White on the other side.

Miller worked primarily on psychological operations during the war.  He was focused primarily on psychoacoustics and the relative discomfort caused by certain sounds.  He was going to use “The Optimal Design of Jamming Signals” as his Ph.D. dissertation.  He thought Allport was out to get him for his doctoral.