Stephen Kosslyn

Stephen M. Kosslyn
Kosslyn in 2021
Born	1948 (age 76–77) California, U.S.
Education	University of California, Los Angeles (BA) Stanford University (PhD)
Awards	NAS Award for Initiatives in Research, Guggenheim fellowship, Cattell Award, Prix Jean-Louis Signoret
Scientific career
Fields	Cognitive neuroscience learning sciences cognitive psychology
Institutions	Minerva University Stanford University Harvard University
Website	https://minerva.kgi.edu/

Stephen Michael Kosslyn (born 1948) is an American psychologist and neuroscientist^[1] He is a former dean of social sciences at Harvard University.^[2]

Kosslyn is the president of Active Learning Sciences Inc., which helps institutions design, deliver, and assess active-learning based courses and educational programs.^[3] He is also the founder and chief academic officer of Foundry College, an online two-year college.^[4]

Kosslyn is considered one of the founders of cognitive neuroscience.^[5] He is best known for his pioneering work on mental imagery, visual cognition, and the neuroscience of learning.^[6] His major scientific contributions include the following:

Kosslyn made significant contributions to understanding the nature of mental images (e.g., “seeing with the mind’s eye”), through both empirical studies and theoretical models.^[7]

Kosslyn challenged the idea that mental images were simply propositional (verbal-like descriptions) and provided strong evidence that they had a depictive, pictorial-like characteristics.^[8][9]

His famous studies demonstrated that people take longer to mentally scan greater distances across objects in their mental images, supporting the idea that mental imagery preserves spatial properties.^[10][11][12]

He found that people could detect more details in imagined objects when they were "zoomed in," similar to the way the visual system works with real-world perception.^[13][9]

He demonstrated that depictive (“picture-like) visual mental imagery can be implemented in computational systems, thereby removing much of the vagueness of the concept of mental imagery.^[14] He also demonstrated that visual mental imagery relies on four distinct sets of processing components, involved in: generating the image, maintaining it, transforming it, and interpreting it.^[15]

Kosslyn proposed a detailed theory of how visual information is stored in the brain.^[16]

Kosslyn attended graduate school at Stanford University and received a PhD in psychology from Stanford in 1974.^[17] After an appointment as assistant professor of psychology at Johns Hopkins, he joined the faculty at Harvard in 1977, where he served as the departmental chair, Dean of Social Sciences,^[18] and the John Lindsley Professor.^[19]

He also was co-director of the Mind of the Market Lab at Harvard Business School and was an associate in the department of neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2010, Kosslyn left Harvard^[20] was appointed director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.^[17] Kosslyn was then the Founding Dean and Chief Academic Officer of the Minerva Schools (now Minerva University).^[21] Following this, he was the founder and chief academic officer of Foundry College, an online two-year college.^[4] And, most recently, he is founder, President and CEO of Active Learning Sciences, Inc.^[22]

Between 1998 and 2002, Harvard received $200,000 in donations^[23] from Jeffrey Epstein to support ^[24] kosslyn's research.^[25][26] A report from Harvard University shows that Kosslyn had known Epstein for about nine years and supported his application as a visiting fellow in the department of psychology in September 2005.^[25][27] The report noted that Kosslyn did not disclose Epstein's donations in the accompanying documents. Epstein "lacked academic qualifications," but there was speculation that his application was approved with the support of Kosslyn as the head of the department.^[25][28] The report also noted that disclosure was not requested and Harvard—having accepted the gifts—was previously aware of this funding. Epstein withdrew from his appointment in 2006 following his arrest for sex criminal offenses.^[25]

Kosslyn has received numerous honors for his research. These include the National Academy of Sciences Initiatives in Research Award, the Prix Jean-Louis Signoret, three honorary doctorates (from the University of Caen, France; the University of Paris-Descartes, France; the University of Bern, Switzerland), a Guggenheim fellowship,^[29] and a Cattell Award. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of Experimental Psychologists, and Academia Rodinensis pro Remediatione (Switzerland).^[18]

Kosslyn has published over 350 scientific papers and written or co-authored 16 books and edited or co-edited 14 books, including:^[30][31]

• Kosslyn, Stephen Michael (1980). Image and mind. Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-44366-2.
• Kosslyn, Stephen Michael (1983). Ghosts in the mind's machine: creating and using images in the brain (1st ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-95257-5.
• Kosslyn, Stephen Michael; Koenig, Olivier (1995). Wet mind: the new cognitive neuroscience (1st ed.). New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0-02-874085-0.
• Kosslyn, Stephen Michael (1994). Elements of graph design. New York, NY: Freeman. ISBN 978-0-7167-2362-2.
• "Resolving the Imagery Debates", Image And Brain, The MIT Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0-262-27748-8, retrieved 2025-02-03
• Kosslyn, Stephen Michael; Rosenberg, Robin S. (2001). Psychology: The Brain, the Person, the World. Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 978-0-205-27465-9.
• Kosslyn, Stephen M.; Thompson, William L.; Ganis, Giorgio (2006-03-23), "Science and Mental Imagery", The Case for Mental Imagery, Oxford University Press, pp. 174–182, ISBN 978-0-19-517908-8, retrieved 2025-02-03
• Kosslyn, Stephen Michael (2006). Graph design for the eye and mind. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531184-6.
• Smith, Edward E.; Kosslyn, Stephen Michael (2007). Cognitive psychology: mind and brain. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-182508-6. OCLC 64208315.
• M.Kosslyn, Stephen (2007). Clear and to the Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling Powerpoint Presentations. Stephen Michael Kosslyn. Cary: Oxford University Press USA - OSO. ISBN 978-0-19-532069-5.
• M. Kosslyn, Stephen; Rosenberg, Robin (2010). Psychology in Context (3rd ed.). Allyn & Bacon. p. 783. ISBN 9780205456147.
• Kosslyn, Stephen; Rossenberg, Robin (2014). Abnormal Psychology (2nd ed.). Worth Publishers. p. 688. ISBN 978-1429242165.
• Kosslyn, Stephen (2010). Better PowerPoint: Quick Fixes Based On How Your Audience Thinks. s.l: Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-537675-3.
• Kosslyn, Stephen Michael; Miller, G. Wayne (2013). Top Brain, Bottom Brain: Surprising Insights into How You Think. G. Wayne Miller. Riverside: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-4510-1.
• Kosslyn, Stephen Michael; Nelson, Ben; Kerrey, Robert, eds. (2018). Building the intentional university: Minerva and the future of higher education. Cambridge, Massachusetts London: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-03715-0.
• 2019. Kosslyn, Stephen; Rossenberg, R.S (2019). Introducing Psychology : Brain, Person, Group. ISBN 978-0205777174.
• Kosslyn, Stephen (2020). Active Learning Online: Five Principles that Make Online Courses Come Alive. Alinea Learning. p. 120. ISBN 978-1735810706.
• Kosslyn, Stephen (2023). Active Learning with AI: A Practical Guide. Alinea Learning. p. 246. ISBN 979-8989214006.
• Kosslyn, Stephen Michael (2025). Learning to flourish in the age of AI. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-032-68665-3.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Stephen Kosslyn.

• Kosslyn Lab at Harvard University
• "Psychology: From Theory to Practice - A Conversation with Stephen Kosslyn", Ideas Roadshow, 2014