Background
Townsend, James Tarlton was born on July 9, 1939 in Amarillo, Texas, United States. Son of Tarlton Byrd and Virgie Leona (McAlister) Townsend.
Townsend, James Tarlton was born on July 9, 1939 in Amarillo, Texas, United States. Son of Tarlton Byrd and Virgie Leona (McAlister) Townsend.
After completing his Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology in 1966, Townsend joined the faculty at the Department of Psychology at the University of Hawaii.
He is known for his work in mathematical psychology, particularly in distinguishing parallel and serial processing and for models of perception. Townsend received an Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Fresno State College in 1961. In 1962, he began his graduate work under Richard Atkinson at the Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences at Stanford University.
Two years later, in 1968, Townsend moved to Purdue University where he received tenure in 1971 and became a full professor in 1977.
In 1989, Townsend became a Rudy Professor in the Department of Psychology at Indiana University. Townsend became a Distinguished Professor in 2008.
Townsend"s major theoretical contributions include Systems Factorial Technology, General Recognition Theory and Decision field theory. Townsend coauthored an influential book on modeling in psychology with F. Gregory Ashby, The Stochastic Modeling of Elementary Psychological Processes.
He has also edited multiple volumes on mathematical psychology.
In 1985 and again in 2004, Townsend served as the president of the Society for Mathematical Psychology and has more recently served as the president of the Configural Processing Consortium. He served as editor of the Journal of Mathematical Psychology from 1985 to 1989.
Member Society for Mathematics Psychology (president 1984-1989).
Married June 5, 1959 (divorced July 1967). Children: Phillip J., Pamela J., Joan M. Married Lisa Michelle Day, June 29, 1985.
1 child, Tarlise N.