Harold Goodglass (August 18, 1920 – March 18, 2002) was a prominent pioneer of

neuropsychological tests Neuropsychological tests are specifically designed tasks that are used to measure a psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. Tests are used for research into brain function and in a clinical setting ...

and

assessment Assessment may refer to: Healthcare *Health assessment, identifies needs of the patient and how those needs will be addressed *Nursing assessment, gathering information about a patient's physiological, psychological, sociological, and spiritual s ...

, and spent much of his career investigating

aphasia Aphasia is an inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine but aphasia due to stroke is estimated to be 0.1–0.4% in ...

. The Boston VA Hospital, where he spent many years investigating brain function, now houses the Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center. Goodglass was born in New York City August 18, 1920, graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1935, and received a B.A. degree from

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in 1939. He served in the Army Air Force from 1942 to 1946, and was discharged as a Captain. He then attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

, receiving a M.A. degree in psychology in 1948, and he received a Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology from the University of Cincinnati in 1951. Goodglass developed a special interest in aphasia early in his career, and with the research support of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the lat ...

(NIH), he published research articles on disorders of naming in aphasia, on category specific disorders of lexical comprehension and production, on the comprehension of

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...

, and on the syndrome of agrammatism. He also carried out a program of studies on cerebral dominance. Among his collaborators were Fred Quadfasel, Jean Berko Gleason,

Edith Kaplan Edith F. Kaplan (February 16, 1924 – September 3, 2009) was an American psychologist. She was a pioneer of neuropsychological tests and did most of her work at the Boston VA Hospital. Kaplan is known for her promotion of clinical neuropsycholog ...

, Martin Albert, Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, Marlene Oscar Berman, Sheila Blumstein, Nelson Butters,

Norman Geschwind Norman Geschwind (January 8, 1926 – November 4, 1984) was a pioneering American behavioral neurologist, best known for his exploration of behavioral neurology through disconnection models based on lesion analysis. Early life Norman Geschwi ...

, Howard Gardner, Edgar Zurif, Joan Borod, Arthur Wingfield, and Kim Lindfield. Goodglass became director of the Boston University Aphasia Research Center in 1969, which is located at the VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain. He remained in that post until 1996, and the Center was renamed in his honor, the "Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center." He was the author of over 130 research articles, and of the books ''Psycholinguistics and Aphasia'' (with Sheila Blumstein), ''The Assessment of Aphasia and Related Disorders, the

Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination The Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination is a neuropsychological battery used to evaluate adults suspected of having aphasia, and is currently in its third edition. It was created by Harold Goodglass and Edith Kaplan. The exam evaluates language ...

'' (with Edith Kaplan), ''Understanding Aphasia, and Anomia'' (with Arthur Wingfield). He received the 1997 Gold Medal Award for Contributions to the Application of Psychology from the

American Psychological Foundation The American Psychological Foundation (abbreviated APF) is an American philanthropic organization dedicating to awarding research grants to psychologists in the early stages of their careers. It is affiliated with the American Psychological Assoc ...

. He had recently been awarded a five-year grant from

to continue his studies of aphasia. Goodglass died on March 18, 2002, of complications of a fall. He was 82."Harold Goodglass Obituary"
Boston University Bridge, Week of 29 March 2002 · Vol. V, No. 28

References

1920 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American psychologists Neuropsychologists {{US-psychologist-stub