William James's The Principles of Psychology: 'a seemingly inexhaustible source of ideas'

Selected topics from The Principles of Psychology are evaluated in the light of current psychological knowledge. It is argued that James's main contribution lies in his acute observation of experience, resulting in the framing of searching questions about fundamental problems, and that many of his insights have inspired recent work. This is illustrated with reference to his chapters on the will, attention and emotion. The main advances since his time have been in the reformulation of his ideas in information-processing terms, enabling their empirical testing in laboratory experiments, computer simulation and neuropsychology.