at Cornell University, where he studied with such famous historical figures as E. B. Titchener, Kurt Koffka, Harry Helson, and Karl Dallenbach. When Guilford was awarded the Ph.D. at Cornell in 1927, he had already published five papers. His doctoral thesis showed that variations in reported sensory experience with weak stimuli were due more to the characteristics of the limen itself than to fluctuations in attention, contrary to what was commonly believed at that time.

After short periods of time on the faculties of the universities of Illinois and Kansas, Guilford returned in 1928 to the University of Nebraska as professor of psychology, where he achieved an international reputation as one of America's foremost psychologists. In 1940 he moved to the University of Southern California. Except for a period of leave to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, he remained at USC until his formal retirement in 1962. This event represented little more than a milestone in his career since he continued to be very active in research and writing for twenty-five more years. As a teacher, Guilford trained dozens of graduate students who went on to make numerous contributions of their own to the psychometric literature.

During a productive research career that continued for more than six decades, Guilford published over twenty-five books, thirty tests, and 300 journal articles. Some of the honors and awards bestowed upon him include the following: president, the Psychometric Society (1938); president, the Midwestern Psychological Association (1939); president, the Western Psychological Association (1946); president, APA Division 5, Evaluation and Measurement (1947); president, the American Psychological Association (1949); president, APA Division 10, Aesthetics (1956); Legion of Merit for outstanding military service (1946); honorary degrees