Charles W. Eriksen
# Charles W. Eriksen

Charles Walter Eriksen (February 4, 1923 – February 16, 2018) was an American psychologist who was the editor of Perception & Psychophysics from 1971 to 1993. Eriksen was a leading academic psychologist researching the field of visual perception. He developed the Eriksen flanker task.

## Early life

Eriksen's early life was spent in Omaha, Nebraska. He was keen on fishing, and pranks. He studied at the University of Nebraska, and did a PhD in clinical psychology at Stanford University because the queue for psychology was shorter than the one for physics. His first job in 1950 was at Johns Hopkins University as a clinician and experimenter doing two part times jobs.

## Perception

Eriksen's publication of the flanker test has been heavily cited.

