Richard Herrnstein | |
|---|---|
.png) Herrnstein in 1981 | |
| Born | Richard Julius Herrnstein (1930-05-20)May 20, 1930 New York City, U.S.[2] |
| Died | September 13, 1994(1994-09-13) (aged 64) Belmont, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Alma mater | City College of New York (BA) Harvard University (PhD) |
| Known for | The Bell Curve (1994) Matching law |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Behaviorism |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
| Thesis | Behavioral Consequences of the Removal of a Discriminative Stimulus Associated with Variable-Interval Reinforcement (1955) |
| Doctoral advisor | B. F. Skinner[1] |
Richard Julius Herrnstein (May 20, 1930 – September 13, 1994) was an Americanpsychologist atHarvard University. He was an active researcher in animal learning in theSkinnerian tradition. Herrnstein was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology until his death, and previously chaired the Harvard Department of Psychology for five years. With political scientistCharles Murray, he co-wroteThe Bell Curve, a controversial 1994 book onhuman intelligence. He was one of the founders of theSociety for Quantitative Analysis of Behavior.
Richard Herrnstein was born on May 20, 1930, in New York City, to a family ofHungarian Jewish immigrants;[3] the son of Flora Irene (née Friedman) and Rezso Herrnstein, a housepainter.[4] He was educated at theHigh School of Music & Art and theCity College of New York, receiving a B.A. from the latter in 1952. In 1955, Herrnstein obtained his Ph.D. at Harvard University, with a thesis titledBehavioral Consequences of the Removal of a Discriminative Stimulus Associated with Variable-Interval Reinforcement.[4] Before joining the Harvard faculty, he worked for three years in theUnited States Army.[2]
His major research finding as an experimental psychologist is thematching law, the tendency of animals to allocate their choices in direct proportion to the rewards they provide. To illustrate the phenomenon, if there are two sources of reward, one of which is twice as rich as the other, Herrnstein found that animals often chose at twice the frequency the alternative that was seemingly twice as valuable. That is known as matching, both in quantitative analysis of behavior andmathematical psychology. He also developedmelioration theory with William Vaughan Jr.
Herrnstein was considered a "star pupil" of B. F. Skinner while working for his PhD at Harvard.[2] He worked with Skinner in the Harvard pigeon lab that he ran until his death. His research greatly contributed to the field ofbehavior analysis.[1] In 1965, and withEdwin Boring, Herrnstein wroteA Source Book in the History of Psychology.
Herrnstein was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He was the chairman of the Harvard Department of Psychology from 1967 to 1971. He also acted as the editor of thePsychological Bulletin from 1975 to 1981.[2] In 1977, he was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[5]
Herrnstein's research focused first on natural concepts andhuman intelligence in the 1970s, and became prominent with the publication of his andCharles Murray's controversial book,The Bell Curve.[1]
Perhaps his most notable accomplishment was the formulation of the matching law: choices are distributed according to rates of reinforcement for making the choices. An instance for two choices can be stated mathematically as
whereR1 andR2 are rates of response for two alternative responses, andr1 andr2 are rates of reinforcement for the same two responses. Behavior conforming to this law is matching, and explanations of matching and of departures from matching are a large and important part of the literature on behavioral choice.[1]
Herrnstein married his first wife, Barbara Brodo, in May 1951. The couple had a daughter together, Julia, before their divorce in February 1961. Through his second marriage to Susan Chalk Gouinlock, in November 1961, he fathered two sons named Max and James.[4][2] Herrnstein died oflung cancer shortly before the bookBell Curve was released.[2]
