J. E. R. Staddon

John Eric Rayner Staddon (born 19 March 1937) is a British-born American behavioral psychologist known for research on interval timing, "superstition," and behavioral optimality in rats, pigeons, and fish. He is also known for his critiques of Skinnerian behaviorism and the proposal of a controversial "New Behaviorism." ["The New Behaviorism: Mind, Mechanism and Society", (Psychology Press, 2001).] Staddon has also written on social issues arguing against affirmative action in college admissions [Have Race-Biased Admissions Improved American Higher Education? http://www.safs.ca/april2003/highereducation.html] and that profiling can be both fair and efficient. ["Fair Profiling," http://psychweb.psych.duke.edu/department/jers/Profiling.pdf] He is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology.

Education & Career

Educated first at University College, London, then after a year at Hollins College he studied under Richard Herrnstein, obtaining his PhD in Experimental Psychology at Harvard University in 1964. He has done research at the MIT Systems Lab, Oxford University, the University of São Paulo at Riberão Preto, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Ruhr Universität, Universität Konstanz, the University of Western Australia and York University, United Kingdom. He has also taught at the University of Toronto.

Since 1967, Staddon has been at Duke University; since 1983 he has been the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology, and Professor of Biology and Neurobiology. He is an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of York (UK). He is a past editor of the journals "Behavioural Processes" and "Behavior & Philosophy" and present editor of [http://psycrit.com/index.php/Introduction] PsyCrit, a journal of commentary. RecentFact|date=March 2008 work in the Staddon laboratory has focused on explaining interval timing in terms of memory, and explaining choice in terms of interval timing; work with past students and postdocs has included work on feeding regulation as well as spatial navigation, concurrent choice, and habituation.

[http://psycrit.com/index.php/Introduction]

Writings

In addition to lectures on education and social issues, Staddon is the author of approximately 200 research papers and five books, including:
*"The New Behaviorism: Mind, Mechanism and Society", (Psychology Press, 2001),
*"Adaptive Dynamics: The Theoretical Analysis of Behavior", (MIT/Bradford, 2001), and
*"Adaptive Behavior and Learning" (Cambridge University Press, 1983, new edition 2003: [http://psychweb.psych.duke.edu/department/jers/abl/TableC.htm] .

References

External links

* [http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v7/n8/full/nrn1764-c1.html Staddon & Higa's review of Buhusi & Meck's Nature paper on interval timing]
* [http://psychweb.psych.duke.edu/department/jers/BlogTable.htm Op-Ed Pieces by John Staddon]
* [http://psychweb.psych.duke.edu/department/jers/staddon.htm List of Publications by John Staddon]
* [http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Operant_conditioning Scholarpedia article on operant conditioning by J. E. R. Staddon]