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Observing ben wyckoff: From basic research to programmed instruction and social issues

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Abstract

L. Benjamin Wyckoff’s seminal contributions to both psychological theory and application are the subject of this review. Wyckoff started his academic career as a graduate student at Indiana University, where he developed the observing-response procedure under the guidance of B. F. Skinner and C. J. Burke. At the University of Wisconsin—Madison, Wyckoff refined his mathematical theory of secondary reinforcement. This theory was the impetus for his creation of an electronic simulation of a rat running a T maze, one of the first “computer models” of learning. Wyckoff next went to Emory University, leaving there to help create two of the most successful companies dedicated to the advancement of programmed instruction and teaching machines: Teaching Machines, Inc. and the Human Development Institute. Wyckoff’s involvement in these companies epitomizes the application of basic behavior-analytic principles in the development of technology to improve education and human relationships. The emergent picture of Wyckoff is that of a man who, through his research, professional work in educational applications of behavioral principles, and active involvement in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, was strongly committed to applying behavioral science to positively influence human behavior change.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Condicionamiento Operante, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Col. Copilco-Universidad, Av. Universidad 3004, Col., México, D.F., C.P. 04510, USA

    Kennon A. Lattal

  2. Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, 26506, USA

    Rogelio Escobar

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  1. Rogelio Escobar
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  2. Kennon A. Lattal
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Correspondence to Rogelio Escobar or Kennon A. Lattal.

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The first author is now at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship awarded by the PROFIP of DGAPA-UNAM. This paper was possible thanks to the recollection of many contributors to whom the authors are indebted: Estelle Wyckoff and Andrew Weiskoff (Benjamin Wyckoff’s family); John Cotton and Richard Atkinson (Indiana University); Lewis Gollub (Harvard University); Bernard Pyron and H. Philip Zeigler (University of Wisconsin); Stephen Kendall, Donald J. Levis, and William Deckner (Emory University); Donald Tosti, Roger Addison, Roger Steinhorst, Clifton Chadwick, and David Shields (Teaching Machines Inc.); Jerome Berlin, Gene Ruyle, and Schlomo Friedlander (Human Development Institute); Lizette Royer (Archives of the History of American Psychology); Constance Carter (Library of Congress); and Kathleen Shoemaker (Emory University Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library).

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Escobar, R., Lattal, K.A. Observing ben wyckoff: From basic research to programmed instruction and social issues. BEHAV ANALYST 34, 149–170 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392246

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