Education
Harvard University; University College London.
( In this book J.E.R. Staddon proposes an explanation of ...)
In this book J.E.R. Staddon proposes an explanation of behavior that lies between cognitive psychology, which seeks to explain it in terms of mentalistic constructs, and cognitive neuroscience, which tries to explain it in terms of the brain. Staddon suggests a new way to understand the laws and causes of learning, based on the invention, comparison, testing, and modification or rejection of parsimonious real-time models for behavior. The models are neither physiological nor cognitive: they are behavioristic. Staddon shows how simple dynamic models can explain a surprising variety of animal and human behavior, ranging from simple orientation, reflexes, and habituation through feeding regulation, operant conditioning, spatial navigation, stimulus generalization, and interval timing.
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Harvard University; University College London.
He is also known for his critiques of Skinnerian behaviorism and the proposal of a theoretically based "New Behaviorism." Staddon has also written on social issues arguing against affirmative action in college admissions and that profiling can be both fair and efficient. Other social topics are legal responsibility (The Atlantic Monthly. February 1995; pg 88) and traffic control claiming that United States accident rates are much higher than rates in some European countries because of erratic speed limits. enforced attention to signs that conflict with sensible driving habits.
The uniquely American "four-way stop" is the most blatant example.
Since 2007 he has written on the application of behavioral psychology to the function and malfunction of financial markets in a book The Malign Hand of the Markets. His conclusion is that current regulations are too complex and indirect to be effective.
Educated first at University College, London, then after a year at Hollins College he studied under Richard Herrnstein, obtaining his Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Psychology at Harvard University in 1964. He has done research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Systems Laboratory, 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 (United Kingdom).
He is a past editor of the journals Behavioural Processes and Behavior & Philosophy and present editor of PsyCrit, a journal of commentary.
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.
Many of John Staddon"s publications are available at.
( In this book J.E.R. Staddon proposes an explanation of ...)