Francis Mechner (born 1931) is an American research psychologist best known for having developed and introduced (in 1959) a formal symbolic language [1] [2] [3] for the codification and notation of behavioral contingencies. He has published articles about the language's applications in economics, finance, education, environment, business management, biology, clinical practice, and law. [4] [5] [6] [7] Mechner is also known for a variety of contributions to instructional technology and basic research in the field of learning. [8] [9] [10]
Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1931, Mechner came to the United States as a Jewish refugee from Nazi-occupied Europe in 1944 after having spent three years in France and over two years in Cuba. [11] By age 19 he was an accomplished classical concert pianist, portrait painter, and USCF-rated chess master. [12] [13] [14] In the late 1980s he composed the soundtracks for the original versions of Karateka and Prince of Persia (video games) both developed by his oldest son Jordan Mechner. Mechner has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies since 1985.
Mechner received his PhD in 1957 from the Columbia University Department of Psychology under Professors F. S. Keller and William N. Schoenfeld. [15] [16] [17] As lecturer on the department's teaching faculty from 1955 to 1960, he developed and taught a novel type of laboratory course in experimental psychology in which the students learned to design and conduct experiments on learning, perception, and concept formation, and to analyze and interpret data. He taught two sections of that course—one for Columbia's Teachers College graduate students and one for Columbia graduate and undergraduate students.
Throughout his career, Mechner continued to conduct basic and applied research in the fields of learning and educational technology. [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] In 1957, as Director of the Schering Corporation psychopharmacology laboratory, he built the first computerized behavior research laboratory in which he conducted research on behavioral effect of drugs, and basic behavior research using rats, pigeons, monkeys, and humans. [24] [25] [26] In 1960 he introduced a new instructional technology [27] [28] in conjunction with his founding of Basic Systems, Inc. with business partner David Padwa, a company they sold to Xerox Corporation in 1965. [29] [30] [31] Key aspects of this technology are the specification of learning objectives at the outset of the development process, analysis of the subject matter in terms of its component skills and concepts, the systematic sequencing of these, active response by the learner, and cycles of testing and revision of the material on the intended target population. [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]
Mechner applied this technology to elementary school and high school courses in science and mathematics, nursing and medical education, [41] for the training of industry personnel, [42] and in 1962 for interpersonal skill training via the audio-lingual programs in "Effective Listening" and "Professional Selling Skills." The latter, when marketed by Xerox Learning Systems (the renamed Basic Systems, Inc.) and later by Learning International, Inc., was claimed to be the most widely used training system of all time. [43] Another Basic Systems-Xerox program that applies this technology and is still being sold today is "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess." [44]
In 1963, under a contract with the office of Governor Peabody of Massachusetts, Dr. Mechner developed the design for a residential training center for disadvantaged youths, and in 1965 the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity awarded his company Basic Systems, Inc. a contract for establishing and operating such a Job Corps Training Center in Huntington, West Virginia [45] The Job Corps Training Centers that were subsequently established throughout the United States under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 were based in part on that design. [46]
From 1960 through 1978 Mechner applied his technology to the creation of large-scale training systems and manpower development programs for governmental agencies in the United States and Brazil. [47] [48] [49] In 1970 he worked with the Carnegie Corporation's Children's Television Workshop project in the original design of certain aspects of the Sesame Street television. [50] : 245 As a consultant to UNESCO from 1963 to 1965 he introduced his technology for the modernization of secondary school physics teaching in South America and chemistry teaching in Asia. [51] : 242 In 1967 he founded Media Medica, Inc. through which he introduced the use of instructional materials for patient education. Through his company Universal Education Corporation, which he founded in 1968, he developed and installed innovative statewide early childhood development and educational daycare programs for Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nebraska, and Alabama. [52] : 245 In 1969 he joined the White House's National Goals Research Staff. [53] : 246 In 1971, he testified before the Senate Finance Committee [54] : 246 on the importance of early childhood development and educational day care regarding the Mondale-Brademas Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971, which was passed by the Congress and then vetoed by President Nixon. [55] [56]
In 1968 he founded the Paideia School, an innovative K–12 independent school that he operated until 1973 in Armonk, NY. [57] This school, based on ideas of John Dewey [58] [59] Jerome Bruner, [60] [61] and Fred S. Keller, [62] provided the original model for the Paideia Personalized Education approach on which the Mechner Foundation's Queens Paideia School in Long Island City, NY, is based. [63] [64] From 1975 to 1977, he developed a computerized information storage and retrieval system and search engine for the Brazilian Government agency Instituto de Pesquisas Technologicas. [65]
In 1960, Mechner formed the New York State non-profit company Institute for Behavior Research, the antecedent of the Mechner Foundation that Mechner founded in 1997. Mechner has published numerous technical papers and articles and has lectured and taught courses at dozens of national and international conferences and universities. [66] [67] As President of the Mechner Foundation, he sponsored collaborative research projects in the field of behavioral science with several major universities. [37] He provided the initial funding for the Blacksmith Institute and founded and operates the Queens Paideia School. The Mechner Foundation has also carried out an extensive basic research program of its own over a 12-year period. [68] Mechner has been a trustee of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies since 1985.
Since 1960, Mechner has funded his scientific research work through businesses that he founded and built. [69] All of these were based on some type of innovative technology. Among these, in addition to those described above, were Chyron Corporation which he founded with engineer Eugene Leonard (1966), best known for its digital graphics generators widely used in the broadcast industry; [70] TeleSession Corporation (1970); EDUTEC, S.A. in Brazil (1973); General Clutch Corp. with physicist Dr. Martin Waine (1980); TorqMaster, Inc. also with Dr. Martin Waine (1996); and Pragma Financial Systems, LLC (2002), with his son David Mechner.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was an American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence, cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods, including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.
Instructional design (ID), also known as instructional systems design and originally known as instructional systems development (ISD), is the practice of systematically designing, developing and delivering instructional materials and experiences, both digital and physical, in a consistent and reliable fashion toward an efficient, effective, appealing, engaging and inspiring acquisition of knowledge. The process consists broadly of determining the state and needs of the learner, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating some "intervention" to assist in the transition. The outcome of this instruction may be directly observable and scientifically measured or completely hidden and assumed. There are many instructional design models, but many are based on the ADDIE model with the five phases: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.
An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of knowledge, taught and researched as part of higher education. A scholar's discipline is commonly defined by the university faculties and learned societies to which they belong and the academic journals in which they publish research.
Robert William Taylor, known as Bob Taylor, was an American Internet pioneer, who led teams that made major contributions to the personal computer, and other related technologies. He was director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office from 1965 through 1969, founder and later manager of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Laboratory from 1970 through 1983, and founder and manager of Digital Equipment Corporation's Systems Research Center until 1996.
Learning sciences (LS) is the critical theoretical understanding of learning, engagement in the design and implementation of learning innovations, and the improvement of instructional methodologies. LS research traditionally focuses on cognitive-psychological, social-psychological, cultural-psychological and critical theoretical foundations of human learning, as well as practical design of learning environments. Major contributing fields include cognitive science, computer science, educational psychology, anthropology, and applied linguistics. Over the past decade, LS researchers have expanded their focus to include informal learning environments, instructional methods, policy innovations, and the design of curricula.
Gene V Glass is an American statistician and researcher working in educational psychology and the social sciences. According to the science writer Morton Hunt, he coined the term "meta-analysis" and illustrated its first use in his presidential address to the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco in April, 1976. The most extensive illustration of the technique was to the literature on psychotherapy outcome studies, published in 1980 by Johns Hopkins University Press under the title Benefits of Psychotherapy by Mary Lee Smith, Gene V Glass, and Thomas I. Miller. Gene V Glass is a Regents' Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University in both the educational leadership and policy studies and psychology in education divisions, having retired in 2010 from the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education. From 2011 to 2020, he was a senior researcher at the National Education Policy Center, a Research Professor in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder, and a Lecturer in the Connie L. Lurie College of Education at San Jose State University. In 2003, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Education.
This is an index of education articles.
Programmed learning is a research-based system which helps learners work successfully. The method is guided by research done by a variety of applied psychologists and educators.
Patrick Colonel Suppes was an American philosopher who made significant contributions to philosophy of science, the theory of measurement, the foundations of quantum mechanics, decision theory, psychology and educational technology. He was the Lucie Stern Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Stanford University and until January 2010 was the Director of the Education Program for Gifted Youth also at Stanford.
Charles Bohris Ferster was an American behavioral psychologist. A pioneer of applied behavior analysis, he developed errorless learning and was a colleague of B.F. Skinner's at Harvard University, co-authoring the book Schedules of Reinforcement (1957).
Fred Simmons Keller was an American psychologist and a pioneer in experimental psychology. He taught at Columbia University for 26 years and gave his name to the Keller Plan, also known as Personalized System of Instruction, an individually paced, mastery-oriented teaching method that has had a significant impact on college-level science education system. He died at home, age 97, on February 2, 1996, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Teaching machines were originally mechanical devices that presented educational materials and taught students. They were first invented by Sidney L. Pressey in the mid-1920s. His machine originally administered multiple-choice questions. The machine could be set so it moved on only when the student got the right answer. Tests showed that learning had taken place. This was an example of how knowledge of results causes learning. Much later, Norman Crowder developed the Pressey idea further.
The behavioral analysis of child development originates from John B. Watson's behaviorism.
Alexandra W. Logue is an academic and behavioral scientist. She is currently a research professor in CASE of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York She is also a member of the Graduate Center's Behavior Analysis Training Area in the Psychology Ph.D. Program. From 2008 to 2014, she was the Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost of City University of New York, the CUNY system's Chief Academic Officer. She also served as provost and a professor at New York Institute of Technology.
Harold O'Neil is an American psychologist.
Psychological behaviorism is a form of behaviorism—a major theory within psychology which holds that generally human behaviors are learned—proposed by Arthur W. Staats. The theory is constructed to advance from basic animal learning principles to deal with all types of human behavior, including personality, culture, and human evolution. Behaviorism was first developed by John B. Watson (1912), who coined the term "behaviorism", and then B. F. Skinner who developed what is known as "radical behaviorism". Watson and Skinner rejected the idea that psychological data could be obtained through introspection or by an attempt to describe consciousness; all psychological data, in their view, was to be derived from the observation of outward behavior. The strategy of these behaviorists was that the animal learning principles should then be used to explain human behavior. Thus, their behaviorisms were based upon research with animals.
The Institute for Research on Learning (IRL) in Palo Alto, California was co-founded by John Seely Brown, then chief research scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center, and James Greeno, Professor of Education at Stanford University, with the support of David Kearns, CEO of Xerox Corporation in 1986 through a grant from the Xerox Foundation. It operated from 1986 to 2000 as an independent cross-disciplinary think tank with a mission to study learning in all its forms and sites.
George R. Klare was a World War II veteran and a distinguished professor of psychology and dean at Ohio University. His major contribution was in the field of readability. From the beginning of the 20th century, the assessment of the grade level of texts for different grades of readers was a central concern of reading research. It was well known that without correctly graded texts, readers would not improve their reading skill. There were over 1,000 published studies on this topic. Klare's contribution to that effort came both in his critical reviews of the studies and his participation in original research.
Sidney Leavitt Pressey was professor of psychology at Ohio State University for many years. He is famous for having invented a teaching machine many years before the idea became popular.
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