Biography
Stanford University
At Stanford University he held appointments in the Department of Psychology,School of Engineering,Graduate School of Education,and Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences. In the mid-1960s,he began publishing a series of papers with his graduate students and postdoctoral fellows that formed the basis for a general theory of memory. The most important of these was a 1968 article called “Human Memory:A Proposed System and Its Control Processes,”co-authored with his graduate student,Richard Shiffrin. One of the most cited publications in the behavioral and cognitive sciences over the past five decades,it still receives about 700 citations a year. [6]
The Atkinson-Shiffrin paper proposes a memory system whose structure is fixed (sensory register,short-term store,long-term store) but whose control processes (encoding,storage,retrieval,and decision rules) are variable. The two authors describe a theory from which one can derive formal models to predict an individual’s performance on a variety of memory tasks. Their approach brought together the emerging fields of mathematical psychology and computer modeling to offer a cognitive view of memory.
The general theory has withstood critical challenges and been considered the standard by which others are measured. Memory and Cognition devoted a special issue in 2019 to “Five Decades of Cumulative Progress in Understanding Human Memory and Its Control Processes Sparked by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968).” [7] In 2023,Journal of Memory and Language republished the 1968 paper,accompanied by an article on its historical significance. [8]
Another focus of Atkinson’s research,conducted with his Stanford colleague Patrick Suppes,concerned developing computer-assisted instruction (CAI) to teach mathematics and reading to young children. An example is a program for teaching reading in grades K-3. A “response history”is maintained on each student and continually updated. Built into the program is a model of the learning process that analyzes each student’s response history to make moment-by-moment decisions as to what should be studied next to optimize the student’s performance. Atkinson and Suppes later founded Computer Curriculum Corporation,the first company to introduce computers into the classroom.
While at Stanford,Atkinson served as founding editor for the Journal of Mathematical Psychology . He was also chair of the Mathematical Social Science Board of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences,which ran summer institutes (among other activities) for advanced doctoral students interested in learning about mathematical models in the behavioral and social sciences.
In 1967,Atkinson and his wife,Rita Loyd Atkinson,joined their Stanford colleague,Ernest Hilgard,as authors of the textbook Introduction to Psychology. They ceased being authors with the publication of the 12th edition,and in later editions the title was changed to Atkinson and Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology. Atkinson’s scientific work has been translated into nine languages,including a Russian and a Chinese translation of his collected papers.
National Science Foundation
In 1975,Atkinson took a leave of absence from Stanford to begin a temporary appointment as deputy director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). His career took a different course when he agreed to remain at NSF,serving first as acting director (1976-77) and then as director (1977-80) appointed by President Jimmy Carter. [9]
Atkinson’s task was to lead the Foundation through what one commentator called “a rebuilding from the ravages of the Nixon anti-science era.” [10] Skeptics in Congress and the media often attacked basic research,most of it conducted in universities,as a drain on public money that produced few practical results. Senator William Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Awards for waste and fraud in public programs were the best-known examples;NSF received several. In Congressional testimony and in the press,Atkinson defended the integrity of NSF’s peer review process and the seminal role basic research plays in laying the groundwork for advances in science and technology. [11]
He believed just as strongly that forging a closer relationship between universities and industry was crucial to the future of American science. This became a major goal of his NSF tenure and produced a series of steps designed to translate conviction into action:
- Established the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Program at a time when collaborative research between private companies and universities,now accepted,was rare;
- Initiated a special program at NSF to fund research on the relationship between investments in research and economic growth,an early contribution to the field of economics known as “new growth theory”;
- Elevated engineering to a full directorate at NSF to reflect its importance to science and the nation;
- Advocated with Congress for legislation giving companies a tax credit for investing in their own research and for supporting university research;
- Began a series of policy studies that led to the1980 Bayh-Dole Act,a landmark piece of legislation that transferred the intellectual property rights in federally sponsored research from the U.S. government to universities. [12]
In his role as NSF director,Atkinson also negotiated the first memorandum of understanding between the People’s Republic of China and the United States,an agreement for the exchange of scientists and scholars. It became part of a more comprehensive agreement on science and technology between China and the United States signed by President Carter and Chairman Deng Xiao Ping during the Chairman’s historic visit to the United States in January 1979. [13]
UC San Diego
As chancellor of the University of California,San Diego (UCSD) from 1980-1995,Atkinson instituted a major administrative reorganization and launched a sustained effort to strengthen UC San Diego’s ties with the city of San Diego. [14] This effort yielded dividends in the form of financial and community support,with private giving rising dramatically during his chancellorship. Despite a series of tight budgets in the late 1980s,he found innovative ways to fund the construction of new buildings and support new academic programs. UCSD’s faculty expanded by nearly 50 percent and enrollment doubled to about 18,000 students. Early in his tenure,consistent with his views about the value of engineering at NSF,he established a school of engineering that has become one of the national leaders in the field. [15]
Atkinson encouraged technology transfer and active involvement with industry,especially with the small,high-technology companies that were forming around San Diego in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1985,UC San Diego Extension began the UCSD CONNECT program,which became a model for preparing entrepreneurs in high-technology fields to launch start-up companies. [16] UCSD’s outstanding faculty,innovative research,and commitment to industry-university partnerships were key to transforming the San Diego region into a world leader in technology-based industries. [17]
A few years after Atkinson’s arrival at UCSD,a member of the Harvard University faculty,Lee H. Perry,sued him in San Diego Superior Court. Represented by the “palimony”attorney,Marvin Mitchelson,Perry claimed she had an intimate relationship with Atkinson that resulted in a pregnancy,and that Atkinson persuaded her to have an abortion,promising that he would have a child with her at a later time. Her lawsuit alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress,fraud,and deceit. Before trial,the Superior Court granted Atkinson’s motion for summary judgment on the fraud and deceit claim as initially filed,and his demurrer to the claim as amended.
In 1986,the case went to trial on the remaining issue of emotional distress. Atkinson settled without admitting liability. In 1987,the Court of Appeal affirmed the Superior Court’s earlier dismissal of Perry’s fraud and deceit claim. In 1988,the Supreme Court of California denied her petition for review,which effectively ended the case. Atkinson’s support on the campus and in the San Diego community weathered this difficult moment in his career. [18]
UCSD’s 1982 election to the Association of American Universities,composed of the nation’s top research universities,had been early evidence of its rising academic status. The National Research Council’s 1995 report on the quality of graduate programs in U.S. universities ranked the scholarly and scientific caliber of UCSD faculty and its graduate offerings tenth in the nation,higher than any other public university except UC Berkeley. [19]
University of California System
The University of California Board of Regents chose Atkinson as the seventeenth president of the UC System in August of 1995. A month earlier,after a prolonged and passionate debate within the University,the Regents had approved SP-1,a ban on racial and ethnic preferences in admissions. UC immediately found itself at the center of a national controversy over the Regents’action. [20]
The end of affirmative action presented Atkinson with two crises at the outset of his presidency. One was an internal conflict over shared governance with the Academic Senate,which felt the ban had been adopted without adequate faculty consultation. The other was a torrent of public and legislative criticism as news of the Board’s decision began to reach wider audiences in California and beyond.
Atkinson’s first step was to initiate an in-depth review of UC admissions in light of the University’s changed circumstances. The goal was to ensure that its policies and practices,while meeting the requirements of SP-1,would also continue to be “demonstrably inclusive and fair.” The result of this review,approved by the Academic Senate and the Regents,was a broader,more flexible perspective on evaluating readiness for college. Along with the usual grades and test scores,the undergraduate admission process now included consideration of students’“opportunity to learn,”defined as the educational,economic,or social difficulties the student had faced during schooling and evidence of persistence in working toward high academic achievement.
In addition to these policy changes,the Regents’resolution called on the administration to consult with various UC constituencies on developing “proposals for new directions and increased funding”to raise the UC eligibility rate of minority and other underrepresented students. The result was the report of the Outreach Task Force,presented to the Regents in July 1997. [21]
A critical issue looming behind this assignment was the University’s relationship with the K-12 public schools. There were differences in organization and mission on both sides. California’s vast K-12 system was the largest in the country,and the schools were confronting formidable educational and fiscal challenges of their own. The odds of making a real difference in raising the academic preparation of K-12 students,and thus the UC eligibility rate,were distinctly uncertain.
The decision was to embark on what became the most ambitious school-university partnership in the University of California’s history. Working with teachers,principals,and administrators in schools across California,UC expanded its existing outreach programs and created new ones,concentrating especially on districts with high proportions of educationally disadvantaged students. For several exciting years,the partnership generated widespread enthusiasm and a promising start on improving the academic performance of California students. Atkinson and the University had legislative support and an ally in Governor Gray Davis,who made school reform a priority of his administration. At his request,the University established several leadership and professional development institutes designed to serve K-12 teachers and administrators. In 2001,UC’s school/university partnerships reached more than 97,000 students in 256 schools,and at the end of Atkinson’s tenure in 2003,UC was admitting more minority students than it had in 1997,the year before the affirmative action ban took effect. Yet the potential for even greater gains faded in the early 2000s,when a deep recession and the return of budget austerity put an abrupt end to essential State funding for outreach.
The intense focus on access,student preparation,and admissions policies was a hallmark of the Atkinson administration. But it was not the only issue on the president’s agenda.
In his first year as president,Atkinson established the Industry-University Cooperative Research Program (IUCRP),an investment in research partnerships with industry in disciplines essential to California’s high-tech economy. The program’s emphasis on promising early-stage research ripe for practical application,unusual at the time,was directed at stimulating California’s productivity and competitiveness. In the same spirit,Atkinson committed the University to addressing a crisis in the state’s supply of highly trained engineers and computer scientists. UC enrollments in these disciplines rose by nearly 70 percent—the first real growth in the state’s programs in engineering since the 1968 Terman Report virtually ended expansion of engineering education in California. [22] Both IUCRP and the 1997 engineering initiative drew on Atkinson’s NSF and San Diego experience. But they also reflected a broader view—that the accelerating demand for applications of knowledge has made today’s research universities,widely considered the best in the world,more essential to American life than ever before.
Governor Davis proved to be as supportive of UC research as he was of its outreach efforts with the schools. In 2000,he asked the University to establish four new research enterprises on its campuses,the California Institutes for Science and Innovation. Their mission is to generate discoveries ripe for application in the fields of biomedicine,bioengineering,nanosystems,telecommunications,and information technology through partnerships with the state’s entrepreneurial industries. For more than two decades,the institutes have been devoted to creating the economy of the future and contributing multidisciplinary solutions to large and complex social challenges. [23]
For the first time,private donations reached the billion-dollar mark in a single year. UC’s State budget nearly doubled,and federal research funds soared. Total enrollment increased by a third,from 150,000 to 202,000. The University added several new professional schools and began expanding its graduate enrollment.
Under Atkinson’s leadership,the University adopted a new academic freedom policy that clearly defined the central role of the faculty in protecting and promoting the freedom to teach,to do research,and to express ideas. He established the California Digital Library to make UC’s systemwide collections accessible to a wider audience and to advance new forms of scholarly communications.
And in a surprising reversal,the Board of Regents voted unanimously to rescind SP-1 at its May 2001 meeting. Two motivations stood out in the Regents’decision. The 1996 passage of Proposition 209,which eliminated racial and ethnic preferences in all State entities,including the University of California,meant SP-1 had become redundant. More troubling to some Regents was the concern that the 1995 policy “may have created the perception that underrepresented students were unwelcome at the University.”The Board’s resolution reaffirmed the Academic Senate’s authority over admissions standards and UC’s responsibility for selecting a diverse and highly qualified student body. [24]
Regental decisions and California’s tumultuous politics created the SP-1 controversy,an issue Atkinson was obligated to address. But there was another educational issue he considered important enough to raise on his own initiative: the 75-year dominance of the College Board’s SAT in college admissions. In a February 2001 speech at the American Council on Education,he announced he was recommending elimination of the SAT as a requirement for admission to the University of California. [25]
His challenge to the SAT was an instant sensation in higher education and a large segment of the public. His case against the test was not an argument against all standardized testing and the useful role it plays in admissions. It was an objection to the flawed assumption that the SAT,a test claiming to measure general ability,can accurately predict readiness for college-level study. Students,he argued,should be tested on what they have actually learned in school,not on “ill-defined notions of aptitude.”His challenge led to an extended national conversation on standardized testing in general and the SAT in particular. Although the College Board responded with several revisions of the test,the changes,in Atkinson’s view,have not altered its basic design or made it a fairer gauge of student achievement. The debate over the use and abuse of standardized testing continues today.
Post-retirement
After retiring from the presidency in 2003,Atkinson became chair of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education and served in that position until 2011. The division,part of the National Academies of Science,Engineering,and Medicine,works to advance the frontiers of the behavioral and social sciences and their applications to public policy.
Atkinson and his wife,Rita Loyd,met in graduate school at Indiana University and were married until her death on Christmas Day 2020. [26]
