Benton J. Underwood (February 28, 1915 – November 29, 1994) was an American

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

.Benton J. Underwood, expert In Psychology, Verbal Learning;December 02, 1994, By Kenan Heise
/ref>National Academies Press:National Academy of Sciences:Biographical Memoirs:V.79:BENTON J. UNDERWOOD:BY GEOFFREY KEPPEL
/ref>American Psychological Association:Benton J. Underwood (1915–1994): Obituary.By Keppel, Geoffrey;American Psychologist, Vol 52(4), Apr 1997, 469-470.
/ref> Underwood was chairman of the department of psychology at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. Underwood also was president of the Midwestern Psychological Association, president of the Experimental Psychology, president of the General Psychology divisions of the American Psychological Association, Stanley G. Harris Professor of Social Science, and chairman of the psychology section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

called Underwood "a leading expert from the 1940s to the 1980s on verbal learning and memory".

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

called him "a preeminent leader in the development of research on the acquisition and retention of verbal material". Among the list of his many remarkable students was Sarnoff A. Mednick who pioneered the High-Risk for schizophrenia paradigm in 1962. Underwood received the following awards: * Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from The American Psychological Association * Distinguished Teaching Award in Psychology from The American Psychological Association * the Warren Medal by the Society of Experimental Psychologists * A ''

Review of General Psychology ''Review of General Psychology'' is the quarterly scientific journal of the American Psychological Association Division 1: The Society for General Psychology. The journal publishes cross-disciplinary psychological articles that are conceptual, th ...

'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Underwood as the 66th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Underwood, Benton J. 1915 births 1994 deaths People from Linn County, Iowa 20th-century American psychologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences