Charles Bohris Ferster (1 November 1922 – 3 February 1981) was an American behavioral psychologist. A pioneer of
applied behavior analysis
Applied behavior analysis (ABA), also called behavioral engineering, is a psychological intervention that applies empirical approaches based upon the principles of respondent and operant conditioning to change behavior of social significance. ...
, he developed
errorless learning
Errorless learning was an instructional design introduced by psychologist Charles Ferster in the 1950s as part of his studies on what would make the most effective learning environment. B. F. Skinner was also influential in developing the techniqu ...
and was a colleague of
B.F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
...
's at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, co-authoring the book ''Schedules of Reinforcement'' (1957).
Career
Ferster received his bachelor's degree at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
in 1947 followed by his Master's in 1948 and Ph.D. in 1958 from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. He then worked as a colleague with
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
...
at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, where they established the ''
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period
*Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...
'' in 1958. While at Harvard, he devised errorless learning to train animals, and used other forms of what was then termed behavior modification for clients with
depression and
obesity
Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...
. While serving as an assistant professor of psychology at
Indiana University School of Medicine
The Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) is a major multi-campus medical school in the state of Indiana. There are nine campuses throughout the state; the principal research and medical center is located on the Indiana University–Purdu ...
from 1957 to 1962, Ferster employed errorless learning to instruct young autistic children how to speak.
[
]
Ferster's research also influenced the work of other pioneers of behavioral research, such as
Donald M. Baer
Donald M. Baer (October 25, 1931 – April 28, 2002) was an American psychologist who contributed to the science of applied behavior analysis and pioneered the development of behavior analysis at the University of Kansas and the University of W ...
and
Sidney Bijou
Sidney William Bijou (November 12, 1908 – June 11, 2009) was an American developmental psychologist who developed an approach of treating childhood disorders using behavioral therapy, in which positive actions were rewarded and negative beha ...
, who together founded the ''
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
The ''Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis'' (JABA) is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal which publishes empirical research related to applied behavior analysis. It was established in 1968 and is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of t ...
'' at the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...
. Another well-known researcher was
Ivar Lovaas
Ole Ivar Løvaas (8 May 1927 – 2 August 2010) was a Norwegian-American clinical psychologist and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is most well known for his research on what is now called applied behavior analysis (A ...
, who applied Ferster's procedures to autistic children at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
(UCLA) and developed early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI), or 6.5 hours per day of what he called, "
discrete trial training
Discrete trial training (DTT) is a technique used by practitioners of applied behavior analysis (ABA) that was developed by Ivar Lovaas at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). DTT uses direct instruction and reinforcers to create clea ...
" (DTT).
Early childhood and family life
Ferster was born November 1, 1922 in
Freehold, New Jersey Freehold, New Jersey may refer to:
* Freehold Borough, New Jersey, the county seat of Monmouth County
* Freehold Township, New Jersey
Freehold Township is a township in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is both a r ...
, the second son of Julius Ferster (1894-1969) and Mollie Ferster nee Madwin (1895-1966), both Jewish immigrants from Poland (The Russian Empire, 1910 and 1912, respectively).
He was married to Marilyn Ferster, with whom he had four children—Bill, Andrea, Sam and Warren. He later married Elyce Zenoff Ferster, a professor of law at
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, preside ...
,
Ferster died of a heart attack on February 3, 1981 at the age of 58 in Washington, D.C.
Timeline
Education
*1940–1943
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
(New Brunswick, NJ)
*1943–1946 Military Service
*1946–1947 Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ) (B.S, 1947)
*1947–1950
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
(New York, NY) (M.A., 1948; Ph.D, 1950)
Post-doctoral professional affiliations
*1950–1955
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
(Cambridge, MA) Research Fellow under B.F. Skinner
*1955–1957
Yerkes Laboratory (
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton County, the mos ...
at
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
)(Chimpanzee work)
*1957–1962
Indiana University Medical Center
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
(Indianapolis, IN) (work with autistic children; collaboration with Nurnberger & Brady)
*1958 - First Executive Editor,
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period
*Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...
(JEAB); See ''Founding of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior''
*1962–1963 Executive Director,
Institute for Behavioral Research
An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body.
In some countries, institutes ca ...
(Silver Spring, MD)
*1963–1965 Associate Director, Institute for Behavioral Research (Silver Spring, MD)
*1965–1968 Senior Research Associate, Institute for Behavioral Research (Silver Spring, MD)
*1967–1968 Professor of Psychology,
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
(Washington, DC)
*1969–1981 Professor of Psychology,
American University
The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...
(Washington, DC) (Department Chair, 1970–1973)
Professional life
''
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period
*Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...
''
Laboratory work
Application of the theory
* Linwood Project
* Individualized Instruction at Georgetown, American Universities
* The University Learning Center at
American University
The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...
: this represented a radical experiment in undergraduate, interdisciplinary education in which the principles of operant behavior were directly applied. The center itself—an open, free-flowing physical space on campus—was conceived of as the "chamber" in which instruction and learning occurred. The environment adhered in obvious ways to such cornerstone concepts as immediate positive reinforcement, successive approximation, schedules of reinforcement, discriminative stimuli and the like. Professors of Psychology, Physics, Anthropology, Psychiatry, Sociology, Philosophy, Mathematics staffed the Learning Center, as did many graduate students in these fields.
Social and professional network
Following is a partial list of professional colleagues and friends of Charles Ferster; those interested in behaviorism, operant conditioning, and human behavior more generally may be interested in these people and their work:
Margaret J. Rioch,
David McK. Rioch, John L. Cameron, James Dinsmoor,
Douglas G. Anger, James E. Anliker, Donald S. Blough,
Richard J. Herrnstein
Richard Julius Herrnstein (May 20, 1930 – September 13, 1994) was an American psychologist at Harvard University. He was an active researcher in animal learning in the B. F. Skinner, Skinnerian tradition. Herrnstein was the Edgar Pierce Profess ...
, Alfredo V. Lagmay, William H. Morse,
Nathan H. Azrin,
Ogden R. Lindsley, Lewis R. Gollub,
Matthew L. Israel, Harlan L. Lane, George S. Reynolds,
A. Charles Catania,
Herbert S. Terrace, Neil J. Peterson.
William N. Schoenfeld
Written works
Books
*''Schedules of Reinforcement'', with
B.F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
...
, 1957
.
*''An Introduction to the Science of Human Behavior'', with Nurnberger, J. I. & Brady, J. P., 1963
*''Behavior Principles'', with Mary Carol Perott, 1968; (Second Edition 1981, with Stuart A. Culbertson)
Articles
*''Arbitrary and Natural Reinforcement'' 1967, ''The Psychological Record'', 22, 1-16
*''An Experimental Analysis of Clinical Phenomena'' 1972, ''The Psychological Record'', 22, 1-16
'citation incorrect''*''Clinical Reinforcement'' 1972, ''Seminars in Psychiatry'', 4(2), 110-111
*''A Laboratory Model of Psychotherapy'' 1979, In P. Sjoden (Ed), ''Trends in Behavior Therapy.'' New York, Academic Press
*''Psychotherapy from the standpoint of a behaviorist'', 1972, In J.D. Keehn (Ed.), ''Psychopathology in Animals: research and clinical implications.'' New York, Academic Press
*''The Autistic Child''
*''Positive Reinforcement and Behavioral Deficits of Autistic Children'', Child Development 1961, 32:437-456
*''The use of the free operant in the analysis of behavior'', 1953
Psychological Bulletin
The ''Psychological Bulletin'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes evaluative and integrative research reviews and interpretations of issues in psychology, including both qualitative (narrative) and/or quantitative (meta-anal ...
, 50, 263-274.
*''The Development of Performances in Autistic Children in an Automatically Controlled Environment'', Charles B. Ferster, Marian K. DeMyer, Journal of Chronic Diseases 1961 Apr; 13:312-4
*''A functional analysis of depression'', American Psychologist 1973, 857-870.
* ''The control of eating,'' In J. P. Foreyt (Ed.), ''Behavioral treatments of obesity'' (pp. 309–326). Oxford: Pergamon Press. Ferster, C. B., Nurnberger, J. I. & Levitt, E. E. (1977).
References
*
Fred S. Keller
Fred Simmons Keller (January 2, 1899February 2, 1996) 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 ...
, ''Charles Bohris Ferster (1922–1981), An Appreciation'',
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period
*Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...
1981, 36, 299-301
*
B.F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
...
, ''Charles B. Ferster—A personal memoir'',
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period
*Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...
1981, 35, 259-261
Citations
External links
Article by B.F. SkinnerJEAB's First Editorial Board
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferster, Charles
1922 births
1981 deaths
20th-century American psychologists
Behaviourist psychologists
Educational psychologists
Rutgers University alumni
Columbia University alumni
People from Monmouth County, New Jersey
Harvard Fellows
Georgetown University faculty