John Anthony Nevin (July 5, 1933 – September 23, 2018) 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 ...

who was a professor of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

at the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

Biography

Nevin was born July 5, 1933, in New York City. In 1954, he obtained a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University. From 1954-1959, he served in the US Coast Guard. He obtained an M.A. at Columbia University in 1961, and then a Ph.D. in Psychology in 1963; William N. Schoenfeld was his dissertation advisor. From 1963 to 1968, he was Assistant Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College. In 1968, he was appointed Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, and promoted to professor in 1970. He moved to the University of New Hampshire as Professor of Psychology in 1972, retiring in 1995. He remained active as professor emeritus for over 20 years, authoring and co-authoring many articles with colleagues from around the world. In 2015, he published a retrospective summary of his professional work, behavioral momentum.

Research

He is known primarily for the development of Behavioral Momentum Theory following his 1974 article on resistance to change of pigeons' operant behavior. He received research support from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health throughout his career, most recently from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for application of momentum-based approaches to the treatment of severe problem behavior, conducted in collaboration with Drs. William Ahearn, Iser DeLeon, William Dube, F. C. Mace, Timothy Shahan, and more recently, Dr. Tara Sheehan (Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2016) of the Mailman Segall Center for Human Development at

Nova Southeastern University Nova Southeastern University (NSU or, informally, Nova) is a private nonprofit research university with its main campus in Davie, Florida. The university consists of 14 total colleges, centers, and schools offering over 150 programs of study. ...

. He has also worked with Dr. Michael Davison on application of signal-detection theory to the effects of reinforcement on conditional discrimination performance, culminating in a momentum-based theory of attending and remembering in conditional discrimination performance. He was Editor of 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 ...

(JEAB) from 1980 to 1984, and was a cofounder of the Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior (SQAB).

Honors

In addition to being named Distinguished University Professor,

, 1991; he has received: Basic Research Award, Division 25,

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 ...

, 1999; Award for Impact of Science on Application, Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis, 2004; Don Hake Basic/Applied research Award, Division 25, American Psychological Association, 2004; Victor G. Laties Award for Lifetime Service, Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nevin, John Anthony 1933 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American psychologists Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni University of New Hampshire faculty People from New York City