Robert A. Rescorla (May 9, 1940 - March 24, 2020) was an American psychologist who specialized in the involvement of cognitive processes in

classical conditioning Classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) is a behavioral procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a triangle). It also refers to the learni ...

Miller, Ralph R.; Barnet, Robert C.; Grahame, Nicholas J. (1995). "Assessment of the Rescorla-Wagner model.". Psychological Bulletin 117 (3): 363–386. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.363 focusing on animal learning and behavior. Rescorla was a

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). He received his B.A. in Psychology with minors in Philosophy and Math from ''

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

'' in 1962 and later received his Ph.D. under

Richard Solomon Richard Solomon may refer to: * Richard Solomon (psychologist) (1918–1995), American psychologist * Richard Solomon (barrister) Sir Richard Solomon, (18 October 1850 – 10 November 1913) was a South African attorney and legislator. He was a ...

from University of Pennsylvania in 1966. From there, he began his career at Yale. Eventually, Rescorla returned to the University of Pennsylvania to continue his research. One of Rescorla's significant contributions to psychology, with co-creator

Allan Wagner Allan may refer to: People * Allan (name), a given name and surname, including list of people and characters with this name * Allan (footballer, born 1984) (Allan Barreto da Silva), Brazilian football striker * Allan (footballer, born 1989) (Al ...

, was the Rescorla-Wagner Model of conditioning. This model expanded knowledge on learning processes. Rescorla also continued to develop research on Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental training. Due to his achievements, Rescorla received the

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 ...

Awards of the Distinguished Scientific Contributions in 1986. Rescorla was first married to Marged Lindner. In the 1970s he married Leslie V. Altman but they later divorced. They had two sons together. He remarried, to Shirley Steele. Rescorla died March 24, 2020, after complications from a fall.

Background and education

Robert A. Rescorla was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, on May 9, 1940. He attended high school in

Westfield, New Jersey Westfield is a town in Union County, New Jersey, United States, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 30,316,Henry Gleitman and serving as Solomon Asch's research assistant doing human learning experiments. He graduated in 1962 with the highest honors. In 1966, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Career

Rescorla taught at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

from 1966 to 1981. While at Yale, Rescorla began a fruitful collaboration with colleague

, which led to the development of the

Rescorla–Wagner model The Rescorla–Wagner model ("R-W") is a model of classical conditioning, in which learning is conceptualized in terms of associations between conditioned (CS) and unconditioned (US) stimuli. A strong CS-US association means that the CS signals pr ...

. In 1975, he was elected into the

Society of Experimental Psychologists The Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP), originally called the Society of Experimentalists, is an academic society for experimental psychologists An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determin ...

. Rescorla returned to his alma mater in 1981 and was a member of Faculty there until 2009. He served as the chair of the psychology department at Penn, as well as the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. In 1984, Rescorla was granted a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. In 1985, he was elected to 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 ...

and in 1986 was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Contribution award of the American Psychological Association. In 1989, he was named the University of Pennsylvania's James M. Skinner Professor of Science. In 1991, Rescorla was awarded the Howard Crosby Warren Medal by the Society of Experimental Psychologists.http://www.yale.edu/wagner/biog.html Biographical Sketch of Robert A. Rescorla, Retrieved November 11, 2016 He also received the Ira Abrams Distinguished Teaching Award of the School of Arts and Sciences at Penn in 1999, followed by appointment as the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology in 2000. In 2005, Rescorla received the Horsley Grantt Award of the Pavlovian Society. Following that, in 2006, he was granted an honorary doctoral degree by the

Ghent University Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

, in Belgium. He was elected into the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 2008.

Research and contributions

The Rescorla-Wagner Theory

In 1972, Robert A. Rescorla and his colleague

Allan R. Wagner Allan R. Wagner (6 January 1934 - 28 September 2018) was an American experimental psychologist and learning theorist, whose work focused upon the basic determinants of associative learning and habituation. He co-authored the influential Rescorla� ...

at Yale University, published the

of associative learning. This model conceptualizes learning as the development of associations between conditioned (CS) and unconditioned (US) stimuli, with learning occurring when these stimuli are paired on discrete trials. The change in the association between a CS and an US that occurs when the two are paired depends on how strongly the US is predicted on that trial – that is, informally, how "surprised" the subject is by the US. The amount of this "surprise" depends on the summed associative strength of all cues present during that trial. In contrast, previous models derived the change in associative strength from the current value of the CS alone. The model has been extremely influential, leading to many new experimental findings and theoretical developments.Rescorla, R.A., & Wagner, A.R. (1972). A theory of Pavlovian conditioning: Variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and nonreinforcement. In A.H. Black & W.F. Prokasy, Eds., Classical Conditioning II, pp. 64–99. Appleton-CenturyCrofts.

Research program

Rescorla conducted research at the University of Pennsylvania on animal learning and behavior, focusing on

associative learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learnin ...

and particularly Pavlovian conditioning. Rescorla's interest in associative learning processes focused on three questions. First, in what situations did associative learning occur? Second, when associative learning occurred, what elements were involved? Third, what principles accounted for the experimental findings? To research these questions, Rescorla and his team used an assortment of methods, including for example

fear conditioning Pavlovian fear conditioning is a behavioral paradigm in which organisms learn to predict aversive events. It is a form of learning in which an aversive stimulus (e.g. an electrical shock) is associated with a particular neutral context (e.g., a r ...

, reward training and autoshaping.

Representative publications

*Rescorla, R. A. (2006) Deepened Extinction from Compound Stimulus Presentation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 32, 135-144. *Rescorla, R. A. (2008). Evaluating conditioning of related and unrelated stimuli using a compound test. Learning and Behavior, 36, 67-74. *Rescorla, R. A. (2008). Conditioning of stimuli with nonzero initial value. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 34, 315-323.

References

External link

Robert Rescorla
at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rescorla, Robert A. American cognitive scientists Fellows of the Society of Experimental Psychologists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1940 births 2020 deaths