Robert Allen Bjork (born 1939) is Distinguished Professor of Psychology 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 ...

. His research focuses on human

learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machine learning, machines ...

and

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

and on the implications of the science of learning for instruction and training. He is the creator of the directed forgetting paradigm. He was elected 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 ...

in 2022.

Education and career

He got his BA degree in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1961, and then studied

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 ...

under

William Kaye Estes William Kaye Estes (June 17, 1919 – August 17, 2011) was an American psychologist. A ''Review of General Psychology'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Estes as the 77th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. In order to develop a statist ...

, Richard C. Atkinson, Gordon H. Bower, and James Greeno at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

until he graduated from it in 1966. He has served as editor of ''Memory & Cognition'' (1981–85); editor of ''

Psychological Review ''Psychological Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers psychological theory. It was established by James Mark Baldwin (Princeton University) and James McKeen Cattell (Columbia University) in 1894 as a publication vehi ...

'' (1995–2000); co-editor of ''

Psychological Science in the Public Interest ''Psychological Science in the Public Interest'' is a triannual peer-reviewed open access academic journal covering issues in psychology of interest to the public at large. It is published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the Association for Psych ...

'' (1998–2004), and chair of a National Research Council Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance (1988–94). His positions of leadership include president of the

American Psychological Society The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

(now the

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

); president of the

Western Psychological Association The Western Psychological Association (abbreviated WPA) is an American learned society dedicated to the study of psychology and other behavioral sciences. It is a regional association focused on the Western United States, and is affiliated with th ...

; chair of the

Psychonomic Society The Psychonomic Society is an international scientific society of over 4,500 scientists in the field of experimental psychology. The mission of the Psychonomic Society is to foster the science of cognition through the advancement and communicati ...

; chair of the

Society of Experimental Psychologists The Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP), originally called the Society of Experimentalists, is an academic society for experimental psychologists. It was founded by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1904 to be an ongoing workshop in which memb ...

; and chair of the Council of Editors of 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 ...

(APA). He is currently chair of the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology. He is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, the

Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science The Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science (SEPCS) (also known as American Psychological Association Division 3; formerly known as the Division of Experimental Psychology and the Division for Theoretical-Experimental Psychology ...

, and the James McKeen Cattell Fellow of the

(now the

References

External links

Publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bjork, Robert A. 1939 births Educational psychologists Fellows of the Association for Psychological Science Fellows of the Society of Experimental Psychologists Living people Memory researchers Stanford University alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences