Anthony Dickinson, (born 17 February 1944) is a British

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 ...

, currently Emeritus Professor of Comparative Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of the highly cited monograph ''Contemporary Animal Learning Theory'' and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2003 for "internationally recognised contributions to our understanding of learning, memory, motivation and planning".

Academic career

Dickinson graduated in psychology from the University of Manchester in 1967 and earned a PhD at the University of Sussex in 1971, continuing his academic career there as a postdoctoral assistant to Nicholas Mackintosh. He moved to the Department of Experimental Psychology at Cambridge in 1977, where he lectured in associative learning. He became professor in 1999 and has been emeritus professor and a fellow of

Hughes Hall Hughes Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. It is the oldest of the University of Cambridge's postgraduate colleges. The college also admits undergraduates, though undergraduates admitted by the college must b ...

since his retirement in 2011.

Research

Dickinson's research focuses on

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 ...

, memory,

motivation Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-dire ...

, and future planning in both humans and other animals. His recent work includes a theory of actions and habits. His most highly cited paper is a 1998 ''Nature'' collaboration with Cambridge colleague Nicky Clayton on

episodic-like memory Episodic-like memory is the memory system in animals that is comparable to human episodic memory. The term was first described by Clayton & Dickinson referring to an animal's ability to encode and retrieve information about 'what' occurred during a ...

in scrub jays. Other notable collaborators include

John M. Pearce John M. Pearce is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Cardiff University, with expertise in experimental psychology and behavioural neuroscience. Education In 1971, Pearce received a BSc in psychology from the University of Leeds In 1976, Pe ...

, with whom Dickinson worked on animal learning at both Sussex and Cambridge, and

Wolfram Schultz Wolfram may refer to: * Wolfram (name) * Wolfram, an alternative name for the chemical element tungsten * Wolfram Research, a software company known for the symbolic computation program Mathematica ** Wolfram Language, the programming language use ...

, with whom Dickinson has worked on the neuronal mechanisms of

rewards Reward may refer to: Places * Reward (Shelltown, Maryland), a historic home in Shelltown Maryland * Reward, California (disambiguation) * Reward-Tilden's Farm, a historic home in Chestertown Maryland Arts, entertainment, and media * "Reward" ...

, punishments, and other stimuli.

Honours and awards

In 2001, Dickinson was elected the

Sir Frederic Bartlett Sir Frederic Charles Bartlett FRS (20 October 1886 – 30 September 1969) was a British psychologist and the first professor of experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge. He was one of the forerunners of cognitive psychology as wel ...

lecturer by the

Experimental Psychology Society The Experimental Psychology Society (EPS) is an academic society which facilitates research into experimental psychology and communication between experimental psychologists. It is based in the United Kingdom. The society was originally formed a ...

, an annual award recognizing "distinction in experimental psychology... over an extended period", and delivered the 28th Bartlett Memorial Lecture on "Causal Learning" at Cambridge in July 2000. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2003.

Selected publications

Books

Articles

* * * * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dickinson, Tony 1944 births Living people Academics of the University of Cambridge British psychologists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of Hughes Hall, Cambridge