BorninPolis,Minnesota,USA.HestudiedpsychologyattheUniversityofMinnesotaandreceivedabachelorofartsandadoctorateofphilosophyin1940and1943.ServedinthemedicalmanagementdepartmentoftheU.S.Armyfrom1944-1946.From1946to1962,hetaughtatIndianaUniversityandwaspromotedtoprofessorofpsychology.From1955to1956,hewasaspecialresearcheroftheCenterforAdvancedResearchinBehavioralScienceofStanfordUniversity.From1962to1968,heservedasaprofessorofpsychologyatStanfordUniversity.HewaselectedamemberoftheNationalAcademyofSciencesin1963.From1968to1979,heservedasaprofessoratRockefellerUniversity.Since1979,hehasbeenaprofessoratHarvardUniversity.Editorof"ComparativePsychologyandPhysiologicalPsychology"magazine.OncestudiedunderSkinner,hewasdeeplyinfluencedbyHullandGuthrieinthought,andtriedtoexplainGuthrie'slearningtheorywiththeprobabilitymethodofmathematicalstatistics.195.Yearslater,forthefirsttime,basedonthedetailedquantificationofbehavioraldata,heanalyzedandconceivedhypothesesaboutlearning,andputforwardthetheoryofstimulussampling(orstatisticalsamplingmodel),whichcollectedandformalizedGuthrie’sstimulus-responseassociationism.Basicpointofview(1)Thelearningandoperationoforganismsisarandomprocess,whichcanbeanalyzedbyprobabilitytheory.Thatis,takingtheprobabilityofthereactionasthedependentvariable,derivingtheexperimentalmeasuredvaluessuchasthereactionrate,reactiontime,numberoftimes,incubationperiod,andstrengtheningthetimetableeffect,andputtingforwardtheaxiom:theprobabilityofacertainreactionoccurringisequaltothenumberofeffectiveconditionalstimuluselementsofthereactionDividebythetotalnumberofselectedstimuluselementsamples.(2)Thereactionofanorganismisdeterminedbymanydifferentfactors,whichcanberandomlypredicted.Predictingwhatreactionthesubjectwillhavereferstotheprobabilitythateachreactionmayoccuramongseveralreactionsineachattempt.Althoughitsmathematicallearningtheoryissimple,ithasplayedapositiveroleinpromotingthedevelopmentofcontemporarylearningtheory.In1962,hewontheAmericanPsychologicalAssociation'sOutstandingScientificContributionAward.In1963,hewasawardedtheWarrenMedaloftheAmericanSocietyofExperimentalPsychology.Authorof"ModernLearningTheory"(1945),"LearningTheoryandMentalDevelopment","HandbookofLearningandCognitiveProcess"(Editor-in-Chief,1975-1978),etc.
