2015, 103, 267–268
JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR
NUMBER
2 (MARCH)
IN MEMORIAM: D. ALAN STUBBS, 1940–2014 J. GREGOR FETTERMAN
D. Alan Stubbs, Ph.D., professor emeritus at the University of Maine at Orono, passed away unexpectedly on October 14, 2014. He was 74. Alan received his BA from Washington and Lee College in 1962 and his Ph.D. from The George Washington University in 1968. While in graduate school he worked at the Institute for Behavioral Research (IBR) in Silver Springs, MD. IBR was populated by other well-known operant researchers including A.C. Catania, S.S. Pliskoff, and Jack Findley. After receiving his degree Alan spent two years at the Brooklyn campus of NYU before moving to Maine, where he was hired by Stan Pliskoff who was department chair at that time. Alan made significant contributions to the field of operant learning in at least three areas—conditioned (secondary) reinforcement, timing behavior, and choice. “Second order schedules and the problem of conditioned reinforcement” was published in 1971. It Address correspondence to J. Gregor Fetterman. Email: [email protected] doi: 10.1002/jeab.143
established the discriminative function of brief stimuli paired with primary reinforcement as opposed to their secondary reinforcement properties. In the area of choice he published a paper with Pliskoff (Stubbs and Pliskoff, 1969) describing a method for precisely controlling relative reinforcement rate under concurrent schedule procedures. It has been recognized as a JEAB citation classic. In 1982 he published a paper with Dreyfus, Dorman, and Fetterman titled “An invariant relation between changing over and reinforcement.” In that paper Alan described a relation between changeover behavior and its consequences that had been missed by others who had worked with concurrent schedule procedures for years. In that same year Alan and I published a paper, “Matching, maximizing and the behavioral unit: Concurrent reinforcement of response sequences” that pitted molar (e.g., Baum) versus molecular (e.g., Shimp) accounts of choice. To our surprise, that paper provided support for each approach. I vividly remember a quote from the Discussion section taken from Alice in Wonderland following the caucus race—“everyone has won and all must have prizes.” In the area of timing Alan’s 1968 paper “Temporal discrimination in the pigeon” initiated decades of empirical and theoretical work on animal timing behavior. It spawned numerous empirical papers and at least two major theories of timing—Scalar Expectancy Theory (SET) and the Behavioral Theory of Timing (BeT). Research on timing behavior continues unabated and Alan’s work is frequently cited in the published literature. One characteristic of all of Alan’s work was its creativity. He was able to view problems from a unique perspective and translate that perspective into creative research ideas. He thought visually and it is not surprising that he was hired at Maine to teach perception. He was especially interested in visual perception and was influenced by the approach of James Gibson. Later in his career Alan became interested in the use of graphs in psychology and other
267
268 sciences. He researched and compared the use of visual representations (i.e., graphs) in psychology and other disciplines. With a colleague, Lawrence Smith, he published several papers, two in the American Psychologist (e.g., Smith et al., 2002), describing the use of graphs in various scientific disciplines. Their analysis revealed interesting differences across the disciplines. Outside of psychology Alan’s other passions in life were his wife, Connie, to whom he was married for 47 years. The other was photography. Given his keen eye it is not surprising to know that Alan was a world class photographer. He knew and used the zone system created by Ansel Adams and, like Adams, preferred the black and white format. He used many media including a view camera, 4 4, 2 2, and 35 mm formats. His photographs were displayed in many galleries around New England. I am the proud owner of one of his photographs taken of the corner of the art building at Arizona State University. I cannot say enough about Alan as a person. He was a kind, gentle man. He was very supportive of me during my time in graduate
school and remained a lifelong friend. He stood up with me at my wedding. I miss him terribly. Alan is survived by his wife, Constance, of Winterport, ME, two brothers, and several nieces and nephews. References Dreyfus, L. R., Dorman, J. G., Fetterman, J. G., & Stubbs, D. A. (1982). An invariant relations between changing over and reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 38, 327–338. Fetterman, J. G., & Stubbs, D. A. (1982). Matching, maximizing, and the behavioral unit: Concurrent reinforcement of response sequences. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 37, 97–114. Smith, L. D., Best, L. A., Stubbs, D. A., Archibald, A. B., & Roberson-Nay, R. (2002). Constructing knowledge: The role of graphs and tables in hard and soft psychology. American Psychologist, 57, 749–761. Stubbs, A. (1968). The discrimination of stimulus duration by pigeons. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 11, 223–238. Stubbs, D. A. (1971). Second-order schedules and the problem of conditioned reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 16, 289–313. Stubbs, D. A., & Pliskoff, S. S. (1969). Concurrent responding with fixed relative rate of reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 12, 887–895.
Copyright of Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior is the property of WileyBlackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR
NUMBER
2 (MARCH)
IN MEMORIAM: D. ALAN STUBBS, 1940–2014 J. GREGOR FETTERMAN
D. Alan Stubbs, Ph.D., professor emeritus at the University of Maine at Orono, passed away unexpectedly on October 14, 2014. He was 74. Alan received his BA from Washington and Lee College in 1962 and his Ph.D. from The George Washington University in 1968. While in graduate school he worked at the Institute for Behavioral Research (IBR) in Silver Springs, MD. IBR was populated by other well-known operant researchers including A.C. Catania, S.S. Pliskoff, and Jack Findley. After receiving his degree Alan spent two years at the Brooklyn campus of NYU before moving to Maine, where he was hired by Stan Pliskoff who was department chair at that time. Alan made significant contributions to the field of operant learning in at least three areas—conditioned (secondary) reinforcement, timing behavior, and choice. “Second order schedules and the problem of conditioned reinforcement” was published in 1971. It Address correspondence to J. Gregor Fetterman. Email: [email protected] doi: 10.1002/jeab.143
established the discriminative function of brief stimuli paired with primary reinforcement as opposed to their secondary reinforcement properties. In the area of choice he published a paper with Pliskoff (Stubbs and Pliskoff, 1969) describing a method for precisely controlling relative reinforcement rate under concurrent schedule procedures. It has been recognized as a JEAB citation classic. In 1982 he published a paper with Dreyfus, Dorman, and Fetterman titled “An invariant relation between changing over and reinforcement.” In that paper Alan described a relation between changeover behavior and its consequences that had been missed by others who had worked with concurrent schedule procedures for years. In that same year Alan and I published a paper, “Matching, maximizing and the behavioral unit: Concurrent reinforcement of response sequences” that pitted molar (e.g., Baum) versus molecular (e.g., Shimp) accounts of choice. To our surprise, that paper provided support for each approach. I vividly remember a quote from the Discussion section taken from Alice in Wonderland following the caucus race—“everyone has won and all must have prizes.” In the area of timing Alan’s 1968 paper “Temporal discrimination in the pigeon” initiated decades of empirical and theoretical work on animal timing behavior. It spawned numerous empirical papers and at least two major theories of timing—Scalar Expectancy Theory (SET) and the Behavioral Theory of Timing (BeT). Research on timing behavior continues unabated and Alan’s work is frequently cited in the published literature. One characteristic of all of Alan’s work was its creativity. He was able to view problems from a unique perspective and translate that perspective into creative research ideas. He thought visually and it is not surprising that he was hired at Maine to teach perception. He was especially interested in visual perception and was influenced by the approach of James Gibson. Later in his career Alan became interested in the use of graphs in psychology and other
267
268 sciences. He researched and compared the use of visual representations (i.e., graphs) in psychology and other disciplines. With a colleague, Lawrence Smith, he published several papers, two in the American Psychologist (e.g., Smith et al., 2002), describing the use of graphs in various scientific disciplines. Their analysis revealed interesting differences across the disciplines. Outside of psychology Alan’s other passions in life were his wife, Connie, to whom he was married for 47 years. The other was photography. Given his keen eye it is not surprising to know that Alan was a world class photographer. He knew and used the zone system created by Ansel Adams and, like Adams, preferred the black and white format. He used many media including a view camera, 4 4, 2 2, and 35 mm formats. His photographs were displayed in many galleries around New England. I am the proud owner of one of his photographs taken of the corner of the art building at Arizona State University. I cannot say enough about Alan as a person. He was a kind, gentle man. He was very supportive of me during my time in graduate
school and remained a lifelong friend. He stood up with me at my wedding. I miss him terribly. Alan is survived by his wife, Constance, of Winterport, ME, two brothers, and several nieces and nephews. References Dreyfus, L. R., Dorman, J. G., Fetterman, J. G., & Stubbs, D. A. (1982). An invariant relations between changing over and reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 38, 327–338. Fetterman, J. G., & Stubbs, D. A. (1982). Matching, maximizing, and the behavioral unit: Concurrent reinforcement of response sequences. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 37, 97–114. Smith, L. D., Best, L. A., Stubbs, D. A., Archibald, A. B., & Roberson-Nay, R. (2002). Constructing knowledge: The role of graphs and tables in hard and soft psychology. American Psychologist, 57, 749–761. Stubbs, A. (1968). The discrimination of stimulus duration by pigeons. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 11, 223–238. Stubbs, D. A. (1971). Second-order schedules and the problem of conditioned reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 16, 289–313. Stubbs, D. A., & Pliskoff, S. S. (1969). Concurrent responding with fixed relative rate of reinforcement. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 12, 887–895.
Copyright of Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior is the property of WileyBlackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
