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Contributions to Psychology
Inspired by B.F. Skinner, Keller proposed a reinforcement theory that applies to teaching in addition to research. He and William N. Schoenfeld produced a textbook as well as an introductory laboratory course in psychology that related animal psychology with white rats as their subjects. The textbook is called Principles of Psychology and was published in 1950. The book emphasized scientific methods in the study of psychology such as escape, avoidance, conflict, cooperation, imitation, verbal behavior, thinking, and concept formation. In addition to providing a course that initiated the first use of experimental analysis of behavior during his time at Columbia University, Keller and Schoenfeld provided a more concise understanding for concepts that Skinner proposed in his The Behavior of Organisms. Concepts were written in a clearer way for students to understand, and was more appropriate for an undergraduate beginners course. In the lab, students were able to test the methods they were learning of in their lecture classes for the first time. Among their experiments, the students observed the responses of white rats to stimuli and rewards and measured human learning by testing people's ability to remember the pathways of mazes and other sensory processes. Keller and Skinner interacted frequently, and even collectively held the 1947 conference on the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. The audience consisted of students from both colleges of Skinner and Keller and the precursors to their new movement. With the aid of students, Skinner and Keller were able to formulate, at the conferences held up until 1950, the “Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Division 25 of the APA, the Association for Behavior Analysis, The Behavior Analyst, Analysis of Verbal Behavior, the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, Behavior and Social Issues, and Behavior and Philosophy. Keller subsequently studied learning in addition to behavior. He was the first to administer Skinners previous findings into real world applications by the process of transcribing auditory signals of Morse code into English. The method he used was called code-voice, which resembled Skinners programmed instruction, which was fancied by the US Army. Code-voice was used mostly in the Signal Corps, although it was also used in other divisions, and became one of the most used methods in radio-operator training. The new method “represented an early application of the laws of learning to practical human affairs and served as a model for the study of several other skills”, and was awarded by President Truman a certificate of Merit in 1948. He was a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a past president of the Eastern Psychological Association. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the American Psychological Foundation in 1970.