Murray Sidman

Who is Murray Sidman?

Murray Sidman is a pioneering behavioral scientist, best known for Sidman Avoidance, also called 'free-operant avoidance', in which an individual learns to avoid an aversive stimulus by remembering to produce the response without any other stimulus. Sidman's explanation of free-operant avoidance is an alternative to the Miller-Mowrer two-process theory of avoidance.

Methodologically, a 'Sidman avoidance procedure' is an experiment in which the subject is periodically presented with an aversive stimulus, such as the introduction of carbon dioxide or an electric shock, unless they produce a particular response, such as pulling a plunger, which delays the stimulus by a certain amount of time.

His work on methodology for behavioural psychologists is the standard textbook in its field.

Sidman took his PhD at Columbia in 1952 under the advisorship of William N. Schoenfeld, has worked at many research institutions including Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University Medical School, and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He is presently professor emeritus at Northeastern University.

Murray Sidman initiated the research on stimulus equivalence, and has made important contributions to the field; this is described in Equivalence relations and behavior: A research story. His book Coercion and its fallout is often required reading when discussing ethics and behavior analysis.