Allan R. Wagner

Who is Allan R. Wagner?

Allan R. Wagner is an American experimental psychologist and learning theorist, whose work has focused upon the basic determinants of associative learning and habituation. He is the co-author of the influential Rescorla–Wagner model of Pavlovian conditioning as well as the standard operating procedures or "sometimes opponent process" theory of associative learning, the Affective Extension of SOP and the Replaced Elements Model of configural representation. His research has involved extensive study of the conditioned eyeblink response of the rabbit, of which he was one of the initial investigators. His scientific contributions have been recognized by his receipt of the Howard Crosby Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the W. Horsley Gantt Medal of the Pavlovian Society, and election to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph D. from the University of Iowa in 1959, under Kenneth W. Spence, and has been on the faculty of Yale University since that time, serving as Chair of the Department of Psychology from 1983-1989, Chair of the Department of Philosophy from 1991–1993, and Director of the Division of the Social Sciences from 1992-1998. He is currently the James Rowland Angell Professor of Psychology.