Behavior Analysis at the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology

Andy Lattal
West Virginia University
Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, Member, Board of Directors

The genesis of this Historians’ Corner was the Cambridge Center’s announcement from Judy Blumenthal (Current Repertoire, Summer 2025) on the availability of Don Pumroy’s (1924-2014; Professor Emeritus, U. of Maryland) archived material at the Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. For behavior analysts unfamiliar with the Cummings Center, it is a cornucopia of archived documents and historical apparatus covering the breadth of psychology, with behavior analysts and their work well represented. Only a visit to the Center can truly do it justice in terms of its importance to the history of behavior analysis. Barring a visit, however, a few highlights described in this column hopefully will pique the readers’ interest sufficiently to visit the Center’s Smithsonian-affiliated National Museum of Psychology and its extensive archives.

In terms of the Center’s history, behavior analysts might be interested to learn that its co-founder, Marion White McPherson, received her Ph.D. degree in psychology at Indiana University, where she was influenced by J. R. Kantor. Behavioral psychology thus was represented in the Center’s materials from its inception (https://www.uakron.edu/chp/).

The most extensive set of archived material at the Center is the work of the pioneering applied behavior analyst Ogden Lindsley. Other prominent behavior analysts who have archived at least some of their papers at the Center include B. F. Skinner and Charles B. Ferster. Among Ferster’s material are several films of his early work using behavior principles to change the behavior of children with autism. Skinner’s archived material includes the galley proofs for Behavior of Organisms (1938). Archived papers of Don Pumroy, as noted above, and those of many other people of historical note in behavior analysis are included in the archive.

Old psychology research apparatus of every conceivable type abounds at the Center, with behavioral research apparatus especially well-represented. An early teaching machine protype built by Skinner (see Figure 1) and a Baby Tender (“air crib”) manufactured by a company with which Skinner was affiliated are on display in the museum. Behind the scenes, there are many other types of teaching machines, laboratory research apparatus, and devices of teaching behavior principles dating from the mid-20th century. An earlier Historian’s Corner (Chains of Fame (and Infamy), February 2022), included a description of the Barnabus the Rat apparatus that appeared as an article in Life magazine in the 1940s and its significance in communicating the role of response chaining to students of psychology. That apparatus is part of the Center’s collection.

Figure 1. An early Skinner-designed teaching machine housed at the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology

Archival material and preserved apparatus tell the stories behind our stories of our discipline’s past. They provide the concrete data behind the abstractions and conclusions we draw from scientific reports about how things came about, how they were received, and the longer-term effects that they have had. The Cummings Center has been at the forefront of preserving such items for future behavior analysts, whether their interests are experimental, applied or conceptual.