John Staddon, Ph.D.

John Staddon, Ph.D., is James B. Duke Professor of Psychology, and Professor of Biology and Neurobiology, Emeritus at Duke University. He obtained his BSc at University College, London, and PhD in Experimental Psychology at Harvard University and also did research at the MIT Systems Lab, and taught at the University of Toronto. He has taught and done research at Oxford University (UK), the University of São Paulo at Riberão Preto in Brazil, the University of Mexico, the Ruhr Universität and Universität Konstanz in Germany, and the University of Western Australia. He is an honorary visiting professor at the University of York (UK). He has lived and worked for periods of months to several years in several foreign countries, including Germany (Bochum, Konstanz), Australia (Perth), Zambia (then N. Rhodesia – Fort Rosebery, now Mansa) and the UK (London, Oxford, York). He is a fellow of several scientific organizations including the AAAS and the Society of Experimental Psychologists, and has a Docteur, Honoris Causa, from the Université Charles de Gaulle, Lille 3, France. His research is on the evolution and mechanisms of learning in humans and animals, and the history and philosophy of psychology and biology. He is a past editor of the journals Behavioural Processes and Behavior & Philosophy. Recent theoretical work includes papers on operant conditioning, memory, timing, light-dynamics in zebrafish and psychobiological aspects of ethical philosophy. He has written and lectured on public-policy issues such as education, evolution, traffic control (Distracting Miss Daisy) and the effects of social and biological processes on the political process. He is the author of 200+ research papers and five books, including Adaptive Behavior and Learning (Cambridge University Press, 1983; 2nd edition 2016), The New Behaviorism (Psychology Press, 2001; 2nd edition 2014) and Adaptive Dynamics: The Theoretical Analysis of Behavior, (MIT/Bradford, 2001). He has published two trade books: The Malign Hand of the Markets, McGraw-Hill, 2012 and Unlucky Strike, University of Buckingham Press, 2013.