In Memory Of… Robert A. Rescorla
Honoring scientists who have made important and lasting contributions to the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior.
Robert A. Rescorla, PhD (1940-2020)
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
University of Pennsylvania
Robert A. Rescorla (1940 – 2020) was remembered as a rigorous empiricist and exceptional teacher, who contributed invaluable theoretical and experimental insights to the field of learning and animal behavior. Dr. Rescorla began his research as an undergraduate at Swarthmore and carried his passion for advancing the science of learning through his doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and professorships at Yale and Penn. Dr. Rescorla’s body of research extended Pavlovian conditioning theories and paradigms in critical ways that continue to advance cognitive neuroscience and clinical practice to this day.
While classical Pavlovian studies had trained animals to associate a single stimulus – most famously, a bell – with the arrival of food, Dr. Rescorla studied how animals learn and respond to multiple different cues in information-rich environments. These experiments undergirded his most famous contribution, the Rescorla-Wagner model of associative learning, which mathematically predicts animal learning when there are multiple different signals (e.g., noises and visual cues) of an upcoming event (e.g., an aversive foot shock). Among other contributions, his theory explained the “blocking effect” observed in experiments, whereby new learning would not occur if the animal already had sufficient information to anticipate an event. More broadly, his research proved that tightly controlled behavioral experiments could reveal the mental representations underlying emotions and complex behaviors.
Fear learning is implicated in many common psychological challenges, such as phobias, anxiety, panic, and post-traumatic stress. Evidence-based treatments, like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, draw heavily on discoveries made by Dr. Rescorla and others in learning theory. These treatments encouraged “extinction” of associations through repeated exposure to a stimulus in the absence of the feared outcome. For example, a patient with a fear of dogs might intentionally interact with them to violate the expectation that they signal danger. While these treatments are often successful, clinicians have long observed spontaneous recovery of fears and relapses in patients. Dr. Rescorla discovered the process of “reinstatement,” in which an extinct association reemerges after exposure to the feared event, and studied other ways to deepen extinction and prevent relapse. Clinical scientists are actively translating Dr. Rescorla’s insights into improvements in patient care.
Aptly, Dr. Rescorla’s expertise in learning extended beyond his laboratory and into the classroom. He was remembered as an excellent teacher, who earned the Ira Abrams Teaching Award in 1999 from Penn and served as the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology until retiring in 2009. He held leadership roles as the chair of psychology (1985-1988) and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1994-1997) at Penn. Colleagues note that he advocated strongly for undergraduates to be included in research and for hiring committees to weight teaching excellence in their choice of new faculty.
Among other honors during his lifetime, Dr. Rescorla was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1985) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008). He received the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions (1986), the Howard Crosby Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental Psychologists (1991), and an honorary doctorate from the University of Ghent (2006).
Individuals Honoring Robert A. Rescorla
Peter Balsam
Gretchen Chapman
Susan Coldwell
Comparative Cognition Society
Chris Cunningham
Terry Davidson
Andrew Delamater
* Robert DeRubeis
Hunter Hoffman
Matt Lattal
Katherine Moore
James Nairne
* J. Bruce Overmier
* Steven Robbins
Nakajima Sadahiko
* FABBS would like to thank Dr. J. Bruce Overmier for nominating Dr. Rescorla for this honor, and Drs. Robert DeRubeis and Steven Robbins for leading the effort to spread the word about his nomination.
