David Premack

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David Premack (born October 26, 1925 in Aberdeen, South Dakota ; † June 11, 2015 in Santa Barbara , California ) was an American psychologist and behavioral scientist who, together with his long-time colleague and wife Ann James Premack, made major contributions to the Field of behaviorism , researched the language skills of chimpanzees and contributed to a Theory of Mind ("theory of the mind").

Career

David Premack studied psychology at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis , where he earned a master's degree in experimental psychology and statistics in 1951 . In 1955 he received his doctorate in experimental psychology and philosophy. From 1955 to 1964 he was a Research Associate Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and from 1965 to 1975 he was a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara . From 1975 until his retirement in 1990 he was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania . He then spent a few years in France, together with his wife Ann, researching the cognitive development of young children.

Research priorities

David Premack has made at least three major contributions to the advancement of science.

On the one hand, he formulated the so-called premack principle in 1962 , a further development in the field of behavior formation through instrumental and operant conditioning . He was able to show that reinforcement does not necessarily have to satisfy a biological need (e.g. for food), but that every behavior that is shown spontaneously more often than another reinforces it. Behaviors that are more likely to occur (in humans, for example, play ) can be used to reinforce behaviors that are less likely to occur (for example, learning vocabulary ). On the other hand, according to Premack, learning vocabulary can serve as a reinforcement for cleaning the toilet .

Premack has also made a significant contribution to understanding the cognitive and language abilities of chimpanzees . In contrast to Roger Fouts , who taught his chimpanzees sign language for the deaf , Premack taught his test animals how to use plastic chips. In doing so, he followed up on earlier experiments by Wolfgang Köhler , who had already researched the use of tools as an example of intelligent behavior in monkeys at the beginning of the 20th century . Premack's publications on the language “written” by chimpanzees with plastic words (for example: Mary, give chocolate to Sarah ) are among the most important pioneering works in this field and have ultimately also contributed to the “use” of great apes for research purposes by many Researchers see it as no longer acceptable and that growing numbers are even demanding human rights for the great apes.

David Premack has finally made important contributions to a theory of mind delivered ( "theory of mind") and contributed to a new area within the cognitive sciences to open: The search for an answer to the question: What do we know about our knowledge? His publication on metacognition in chimpanzees, which he wrote in 1978 together with a young colleague, is considered a milestone in this field . H. about the ability of these great apes to understand what is going on in another individual. This publication stimulated a variety of experimental studies on human cognition and social intelligence . For example, it was found that children under three to four years of age do not yet realize that other people cannot see what they (the children) can see in the experiment.

Honors

  • 2004: William James Fellow of the American Psychological Society

Fonts (selection)

  • with Ann Premack: Original Intelligence. Unlocking the Mystery of Who We Are. McGraw-Hill, New York 2003, ISBN 0-07-138142-2 .
  • with Ann Premack: Original Intelligence: The Architecture of the Human Mind. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2002, ISBN 978-0-07-138142-0
  • with Ann Premack: The Mind of an Ape. WW Norton & Co, 1984, ISBN 0-393-30160-5 . (the book won the Award for Excellence of the American Psychological Association )
  • with Guy Woodruff: Does the chipmanzee have a theory of mind? In: Behavioral & Brain Sciences. Volume 1, 1978, pp. 515-526, doi: 10.1017 / S0140525X00076512
  • Intelligence in Ape and Man. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., 1977, ISBN 0-470-98909-2 .
  • Language in Chimpanzee? In: Science . Volume 172, No. 3985, 1971, pp. 808-822, doi: 10.1126 / science.172.3985.808 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Premack, Psychology
  2. ^ University of Pennsylvania : David Premack website
  3. ↑ Short biography on the website of the Association for Psychological Science on the occasion of the William James Fellow Award 2004 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Premack, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychologist and behaviorist
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Aberdeen, South Dakota
DATE OF DEATH June 11, 2015
Place of death Santa Barbara , California