Richard A. Schmidt

Richard Allen Schmidt (born March 31, 1941 in Evanston , Illinois , † October 1, 2015 in Los Angeles ) was an American psychologist and movement researcher . He was active as a gymnast and sailor .

Life

After high school, Schmidt studied at the University of California, Berkeley on an athletic scholarship as a competitive gymnast. He was West Coast champion on the rings in 1961 and 1962 and third in the American college championships NCAA in the rings in 1962 and was part of the American NCAA selection team in the gymnastics all-around competition in 1962. In 1963 he passed his bachelor's degree and in 1965 his master's degree in Berkeley with the movement researcher Anna S. Espenschade (MA thesis: Reaction latency and contraction speed in relation to positional tensioning of muscle ). From here he went to the University of Illinois , Urbana-Champaign, where he received his doctorate in sports science in 1967 (Diss .: Motor factors in coincident timing ). He then became an Assistant Professor in the Institutes of Sports Science and Psychology at the University of Maryland , College Park , MD from 1967–1970 , and from 1970 to 1974 Associate Professor (from 1972 Professor) in the Institute of Sports Science at the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , MI where he got his own Motor Behavior Laboratory . From 1974 to 1980 he moved to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles as a professor at the institutes for sports science and for psychology. From 1988 to 1998 he was the director of cognitive science at UCLA and also re-directed its Motor Control Laboratory . His research dealt with the entire age spectrum from children to seniors, all forms of performance from top-class sport to physical and sensory disabilities. At the same time, his love for sport did not let go of him. He turned to sailing and became American champion in the Windmill class in 1969 and in the Shock 35 class in 1990, 1991, 1992. Schmidt ran the marathon under 3 hours several times and took part in car races with his Porsche . After his retirement he switched to the private sector and was initially the Principal Scientist, Human Factors Group, Exponent Failure Analysis Associates, Inc. until 2001 and from 2001 the President of the company in Marina del Rey, CA. In addition to research, the focus was on court opinions. He was considered the world's leading expert on errors in accelerator / brake pedal behavior that led to unplanned acceleration of cars with the consequences of accidents. Due to his expertise, Toyota had to pay more than $ 2 billion in damages in the United States.

Scientific importance

Schmidt was the researcher of movement whose schematic theory brought the learning of closed skills into order. He applied this not only to sports, but also to learning how to operate cars, assembly lines and machines. He advised companies on consumer safety when using machines, worked on eye movements, balance, distractions (e.g. cell phones in traffic) etc. WorldCat has 145 books in 8 languages ​​by him. He has published over 200 other research papers.

Honors

• 1984 CH McCloy Research Award for outstanding sports research (AAHPERD)
• 1985 visiting professor at Bielefeld University
• 1992 Dr. hc KU Leuven
• 1993 Fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology
• 1998 Dr. hc University of Grenoble
• 1999–2015 member of the IOC Scientific Committee

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Arnd Krüger : When should children start exercising? Peter Lösche (Ed.): Göttingen Social Sciences Today. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1990, 278 - 308.
2. ^ Kathleen M. Haywood: Life span motor development. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics 1991
3. ↑ Schmidt, RA, Young, DE, & Ayres, TJ, & Wong, JR (1997). Pedal misapplications: Their frequency and variety revealed through police accident reports. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 41st annual meeting (pp. 1023-1027). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
4. ↑ http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?pid=176037786#sthash.IRlNuNBO.dpuf
5. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from August 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.