| Abstract: | This obituary describes the career and contributions to psychology of Frederick A. Mote, PhD. Dr. Mote received his PhD from Brown University, where he returned from teaching psychology at the University of Connecticut to work on a National Defense Research Council contract until the end of World War II. In his position as senior psychophysiologist he was involved in development of new selection and classification tests for navy personnel, as well as with research on application of stereoscopic perception in design of equipment for navy operators. During these years he was also doing fundamental research on the role of reinforcement in acquisition and extinction of simple instrumental responses in animals--research which eventuated in a series of publications, some with his colleague and good friend, Frank Finger. After the war, Dr. Mote reentered academic teaching where he was promoted to professor at the University of Wisconsin in 1952 and conducted studies on determinants of dark adaptation in human vision. In 1955, Dr. Mote became chair of the Psychology Department, and served through 1959. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
