Received for publication March 20, 2008.
Revised June 10, 2008.
Accepted for publication June 10, 2008.

Centennial Perspective: Peter B. Dews and Pharmacological Studies on Behavior

Abstract

The publication by Peter B. Dews of a series of five articles in this Journal entitled "Studies on Behavior", beginning in 1955 and ending in 1959, were contributions of extraordinary significance in laying a foundation for the emergence of the discipline of behavioral pharmacology. The series of articles were rigorous in their approach, dramatic in terms of the results, and provocative in their implications. Published at the near half-century mark of the founding of the American Society for Pharmacological and Experimental Therapeutics, it is appropriate to now provide a Centennial Perspective on the impact of these studies over the 50 years following their publication and to comment on the way in which they helped to influence the directions in which this discipline has evolved.

Key words: behavioral pharmacology, centennial perspective, pentobarbital, pigeon, schedule controlled behavior, schedules of reinforcement