Neal E. Miller and His Research1

Abstract

Neal Miller's research contributions mainly concerned reward and learning mechanisms: (a) underlying thought processes and behaviors relevant to problem solving in psychotherapy and everyday life, (b) as mediated by the nervous system, and (c) involved in learning control over voluntary (conscious) skeletal muscle and autonomic (normally unconscious) internal-organ response systems for minimizing stress, treating disease, and promoting health. His career shows psychology's evolution from a theory-driven but data-impoverished discipline in the 1930s to one integrating vast bodies of clinical, social, and physiological knowledge.

Trust beyond reputation: A computational trust model based on stereotypes

“…Similarly to other models like EigenTrust [17], Transitive Trust [14], BLADE [33], REGRET [35] and Travos [40], StereoTrust is explicitly not designed to cope with agent's dynamic behavior. However, from the perspective of behavior science [11], as well as being supported by recent works that use contextual information to predict user behavior in various information systems [30,27,29], we believe that an agent's behavior change in the transactions is correlated with and can be inferred (to certain extent) by the associated contextual information (e.g., by considering the dynamic trust [21,23]). For instance, in an online auction site like eBay, a seller may vary his behavior consciously or unwittingly in selling different items (e.g., he may be careful when selling expensive goods, but imprudent with cheap ones).…”

Trust beyond reputation: A computational trust model based on stereotypes

“…However, from the perspective of behavior science [11], as well as being supported by recent works that use contextual information to predict user behavior in various information systems [30,27,29], we believe that an agent's behavior change in the transactions is correlated with and can be inferred (to certain extent) by the associated contextual information (e.g., by considering the dynamic trust [21,23]). For instance, in an online auction site like eBay, a seller may vary his behavior consciously or unwittingly in selling different items (e.g., he may be careful when selling expensive goods, but imprudent with cheap ones).…”

Learning to stand tall: Idiopathic scoliosis, behavioral electronics, and technologically‐assisted patient participation in treatment, c. 1969–1992

“…In tackling the problem of operant conditioning of visceral responses, Miller was pursuing an old hunch of his, that there was “a fundamental unity in the learning process” and its neurophysiological bases 1. In keeping with the research program of neo‐behaviorist thinker Clark L. Hull, his teacher while he was a graduate student at the Yale Institute of Human Relations in the 1930s, Miller was convinced that all types of learning paradigms obeyed similar laws, spanning different domains of “behavior”, including psychomotor behavior and mental acts pertaining to thinking, understanding, and remembering (Coons & Leibowitz, 2010, p. 102). This belief underlay his attempt to bring learning theories to bear on thought processes and behavior relevant to psychotherapy.…”