Fred S. Keller

Fred Simmons Keller (1899 to 1996) was an American psychologist and pioneer in experimental psychology who taught at Columbia University for 26 years and gave his name to the Keller Plan, also known as the Personalized System of Instruction, an individually paced, mastery-oriented teaching method that has had a significant impact on college-level science education. Born on a farm near Rural Grove, New York, he studied at Tufts College and Harvard, taught at Tufts and at Colgate University, and joined Columbia after leaving Colgate in 1938, becoming professor of psychology in 1950. Inspired by B. F. Skinner, he applied reinforcement theory to his teaching, and with William N. Schoenfeld wrote the 1950 textbook Principles of Psychology and an introductory laboratory course that brought the experimental analysis of behavior to undergraduates. Later he worked in Brazil and held visiting and adjunct posts in the United States before retiring from Georgetown University in 1976.