Benton J. Underwood (February 28, 1915 – November 29, 1994) was an American

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

.Benton J. Underwood, expert In Psychology, Verbal Learning;December 02, 1994, By Kenan Heise
/ref>National Academies Press:National Academy of Sciences:Biographical Memoirs:V.79:BENTON J. UNDERWOOD:BY GEOFFREY KEPPEL
/ref>American Psychological Association:Benton J. Underwood (1915–1994): Obituary.By Keppel, Geoffrey;American Psychologist, Vol 52(4), Apr 1997, 469-470.
/ref> Underwood was chairman of the department of psychology at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. Underwood also was president of the Midwestern Psychological Association, president of the Experimental Psychology, president of the General Psychology divisions of the American Psychological Association, Stanley G. Harris Professor of Social Science, and chairman of the psychology section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

called Underwood "a leading expert from the 1940s to the 1980s on verbal learning and memory".

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

called him "a preeminent leader in the development of research on the acquisition and retention of verbal material". Among the list of his many remarkable students was

Sarnoff A. Mednick Sarnoff Andrei Mednick, (January 27, 1928 – April 10, 2015) was a psychologist who pioneered the prospective high-risk, longitudinal study to investigate the etiology (causes) of psychopathology, or mental disorders. His emphasis was on schi ...

who pioneered the High-Risk for schizophrenia paradigm in 1962. Underwood received the following awards: * Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from The American Psychological Association * Distinguished Teaching Award in Psychology from The American Psychological Association * the Warren Medal by the Society of Experimental Psychologists * A ''

Review of General Psychology ''Review of General Psychology'' is the quarterly scientific journal of the American Psychological Association Division 1: The Society for general psychology. The journal publishes cross-disciplinary psychological articles that are conceptual, theo ...

'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Underwood as the 66th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Underwood, Benton J. 1915 births 1994 deaths People from Linn County, Iowa 20th-century American psychologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology recipients