Ward Edwards (1927–2005) was an American psychologist, who is prominent for work on

decision theory Decision theory or the theory of rational choice is a branch of probability theory, probability, economics, and analytic philosophy that uses expected utility and probabilities, probability to model how individuals would behave Rationality, ratio ...

and formulation and revision of beliefs.

Education

Edwards attended Swarthmore College, and then received his Ph.D. in psychology from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Awards

* Frank P. Ramsey Award from the Decision Analysis Society, 1988 * Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award in Applied Psychology,

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 ...

1996 * 2004 class of

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

s of the

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often s ...

"The
Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in r ...
named Ward Edwards as a James McKeen Cattell Fellow in recognition of his sustained and seminal contributions to the technology of decision making and to behavioral decision theory"
James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award, 1995

Research

Edwards published more than one hundred journal articles and books, including, ''Decision Analysis and Behavioral Research'' and ''Utility Theories: Measurement and Applications''. In the introduction to a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

for Edwards,

Barbara Mellers Barbara Ann Mellers is the I. George Heyman University Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on decision processes. In 2017, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government awarded Mellers the Th ...

states, :''Decision Science and Technology'' is a compilation of chapters written in honor of a remarkable man, Ward Edwards. Among Ward's many contributions are two significant accomplishments, either of which would have been enough for a very distinguished career. First, Ward is the founder of behavioral decision theory. This interdisciplinary discipline addresses the question of how people actually confront decisions, as opposed to the question of how they should make decisions. Second, Ward laid the groundwork for sound normative systems by noticing which tasks humans can do well and which tasks computers should perform. In 1962, Edwards founded the Bayesian Research Conference with the aim to incorporate and apply Bayesian statistical methods and ideas to decision theory. This conference was renamed the "Edwards Bayesian Research Conference," in his honor, in 2005. In the field of statistics, he is well known as lead author of the review article "Bayesian Statistical Inference for Psychological Research," which introduced the notion of 'stable estimation,' and was the first to note that a

p-value In null-hypothesis significance testing, the ''p''-value is the probability of obtaining test results at least as extreme as the result actually observed, under the assumption that the null hypothesis is correct. A very small ''p''-value means ...

of 0.05 in the normal

linear model In statistics, the term linear model refers to any model which assumes linearity in the system. The most common occurrence is in connection with regression models and the term is often taken as synonymous with linear regression model. However, t ...

corresponded to a lower bound on the

Bayes factor The Bayes factor is a ratio of two competing statistical models represented by their evidence, and is used to quantify the support for one model over the other. The models in question can have a common set of parameters, such as a null hypothesis ...

of 0.26.

References

External links

Biography of Ward Edwards
from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences 1927 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American psychologists Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Swarthmore College alumni Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award recipients {{US-psychologist-stub