Ogden Lindsley

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Ogden R. Lindsley (August 11, 1922 – October 10, 2004) was an American psychologist known for creating precision teaching and the Standard Celeration Chart. He earned a psychology degree from Brown University in 1948 and a Master of Science in Experimental Psychology in 1950. He studied at Harvard University under B. F. Skinner and earned his Ph.D. in 1957.

In 1953, Lindsley started the Behavior Research Laboratory at Harvard Medical School (Massachusetts Mental Health Center), where he studied the behavior of people with schizophrenia. This was the first human operant laboratory, and he coined the term “behavior therapy.” He served as Director of the BRL from 1956 to 1961 and was a Research Associate in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School during that time; from 1961 to 1965 he was an Associate in Psychology. In 1962 he received the Hofheimer Research Prize from the American Psychiatric Association.

In 1965 he left the lab and moved to the University of Kansas to train special education teachers. He was Director of Educational Research at the Medical Center and a Research Associate in the Bureau of Child Research from 1965 to 1971. In 1971 he became a professor of education at the University of Kansas and stayed there until his retirement in 1990, continuing as an active emeritus professor until his death. He died of bile duct cancer on October 10, 2004, at age 82, at the Kansas University Medical Center, with his wife Nancy by his side.