Memorial resolution by the board of directors of the society for the experimental analysis of behavior.
Charles Ferster turned rat-lab findings into token boards that still help kids learn.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior wrote a short tribute to Charles Ferster.
It lists his big wins: starting the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, writing Schedules of Reinforcement with Skinner, and running the first token economies with autistic kids.
What they found
The board found that Ferster built the bridge between lab work and real-world therapy.
His token boards in the 1950s showed that conditioned reinforcers could teach new skills long before ABA was a field.
How this fits with other research
Ziegler (1987) picks up the story six years later and charts how SEAB and its journals kept growing.
Wishart (1993) looks at JABA’s first 25 years and shows that Ferster’s lab-to-clinic idea became normal practice.
Argueta et al. (2024) checked 31 newer studies and found that today’s conditioning tricks still borrow from Ferster’s token method.
Why it matters
When you tape a token board on a desk today, you are using Ferster’s blueprint.
Remembering his work reminds us that solid basic research can turn into everyday tools that change lives.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Tell your team why tokens work: "We’re using conditioned reinforcers—Ferster proved it in 1957."
02At a glance
03Original abstract
of Behavior wishes to pay tribute to its first editor and first president.Charles Bohris Ferster (1922Ferster ( -1981) ) was the moving spirit in the organization of the Society in 1957 and in establishing the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.His guiding principle was that you won't get reinforced if you don't behave, and in this spirit he began many new ventures before they became accepted things to do.He was largely responsible for the design of the first elec- tromechanical programming and recording modules, still used in some laboratories for the experimental analysis of behavior.He was first author of the classic work on Schedules of Reinforcement, in collaboration with B. F. Skinner.He was in part responsible for the training of a number of the early leaders in basic research, products of the Harvard "Pigeon Project."He was an early proponent of and contributor to programmed instruction.He was one of the first behavior analysts to train autistic children and to use tokens as generalized reinforcers with human subjects.He was a pioneer in psychopharmacological
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1981 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1981.36-302