Note from Micha: The following was copied from Eliot's web site shortly after his passing. I limited myself to copying his words of Torah, but to give some more perspective on who Eliot a"h, I pasted his summary of his work in psychology on the bottom of this page. Hopefully, the University of Maryland Baltimore County (which hosts the original web site) or a professional peer will hold onto Eliot's professional work.
Tehei nafsho tzerurah bitzror hachaim,
-mi

PS: The Baltimore Sun carried this obituary which they mentioned on the first page of the Metro section Jan 30th, 2004.

Please dedicate your learning in memory of Dr. Eliot Shimoff:

Eliyahu Chaim ben HaRav Ephraim a"h

Search Eliot's 4,840 usenet posts at Google Groups:

Eliot Shimoff's Talmud Page


Psychology

My general approach to psychology is the experimental analysis of behavior, a perspective on behavior that focuses on the environmental causes of behavior. The overarching theme of it all is that causes of behavior are best sought in the history of the individual and the species, and can be best revealed by careful experimental analysis.

Over the years, I have looked at such diverse issues as Pavlovian conditioning, reinforcement and punishment, and verbal behavior. I have worked with a broad range of species: rats, pigeons, monkeys, pre-school children, college students, and college professors; the focus is not on the species, but on the behavior.

My current interests involve complex visual discriminations and delay of reinforcement in pigeons, and complex learning in college students.

A parallel interest -- really the conjunction of my work in the laboratory and my classroom teaching, is the development of interactive software to give college students a sense of the fun, excitement, and pure thrill of getting real behavioral data, a nd to teach students what psychology is really all about -- the joy of finding out about behavior.