Thorndike Award

(As approved by APA Division 15, August, 1988)

First, the award should be given only to living recipients. Second, the award should be given for career achievements, not for one or a few pieces of excellent research. Third, the award is for research in educational psychology, not research in psychology in general, nor for research in education in general. Fourth, the award should be for research in the best tradition of educational psychology. That is, the award should be for original, scientific, empirically based research that contributes significantly to knowledge, theory, or practice in educational psychology. Research consisting primarily of critiques of other researchers' works, reviews of research, and preparation of textbooks would not qualify by this criterion. But scientific production and testing of theory, methods of teaching or learning, instructional products, tests, evaluation techniques, and the like would qualify by this criterion.