Behavioral Determinants of Drug Action: The Contributions of Peter B. Dews

Peter B. Dews played a significant role in shaping the distinctive characteristics and defining the underlying principles of the discipline of behavioral pharmacology. His early and sophisticated use of schedules of reinforcement in the 1950s, incorporated from research in the experimental analysis of behavior and integrated into the discipline of pharmacology, provided tremendous insight, inspiration, and impetus to the newly emerging field of behavioral pharmacology. The experimental findings generated by Dews' research, blending the sophisticated use of behavior and pharmacological principles together with the elegant manner of their presentation and far-reaching implications, provided the force and momentum to establish and direct behavioral pharmacology for several decades. This article attempts to capture some of Dews' research that integrated and inspired the blending of sophisticated behavioral work with that of pharmacology. (Contains 2 figures.)