Roger Tarpy

Roger M. Tarpy (born 1941) is an American psychologist. He is a specialist in the study of learning and memory in both humans and animals. He is best known as the author and editor of text books at undergraduate and graduate level in these fields, publishing six distinct texts between 1978 and 1997, although he has also published numerous research papers, mainly on topics relating to associative learning in rats,^[1] though he has also published on learning and motivation other species^[2] including humans;^[3] and he collaborated with Stephen Lea and Paul Webley on a major textbook in economic psychology, The individual in the economy (Cambridge University Press, 1987).

Tarpy graduated from Amherst College in 1963, and then took a masters at the College of William and Mary before undertaking his PhD at Princeton University, under the supervision of Byron Campbell.^[4] He was an assistant professor at Williams College,^[5] before moving to Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where he remained as a professor of psychology until his retirement in 2001. He also held visiting positions at the University of Oxford and the University of Exeter^[6] in the UK.

For some time after his retirement, Tarpy wrote a syndicated newspaper column. His leisure activities include singing (including in a barbershop quartet^[7]), and conducting community choruses.

Books authored or edited by Roger Tarpy

• Basic principles of learning (1975)
• Foundations of learning and memory (with Richard E. Mayer) (1978)
• Readings in learning and memory (Edited, with Richard E. Mayer) (1979)
• Principles of animal learning and motivation (1982)
• The Individual in the economy (with Stephen E.G. Lea, and Paul Webley) (1987).
• Psychology (with Kelly G. Shaver) (1993), Roger M. Tarpy.
• Contemporary learning theory and research (1997)

References