Neal E. Miller and His Research1

Neal Miller's research contributions mainly concerned reward and learning mechanisms: (a) underlying thought processes and behaviors relevant to problem solving in psychotherapy and everyday life, (b) as mediated by the nervous system, and (c) involved in learning control over voluntary (conscious) skeletal muscle and autonomic (normally unconscious) internal-organ response systems for minimizing stress, treating disease, and promoting health. His career shows psychology's evolution from a theory-driven but data-impoverished discipline in the 1930s to one integrating vast bodies of clinical, social, and physiological knowledge.