grayln@wsu.edu
509.335.4412
Wilson Hall 216

Louis N. Gray
Professor Emeritus
Ph.D., Washington, 1969

Curriculum Vitae | Webpage | Courses

Current Research Interests: I am primarily interested in two interrelated aspects of choice behavior: first, the impact of framing and experience on learning and the distribution of behavioral choices and, second, the processes of learning and choice in interactive social situations in which an actors outcomes are partially or wholly determined by the actions of others. My interest in the first area has arisen through the discovery that the form, rather than the content, of the feedback an actor receives in a choice situation can substantially alter behavior. In order to anticipate an actor's choices in multi-alternative situations it is necessary to understand the factors that contribute to the actor's "frame" of the situation and the social circumstances that give rise to it. I primarily use experimental approaches to study these phenomena. My interest in the second area continues investigations of small group behavior first begun over thirty years ago. I conceive of small group interaction as simultaneous learning or choice situations in which each actor's behavior is influenced, at least potentially, by each other actor. At present I am developing computer simulations of small group behavior that can be used to test hypotheses regarding the formation of collaborative relations among group members.

Recent Publications:

"Cost Equalization: Applications to Dyadic Exchange." Social Psychology Quarterly (1998). With Irving Tallman, Dean H. Judson, and Candan Duran-Aydintug.

"Cost Equalization as a Determinant of Behavioral Allocation: The Case of Binary Choice." Social Psychology Quarterly (1996). With Irving Tallman.

"Altering the Interaction Structure of Extant Couples: Structural Implications of Varying External Reinforcement and Punishment probabilities." Small Group Research (1993). With Dean H. Judson and Candan Duran-Aydintug.