Below are PDFs of some of the Mechner Foundation's documents and publications in educational innovation, basic research, and other areas.
When hearings were held for the Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971, sponsored by Senator Walter Mondale and Congressman John Brademas, Dr. Mechner was invited to testify on Early Childhood Development and Educational Day Care before the Senate Finance Committee. His testimony is in the Congressional Record for the 92nd Congress, September 1971. The Act was passed by both houses of Congress in 1971 but vetoed by President Nixon in 1972.
Interview of Francis Mechner by Adam Hockman for the 2016 Quarter III issue of Operants Magazine, published by the B.F. Skinner Foundation.
In this interview, Dr. Mechner discusses some aspects of his academic career at Columbia University and his training, philosophy, and approach to innovation.
This review builds on the book’s assertion that chess provides a useful model for research on several issues in the area of cognition and imagery, e.g., the relationship between viewing a stimulus and mental imagery, in light of blindfold chess masters’ consistent reports that they do not use or have images. The review proposes a “Proficiency” measure with applications in cognition research, skill training, and education.
Also available at: Mechner, F. (2010). Chess as a behavioral model for cognitive skill research: Review of Blindfold Chess by Eliot Hearst and John Knott. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 94, 373-386.
The review discusses the importance of this book for behavior analysts and seeks to refute criticisms of terminology used by neuroscientists. It discusses opportunities for collaboration between behavior analysts and neuroscientists, and heuristics put forward by Kandel for identifying important research problems, recognizing potentially great achievers, and producing good scientists.
Also available at: Mechner, F. (2008). An invitation to behavior analysts: Review of In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind by Eric R. Kandel. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 90, 235-248.
Available on YouTube here.
The interviewers, Dr. Marian and Bob Bailey, are best known for their contributions to the technology of animal training and their documentation of the history of behavior analysis. This interview was conducted at the May 1993 conference of the Association of Behavior Analysis International (ABAI).
In this interview, Dr. Mechner discusses his development of what is today perhaps the most widely used training system of all time: Professional Selling Skills.
This is an obituary that Mechner wrote for Kurt Salzinger—his close friend, colleague, and compatriot from Vienna, Austria, who died tragically in New York City at the age of 89. Salzinger was a celebrated Behavioral Scientist and a luminary in the field of behavior analysis.
