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R. Duncan Luce

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Robert Duncan Luce
Born(1925-05-16)May 16, 1925
DiedAugust 11, 2012(2012-08-11)(aged 87)
Alma materMIT(B.S) (1945)
MIT(PhD) (1950)
Known forLuce's choice axiom
Clique
Social dynamics
Semiorder
Theory of conjoint measurement
AwardsNational Medal of Science(2003)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematical psychology
Mathematician
Cognitive science
InstitutionsColumbia University
Harvard University
University of Pennsylvania
University of California, Irvine
Doctoral advisorIrvin Cohen

Robert Duncan Luce(May 16, 1925 – August 11, 2012)[1]was an American mathematician and social scientist, and one of the most preeminent figures in the field ofmathematical psychology.At the end of his life, he held the position ofDistinguished Research ProfessorofCognitive Scienceat theUniversity of California, Irvine.[2]

Education and career[edit]

Luce received aBachelor of Sciencedegree inAeronautical Engineeringfrom theMassachusetts Institute of Technologyin 1945, andPhDinMathematicsfrom the same university in 1950 underIrvin S. Cohen[3]with thesisOn Semigroups.

He began his professorial career atColumbia Universityin 1954, where he was an assistant professor in mathematical statistics and sociology. Following a lecturership atHarvard Universityfrom 1957 to 1959, he became a professor at theUniversity of Pennsylvaniain 1959, and was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Professorship of Psychology in 1968. After visiting theInstitute for Advanced Studybeginning in 1969, he joined the UC Irvine faculty in 1972, but returned to Harvard in 1976 as Alfred North Whitehead Professor of Psychology and then later as Victor S. Thomas Professor of Psychology. In 1988 Luce rejoined the UC Irvine faculty as Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Sciences and (from 1988 to 1998) director of UCI's Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences.[4]

Contributions[edit]

Contributions for which Luce is known include formulatingLuce's choice axiomformalizing the principle that additional options should not affect the probability of selecting one item over another, definingsemiorders,introducinggraph-theoreticmethods into the social sciences, and coining the term "clique"for a complete subgraph in graph theory.[5][6]

Recognition[edit]

In 1966, Luce was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.[7]Luce was elected to theNational Academy of Sciencesin 1972 for his work on fundamental measurement, utility theory, global psychophysics, and mathematical behavioral sciences. He received the 2003National Medal of Sciencein behavioral and social science for his contributions to the field of mathematical psychology.[8]In 2004, he was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.[9]

Books by Luce[edit]

  • Luce, R. Duncan; Raiffa, Howard (1957).Games and decisions: introduction and critical survey.New York: Wiley.MR0087572.[10]Paperback reprint, Dover, New York
  • Luce, R. Duncan (1959).Individual choice behavior: a theoretical analysis.New York: Wiley.[11]
  • Luce, R. Duncan (1960). "Response latencies and probabilities". InArrow, Kenneth J.;Karlin, Samuel;Suppes, Patrick(eds.).Mathematical models in the social sciences, 1959: Proceedings of the first Stanford symposium.Stanford mathematical studies in the social sciences. Vol. IV. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 298–311.ISBN9780804700214.
  • Luce, R. Duncan (1986).Response times: their role in inferring elementary mental organization.New York: Oxford.

References[edit]

  1. ^"Renowned UCI scholar R. Duncan Luce dies at 87 | UCI School of Social Sciences".2013-01-09. Archived fromthe originalon 2013-01-09.Retrieved2022-12-21.
  2. ^ McClelland, J. L. (2012)."R. Duncan Luce (1925-2012)".Science.337(6102): 1619.Bibcode:2012Sci...337.1619M.doi:10.1126/science.1229851.PMID23019641.S2CID144711288.
  3. ^R. Duncan Luce scientific autobiography
  4. ^Curriculum vitaeArchived2011-07-20 at theWayback Machine
  5. ^A Lifetime of Calculating ChoicesArchived2006-08-21 atarchive.today.Stephanie Bowen, The Social Science Journal, UC Irvine, 2004.
  6. ^Duncan Luce as a Measurement Theorist.Patrick Suppes,inChoice, Decision and Measurement(A. A. J. Marley, ed.), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997, pp. 103–109.
  7. ^"R. Duncan Luce".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.Retrieved2022-02-14.
  8. ^Decision Science Researcher Profile: Duncan Luce Awarded 2003 Medal of Science,Decision Science News, 2005.
  9. ^"APS Member History".search.amphilsoc.org.Retrieved2022-02-14.
  10. ^Gale, David(1958)."Review:Games and Decisions: Introduction and Critical Surveyby R. Duncan Luce and Howard Raiffa "(PDF).Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.64(3, Part 1): 108–111.doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1958-10180-9.
  11. ^May, Kenneth O.(1960)."Review:Individual Choice Behavior: A Theoretical Analysisby R. Duncan Luce "(PDF).Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.66(4): 259–260.doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1960-10452-1.

External links[edit]

Archival collections[edit]

Other[edit]

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