Published on 2/7/2012 10:15:00 AM
Robert Glaser—founding director emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) and University Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Pitt—died on February 4 following a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 91.
Glaser, a leading scholar in the psychology of learning, cognition, and instruction, was one of the first to champion the role of assessment in the service of learning. He built upon the psychology of human cognition to integrate instruction and testing. He won international recognition in the field of measurement when he initiated the criterion-referenced testing movement—tests that were not references to rank orders of individuals but rather to performance levels that describe what students know and can do.
Glaser was preceded in death in 2001 by his wife, Sylvia Lotman Glaser, and is survived by a sister, Irma Kemp of Queens; daughters Ellen DeBenedetti of Pittsburgh and Karen Glaser of Chicago; two grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
Details regarding a memorial service will be announced by LRDC. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Alzheimer’s Association at 1-200-272-3900 or
www.alz.org or to Pitt’s
LRDC. Call Patsy Guzzi Jr. at 412-624-7030 for more information.
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More details from Glaser's life can be read in a
press release published by the University of Pittsburgh.