Two of the most highly respected and influential individuals in the field of quantitative methods, Raymond B. Cattell and Jacob Cohen, have died. Both were regarded as giants in their fields, and both were recipients of the recent Division 5 Distinguished Lifetime Contribution Awards.

Raymond B. Cattell made significant contributions to both methodological and substantive areas of psychology. He developed and tested comprehensive, multivariate theories of human behavior, and developed and refined research methods for examining these theories. As Editor of Handbook of Multivariate Experimental Psychology and founder of the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology, he set a high standard for clear and rigorous thinking about multivariate issues, and he influenced generations of scientists around the world to tackle the complex problems posed by truly multivariate theories.

Jacob Cohen made at least three major contributions to quantitative methods, any one of which would have been enough to secure a world-wide reputation as a leader in this field. Cohen’s kappa is cited in his Distinguished Lifetime Contribution Award as "the gold standard for the measurement of agreement between categorical judgments." He championed the use of multiple regression as a general data–analytic framework, illustrating the relationships between what are often treated as separate methods of analysis, and he developed multivariate analogs (e.g., set correlation) that allowed researchers to apply the regression framework to virtually any data-analytic problem in the social and behavior sciences. Finally, his work in statistical power analysis changed the way we think about the meaning of significance tests, and his emphasis on effect-size measures foreshadowed the development of meta-analysis.

On a personal note, while a member of the psychology faculty at New York University (1981-1984), I had the honor of having Jack Cohen as a colleague. He had the distinction of receiving the same level of respect from his day-to-day colleagues as from people who knew him only from his printed work, and was a joy to work with. Our paths did not often cross during those years (he was in great demand all over the world), but he was nevertheless generous with his time and ideas. Both Raymond Cattell and Jacob Cohen will be missed.

Kevin R. Murphy
Colorado State University