About the Authors

Diane E. Papalia
As a professor, Diane E. Papalia has taught thousands of undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin. She received her bachelor's degree, majoring in psychology, from Vassar College and both her master's degree in child development and family relations and her Ph.D. in life-span developmental psychology from West Virginia University. She has published numerous articles in such professional journals as Human Development, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, Sex Roles, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology and Journal of Gerontology. Most of these papers have dealt with her major research focus, cognitive development from childhood though old age. She is especially interested in intellectual development and factors that contribute to the maintenance of intellectual functioning in late adulthood. She is a Fellow in the Gerontology Society of America. She is coauthor, with Sally Wendkos Olds and Ruth Duskin Feldman of Human Development, A Child's World, college textbooks published by McGraw-Hill.

Ruth Duskin Feldman
Ruth Duskin Feldman is an award-winning writer. She is the author or co-author of four books addressed to general readers, including Whatever Happened to the Quiz Kids? And Perils and Profits of Growing Up Gifted. She is co-author of the eight edition of Diane Papalia and Sally Wendkos Olds's widely used textbook A Child's World. A former teacher she has developed educational materials for all levels from elementary school through college. She has written for numerous newspapers and national magazines on education and other topics and has lectured extensively throughout the United States. She received her bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, where she was graduated with highest distinction and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Dr. Harvey L. Sterns
Dr. Harvey L. Sterns received his B.A. from Bard College; his M.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo; and his Ph.D. in Life-Span Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. He is a licensed psychologist in Ohio and is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, and the Ohio Academy of Science. He is a Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Institute for Life-Span Development and Gerontology at The University of Akron. He is also a Research Professor of Gerontology in Community Health Science at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. He is Co-Director of the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center. Dr. Sterns received the Distinguished Service in Education, Research and Communication Award from The Association of Ohio Philanthropic Homes and Housing for the Aging (AOPHA). He was the 1994 recipient of the Clark Tibbets Award from the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education for outstanding contribution to the advancement of gerontology as a field of study in institutions of higher education, and also received, in 1996, the Dr. Arnold L. Heller Memorial Award from Menorah Park Center for the Aging, Cleveland, Ohio in recognition of contributions to the Field of Gerontology. In 1991, he received the outstanding researcher in Ohio award from the Ohio Research Council on Aging.

Dr. Sterns teaches courses in the areas of aging and psychology in addition to coordinating the Institute's undergraduate and graduate certificate programs in gerontology and currently chairs the doctoral emphasis in Industrial Gerontological Psychology in the Department of Psychology. His research activities and numerous publications include work on such topics as changes in perception, motor function, intelligence and problem solving with age, adult education, and industrial gerontology. Dr. Sterns has served as an expert witness in numerous age discrimination cases.

He has been a consultant to numerous organizations including the National Institute on Aging, the Administration on Aging, and the Ohio Department of Aging. He has served on special study committees for the National Academy of Science, National Institute of Medicine, and has chaired a special project for the Research Committee of the Gerontological Society of America. He was a Delegate to the 1981 White House Conference on Aging, and serves as chairman of the City of Akron Senior Citizens Commission to the Mayor and City Council. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation PISCES (Program for an Integrated System of Community Elderly Services) project. During 1982-83, Dr. Sterns was a Fellow of the Andrew Norman Institute and a Visiting Associate Professor at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California.

Cameron J. Camp
Cameron J. Camp is a noted psychologist specializing in applied research in geronotology. He received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Houston, where he graduated summa cum laude, and master's and doctoral degrees in experimental psychology from the same institution. For 16 years, he taught undergraduate course in adult development and aging, as well as in memory, general psychology, child development, and experimental design, first at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, and then at the University of New Orleans.