Rosemary Pierrel Sorrentino papers (AMS.1UF.S6)

Biographical/Historical Note

Rosemary Pierrel Sorrentino received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Boston University (1945 and 1946, respectively), and her Ph.D. in psychology from Brown University in 1953. She also received an honorary degree in Humane Letters from Brown University in 1992.

Sorrentino was an instructor at Wheelock College in Boston from 1946 to 1949 and at Brown University from 1953 to 1955 before heading to Columbia University to teach experimental psychology. She went on to become the last dean of Pembroke College, the women's college in Brown University until the women's and men's colleges merged in 1971. During her decade as dean, she emphasized academics and encouraged women to pursue careers as scholars.

Sorrentino continued her research and became well known for her role in the Barnabus study at Brown University, conducting experiments to produce evidence of learning through reward and punishment in rats. A "Barnabas demonstration box" was constructed, in which the rat was conditioned to perform numerous tasks to be rewarded with a pellet of food.

Sorrentino married Louis Sorrentino and had a stepson, a stepdaughter, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. She died on November 11, 2003.