In the early 1970s, as a curious young assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, my colleagues asked me to apply heart rate monitoring to study the intellectually impaired. Although many of my colleagues were dedicated to the study of developmental disabilities, this was a new area for me. The University of Illinois had a physical center and an administrative structure to expand the behavioral sciences into the study of typically and atypically developing children, and the Children's Research Center was the epicenter of this research interest. The Center was headed by Bob Sprague and included several researchers—Steve Asher, Ann Brown, Joe Campione, Mark Gold, and Keith and Marcia Scott—who conducted research on mentally challenged children. The research conducted at the Center was well funded and was a high priority for both the State of Illinois and the National Institutes of Health.
In...