Early Life
Bower was born on December 30, 1932 in Scio, Ohio to Clyde Ward and Mabel (Bosart). His father worked as a grocery store owner and his mother was a teacher. During high school, he was encouraged by his teachers to pursue a career in psychiatry. Out of high school, he accepted a four-year scholarship to play baseball at Cleveland's Western Reserve University and during his freshman year, began working in the Cleveland State Mental Hospital. In order to avoid the military draft, Bower opted for graduate school, but his experiences in the mental hospital dissuaded him from a career as a psychiatrist.
While Bower was attending Yale for his degree in Experimental Psychology, he discovered a passion for learning theory and presented his findings on dual reward-punishment in rats to the American Psychological Association. During this time, he and Bill Estes also revised Edward Tolman's vicarious trial and error model to include human choices among commodity options. Bower married Sharon Anthony on January 30, 1957.
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