On September 2, 2025, the Department of Psychology lost a valued member of our community, Dr. Arthur S. Reber (1940-2025).
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Arthur S. Reber, who was an Assistant Professor in UBC’s department of psychology before joining Brooklyn College, CUNY in 1970.
Dr. Reber’s scientific contributions and personal warmth leave a lasting impact on the UBC Psychology community. A pioneering scholar, his influential research on implicit learning and the “artificial grammar” paradigm opened new ways of understanding how people acquire knowledge without awareness, shaping research around the world.
Arthur’s curiosity and passion extended across many topics, from memory and consciousness to the psychology of risk and gambling. His legacy continues at UBC, through our teaching materials and through his Gambling for Dummies, still a well-used resource in our labs.
“Art was a fascinating individual. I read his influential research on artificial grammar learning as an undergraduate in the UK, and I enjoy teaching that material in my Psyc 101 class to this day. What surprised me was the discovery that the very same academic had an avid interest in the psychology of gambling, and especially poker, largely based on his own ‘lived experience’.”
Art’s connections with UBC long preceded my own, but as I joined the Department in 2014, he was very welcoming and showed much enthusiasm for my appointment as ‘the gambling guy’. Art was a fascinating individual. I read his influential research on artificial grammar learning as an undergraduate in the UK, and I enjoy teaching that material in my Psyc 101 class to this day. What surprised me was the discovery that the very same academic had an avid interest in the psychology of gambling, and especially poker, largely based on his own ‘lived experience’. His Gambling for Dummies book is heavily thumbed in our lab office, and his 2012 academic paper on the Expected Value – Flexibility framework (the EVF model) is an authoritative guide that situates gambling alongside many other instances of everyday risk-taking. I used this paper as a set reading in my 300 course for several years. He gave me some great advice on teaching large introductory courses at UBC, and he always had provocative feedback for grad students presenting in the Cognitive area workshops. Art was an enigma who was equally passionate discussing cognitive science or his recent fortunes (good or bad) at the poker table, and there are many questions I wish I could have asked him.
Dr. Luke Clark
Professor, UBC Psychology
Director, Centre for Gambling Research at UBC
His remarkable contributions include mentoring numerous junior faculty colleagues and dozens of students at all levels. Arther will be greatly missed.
We send our deepest condolences to his wife and research collaborator, Dr. Rhiannon Allen—and to his family, loved ones, former students, and colleagues.
“Arthur was truly a larger-than-life personality – if you never met him, picture George Carlin as a professor, with everything that would entail – always ready with strong opinions on just about any topic, and that fortunate ability to disagree without being disagreeable. He was an exceptional colleague who immediately put people at ease with his laid back, highly scholarly style, and he championed academic pursuits and promoted his own and others’ students at every opportunity. To his students, Arthur was more than an advisor: he was an inspiration—and their friend.”
