The U.S. Army Signal Corps adopted officially in 1943. In 1948 Keller received the Certificate of Merit from President Truman for the Morse Code work, and he used the method to teach the code to Columbia College undergraduates preparing for military service. In 1947 Keller, with his colleague William Schoenfeld, instituted at Columbia College the first undergraduate psychology course to use Skinner's experimental methods. Students taught white laboratory rats to respond to stimuli through rewards. The point of the experiments was to demonstrate the idea that broad principles of behavior could be discovered experimentally, and that such principles had important applications to human society.
Many colleges now offer courses in experimental psychology using laboratory animals.
Behavior theory held tremendous potential to help educate people better, the two authors believed. Fred S. Keller was a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a past president of the Eastern Psychological Association. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the American Psychological Foundation in 1970. Fred S. Keller and his wife Frances. The Keller Plan Handbook.