The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies was founded in 1981 by American psychologist Robert Epstein as an advanced studies institute devoted to promoting the scientific study of behavior and its humane applications in human affairs. During its first decade of operation, more than 100 distinguished scientists, business leaders and public policy makers were involved in center programs, including Nobel laureates Roger Sperry and David Hubel and current or former executive officers of the American Psychological Association, Columbia University, the Peace Corps, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and other organizations and institutions.
During its early years the center was located across from the Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It housed a library and archive, hosted public policy workshops, offered advanced training in the analysis of behavior, provided fellowships to noted scholars, and hosted the annual Loebner Prize Competition in Artificial Intelligence. A fire in the early 1990s destroyed most of the holdings of the library and archives and forced the center to move to other quarters. It is currently located in Concord, Massachusetts, where it organizes conferences, publishes academic journals (Behavior and Philosophy, Behavioral Technology Today), maintains an extensive website of information on the scientific study of behavior, and provides accreditation for programs and institutions that analyze or modify behavior using high standards of scientific practice.