Learning Applications, Inc. was incorporated as a Florida corporation in 1991. It was co-founded by Paul M. Deutsch, Ph.D. and Roger D. Ray, Ph.D. The company's sole purpose was to explore digital solutions in publicational and educational arenas.

In 1993, the company was contracted to deliver a highly sophisticated electronic textbook alternative for the higher education market. The mission was to move conceptually as far as possible beyond the "electronic page-turning" flurry of CD-ROM educational products just beginning to appear on the market for higher education. The client was Brown & Benchmark Publishers, an academic publisher then owned by Times Mirror Higher Education, a publisher subsequently purchased in 1996 by McGraw-Hill.

The emerging "proof-of-concept" product from this venture focused exclusively on the field of Introductory Psychology, and various developmental versions were presented at many psychological and multimedia conferences and conventions during the 1995-96 period. Many ardent teachers of Introductory Psychology were followers of this effort and were saddened by the fact that McGraw-Hill did not choose to deliver this product to market after the acquisition of Brown & Benchmark. Nevertheless, Learning Applications retained exclusive copyrights and patent potentials for the MediaMatrix software engine which was the delivery vehicle used in all of the product demonstrations of the Psychology text Brown & Benchmark had commissioned.

Soon after the McGraw-Hill abandonment of the Brown & Benchmark Psychology project, Dr. Roger Ray acquired all stock in Learning Applications and eventually merged Learning Applications with its sister company, (AI)², Inc. (AI)² continues to advance MediaMatrix as the world's only true production-level computerized adaptive instructional publication vehicle. Version 3.0 development is well underway, and promises to bring not only text and graphics, but also full-screen interactive video tutorials to the internet. Fall semester, 2000, introduced our text and graphics adpative instructional services to internet users. We are still working on interactive video tutorial delivery capability.

  (AI)², Inc. is founded.

(AI)², Inc. was incorporated as a Florida corporation in 1995. It is a family-owned venture in software development as well as electronic and multimedia content publications. Principals and officers include Roger D. Ray, Ph.D. as President, M. Rosalind Ray, M.S., Sectretary/Treasure, and their two daughters, Jennifer Ray Clark and Jessica M. Ray.

(AI)²'s first commercial product was CyberRat. Introduced in 1996, CyberRat was a ground-breaking effort in interactive video simulations for laboratory skill-building and quickly won over many fans in the brief period it has been on the market. When introduced, (AI)² agreed to contract Brown & Benchmark Publishers as its exclusive marketing agent for CyberRat. McGraw-Hill's acquistion of Times Mirror Higher Education brought the product to what is now McGraw-Hill Higher Education, and CyberRat continued to be a highly popular product until its initial printing was exhausted. This product is designed for psychology laboratories which demand the highest fidelity simulations possible with today's technologies, and is now in revision for internet delivery. This web-site offers purchase/adoption opportunities for your classes.

  The Collaborative Convergence of Two Sister Companies

Beginning in 1998 and culminating in a full merger in 1999, Learning Applications and (AI)² initiated a collaborative synthesis of research and development plus multimedia publication. These efforts have now resulted in the introduction of a new product which we think fulfills the unfinished promise of a MediaMatrix production for Introductory Psychology students. This is our internet-enabled adaptation of Richard A. Kasschau's recently updated version of his popular "Psychology: Exploring Behavior."

The philosophy of our effort is simple, yet provocative. We propose to bring fundamental coverage of the field of Psychology to students with the expectation of their FULL MASTERY of its content. In 1998, a very enlightening poster presentation at the APA convention by Jeanne S. Zechmeister and Eugene B. Zechmeister titled Identifying KEY "Key Terms and Concepts" in Introductory Psychology Textbooks demonstrated that only 64 terms appeared in common among 10 major introductory psychology textooks! Yet, all total, the 10 books contained 2505 items deemed to be different terms or concepts. When they reduced their criteria to be a term's appearance in as many as 8 out their selected sample of 10 popular Introductory Psychology Textbook glossaries, they still found only 197 terms to be commonly used within the field of Psychology! With such variations the authors concluded that psychology was not being taught as anything like a singular comprehensible discipline! Rather, each author was writing his/her own individualized representation of the field, with very little overlap or commonality with their competitors.

Now we ask: "Is this any way to introduce a scientific discipline?" We think not! So we chose a different path. We chose to remove most of the material that would not be tested by most instructors, but concentrated on the fundamentals that most texts share in common. Then we chose to implement an adaptive instructional system that encourages--in fact it may even demand--total mastery of those fundamentals. To that end, we are proud to have introduced this highly innovative system of instruction for use by Introductory Psychology students beginning in the Fall of 1999 -- all delivered and certified via the internet. When our video library begins to develop, watch for us on internet hybrids using DVD-ROMs for video and the internet for text, adaptivity, and mastery certification via our sophisticated student knowledge mirroring system!