Cohen grew up in a Yiddish-speaking household and learned English at school. He attended the
Townsend Harris High School and graduated at the age of 15. He entered the
City College of New York, where he first studied mathematics but was interrupted by a service in the
US Army intelligence during
World War II in Europe. He eventually received a BA in psychology in 1947 from the City College. He then obtained his Master's degree in 1948 and PhD in clinical psychology at
New York University (NYU) in 1950. His PhD advisor was Avrum Ben-Avi. Cohen worked in the hospitals affiliated with the
Veterans Administration after graduation, first at Bronx, then at Montrose VA Medical Center, where he was a director of research. Between 1959 and retirement in 1993, he worked in the psychology department at NYU, latterly as the head of the
quantitative psychology group. In 1969 Cohen married Patricia Ruth Childs (1936-2018), later Patricia Cohen, who was a former PhD student in psychology at NYU. After retirement from NYU, Cohen continued working as a statistical consultant at the
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center,
New York State Psychiatric Institute, and at their joint H.I.V. Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies. Cohen passed away in 1998 at the
St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center in New York City. Cohen was president of the
Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology in 1969. He was awarded the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award by the
American Psychological Association in 1997 and was a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association and the
American Statistical Association. == Power analysis and significance testing ==