Wesleyan College/Carnegie Institution (1914–1922) Miles began working as a
research scientist at
Wesleyan College after receiving his PhD. He was recruited by
Raymond Dodge to fill a one-year position here while Dodge left to work with F.G. Benedict at the Carnegie Nutrition Institute. When his year was up, he replaced Dodge at the Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where he remained until 1922. During his time here, much of his research focused on combined psychological and
physiological measurements In line with Miles' love of apparatuses, the two constructed an apparatus to measure the effects of variations in signal calling on the speed at which the lineman moved in reaction to the signal for snapping the ball to measure eye motion and response times of intoxicated subjects. Psychologist C. James Goodwin reviewed Miles' work on alcohol research in a 2014 publication in the History of Psychology journal. He first examined the effects of moderate doses of alcohol (i.e., 14%–22% by weight) on behavior and demonstrated that this impairs motor skills. Specifically, he gave five male participants moderate doses of alcohol and demonstrated that alcohol reduces typing efficiency, finger movement speed, and horizontal eye movement speed. Miles came up with a novel method of disguising placebo beverages in this study that is still used today: wiping the rim of the glass with alcohol. In the second study, Miles used similar methodology as the first study with the exception of giving participants alcohol after eating a full meal to see if food diluted the effects of alcohol. It reduced adverse effects, but still impair performance. In the third study, Miles collaborated with
T. M. Carpenter to examine the effects of alcohol administered via rectal injection during sleep. Rectal injection of either alcohol or a saline solution was used to ensure the participant did not know if he was being administered alcohol or a placebo, and because it was believed that alcohol would be absorbed more quickly into the bloodstream than by oral administration. In the fourth study, Miles examined the effects of low dose alcohol on behavior by conducting a series of studies of two years with a 36-year-old male. This study lead to the fifth set of studies that further examined low dose alcohol using 8 subjects between the ages of 22 and 52. Miles' research on the effects of alcohol in the 1920s was fitting given the debate about alcohol that led to
National Prohibition. However, the war had severed many relations Carnegie Laboratory had with researchers in Europe. As such, physiologist/chemist
Francis Benedict chose Miles to reestablish important connections across Europe. This report was made available to the Archives of the History of American Psychology at the
University of Akron and in September 2010 C. James Goodwin and Lizette Royer made this work available in print.
Stanford University (1922–1932) Although Walter R. Miles was satisfied with his work at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, he missed the teaching and academic atmosphere he had experienced during his earlier time at Wesleyan University. When Lewis Terman offered him a position at Stanford University in
Palo Alto, he accepted. After Miles left Stanford to accept a faculty position at
Yale University,
Ernest Hilgard who succeeded him, remarked that the laboratory Miles left behind was "literally packed with devices ready to be operated, reminding me of a modern science museum". Recognizing the historical and scientific value of Muybridge’s work, Miles organized efforts to restore and preserve the surviving materials. He saw practical applications for Muybridge’s sequential photography in the study of human perception, particularly regarding how people perceive continuous motion from discrete images, a topic that would later become foundational in motion picture theory and cognitive psychology. Miles used these materials for teaching and research, thereby helping to integrate Muybridge's visual experiments into formal experimental psychology. His work ensured that Muybridge’s contributions extended beyond photography and art into the scientific understanding of motion and vision. Additionally, the Stanford University Libraries maintain documentation of the Muybridge Collection and acknowledge early preservation efforts initiated by faculty like Miles. Thanks to these interventions, Muybridge’s work remained accessible for later generations of researchers, historians, and artists.
Yale University (1932–1952) Miles first came to Yale in 1930 before returning to Stanford in 1931. He came to Yale at the request of Dodge who asked Miles is there was "any possibility of inducing you to come here in a position parallel with mine with the expectation that within a few years you will take my place". Dodge was suffering from Parkinson's disease and wanted Miles to take over. His work published from data collected at Yale were minor and highly specialized However, when
World War II began Miles again became involved in war-related projects. He made one of the best contributions to aviation psychology when he discovered that while waiting to be called for flights, aviators could wear red-lensed goggles. These goggles helped with dark adaptation and could be worn at night so that flyers would immediately be ready for emergency flying when calls came.
The University of Istanbul (1954–1957) Despite Miles' retirement from Yale, he remained active in psychology.
Ernest Hilgard heard about a visiting psychologist position at the University of Istanbul and recommended this to Miles given his love of travel. Miles took the position of Professor of Experimental Psychology and created and developed a laboratory there. Although his wife Catharine was also offered a position, she declined. Most notably, Miles supervised a dissertation of a woman who eventually accepted a position on the teaching staff there and the two edited a volume called the Istanbul Studies in Experimental Psychology.
Submarine Base at New London, Connecticut (1957–1965) At the age of 72, Miles accepted a position as scientific director of the Submarine Base at
New London, Connecticut, where he stayed for eight years. His work here included studying problems associated with living together in cramped quarters as well as the effects of long exposures to cold. ==Honors==