Norman Raymond Frederick Maier (1900–1977) was an American experimental psychologist who worked primarily at the University of Michigan.
His research on rats during the 1930s and 1940s challenged the reigning behaviorist paradigm, by postulating cognitive processes akin to what was then being described by psychoanalysis.
In the 1950s, Maier changed his area of research to industrial psychology, he claimed in response to prejudicial treatment of him in the profession led by Clifford Morgan.
Maier was a National Research Council Fellow with Karl Lashley at the University of Chicago in 1929-1931, and joined the faculty at Michigan in 1931.
The formative influences on Maier included John F. Shepard at Michigan; Wolfgang Köhler, Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Lewin in Berlin; Karl Lashley and Heinrich Kluver at Chicago.