Cap 1. W. David Pierce, Carl D. Cheney - Behavior Analysis and Learning - A Biobehavioral Approach-Psychology Press (2017) PDF
Cap 1. W. David Pierce, Carl D. Cheney - Behavior Analysis and Learning - A Biobehavioral Approach-Psychology Press (2017) PDF
Cap 1. W. David Pierce, Carl D. Cheney - Behavior Analysis and Learning - A Biobehavioral Approach-Psychology Press (2017) PDF
Behavior: Perspective,
History, and
1
Assumptions
1. Inquire about learning, a science of behavior and behavior analysis.
2. Discover how selection by consequences extends to evolution and behavior.
3. Explore new directions in behavior analysis and behavioral neuroscience.
4. See how early learning is retained by epigenetic mechanisms.
5. Investigate the early beginnings of behavior analysis and learning.
6. Analyze feeling and thinking as complex behavior.
Learning refers to the acquisition, maintenance, and change of an organism’s behavior as a result
of lifetime events. The behavior of an organism is everything it does, including private and covert
An important aspect of human learning concerns the experiences arranged by other people.
argument, rewards, bribes, threats, and force are used in attempts to promote learning or change the
behavior of people. In civilized societies, people are required to learn socially appropriate behaviors.
As long as a person conforms, no one pays much attention. As soon as conduct substantially departs
from cultural norms, people get upset and socially reject the non-conformist—ensuring that most of
to capital punishment. Clearly, all cultures are concerned with human learning and the regulation
of human conduct. Without regulation, anarchy and confusion eventually destroy the civil order of
society.
Theories of learning and behavior have ranged from philosophy to natural science. When Soc-
rates was told that new discoveries in anatomy proved that bodily movement was caused by the
arrangement of muscles, bones, and joints, he replied, “That hardly explains why I am sitting here in
philosopher Alfred North Whitehead and the famous behaviorist B. F. Skinner were seated together
at dinner involved in a discussion about the behaviorist approach to psychology. After listening
1
2 A Science of Behavior
system existed to account for the spontaneous and generative nature of human language. Although
there was no satisfactory behavioral account of complex human behavior and language in the 1930s,
the science of behavior is currently addressing such puzzling questions.
Human behavior has been attributed to a great variety of causes. The causes of behavior have
been located both within and outside of people. Internal causes have ranged from metaphysical
entities like the soul to hypothetical structures of the nervous system. Suggested external causes of
behavior have included the effect of the moon and tides, the arrangement of stars, and the whims of
popular today. For example, the use of astrological forecasts is even found in modern corporations,
as demonstrated in the following passage taken from The Economist:
Is astrology the ultimate key to competitive advantage? That is what Divinitel, a French company
advice on anything from the timing of takeovers to exorcisms. . . . So who is daft enough to pay for
such mystical mumbo-jumbo? About 10% of French businesses are, according to a study by HEC, a
French business school.
The Economist
Business Insider -
methods learned over the years and years of training and experience.” Her website has six million
visitors every month and she has built an empire based on her “scarily accurate” predictions, said
the Insider. Miller states “one unlikely group of customers . . . are professional men from 25 to
45-years-old. In these uncertain economic times, astrology is more important than ever!” Many
people faced with the unpredictability of daily existence turn to the theory of celestial alignment
The trouble with astrology and other primitive accounts of human behavior is that they are not
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of learning and behavior has developed. Behavior theory states that all behavior is due to a complex
-
vation and controlled experimentation, and it provides a natural-science account of the learning and
behavior of organisms, including humans. This book is concerned with such an account.
SCIENCE OF BEHAVIOR
The experimental analysis of behavior is a natural-science approach to understanding behavior
regulation. Experimental analysis is concerned with controlling and changing the factors that affect
the behavior of humans and other animals. For example, a behavioral researcher in a classroom
may use a computer to arrange corrective feedback for a student’s mathematical performance. The
relevant condition manipulated or changed by the experimenter may involve presenting corrective
feedback on some days and withholding it on others. In this case, the researcher would probably
A Science of Behavior 3
observe more accurate mathematical performance on days with programmed feedback. This simple
experiment illustrates one of the most basic principles of behavior—the principle of reinforcement.
governs behavior, this is called an analysis of behavior. Thus, the experimental analysis of behav-
ior involves specifying the basic processes and principles that regulate the behavior of organisms.
Experiments are then used to test the adequacy of the analysis.
differential reinforce-
ment
4 A Science of Behavior
responded to particular stimuli were more likely than other organisms to survive and reproduce. For
instance, animals that startle and run in response to a sudden noise may escape a predator, hence the
Respondent Conditioning
Respondent conditioning
effect on behavior is correlated with an unconditioned stimulus
elicits
unconditioned response
on the part of the organism. Presentation of a light does not elicit eye blinking, and has no stimulus
conditioned stimulus
ally, when good or bad things happen to us we usually have an emotional reaction. These emo-
tional responses can be conditioned to other people who are present when the positive or negative
events occur. Thus, respondent conditioning plays an important role in our social relationships—
determining, to a great extent, how we evaluate and come to “feel” about our friends as well as our
enemies. Respondent conditioning is covered in more detail in Chapter 3.
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning involves the regulation of behavior by its consequences. B. F. Skinner called
this kind of behavior regulation operant conditioning D
operates r
operant
is any behavior that operates on the envi-
ronment to produce an effect. The effect
or consequence in turn changes the like-
lihood that the operant will occur again
in a similar situation. During operant
conditioning, an organism emits operant
behavior based upon its genetic endow-
ment; the operant produces an effect that
to occur when it is off. Basically, the frequency of lever pressing increases in the presence of the
D
conditioned stimulus; it simply increases the probability of the lever-pressing response when the
light is on. The control by the light stimulus is based on the past history of reinforcement for lever
pressing in the presence of the light and no reinforcement when it is off.
Most of what we commonly call voluntary, willful, or purposive action is analyzed as operant
behavior. Operant conditioning occurs, for example, when a baby smiles to a human face and is then
picked up. If smiling to faces increases in frequency because of such social attention, then smiling
D
sets
the occasion for infant smiling only after a history of operant conditioning. When a face appears,
the frequency of smiling increases; also, smiling has a low frequency of occurrence when no one is
D
increasing the probability of the response sequence. Other examples of operant behavior include
driving a car to work to get paid, talking on the phone for fun, taking lecture notes to pass a test,
walking to the store to buy groceries, reading a book for pleasure, writing a term paper for grades,
-
ogy is evolution through natural selection. Skinner generalized this concept to a broader principle
of selection by consequences
Selection by consequences is a form of causal explanation. In science we talk about two kinds
of causation: immediate and remote. Immediate causation is the kind of mechanism studied by
physics and chemistry—the “billiard ball” type of process where we try to isolate a chain of events
that directly result in some effect. For example, chemical reactions are explained by describing
molecular interactions. In the study of behavior, an immediate causal explanation might refer to the
physiology, biochemistry, and genetics of the organism. For example, the bar pressing of a rat for
food or a gambler playing roulette could each involve the release of endogenous opiates and dopa-
In contrast, remote causation is typical of sciences like evolutionary biology, geology, and
astronomy. In this case, we explain some phenomenon by pointing to remote events that made it
-
lutionary account of species coloration, for example, would involve showing how this characteristic
improved the reproductive success of organisms in a given ecological environment. Thus, natural
selection for coloration explains the current frequency of the characteristic in the population.
On the behavioral level, the principle of selection by consequences is a form of explanation by
remote causation called functional analysis. When a rat learns to press a lever for food, we explain
A Science of Behavior 7
frequency of bar pressing is explained by the contingency between bar pressing and food in the past.
The rat’s behavior has been selected by its history of reinforcement. Thus, the history of reinforce-
ment is what explains why the rat presses the lever.
Both immediate and remote causal explanations are acceptable in science. Behavior analysts
-
mately, both types of causal explanation will provide a more complete account of learning and behavior.
systems) is combined with the analysis of behavior. For example, in some cases it may be
possible to “sensitize” or “desensitize” a rat to the behavioral contingencies by drugs that
activate or block the action of specialized neurons (e.g., Bratcher, Farmer-Dougan, Dou-
gan, Heidenreich, & Garris, 2005). Research at the neural level could, in this way, add to the
practical control or regulation of behavior by its consequences.
Neural processes also may participate as immediate consequences (local contingencies)
for behavior that had long-range benefits for organisms—remote contingencies, as in evo-
lution and natural selection (Tobler, Fiorillo, & Schultz, 2005). The so-called neural basis of
reward involves the interrelationship of the endogenous opiate and dopamine systems (as
well as other neural processes) in the regulation of behavior and learning (Fiorillo, Tobler, &
Schultz, 2003; Puig, Rose, Schmidt, & Freund, 2014). For example, rats that are food restricted
and allowed to run in activity wheels increase running over days—up to 20,000 wheel turns.
Wheel running leads to the release of neural opiates that reinforce this behavior (Pierce,
2001; Smith & Rasmussen, 2010). If wheel running is viewed as food-related travel, one func-
tion of neural reinforcement is to promote locomotion under conditions of food scarcity.
The long-range or remote contingency (travel produces food: travel food) is supported
proximally by the release of endogenous opiates (physical activity release of endogenous
opiates) that “keep the rat going” under conditions of food scarcity (e.g., famine or drought).
The integration of the science of behavior with neuroscience (behavioral neurosci-
ence) is a growing field of inquiry. Areas of interest include the effects of drugs on behav-
ior (behavioral pharmacology), neural imaging and complex stimulus relations, choice and
neural activity, and the brain circuitry of learning and addiction. We shall examine some
of this research in subsequent chapters in sections that focus on behavior analysis and
neuroscience (“Focus On” sections) or in sections that emphasize applications (“On the
Applied Side” sections).
Drosophila melanogaster
-
onic development, genes are sequenced to form the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the
differences in the structure of organisms based on genetic control give rise to differences in the regulation
reproductive success. Presumably, those organisms that changed their behavior as a result of experiences
orchestrated by genes and proteins at the cellular level, typically regulate behavior related to sur-
tied to reproductive success and is regulated by distinct physiological processes. For many species,
A Science of Behavior 9
sexual behavior is rigidly controlled by genetically driven mechanisms. In humans, however, sexual
come to dictate when sexual intercourse occurs, how it is performed, and who can be a sexual partner.
Powerful religious or social controls can make people abstain from sex. This example demonstrates
that even the biologically relevant behavior of humans is partly determined by life experience.
Operant conditioning and natural selection are combined in the so-called imprinting of a newly hatched
duckling. In its natural environment the young duckling moves towards its mother and follows her
as she moves about. The behavior has obvious survival value. When no duck is present, the duckling
behaves in much the same way with respect to other objects. Recently it has been shown that a young
duckling will come to approach and follow any moving object, particularly if it is the same size as a
Even so, that is not a correct statement of what happens. What the duckling inherits is the
capacity to be reinforced by maintaining or reducing the distance between itself and a moving object.
In the natural environment, and in the laboratory in which imprinting is studied, approaching and
following have these consequences, but the contingencies can be changed. A mechanical system can
be constructed in which movement toward an object causes the object to move rapidly away, while
movement away from the object causes it to come closer. Under these conditions, the duckling will
move away from the object rather than approach or follow it. A duckling will learn to peck a spot
on the wall if pecking brings the object closer. Only by knowing what and how the duckling learns
during its lifetime can we be sure of what it is equipped to do at birth.
The duckling’s biological history, in terms of providing the capacity for reinforcement by prox-
imity to a duck-sized object, is the context for the regulation of its behavior. Of course, the anatomy
and neurophysiology of the duckling allow for this capacity. The way the environment is arranged
-
noncoding mRNAs of sex cells or gametes (Dias & Ressler, 2014; Gapp et al., 2014;
see Jablonka & Raz, 2009 for a complete discussion of transgenerational epigen-
etic inheritance). One implication is that learning sometimes can be transmitted
epigenetically from one generation to the next with no change in the genes them-
selves. Also, in the future, it may be possible to produce lasting reversal of epigenetic
changes by targeted early behavioral interventions (as in autism; see Chapter 13) or
reverse epigenetic effects in later life by arranging new (re)programmed learning
experiences (Tammen et al., 2013). Generally, evolution has provided animals with
epigenetic mechanisms that allow for retention of learning experiences (changes
in behavior due to the prevailing environmental contingencies) over an organism’s
lifetime and perhaps beyond.
psychology. From this perspective, stimuli force responses much like meat in a dog’s mouth elicits
conditioning experiments. Stimulus–response theories are mechanistic in the sense that an organism
is compelled to respond when a stimulus is presented. This is similar to a physical account of the
-
applied to voluntary actions or operants. To be fair, Watson talked about “habits” in a way that
sounds like operant behavior, but he lacked the experimental evidence and vocabulary to distinguish
between respondent and operant conditioning.
corresponding to the difference between operant and respondent behavior. In 1938, he introduced
the term “operant” in his classic book, The Behavior of Organisms. Eventually, Skinner rejected
selection. The basic idea is that an individual emits behavior that produces effects or consequences.
Based on these consequences, those performances that are appropriate to the environmental require-
ments increase, becoming more frequent in the population or class of responses for the situation;
at the same time, less appropriate forms of response decline or become extinct. Julie Vargas is the
daughter of B. F. Skinner and was a professor of behavior analysis at West Virginia University. She
has commented on her father’s model of causation:
Skinner’s paradigm is a selectionist paradigm not unlike Darwin’s selectionist theory of the evolution
of species. Where Darwin found an explanation for the evolution of species, Skinner looked for vari-
ables functionally related to changes in behavior over the lifetime of an individual. Both explanations
assumed variation; Darwin in inherited characteristics, Skinner in individual acts. Skinner, in other
words, does not concern himself with why behavior varies, only with how patterns of behavior are
drawn out from the variations that already exist. In looking at the functional relationships between
acts and their effects on the world, Skinner broke with the S–R, input–output transformation model.
also noted that operant behavior naturally varies in form and frequency. Even the simple movement
12 A Science of Behavior
of opening the door to your house is not done exactly the same way each time, an observation con-
occur. This energetic response may succeed in opening the door and become the most likely perfor-
mance for the situation. Other forms of response may occur at different frequencies depending on
operants are selected by their
consequences.
Similarly, it is well known that babies produce a variety of sounds called “babbling.” These
natural variations in sound production are important for language learning. When sounds occur,
parents usually react to them. If the infant produces a familiar sound, parents often repeat it more
precisely. Unfamiliar sounds are usually ignored. Eventually, the baby begins to produce sounds
by its social consequences is an important process underlying human communication and lan-
-
culture as all the conditions, events, and stimuli arranged by other people that regulate
to hold water is an advantage to the group because it allows for the transportation and storage of
words, the community values and uses those containers that last the longest, hold the most, and
containers declines.
Behavior analysts are interested in cultural evolution because cultural changes alter the social
conditioning of individual behavior. Analysis of cultural evolution suggests how the social environ-
level, behavior analysts suggest that the solution to many social problems requires a technology of
A Science of Behavior 13
cultural design. B. F. Skinner addressed this possibility in his utopian book, Walden Two
-
Behavioral technology also has been used to manage environmental pollution, encourage energy
are explained in science. These independent variables [causes] are of many sorts and their
relations to behavior are often subtle and complex, but we cannot hope to give an adequate
account of behavior without analyzing them.
(Skinner, 1953, p. 31)
One of Skinner’s most important achievements was his theory of operant behavior.
The implications of behavior theory were outlined in his book, Science and Human Behav-
ior (Skinner, 1953). In this book, Skinner discussed basic operant principles and their appli-
cation to human behavior. Topics include self-control, thinking, the self, social behavior,
government, religion, and culture. Skinner advocated the principle of positive reinforce-
ment and argued against the use of punishment. He noted how governments and other
social agencies often resort to punishment for behavior control. Although punishment
works in the short run, he noted that it has many negative side effects. Positive reinforce-
ment, Skinner believed, is a more effective means of behavior change—people act well
and are happy when behavior is maintained by positive reinforcement.
People have misunderstood many of the things that Skinner has said and done (Cata-
nia & Harnard, 1988). One popular misconception is that he raised his children in an exper-
imental chamber—the so-called “baby in a box.” Some critics claimed that Skinner used
his daughter as an experimental subject to test his theories. A popular myth was that this
experience drove his child crazy. His daughter, Julie, was confronted with this myth and
recalls the following:
I took a class called “Theories of Learning” taught by a nice elderly gentleman. He started
with Hull and Spence, and then reached Skinner. At that time I had read little of Skinner,
and I could not judge the accuracy of what was being said about Skinner’s theories. But
when a student asked whether Skinner had any children, the professor thought Skinner
had children. “Did he condition his children?” asked another student. “I heard that one
of the children was crazy.” “What happened to his children?” The questions came thick
and fast.
What was I to do? I had a friend in the class, and she looked over at me, clearly expect-
ing action. I did not want to demolish the professor’s confidence by telling who I was, but
I couldn’t just sit there. Finally, I raised my hand and stood up. “Dr. Skinner has two daugh-
ters and I believe they turned out relatively normal,” I said, and sat down.
(Vargas, 1990, pp. 8–9)
In truth, the “box” that Skinner designed for his children had nothing to do with an
experiment. The air crib is an enclosed bed that allows air temperature to be controlled.
Because of this feature no blankets are needed, so the baby is free to move and there is
no danger of suffocating. The air crib was designed to keep the child warm, dry, and safe.
Most importantly, the infant spent no more time in the air crib than other children do in
ordinary beds (Skinner, 1945).
Although Skinner did not experiment with his children, he was always interested in
the application of conditioning principles to human issues. His writings on applied behav-
ioral technology led to the field of applied behavior analysis, ABA (see Rutherford, 2009
who provides an historical account of the transition from Skinner’s work in the laboratory
to applications of behavior principles in everyday life). Applied behavior analysis is con-
cerned with the extension of behavior principles to socially important problems. In the
first issue of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) out-
lined a program of research based on Skinner’s views:
A Science of Behavior 15
The statement [of behavior principles] establishes the possibility of their application to problem
behavior. A society willing to consider a technology of its own behavior apparently is likely to
support that application when it deals with socially important behaviors, such as retardation,
crime, mental illness, or education. Better applications, it is hoped, will lead to a better state
of society, to whatever extent the behavior of its members can contribute to the goodness of a
society. The differences between applied and basic research are not differences between that
which “discovers” and that which merely “applies” what is already known. Both endeavors ask
what controls the behavior under study. . . . [Basic] research is likely to look at any behavior,
and at any variable which may conceivably relate to it. Applied research is constrained to look
at variables which can be effective in improving the behavior under study.
(Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968, p. 91)
One area of application that Skinner wrote about extensively was teaching and learn-
ing. Although Skinner recognized the importance of behavior principles for teaching
people with learning disabilities, he claimed that the same technology could be used to
improve our general educational system. In his book The Technology of Teaching, Skinner
(1968) offered a personalized system of positive reinforcement for the academic perfor-
mance of students. In this system, teaching involves arranging materials, designing the
classroom, and programming lessons to shape and maintain the performance of students.
Learning is defined objectively in terms of answering questions, solving problems, using
grammatically correct forms of the language, and writing about the subject matter.
A less well-known aspect of Skinner’s history is his humor and rejection of formal titles.
He preferred to be called “Fred” rather than Burrhus, and the only person who called him
Burrhus was his close friend and colleague Fred Keller, who felt he had prior claims on the
name Fred from being a few years older than Skinner. One of Skinner’s earliest collabora-
tors, C. B. Ferster, tells about a time early in his acquaintance when Skinner tried to get Fer-
ster to call him “Fred.” The story goes (Ferster, personal communication to Paul Brandon)
that one day Ferster walked into the living room of Skinner’s house to see Skinner seated
on the sofa with a large sign around his neck saying “FRED.”
In the later part of his life, Skinner worked with Margaret Vaughan (Skinner & Vaughan,
1983) on positive approaches to the problems of old age. Their book Enjoy Old Age: A Pro-
gram of Self-Management is written for the elderly reader and provides practical advice
on how to deal with daily life. For example, the names of people are easy to forget, and
even more so in old age. Skinner and Vaughan suggest you can improve your chances of
recalling a name by reading a list of people you are likely to meet before going to an
important occasion. If all else fails “you can always appeal to your age. You can please the
friend whose name you have momentarily forgotten by saying that the names you forget
are always the names you most want to remember” (Skinner & Vaughan, 1983, p. 52).
Skinner, who held the Edgar Pierce Chair in Psychology, officially retired from Harvard
University in 1974. Following his retirement, he continued an active program of research
and writing. Each day he walked two miles to William James Hall, where he lectured, su-
pervised graduate students, and conducted experiments. Eight days before his death on
August 18, 1990, B. F. Skinner received the first (and only) Citation for Outstanding Lifetime
Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association (Schlinger, 2011).
The citation for the award, published in the American Psychologist, read “Few individuals
have had such a dynamic and far-reaching impact on the discipline” (1990, p. 1205). In a
study of renowned psychologists by Haggbloom (2002), Skinner ranked as the most emi-
nent psychologist of the 20th century. Skinner’s contributions to psychology and a science
16 A Science of Behavior
of behavior are documented in the film B. F. Skinner: A Fresh Appraisal (1999). Murray
Sidman, a distinguished researcher in the experimental analysis of behavior, narrated the
film (available from the bookstore of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, www.
behavior.org).
two prominent research positions in Russia. He was Professor of Pharmacology at the St. Petersburg
Medical Academy and Director of the Physiology Department. For the next 20 years, Pavlov studied
the physiology of digestion, and in 1904 he won the Nobel
Prize for this work, the year that B. F. Skinner was born.
Ivan Pavlov initially worked on the physiology of saliva-
tion and digestion; later he began investigations of “psychic
-
tion. Pavlov had dogs surgically prepared to expose the sal-
ivary glands in the dogs’ mouths. The animals were brought
into the laboratory and put in restraining harnesses. As shown
in Figure 1.5, food was then placed in the dogs’ mouths and
the action of the salivary glands was observed and measured.
-
ing notions of animal behavior. At this time, many people
thought that animals, with the exception of humans, were
-
cedure resulted in the dog eventually salivating to the sound of the metronome. If a particular beat pre-
ceded feeding while other rhythms did not, the dog salivated most to the sound associated with food.
Although Pavlov was a physiologist and believed in mental associations and subjective experi-
-
owed the modern study of behavioral neuroscience, the
objective and direct study of brain and behavior empha-
sized in this book. He discovered many principles of the
-
crimination, generalization, and extinction. The later part
of his career involved an experimental analysis of neuro-
sis in animals. He continued these investigations until his
Watson was a rebellious young man who failed his last year at Furman University because he
1
He graduated in 1899, when he was 21 years
old. After spending a year as a public-school teacher, Watson was admitted to graduate studies at
the University of Chicago. There he studied philosophy with John Dewey, the famous educator.
He never really appreciated Dewey’s ideas, and later in his life commented, “I never knew what he
a graduate student at the University of Chicago, he also studied psychology with James Angell
obtained his doctorate for research with laboratory rats. The experiments concerned learning and
correlated changes in the brains of these animals.
Animal Education: An Experimental Study on the Psychical Devel-
opment of the White Rat, Correlated with the Growth of Its Nervous System, which was based on
his doctoral research. The book demonstrated that Watson was a capable scientist who could clearly
Psychological Review,
“Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.” This paper outlined Watson’s views on behaviorism as
the only way to build a science of psychology, avoiding the philosophical speculation of mind–
feelings. Further, he pointed to the unreliability of psychological inferences about another person’s
mind. He also noted that the psychology of mind had little practical value for behavior control and
public affairs. Modern behavior analysts, informed by the writings of Watson and B. F. Skinner,
as private behavior often related to challenges or problems faced by the person. A person may “think
about the house key” and check her coat pocket just before leaving for work, especially if she has
been locked out in the past. Notice that thinking about the key is not treated as a cause of behavior
-
animal alone also produced the fear responses. The next phase of the experiment involved a series of
tests to see if the child’s fear reaction transferred or generalized to similar stimuli. Albert was also
At this point, Watson and Rayner discussed a number of techniques that could be used to elim-
poke fun at Freud’s method of psychoanalysis. He suggested that as Albert got older, he might go to
an analyst because of his strange fears. The analyst would probably convince Albert that his prob-
lem was the result of an unresolved Oedipal complex. But, Watson remarked, we would know that
Albert’s fears were actually caused by conditioning—so much for Freudian analysis.
A Science of Behavior 19
As for whether Little Albert (Albert Barger) grew up with a conditioned pho-
bic reaction to furry objects, Powell and colleagues were able to establish that he
showed some aversion and dislike of dogs, but there was no clear evidence that
Albert showed a generalized avoidance of furry animals or other objects related
to his participation in Watson’s experiment. Thus, the speculation by Watson and
Rayner of lasting effects of their phobic conditioning is not well supported by the
extensive follow-up inquiry on Albert Barger’s life history.
Watson had many professional interests, and he investigated and wrote about ethology, compar-
ative animal behavior, neural function, physiology, and philosophy of science. Based on his provoc-
ative views and charisma, he was elected president of the American Psychological Association in
1915 when he was only 37 years old. After leaving Johns Hopkins University in 1920, he became
-
precede action and is usually called a stimulus–response approach. Another American psychologist,
behavior of organisms. His research emphasized the events that followed behavior. In other words,
his research and supported himself by tutoring students for two years at Harvard. Then Thorndike
intelligence testing. Thorndike took two of his “smartest” chickens with him to Columbia, but soon
switched to investigating the behavior of cats.
At Columbia University, Thorndike began his famous experiments on trial-and-error learning in
cats. Animals were placed in what Thorndike called a “puzzle box” and food was placed outside the
pull a string, and lift a latch. These responses resulted in opening the puzzle-box door. Thorndike
found that most cats took less and less time to solve the problem after they were repeatedly returned
law of effect:
The cat that is clawing all over the box in her impulsive struggle will probably claw the string or loop
or button so as to open the door. And gradually all the other non-successful impulses will be stamped
out and the particular impulse leading to the successful act will be stamped in by the resulting plea-
sure, until after many trials, the cat will, when put in the box, immediately claw the button or loop
Today, Thorndike’s law of effect is restated as the principle of reinforcement. This principle states
that all operants may be followed by consequences that increase or decrease the probability of
response in the same situation. Notice that references to “stamping in” and “pleasure” are not nec-
essary and that nothing is lost by this modern restatement of the law of effect.
Thorndike was appointed to the Teachers College, Columbia University, as a professor in 1899,
and he spent his entire career there. He studied and wrote about education, language, intelligence
testing, comparison of animal species, the nature–nurture problem, transfer of training, sociology
of the quality of life, and most importantly, animal and human learning. Thorndike published more
known educational psychologist in his own right, and in 1937 joined the same department of psy-
analysis. Although the ideas of many scientists and philosophers have had an impact, B. F. Skin-
“Focus On: Burrhus Frederic Skinner” section, we described some details of his life and some of
because of neural connections in our brain. Most people accept explanations of behavior that rely
on inferences about the brain, mind, intelligence, cognitive function, neural activity, thinking, or
-
ral processes. Skinner, however, suggested that remembering, thinking, feeling, even the actions of
neurons, are simply more behavior of the organism that requires explanation. He further proposed
that the action of organisms could be investigated by focusing on behavior and the environmental
events that precede and follow it.
Behavior JEAB -
cations of behavior principles became more and more evident, and applications to mental illness,
Journal of Applied Behavior Anal-
ysis JABA
Association established Division 25 called The Experimental Analysis of Behavior, which has sev-
This association holds an annual international conference attended by behavior analysts from many
countries. The association publishes a journal of general issues called The Behavior Analyst.
In addition to ABAI, Robert Epstein, one of B. F. Skinner’s last students and past editor of the
well-known magazine Psychology Today, founded the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies
problems in education, business, and other applied settings. As part of this mission, the Center main-
second book, after his basic text called The Behavior of Organisms [1938], was a novel describing
the application of behavior principles in a Utopian community, Walden Two -
cations of behavior principles were highly successful, and this led to a greater demand for people
trained in applied behavior analysis. Soon applied researchers were no longer working in the labo-
ratory or reading the basic journals.
-
edged the technical drift of applied behavior analysis, but suggested that this was a natural progres-
-
ioral technicians in areas such as the treatment of autism and developmental disabilities, behavioral
safety, and behavioral medicine. However, behavioral technicians and professional behavior ana-
lysts are naturally more concerned with procedures to improve or help those with severe disorders,
this trend and concluded that the divide between basic and applied has become even wider since the
issue was originally raised 35 years ago. One possibility is that those with a help-oriented focus will
establish a new organization to represent their legitimate interests, while researchers who remain in
the ABAI may continue to emphasize analysis and basic principles.
Journal of Applied
Behavior Analysis JABA
based on modern behavior principles as well as reviews of basic research areas. Currently, there is
a call for more translational research that ties basic principles to socially important problems and
new areas of behavioral application, especially when there are limited funding opportunities for basic
JABA JEAB
24 A Science of Behavior
of the literature shows that the number of dual authors more than doubled between 1980–2010 and
research publications by dual authors tripled in the same period. A social network analysis indicates
behavior analysis and to encourage closer ties to other biological sciences. We have written this book
assuming that an acquaintance with basic research is important, even for those who are primarily con-
cerned with behavioral applications and translational studies. Students can study this text for a basic
grounding in behavior science, or for a solid foundation in human behavior and application.
assume that the behavior of organisms is lawful. This means that it is possible to study the interac-
tions between an organism and its environment in an objective manner. To carry out the analysis, it
is necessary to isolate behavior–environment relationships. The scientist must identify events that
-
ior. If behavior systematically changes with variation in the environmental conditions, then behavior
analysts assume that they have explained the action of the organism. There are other assumptions
that behavior analysts make about their science.
often misunderstood; internal functioning, like an upset stomach, full bladder, and low blood sugar,
is analyzed as part of a person’s environment. Part of each person’s world is private with stimulation
external, public stimuli such as light, noise, odor, and heat. Both public and private events regulate
behavior. Although this is so, behavior analysts usually emphasize the external, public environment.
This is because public events are the only stimuli available for behavior change, a major goal of
behavior analysis. The objective procedures of psychological experiments or clinical treatments
often are giving instructions and observing how the person acts. From a behavioral view, the instruc-
tions are external, public stimuli that regulate both verbal and nonverbal behavior. Even when a drug
drug is an external, public event that subsequently regulates behavior. To make this clear, without
the drug injection neither the biochemistry nor the behavior of the person would change.
Many psychological studies involve giving information to a person to change or activate cogni-
tive processes. Thus, cognitive psychologists “invent internal surrogates which become the subject
to explain
from the behavior to be explained, leading to circular reasoning. For example, a child who peers
A Science of Behavior 25
out of the window at around the time her mother usually comes home from work is said to do this
because of an “expectation.” The expectation of the child is said to explain why the child peers out
from the behavior it is said to explain. Cognitions could explain behavior if the existence of thought
processes were based on some evidence other than behavior. In most cases, however, there is no
One way out of this problem of logic is not to use thinking and feeling as causes of behavior. Think-
ing and feeling are treated as more behavior to be explained.
stops, and the lights go out. You hear a sound that appears to be the snapping of elevator cables.
Suddenly, the elevator lurches and then drops 2 feet. You call out, but nobody comes to your rescue.
a good friend invites you to dinner. You meet downtown, and you discover that your friend has
skyscraper. Standing in front of the elevator, a sudden feeling of panic overwhelms you. You make
a socially appropriate excuse like, “I don’t feel well,” and you leave. What is the reason for your
behavior and the accompanying feeling?
There is no question that you feel anxious, but this feeling is not why you decide to go home.
Both the anxiety and your decision to leave are easily traced to the negative experience in the ele-
vator that occurred six months ago. It is this prior conditioning that behavior analysts emphasize.
Notice that the behavioral position does not deny your feelings. These are real events. However, it is
your previous interaction with the broken elevator that changed both how you feel and how you act.
Reports of Feelings
You may still wonder why behavior analysts study overt behavior instead of feelings—given that
both are changed by experience. The answer concerns the accessibility of feelings and overt behav-
ior. Much of the behavior of organisms is directly accessible to the observer or scientist. This public
-
access to this private stimulation, but the problem is that reports of feelings are highly unreliable.
26 A Science of Behavior
ourselves, but when they do this they have no way of accurately knowing what is going on inside
us. Parents and teachers rely on public cues to train self-descriptions. They do this by comment-
ing on and correcting verbal reports when behavior or events suggest a feeling. A preschooler
is taught to say “I feel happy” when the parents guess that the child is happy. The parents may
base their judgment on smiling, excitement, and affectionate responses from the child. Another
way in which this training occurs is that the child may be asked “Are you happy?” in a circum-
the child appears to be sad, or circumstances suggest this should be so, saying “I am happy” is
not reinforced by the parents. Eventually, the child says “I am happy” in some situations and not
in others.
Reports are only as good as the training of correspondence between public conditions and private
events. In addition to inadequate training, there are other problems with accurate descriptions of
-
tions, and this means that we cannot be taught to describe such events accurately. Although a doctor
is in the liver or the spleen. This report is simply inaccessible to the patient because there is no way
we are able to report in a limited way on private events, but the unreliability of such reports makes
Thinking as Behavior
Behavior analysts have also considered “thinking” and its role in a science of behavior. In contrast
to views that claim a special inner world of thought, behavior analysts suggest that human thought
may be analyzed as human behavior. Skinner stated that:
The history of human thought is what people have said and done. Symbols are the products of written
and spoken verbal behavior, and the concepts and relationships of which they are symbols are in
expression in behavior.
may be attributed to higher mental functions. From this perspective, thinking is treated as private
like “She is probably thinking of moving the castle” refers to thinking that precedes the
A Science of Behavior 27
you’ll lose it.” Additionally, the player may be told “A better move would have been . . . ,” and a
demonstration of the superior move is usually given. After playing a number of games, the student
is asked to explain why a particular move was made, and the explanation is discussed and evalu-
ated. Eventually, the teacher stops prompting the player and encourages the person to play chess in
As skill at chess further improves, the player no longer relies on viewing the board and its
layout, but increasingly relies on thinking about the game. Blindfolded chess masters report that
their thinking does not use mental images as surrogates for viewing the board, but rather abstrac-
tions with minimal or no physical features
involves private verbalizing rather than mental imaging—something like verbal chess notation. In
chess notation, a letter and the coordinate of the destination square indicate each move of a piece.
28 A Science of Behavior
(move strength) in the game, but tournament players gain the most from continuing to
think about the problem.
As for the hard chessboard problems (bottom panel), experts again do better in move
strength than tournament players (two black bars), indicating a difference in intuitive think-
ing favoring experts; tournament players show a small, but statistically unreliable, increase
in move strength on the move chosen after deliberation, which suggests that further think-
ing about difficult chess problems did not gain an advantage for tournament players. In con-
trast, experts confronted with difficult problems showed a reliable improvement in move
strength after deliberation (move chosen). Thus, thinking longer, and presumably in differ-
ent ways, about difficult chessboard problems results in better moves (move strength) for
expert players, but not for tournament players. The next step, from a behavioral view, is to
use the “thinking aloud” method to analyze the verbal behavior of experts to extract rules
and strategies that could be taught to tournament players, showing that once these “ways
of thinking” are learned move scores improve, as does general expertise in chess.
Verbal concepts drawn from a player’s pre-existing behavior repertoire are used for conceptual-
-
gested by cognitive psychology. To illustrate this, verbal concepts linked to vision might include the
[stimulus] classes and generalization within classes,” not some inferred mental entity.
The function of thinking as private behavior is to increase the effectiveness of practical action.
People conceptualize the game privately without committing themselves publicly. An advantage is
-
nent; also thinking may be revoked if the judged consequences are not reinforcing based on your
recent history of reinforcement. Once a conceptualization is implemented, the player faces the
objective consequences. If conceptualizing guides actions resulting in checkmate, then this kind of
thinking is strengthened. On the other hand, conceptualizing moves that result in loss of the game
CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter has introduced the idea that many behaviors are acquired during one’s lifetime as a
result of experience. At birth we emit behavior with very little organized activity. However, as our
30 A Science of Behavior
behaviors cause consequences, some responses are strengthened while others are weakened. The
consequences of behavior function to select and establish a behavior repertoire. Several promi-
nent persons were introduced to illustrate the history of the science of behavior analysis. In partic-
ular, B. F. Skinner was described as the major force behind the experimental and applied analysis
of behavior, which is the topic of this book. This approach is related to biology in that behavior is
considered to be a product of genes interacting with the organism’s environment over a lifetime.
-
currently is extended to the understanding of feelings and to complex behavior involving problem
solving and thinking.
KEY WORDS
ON THE WEB
www.bfskinner.org As you learned in this chapter, B. F. Skinner established the natural science of
behavior used in this textbook. The B. F. Skinner Foundation was established in 1987 to educate
the public about Skinner’s work and accomplishments, and to promote an understanding of
contingencies of reinforcement in regulation of human behavior.
www.behavior.org The website for the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies is useful to learn
more about behavior analysis, behaviorism, and applied behavior analysis. The Center pub-
lishes several journals, is host to the Virtual Behavioral Community, and offers recent publica-
tions through an online bookstore.
http://web.utk.edu/~wverplan William S. Verplanck, a major contributor to the experimental anal-
ysis of behavior and behaviorism, died in September 2002. This award-winning website pro-
vides information on his past activities, publications, and addresses, plus interesting issues in
psychology and the study of behavior.
www.abainternational.org -
The Behavior Analyst and
Verbal Behavior
A Science of Behavior 31
BRIEF QUIZ
behavior analysis?
their views?
10. How are thinking and feeling treated from a behavioral perspective?
NOTE
1 This description of John Watson is partially based on a paper by James Todd and Edward Morris