ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-349

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The experimental analysis of behavior has lagged far behind mainstream psychology, particularly cognitive psychology, in the study of complex behavior — remembering, thinking, imaging, problem solving, and the like. Yet it is the study of these kinds of behavior that will provide the greatest justification of our continued existence in the community of behavioral scientists. Focusing primarily on remembering as a complex performance, aspects of (1) radical behaviorism, (2) the methodology of the experimental analysis of behavior, and (3) the special contributions of B. F. Skinner are assessed as explicitly or implicitly discouraging the experimental treatment of such complex behavior. Although there are encouraging signs of advancement into the present domains of cognitive psychology, future success of the experimental analysis of behavior in this endeavor will require aggressive pursuit by investigators and more effective training of their student

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-353

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The recent history and current status of the area of verbal behavior are considered in terms of three major thematic lines: the operant conditioning of adult verbal behavior, learning to be an effective speaker and listener, and developments directly related to Skinner'sVerbal Behavior. Other topics not directly related to the main themes are also considered: the work of Kurt Salzinger, ape‐language research, and human operant research related to rule‐governed behav

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-363

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Social relations between two persons require that consequences each receives depend at least in part on the responses of the other. Historically, research in several areas has focused on two contingencies, cooperation and competition, in which reinforcement is determined by the responses of both participants. A major research question in social psychology and applied behavior analysis has been: Which contingency is more effective with regard to the quantity or quality of some response? Although this question has not been addressed in the experimental analysis of behavior, this area provides a perspective and method to more fully investigate the relevant controlling variables. Among these are the frequency of opportunities to audit the performances of others, information (or lack of it) provided by social or nonsocial stimuli with regard to reinforcement and performance, degree of face‐to‐face interaction, types of reinforcement contingencies, and number of participants. A neglected dependent variable is cost effectiveness — amount of behavior maintained by a given reinforcer amount. The larger agenda for the experimental analysis of interpersonal relations includes a variety of forms of reinforcement interdependence that raise issues of basic and applied int

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-377

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In psychological studies individual differences that result in variability in data and thus mask the effects under investigation have been reduced or eliminated in two ways: (1) through the use of large numbers of subjects and statistical manipulations,or(2) through extensive and controlled studies of individual subjects. The latter, behavior‐analytic, method is scientifically better because it permits identification of the variables that result in individual differences. This paper advocates the direct study of individual differences and personality rather than indirect study through experimental control procedures. Some data are presented showing that individual differences in response patterns have orderly characteristics. Extension of the experimental analysis of behavior to the study of individual differences and personality is likely to be important both scientifically and for the future growth of behavior analysi

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-385

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Operant researchers rarely use the arena of applied psychology to motivate or to judge their research. Absence of tests by application weakens the field of basic operant research. Early in their development, the physical and biological sciences emphasized meliorative aspects of research. Improvement of human life was a major goal of these young sciences. This paper argues that if basic operant researchers analogously invoked a melioration criterion, the operant field might avoid its tendency toward ingrowth and instead generate a broadly influential science. Operant researchers could incorporate melioration by (a) creating animal models to study applied problems; (b) confronting questions raised by applied analysts and testing hypotheses in applied settings; or (c) performing self‐experiments — that is, using experimental methods and behavioral techniques to study and change the experimenter's behav

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-397

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A case history illustrates how one research program in the experimental analysis of behavior evolved somewhat differently from the modal research program represented in this journal. A chief issue that seems to be responsible for this difference is the role attributed to theory in behavioral research: Skinner's views on the nature and function of theory and on the nature of observation combine to produce a certain kind of picture of behavior. The classic conception of reinforcement contingencies is tied to this particular picture. But this picture may be incompatible with, and certainly is different from, other possible pictures. Reinforcement contingencies that place greater emphasis on the local temporal patterning of behavior seem tied to some of these alternative pictures of what behavior is. These other pictures encourage a wide range of theoretical approaches, including cognitive ones, various kinds of mathematical analyses, and computer‐simulation methods to characterize entire behavior streams. In the future, perhaps the experimental analysis of behavior will accept a somewhat different range of views on the nature and function of theory, a correspondingly different set of experimental methods, and alternative ways of talking about behavio

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-407

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Quantitative analysis permits the isolation of invariant relations in the study of behavior. The parameters of these relations can serve as higher‐order dependent variables in more extensive analyses. These points are illustrated by reference to quantitative descriptions of performance maintained by concurrent schedules, multiple schedules, and signal‐detection procedures. Such quantitative descriptions of empirical data may be derived from mathematical theories, which in turn can lead to novel empirical analyses so long as their terms refer to behavioral and environmental events. Thus, quantitative analysis is an integral aspect of the experimental analysis of behav

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-421

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Economics, like behavioral psychology, is a science of behavior, albeit highly organized human behavior. The value of economic concepts for behavioral psychology rests on (1) their empirical validity when tested in the laboratory with individual subjects and (2) their uniqueness when compared to established behavioral concepts. Several fundamental concepts are introduced and illustrated by reference to experimental data: open and closed economies, elastic and inelastic demand, and substitution versus complementarity. Changes in absolute response rate are analyzed in relation to elasticity and intensity of demand. The economic concepts of substitution and complementarity are related to traditional behavioral studies of choice and to the matching relation. The economic approach has many implications for the future of behavioral research and theory. In general, economic concepts are grounded on a dynamic view of reinforcement. The closed‐economy methodology extends the generality of behavioral principles to situations in which response rate and obtained rate of reinforcement are interdependent. Analysis of results in terms of elasticity and intensity of demand promises to provide a more direct method for characterizing the effects of “motivational” variables. Future studies of choice should arrange heterogeneous reinforcers with varying elasticities, use closed economies, and modulate scarcity or income. The economic analysis can be extended to the study of performances that involve subtle discriminations or skilled movements that vary in accuracy or quality as opposed to rate or quantity, and thus permit examination of time/accuracy trade

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-435

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The operant‐respondent distinction has provided a major organizing framework for the data generated through the experimental analysis of behavior. Problems have been encountered, however, in using it as an explanatory concept for such phenomena as avoidance and conditioned suppression. Data now exist that do not fit neatly into the framework. Moreover, the discovery of autoshaping has highlighted difficulties in isolating the two types of behavior and conditioning. Despite these problems, the operant‐respondent framework remains the most successful paradigm currently available for organizing behavioral data. Research and theoretical efforts should therefore probably be directed to modifying the framework to account for disparate d

ISSN:0022-5002    

DOI:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-453

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1984

数据来源: WILEY