Over the last two weeks there have been at least 7 cases making the news about domestic abuse by NFL players. This week, there was an NYT editorial on abuse and its justification by too many men…

Are we concerned with "rewarding" or "reinforcing" behavior? Does it matter? Although perhaps not the most burning question in behavior analysis, it does bear on some important issues to those who…

Can it be that only some people like positive reinforcement? The older I get, the more half-truths and unsupported declarations bug me.  Nowhere is this more evident to me than the way writers,…

Behavior is said to be selected by its effects, or consequences, in a way that is similar to the selection of physical characteristics occurs in Darwinian natural selection.  In both instances,…

The principles of operant learning are well known.  If, for example, you give your dog treats from the dinner table, it is highly likely that, whenever you eat, the forlorn critter will be…

A steady stream of headlines brings near-constant reports on banks running afoul of laws and regulations. Recent evidence includes the mortgage-securities settlements of Bank of America and Citigroup…

Electronic performance monitoring tools (let’s call them EPMs) are becoming more prevalent in the workplace.  The transportation sector seems to be leading the pack at the moment.  Dr. Ron…

It’s no secret: Many successful businesses are slow to change. There are hundreds of examples in which corporations have rejected ideas and products that have been left to entrepreneurs to make…

The Innovative Work of Betty Hart and Todd Risley Here we recognize the seminal, innovative work of Betty Hart and Todd Risley analyzing the role of early verbal interactions in subsequent academic…

Every business and discipline has its technical terms, neologisms, and acronyms. Such word usage is of great value to those within what we in behavior analysis call a particular “verbal community” (…

The self appears frequently in psychological literature. It is one of Freud’s three structures of human personality and appears in most other personality theories in one form or another, as well as…

Many of us are in the deliberate search for better, easier, faster, more effective ways of getting things done.  We look for optimization in all sorts of pursuits; fitness, cooking, business…

Imagine yourself in front of a soft drink machine. You insert your money and make your selection. Nothing happens. Nada. No drink, just a cold, apparently empty machine staring you in the face. What…

In a previous commentary (Technology and Behavior Around the Office Coffee Machine), I described a mechanical solution to the problem of getting people to refill the coffee machine’s water reservoir…

In behavior analysis, a reinforcer is defined functionally, in terms of its effect on behavior. Thus, something (or someone or some activity) is said to be a reinforcer if it develops or maintains…

In discussing compliance or adherence to treatment recommendations, be they drugs, exercises or instructions to cease smoking, one of my colleagues, Stephanie Kincaid, observed the distinction…

We may be at a tipping point.  It just might be that we have hit the limit on how much we can do on any given day, week or month.  Most of us have more work on our to-do lists than we can…

In medical research it is well established that the biology of rats and mice is sufficiently similar to humans that these nonhuman species are used routinely and without challenge to further the…