Blog Topics
Looking for something specific? The following topics address a wide range of business needs and challenges.
Reinforcement is a Reciprocal Relation
Reinforcement in most human situations commonly is arranged and administered by another person. Teachers reinforce appropriate behavior of their students and parents praise good acts of their…
Is Behavior Ever Beyond Change?
We behavior analysts consider ourselves pretty skilled at changing behavior. But are there circumstances where behavior can’t, or won’t, change? Probably, but let’s consider the circumstances where…
Barking Dogs and Delayed Reinforcement
Not too many years ago we had a wonderful Golden Retriever named Molly, whose greatest pleasure in life was human contact. Sure, she would step outside in the morning for a quick relief, but within…
Creating Alignment With Consequences
The science of behavior has much to teach us about how to improve performance and create a more engaged culture. One of the key teachings from the science is that precise application of…
Taking a Safety Culture Selfie
My teenage kids are constantly taking selfies. Despite my general distaste for the practice, there are some positive side effects. It occurs to me that my kids have more accurate self-images than I…
What Does It Mean to Emit a Response
In behavioral circles it is common to hear expressions like “the child emitted the response” or “the rat emitted a bar press.” Use of the verb “emit” comes from an old distinction in psychology.…
Creating an Achievement Culture
I have often said, “The best job you will ever have is one where you know at the end of every day how well you have done.” The students at Morningside Academy can wholeheartedly agree that this…
Safety Rewards Can Be Dangerous
I just finished reading an ISHN article on safety incentives and the value of a gift card reward system to promote safety. To say that I didn't like it is an understatement. It reminds me of the many…
Some Other Things You Need to Know About Performance Baselines
A performance baseline provides the standard against which we measure the effectiveness of our intervention. A change following an intervention relative to the baseline level of the behavior signals…
Measuring Performance: Necessary but Insufficient
“What gets measured, gets done.” If this saying is true, then why are so many people overweight?
I have been recording my weight daily for over 35 years and as I am writing this, I am 4.5…
Backyard Behaviorism: Creating Science Fair Projects in Natural Settings
In a previous commentary I described an experiment in which response keys and a food delivery device was set in a window such that any free-ranging pigeon who happened by could peck the keys and gain…
Things You Need to Know About Performance Baselines: Trend and Bounce
Whether you are teacher evaluating students’ learning of a new academic skill, a manager evaluating the efficiency with which employees perform a task, or a basic researcher investigating the effect…
Turkey in the Oven or in the Skinner Box?
Think about it. You can put a turkey in the oven only once. The pleasure for the turkey is over immediately (well, realistically some days before), and for you not long after the Thanksgiving feast.…
Be Careful What You Read, Even if it’s from the NYT
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,…
Wanted: Elf on the Shelf at Work
Is it possible that the walls really do have eyes? Even Santa understands that rewards should not be given unless they are earned, so he has created the elf on the shelf—a person whose job it is to…
The End-of-Year Bonus: When Will Companies Wise Up!
According to Fortune, about 75% of employees will be receiving a holiday bonus this year. Now, this is the point in which I am obliged to say, “Why do companies continue to throw good money…
Reinforcers, Rewards, and Incentives: Are There Differences?
These three terms often appear in reports related to behavior change. A dictionary definition of an incentive is “a thing that motivates or encourages one to do something.” The word “reward” is used…
Three Different Ways that Reinforcers Affect Behavior
When presenting some event or activity dependent on a response makes that response more likely in the future, we say that reinforcement of the response has occurred. This sometimes is…