The (Pigeon) Key to Behavior: Measurement Counts!
In a recent piece, I introduced readers to the pigeon as the subject extraordinaire for laboratory research on basic learning processes. Pigeons are used because of their long lives and their…
Science is Everywhere: Including Mixed Martial Arts
Behavior is behavior is behavior…regardless of the job, hobby or any learning endeavor we spend our time and energy on there is a lot we can learn from those that master their own areas of interest.…
The Behavioral Interface
At a recent luncheon I found myself in conversation with two interesting entrepreneurs who had, over the past 16 months, created what seemed to be a quite excellent behavior recording/management…
Vive le Pigeon
I spent a sabbatical year in Lille, France, a city surrounded by what Colonel John McCrae immortalized as “Flanders Fields.” Some of the most horrific fighting that has ever taken place on…
Getting to the Bottom of a Nasty Rumor
A listener recently told Ira Glass, host of the NPR show This American Life, that he was told that pigs’ rectums were being sold by packing plants to be used as artificial calamari. The…
Do You Really Want People to Fail?
Is that how you teach persistence, resilience and grit?
This is another story that just drives me crazy! I have read several articles and blogs about the value in failing. Are they kidding?…
Leveraging the 4:1 Ratio—In Sports and in Business
It’s built into what we do with our clients, in understanding and applying the science of behavior. While it may not seem revolutionary, correctly applying the 4:1 Ratio matters and does affect…
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is a topic of great interest in psychology. It’s important in everything from personal health care to problem solving, but one of its most important implications is in terms of how we…
Whodunit?
I was in Ellicott City, Maryland a while back, visiting my daughter and her family on the night when 21 cars of an 80-car train hauling coal from near my home in West Virginia to Baltimore derailed.…
A Review of "Quiet" by Susan Cain
I am not sure how to introduce the book “Quiet” by Susan Cain. I don’t want to say it is about “introverts” because, as a professional behavior analyst and psychologist, I know the dangers to self…
Guts and Glory: Intuition and the Science of Behavior
The 19th century author Rudyard Kipling spoke of meeting triumph and disaster and treating both those imposters just the same. Indeed Kipling’s twin imposters both can result from going with one’s…
If It Acts Like a Human, Then It Must be a Human...or Not
Most people probably are familiar with the duck version of the title of this commentary. In 1950, the famous mathematician regarded as the “father of digital computing,” Alan Turing, mused about the…
Technology and the Science of Behavior
A story on NPR’s All Things Considered (October 30, 2012) caught my attention. The gist of the story, about supercomputers, was that the 30 billion dollar a year video game industry was driving the…
Feedback
On a cold winter’s night, or a hot, humid afternoon, nothing is more reassuring than knowing that my handy-dandy automatic thermostat is on the job keeping my house, and me, at a balmy, even, and…
Don’t Blame Employees for Lack of Effort—Managers Hold the Key
It’s generally agreed that persuading employees to give more than required can make or break a company. Yet many leaders struggle to get that discretionary effort. The 2022 Gallup State of the…
A Review of "Abundance" by Diamandis & Kotler
This book was an enjoyable read. The authors’ choice of topics, use of data, and integration of analyses of both biological and cultural evolutionary principles were extremely valuable and kept me…
Why Mary Barra Should Be the Norm, Not the Exception
One issue has been largely overlooked in the discussions about women in leadership: Do the traits of one gender have an advantage over the other in the boardroom? Direct and self-promotional…
Overearning? Another Reason Not to Believe Everything You Read in the Newspapers!
I just read another “drives me crazy” NYT article. This is not unusual as Times writers often write about behavior, based on the research of business and economics professors. However,…