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… Skinner meant any sentient being, from pigeons to members of the I.Q. elite. …” (Page 185) Comment: This is a reasonably straightforward statement of the reinforcement principle and its generality across species. He continues: “… Pigeons, for … by his methods to guide nuclear missiles to a target by inducing them to peck an electronic switch in response to a certain radar picture. The bird was instantaneously rewarded with something to eat every time its beak struck the right button in response to the correct image. …” (Page 185) Comment: Several errors here. Yes, Skinner did train pigeons to guide bombs by pecking a response key, but everything else is incorrect. Most importantly, the pigeons …
… removal of reinforcement (a.k.a. extinction), persistence also is affected by the conditions under which the behavior is maintained before its resistance to change is examined. Behavior that is reinforced more frequently or with higher-quality … often or with reinforcers of lesser quality. negating the wisdom embedded in the fable. Because better reinforcers also maintain faster responding than do less effective reinforcers, it is tempting to conclude that responding faster or more is …
… illogical and unacceptable as an explanation of Billy’s behavior. When the label becomes the cause of the behavior, it is said to be the agent of the behavior. Many people commonly attribute behavior to internal agents, both general and specific: “snootiness” or “aloofness” can be the agent of failures to respond to social cues of others, “intelligence” or the lack thereof can be the agent for being able to solve … problems or construct intricate models of things, and “creativity” can be the agent behind someone composing a symphony or painting a memorable scene. In fact, these presumed agents are not agents at all – they are merely labels for what the person …
… Unintended Consequences The best laid schemes o' mice an' men. Gang aft a-gley. Ever have a sure-fire positive reinforcer fail to change the target behavior? Or, worse yet, make things worse instead of better? Or maybe change the target behavior … First, reinforcers are not universal, they are idiosyncratic to the individual. Sure, some reinforcers, like praise or money, work for large numbers of people, but everyone reading this knows of circumstances where these two pillars of …
… is the same. When variation among members of a species is large, changes in the environment, such as a change in the availability of certain foods, usually can be accommodated by at least some members of a species. When variation narrows so that all members of a species are more or less alike, the species becomes more vulnerable to extinction. A change in the availability of the foods mentioned above now becomes a bigger problem, because very few or maybe even none of the species …
… need to change for reasons of physical or behavioral health. On the other side of these changes, there is the challenge of maintaining whatever we have been able to accomplish in terms of weight loss, regular exercise, or just being nicer to people we … continue the theme of measurement here by describing a special tool that many of those who have managed to change and then maintain these gains have used. What is this special tool? Maybe it isn’t really so special after all. It is something most …
… in the target behavior, rather than trying to reward yourself). In this posting, we will explore in a little more detail how to define a target response, and in the next the power of graphing in self-management programs. We first have to … something positive to a co-worker today? As noted above, counting is basic to behavior change. Digital devices are now available that count many dimensions of activity, from steps walked to the amount of time you were stooped over while reading … devices are a real boon to measuring exercise related behavior, but they aren’t much good for counting how many times you said something positive or whether or not you called your Mom today. The point is that we should rely on the vast array of …
… Association for Behavior Analysis and the first president of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) from outside the United States. In memory of Dr. Sato, Dr. Koichi Ono wrote about his life and work in The Journal of … the leadership of two great Japanese behavior analysts, J-ABA developed Japan’s behavioral studies and practices. The main goal of J-ABA is to promote the experimental, theoretical, and applied analyses of behavior as formulated by B.F. … establishment, J-ABA has made great strides in research and is now one of the most successful international chapters of ABAI. As of 2015, J-ABA has more than 1,000 members from a wide variety of professions, including researchers, school …
… to a website, entitled “What if Finland had been prepared for the winter war?” The website turned out to be a rather detailed history of what has come to be called the Winter War, which began with the invasion of Finland by the Soviet Union on … Minnesota. From there it just flowed. The Winter War website , as those of you who visit it will discover, describes a detailed “alternative history” to what really happened. Alternative history seems to be a popular activity and is defined by … consisting of stories in which one or more historical events occur differently from reality.” As such, it can be an entertaining and even intellectually stimulating activity. It takes a good story teller to twist the historical record and follow …
… or punishers that follow it. When behavior produces a consequence, there are three possibilities: it can stay the same, or maintain; or it can increase or decrease. So if a response increases as a result of a consequence, it is an instance of operant … or punishers that follow it. When behavior produces a consequence, there are three possibilities: it can stay the same, or maintain; or it can increase or decrease. So if a response increases as a result of a consequence, it is an instance of …
… requires them to motivate and engage frontline employees to participate fully in safety and yet they rarely have adequate training or coaching in how to do it. Engagement requires good leadership skills. The old-style command and control management … and concern and building trust pays off in spades. Employees who feel like a valued part of a team rather than just a pair of hands to get the job done are much more likely to be engaged. Respond to Hazards . Frontline employees gauge how … requires them to motivate and engage frontline employees to participate fully in safety and yet they rarely have adequate training or coaching in how to do it. Engagement requires good leadership skills. The old-style command and control management …
… Twin Studies changed our understanding of the world of identical twins. Based on studies of such twins separated at birth raised apart, quite amazing behavioral similarities despite often quite totally different environmental influences were … ironic connection between Skinner and this project. When Skinner left Minnesota in the early 1940s to become Department Chair at Indiana University, he left behind in his laboratory a Skinner family bible that somehow found its way into the University Archives. The bible apparently remained unopened until one day recently when quite by accident a postdoctoral fellow involved with the twins project looking …
… a world exists outside of our experience of it. Science is seen by some as a tool for mapping reality. Biases, which are failures to be objective, distort our view of the world as it really is and therefore are a hindrance to achieving an … equipment imposes some of these limits. For example, some colors and sounds that can be made accessible with certain kinds of instruments are, without those instruments, inaccessible to us humans. We also all come into a situation where … influenced by peer reports of the lines’ lengths. If group members, all of whom were confederates of the experimenter, said that a short line was the same length as a long line, subjects were likely to agree with the group’s assessment. The …
… withholding attention to the behavior often is promoted as a relatively benign means of eliminating such behavior. It certainly can be this, but it also can be used in other ways that are not benign at all. They are in fact both counterproductive … be targeted to be effective. If there is a problem response that is shown by functional analysis methods to be shown to be maintained by attention, then ignoring the problem behavior is in order. Ignoring problem behavior, however, does not mean …
… random patterns of the digits 0-9, that is, to behave in a random manner. To the surprise of many psychologists who had claimed that random behavior was not possible, with the help of a computer that gave him feedback about whether his sequences … the use of reinforcement because it leads to stereotyped behavior – the antithesis of variable behavior - and thereby is said to stifle creativity. Neuringer has conducted a long series of experiments with pigeons showing that if stereotyped … random patterns of the digits 0-9, that is, to behave in a random manner. To the surprise of many psychologists who had claimed that random behavior was not possible, with the help of a computer that gave him feedback about whether his sequences …