Experimental analysis of behavior
Encyclopedia
The experimental analysis of behavior is the name given to the school of psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 founded by B.F. Skinner, and based on his philosophy of radical behaviorism
Radical behaviorism
Radical behaviorism is a philosophy developed by B.F. Skinner that underlies the experimental analysis of behavior approach to psychology. The term radical behaviorism applies to a particular school that emerged during the reign of behaviorism...

. A central principle was the inductive
Inductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning, also known as induction or inductive logic, is a kind of reasoning that constructs or evaluates propositions that are abstractions of observations. It is commonly construed as a form of reasoning that makes generalizations based on individual instances...

, data-driven examination of functional relations, as opposed to the kinds of hypothetico-deductive
Hypothetico-deductive model
The hypothetico-deductive model or method, first so-named by William Whewell, is a proposed description of scientific method. According to it, scientific inquiry proceeds by formulating a hypothesis in a form that could conceivably be falsified by a test on observable data...

 learning theory
Learning theory (education)
In psychology and education, learning is commonly defined as a process that brings together cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences and experiences for acquiring, enhancing, or making changes in one's knowledge, skills, values, and world views . Learning as a process focuses on what...

 that had grown up in the comparative psychology
Comparative psychology
Comparative psychology generally refers to the scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of non-human animals. However, scientists from different disciplines do not always agree on this definition...

 of the 1920–1950 period. Skinner's approach was characterized by empirical
Empiricism
Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence,...

 observation of measurable behavior which could be predicted and controlled. It owed its early success to the effectiveness of Skinner's procedures of operant conditioning
Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning is a form of psychological learning during which an individual modifies the occurrence and form of its own behavior due to the association of the behavior with a stimulus...

, both in the laboratory and in behavior therapy—what is now called applied behavior analysis
Applied Behavior Analysis
Applied behavior analysis is a science that involves using modern behavioral learning theory to modify behaviors. Behavior analysts reject the use of hypothetical constructs and focus on the observable relationship of behavior to the environment...

.

Philosophical basis of behavioral research

Laboratory methods employed in the experimental analysis of behavior are based upon B.F. Skinner's philosophy of radical behaviorism, which is premised upon:
  1. Everything that organisms do is behavior (including thinking), and
  2. All behavior is lawful, which allows itself to be experimentally studied.


Central to behavior analysis is the use of a Four-Term Contingency (Motivating Operation, Discriminative Stimulus, Response, Reinforcing Stimulus) to describe functional relationships in the control of behavior.
  • Motivating operations (MO) that establish whether or not an organism's behavior will be affected by a consequence. Such antecedent states include establishing operations, which increase the effectiveness of their corresponding consequences, and abolishing operations, which decrease their effectiveness. Besides modulating the effectiveness of consequences, these motivating operations can also acquire discriminative control over an organism's behavior. For example, an organism which is in a state of hunger (establishes food as an effective reinforcer) is more likely to engage in behavior that has previously resulted in being fed, while an organism in a satiated state (abolishes the effectiveness of food as a reinforcer) is less likely to engage in such behavior.

  • Discriminative stimulus (S) which is a setting or cue, or might be said to be an occasion for a response.

  • Behavior is a response (R), typically controlled by past consequences, which is also controlled by the presence of a discriminative stimulus. It operates on the environment, as in having an effect.

  • Consequences can consist of reinforcing stimuli (S) or punishing stimuli
    Punishment (psychology)
    In operant conditioning, punishment is any change in a human or animal's surroundings that occurs after a given behavior or response which reduces the likelihood of that behavior occurring again in the future. As with reinforcement, it is the behavior, not the animal, that is punished...

     (S) which follow and modify an operant response. Reinforcing stimuli are often classified as positively (S) or negatively reinforcing (S). More complex schedules of reinforcement can also be used.

Operant conditioning chamber

The most commonly used tool in animal behavioral research is the operant conditioning chamber—also known as a Skinner Box. The chamber is an enclosure designed to hold a test animal (often a rodent
Rodent
Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....

, pigeon, or primate
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...

). The interior of the chamber contains some type of device that serves the role of discriminative stimuli, at least one mechanism to measure the subject's behavior as a rate of response—such as a lever or key-peck switch—and a mechanism for the delivery of consequences—such as a food pellet dispenser or a token reinforcer such as an LED light.

Cumulative recorder

Of historical interest is the cumulative recorder, an instrument used to record the responses of subjects graphically. Traditionally, its graphing mechanism has consisted of a rotating drum of paper equipped with a marking needle. The needle would start at the bottom of the page and the drum would turn the roll of paper horizontally. Each subject response would result in the marking needle moving vertically along the paper one tick. This makes it possible for the rate of response to be calculated by finding the slope
Slope
In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line describes its steepness, incline, or grade. A higher slope value indicates a steeper incline....

 of the graph at a given point. For example, a regular rate of response would cause the needle to move vertically at a regular rate, resulting in a straight diagonal line rising towards the right. An accelerating or decelerating rate of response would lead to a quadratic
Quadratic function
A quadratic function, in mathematics, is a polynomial function of the formf=ax^2+bx+c,\quad a \ne 0.The graph of a quadratic function is a parabola whose axis of symmetry is parallel to the y-axis....

 (or similar) curve. For the most part, cumulative records are no longer graphed using rotating drums, but are recorded electronically instead.

An anti-theoretical analysis?

The idea that Skinner's position is anti-theoretical is probably inspired by the arguments he put forth in his article Are Theories of Learning Necessary? However, this article does not argue against the use of theory as such, only against certain theories in certain contexts. Skinner argued that many theories did not explain behavior, but simply offered another layer of structure that itself had to be explained in turn. If an organism is said to have a drive, which causes its behavior, what then causes the drive? Skinner argued that many theories had the effect of halting research or generating useless research.

Skinner's work did have a basis in theory, though his theories were different from those that he criticized. Mecca Chiesa notes that Skinner's theories are inductively derived, while those that he attacked were deductively derived. The theories that Skinner opposed often relied on mediating mechanisms and structures—such as a mechanism for memory as a part of the mind—which were not measurable or observable. Skinner's theories form the basis for two of his books: Verbal Behavior, and Science and Human Behavior. These two texts represent considerable theoretical extensions of his basic laboratory work into the realms of political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

, linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

, sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 and others.

Some notable figures in the experimental analysis of behavior

  • Richard Herrnstein
    Richard Herrnstein
    Richard J. Herrnstein was an American researcher in animal learning in the Skinnerian tradition. He was one of the founders of quantitative analysis of behavior....

     – developed the matching law
    Matching law
    In operant conditioning, the matching law is a quantitative relationship that holds between the relative rates of response and the relative rates of reinforcement in concurrent schedules of reinforcement...

    , a mathematical model for decision making
    Decision making
    Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...

    , co-authored the controversial The Bell Curve
    The Bell Curve
    The Bell Curve is a best-selling and controversial 1994 book by the Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray...

    .
  • James Holland – co-wrote the highly cited and well-known Principles of Behavior with B.F. Skinner.
  • Fred S. Keller
    Fred S. Keller
    Fred Simmons Keller was a pioneer in experimental psychology. He taught at Columbia University for 26 years and gave his name to the Keller Plan, also known as Personalized System of Instruction an individually paced, mastery-oriented teaching method that has had a significant impact on...

     – creator of the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI).
  • Ogden Lindsley
    Ogden Lindsley
    Ogden R. Lindsley was an American psychologist. He is best known for developing Precision Teaching and Celeration Charting....

     – founder of the Precision Teaching approach to teaching.
  • Jack Michael
    Jack Michael
    Jack Michael is a researcher, professor and author in the field of the experimental analysis of behavior best known for his elucidations of the motivating operation, comprising Establishing Operation and Abolishing Operations ....

     – noted verbal behavior and motivating operations theorist and researcher.
  • John Anthony (Tony) Nevin – development behavioral momentum
    Behavioral momentum
    Behavioral momentum is a theory in quantitative analysis of behavior and is a comparative metaphor based on physical momentum. It describes the general relation between resistance to change and the rate of reinforcement obtained in a given situation.B.F...

  • Howard Rachlin
    Howard Rachlin
    Howard Rachlin is Emeritus Research Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Stony Brook Howard Rachlin (born 1935) is Emeritus Research Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Stony Brook Howard Rachlin (born 1935)...

     – pioneer in self-control research and behavioral economics.
  • Murray Sidman
    Murray Sidman
    Murray Sidman is a pioneering behavioral scientist, best known for Sidman Avoidance, also called 'free-operant avoidance', in which an individual learns to avoid an aversive stimulus by remembering to produce the response without any other stimulus...

     – discovered Sidman Avoidance, highly cited author, researcher on punishment, also has been influential in research on stimulus equivalence.
  • Philip Hineline – contributed extensively to negative reinforcement (escape/avoidance), molecular/molar accounts of behavior processes, and the characteristics of interpretive language.
  • Mark Sundberg – verbal behavior researcher primarily known for his work in autism.
  • Allen Neuringer
    Allen Neuringer
    Allen Neuringer is an American psychologist. He is a highly published and well recognized scientist in the field of the experimental analysis of behavior pioneered by B.F. Skinner...

     – well known for theoretical work including volition perception, randomness, self-experimentation
    Self-experimentation
    Self-experimentation refers to the very special case of single-subject scientific experimentation in which the experimenter conducts the experiment on her- or himself. Usually this means that the designer, operator, subject, analyst, and user or reporter of the experiment are all the same...

    , and other areas.

External links

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