140-459: Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understand the behavior of humans and other animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex elicited by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual's history, including especially reinforcement and punishment contingencies , together with the individual's current motivational state and controlling stimuli . Although behaviorists generally accept
280-399: A conditioned reinforcer , is a stimulus or situation that has acquired its function as a reinforcer after pairing with a stimulus that functions as a reinforcer. This stimulus may be a primary reinforcer or another conditioned reinforcer (such as money). When trying to distinguish primary and secondary reinforcers in human examples, use the "caveman test." If the stimulus is something that
420-417: A reflex , or reflex action , is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus . Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system . A reflex occurs via neural pathways in the nervous system called reflex arcs . A stimulus initiates a neural signal, which is carried to a synapse . The signal is then transferred across
560-470: A "post-Skinnerian account of language and cognition." RFT also forms the empirical basis for acceptance and commitment therapy , a therapeutic approach to counseling often used to manage such conditions as anxiety and obesity that consists of acceptance and commitment, value-based living, cognitive defusion, counterconditioning ( mindfulness ), and contingency management ( positive reinforcement ). Another evidence-based counseling technique derived from RFT
700-399: A behavior from happening again is punishment , not negative reinforcement. The main difference is that reinforcement always increases the likelihood of a behavior (e.g., channel surfing while bored temporarily alleviated boredom; therefore, there will be more channel surfing while bored), whereas punishment decreases it (e.g., hangovers are an unpleasant stimulus, so people learn to avoid
840-507: A behaviorist's analysis of human behavior was not language acquisition so much as the interaction between language and overt behavior. In an essay republished in his 1969 book Contingencies of Reinforcement , Skinner took the view that humans could construct linguistic stimuli that would then acquire control over their behavior in the same way that external stimuli could. The possibility of such "instructional control" over behavior meant that contingencies of reinforcement would not always produce
980-484: A bell ring after a number of pairings. Eventually, the neutral stimulus (bell ring) became conditioned. Therefore, salivation was elicited as a conditioned response (the response same as the unconditioned response), pairing up with meat—the conditioned stimulus) Although Pavlov proposed some tentative physiological processes that might be involved in classical conditioning, these have not been confirmed. The idea of classical conditioning helped behaviorist John Watson discover
1120-402: A better understanding of what rationality consists in. (Compare: if we find out how a computer program solves problems in linear algebra, we don't say it's not really solving them, we just say we know how it does it. On the other hand, in cases like Weizenbaum's ELIZA program, the explanation of how the computer carries on a conversation is so simple that the right thing to say seems to be that
1260-441: A book because it is fun and interesting Example: Corporal punishment , such as spanking a child Example: Loss of privileges (e.g., screen time or permission to attend a desired event) if a rule is broken Example: Reading a book because it allows the reader to escape feelings of boredom or unhappiness A primary reinforcer , sometimes called an unconditioned reinforcer , is a stimulus that does not require pairing with
1400-401: A brief period after the subject switches to it. When both the concurrent schedules are variable intervals , a quantitative relationship known as the matching law is found between relative response rates in the two schedules and the relative reinforcement rates they deliver; this was first observed by R.J. Herrnstein in 1961. Matching law is a rule for instrumental behavior which states that
1540-447: A caveman would naturally find desirable (e.g. candy) then it is a primary reinforcer. If, on the other hand, the caveman would not react to it (e.g. a dollar bill), it is a secondary reinforcer. As with primary reinforcers, an organism can experience satisfaction and deprivation with secondary reinforcers. In his 1967 paper, Arbitrary and Natural Reinforcement , Charles Ferster proposed classifying reinforcement into events that increase
SECTION 10
#17327833167681680-594: A complete account of behavior requires understanding of selection history at three levels: biology (the natural selection or phylogeny of the animal); behavior (the reinforcement history or ontogeny of the behavioral repertoire of the animal); and for some species, culture (the cultural practices of the social group to which the animal belongs). This whole organism then interacts with its environment. Molecular behaviorists use notions from melioration theory , negative power function discounting or additive versions of negative power function discounting. According to Moore,
1820-417: A consequence of a behavior and the chance that this behavior will manifest in similar environments increases. For example, if reading a book is fun, then experiencing the fun positively reinforces the behavior of reading fun books. The person who receives the positive reinforcement (i.e., who has fun reading the book) will read more books to have more fun. The high probability instruction (HPI) treatment
1960-409: A different stimulus in order to function as a reinforcer and most likely has obtained this function through the evolution and its role in species' survival. Examples of primary reinforcers include food, water, and sex. Some primary reinforcers, such as certain drugs, may mimic the effects of other primary reinforcers. While these primary reinforcers are fairly stable through life and across individuals,
2100-403: A headache. Reinforcement is an important component of operant conditioning and behavior modification . The concept has been applied in a variety of practical areas, including parenting, coaching, therapy, self-help, education, and management. In the behavioral sciences, the terms "positive" and "negative" refer when used in their strict technical sense to the nature of the action performed by
2240-525: A high school senior could have a choice between going to Stanford University or UCLA, and at the same time have the choice of going into the Army or the Air Force, and simultaneously the choice of taking a job with an internet company or a job with a software company. That is a reinforcement structure of three superimposed concurrent schedules of reinforcement. Superimposed schedules of reinforcement can create
2380-409: A historical system, an organism, has a state as well as sensitivity to stimuli and the ability to emit responses. Indeed, Skinner himself acknowledged the possibility of what he called "latent" responses in humans, even though he neglected to extend this idea to rats and pigeons. Latent responses constitute a repertoire, from which operant reinforcement can select. Theoretical behaviorism links between
2520-423: A human. In 1959, Skinner observed the emotions of two pigeons by noting that they appeared angry because their feathers ruffled. The pigeons were placed together in an operant chamber, where they were aggressive as a consequence of previous reinforcement in the environment. Through stimulus control and subsequent discrimination training, whenever Skinner turned off the green light, the pigeons came to notice that
2660-536: A laboratory analogy of social traps , such as when humans overharvest their fisheries or tear down their rainforests. Brechner created a situation where simple reinforcement schedules were superimposed upon each other. In other words, a single response or group of responses by an organism led to multiple consequences. Concurrent schedules of reinforcement can be thought of as "or" schedules, and superimposed schedules of reinforcement can be thought of as "and" schedules. Brechner and Linder (1981) and Brechner (1987) expanded
2800-452: A major level. With the fast growth of big behavioral data and applications, behavior analysis is ubiquitous. Understanding behavior from the informatics and computing perspective becomes increasingly critical for in-depth understanding of what, why and how behaviors are formed, interact, evolve, change and affect business and decision. Behavior informatics and behavior computing deeply explore behavior intelligence and behavior insights from
2940-470: A negative outcome. The experiment with the pigeons showed that a positive outcome leads to learned behavior since the pigeon learned to peck the disc in return for the reward of food. These historical consequential contingencies subsequently lead to (antecedent) stimulus control , but in contrast to respondent conditioning where antecedent stimuli elicit reflexive behavior, operant behavior is only emitted and therefore does not force its occurrence. It includes
SECTION 20
#17327833167683080-473: A new line of behavioral research on language was started under the name of relational frame theory . B.F. Skinner's book Verbal Behavior (1957) does not quite emphasize on language development, but to understand human behavior. Additionally, his work serves in understanding social interactions in the child's early developmental stages focusing on the topic of caregiver-infant interaction. Skinner's functional analysis of verbal behavior terminology and theories
3220-555: A particularly strong following within ABA, as evidenced by the formation of the OBM Network and Journal of Organizational Behavior Management , which was rated the third-highest impact journal in applied psychology by ISI JOBM rating. Modern-day clinical behavior analysis has also witnessed a massive resurgence in research, with the development of relational frame theory (RFT), which is described as an extension of verbal behavior and
3360-430: A pattern of loving behavior over time; there is no isolated, proximal cause of loving behavior, only a history of behaviors (of which the current behavior might be an example) that can be summarized as "love". Skinner's radical behaviorism has been highly successful experimentally, revealing new phenomena with new methods, but Skinner's dismissal of theory limited its development. Theoretical behaviorism recognized that
3500-431: A peck on either. The schedules of reinforcement arranged for pecks on the two keys can be different. They may be independent, or they may be linked so that behavior on one key affects the likelihood of reinforcement on the other. It is not necessary for responses on the two schedules to be physically distinct. In an alternate way of arranging concurrent schedules, introduced by Findley in 1958, both schedules are arranged on
3640-469: A point which can be seen clearly in his seminal work Are Theories of Learning Necessary? in which he criticizes what he viewed to be theoretical weaknesses then common in the study of psychology. An important descendant of the experimental analysis of behavior is the Society for Quantitative Analysis of Behavior . As Skinner turned from experimental work to concentrate on the philosophical underpinnings of
3780-619: A rat might press a lever with its left paw or its right paw or its tail, all of these responses operate on the world in the same way and have a common consequence. Operants are often thought of as species of responses, where the individuals differ but the class coheres in its function-shared consequences with operants and reproductive success with species. This is a clear distinction between Skinner's theory and S–R theory . Skinner's empirical work expanded on earlier research on trial-and-error learning by researchers such as Thorndike and Guthrie with both conceptual reformulations—Thorndike's notion of
3920-439: A reinforcer could be delivered after more than one instance of the behavior. For example, a pigeon may be required to peck a button switch ten times before food appears. This is a "ratio schedule". Also, a reinforcer could be delivered after an interval of time passed following a target behavior. An example is a rat that is given a food pellet immediately following the first response that occurs after two minutes has elapsed since
4060-426: A response. The study of reinforcement has produced an enormous body of reproducible experimental results. Reinforcement is the central concept and procedure in special education , applied behavior analysis , and the experimental analysis of behavior and is a core concept in some medical and psychopharmacology models, particularly addiction , dependence , and compulsion . Laboratory research on reinforcement
4200-418: A science of behavior, his attention turned to human language with his 1957 book Verbal Behavior and other language-related publications; Verbal Behavior laid out a vocabulary and theory for functional analysis of verbal behavior, and was strongly criticized in a review by Noam Chomsky . Skinner did not respond in detail but claimed that Chomsky failed to understand his ideas, and the disagreements between
4340-548: A scientific discipline that applies the principles of behavior analysis to change behavior. ABA derived from much earlier research in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior , which was founded by B.F. Skinner and his colleagues at Harvard University . Nearly a decade after the study "The psychiatric nurse as a behavioral engineer" (1959) was published in that journal, which demonstrated how effective
Behaviorism - Misplaced Pages Continue
4480-557: A sensory nerve, the input, and a motor nerve, the output. Autonomic does not mean automatic. The term autonomic is an anatomical term and it refers to a type of nervous system in animals and humans that is very primitive. Skeletal or somatic are, similarly, anatomical terms that refer to a type of nervous system that is more recent in terms of evolutionary development. There are autonomic reflexes and skeletal, somatic reflexes. The myotatic or muscle stretch reflexes (sometimes known as deep tendon reflexes ) provide information on
4620-426: A series of behaviors (e.g. showering, drying off, getting dressed) occurring in sequence as a well learned habit. Challenging behaviors seen in individuals with autism and other related disabilities have successfully managed and maintained in studies using a scheduled of chained reinforcements. Functional communication training is an intervention that often uses chained schedules of reinforcement to effectively promote
4760-406: A single key or other response device, and the subject can respond on a second key to change between the schedules. In such a "Findley concurrent" procedure, a stimulus (e.g., the color of the main key) signals which schedule is in effect. Concurrent schedules often induce rapid alternation between the keys. To prevent this, a "changeover delay" is commonly introduced: each schedule is inactivated for
4900-406: A stimulus-response "association" or "connection" was abandoned; and methodological ones—the use of the "free operant", so-called because the animal was now permitted to respond at its own rate rather than in a series of trials determined by the experimenter procedures. With this method, Skinner carried out substantial experimental work on the effects of different schedules and rates of reinforcement on
5040-420: A study in which Ivan Pavlov 's theory to respondent conditioning was first applied to eliciting a fearful reflex of crying in a human infant, and this became the launching point for understanding covert behavior (or private events) in radical behaviorism. However, Skinner felt that aversive stimuli should only be experimented on with animals and spoke out against Watson for testing something so controversial on
5180-904: A subdivision for Behavior Analysis, titled APA Division 25: Behavior Analysis, which has been in existence since 1964, and the interests among behavior analysts today are wide-ranging, as indicated in a review of the 30 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) within the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI). Such interests include everything from animal behavior and environmental conservation to classroom instruction (such as direct instruction and precision teaching ), verbal behavior , developmental disabilities and autism, clinical psychology (i.e., forensic behavior analysis ), behavioral medicine (i.e., behavioral gerontology, AIDS prevention, and fitness training), and consumer behavior analysis . The field of applied animal behavior —a sub-discipline of ABA that involves training animals—is regulated by
5320-399: A subject's behavior. For example, if a child reads books because they are fun, then the parents' decision to ignore the book reading will not remove the positive reinforcement (i.e., fun) the child receives from reading books. However, if a child engages in a behavior to get attention from the parents, then the parents' decision to ignore the behavior will cause the behavior to go extinct, and
5460-543: A teacher's question will be more likely to answer future questions in class. The teacher's question is the antecedent, the student's response is the behavior, and the praise and attention are the reinforcements. Consequences that lead to appetitive behavior such as subjective "wanting" and "liking" (desire and pleasure) function as rewards or positive reinforcement . There is also negative reinforcement , which involves taking away an undesirable stimulus. An example of negative reinforcement would be taking an aspirin to relieve
5600-452: A type of behaviorism, influenced by some of Skinner's ideas, in his own work on language. Quine's work in semantics differed substantially from the empiricist semantics of Carnap which he attempted to create an alternative to, couching his semantic theory in references to physical objects rather than sensations. Gilbert Ryle defended a distinct strain of philosophical behaviorism, sketched in his book The Concept of Mind . Ryle's central claim
5740-420: A type of compound schedule that evolved from the initial work on simple schedules of reinforcement by B.F. Skinner and his colleagues (Skinner and Ferster, 1957). They demonstrated that reinforcers could be delivered on schedules, and further that organisms behaved differently under different schedules. Rather than a reinforcer, such as food or water, being delivered every time as a consequence of some behavior,
Behaviorism - Misplaced Pages Continue
5880-447: A “consequence of behavior that reduces the future probability of that behavior,” and some studies have shown that positive reinforcement and punishment are equally effective in modifying behavior. Research on the effects of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment continue today as those concepts are fundamental to learning theory and apply to many practical applications of that theory. The term operant conditioning
6020-421: Is community reinforcement approach and family training that uses FBAs and counterconditioning techniques—such as behavioral skills training and relapse prevention—to model and reinforce healthier lifestyle choices which promote self-management of abstinence from drugs, alcohol, or cigarette smoking during high-risk exposure when engaging with family members, friends, and co-workers. Reflex In biology ,
6160-427: Is Dennett's main point in "Skinner Skinned". Dennett argues that there is a crucial difference between explaining and explaining away... If our explanation of apparently rational behavior turns out to be extremely simple, we may want to say that the behavior was not really rational after all. But if the explanation is very complex and intricate, we may want to say not that the behavior is not rational, but that we now have
6300-425: Is a behaviorist treatment based on the idea of positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement increases the rate of a behavior that avoids or escapes an aversive situation or stimulus . That is, something unpleasant is already happening, and the behavior helps the person avoid or escape the unpleasantness. In contrast to positive reinforcement, which involves adding a pleasant stimulus, in negative reinforcement,
6440-424: Is a psychological movement that can be contrasted with philosophy of mind . The basic premise of behaviorism is that the study of behavior should be a natural science , such as chemistry or physics . Initially behaviorism rejected any reference to hypothetical inner states of organisms as causes for their behavior, but B.F. Skinner's radical behaviorism reintroduced reference to inner states and also advocated for
6580-399: Is also used for food refusal. Food refusal is when an individual has a partial or total aversion to food items. This can be as minimal as being a picky eater to so severe that it can affect an individual's health. Shaping has been used to have a high success rate for food acceptance. Chaining involves linking discrete behaviors together in a series, such that the consequence of each behavior
6720-468: Is an essential complement to contiguity. They showed that in operant conditioning , both contiguity and competition are imperative for discerning cause-and-effect relationships. The influential Rescorla-Wagner model highlights the significance of competition for limited "associative value," essential for assessing predictability. A similar formal argument was presented by Ying Zhang and John Staddon (1991, in press) concerning operant conditioning:
6860-456: Is an important influence on how the different schedules operate. Many simple and complex schedules were investigated at great length by B.F. Skinner using pigeons . Simple schedules have a single rule to determine when a single type of reinforcer is delivered for a specific response. Simple schedules are utilized in many differential reinforcement procedures: Compound schedules combine two or more different simple schedules in some way using
7000-399: Is both the reinforcement for the previous behavior, and the antecedent stimulus for the next behavior. There are many ways to teach chaining, such as forward chaining (starting from the first behavior in the chain), backwards chaining (starting from the last behavior) and total task chaining (teaching each behavior in the chain simultaneously). People's morning routines are a typical chain, with
7140-422: Is commonly used to understand the relationship between language development but was primarily designed to describe behaviors of interest and explain the cause of those behaviors. Noam Chomsky , an American linguistic professor, has criticized and questioned Skinner's theories about the possible suggestion of parental tutoring in language development. However, there is a lack of supporting evidence where Skinner makes
SECTION 50
#17327833167687280-399: Is controlled by historical consequential contingencies, particularly reinforcement —a stimulus that increases the probability of performing behaviors, and punishment —a stimulus that decreases such probability. The core tools of consequences are either positive (presenting stimuli following a response), or negative (withdrawn stimuli following a response). The following descriptions explains
7420-434: Is directly modulated during behavior—for example, through presynaptic inhibition . The effect of sensory input upon motor neurons is also influenced by interneurons in the spinal cord or ventral nerve cord and by descending signals from the brain. Breathing can also be considered both involuntary and voluntary, since breath can be held through internal intercostal muscles . The concept of reflexes dates back to
7560-418: Is from –4 (absent) to +4 (clonus), where 0 is "normal". Some might imagine that reflexes are immutable. In reality, however, most reflexes are flexible and can be substantially modified to match the requirements of the behavior in both vertebrates and invertebrates. A good example of reflex modulation is the stretch reflex . When a muscle is stretched at rest, the stretch reflex leads to contraction of
7700-608: Is nearly constant across instances and with very short intervals between reinforcers. However, these conditions rarely hold in reality: behavior following reinforcement tends to exhibit high variability, and superstitious behavior diminishes with extremely brief intervals between reinforcements. Behavior therapy is a term referring to different types of therapies that treat mental health disorders. It identifies and helps change people's unhealthy behaviors or destructive behaviors through learning theory and conditioning. Ivan Pavlov 's classical conditioning, as well as counterconditioning are
7840-418: Is reinforced, and extinction, where no response is reinforced. Between these extremes, more complex schedules of reinforcement specify the rules that determine how and when a response will be followed by a reinforcer. Specific schedules of reinforcement reliably induce specific patterns of response, and these rules apply across many different species. The varying consistency and predictability of reinforcement
7980-504: Is the functional analytic psychotherapy known as behavioral activation that relies on the ACL model —awareness, courage, and love—to reinforce more positive moods for those struggling with depression . Incentive -based contingency management (CM) is the standard of care for adults with substance-use disorders; it has also been shown to be highly effective for other addictions (i.e., obesity and gambling). Although it does not directly address
8120-420: Is used in many training situations, and also for individuals with autism as well as other developmental disabilities. When shaping is combined with other evidence-based practices such as Functional Communication Training (FCT), it can yield positive outcomes for human behavior. Shaping typically uses continuous reinforcement, but the response can later be shifted to an intermittent reinforcement schedule. Shaping
8260-524: Is usually dated from the work of Edward Thorndike , known for his experiments with cats escaping from puzzle boxes. A number of others continued this research, notably B.F. Skinner, who published his seminal work on the topic in The Behavior of Organisms , in 1938, and elaborated this research in many subsequent publications. Notably Skinner argued that positive reinforcement is superior to punishment in shaping behavior. Though punishment may seem just
8400-703: The cognitive-behavioral therapies , which have demonstrated utility in treating certain pathologies, including simple phobias , PTSD , and mood disorders . The titles given to the various branches of behaviorism include: Two subtypes of theoretical behaviorism are: B. F. Skinner proposed radical behaviorism as the conceptual underpinning of the experimental analysis of behavior . This viewpoint differs from other approaches to behavioral research in various ways, but, most notably here, it contrasts with methodological behaviorism in accepting feelings, states of mind and introspection as behaviors also subject to scientific investigation. Like methodological behaviorism, it rejects
8540-436: The feline righting reflex , which reorients a cat's body when falling to ensure safe landing. The simplest type of reflex, a short-latency reflex, has a single synapse, or junction, in the signaling pathway. Long-latency reflexes produce nerve signals that are transduced across multiple synapses before generating the reflex response. Reflex is an anatomical concept and it refers to a loop consisting, in its simplest form, of
SECTION 60
#17327833167688680-534: The token economy was in reinforcing more adaptive behavior for hospitalized patients with schizophrenia and intellectual disability , it led to researchers at the University of Kansas to start the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis in 1968. Although ABA and behavior modification are similar behavior-change technologies in that the learning environment is modified through respondent and operant conditioning, behavior modification did not initially address
8820-425: The 17th century with René Descartes . Descartes introduced the idea in his work " Treatise on Man ", published posthumously in 1664. He described how the body could perform actions automatically in response to external stimuli without conscious thought. Descartes used the analogy of a mechanical statue to explain how sensory input could trigger motor responses in a deterministic and automatic manner. The term "reflex"
8960-678: The Animal Behavior Society, and those who practice this technique are called applied animal behaviorists. Research on applied animal behavior has been frequently conducted in the Applied Animal Behaviour Science journal since its founding in 1974. ABA has also been particularly well-established in the area of developmental disabilities since the 1960s, but it was not until the late 1980s that individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders were beginning to grow so rapidly and groundbreaking research
9100-565: The Los Angeles County storm drain system (Brechner, 2010). In operant conditioning , concurrent schedules of reinforcement are schedules of reinforcement that are simultaneously available to an animal subject or human participant, so that the subject or participant can respond on either schedule. For example, in a two-alternative forced choice task, a pigeon in a Skinner box is faced with two pecking keys; pecking responses can be made on either, and food reinforcement might follow
9240-437: The basis for much of clinical behavior therapy, but also includes other techniques, including operant conditioning—or contingency management, and modeling (sometimes called observational learning ). A frequently noted behavior therapy is systematic desensitization (graduated exposure therapy), which was first demonstrated by Joseph Wolpe and Arnold Lazarus. Applied behavior analysis (ABA)—also called behavioral engineering—is
9380-464: The beginning, the dog was provided meat (unconditioned stimulus, UCS, naturally elicit a response that is not controlled) to eat, resulting in increased salivation (unconditioned response, UCR, which means that a response is naturally caused by UCS). Afterward, a bell ring was presented together with food to the dog. Although bell ring was a neutral stimulus (NS, meaning that the stimulus did not have any effect), dog would start to salivate when only hearing
9520-481: The behavior that led to that unpleasant stimulus). Extinction occurs when a given behavior is ignored (i.e. followed up with no consequence). Behaviors disappear over time when they continuously receive no reinforcement. During a deliberate extinction, the targeted behavior spikes first (in an attempt to produce the expected, previously reinforced effects), and then declines over time. Neither reinforcement nor extinction need to be deliberate in order to have an effect on
9660-478: The behavior. Another example is a social situation that will generally result from a specific behavior once it has met a certain criterion. Behavior is not always reinforced every time it is emitted, and the pattern of reinforcement strongly affects how fast an operant response is learned, what its rate is at any given time, and how long it continues when reinforcement ceases. The simplest rules controlling reinforcement are continuous reinforcement, where every response
9800-487: The behavioral approach." Behaviorist sentiments are not uncommon within philosophy of language and analytic philosophy . It is sometimes argued that Ludwig Wittgenstein defended a logical behaviorist position (e.g., the beetle in a box argument). In logical positivism (as held, e.g., by Rudolf Carnap and Carl Hempel ), the meaning of psychological statements are their verification conditions, which consist of performed overt behavior. W. V. O. Quine made use of
9940-439: The brain and the behavior that provides a real understanding of the behavior, rather than a mental presumption of how brain-behavior relates. The theoretical concept of behaviorism are blended with knowledge of mental structure such as memory and expectancies associated with inflexable behaviorist stances that have traditionally forbidden the examination of the mental state. Because of its flexibility, theoretical behaviorism permits
10080-545: The causes of the behavior (particularly, the environmental stimuli that occurred in the past), or investigate solutions that would otherwise prevent the behavior from reoccurring. As the evolution of ABA began to unfold in the mid-1980s, functional behavior assessments (FBAs) were developed to clarify the function of that behavior, so that it is accurately determined which differential reinforcement contingencies will be most effective and less likely for aversive punishments to be administered. In addition, methodological behaviorism
10220-453: The child begins mastering each skill. When the child becomes more verbal from discrete trials, the table-based instructions are later discontinued, and another EBI procedure known as incidental teaching is introduced in the natural environment by having the child ask for desired items kept out of their direct access, as well as allowing the child to choose the play activities that will motivate them to engage with their facilitators before teaching
10360-661: The child how to interact with other children their own age. A related term for incidental teaching, called pivotal response treatment (PRT), refers to EBI procedures that exclusively entail twenty-five hours per week of naturalistic teaching (without initially using discrete trials). Current research is showing that there is a wide array of learning styles and that is the children with receptive language delays who initially require discrete trials to acquire speech. Organizational behavior management , which applies contingency management procedures to model and reinforce appropriate work behavior for employees in organizations, has developed
10500-483: The child will find a different behavior to get their parents' attention. Reinforcers serve to increase behaviors whereas punishers serve to decrease behaviors; thus, positive reinforcers are stimuli that the subject will work to attain, and negative reinforcers are stimuli that the subject will work to be rid of or to end. The table below illustrates the adding and subtracting of stimuli (pleasant or aversive) in relation to reinforcement vs. punishment. Example: Reading
10640-421: The cognitive process to have an impact on behavior. From its inception, behavior analysis has centered its examination on cultural occurrences ( Skinner , 1953, 1961, 1971, 1974). Nevertheless, the methods used to tackle these occurrences have evolved. Initially, culture was perceived as a factor influencing behavior, later becoming a subject of study in itself. This shift prompted research into group practices and
10780-404: The combination of contiguity and competition among action tendencies suffices as an assignment-of-credit mechanism capable of detecting genuine instrumental contingency between a response and its reinforcer. This mechanism delineates the limitations of Skinner's idea of adventitious reinforcement, revealing its efficacy only under stringent conditions – when the reinforcement's strengthening effect
10920-587: The concept to describe how superimposed schedules and the social trap analogy could be used to analyze the way energy flows through systems . Superimposed schedules of reinforcement have many real-world applications in addition to generating social traps . Many different human individual and social situations can be created by superimposing simple reinforcement schedules. For example, a human being could have simultaneous tobacco and alcohol addictions. Even more complex situations can be created or simulated by superimposing two or more concurrent schedules. For example,
11060-535: The concepts of four common types of consequences in operant conditioning: A classical experiment in operant conditioning, for example, is the Skinner Box , "puzzle box" or operant conditioning chamber to test the effects of operant conditioning principles on rats, cats and other species. From this experiment, he discovered that the rats learned very effectively if they were rewarded frequently with food. Skinner also found that he could shape (create new behavior)
11200-440: The conditioner rather than to the responding operant's evaluation of that action and its consequence(s). "Positive" actions are those that add a factor, be it pleasant or unpleasant, to the environment, whereas "negative" actions are those that remove or withhold from the environment a factor of either type. In turn, the strict sense of "reinforcement" refers only to reward-based conditioning; the introduction of unpleasant factors and
11340-412: The cookie cannot be considered reinforcing. The sole criterion that determines if a stimulus is reinforcing is the change in probability of a behavior after administration of that potential reinforcer. Other theories may focus on additional factors such as whether the person expected a behavior to produce a given outcome, but in the behavioral theory, reinforcement is defined by an increased probability of
11480-411: The desirable response by presenting a reflex eliciting stimulus, the unconditional stimulus (UCS), which they pair (precede) with a neutral stimulus, the conditional stimulus (CS). Reinforcement is a basic term in operant conditioning. For the punishment aspect of operant conditioning, see punishment (psychology) . Positive reinforcement occurs when a desirable event or stimulus is presented as
11620-532: The discriminative (antecedent) stimuli that emits behavior; the process became known as operant conditioning . The application of radical behaviorism—known as applied behavior analysis —is used in a variety of contexts, including, for example, applied animal behavior and organizational behavior management to treatment of mental disorders, such as autism and substance abuse . In addition, while behaviorism and cognitive schools of psychological thought do not agree theoretically, they have complemented each other in
11760-438: The environment before any learning has taken place. They include: Other reflexes found in the central nervous system include: Many of these reflexes are quite complex, requiring a number of synapses in a number of different nuclei in the central nervous system (e.g., the escape reflex ). Others of these involve just a couple of synapses to function (e.g., the withdrawal reflex ). Processes such as breathing , digestion , and
11900-463: The field of data science , have now made it possible to comprehensively measure behaviors occurring in real-life settings. These two elements, when combined with advancements in computational modeling, have laid the groundwork for the emerging discipline known as behavioral informatics . Behavioral informatics represents a scientific and engineering domain encompassing behavior tracking, evaluation, computational modeling, deduction, and intervention. In
12040-423: The focus is on the removal of an unpleasant situation or stimulus. For example, if someone feels unhappy, then they might engage in a behavior (e.g., reading books) to escape from the aversive situation (e.g., their unhappy feelings). The success of that avoidant or escapist behavior in removing the unpleasant situation or stimulus reinforces the behavior. Doing something unpleasant to people to prevent or remove
12180-424: The following controlling stimuli: Although operant conditioning plays the largest role in discussions of behavioral mechanisms, respondent conditioning (also called Pavlovian or classical conditioning) is also an important behavior-analytic process that needs not refer to mental or other internal processes. Pavlov's experiments with dogs provide the most familiar example of the classical conditioning procedure. In
12320-485: The food reinforcer is discontinued following each peck and responded without aggression. Skinner concluded that humans also learn aggression and possess such emotions (as well as other private events) no differently than do nonhuman animals. As experimental behavioural psychology is related to behavioral neuroscience , we can date the first researches in the area were done in the beginning of 19th century. Later, this essentially philosophical position gained strength from
12460-413: The frequency of an operant behavior as a natural consequence of the behavior itself, and events that affect frequency by their requirement of human mediation, such as in a token economy where subjects are rewarded for certain behavior by the therapist. In 1970, Baer and Wolf developed the concept of "behavioral traps." A behavioral trap requires only a simple response to enter the trap, yet once entered,
12600-402: The front door is rewarded by a big kiss on the lips by the person's spouse and a rip in the pants from the family dog jumping enthusiastically. Another example of superimposed schedules of reinforcement is a pigeon in an experimental cage pecking at a button. The pecks deliver a hopper of grain every 20th peck, and access to water after every 200 pecks. Superimposed schedules of reinforcement are
12740-539: The important role of heredity in determining behavior, they focus primarily on environmental events. The cognitive revolution of the late 20th century largely replaced behaviorism as an explanatory theory with cognitive psychology , which unlike behaviorism views internal mental states as explanations for observable behavior. Behaviorism emerged in the early 1900s as a reaction to depth psychology and other traditional forms of psychology, which often had difficulty making predictions that could be tested experimentally. It
12880-595: The informatics and computing perspectives. Pavel et al. (2015) found that in the realm of healthcare and health psychology , substantial evidence supports the notion that personalized health interventions yield greater effectiveness compared to standardized approaches. Additionally, researchers found that recent progress in sensor and communication technology, coupled with data analysis and computational modeling, holds significant potential in revolutionizing interventions aimed at changing health behavior. Simultaneous advancements in sensor and communication technology, alongside
13020-399: The integrity of the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system . This information can be detected using electromyography (EMG) . Generally, decreased reflexes indicate a peripheral problem, and lively or exaggerated reflexes a central one. A stretch reflex is the contraction of a muscle in response to its lengthwise stretch. While the reflexes above are stimulated mechanically,
13160-413: The key mechanism behind how humans acquire the behaviors that they do, which was to find a natural reflex that produces the response being considered. Watson 's "Behaviourist Manifesto" has three aspects that deserve special recognition: one is that psychology should be purely objective, with any interpretation of conscious experience being removed, thus leading to psychology as the "science of behaviour";
13300-419: The last lever press. This is called an "interval schedule". In addition, ratio schedules can deliver reinforcement following fixed or variable number of behaviors by the individual organism. Likewise, interval schedules can deliver reinforcement following fixed or variable intervals of time following a single response by the organism. Individual behaviors tend to generate response rates that differ based upon how
13440-442: The lever is reinforced at first. Then, only turning and stepping toward it is reinforced. Eventually the rat will be reinforced for pressing the lever. The successful attainment of one behavior starts the shaping process for the next. As training progresses, the response becomes progressively more like the desired behavior, with each subsequent behavior becoming a closer approximation of the final behavior. The intervention of shaping
13580-411: The likelihood of an organism's future behavior, typically in the presence of a particular antecedent stimulus . For example, a rat can be trained to push a lever to receive food whenever a light is turned on. In this example, the light is the antecedent stimulus, the lever pushing is the operant behavior, and the food is the reinforcer. Likewise, a student that receives attention and praise when answering
13720-416: The machine isn't really carrying on a conversation, it's just a trick.) Skinner's view of behavior is most often characterized as a "molecular" view of behavior; that is, behavior can be decomposed into atomistic parts or molecules. This view is inconsistent with Skinner's complete description of behavior as delineated in other works, including his 1981 article "Selection by Consequences". Skinner proposed that
13860-513: The maintenance of the heartbeat can also be regarded as reflex actions, according to some definitions of the term. In medicine , reflexes are often used to assess the health of the nervous system . Doctors will typically grade the activity of a reflex on a scale from 0 to 4. While 2+ is considered normal, some healthy individuals are hypo-reflexive and register all reflexes at 1+, while others are hyper-reflexive and register all reflexes at 3+. Depending on where you are, another way of grading
14000-450: The moment. That is, they argue that behavior is best understood as the ultimate product of an organism's history and that molecular behaviorists are committing a fallacy by inventing fictitious proximal causes for behavior. Molar behaviorists argue that standard molecular constructs, such as "associative strength", are better replaced by molar variables such as rate of reinforcement . Thus, a molar behaviorist would describe "loving someone" as
14140-400: The muscle, thereby opposing stretch (resistance reflex). This helps to stabilize posture. During voluntary movements, however, the intensity (gain) of the reflex is reduced or its sign is even reversed. This prevents resistance reflexes from impeding movements. The underlying sites and mechanisms of reflex modulation are not fully understood. There is evidence that the output of sensory neurons
14280-451: The opposite of reinforcement, Skinner claimed that they differ immensely, saying that positive reinforcement results in lasting behavioral modification (long-term) whereas punishment changes behavior only temporarily (short-term) and has many detrimental side-effects. A great many researchers subsequently expanded our understanding of reinforcement and challenged some of Skinner's conclusions. For example, Azrin and Holz defined punishment as
14420-451: The perseverance in a molecular examination of behavior may be sign of a desire for an in-depth understanding, maybe to identify any underlying mechanism or components that contribute to comples actions. This strategy might involve elements, procedure, or variables that contribute to behaviorism. Molar behaviorists, such as Howard Rachlin , Richard Herrnstein , and William Baum, argue that behavior cannot be understood by focusing on events in
14560-587: The potential for significant behavioral transformations on a larger scale. Following Glenn's (1986) influential work, "Metacontingencies in Walden Two", numerous research endeavors exploring behavior analysis in cultural contexts have centered around the concept of the metacontingency. Glenn (2003) posited that understanding the origins and development of cultures necessitates delving beyond evolutionary and behavioral principles governing species characteristics and individual learned behaviors requires analysis at
14700-512: The pragmatic tendencies of behaviorism. In the early years of cognitive psychology , behaviorist critics held that the empiricism it pursued was incompatible with the concept of internal mental states. Cognitive neuroscience , however, continues to gather evidence of direct correlations between physiological brain activity and putative mental states, endorsing the basis for cognitive psychology. Staddon (1993) found that Skinner's theory presents two significant deficiencies: Firstly, he downplayed
14840-402: The rates of operant responses made by rats and pigeons. He achieved remarkable success in training animals to perform unexpected responses, to emit large numbers of responses, and to demonstrate many empirical regularities at the purely behavioral level. This lent some credibility to his conceptual analysis. It is largely his conceptual analysis that made his work much more rigorous than his peers,
14980-434: The rats' behavior through the use of rewards, which could, in turn, be applied to human learning as well. Skinner's model was based on the premise that reinforcement is used for the desired actions or responses while punishment was used to stop the responses of the undesired actions that are not. This theory proved that humans or animals will repeat any action that leads to a positive outcome, and avoid any action that leads to
15120-439: The reflex as a model of all behavior, and it defends the science of behavior as complementary to but independent of physiology. Radical behaviorism overlaps considerably with other western philosophical positions, such as American pragmatism . Although John B. Watson mainly emphasized his position of methodological behaviorism throughout his career, Watson and Rosalie Rayner conducted the infamous Little Albert experiment (1920),
15260-466: The reinforcement schedule is created. Much subsequent research in many labs examined the effects on behaviors of scheduling reinforcers. If an organism is offered the opportunity to choose between or among two or more simple schedules of reinforcement at the same time, the reinforcement structure is called a "concurrent schedule of reinforcement". Brechner (1974, 1977) introduced the concept of superimposed schedules of reinforcement in an attempt to create
15400-416: The reinforcing value of different primary reinforcers varies due to multiple factors (e.g., genetics, experience). Thus, one person may prefer one type of food while another avoids it. Or one person may eat much food while another eats very little. So even though food is a primary reinforcer for both individuals, the value of food as a reinforcer differs between them. A secondary reinforcer , sometimes called
15540-406: The relative rate of responding on a particular response alternative equals the relative rate of reinforcement for that response (rate of behavior = rate of reinforcement). Animals and humans have a tendency to prefer choice in schedules. Shaping is the reinforcement of successive approximations to a desired instrumental response. In training a rat to press a lever, for example, simply turning toward
15680-419: The removal or withholding of a pleasant factor. This usage is at odds with some non-technical usages of the four term combinations, especially in the case of the term "negative reinforcement", which is often used to denote what technical parlance would describe as "positive punishment" in that the non-technical usage interprets "reinforcement" as subsuming both reward and punishment and "negative" as referring to
15820-445: The removal or withholding of pleasant factors are instead referred to as "punishment", which when used in its strict sense thus stands in contradistinction to "reinforcement". Thus, "positive reinforcement" refers to the addition of a pleasant factor, "positive punishment" refers to the addition of an unpleasant factor, "negative reinforcement" refers to the removal or withholding of an unpleasant factor, and "negative punishment" refers to
15960-532: The responding operant's evaluation of the factor being introduced. By contrast, technical parlance would use the term "negative reinforcement" to describe encouragement of a given behavior by creating a scenario in which an unpleasant factor is or will be present but engaging in the behavior results in either escaping from that factor or preventing its occurrence, as in Martin Seligman’s experimente involving dogs learning to avoid electric shocks . B.F. Skinner
16100-475: The response preceding them). Stimuli, settings, and activities only fit the definition of reinforcers if the behavior that immediately precedes the potential reinforcer increases in similar situations in the future; for example, a child who receives a cookie when he or she asks for one. If the frequency of "cookie-requesting behavior" increases, the cookie can be seen as reinforcing "cookie-requesting behavior". If however, "cookie-requesting behavior" does not increase
16240-403: The same effects on human behavior as they reliably do in other animals. The focus of a radical behaviorist analysis of human behavior therefore shifted to an attempt to understand the interaction between instructional control and contingency control, and also to understand the behavioral processes that determine what instructions are constructed and what control they acquire over behavior. Recently,
16380-416: The same reinforcer for the same behavior. There are many possibilities; among those most often used are: The psychology term superimposed schedules of reinforcement refers to a structure of rewards where two or more simple schedules of reinforcement operate simultaneously. Reinforcers can be positive, negative, or both. An example is a person who comes home after a long day at work. The behavior of opening
16520-492: The second half of the 20th century, behaviorism was largely eclipsed as a result of the cognitive revolution . This shift was due to radical behaviorism being highly criticized for not examining mental processes, and this led to the development of the cognitive therapy movement. In the mid-20th century, three main influences arose that would inspire and shape cognitive psychology as a formal school of thought: In more recent years, several scholars have expressed reservations about
16660-425: The second one is that the goals of psychology should be to predict and control behaviour (as opposed to describe and explain conscious mental states); the third one is that there is no notable distinction between human and non-human behaviour. Following Darwin's theory of evolution, this would simply mean that human behaviour is just a more complex version in respect to behaviour displayed by other species. Behaviorism
16800-534: The significance of processes responsible for generating novel behaviors, which it is term as "behavioral variation." Skinner primarily emphasized reinforcement as the sole determinant for selecting responses, overlooking these critical processes involved in creating new behaviors. Secondly, both Skinner and many other behaviorists of that era endorsed contiguity as a sufficient process for response selection. However, Rescorla and Wagner (1972) later demonstrated, particularly in classical conditioning , that competition
16940-443: The statement. Understanding language is a complex topic, but can be understood through the use of two theories: Innateness and acquisition. Both theories offer a different perspective whether language is inherently "acquired" or "learned." Operant conditioning was developed by B.F. Skinner in 1938 and is form of learning in which the frequency of a behavior is controlled by consequences to change behavior. In other words, behavior
17080-502: The study of thoughts and feelings as behaviors subject to the same mechanisms as external behavior. Behaviorism takes a functional view of behavior. According to Edmund Fantino and colleagues: "Behavior analysis has much to offer the study of phenomena normally dominated by cognitive and social psychologists. We hope that successful application of behavioral theory and methodology will not only shed light on central problems in judgment and choice but will also generate greater appreciation of
17220-451: The success of Skinner's early experimental work with rats and pigeons, summarized in his books The Behavior of Organisms and Schedules of Reinforcement . Of particular importance was his concept of the operant response, of which the canonical example was the rat's lever-press. In contrast with the idea of a physiological or reflex response, an operant is a class of structurally distinct but functionally equivalent responses. For example, while
17360-435: The synapse to a motor neuron , which evokes a target response. These neural signals do not always travel to the brain, so many reflexes are an automatic response to a stimulus that does not receive or need conscious thought. Many reflexes are fine-tuned to increase organism survival and self-defense. This is observed in reflexes such as the startle reflex , which provides an automatic response to an unexpected stimulus, and
17500-474: The term H-reflex refers to the analogous reflex stimulated electrically, and tonic vibration reflex for those stimulated to vibration. A tendon reflex is the contraction of a muscle in response to striking its tendon . The Golgi tendon reflex is the inverse of a stretch reflex. Newborn babies have a number of other reflexes which are not seen in adults, referred to as primitive reflexes . These automatic reactions to stimuli enable infants to respond to
17640-456: The three classic conflict situations (approach–approach conflict, approach–avoidance conflict , and avoidance–avoidance conflict) described by Kurt Lewin (1935) and can operationalize other Lewinian situations analyzed by his force field analysis . Other examples of the use of superimposed schedules of reinforcement as an analytical tool are its application to the contingencies of rent control (Brechner, 2003) and problem of toxic waste dumping in
17780-431: The trap cannot be resisted in creating general behavior change. It is the use of a behavioral trap that increases a person's repertoire, by exposing them to the naturally occurring reinforcement of that behavior. Behavioral traps have four characteristics: Thus, artificial reinforcement can be used to build or develop generalizable skills, eventually transitioning to naturally occurring reinforcement to maintain or increase
17920-468: The treatment for autism), and the ABAI currently has 14 accredited MA and Ph.D. programs for comprehensive study in that field. Early behavioral interventions (EBIs) based on ABA are empirically validated for teaching children with autism and have been proven as such for over the past five decades. Since the late 1990s and throughout the twenty-first century, early ABA interventions have also been identified as
18060-580: The treatment of choice by the US Surgeon General , American Academy of Pediatrics , and US National Research Council . Discrete trial training —also called early intensive behavioral intervention—is the traditional EBI technique implemented for thirty to forty hours per week that instructs a child to sit in a chair, imitate fine and gross motor behaviors, as well as learn eye contact and speech, which are taught through shaping , modeling , and prompting , with such prompting being phased out as
18200-407: The two and the theories involved have been further discussed. Innateness theory , which has been heavily critiqued, is opposed to behaviorist theory which claims that language is a set of habits that can be acquired by means of conditioning. According to some, the behaviorist account is a process which would be too slow to explain a phenomenon as complicated as language learning. What was important for
18340-438: The underlying causes of behavior, incentive-based CM is highly behavior analytic as it targets the function of the client's motivational behavior by relying on a preference assessment, which is an assessment procedure that allows the individual to select the preferred reinforcer (in this case, the monetary value of the voucher, or the use of other incentives, such as prizes). Another evidence-based CM intervention for substance abuse
18480-457: Was a well-known and influential researcher who articulated many of the theoretical constructs of reinforcement and behaviorism . Skinner defined reinforcers according to the change in response strength (response rate) rather than to more subjective criteria, such as what is pleasurable or valuable to someone. Accordingly, activities, foods or items considered pleasant or enjoyable may not necessarily be reinforcing (because they produce no increase in
18620-532: Was being published that parent advocacy groups started demanding for services throughout the 1990s, which encouraged the formation of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, a credentialing program that certifies professionally trained behavior analysts on the national level to deliver such services. Nevertheless, the certification is applicable to all human services related to the rather broad field of behavior analysis (other than
18760-419: Was derived from earlier research in the late nineteenth century, such as when Edward Thorndike pioneered the law of effect , a procedure that involved the use of consequences to strengthen or weaken behavior. With a 1924 publication, John B. Watson devised methodological behaviorism, which rejected introspective methods and sought to understand behavior by only measuring observable behaviors and events. It
18900-756: Was detailed in his 1833 paper, "On the Reflex Function of the Medulla Oblongata and Medulla Spinalis," published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society , where he provided a clear account of how reflex actions were mediated by the spinal cord, independent of the brain's conscious control, distinguishing them from other neural activities. Reinforcement (psychology) In behavioral psychology , reinforcement refers to consequences that increase
19040-403: Was introduced by Skinner to indicate that in his experimental paradigm, the organism is free to operate on the environment. In this paradigm, the experimenter cannot trigger the desirable response; the experimenter waits for the response to occur (to be emitted by the organism) and then a potential reinforcer is delivered. In the classical conditioning paradigm, the experimenter triggers (elicits)
19180-482: Was introduced in the 19th century by the English physiologist Marshall Hall , who is credited with formulating the concept of reflex action and explaining it scientifically. He introduced the term to describe involuntary movements triggered by external stimuli, which are mediated by the spinal cord and the nervous system, distinct from voluntary movements controlled by the brain. Hall's significant work on reflex function
19320-422: Was not until 1945 that B. F. Skinner proposed that covert behavior—including cognition and emotions —are subject to the same controlling variables as observable behavior, which became the basis for his philosophy called radical behaviorism . While Watson and Ivan Pavlov investigated how (conditioned) neutral stimuli elicit reflexes in respondent conditioning , Skinner assessed the reinforcement histories of
19460-402: Was that instances of dualism frequently represented " category mistakes ", and hence that they were really misunderstandings of the use of ordinary language. Daniel Dennett likewise acknowledges himself to be a type of behaviorist, though he offers extensive criticism of radical behaviorism and refutes Skinner's rejection of the value of intentional idioms and the possibility of free will. This
19600-653: Was the theory underpinning behavior modification since private events were not conceptualized during the 1970s and early 1980s, which contrasted from the radical behaviorism of behavior analysis. ABA—the term that replaced behavior modification—has emerged into a thriving field. The independent development of behaviour analysis outside the United States also continues to develop. In the US, the American Psychological Association (APA) features
#767232