Important Developments in Behavior Analysis 1980-2005

Jack Michael

Sarasota, Florida

Florida Association for Behavior Analysis

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Western Michigan University

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Walter Hunter 1930visiting lectures

B. F. Skinner 1938Behavior of Organisms

Francis Bacon 1561-1626 Darwin, 1859 Origin of Species

Mach, 1883 Sci. of Mechanics

Crozier 1930 Dept of Physiol Head

Loeb 1916 Organism as a Whole

Pavlov 1908-1928cond. reflex lectures

Watson 1913 Psy. as Beh Views It

Russell 1927 Philosophy

Thorndike 1898 Cat in Pzzle Box

Keller & Schoenfeld1950 Princ. of Psych.

Fred Keller

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1928-1932: Skinner attends graduate school in Psychology at Harvard and becomes a behaviorist colleague of fellow graduate student Fred S. Keller. Skinner conducts basic research on animal behavior in the physiological laboratory of William Crozier.

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B. F. Skinner 1938 Behavior of Organisms Keller & Schoenfeld1950 Princ. of Psych.

Walden II, 1948 SHB 1953VB 1957 Ferster and Sk,

Sched Rfmt 1957

SEAB, JEAB 1958Sidman, Tactics of Sci. Res. 1960

Books: Bijou & Baer, Staats&Staats, Ullman &Krasner, Ulrich, Stach.& Mabry, Honig

APA Div. 25 1964

Tech Teach, COR, BF&D, Behaviorism, AB, Cum Rec

JABA 1968

U Wash. Bijou

Wash, ASU, SIU, KU, WMU, FSU, UF,etc. Behaviorism 1972

ABA 1975 JOBM, 1977

The Behavior Analyst 1978 TAVB 1982

Applied People: (1968-1977) Wolf, Baer, Risley, Ayllon, Azrin, Bijou, Hall, Hart, Hopkins, Lindsley, Madsen, Phillips, Thomas, Bailey, Barlow, Born, Bostow, Brigham, Bushell, Clark (H. D.), Dietz, Drabman, Fawcett, Fixen, Foxx (R. M.), Garcia, Goetz, Goldiamond, Guess, Harris (V. W.), Hartmann, Hayes, Hopkins, Iwata, Johnson (S. M.), Johnston (K. M.), Kazdin, Koegel, Kohlenberg, Kratochwill, Lahey, Lovaas, Madsen, Miller (L. K.), Neef, Nordquist, O'Brian, O'Leary, Osborne, Phillips, Powell, Quilitch, Redd, Repp, Sailor, Sajwaj, Sanders, Schnelle, Schreibman, Semb, Sherman (J. A.), Stolz, Strain, Twardosz, Van Houten, Wahler, Walker, Whitehead, Zimmerman,

Regional ABAs

Basic Behavior Analysis: People (1958-1974)Anger, Appel, Ayllon, Azrin, Badia, Baron, Bijou, Bindra, Bloomfield, Blough, Bolles, Byrd, Boren, Brady, Bullock, Campbell, Catania, Clark (F.C.),Cohen, Cumming, D'Amato, Dardano, Davis, Davison, Day, Dews, Dinsmoor, Falk, Farmer, Ferster,Findley, Gollub, Hake, Hanson, Hearst, Hefferline, Hendry, Herrick, Herrnstein, Hineline, Hodos, Hoffman, Holtz, Hutchinson, Kelleher, Killeen, Lane, Laties, Mechner, Migler, Millinson, Morse (W. H.), Neuringer, Nevin, Pierrel, Pliskoff, Powell, Premack, Rachlin, Reynolds, Rilling, Schneider, Schoenfeld, Segal, Shimp,Shull, Sidman, Skinner, Staddon, Stebbins,Terrace, Thomas (D. R.), Thomas (J. R.), Thompson, Todorov, Ulrich, Verhave, Waller, Weiner, Weiss, Weissman, Williams (B. A. ), Zeiler, Zimmerman.

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1961: The Tactics of Scientific Research. Murray Sidman publishes an influential account of individual organism research methodology, a research design handbook for generations of operant conditioners. Sidman is a major contributor to basic and applied behavior analysis (Sidman avoidance; learning, stimulus equivalence).

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1975-2005

Basic Research: Continued exploration of the topics in B of O, Ferster and Skinner, various journal articles--Science, Psych Record, others: reinforcement, stimulus control (generalization, SD development, behavioral contrast, generalization gradients, M to S, delayed M to S and the differential outcome research), observing responses and attention, conditioned reinforcement, respondent behavior, conditioned suppression, aversive control,

1975 to 2005

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1961: R. Herrnstein (1920-1994) proposes The Matching Law to quantify the relation between rate of response and rate of reinforcement in two-alternative response (choice) experiments. Organisms apparently allocate responding and time proportional to reinforcement rates. Decades of experimental analysis and mathematicizing ensue. Herrnstein was an ex-student of Skinner's and S. S. Stevens who became a Harvard colleague. Although his contributions to behavior analysis are of great significance, he was better known by the scientific community and the public at large for his writings on crime, intelligence theory and social policy.

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Quantitative approaches to behavior--A mixture of basic research and conceptual analysis:Herrnstein's quantification of the rsp-rfmt relation led to much quantification research/theory (on choice), such that in 1993 Jack Marr could write that 40% of JEAB papers reflect a mathematical approach to their topic . . . . However he earlier complained that "Behavior analysts traditionally have been suspicious if not outright contemptuous of mathematical treatments of behavior. Worse, many students pursue behavioral science because they can avoid the "hard" sciences and mathematics. The deep irony is that behavior analysis, almost uniquely, has revealed a level of orderliness in behavior that cries out for mathematical treatment. Now 40% of JEAB papers reflect a mathematical approach to their topic, but the number of contributors to this work remains woefully small." (Jack Marr, TBA, 1993) There is a series of at least 15 volumes on quantitative behavioral relations (Commons et al.). Also SQAB which now meets regularly at ABA conventions.

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Other quantitative treatments of behavioral relations, have been described such as Nevin's behavioral momentum and behavioral economics; delay-reduction analysis (Fantino and colleagues).

Extension of the basic behavioral concepts and methods to other areas that further elaboration of basic concepts, such as behavioral pharmacology--but this could be considered a applied area. Animal vb (Alex, Lana); much human operant research (sort of like the above topics, but research uses human subjects), verbal behavior research, naming (Lowe and colleagues); animal equivalence research, behavioral approaches to memory, intracranial reinforcement, respondent relations, verbally governed behavior--rules,

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1975-2005

1972 Florida case involving behavior modification and possible outlawing of behavioral treatments; then credentialing movement and accreditation of university behavioral programs got started, and it has had a huge effect on training, and on the general professional quality of the profession.

Applied Research and Applications

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1968: SEAB begins publishing the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) and names M. Wolf as its first editor. D. Baer, M. Wolf, and T. Risley, now at the University of Kansas, define the field in their seminal paper, "Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis." JABA, 1, 91-97. This one of the most frequently cited articles in the field of behavior analysis.

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Applied research & applications in human services and education: The effects of basic behavioral relations on a wide variety of adult and child problem behaviors (eg. the use of extinction to increase response variability in toy play; the role of behavioral contrast in making financial decisions); functional analysis--Iwata and colleagues (much research); preference assessment (much research); functional communication training; matching law analysis of choice; the use of equivalence training in applied settings, the use of stimulus equivalence theory and also relational frame theory to understand and to alter problem behavior; behavioral momentum applications (especially the high probability choice request procedure); ); behavioral pharmacology in applied research; peer tutoring, pyramidal staff training and parent training; behavioral fluency analyses (from precision teaching); ; Achievement Place; Hart and Risley longitudinal study--very important for an environmental understanding of human language--verbal behavior; clinical behavior analysis treatments (highly verbal subjects), "talk therapies"; acceptance & commitment therapy; Headsprout; subject vs experimenter selected reinforcers; effectiveness and preference for punishment and extinction components of function based interventions; parenting; public school problems other than learning the subject matters

(bullying, discipline; PECS; prisons

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OBM research: systems management for staff training, employee and supervisor behavior with respect to business and industry, safety (much current research-- seat belt use increase, cell phone use decrease safe lifting posture), electricity usage, recycling; systems research and applications in human services settings and in educational settings; instructional technology

Professional Issues: Basic and applied interactions; statistical process control and other uses of statistical inference theory in applied decisions (some for, but many against); person centered approach (and positive behavioral support); social validity; internet resources in behavior analysis.

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Studying basic behavioral processes with humans--is it possible; value in animal research; extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation; habituation vs satiation, joint control; behavior analysis and the aversives controversy; establishing operations; mechanism and contextualism; clinical behavior analysis; participation of women in behavior analysis; historical development of precision teaching; relational frames,where do they come from? inferential statistics; molar vs molecular approaches; ethics for behavior analysts

Conceptual Analysis: Integration of behavioral concepts in a loosely constructed but coherent framework (Glenn, TBA,1993)

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