The experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) is in trouble. Financial support for basic operant-conditioning research is difficult to obtain; teaching and research positions in colleges and universities are few; and bright undergraduates join other fields for graduate study. One reason for the difficulty is that EAB basic research does not focus…

THE LINC COMPUTER PROVIDES A PARTICULAR SCHEDULE OF REINFORCEMENT FOR BEHAVIORAL EXPERIMENTS BY EXECUTING A SEQUENCE OF COMPUTER OPERATIONS IN CONJUNCTION WITH A SPECIALLY DESIGNED INTERFACE. THE INTERFACE IS THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE EXPERIMENTAL CHAMBER AND THE COMPUTER. THE PROGRAM AND INTERFACE OF AN EXPERIMENT INVOLVING A PIGEON…

Authors conclude that reinforcers provided by the behavioral approach provide immediate, short-range motivation for the child to acquire needed skills and information, while fostering the intrinsic desire to learn. (Author)

Behavioral pharmacology is a maturing science that has made significant contributions to the study of drug effects on behavior, especially in the domain of drug-behavior interactions. Less appreciated is that research in behavioral pharmacology can have, and has had, implications for the experimental analysis of behavior, especially its…

Chapters contained in this volume, each with a list of references appended, are: "Scientific Psychology in Transition" by Gregory A. Kimble; "Higher Mental Processes as the Bases for the Laws of Conditioning" by Eli Saltz; "Reification and Reality in Conditioning Paradigms: Implications of Results When Modes of Reinforcement are Changed" by David…

This case study describes a selective mute Mexican American boy, who, at initial referral, had never spoken to peers or teachers at school. Treatment procedures employed shaping and reinforcement of speech in therapy sessions. Sessions involved the psychologist alone, the classroom teacher and psychologist, the boy's best friend and the…