Describes a system of further structuring the discrete trial format, an approach that draws on operant conditioning principles to present standardized and consistent learning trials. A flow chart of the Standard Trial Progression and Reinforcement Hierarchy is included, and data collection approaches are suggested. (CL)

Explores several aspects of behaviorism, including its contributions to current educational practice, its recent unpopularity, and challenges to behavioral researchers in the 1980s. Seventy-two references are appended. (Author/LLS)

The paper presents guidelines for training staff to implement positive reductive procedures to decrease undesirable behaviors of their retarded students and clients. Considerations relevant to all reductive procedures are briefly discussed in the first portion of the paper, while guidelines indigenous to positive reductive procedures are discussed…

Assesses the long-term retention of conditioned operant footkicks by three-month-old infants. Views a conditioning analysis as a logical means by which to bridge the gap between animal and adult human models of memory. (Author/RH)

Discusses the work of S. H. White, W. F. Overton and D. M. Baer. (MS)

Reviews the use of memory measures in the literature. Suggests problems with assumptions underlying Bogartz's proposed new measure. Responds to specific criticisms by claiming that Bogartz is critical of two measures that are not even used, unfamiliar with traditional conditioning theory, wrong in an assertion about traditional measures, and…

Responds to the general criticisms of Rovee-Collier, explaining a proposed new measure of infant memory in terms of four fundamental ideas earlier enumerated by Rovee-Collier and Shyi. Seeks to refute three of four specific criticisms made by Rovee-Collier, and admits a mistake related to the fourth criticism. (BC)

Proposes a minimal set of principles based on short-term and long-term memory mechanisms that can explain the major static and dynamic properties of operant behavior in both single-choice and multiresponse situations. The model predicts the major qualitative features of operant phenomena and suggests an experimental test of theoretical predictions…

Pigeons pecked left versus right keys contingent upon the color presented at 1 of those locations. Spatial-response latencies were shorter when the color appeared at the same location as the required response than at the opposite location. This Simon effect occurred when the stimulus on the alternative key was constant, varied from trial to trial,…

The ability of a reinforcer to maintain behavior decreases as a hyperbolic function of its delay. This discounted value can help explain impulsivity defined as the choice of an immediate, small reinforcer over a delayed, large reinforcer. Human operant studies using consumable reinforcers such as videos have found impulsivity with delays under 1…

To examine the effects on concurrent performance of independent manipulations of response-unit duration and number, 6 hens were exposed to concurrent second- order schedules of reinforcement. Each first-order operant unit required completion of a fixed-ratio schedule within the time specified by a fixed- interval schedule, with one further…