SOME OF THE PROBLEMS IN ARRIVING AT A TRAINING PROGRAM FOR BEHAVIOR THERAPISTS STEM FROM THE DIFFICULTY IN DEFINING BEHAVIOR THERAPY. BASICALLY, HOWEVER, A PERSON'S DIFFICULTY IS UNDERSTOOD AS HIS BEHAVIOR IN REACTION TO SITUATIONS. THIS BEHAVIOR RESULTS FROM A CURRENT OR PREVIOUS REINFORCER. NORMAL AND ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR DIFFER ONLY IN THE TERMS…

THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY SUPPLEMENT LISTS MATERIAL ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT. APPROXIMATELY 90 UNANNOTATED REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED TO DOCUMENTS DATING FROM 1956 TO 1966. JOURNALS, BOOKS, AND REPORT MATERIALS ARE LISTED. SUBJECT AREAS INCLUDED ARE BEHAVIOR TESTS, CONDITIONING, MATERNAL REACTIONS, GRADE PREDICTABILITY, EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES,…

This paper examines the acquisition of superstitious behavior in young children. Six preschool children were exposed to a 15 minute fixed-time inter-reinforcement interval (FT-15") schedule while another six preschoolers were exposed to a 30 minute fixed-time inter-reinforcement interval (FT-30") schedule. In a free-operant laboratory…

Responses of individual fourth-grade children were monitored in daily 30-minute sessions for 10 consecutive school days. Individual subjects were used as their own controls. The child sat before a small table with a surface-mounted button and a wall-mounted screen upon which visual stimuli were rear-view projected, using a filmstrip projector with…

A case study of a learning disabled 8-year-old with behavior disturbancs is presented to highlight the use of operant conditioning in cutting down educational costs and easing the teacher's class management problems. (CL)

This module facilitates acquaintance with the application of behavioral principles in the classroom. It contains: (1) a pretest; (2) knowledge-based objectives and enabling activities; (3) demonstration-based objectives and enabling activities; (4) instructional personnel decision points; (5) two models demonstrating use of the module; (6)…

This paper points out the inadequacies of emotional or drive-based theories of exploratory behavior and offers instead a behavior analysis conceptualization. Exploratory behavior as an emotional state was rejected because the environmental conditions said to arouse exploration and the behaviors said to manifest curiosity are too general to…

Twenty normal newborns, approximately 36 hours old, were tested using an auditory temporal conditioning paradigm which consisted of a slow rise, 75 db tone played for five seconds every 25 seconds, ten times. Responses to the tones were measured by instantaneous, beat-to-beat heartrate; and the test trial was designated as the 2 1/2-second period…

The theoretical basis for Wolpe's systematic desensitization, with its principle of reciprocal inhibition and its emphasis on the role of physiological relaxation, is explained. The author examines the literature relevant to the effectiveness of desensitization with, and without, relaxation, as well as the effectiveness of relaxation alone. All 3…

Pigeons were trained to respond to stimuli from a continuous stimulus dimension (tonal frequency) with response values from continuous response dimension. Both the number of points of correspondence and problem difficulty were varied. Following training, subjects were tested with stimulus values intermediate to those trained. During these test…

SYSTEMS OF EXCHANGE - USING THE EXTINCTION, DISTRACTION, AND SUBSTITUTION EFFECTS SYSTEMS - WERE IMPLEMENTED TO DECREASE AGGRESSION AND PROMOTE COOPERATION AND SCHOLARLY BEHAVIOR, THREE SYSTEMS WERE TESTED USING EXCHANGE THEORY AS A GUIDE. THE SUBJECTS WERE FIVE 4- AND 5-YEAR-OLD BOYS DIAGNOSED AS HYPERAGGRESSIVE. EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS INCLUDED…

Sixty-five infants (mean age of 111 days) who failed to complete a two-day operant-conditioning task were compared with a stratified random sample of those who did on measures of infant temperament and several demographic characteristics. A discriminant-function analysis was performed. (Author/BN)

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Presented is a rationale for producing intelligent behavior through operant conditioning rather than predicting it by means of standardized intelligence tests which are said to require circumstances explicitly precluding intervention. (GW)