Behavior analysis and learning

Behavior Analysis and Learning, Fourth Editionis an essential textbook covering the basic principles in the field of behavior analysis and learned behaviors, as pioneered by B. F. Skinner. The textbook provides an advanced introduction to operant conditioning from a very consistent Skinnerian perspective. It covers a range of principles from basic respondent conditioning through applied behavior analysis into cultural design. Elaborating on Darwinian components and biological connections with behavior, the book treats the topic from a consistent worldview of selectionism. The functional relations between the organism and the environment are described, and their application in accounting for old behavior and generating new behavior is illustrated.

Expanding on concepts of past editions, the fourth edition provides updated coverage of recent literature and the latest findings. There is increased inclusion of biological and neuroscience material, as well as more data correlating behavior with neurological and genetic factors.

The material presented in this book provides the reader with the best available foundation in behavior science and is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology or other behavior-based disciplines. In addition, a website of supplemental resources for instructors and students makes this new edition even more accessible and student-friendly.

Author Notes

W. David Pierce is a Professor at the University of Alberta, Canada. His main research concerns a biobehavioral analysis of activity anorexia, taste regulation of overeating, and exercise-induced taste aversion
Carl D. Cheney is Professor of Psychology at Utah State University. He teaches behavior analysis and physiological psychology and has published widely in the experimental analysis of behavior. His current research is focused on the management of diet selection with a variety of species

Philip N. Hineline

Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
1 A Science of Behavior: Perspective, History, and Assumptions	p. 1
Science and behavior	p. 2
New directions: Behavior analysis and neuroscience	p. 5
Focus on: B. F. Skinner	p. 9
A brief history of behavior analysis	p. 11
Science and behavior: Some assumptions	p. 18
Chapter summary	p. 21
2 The Experimental Analysis of Behavior	p. 23
Functional analysis of behavior	p. 23
Functional analysis of the environment	p. 25
Tactics of behavioral research	p. 28
Focus on: Operant baselines and behavioral neuroscience	p. 32
Single-subject research	p. 33
Focus on: Assessment of behavior change	p. 34
Advanced section: Perceiving as behavior	p. 36
Chapter summary	p. 39
3 Reflexive Behavior and Respondent Conditioning	p. 41
Phylogenetic behavior	p. 41
Ontogenetic behavior	p. 46
Temporal relations and conditioning	p. 51
Second-order respondent conditioning	p. 53
On the applied side: Drug use, abuse, and complexities of respondent conditioning	p. 53
Note on: Physiology and the control of preparatory responses by conditioned stimuli	p. 54
Advanced section: Complex conditioning	p. 56
Aspects of complex conditioning	p. 56
The Rescorla-Wagner model of conditioning	p. 58
Focus on: The Rescorla-Wagner equation	p. 59
Chapter summary	p. 62
4 Reinforcement and Extinction of Operant Behavior	p. 65
Operant behavior	p. 65
Focus on: Rewards and intrinsic motivation	p. 69
Operant conditioning	p. 72
Focus on: Behavioral neuroscience and operant conditioning of the neuron	p. 74
Focus on: Reinforcement and problem solving	p. 81
Extinction	p. 82
Note on: Remembering and recalling	p. 87
On the applied side: Extinction of temper tantrums	p. 89
Chapter summary	p. 90
5 Schedules of Reinforcement	p. 93
Importance of schedules of reinforcement	p. 93
C. B. Ferster: Schedules of reinforcement	p. 94
Focus on: Science and behavior analysis	p. 96
Comment on: Inner causes, schedules, and response patterns	p. 97
Focus on: A system of notation	p. 99
Schedules of positive reinforcement	p. 101
Ratio and interval schedules of reinforcement	p. 103
Focus on: Generality of schedule effects	p. 106
Note on: VI schedules, reinforcement rate, and behavioral momentum	p. 109
Schedule performance in transition	p. 110
On the applied side: Schedules and cigarettes	p. 112
Advanced section: Schedule performance	p. 114
Chapter summary	p. 119
6 Aversive Control of Behavior	p. 121
Contingencies of punishment	p. 122
Quick tip: Procedures to reduce rate of response	p. 122
Focus on: Use of punishment in treatment	p. 126
Contingencies of negative reinforcement	p. 129
Focus on: An analysis of avoidance behavior	p. 134
Side effects of aversive procedures	p. 135
Focus on: Social defeat, aversion to social contact, and behavioral neuroscience	p. 139
On the applied side: Coercion and its fallout	p. 144
Note on: The definition of coercion	p. 145
Chapter summary	p. 146
7 Operant-Respondent Interrelationships and the Biological Context of Conditioning	p. 149
Analysis of operant-respondent contingencies	p. 150
Note on: Operants and respondents	p. 157
The biological context of conditioning	p. 158
Focus on: Behavioral neuroscience, taste aversion, and urges for addictive behavior	p. 160
On the applied side: Activity anorexia and interrelations between eating and physical activity	p. 164
Advanced section: The nature of autoshaped responses	p. 167
Chapter summary	p. 169
8 Stimulus Control	p. 171
Differential reinforcement and discrimination	p. 172
Focus on: Stimulus control, neuroscience, and what birds see	p. 173
Stimulus control and multiple schedules	p. 173
Focus on: Discrimination and the "bird-brained" pigeon	p. 175
Focus on: Determinants of behavioral contrast	p. 178
Generalization	p. 179
Errorless discrimination and fading	p. 182
Complex stimulus control	p. 185
Focus on: Concept formation by pigeons	p. 188
On the applied side: The pigeon as a quality control inspector	p. 190
Chapter summary	p. 191
9 Choice and Preference	p. 193
Experimental analysis of choice and preference	p. 193
The matching law	p. 198
Choice, foraging, and behavioral economics	p. 204
Focus on: Activity anorexia and substitutability of food and wheel running	p. 206
Matching and single-operant schedules of reinforcement	p. 208
On the applied side: Application of the quantitative law of effect	p. 210
Advanced section: Quantification of choice and generalized matching	p. 212
Focus on behavioral neuroscience, matching, and sensitivity	p. 218
Chapter summary	p. 219
10 Conditioned Reinforcement	p. 221
Note on: Clicker training	p. 222
Chain schedules and conditioned reinforcement	p. 222
Focus on: Backward chaining	p. 224
Determinants of conditioned reinforcement	p. 225
Focus on: Behavioral neuroscience and conditioned reinforcement	p. 227
Delay reduction and conditioned reinforcement	p. 230
Generalized conditioned reinforcement	p. 232
On the applied side: The token economy	p. 236
Advanced section: Quantification and delay reduction	p. 237
Chapter summary	p. 239
11 Correspondence Relations: Imitation and Rule-Governed Behavior	p. 241
Correspondence and observational learning	p. 243
Focus on: Behavioral neuroscience, mirror neurons, and imitation	p. 249
On the applied side: Training generalized imitation	p. 253
Focus on: Rules, observational learning, and self-efficacy	p. 257
Rule-governed behavior	p. 257
Focus on: Instructions and contingencies	p. 261
Focus on: Following rules and joint control	p. 264
Chapter summary	p. 265
12 Verbal Behavior	p. 267
Language and verbal behavior	p. 267
Focus on: Speaking and evolution of the vocal tract	p. 268
Verbal behavior: Some basic distinctions	p. 269
Operant functions of verbal behavior	p. 271
Research on verbal behavior	p. 273
Additional verbal relations: Intraverbals, echoics, and textuals	p. 276
Analysis of complex behavior in the laboratory	p. 278
Focus on: Reports of private events by pigeons	p. 281
Symbolic behavior and stimulus equivalence	p. 283
Focus on: Behavioral neuroscience and derived conceptual relations	p. 287
On the applied side: Three-term contingencies and natural speech	p. 289
Advanced section: A formal analysis of manding and tacting	p. 290
Chapter summary	p. 292
13 Applied Behavior Analysis	p. 295
Characteristics of applied behavior analysis	p. 296
Research in applied behavior analysis	p. 300
Focus on: Personalized system of instruction and precision teaching	p. 305
Applications of behavior principles	p. 310
Focus on: Autism, mirror neurons, and applied behavior analysis	p. 312
The causes and prevention of behavior problems	p. 314
Focus on: Conditioned overeating and childhood obesity	p. 316
On the applied side: MammaCare-detection and prevention of breast cancer	p. 318
Chapter summary	p. 320
14 Three Levels of Selection: Biology, Behavior, and Culture	p. 323
Level 1 Evolution and natural selection	p. 323
Focus on: Genetic control of a fixed action pattern	p. 326
Level 2 Selection by reinforcement	p. 329
Level 3 The selection and evolution of culture	p. 335
Focus on: Metacontingencies	p. 336
Chapter summary	p. 338
Glossary	p. 339
References	p. 369
Author index	p. 407
Subject index	p. 419

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Author Notes

Table of Contents