Work

The S‐r Issue: Its Status in Behavior Analysis and in Donahoe and Palmer's Learning and Complex Behavior

Year: 1997

Type: article

Abstract: The central focus of this essay is whether the effect of reinforcement is best viewed as the strengthenng of responding or the strengthening of the environmental control of responding. We make the argument that adherence to Skinner's goal of achieving a moment-to-moment analysis of behavior compels acceptance of the latter view. Moreover, a thoroughgoing commitment to a moment-to-moment analysis undermines the fundamental distinction between the conditioning process instantiated by operant and respondent contingencies while buttressing the crucially important differences in their cumulative outcomes. Computer simulations informed by experimental analyses of behavior and neuroscience are used to illustrate these points.

Source: Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

DOI: 10.1901/jeab.1997.67-193

Authors: John W. Donahoe, David C. Palmer, José E. Burgos

Institutions: University of Massachusetts Amherst, Smith College

Language: English

Topic: Behavioral and Psychological Studies

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: National Science Foundation

Award: New Conditioning Methodology For the Pigeon