Association for Behavior Analysis International

John B. Watson endorsed his “Dozen Infants” statement, and it is probably his most widely cited fragment. However, it often has been disparaged imprudently because of ignoring its context and other reasons shown by analyses in this paper. A byproduct of the analyses is a summary of the essentials of Watson’s behaviorism.

Anyone interested in the essentials of Watson's behaviorism.

Killeen and Pellón (2013) have developed a model that is based on the hypothesis that adjunctive behavior is maintained by delayed reinforcement, occurring despite the absence of any programmed contingency between the behavior and the consequence. The best studied example of adjunctive behavior is schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP), and here data are presented that support the idea that SIP can be maintained by reinforcement. In a first study, rats developed high levels of adjunctive drinking by delivering a pellet of food 30 seconds after the completion of 20 licks to a water-bottle spout. The acquisition of adjunctive drinking was greater than in a group that had such positive contingency on only half of the trials, and even greater than in a yoked-control group that received the food pellets irrespective of its own licking. In a second study, by default a single pellet of food was delivered at regular 90-second intervals but the inter-food interval could be shortened depending on the rats' licking. The degree of contingency between licking the bottle spout and hastening the delivery of the food pellet was 100%, 50% and 0% for separate groups, with the development of SIP positively related to those different contingencies. Drinking is decreased if it forestalls reinforcement, enhanced if it hastens reinforcement, and can do so at delay characteristic of those present in studies of SIP. We are currently complementing these studies by testing the idea that water might derive reinforcing properties through its association with food.

Anyone interested in adjunctive behavior or delayed reinforcement.

From 1921 to the mid-1950s, the largest muralist movement in art history since the Renaissance developed in Mexico, leaving a remarkable legacy to the country and the world. The movement was controversial from its inception. It centered on an effort to create an egalitarian society; its mission was to reach the masses with expressions of their social, emotional, and political circumstances. Mexican muralists received commissions abroad and their international success brought high demand for frescoes in government and private walls around the country. The Mexican muralist movement can be analyzed as a cultural phenomenon. How did it come to exist? What kept it going and caused it to cease? And why, in spite of international attempts, did it never reach comparable scale or significance elsewhere? I will argue the synergy of interactions from a few individuals with distinctive repertoires and interlocking metacontingencies can account for the movement. And although the specifics of the muralists undertaking were unique and nonreplicable, the properties of other cultural phenomena with substantial impact are of similar nature.

Anyone interested in art, culture or metacontingencies.

Behavior analysis is in the dark regarding quite fundamental concepts. For example, "motivation" is a topic many behavior analysts, basic and applied, have mixed feelings about despite what all the literature says on "motivational operations". Dr. Marr will argue that behavior analysts, particularly in their treatment of reinforcement, are guilty of limited vision and in many ways are still tied to traditional motivational concepts-where apparently the light is better. He will provide a definition of motivation (and what it is not) and discuss some of the commonly studied variables said to control probabilities of action. Most behavior is controlled by consequences having little, if any, relation to motivational variables. Dr. Marr will discuss continued naive perspectives on "conditioned reinforcement" and the positive versus negative reinforcement controversy as well as the role of the history of contingencies in establishing the actions of consequences. Dr. Marr believes our field needs to search beyond its current horizons to achieve more enlightenment.

Anyone interested in the fundamental concepts of behavior analysis.

Throughout the history of psychology, interest has been strong in applying it to education and instruction. This interest increased as focus shifted to the influence of the environment on behavior with the rise of functionalism and behaviorism. This presentation will look at this trend starting with the founder of modern psychology, William James, who was skeptical of psychology's ability to be applied to education. It will then discuss John Dewey, who turned James's view on its head by applying his pragmatic and functional philosophy to education through the dictum of "learning by doing;" Edward L. Thorndike, who applied his studies on learning to education without admitting to being a behaviorist; Sidney L. Pressey and B. F. Skinner, who with their respective teaching machines led the way toward programmed learning systems; and onto Fred S. Keller, whose personalized system of instruction (PSI) said "goodbye" to old-style teaching and laid the groundwork for a new role for educators as contingency managers or arrangers of learning-promoting environments. The presentation will then discuss two contemporary behavioral approaches--interteaching and the presenter's Computer-Aided Personalized System of Instruction (CAPSI)--that stem from the work of Skinner and Keller.

Anyone interested in applying psychology to education.

The field of behavior analysis is at a critical state of development with growth, challenges, and opportunities facing all of us: scientists, educators, and practitioners. In this panel, pioneers in behavior analysis from around the world share their perspectives regarding the single-most important effort we can make today to preserve the integrity of the science and application in an evolving discipline.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, graduate students, and anyone interested in the future of behavior analysis.