COVID-19 Survival Guide for Caregivers
It’s COVID-19, and everyone is talking about new shows to binge-watch or new hobbies to start. How nice.
Dissing Ability
Suddenly, an observable response pattern—reading—is turned into an internal state.
Catch-Up Contingencies
Ever heard the expression “closing the barn door after the cows are out?” It basically means coming up with a solution that is
Celebrating Positive Deviance at Work: What COVID-19 can Teach Us
The Future just got a Restart on the Meaning of UnpredictableIn the Spring of 2020, the world is engaged in very large behavioral changes that we hope will lead to positive outcomes.
When Punishment is a Reinforcer
Punishment, by definition, reduces, weakens, or eliminates (depending on one’s theoretical bias) the responses on which it depends. But punishment also reinforces other behavior, notably that of the one administering the punishment.
What is Social Behavior?
In an old experiment, Boren (1966) placed two Rhesus monkeys in separate operant chambers so that
Invasive Behavioral Events: Lessons from Invasive Species
The stability of an ecosystem, including the species that occupy it, can be disrupted when an invasive species appears in it.
Out of Thin Air?
Ever think about where operant behavior comes from? What is it before that first reinforcer occurs? In speaking of the origins of operant behavior, Skinner famously observed that “[o]perant conditioning shapes behavior as a sculptor shapes a lump of clay.