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Shaping, or the differential reinforcement of successive approximations, is thought by many to be the most important tool in the behavior analyst’s toolbox. Shaping is usually thought of as something one human does to change the behavior of another living organism, most often to a human but also to a pet or a laboratory subject of the nonhuman persuasion. In such cases, the human is the agent of the shaping in that the human decides the conditions under which successive approximations do or do not merit reinforcement. 

Once upon a time, there were twins named Immedium and Procrastinium. As their names might suggest, the two approached tasks very differently. When a deadline was assigned, Procrastinium’s first reaction was to do something else, while Immedium started on it and soon got it done, PDQ, kazaam, what’s next?

The behavior of punishing. When behavior is reinforced it becomes more likely the next time, and the next, often in an ever-escalating spiral.

Performance Management (PM) is an approach to producing organizational results by improving the performance of employees throughout an organization. Performance involves all of the different behaviors that employees engage in. Behaviors that contribute to increases in sales, higher customer satisfaction, and higher quality products and services are the building blocks of business results. PM focuses on increasing these critical behaviors by systematically arranging the workplace to maximize productivity.

In Organizational Behavior Management (OBM), one specialty area of practice is leadership and culture development. Leadership can be defined as the behavior of managers, supervisors, and decision-makers who influence the behavior of employees. Culture is a pattern of behavior throughout the organization. Effective leadership produces a culture of reinforcement where leaders and employees bring out the best performance in each other.

 When it comes to reinforcement, it is difficult to say.

Bad or Possibly Redeemable Label? A procedure in which each target response postpones a scheduled reinforcer most often is described in both the basic and applied research and practice literature as a dif

In a recent article published in the Washington Post entitled, “Timeouts are a dated and ineffective parenting strategy. So what’s a good alternative?” the author of the article answers the question of the present blog affirmatively. She states, “I never used timeouts with my older kids and I don’t plan to rely on it when the baby I’ll give birth to in a few weeks is old enough to go into full-blown tantrum mode.”

The discussion centered around whether or not it is good Behavior-ese to describe a discriminative stimulus as signaling the availability of reinforcement.

For the past six months I have had the pleasure of living in the beautiful city of Nara,

Behavior analysis today gets most of its mainstream recognition for the work being done in applied settings, referred to as applied behavior analysis (ABA).

“What constitutes social behavior?” The general conception is that social interaction involves two organisms in some form of interaction with one another. Learn more about this behavior from our experts here!

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Measurement of performance and performance appraisals strike fear in the hearts of employees and supervisors alike.

Your most important role as a supervisor is to get results for your clients, offering them optimal opportunities to improve their quality of life. As experts in the science of behavior analysis, you can get results by maximizing and supporting your most important asset—your people.