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

Sitting here at my desk on a cold, snowy morning watching the snowflakes gently descend to blanket the landscape outside my window (such descriptions reveal why I am a behavior analyst and not a poet), reminds me of the operant (another reminder, too, of why I am not a poet). The operant is one of our most important concepts. Operants are classes of responses that have a similar effect on the environment. That effect can be to operate something that allows their measurement (like a child’s block-stacking or a pigeon’s key peck) or to produce a reinforcer or punisher.

Some children from an early age appear to know the direction they wish to take and set out to make it happen. Others are less focused and may indeed engage in reinforcer sampling. Both groups of children need parental encouragement and support.

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

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.

“A lot of people get queasy when thinking about this; we’re considering an individual with an established set of preferences and related utility for reinforcers associated with those preferences, and then we want to start manipulating those preferences. Well, some people think that’s not a good idea—preferences are what preferences are.”

On today’s episode of BOOST U!, Maddie Duke and Corey Robertson break down motivating operations, including behavior-altering effects, value-altering effects, conditioned motivating operations, how medi

On today’s bonus episode of BOOST U! Maddie Duke and Corey Robertson answered some student questions about complex schedules of reinforcement and simple vs. conditional discriminations.

“For a lot of the populations that we work with, it is difficult to extract very clear, very useful information on what sort of things might function as reinforcement for them.” Dr. Iser DeLeon, PhD, BCBA Abstract 

In the latter years of his life, Dr. Jose Martinez, the founder of ABA Technologies. Inc., and the driving force behind the creation of the School of Behavior Analysis at Florida Tech, was heard to utter the title of this blog in every one of his presentations relating to the influence of antecedent conditions on behavior, “Antecedents have last names.”

It is the difference between a science focused on the self or personality as an initiating agent of action and a science focused on behavior-environment relations.

Part 3 - Issues of Multicultural Diversity in the Ethical Practice of Applied Behavior Analysis with Dr. Danielle DeLong

As behavior analysts, we constantly try to determine why people do what they do. Often this is in a clinical context. Why does Johnny tantrum? Why does Jane flop during transitions?

In this episode of BOOST U!, Maddie Duke, MS, BCBA, and Corey Robertson, MS, BCBA, break down reinforcement from a behavior analytic perspective. Whether you're prepping for the BCBA exam or just looking to strengthen your understanding, this discussion covers all classifications of reinforcement—positive vs. negative, socially mediated vs. automatic, and unconditioned vs.

This month on Operant Innovations - Thought Leaders, we are back with Dr. Jesus Rosales-Ruiz as he answers the questions "Where do you see the field going?" and/or "Where would he like to see the field go?" as he dives into The Constructional Approach and asks us to continue to better practices and our field!