June 2018
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 10
“As a culture evolves, it encourages running comment [on contingencies] and thus prepares its members to solve problems most effectively. Cultures which divert attention from behavior to mental events said to be responsible for the behavior are notably less helpful.” (p. 143) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 9
“It is particularly helpful to describe behavior which fails to satisfy contingencies, as in I let go too soon or I struck too hard. Even fragmentary descriptions of contingencies speed the acquisition of effective terminal behavior, help to maintain the behavior over a period of time, and reinstate it when forgotten. Moreover, they generate similar […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 8
“A child learns to describe both the world to which he is reacting and the consequences of his reactions . . . Descriptions of his own behavior are especially important. The community asks him: What did you do? What are you doing? What are you going to do? And why? and his answers describe his […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 5
“It is because programmed instruction eliminates much problem solving that some objections have been raised against it. The programmer solves the learner’s problems for him. How does he do so? What must he not do if he is either to study or to teach problem solving?” (p. 135) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 4
“The changes which contribute to such a [trial-and-error] curve include the adaptation and extinction of emotional responses, the conditioning of reinforcers, and the extinction of unreinforced responses. Any contribution made by an increase in the probability of the reinforced response is hopelessly obscured.” (p. 135) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 3
“The expression [trial and error] is unfortunate. “Try” implies that a response has already been affected by relevant consequences . . . The term “error” does not describe behavior, it passes judgment on it.” (p. 134) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 2
“Since there is probably no behavioral process which is not relevant to the solving of some problem, an exhaustive analysis of techniques would coincide with an analysis of behavior as a whole.” (p. 133) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 1
“The behavior observed when a man solves a problem is distinguished by the fact that it changes another part of his behavior and is reinforced and strengthened when it does so.” (p. 133) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 5: Operant behavior. Quote 23
“The “referent” of an abstract response is not identifiable upon any one occasion. Only by surveying many instances can we identify the properties of stimuli and responses which enter into the contingencies.” (pp. 131-132) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 5: Operant behavior. Quote 20
“Reinforcement strengthens responses which differ in topography from the response reinforced . . . This is a characteristic of behavior which has strong survival value (see Chapter 7), since it would be very hard for an organism to acquire an effective repertoire if reinforcement strengthened only identical responses.” (p. 131) Subscribe to RSS feed […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 5: Operant behavior. Quote 19
“Freud argued, for example, that events in a person’s early life may be responsible for the fact that he now tends to act in ways which damage others and is reinforced by such damage. The fact that the current object of aggression only roughly resembles the original is in accord with established principles of generalization.” […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 5: Operant behavior. Quote 18
“Peterson has shown that imprinting in the young duckling is largely a matter of being reinforced by increasing proximity to the mother or imprinted object; increased proximity is reinforcing even when, thanks to a mechanical contrivance, the duckling achieves it by walking away from its mother.” (p. 128) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 5: Operant behavior. Quote 17
“The contingencies of reinforcement which define operant behavior are widespread if not ubiquitous. Those who are sensitive to this fact are sometimes embarrassed by the frequency with which they see reinforcement everywhere, as Marxists see class struggle or Freudians the Oedipus relation. Yet the fact is that reinforcement is extraordinarily important. That is why it […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 5: Operant behavior. Quote 16
“–when a man explicitly states his purpose in acting in a given way he may, indeed, be constructing a “contemporary surrogate of future consequences” which will affect subsequent behavior, possibly in useful ways.” (p. 125) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 5: Operant behavior. Quote 15
“To say that “the child who learns a language has in some sense constructed the grammar for himself” is as misleading as to say that a dog which has learned to catch a ball has in some sense constructed the relevant part of the science of mechanics.” (p. 124) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 5: Operant behavior. Quote 14
“The behavior of one who speaks correctly by applying the rules of a grammar merely resembles the behavior of one who speaks correctly from long experience in a verbal community. The results may be the same, but the controlling variables are different and the behaviors are therefore different.” (p. 124) Subscribe to RSS feed […]