July 2018
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 15
“If, through evolutionary selection, a given response becomes easier and easier to condition as an operant, then some phylogenic behavior may have had an ontogenic origin.” (pp. 203-204) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 14
“Is a chimpanzee learning binary arithmetic in a laboratory (45) showing chimpanzee or human behavior? The chimpanzees who “manned” early satellites were conditioned under complex contingencies of reinforcement, and their behavior was promptly described as “almost human,” but it was the contingencies which were almost human.” (pp. 202-203) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 13
“The basic issue is not whether behavior is instinctive or learned, as if these adjectives described essences, but whether we have correctly identified the variables responsible for the provenance of behavior as well as those currently in control . . . The important issue is empirical: what are the relevant variables?” (p.199) Subscribe to […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 12
“The basic issue is not whether behavior is instinctive or learned, as if these adjectives described essences, but whether we have correctly identified the variables responsible for the provenance of behavior as well as those currently in control . . . The important issue is empirical: what are the relevant variables?” (p.199) Subscribe to […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 11
“The vocal responses in the human child which are so easily shaped by operant reinforcement are not controlled by specific releasers. It was the development of an undifferentiated vocal repertoire which brought a new and important system of behavior within range of operant reinforcement through the mediation of other organisms (Skinner, 1957).” (p. 197) […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 10
“Konrad Lorenz’s recent book On Aggression (Lorenz, 1966) could be seriously misleading if it diverts our attention from relevant manipulable variables in the current environment to phylogenic contingencies which, in their sheer remoteness, encourage a nothing-can-be-done-about-it attitude.” (p. 196) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 9
“Certainly no land mammal is now living in the environment which selected its principal genetic features, behavioral or otherwise. Current environments are almost as “unnatural” as a laboratory. In any case, behavior in a natural habitat would have no special claim to genuineness. What an organism does is a fact about that organism regardless of […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 8
“In the experimental analysis of behavior many species differences are minimized . . . species differences in sensory equipment, in effector systems, in susceptibility to reinforcement, and in possibly disruptive repertoires . . . The data then show an extraordinary uniformity over a wide range of species. For example, the processes of extinction, discrimination, and […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 7
“It is often said that an analysis of behavior in terms of ontogenic contingencies “leaves something out of account,” and this is true. It leaves out of account habits, ideas, cognitive processes, needs, drives, traits, and so on. But it does not neglect the facts upon which these concepts are based. It seeks a more […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 5
“The topography of an operant need not be completely fixed, but some defining property must be available to identify instances. An emphasis upon the occurrence of a repeatable unit distinguishes an experimental analysis of behavior from historical or anecdotal accounts.” (p. 175) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 4
“Upon a given occasion we observe that an animal displays a certain kind of behavior—learned or unlearned. We describe its topography and evaluate its probability. We discover variables, genetic or environmental, of which the probability is a function. We then undertake to predict or control the behavior.” (p. 174) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 3
“No reputable student of animal behavior has ever taken the position “that the animal comes to the laboratory as a virtual tabula rasa, that species differences are insignificant, and that all responses are about equally conditionable to all stimuli” (Breland & Breland, 1961).” (p. 173) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 2
“[Watson] was actually, as Gray (1963) has pointed out, “one of the earliest and one of the most careful workers in the area of animal ethology.” Yet, he is probably responsible for the persistent myth of what has been called “behaviorism’s counterfactual dogma” (Hirsch, 1963). And it is a myth.” (pp. 172-173) Subscribe to […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 7: The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Behavior. Quote 1
“Parts of the behavior of an organism concerned with the internal economy, as in respiration or digestion, have always been accepted as “inherited,” and there is no reason why some responses to the external environment should not also come ready-made in the same sense. It is widely believed that many students of behavior disagree.” (p. […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 16
“A species which has developed the capacity to learn from one experience—to change its behavior as the result of a single reinforcement—is vulnerable to adventitious reinforcement. The reinforcer which follows a response need not be “produced by it.” It may generate superstitious behavior.” (p. 168) Subscribe to RSS feed here
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 13
“When operant experiments with human subjects are simplified by instructing the subjects in the operation of the equipment . . . , the resulting behavior may resemble that which follows exposure to the contingencies and may be studied in its stead for certain purposes, but the controlling variables are different, and the behaviors will not […]
Contingencies of Reinforcement. Chapter 6: An Operant Analysis of Problem Solving. Quote 12
“A rule is simply an object in the environment. Why should it be important? This is the sort of question which always plagues the dualist. Descartes could not explain how a thought could move the pineal gland and thus affect the material body . . . How does a rule govern behavior? As a discriminative […]