Analyzes associative structures underlying goal-directed behavior using well-developed techniques for studying Pavlovian conditioning. Identifies the roles of the stimulus, response, and reinforcer in instrumental learning. A response and its reinforcer must be associated for acquisition and maintenance of instrumental behavior. (Author/LHW)

Psychologists, social workers, and school counselors are increasingly adding neurofeedback (NFT), a controversial alternative or complementary therapy to their treatment plans for patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. NFT involves training the patient in self-regulation of brain wave patterns, employing a standard diagnostic…

This paper is structured in the form of a dialog between its two authors. It chronicles the life of Eric Hoffer, a self-taught philosopher and San Francisco longshoreman. Hoffer wrote "The True Believer" (1951), eight other books, and many articles. The paper describes his working life and the influences that led him to write on such…

In later life, I. P. Pavlov incorporated his findings on aging into his theory of higher nervous activity. Some of the major findings showed that salivary conditioning and stimulus differentiation were difficult to establish in old dogs, but that conditioned reflexes established earlier in life persisted into old age. Pavlov hypothesized that…

Phenomenology is an important force in the development of psychological theory, rather than a variant type of counseling method. A distinction must be drawn between the sensory phenomenology in which gestaltists focus on sensory receptors, and logical pheomenology in which the grounding of belief or self-identity is viewed as a prediction or…

Marian and Keller Breland pioneered the application of operant psychology to commercial animal training during the 1940s and 1950s. The Brelands' story is relatively unknown in the history of behavior analysis. Using information from the Breland-Bailey papers, this paper describes the development and activities of Animal Behavior Enterprises…

This paper introduces seven principles of learning, enduring over the last five centuries of psychological thought, to discuss the evolution of the "Biophyche" (the brain in action) in the development of humans and other large organisms. It describes the conditioning theories of Darwin, Pavlov, and Thorndike and critically reviews the…

The same techniques of behavior modification that can be used by teachers to manage student behavior in the classroom can also be used by supervisors to alter the behavior of teachers. In both cases, it is necessary for the supervisors and teachers to focus primarily on the individual's behavior itself, rather than on what causes that behavior. To…