Proposes an operant framework for the analysis of environment-intelligence interactions in old age and calls for an implementation of research aimed at examining the range of modifiability of intellectual proficiency in the elderly. Intellectual decrement is interpreted to reflect the lack of supportive environmental contingencies. (Author/SDH)

The effect of feedback on group cohesiveness (measured in terms of group and task attractiveness) for a person who is performing a simple, highly repetitive task was studied. One hundred business administration students, randomly assigned to five member groups, completed a series of trials having the goal of determining the number commonly held by…

A method of studying attachment behavior in infants was devised using time series and time sequence analyses. Time series analysis refers to relationships between events coded over adjacent fixed-time units. Time sequence analysis refers to the distribution of exact times at which particular events happen. Using these techniques, multivariate…

External reinforcement paradigms are useful and necessary in a complete instructional system and external reinforcement is not antithetical to a belief in an intrinsic motivation hypothesis. Teacher training, parent education, and classroom management, as well as complex learning sequences, can be improved by the use of principles emerging from…

Four profoundly retarded multiply handicapped children (with a mean age of 12 years) were placed in a situation where auditory stimulation was made contingent on a visually directed lever-pulling response. (Author/MH)

Sixteen studies were analyzed that employed single-subject designs focusing on conduct disorders in preschoolers. Results indicated that reinforcement produced most positive outcomes, followed by punishment, timeout, and differential attention. Subject characteristics such as sex, handicapping condition, and target behavior typically bore little…

Examines the influences of behaviorist psychology on performance and instruction technologies. The basic assumptions of behaviorism are outlined, reinforcing contingencies are reviewed, conditioning is described, and such specific topics as stimulus control, behavior chaining, and successive approximation are discussed. (Author/JL)

The study sought to identify some of the variables controlling the severely aggressive behavior of two severely retarded children (ages 9 and 14). Experiments conducted under various conditions showed that, while aggressive behaviors sometimes serve as an escape function, the behaviors can be terminated through reduction of the causative situation…

Basic and applied research on variables that influence the extinction of operant behaviors is reviewed and applied to the treatment of behavior disorders. The potential value of a general technology for the use of behavioral extinction is discussed. The paper concludes that current research findings are not sufficient for the development of a…

We studied the choice behavior of 2 monkeys in a discrete-trial task with reinforcement contingencies similar to those Herrnstein (1961) used when he described the matching law. In each session, the monkeys experienced blocks of discrete trials at different relative-reinforcer frequencies or magnitudes with unsignalled transitions between the…

The use of mathematical models in the experimental analysis of behavior has increased over the years, and they offer several advantages. Mathematical models require theorists to be precise and unambiguous, often allowing comparisons of competing theories that sound similar when stated in words. Sometimes different mathematical models may make…