Andy Lattal, Ph.D.
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When Previous Behavior Returns: Old Wine in New Bottles
Imagine yourself in front of a soft drink machine. You insert your money and make your selection. Nothing happens. Nada. No drink, just a cold, apparently empty machine staring you in the face. What…
Further Thoughts on Technological Solutions to Behavioral Problems
In a previous commentary (Technology and Behavior Around the Office Coffee Machine), I described a mechanical solution to the problem of getting people to refill the coffee machine’s water reservoir…
How Not to Talk About Reinforcers
In behavior analysis, a reinforcer is defined functionally, in terms of its effect on behavior. Thus, something (or someone or some activity) is said to be a reinforcer if it develops or maintains…
Helping People Change
In discussing compliance or adherence to treatment recommendations, be they drugs, exercises or instructions to cease smoking, one of my colleagues, Stephanie Kincaid, observed the distinction…
Foraging in Lab and Life
In medical research it is well established that the biology of rats and mice is sufficiently similar to humans that these nonhuman species are used routinely and without challenge to further the…
Is Alfie Kohn Conning You?
One of my colleagues sent me a link to a New York Times article by Alfie Kohn, Do Our Kids Get Off Too Easy?. As with most articles by Mr. Kohn, I shouldn’t respond but figured somebody might…
Doing What Comes Naturally: Shaping
The WiFi connection in my apartment is not the greatest. When I try to use my various gadgets for connecting to the internet from my bedroom, the service often cuts out, leaving me suspended outside…
Really? or Don’t Say Stuff You Don’t Mean
Every parent has heard their child(ren) say “Well, if you don’t let me (fill in the blank), then I will (fill in the blank).” Every child has heard their parent(s) say, “Well if you (fill in…
An Experimental Life
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.” For most of my adult life I have been in the enviable position of being able to do…
Lessons from a French Washing Machine
(Note: This commentary was written during Dr. Lattal’s sabbatical year in France)
My apartment in France came with a washer/dryer combo unit, which is simply wonderful. The last time I…
Leaving our Children Behind
There is a great deal of emphasis on testing and outcome in American education circles these days. School systems, individual schools, and individual teachers all have had the onus on them to…
Semper Fi
“Always faithful” is a message not only for members of the United States Marines but also for anyone involved in changing behavior. The core principle of behavior change is reinforcement, and the…
Fair Words Butter No Parsnips
I ran across this quaint old expression recently in an 1839 novel by British writer Frances Trollope (the mother of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, for you trivia fans). Though it was my first…
Using Better Mousetraps
A common aphorism is that if you “build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door." Although that was not really what Ralph Waldo Emerson said, this common expression survives…
A Kiss is Just a Kiss
Or is it? What makes things the same and what makes them different? When I say “a kiss” or “she kissed me,” certain images are conjured up. What is conjured, however, may vary hugely. A kiss given by…
A Review of "The Natural History of the Rich" by Richard Coniff
Richard Coniff takes some of the lessons he has learned from writing a number of books on natural history, specifically, the behavior of nonhuman animals in their natural habitats, and extrapolates…
You Get What You Pay For: More on Shaping Behavior
Environments shape behavior even when people don’t. A more fundamental behavioral process is difficult to imagine. Skilled shapers - people like animal trainers in amusement parks, most…
Focusing on "Focus"
Announcer during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, after watching US gymnast Gabby Douglas fall off the balance beam in that event’s final competition: “Her focus is just not on today.”
“…
