Behavior Analysis

A long time ago one of the most influential scientists in behavior analysis, Murray Sidman wrote on the subject of comparative psychology that differences between species were easy to find, but, he…

I don’t know about you, but I would describe most of the things that positively reinforce my behavior as “pleasurable.” But, hold on, you say. One of the first things one learns when being taught…

Shaping is the process whereby we selectively (differentially, for the more technically inclined) reinforce closer and closer approximations to our goal or target behavior to eventually achieve that…

Let me introduce you to one school that we think has much of offer American education.  Aubrey Daniels and I went to visit Dr. Francis Mechner’s kindergarten through 8th grade Paideia School in…

Well, this was a little embarrassing for someone. A recent article in the Washington Post described, and included a picture of, a 2-year old having a “full-on” (in the reporter’s words;  a…

Everyone on the planet must by now be familiar with the notion of short and long-term consequences of things we do. For those of you familiar with the PICNIC Analysis® made famous by Aubrey…

Reviewed by Ronnie Dietrich, Senior Fellow, The Wing Institute, Oakland, California  Very few psychological experiments become well known within the discipline.  Even fewer become well…

This is a web site largely concerned with the advancement of behavior analysis, but what exactly do we mean by the word behavior? Dictionary definitions indicate that behavior is something an…

Behavior and the Role of Unintended Consequences: Examples from Process Engineering and Bold Community Initiatives Organizational ethics takes more than good people seeking to do good. It takes more…

The humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers suggested that a most important feature of human interactions was unconditional positive regard, which is defined as “basic acceptance and support of a person…

(Note: As part of our From the Field series on behavior analysis around the world, Professors Alicia Roca and Rogelio Escobar of the National Autonomous University of Mexico have kindly written the…

Note from the Institute: This is the second in our series on the status of behavior analysis in countries around the world. Our observer is Andres Garcia-Penagos, who currently is completing his Ph.D…

Note: The Institute’s guest commentator, Dr. Darnell Lattal, recently assumed the role of Executive Director of the Aubrey Daniels Institute. She was trained as a clinical psychologist, and for many…

I love William James’s observation that, “there can be no difference anywhere that doesn’t make a difference elsewhere – no difference in abstract truth that doesn’t express itself in concrete…

Getting a baseline of our target behavior before introducing a treatment is essential to assessing the effectiveness of what we are doing, whether it is trying to change a personal bad habit or help…

It sometimes is said that the best predictor of future behavior is present behavior. Like most blanket, categorical statements about what someone will do next, this one invites some reflection. Taken…

The current behavior of living creatures is determined by four things: the creature’s phylogeny (evolutionary history), its current physiological state, the current contingencies impinging on it, and…

Our behavior analysis community has been built by many people who have found B. F. Skinner’s ideas about human behavior compelling. Bill Abernathy, who died on March 4, 2015 after a long illness…