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Behavior Analysis and Learning

Fourth Edition

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Behavior Analysis and Learning, Fourth Edition is an essential textbook covering the basic principles in the field of behavior analysis and learned behaviors, as pioneered by B. F. Skinner. The textbook provides an advanced introduction to operant conditioning from a very consistent Skinnerian perspective. It covers a range of principles from basic respondent conditioning through applied behavior analysis into cultural design. Elaborating on Darwinian components and biological connections with behavior, the book treats the topic from a consistent worldview of selectionism. The functional relations between the organism and the environment are described, and their application in accounting for old behavior and generating new behavior is illustrated.

Expanding on concepts of past editions, the fourth edition provides updated coverage of recent literature and the latest findings. There is increased inclusion of biological and neuroscience material, as well as more data correlating behavior with neurological and genetic factors.

The material presented in this book provides the reader with the best available foundation in behavior science and is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology or other behavior-based disciplines. In addition, a website of supplemental resources for instructors and students makes this new edition even more accessible and student-friendly (www.psypress.com/pierceandcheney).

Table of Contents

A Science of Behavior: Perspective, History, and Assumptions. The Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Reflexive Behavior and Respondent Conditioning. Reinforcement and Extinction of Operant Behavior. Schedules of Reinforcement. Aversive Control of Behavior. Operant–Respondent Interrelationships and the Biological Context of Conditioning. Stimulus Control. Choice and Preference. Conditioned Reinforcement. Correspondent Relations: Imitation and Rule-Governed Behavior. Verbal Behavior. Applied Behavior Analysis. Three Levels of Selection: Biology, Behavior, and Culture.

Author Biography

W. David Pierce is a Professor at the University of Alberta, Canada. His main research concerns a biobehavioral analysis of activity anorexia, taste regulation of overeating, and exercise-induced taste aversion.

Carl D. Cheney is Professor of Psychology at Utah State University. He teaches behavior analysis and physiological psychology and has published widely in the experimental analysis of behavior. His current research is focused on the management of diet selection with a variety of species.