Study Questions - Chapter 1
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.
- Define learning and behavior. Describe the difference between prescientific accounts of behavior and the modern-scientific view of behavior theory. (p. 1)
- What is the experimental analysis of behavior? Give an example of such analysis based on this textbook. (p. 2)
- Explain the term behavior analysis. What are the primary objectives of behavior analysis? How does behavior analysis differ from applied behavior analysis? (p. 3)
- Summarize what a reflex means. State (or write) a sentence or two that includes the terms respondent behavior, reflex, and survival value. (p. 3)
- Summarize what respondent conditioning is and point to the adaptive function of this process. (p. 3)
- Discuss operant conditioning and give some common examples of operant behavior. Briefly compare operant and respondent conditioning. (p. 4)
- Be able to write or talk about selection as a causal process. What are immediate and remote causes? (pp. 4-5)
- NEW DIRECTIONS: What does an analysis of brain mechanisms add to behavior analysis? Discuss how brain processes participate as immediate consequences of behavior. Define behavioral neuroscience based on the textbook. (pp. 5-6)
- Discuss the evolution of learning and the implications of behavioral flexibility. (p. 6)
- Discuss the meaning of the biological context of behavior. Give an example using Skinner's analysis of imprinting in young ducklings. (pp. 6-7)
- Talk about Watson's stimulus-response view. What distinction did Skinner make? Explain what is meant by the selection of operant behavior. Compare the stimulus-response and selectionist models of behavior. (p. 7)
- Discuss the extension of behavior analysis to human behavior and culture. Talk about the meaning of culture from a behavioral perspective and outline what selection means at the cultural level. (pp. 8-9)
- FOCUS ON: Be able to discuss the achievements and contributions of B. F. Skinner to the science of behavior. Give an example from this textbook of a popular misconception of Skinner's research and ideas. (pp. 9-10)
- Skinner had a sense of humor and dislike of formal titles-discuss. Describe Skinner's contributions to education and problems of old age. What award did Skinner win from the American Psychological Association and what new film depicts his life and research? (pp. 10-11)
- Describe Pavlov's history, research on the salivary reflex, conditioned reflexes, and contribution to modern behavior analysis. Outline Watson's behaviorism and its influence on psychology, his experiment with Little Albert, and his career. Discuss Thorndike's history, trial-and-error learning, and law of effect. (pp. 12-14)
- Describe Skinner's contributions to a science of behavior. Outline the rise of behavior analysis and the experimental analysis of behavior. Name the journals and associations that support behavior analysis. What happened to the split between basic and applied research? (pp. 16-17)
- Explain what is meant by the statement "The behavior of organisms is lawful."
- Talk about how private events are part of an organism's environment. In the cognitive view, thoughts explain behavior. What is wrong with this view from a behavioral perspective? (pp. 18-19)
- Summarize the behavioral viewpoint on the relationship between feelings and behavior. Be able to discuss how people can talk about their feelings and the accuracy of their reports. (p. 19)
- Discuss thinking as behavior. Point to the different meanings of the verb "to think" and analyze thinking as response tendencies or as private behavior (mostly verbal) using the example of a chess game. (pp. 20-21)