Book section · September 21, 2023
Many scientific facts, such as the distance of the sun from the earth or the constituents of a cell, are simply facts. They elicit no special passion other, perhaps, than delight in their existence. But others, such as the existence of cognitive difference ...
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Book section · January 1, 2022
Behaviorism began with a persuasive 1913 polemic by John B. Watson which identified scientific psychology as part of biology. Watson was succeeded by neo-behaviorists Clark Hull, E. C. Tolman and, a little later, by radical behaviorist B. F. Skinner, who b ...
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Book section · August 27, 2021
Theoretical behaviorism has evolved from radical behaviorism. To stimulus and response it adds the idea of state: the state (conceptual, not physiological) of the organism defines the repertoire of responses available in a given stimulus context. Classical ...
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Book section · January 1, 2007
Operant behavior is behavior guided by its consequences. Conditioning operant behavior requires making a biologically important event, or a stimulus signaling such an event, depend on the occurrence of a target operant response. If this arrangement leads t ...
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Book section
This edition is almost completely rewritten and about twice as long as the first. I cover two new social issues and also devote more space to the philosophy of cognitivism and the science behind theoretical behaviorism. B. F. Skinner figures less promine ...
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Book section
How the science behind the health and cost effects of smoking has been warped by changing political, cultural and financial pressures. ...
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