ArticleThe Behavior analyst2017
Moving Beyond Reinforcement and Response Strength.
Article in The Behavior analyst, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Twiddling Bits.Perspectives on behavior science · 2026Article
- Dynamic Interactions between Induction and Reinforcement in the Organization of Behavior.Perspectives on behavior science · 2025Review
- Reconceptualizing the Interaction of Behavior and Environment.Perspectives on behavior science · 2024Review
- Incrementing non-matching- but not matching-to-sample is rapidly learned in an automated version of the odor span task.Animal cognition · 2022Article
- A Theory of the Extinction Burst.Perspectives on behavior science · 2022Article
- Machine learning with a snapshot of data: Spiking neural network 'predicts' reinforcement histories of pigeons' choice behavior.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 2022Article
- Punishment and its putative fallout: A reappraisal.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 2021Article
- On the "Strength" of Behavior.Perspectives on behavior science · 2020Article
- Resurgence and downshifts in alternative reinforcement rate.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 2020Article
- Generalizing from the Past, Choosing the Future.Perspectives on behavior science · 2020Article
- Relapse: An introduction.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 2020Article
- Resurgence as Choice in Context: Treatment duration and on/off alternative reinforcement.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 2020Article
- Resurgence as Choice: Implications for promoting durable behavior change.Journal of applied behavior analysis · 2019Review
- Suing for Peace in the War Against Mentalism.Perspectives on behavior science · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Behavior analysis has often simultaneously depended upon and denied an implicit, hypothetical process of reinforcement as response strengthening. I discuss what I see as problematic about the use of such an implicit, possibly inaccurate, and likely unfalsifiable theory and describe issues to consider with respect to an alternative view without response strengthening. In my take on such an approach, important events (i.e., "reinforcers") provide a means to measure learning about predictive relations in the environment by modulating (i.e., inducing) performance dependent upon what is predicted and the relevant motivational mode or behavioral system active at that time (i.e., organismic state). Important events might be phylogenetically important, or they might acquire importance by being useful as signals for guiding an organism to where, when, or how currently relevant events might be obtained (or avoided). Given the role of learning predictive relations in such an approach, it is suggested that a potentially useful first step is to work toward formal descriptions of the structure of the predictive relations embodied in common facets of operant behavior (e.g., response-reinforcer contingencies, conditioned reinforcement, and stimulus control). Ultimately, the success of such an approach will depend upon how well it integrates formal characterizations of predictive relations (and how they are learned without response strengthening) and the relevant concomitant changes in organismic state across time. I also consider how thinking about the relevant processes in such a way might improve both our basic science and our technology of behavior.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.