WHY I AM A RADICAL BEHAVIORIST: page 3

Years later, I learned partial movements are tropisms (6) and taxis is motion of the entire organism. Thus, standstill is ‘taxis at zero’ - surely as normal for live creatures as their freewheeling circuits on land, in the air, and through water.
Charting cumulative graphs as roadmaps altered my outlook and my vocabulary. Almost immediately, I began thinking of what animals sense, envisioned them feeling more thirsty than hungry; cooler or warmer; secure / apprehensive.

Rejecting such thinking as ‘unscientific’, I tried to resist.
Only then, I was unable to plan or understand my itineraries, First, I had to ensure there was no reason for fear - intimidation was out of the question. (7) I was convinced even a soft, unexpected, click would drive ‘my rat’ back in alarm and his trail would be lost from the record.
I had to improvise an explanation for the rat’s movement towards other levers.
Curiosity! We too, check a neighborhood and familiarize ourselves with the details.

Before 1984, I thought feelings are necessarily private and believed scientists must explain behavior - human and animal - without mentioning fear or confidence. But then and there, imagining a subject moving in a laboratory, I was inundated with verbs and nouns, adverbs and adjectives, prefixes – words alluding to quality:
pro- and con-; punish versus reinforce (8); survival / extinction; repelling / attractive;
dying with dignity; cruelty – kindness; considerate or self-centered; hostile or friendly,
broad grin / puzzled frown ... phrases relevant to socialization within a society.

Seeing ‘taxis-cum-tropism’ can apparently add to what one might say of humanity, thus making it easier to communicate via ordinary and technical vocabularies. (9)
I wanted ‘my’ rat trusting, attentive, freely mobile. (10) Eventually I realized, empathy
_There but for the grace of God, go I_ can actually help to assess experimental agenda.
I sensed an affinity with the rest of the world, including the Animal Rights activists. (11)

_________________________
(6) "In biology, tropism is the movement of a portion of an organism towards (or away from in negative tropism) a source of light, heat or other stimulus. Not be confused with taxis which is movement of the entire organism." B.J. Freedman
(7) For seeing abject fear in a public swimming pool, check: http://www.yourdailymedia.com/media/1137496874
(8) In 1975, Jack Michael suggested dropping the positive-negative distinction, proposing punishment for 'bad things' and reinforcement for 'good things'. Saul Axelrod and I objected, but today I agree: to delay or remove it, electric shock must first be given - not a good thing. Yet in biology, depending on whether motion is to or from an energy source,'taxis' and 'tropism' are 'positive'/'negative'/respectively. But if stimuli harm, coming close can be dangerous for survival, whereas moving away could be lifesaving. So counting quality, distance and mobile animals, Dr. Michael is right. I adopted his proposal and found reinforcement is perceived as naturally attractive; people seem to feel that the closer to health, strength and happiness the better for all.
(9) From a TV program on adjectives: " You have hair" a man says to his new girl. Oops! He forgot to say 'beautiful'.
(10) I wish to report: Pavlov "preferred... intact, non-narcotisized animals, which are gay and cheerful."
And I think we all know what children notice when parents are sad/reproachful/ or cheerful/approving/.
(11) Looking at a photograph in a textbook, I smiled with amusement. After my graphs I was appalled by the rat's cruel situation. The light-hearted title Breakfast in Bed had misled me; I mistook the pathetic position for a pleasant experience.

One thing leads to another...

Having spent six months in India, my grandson gave me the following counsel:

        Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your
words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your
habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your
destiny. Mahatma Gandhi

Which reminds me of cause-and-effect ... chaining that goes with how I conceive of humans interacting these days.
Although I'm not sure about positive as a qualifier.
Gandhi probably intended /kindly/friendly/serene/ versus /cruel/violent/an eye for an eye/.

Drawing records for a rat that chooses to move - within a large 'Skinner box' - revealed a refreshing
reality: 'The Stick and The Carrot' distinguish between 'punishment' and 'reinforcement' even more clearly than scientific definitions I had learned.

Situations are easily humanized ... one identifies with the animal almost from the word go ... so much
so, that it becomes hard to resist.  No doubt:  The Carrot' attracts, whereas: 'The Stick' strikes fear into
the heart of millions.  The Stick makes us run - away.  The Carrot lets us stand and stare; and munch;
and enjoy a leisurely breakfast and lunch.

Skinner comes to mind: 'science supplies its own wisdom'.
Limiting animal research to stationary animals is impeding the science of behavior plus the applications,

to an extent only longed for or just dreamed about, as yet.

July 27, 2012

Looking back

"What is behavior?"
If 5 radical behaviorists were asked that today, would there be consensus?
Perhaps curious readers could find out and publish the results on this blog.
Basic questions in behavior analysis could then be discussed in this forum.

Which would be a good - and indeed - a healthy and much-needed, activity.
Discussions took place in 1984; there they rest, in the professional literature.
27 years have elapsed!
Surely, the time has come for thorough revision.

I refer to:
Summing up
A Charles Catania
THE BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (1984) 7, 713-724;
a special issue in honour of B.F. Skinner's canonical papers

Never could I have followed arguments in this summary - had I not begun
to imagine what cumulative records might look like, should they reflect the
direction of locomotion and the rate of bar-pressing for one mobile rat.

And that would never have occurred to me had I not seen Philip Hineline's
question: Aversive control: A separate domain? And perused his paper in
The Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1984, 42, 495-509

This really explains where my insights come from. And I wish to reiterate
I am no genius, have no delusions of grandeur; my intelligence is average
and so far as I know, my genes and my nerves are okay.
But it took me 27 years to put the points together into some sort of order.

Any credit for my sudden knowledge should go to scientists themselves.
I can take credit for other things but my hypothetical graphs are surely
the most extraordinary experience that ever happened to anyone!

What is the essence of behavior?
In 1984 that was the question; it is still not a simple question to answer.

July 27, 2012

WHY I AM A RADICAL BEHAVIORIST: page 2, continued

Back to my story: most impressed by Verbal Behavior, the broad panorama of Science and Human Behavior won me over for good. And again, I was struck by Skinner's vision, this time on the impact of science on human affairs:

"Science is not concerned just with 'getting the facts' after which one may act with greater wisdom in unscientific fashion. Science supplies its own wisdom. It leads to a new conception of a subject matter, a new way of thinking about that part of the world to which it has addressed itself. If we are to enjoy the advantages of science in the field of human affairs we must be prepared to adopt the working model of behavior to which a science will inevitably lead."

In this article, I outline my reasons for adopting 'the whole and intact organism' as 'the working model of behavior' to which an extended science will inevitably lead.

Normal

Though drawn to Skinner's vision of science and human behavior, I feel uneasy if I surmise truth could bring unhappiness. In such cases, I just might prefer a Fool's Paradise.
Be that as it may, my remarkable, 3-dimensional, records showed:
reinforcement stops and accelerates movement at one and the same moment.

No amount of scholarship could have prepared me for that. The facts were there:
rats do stop moving when pushing a lever but the sentence doesn't make sense.
I was nonplussed even when seeing it happening wherever I went: on the street, in the cinema, library, restaurant, people walk and also stop; eat and drink; sit and read; watch a movie; stand gazing or pointing at items in a shop window ... Finally, bingo!
I was looking at people! Reinforcement affects body-part movements and individuals.

__________________
A turning point in my personal and professional life. I had come to KU for a Ph.D.
Out of the blue, this was impossible. I knew it was a matter for further research ... which
would lead to conceptual shifts ... a breakthrough with respect to 'feelings as public events'.
I am still sure radical behaviorists could enjoy thinking themselves through this.
Though finding just the right words to convince them, is a different kettle of fish.

WHY I AM A RADICAL BEHAVIORIST: page 2

Sadly, a practice today is not mentioning those who behave, the practitioner per se. (3)

Were behaviorists to end this trend, more people might be able to imagine themselves

as a subject ... and even a researcher ... in animal-conditioning experiments.

Dropping protagonists from dialogue we slip into reification: mistaking ‘behavior’ for a thing.

In fact, behaving is on-going process as is movement, and individuals are the essential entities. ‎ Reifying 'behavior' confuses the issue of reciprocal conditioning in human relationships. (4) Skinner constantly emphasized socialization:
“The special conditioning of the listener is the crux of the problem. Verbal behavior is shaped and sustained by a verbal environment - by people who respond…in certain ways because of the practices of the group of which they are members … interaction between speaker and listener yield the phenomena … considered here under the rubric of verbal behavior.”

Let us remember: let us consider how social interactions involve movement in various directions, back and forth, relative to others and more remote stimuli.
Some species travel 500 kilometers a day - twice a year - attracted by a life-sustaining habitat.

Yet subjects in free-operant conditioning labs, remain solitary and stationary. ‘ What would records look like if experimental animals were freely mobile?’ I asked blithely in 1984; and that ‎led to my isolation - from which I have yet to recover. (5)

___________________________________________________________________

(3) To my knowledge, the decision to do so dates from 1984: "We should speak of the survival of practices and not of the practitioners: classes of behavior survive as cultural practices, and not the group, the individuals in it, or their descendents." [6] [p.713] When reading this I was already fixated on 'the whole organism'; I knew 'practice' means 'practitioners' whose customs and cultural traditions pass from generation to generation by way of people, parents, siblings; youngsters too can initiate change; at times teachers welcome a tip from an apprentice.

(4) "If it weren't for reification - calling a process or an activiry a thing - psychology might be a natural science." Richard W. Malott, (1995) ABA NEWSLETTER, 18,#1.

Today (9/7/10) FABBS News Highlights: NIH Urges Scientists to Communicate Research Value in Applications: "... applicants ... should state in plain language the valus and potential impact of the research on public health." For clear information on health investigations, plain language AND technical terms are probably best; and especially in connection with 'social reinforcement'.

(5) My mentors are silent, elusive, non-committal. The analysis of attraction and locomotion proved worthwhile in practice - but with no laboratory roots, applications cannot spread evenly, (note 16). If only Skinner were here! He recognized locomotion as another dependent variable in behavior analysis; his letters are in the B.F. Skinner Foundation, with kind permission from Dr. Julie Vargas

WHY I AM A RADICAL BEHAVIORIST: p. 13, postscript

Humans imagine further than other creatures and anyone may relate to my story.
Skinner reminds us:
It has always been the unfortunate task of science to dispossess cherished beliefs regarding the place of man in the universe
The Experimental Analysis of Behavior is one exception!
Man’s place can assuredly be seen as central on Earth - if not in the universe. With regard
to the 1970 critical reflections on psychology, habitat and attitude can improve and cautious optimism is now warranted:
We have a psychology whose foundation is based on a philosophy on cause-and-effect adopted by physics long ago; not only is this foundation viable, the conception of its analytical units - lively, sentient organisms - is as appropriate as ever. We have findings relevant and meaningful to man, based upon experiments that study typical and representative samples of subjects who listen and believe what we tell them; data can be analyzed and interpreted correctly and conclusions are drawn with proper substantiation in special education.
As the authors have clarified, this portrait is neither over- nor understated - for every claim is firmly based in reality. Looking at the quality and quantity of such endorsements, one may be optimistic with respect to more freedom and dignity.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, 10 December, 1948

Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The facts are, human beings are born as babies; and all babies are born equally innocent.

Behaviorists may counter faith in punishment for ‘original sins’ and theory on genetic anomaly, brain functions and racial inferiority. For one thing, scientists could guide animals in the lab, see them go to and fro, observe where they stay, trusting and confident. Then, loving neighbors may not be necessary, empathy may suffice for a spirit of brotherhood to develop: common loss, mutual interests and identical goals, make allegiance more likely too. Third, from data on normalization, sanity becomes easier to identify. Rather than punishing offenders, again and again, and taking law abiders for granted - time after time - one can see how good the normal is and remember the millions who want to get home in one piece and dream of a more moderate life-style for their young.

‘How to act wisely?’, might be answered by ecologists and operant scientists in collaboration.
‘Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much’ Helen Keller.
Practical ideas can cross social communicative bridges as well.   In the words of  R.W. Emerson:
‘We can find our biography in every fable that we read.’ 

WHY I AM A RADICAL BEHAVIORIST: p 1, continued

Part I
Eye-openers
I became a behaviorist almost overnight. In a flash I knew Skinner was right:
to find out why people talk to each other, the unit for analysis should be at least two parties, speakers and listeners who move one another. ‎“That is so true! ”, I marveled and wondered
why I had not heard such a statement on language before.
At school, I 'd enjoyed rules for syntax and grammar, yet Skinner’s reasoning offers a fresh
view of reality, a straightforward impartiality that I find appealing;
his ‘functional analysis’ still guides me through interviews, political issues, newspaper reports,
and when deciding which side I’m on: ‘terrorist’ or ‘freedom fighter’.
Then later, I saw one-sidedness has no place in applied behavior analysis, where problem and solutions are clearly described, the frequency timed, observer-reliability checked and
outcomes presented in direct causal connection with intervention.

Skinner’s thoughts on mutual relationships amongst people and other animals,
say a horse and a rider, made good sense to me and were intriguing to follow:

' A man engages in behavior that requires further analysis when he turns a horse by
letting the reins touch the skin lightly on the neck. The touch of the reins, unlike the waving
of a frightening object, does not originally cause the horse to turn in a given direction. '

General interpretation of behavior from specific animal experiments was natural in those
days, two decades after The Behavior of Organisms ‎was published.
And in 1968, Ayllon and Azrin applied reinforcement theory to motivate patients in a psychiatric hospital. The Token Economy remains an historical landmark. (2)

________________________________________________________________

(2) This book starts with Charles F. Kettering's quip: First they tell you you're wrong and
they can prove it. Then they tell you you're right, but it's not important Then they tell you
it's important, but they've known it for years.
And ends with: Pure science does not stay pure indefinitely. Sooner or later it is apt to turn
into applied science and finally into technology. Aldous Huxley
My hope is scientists from diverse disciplines explore my proposal for expansion and the
effects of sound on individuals. Words are external sources of influence. Indeed, words may
inspire even when written by persosns who died centuries ago. Inasmuch as language is our
soul and our legacy, the soul is revived and in a manner of speaking the spirit transported. _________________________________________________________________

Note: the references and bibliography are omitted for blogging this 15-page document.
Should someone be interested, please let me know and I shall provide the information.

Liberate Laboratory Animals

The message is:
Let animals go to, and away from, places in the lab setting;
it is not necessary to hold them in only one location any more.
Let there be normal and healthy mobility in 'free-operant' conditioning.


In other words: let cumulative records reflect biological 'taxis' - the organism in motion -
as well as the rate and patterns of body-part movements in relation to variables, such as
reinforcement schedules and conditioned stimuli, eg. tones the subjects can understand.

At the moment, scientists may not wish to extend the wonder of B.F. Skinner's cumulative
records - yet one thing is certain: allowing an animal free movement in the lab, will render
'punishment' with something aversive such as actual or threatened contact with electricity,
into a mission impossible: the animals would not cooperate.

Instead of intimidation, researchers would have to find other possibilities to halt on-going
behavior and show subjects how, when and where to obtain what they need for their own
welfare; like grain, water. suitable lighting and temperature.

Such a science could answer questions on punishment, debated throughout human history.
Must people be frightened - time and again - to get them to refrain or behave in some way?  More trustworthy information is urgently needed, now.  As yet, no one has all the answers,
not behavior analysts, nor psychiatrists, nor psychoanalysts.

What we do know though, is where not to look for an answer:
not in a brain or the nerves nor anywhere else inside the body.

Surely, the whole world would profit from science with collaboration among brain specialists
and behavior analysts, showing external stimulation and reinforcing contingencies can affect
individual performance and organic functioning for the better.

It may sound radical to say so, today, yet brains are not people who feel, think and recognize.
I foresee global consensus on this within less than a century! Personally, I am happy to make
men, women and children, the subjects of grammatical sentences and the centre of attention.

June 27, 2012