What Is Left In Behavior Analysis?

Before the ball starts rolling, my grateful thanks to Alon, Oren, and Erez, for three " first times " :
Alon: for the above title; Oren: for placing "Leah" on the internet; Erez: for composing the music
to the words that made her laugh at her situation vis a vis scientists.
They gave me strength and now I invite readers to take a look at what is left in behavior analysis.

Animals
They are still in there, in the same place next to the gadgets; responding to stimuli and
consequences;  enduring them quietly ... still unable to move elsewhere for other ones.
Unfortunately, behavior is often mentioned without saying an organism is under observation [1]
Today, scientists might write "The Behavior of Organisms", rendering animals more visible;
AND emphasize that individuals are vital units for observation ... central and necessary ...  
Remember: male, female and offspring, mammal and vertebrate, belong in the animal kingdom.  

Conditioning
Natural laws as well as derived principles for implementation, are valid for stationary individuals.
Notice these animals are active, not inert; they respond to slight changes in their surroundings.
Nevertheless, behavior analysts should be able to make their voice heard.
Eminent behavior scientists should convince World Health Organisations:
The great thing in life is not so much where we stand as in which direction we are moving. [2]
In helping people rethink concepts, the welfare of science - plus the future applications - depend on
extended analysis, where animals are guided towards what they need for their physiological health
as well as their psychological functions.
  
The Philosophy of Science
Radical behaviorists oppose introspection for the diagnosis of harmful habits and the prognosis for
rehabilitation; they prefer looking for causal elements in the environment. Assuming the intent of
science is to ease human existence, the aim is to unite humans, not divide them into saints or sinners;   certainly not to kill them in masses with military science and bombing technology.

System of Inquiry
Many politicians believe avoiding war is Utopian, not realistic.
Behaviorists might argue that sometimes the impossible is only a matter of the untried.
Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, M. Sidman, and colleagues, queried: 
What will happen if we change an environmental condition? What will the data show?
In a sea of confusion, their work stands out like a beacon; not Utopia, simply normal.
Surprising in some cases and in others amazing; yet on the whole just common sense.

Measuring, Recording, Monitoring
In this century, cumulative recorders are museum pieces.   Not so, the books and journals,
where records from animals provide plenty of evidence for reliable behavior quantification.
Professors can continue to show students the value of Skinner's contribution to psychology.
the curves in The Behavior of Organisms  p. 355, are of special interest:
they present a rat running approximately sixty feet in a running wheel.
Scientists might ask what the data would show were subjects to move freely in various directions.
After all, wild animals are observed to move around in the world attracted by things at a distance.

One wonders why Schedules of Reinforcement stay under cover when 'reinforcement'
is popularized.   One never knows until one tries.
Could be, the book by Ferster and Skinner was too advanced for its time;
schedules might be arranged, and readily understood, with distant stimuli signalling grain or water.
In contrast to telescopes and microscope, views through multiple cumulative records with mobile
individuals would show routes and road-maps designed by researchers.
The fact is, some things are perceived only from afar distance, e.g. a high mountain, a shoal of fish,
a flock of birds, a herd of elephants, a envisioned by Leah in operant settings, at KU (1984-5) 

Language
Skinnerians analyse language as verbal behavior, social relations involving two participants,
not necessarily human who may relay a hostile - or a friendly - message with body-language,
hands and facial expressions, etc. And for that, they normally remain within view of each other.
For vocalisation, humans and animals can respond to one another from further away.
However, thanks to telephones, persons communicate long-distance as never before.
Radio and television count as 'verbal behavior', since announcers speak to listening audiences.
Yet should answers and comments be delayed, stimulus and reinforcement are hard to tell apart;
and especially when listeners reinforce and, at the same time, stimulate speakers' next response.
Still, today computer technology expedites long-distance dialogue; though whether for worse or
better, one can't always say in advance.
Whatever the case, one thing I declare:
I delight in this comparison between an insight and the conditioned reflex in Pavlovian settings:
Like most poets, preachers, and metaphysicians, the dog came to a conclusion at a spark of evidence. [3]
And in this comment: You can lead a man up to the University, but you can't make him think slowly. [4]
Two observations which provide much food for thought.

Thank you for your attention.
As always I welcome your questions and your appraisal.
 ______________________________________
[1] I have quoted Bertolt Brecht several times.  His essay WRITING THE TRUTH: FIVE DIFFICULTIES
has obvious relevance for someone who needs to convince readers about a science of behavior and hopes
they will become activists for social and environmental causes.
See: Appendix A in GALILEO, English version by Charles Laughton, Edited and with an Introduction by Eric Bentley 
[2] Oliver Wendell Holmes,Sr.
[3] [4] With apologies to Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) American author, writer and humorist.