ONCE UPON A TIME

Long ago, in a small town in a faraway land, lived a princess who read marvelous stories about scientists who teach the weak and the young, like no one else before. ‘When we have enough pennies,’ the prince promised her,
‘you will fly over the ocean and meet these people. What wonders you will see!’

For that was her ambition.

She was thrilled by the stories she read and could hardly wait until they had saved enough pennies.  She had many dreams of her journey.

Finally, after years of saving, came the appointed day. She bid her friends and family goodbye and flew across the sea to America.
When she arrived, she was upset to find professors wouldn’t talk to her about punishment. This was one of the things she had wanted to discuss with them. They said she should focus on her courses.

She was sad.

Then, one day she noticed scientists didn’t like reporting that they teach children or grownups; they much preferred writing of what they do with behavior - only they weren’t quite sure what that is any more.  

She felt bad.

She knew professors measure behavior. And she’d been sure everyone knows what the meaning of ‘behaving’ and ‘not behaving’ is.

Then she found other things bothered the researchers.

For instance, they wondered why they shouldn't study the effects of food and electric shock within the same operant laboratory.

Apparently, The Stick was being kept apart from The Carrot.

She thought this was odd.

But after some puzzling, she knew the reason was the spatial effect in opposite directions: a shock repels and edibles attract.

This was when she began imagining herself as a scientist.

What if a rat works for grain at North and the supply closes, and opens in the East and the West and the South?’ Would the rat stop pressing at North right away and then go to try other levers? 
From what she had read, she guessed: "Probably, yes!"
So then, what do we need punishment for?

She was excited.

She made graphs for a rat with two, three, four levers, imagining where the animal might want to go and what the records would look like.

She was inspired.

She realized signals for food attract human and other animals:

Like Pavlov’s Bell! she exclaimed. "That's why the dogs salivate!"
" Their tail wags. They understand. They see, they hear, they anticipate!"
She was incredulous.

Of course: extinction - survival! 
‘Skinner’s rats stop at the lever because food is attractive from afar.’
‘They're drawn to the signs in other locations, and so: they go there.’
‘They're not dead, they live: straight lines show they're busy elsewhere!’
She knew this is great news.

But she couldn’t find words to persuade the professors.

So she returned home with a heavy heart, for she didn’t like leaving America with her graphs in her hands. She wanted the scientists to keep them and use them for proper experiments.

Over the years, she wrote letters and begged them to think of what they could gain by letting animals move to and fro in the lab.

But she couldn’t convince them.

Meanwhile, she told her colleagues what she had done overseas.

And they saw what she saw: feeling and people’s perception - and more - can be switched for the better, without frightening them. Clients listened when she explained habits can be made normal with less hardship. Well, some of them already knew that.
Still, it was nice talking with government ministers about how
to make citizens happier.  Everyone could intimidate, anyway.

The focus on help and encouragement was better:
coercion and suffering lessened to a degree no one had imagined.

So now the princess expects scientists will try her ideas after all.

Knowledge is missing and they still have the tools for discovery.

Conditioning is universal, at least in the entire animal kingdom!
The rules and the principles can be used not for war, but for peace.
No matter the party, laws apply to individuals in all the ecologies.
May they be friends ever after: safer, healthier, and more satisfied. 

July 18, 1998
June 26, 2012