Open AccessJournal Article
Skinner: from determinism to random variation
TLDR
The assumption that Skinner was a determinist requires some modification as discussed by the authors, and although Skinner may have favored determinism to varying degrees while he was advancing mechanistic accounts of behavior, his advancement of determinism disappeared after his accounts became more closely aligned with selectionist views such as those of Mach, Peirce, and Dewey.Abstract:
The assumption that Skinner was a determinist requires some modification. Although Skinner may have favored determinism to varying degrees while he was advancing mechanistic accounts of behavior that were aligned with the views such as those of Loeb, Watson, and Russell, his advancement of determinism disappeared after his accounts became more closely aligned with selectionist views such as those of Mach, Peirce, and Dewey. This realignment entailed a switch from finding origins or sources for behavior in deterministic laws to finding origins or sources for behavior in random variation. Some sense of the conflict between these views appears early on in Skinner's writing, and arguments in favor of both of these views can be found in sources that Skinner identified in his writings. Although there were good reasons for Skinner to accept determinism when he was advancing a mechanistic behaviorism, there were also good reasons for Skinner to abandon determinism when he was advancing a selectionist behaviorism.read more
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Operant variability: Evidence, functions, and theory
TL;DR: Research is shown that the highest levels of behavioral variability may result from identifiable reinforcers contingent on such variability, which is an operant, which has important implications for learning, exploring, creating, and problem solving.
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Reinforced variability in animals and people: implications for adaptive action.
TL;DR: Evidence for the powerful and precise control by reinforcement over behavioral variability, evidence obtained from human and animal-model studies, and implications of such control are reviewed.
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Operant variability and voluntary action.
Allen Neuringer,Greg Jensen +1 more
TL;DR: A behavior-based theory identified 2 characteristics of voluntary acts: voluntary acts are characterized by reinforcement-controlled functionality and unpredictability and a similar bidirectional relationship between reinforcement and the predictability/unpredictability of voluntary act.
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A study in the founding of applied behavior analysis through its publications
TL;DR: It is concluded that the claims are irresolvable because identification of the founding publications depends significantly on methods and because the field’s founding was an evolutionary process.
References
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Democracy and Education
TL;DR: Dewey's "Common Sense" as mentioned in this paper explores the nature of knowledge and learning as well as formal education's place, purpose, and process within a democratic society, and it continues to influence contemporary educational thought.
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TL;DR: For instance, the authors discusses the multiplicity of the consciousness of self in the form of the stream of thought and the perception of space in the human brain, which is the basis for our work.
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Science and human behavior
TL;DR: The psychology classic "Walden Two" as mentioned in this paper is a detailed study of scientific theories of human nature and the possible ways in which human behavior can be predicted and controlled from one of the most influential behaviorists of the twentieth century.
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The Concept of Mind
TL;DR: This epoch-making book cuts through confused thinking and forces us to re-examine many cherished ideas about knowledge, imagination, consciousness and the intellect as mentioned in this paper, and the result is a classic example of philosophy.