Behavior Analysis and Learning - W. David Pierce & Carl D. Cheney

Foreword
This book updates and expands an excellent textbook on principles of learned behaviors, the
first two editions of which were authored by David Pierce and Frank Epling. Sadly, Frank
died before this third edition, and Carl Cheney now joins David in describing developments in contemporary behavioral theory and research. Both active researchers, Pierce and
Cheney are adherents of a coherent theory pioneered by B. F. Skinner and known as experimental analysis of behavior. According to this view, to explain human behavior, we must
understand the interactions between an individual and his or her environment. Behavior
is lawful, and the laws involve relationships between responses, on the one hand, and environmental events on the other. Consequences of our actions help to determine our future
actions. The power of this framework extends from simple conditioning preparations to imitation, language, psychopathology, and culture. This power is demonstrated throughout the
text.
Covered are basic principles of Pavlovian and operant conditioning, weakening and
extinction of learned responses, influences of intermittent reinforcement, conditioned reinforcement, biological influences, aversive consequences, stimulus control, and choice and
preference. Much of the basic behavioral research has been done with nonhuman animal
subjects, and there are important reasons for this. Environments can be controlled, as can
the experiences of animal subjects. Studying the behavior of animals in isolated experimental environments provides us with a framework of information with which we can interpret
more complex human behaviors.
Pierce and Cheney go well beyond the basics, however, and this third edition adds considerable new coverage. Experimental analyses are applied to imitation, verbal behavior,
rule-governed behaviors, education, problem behaviors, and cultures. The breadth of this
text is impressive, and the reader will gain a deep understanding and, I predict, an appreciation, of this field of study. A variety of adjuncts are provided to help the student master
the subject matter. Study questions and quizzes are provided at the end of each chapter.
Most helpful are pointers to Web sites containing simulations, instructional procedures,
experimental procedures, and actual studies. Students motivated to go beyond the text will
be assisted by these.
There are many reasons to study behavioral principles. Some readers will want to modify
aspects of their own behaviors, and research on self-control is relevant. Some will apply
behavioral principles to raising children and to educating them. Others will use principles of
reinforcement when dealing with friends, family, or in business contexts. Some will want to
become therapists, and basic findings throughout the text are related to possible applications.
However, there may be no more important reason for learning about how environmental
events influence our behaviors than that our long-term survival is at risk—the survival of
our species and, indeed, life on earth.
In a paper written near the end of his career, B. F. Skinner asked why we are not acting to
save the world. As Skinner wrote, overpopulation, overconsumption, destruction of natural
resources, and destructiveness of weapons all threaten life on earth. To date, we have not
successfully dealt with such threats, and he suggests that only by applying basic principles
of behavioral influence will we succeed. These involve utilizing our knowledge to design
relationships between behavior and consequences that benefit humanity as a whole, both
xiiixiv Foreword
present and future. This clear and motivating text by David Pierce and Carl Cheney will
provide the reader with the evidence, methods, and modes of thought that Skinner thought
necessary for us to survive and prosper. After studying this text, the reader will be able to
judge the adequacy and importance of Skinner’s claim.
—Allen Neuringer
Reed College

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