Abstract
Like all natural sciences, behavior science has much to offer toward an understanding of the world. The extent to which the promise of behavior science is realized, though, depends upon the extent to which we keep what we know before us. This paper considers fundamental concepts in behavior science, including the concepts of behavior, stimulation, setting conditions, and language. In considering these concepts, we revisit comments from B. F. Skinner and J. R. Kantor and also consider some areas of behavior analytic research and the implications they have for reconsidering long-held assumptions about the analysis of behavior. We hope that, in considering our foundations, the vitality and strength of the discipline might be enhanced, our impact on science improved, and our future secured.
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Notes
The term “function” here is roughly synonymous with “action” as we have been using this term. It refers to the participation of stimulation in a mutual and reciprocal relation with responding.
Importantly, while we acknowledge that behavior analysts have provided a number of ways to interpret various phenomena (e.g., Hayes et al. 2001; Sidman 2000; Tonneau 2001), Kantor’s conceptualization of stimulus substitution seems to be the most consistent with the aims we have described thus far, and a detailed consideration of the various theories on this topic is far beyond the scope of the current paper.
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Hayes, L.J., Fryling, M.J. A Historical Perspective on the Future of Behavior Science. BEHAV ANALYST 38, 149–161 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-015-0030-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-015-0030-9