Papers by Henry Schlinger
Psychological Record, Jul 1, 2008
Perspectives on behavior science, Apr 18, 2023
Language researchers have historically either dismissed or ignored completely behavioral accounts... more Language researchers have historically either dismissed or ignored completely behavioral accounts of language acquisition while at the same time acknowledging the important role of experience in language learning. Many language researchers have also moved away from theories based on an innate generative universal gram- mar and promoted experience-dependent and usage-based theories of language. These theories suggest that hearing and using language in its context is critical for learning language. However, rather than appealing to empirically derived princi- ples to explain the learning, these theories appeal to inferred cognitive mechanisms. In this article, I describe a usage-based theory of language acquisition as a recent example of a more general cognitive linguistic theory and note both logical and methodological problems. I then present a behavior-analytic theory of speech per- ception and production and contrast it with cognitive theories. Even though some researchers acknowledge the role of social feedback (they rarely call it reinforce- ment) in vocal learning, they omit the important role played by automatic reinforce- ment. I conclude by describing automatic reinforcement as the missing link in a par- simonious account of vocal development in human infants and making comparisons to vocal development in songbirds.
Behavior and Social Issues, May 1, 2002
Behavior Analyst, Oct 1, 2008
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Jul 19, 2021
Frontiers in Psychology, Mar 9, 2017
Behavior Analyst, Oct 1, 2013
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Apr 1, 2012
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Sep 7, 2021
In Part 1 of these remembrances of Jack Michael, we briefly described Jack's history in terms... more In Part 1 of these remembrances of Jack Michael, we briefly described Jack's history in terms of how he became a behavior analyst (Sundberg & Schlinger, 2021). We pointed out that he was one of the first to apply the principles of behavior analysis discovered in the experimental laboratory to the area of rehabilitation. In so doing, Jack was perhaps the first applied behavior analyst. In Part 1, some of his former students and close associates from his early years at the University of Houston, Arizona State University, and Western Michigan University-John Mabry, Grayson Osborne, Jon Bailey, Mark Sundberg, and J. Vincent Carbone-provided their personal tributes to Jack. In Part 2, we offer six more tributes that-with one exception, that of Ted Ayllon-provide insight into Jack's work in the latter part of his career. In addition to Ted Ayllon, these tributes are from Jack's students and close associates Hank Schlinger, Dave Palmer, John and Barb Esch, Carl Sundberg, and Caio Miguel. The authors provide insights not only into their views about Jack but also into their own lives. Collectively, they paint a picture of people from different backgrounds that all found their way to Jack Michael and to behavior analysis. To a person, they describe how their behavior, whether as scientists, practitioners, or both, was radically transformed as a result, and how they attribute that change largely to Jack's influence.
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Apr 1, 2012
Journal of Pharmacological Methods, Sep 1, 1988
Behavior Analyst, Apr 1, 2012
American Psychologist, Nov 1, 1993
Behavior and Social Issues, May 1, 1996
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Apr 1, 1990
Consciousness and Cognition, Jun 1, 2009
Behavior analysis in practice, Mar 9, 2022
Archives of Scientific Psychology, Nov 15, 2018
In this article, I describe how behavior analysis-the parent discipline of the experimental analy... more In this article, I describe how behavior analysis-the parent discipline of the experimental analysis of behavior, applied behavior analysis, and radical behaviorism-represents the most heterodox view in psychology. The reasons are many. First, whereas the subject matter of psychology is mind or mind and behavior, the subject matter of behavior analysis is behavior in its own right, that is, not as a reflection of, or caused by, mental or cognitive events or processes. Thus, unlike psychology, which is still largely dualistic, behavior analysis is monistic. Second and relatedly, the ultimate causes of behavior are physical events located in the environment-defined as all of the stimuli that affect the behavior of an individual at a given moment-and not vague, abstract processes located in some unobserved world of mind or cognition. Behavior analysts do not dismiss private (i.e., unobserved) events, such as thinking, but rather see them parsimoniously as more behavior to be understood. Third, behavior analysis is also completely selectionistic on the analogy of natural selection; its foundational principle-reinforcement, or the law of effect-states that behavior, which is always variable, is selected by its consequences. Fourth, experimentation in behavior analysis is analytical in that independent variables are manipulated within subjects to discover order in behavior, as compared with psychology where experiments are mostly not analytical and are conducted across subjects. The result is that experimental behavior analysts are able to predict, control, and understand the behavior of individuals. All of these features of behavior analysis place it squarely in the natural science camp and, thus, represent a heterodoxy within psychology.
Behavior analysis in practice, Sep 19, 2014
Training graduate students to promote behavior analysis and counter misconceptions requires that ... more Training graduate students to promote behavior analysis and counter misconceptions requires that graduate programs in behavior analysis contain a healthy dose of experimental analysis of behavior so that students understand the experimental foundations of their discipline. Moreover, graduate students should be required to study the theoretical and philosophical foundations of the field because most of the misconceptions of behavior analysis are conceptual and philosophical in nature. Programs should also teach graduate ABA students to think critically about the concepts and principles of behavior analysis in order to prepare them to defend it against misunderstandings and to be more effective practitioners.
Uploads
Papers by Henry Schlinger