The effectiveness of positive and negative evaluative comments for children's learning was assessed in a two-choice discrimination task. Results indicate that negative comments after incorrect responses greatly facilitated learning while positive comments after correct responses had little effect. To explain the findings, a naturalistic analysis…

In this article, the author shares an anecdote demonstrating one-trial learning which is commonplace in human behavior. The demonstration suggests that under some conditions, when people hear someone speak, their behavior changes, even in the absence of an apparent contingency of reinforcement, but only if they have in their repertoire verbal…

Over the course of eight months of almost continuous contact, relatively normal speaking patterns were generated. At a one year follow up, the subject's speech was indistinguishable from that of her classmates. (Author)

Innovative models for education are often quickly adopted. Behavior modification, or operant conditioning, is an example of a technique which has been widely used because, when properly applied in the classroom, it "works." However, the application of a technique should be carefully thought through in terms of the meaning of the behavior in…

A 21 minute sound color film was produced in an attempt to help teachers and educational specialists see people like themselves helping youngsters become more task oriented by the use of operant conditioning and modeling procedures formulated by Skinner (1953) and Bandura (1964). The unstructured and unrehearsed film consists of edited film…

An attempt is made to determine whether a behaviorally-oriented conditioning approach, "covert sensitization," is more effective in the treatment of alcoholism than the commonly used problem-solving approach, and whether female counselors employing covert sensitization were more successful than males. Thirty-two subjects selected on…

Several of the theoretical and experimental assumptions relating to behavior modification are examined and criticized: (1) the human mind can only be understood by observing and measuring the functional behavior it causes, (2) performance can be equated with learning, (3) reward systems and token economies improve intrinsic learning, and (4) all…

Thirty college students and 30 moderately retarded persons averaging approximately equal age received eight alternating phases of acquisition and extinction trials with an electric pulse as the unconditioned stimulus for classical eyelid conditioning. (Author)

An overview is presented of systematic behavioral analysis as a method for modifying both social and cognitive behaviors through reinforcement. Various techniques are explained: response differentiation, shaping, chaining, fading, extinction, timeout, and response cost. (SJL)

Designed for both parents and teachers, the handbook presents methods for educating the moderately and severely retarded child. Those methods include measuring progress, rewarding and punishing, ways of using rewards and punishers, ways of giving positive reinforcers and punishers, withholding reinforcers (extinction), letting the child reward…

A program for modifying classroom behavior of emotionally disturbed and other children (in grades 3 through 7) based on modeling is described, and specific behaviors and evaluation items for the program are provided along with their rationale. Research is reviewed in Part I and topics are covered, such as: the three effects of modeling…

Following nine hours of training in behavioral psychology, the faculty members of an 800 pupil elementary school were applying operant techniques with no further apparent need of consultation with the instructors. Twenty-two teachers were enrolled in an inservice training course entitled "Behavior Modification Procedures for the Elementary…