This article reviews early free-operant conditioning laboratory research and applications. The seldom-mentioned four free-operant freedoms are described for the first time in detail. Most current behavior analysts do not realize that the freedom to form responses and the freedom to speed responses were crucial steps in designing free-operant operanda in the 1950s. These four freedoms were known...

Operant and biological theories of the cause of self-injurious behavior (SIB) in people with a mental handicap are often viewed as mutually exclusive. In this single case study, interactions between features of Rett syndrome and operant conditioning as determinants of SIB are examined. Functional analysis by analog methodology indicated different functions for two forms of SIB shown by the subj...

Aplysia can readily exhibit operant conditioning of their head-waving response when bright light is used as aversive reinforcement (Cook and Carew, 1986). In the first paper of this series (Cook and Carew, 1989a), we showed that the electromyographic (EMG) activity of a discrete band of neck muscles, the lateral columellar muscles (LCMs) of Aplysia is significantly correlated with the component...

The empirical law of effect is criticized as an incomplete step in the development of empirical laws of instrumental performance. An alternate approach to the prediction of performance is developed which follows Premack in relating instrumental performance to empirical measures of operant behavior. However, it is concluded that instrumental performance is not determined by a probability differe...

Learning to anticipate future events on the basis of past experience with the consequences of one's own behavior (operant conditioning) is a simple form of learning that humans share with most other animals, including invertebrates. Three model organisms have recently made significant contributions towards a mechanistic model of operant conditioning, because of their special technical advantage...

Learning about relationships between stimuli (i.e., classical conditioning [1]) and learning about consequences of one's own behavior (i.e., operant conditioning [2]) constitute the major part of our predictive understanding of the world. Since these forms of learning were recognized as two separate types 80 years ago [3], a recurrent concern has been the issue of whether one biological process...

Laboratory analyses of human behavior are crucial for evaluating the interspecies generality of operant principles, and The Psychological Record provided early leadership in publishing human operant articles. To assess the journal's modern status in this research area, we determined the prevalence of human operant studies in The Psychological Record for the years 1980 through 1999. The number o...

Operant and classical conditioning are major processes shaping behavioral responses in all animals. Although the understanding of the mechanisms of classical conditioning has expanded significantly, the understanding of the mechanisms of operant conditioning is more limited. Recent developments in Aplysia are helping to narrow the gap in the level of understanding between operant and classical ...