Jiminy Cricket, the prepared mind, chance encounters, and behavior-analytic research

Abstract

This review is a research autobiography of the author. It is organized around the inductive method of research modeled by B. F. Skinner and described in his 1956 article, A case history in scientific method. Starting with an experiment on punishment effects on behavioral interactions in a multiple schedule of reinforcement, following the results of successive experiments illustrates how the inductive method spawns new research areas and embellishes extant ones. As the research program expands, some areas fade into the background, disappear, reappear, and morph into other areas, but their influence on contemporary research remains. Along the way, incidents and people that affected the course of the research are discussed. The research areas reviewed and connected are response-reinforcer relations, the role of dependency and contiguity in establishing and maintaining operant responding, delay of reinforcement, behavioral history, operant response resurgence, and extinction. The final section considers some general issues related to the inductive method, notably the interplay between objective and subjective assessments of research. The role of aesthetics in behavioral research and its impact on both the consumer and producer of the research also is discussed.