BEHAVIORAL BLOGS
Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 3:51PM I really am thrilled and delighted when my forsythias and daffodils start blooming in early spring. And I always feel a need to photograph them each spring. Took these photos this morning, April 18, 2011.
Dick
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 6:01PM 
Skip The Gym And Get Lighter -- In The Wallet
Sometimes it’s just plain hard to motivate yourself to get to the gym. There are so many reasons to stay away: sleep, work, friends, weather, traffic … did we mention sleep? And the incentive for working out is long-term, while the reasons for avoiding the treadmill are very tangible.
But what if missing a workout hit you where it really hurts – in the wallet?
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 5:09PM 
Carefully Chose to Bear a Burden, a Joy, a Child:
Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice a few by social pressures and a couple by habit.
This year, nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of disabled children. Did you ever wonder how mothers of disabled children are chosen?
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 4:40PM 
Welcome to Holland
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability- to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel.
It’s like this…
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 3:55PM 
Hi Dick,
I'm sending the suggested edits that I recorded during your CalABA Dream Chasers presentation. I wasn't able to keep up with the edits and pay close attention to your presentation simultaneously, so there's a chunk missing.
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 3:23PM Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 4:37PM Sunday, February 20, 2011 at 9:18PM 
Rather than work on my talk for BAAM due this Friday, I got sucked into Sigrid Glenn's behavioranalysishistory.pbworks.com More specifically /Palmer_DC (Check them out and for a little context, see the footnote [1].)Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 6:33PM
Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 5:37PM Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 5:53PM Click photo to see full-screen slide show.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 12:25PM
Thank you Kate LaLonde for calling this to our attention.
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 5:58PM 
A concern about dissemination of behavioral technology results from a concern about the limited impact of behavior analysis. Before looking at the impact of behavior analysis on the world of action, let us first look at its impact on the world of ideas, if you will pardon my dualism. It would be of interest to get a historical perspective on how much impact behavior analysis has had.
Friday, October 1, 2010 at 1:14PM 
-Save the world with behavior analysis.
-Better living through behaviorism.
-Nothing in moderation; if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing to excess.
-The best predictor of future behavior, is past behavior.
-If it feels too good, watch out, because it's liable to bite you in the butt, when you're not looking.
-Aversive control is your friend.
Friday, October 1, 2010 at 1:11PM 
Was Skinner a Nativist?
Skinner argued that dog’s barking could not be conditioned. And Kurt Salzinger got a PhD degree from Columbia for proving him wrong. Check with Kurt on the details.
Unfortunately, from my view, Skinner was much more of a nativist, than many of us environmentalists would like to think. In a major speech at ABA, he casually mentioned that intelligence was inherited; he said this way before his protégé Richard Hernstein co-authored The Bell Curve. Skinner’s talk dealt with the origins of language, or as we say in the biz, verbal behavior.
Friday, October 1, 2010 at 1:11PM
Is it Morally Defensible to Use the Developmentally Disabled as Guinea Pigs?
Others have argued that we can justify the developmentally disabled spending some of their time as research subjects by considering it part of the tuition they pay. And we might make the same argument for college sophomores in Introductory Psych when they serve as subjects; however, we are obligated to provide the sophomores with an educationally valuable debriefing, in return for their participation.
Friday, October 1, 2010 at 12:54PM 
My Everyday Jesus Christ
Let's see. Whom do I admire? Well, the Man, of course.
B. F. Skinner
Of course, of course. But why? Because he was the best theoretician in the field, by far. Because he could deal with the most complex of issues without slipping into a mentalistic mire, never losing his foothold on the high ground of objective data language. And because he provided objective data language. And because he provided the framework, the system in which it all fits. Every little bit of it fits right in there. Nothing left out; and if there is, we'll take care of it in the next few years. Without him, you and I would still be giving Rorschach tests or worrying about habit strength and anticipatory goal gradients.
Friday, October 1, 2010 at 12:52PM 
This blog discusses my favorite peckerwood, Brother Bill Clinton, along with my least favorite, guess who, and the man himself, Skinner, with questions about how they got from where they started to where they ended at their peaks.
Friday, October 1, 2010 at 12:51PM 
This ain't no scholarly critique of Herrnstein and Murray's The Bell Curve. Ain't based on the book. It's a pop reaction to the Reader's Digest/Classic Comics version as presented in a two-cassettee recording, read by Dr. Murray.
In the first part, the majority of the book, the authors are clearly just humble scientists in search of the cold, buck-naked truth. Just scholars looking with dispassionate objectivity at vast amounts of data, letting them IQ points fall where they may. Weighing the evidence pro and con. No agenda, hidden or otherwise. But an intellectually honest, thoughtful reading of the large amounts of scientific data prove at the .05 level of confidence that 60% of the Negro's stupidity is inherited and 40% is learned.
