Richard W. Malott

Rule-governed behavior and behavioral anthropology.

According to cultural materialism, cultural practices result from the materialistic outcomes of those practices, not from sociobiological, mentalistic, or mystical predispositions (e.g., Hindus worship cows because, in the long run, that worship results in more food, not less food). However, according to behavior analysis, such materialistic outcomes do not reinforce or punish the cultural practices, because such outcomes are too delayed, too improbable, or individually too small to directly reinforce or punish the cultural practices (e.g., the food increase is too delayed to reinforce the cow worship). Therefore, the molar, materialistic contingencies need the support of molecular, behavioral contingencies. And according to the present theory of rule-governed behavior, the statement of rules describing those molar, materialistic contingencies can establish the needed molecular contingencies. Given the proper behavioral history, such rule statements combine with noncompliance to produce a learned aversive condition (often labeled fear, anxiety, or guilt). The termination of this aversive condition reinforces compliance, just as its presentation punishes noncompliance (e.g., the termination of guilt reinforces the tending to a sick cow). In addition, supernatural rules often supplement these materialistic rules. Furthermore, the production of both materialistic and supernatural rules needs cultural designers who understand the molar, materialistic contingencies.

Acquisition of the People Concept in Pigeons

The present investigation sought to determine the minimal number of positive and negative examples of a complex concept necessary for criterion mastery. A complex concept was defined as one in which the stimulus properties are not easily specified by physical measurement. Ss were presented with a stimulus display containing pictures of people and pictures where people were absent. Responses to pictures of people were reinforced with food. The results indicated that (1) pigeons rapidly form a complex concept where they are required to meet criterion performance on each discrimination problem, (2) the minimal number of positive and negative examples of the concept required to reach mastery ranged from 3 to 17, and (3) this procedure proved to be a successful and efficient method for studying complex concepts.

Contingency Management in an Introductory Psychology Course for One Thousand Students.

This is a description of an experimental college course designed to develop and demonstrate solutions to four major problems in higher education. These problems are (a) student under-achievement, (b) large student/faculty ratios, (c) the high cost of education, and (d) the common complaint that a liberal education is difficult to achieve and irrelevant to the world of affairs.

Perception and Stimulus Generalization

A methodologic analysis (cf., Galanter, 1962; Goldiamond, 1962; Graham, 1958) will be used in an attempt to show how sensation and perception, along with a number of other traditional topics, can be placed under the general heading of stimulus control and made compatible with an experimental analysis of behavior (Malott, 1969).

The Achievement of Evasive Goals

Why do we have so much trouble with procrastination? Why do we have so much trouble leading healthy lives of proper diet and exercise, to floss our teeth, to wear seat belts, to stop smoking? Why do we have so much trouble doing what we know we should? Perhaps an even more difficult question: Why do at least a few others have so much less trouble with procrastination, proper diet and exercise, flossing, wearing seat belts, and not smoking?

“I’ll do it when the snow melts”: The effects of deadlines and delayed outcomes on rule-governed behavior in preschool children

This study examined the control exerted by different types of rules on the behavior of preschool children. Four similar rules were presented to eight, four-year-old children, using a multielement design. The contingencies the rules described varied in the specification of deadlines and in the delays in the delivery of the reinforcers. The results showed (a) rules specifying only response requirements did not reliably control behavior, (b) rules specifying an immediate deadline with the immediate delivery of a reinforcer exerted reliable control, (c) rules specifying an immediate deadline with a one-week delay in the delivery of the reinforcer also exerted reliable control, and (d) rules specifying no deadline with a one-week delay in the delivery of the reinforcer exerted little control. These results suggest that a rule’s specification of a deadline is crucial in its control of behavior, but the delay of the reinforcer is of little importance. This latter conclusion further suggests that problems in self-control do not result from delayed outcomes or the inablity to delay gratification, contrary to conventional wisdom.

What OBM Needs Is More Jewish Mothers

Abstract Do not make these erroneous, simplistic assumptions: (1) Psychological phenomena need non-Skinner-box concepts for their understanding; (2) All natural and performance-management contingencies are the direct-acting contingencies of the Skinner box; (3) The delayed delivery of a reinforcer is reinforcement; and (4) A contingency will be ineffective, if it involves a delayed outcome. Delayed-outcome performance-management contingencies can be effective, if their outcomes are sufficiently sizeable and probable, if they involve deadlines (in the case of performance maintenance contingencies), and if the performer knows the rule describing the contingency. The main function of rules describing delayed-outcome performance-management contingencies is their creation of noncompliance as an aversive condition. The performer then escapes or attenuates the aversive condition by complying with the rule. However, the aversiveness of noncompliance is a function of our preschool behavioral history. For example, such early childhood training determines the proximity to the deadline before noncompliance becomes aversive enough to motivate compliance. Thus, early childhood training determines the amount of performance management needed to obtain reliable performance; so we all need Jewish mothers, or their surrogates, if we are to avoid the need of excessive performance management.

A System of Thesis and Dissertation Supervision: Helping Graduate Students Succeed

Twenty-nine psychology graduate students participated in a thesis and dissertation supervisory system. The system included weekly meetings, task specification, feedback, and incentives. Regular participants completed significantly more tasks when academic credit depended on task completion than when it did not. In comparison with a college-wide control group, a higher percentage of the participants in the supervisory group defined the topic, read relevant articles, collected data, wrote a draft, and completed their projects. In comparison with a psychology control group, the graduating participants completed MA theses of similar quality.

The importance of overt responding in programmed instruction even with added incentives for learning

Among the fundamental tenets of programmed instruction is the requirement of overt responding. Past research has not determined when this tenet holds true. We systematically replicated the work of Tudor (1995) by showing that overt responding in computer-based instruction improves learning, even when there is an incentive that might be thought to improve learning enough to mask the effect of overt responding. Subjects were exposed to both read-only and overt-response materials. One group received course-related, bonus points based on posttest performance, whereas the other group received points simply for participation. Within-subject comparison showed greater performance increases when overt responding was required, regardless of the point incentive. No significant differences were found between groups.

A Behavioral System for Supervising Undergraduate Research.

Five of eight students in a systematic behavioral control course showed 20% better performance during the intervention phase.