Houlihan, D., & Brandon, P. K. (1996).
Compliant in a moment: A commentary on Nevin.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
29, 549-555.
Nevin's scholarly and timely discussion attempts to maintain the
precarious union of the experimentally derived theory of
behavioral momentum with applications of the behavioral momentum
construct to human subjects in applied settings. Nevin's
discussion adds much-needed clarification to a process that at
times has proven to be awkward for applied researchers. In this
commentary, we will address three general questions: (a) Can the
applications of behavioral momentum be derived from the theory as
conceptualized by Nevin? (b) Could those applications have been
developed had the theory not been formulated? (c) Does behavioral
momentum theory add significantly to the compliance literature?
DESCRIPTORS: behavioral momentum, metaphor, friction, establishing
operations, compliance