Lattal, K.A. (2008).
JEAB at fifty: Co-evolution of research and technology.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 89, 129-135.
Evidence of how behavioral research and technology have evolved together abounds in the history of the Journal
of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB). Technology from outside the discipline (exogenous) from such
disciplines as electronics and computer science has been adapted for use in behavioral research. Technology from
within the discipline (endogenous) has developed from both basic behavioral research and existing apparatus. All
of these sources of technology have contributed to the corpus of behavioral research as it has evolved in JEAB.
Such research, in turn, has provided the environmental pressure necessary for continuing technological evolution
both within and outside the discipline. The new technology thus evolved further spurs research along in novel
directions. This dynamic co-evolutionary interplay between research and technology is an important variable in
the past, present, and future of JEAB.
Key words: research, technology, coevolution, history, apparatus, programming, Skinner box, contingencies