JEAB Quotations

About 120 quotations have so far been published in JEAB. They have been used as fillers on otherwise blank pages in this journal whose articles always start on odd-numbered pages.

Although JEAB was founded in 1958, the first quotation did not appear until the March 1972 issue. It has been placed near the very bottom of this inverse chronological list so that newer contributions might always appear at the top.

Readers are invited to submit suitable candidates for the list to the current Review Editor, M. Jackson Marr, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0170

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Daniel Wilson on Operant Conditioning in Popular Scientific Writing
(JEAB, 2008, 89, 425.)

“Conditioning a dolphin to do your bidding for fun and profit is no easy task. Modern dolphin trainers persuade dolphins to play along by using good old operant conditioning.” [more]

Robert Penn Warren and B. F. Skinner on Determinism and Behavior
(JEAB, 2007, 88, 150-151.)

In Robert Penn Warren’s novel All The King’s Men (1946), the protagonist Jack Burden heads to the west coast after learning that his life-long love, Ann Stanton, has become the mistress of his friend Willie Stark. After a short time alone in a hotel room in Long Beach, Jack returns having discovered “the dream.” [more]

George Bernard Shaw on “Having” a Play (JEAB, 2006, 86, ???)

“When I take my pen or sit down to my typewriter, I am as much a medium as Browning’s Mr Sludge or Dinglas Home, or as Job or John of Patmos. When I write a play I do not foresee nor intend a page of it from one end to the other: the play writes itself.#133;” [more]

On the Enduring Power of Levers (JEAB, 2005, 84, 326)

[Archimedes, Third Century B.C.E.] “…Give me somewhere to stand…”

[Ross Millhiser, President of Phillip Morris USA, 1983 C.E.] “[Millhiser] also defended his company against accusations that its products were dangerous. Around 1983, Victor J. DeNoble, a Phillip Morris scientist, told of approaching Mr. Millhiser to warn him about the growing evidence…” [more]

Descartes on Human and Nonhuman Language (JEAB, 2003, 79, 192)

“…if a magpie be taught to say ‘good morning’ to its mistress when it sees her coming, it may be that the utterance of these words is associated with the excitement of some one of its passions; for instance, there will be a stir of expectation of something to eat…” [more]

Reinforcement of Other Behavior [B. Hoffman] (JEAB, 2002, 78, 314)

“In the 1970s, Yasir Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had a serious problem. Their terrorist group Black September was one of the most feared terrorist organizations in the world. The problem, however, was that Black September had served its purpose.’ …” [more]

The Effect of Eliminating Compensation [Cassidy et al., NEJM] (JEAB, 2001, 76, 216)

“After the introduction of a no-fault insurance system in Saskatchewan, there was a 28 percent reduction in the incidence of whiplash claims, and the median time to the closure of claims was reduced by more than 200 days. This decrease occurred despite increases in the number of vehicle-damage claims and the number of kilometers driven.…” [more]

Fowl Attack Force [Los Angeles Times] (JEAB, 2001, 76, 20)

“An elite force of more than 700,000 ducks and chickens, trained to search and eat insects at the sound of a whistle, has been deployed in the locust-plagued fields of China's Xinjiang Province.…” [more]

Herman Melville on Stimulus Dimension Contrast (JEAB, 2001, 75, 298)

“In Chapter 42, ‘The Whiteness of the Whale,’ Melville explains why Moby Dick’s white color controls fear responses in the sailors aboard the Pequod. Melville starts by establishing a contrast between Ishmael’s statement that, ‘It was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me’ (p. 178) and repeated examples of the cross-cultural use of the color white to indicate purity. An explanation for this seeming inconsistency is presented in the following passages: …” [more]

1990 – 1999 (Vols. 53 – 72)

On Success and the Attractiveness of Theories [J. W. McAllister] (JEAB, 1999, 72, 186)

“Scientists’ aesthetic preferences respond inductively to the empirical performance of theories. More precisely, scientists attach aesthetic value to an aesthetic property roughly in proportion to the degree of empirical success scored by the set of theories that exhibit that property.…” [more]

I. P. Pavlov’s Advice for Young Scientists (JEAB, 1999, 72, 80)

“What would I wish for the young people of my motherland who dedicated themselves to science? First of all-consistency. Of this very important condition for fruitful scientific work I cannot speak without emotion. Consistency, consistency and again consistency. Right from the very beginning inculcate in yourself the habit of strict consistency in acquiring knowledge.…” [more]

On Subway Contingencies and Gaffiti Extinction [R. M. Thomas, Jr.] (JEAB, 1997, 68, 92)

“There were those, to be sure, who regarded subway graffiti as a form of folk art, and by 1984 it was so ubiquitous, sometimes covering entire trains, that even those who saw it as the beginning of the end of western civilization had come to regard it as an intractable problem.…” [more]

Ann Bronte on Dealing with Temptation (JEAB, 1997, 67, 302)

“…They both partook of the cake, but obstinately refused the wine, in spite of their hostess’s hospitable attempts to force it upon them. Arthur, especially, shrank from the ruby nectar as if in terror and dis-gust, and was ready to cry when urged to take it.…” [more]

M. F. Washburn on the Decay of Behaviorism (JEAB, 1997, 67, 10

“The principal change in the attitude of investigators of animal behavior since the third edition of this work appeared is the decay of behaviorism as an interpretation and the revival of animal psychology.…” [more]

Jean–Jacques Rousseau on Primitive Mands and Tacts (JEAB, 1996, 66, 96)

“Man’s first language, the most universal and energetic language, and the only one he needed before it was necessary to make persuasive speeches to assemblies of men, is the cry of nature. As this cry was uttered by a sort of instinct in times of pressing urgency, to beg for help in great danger or for relief in intense suffering, it was not much use in the course of ordinary life, where more moderate feelings prevailed.…” [more]

Charles Duclos on the Acquisition of Behavior (JEAB, 1996, 66, 50)

“…he will then feel a kind of satisfaction which will make a second action less difficult; soon, he will feel impelled to a third and, in little time, it will constitute his character. One acquires conviction by repetitive acts.…” [more]

Robert B. Cialdini on Everyday Experiences with Establishing Operations (JEAB, 1996, 65, 602)

“The city of Mesa, Arizona, is a suburb in the Phoenix area where I live. Perhaps the most notable features of Mesa are its sizable Mormon populationnext to that of Salt Lake City, the largest in the world-and a huge Mormon temple located on exquisitely kept grounds in the center of the city.…” [more]

Newell and Simon on Studying Individual Organisms (JEAB, 1996, 65, 464)

“It is a commonplace that behavior analysts and cognitive psychologists endorse significantly different positions on matters of research design and that their verbal repertoires ordinarily make very different kinds of contact with the data of psychological science. But in their pioneering volume, Human Problem Sollitngl Allen Newel1 and Herbert Simon (1972) offer the following observations regarding their rather unorthodox methodology for studying problem solving:
‘We never use grouped data to test the theory if we can help it.…’ ” [more]

Kissinger on Prisoner’s Dilemma in European Diplomacy (JEAB, 1995, 64, 330)

“For Richelieu’s concept of raison d'etat had no built-in limitations. How far would one go before the interests of the state were deemed satisfied? How many wars were needed to achieve security?…” [more]

Thales on Intrinsic Contingencies and Escape Responding [H. W. Turnbull] (JEAB, 1995, 64, 298)

“The view which now seems to be best supported by a wide range of evidence is, in brief, that mechanisms of reward and punishment are basically the same in animal and human learning, and in human learning at all levels of development, but that owing to wide variations in response organization, the phenotypic manifestations may be very different.…” [more]

Estes on Higher Order Classes of Behavior (JEAB, 1995, 64, 214)

“The view which now seems to be best supported by a wide range of evidence is, in brief, that mechanisms of reward and punishment are basically the same in animal and human learning, and in human learning at all levels of development, but that owing to wide variations in response organization, the phenotypic manifestations may be very different.…” [more]

On the Extinction of Depression [Baltimore Sun] (JEAB, 1995, 64, 146)

“OKLAHOMA CITY-Search dogs are becoming downhearted at the failure to find any more survivors from the bomb wreckage. William Thomason, 22, of the Canyon Lake, Texas, Fire Department, said the bloodhounds used by the Oklahoma State Canine Unit were particularly susceptible to ‘depression’ if they did not find a live person in the rubble.…” [more]

M. F. Small on Monkey Business in Bali (JEAB, 1995, 64, 18)

“My last research project on monkey behavior had taken place five years earlier, and I felt a surge of excitement when I reached my primary research site, the Sangeh Monkey Forest in the center of Bah, the tropical vacation spot.…I failed to see an adult female approaching to my left.…” [more]

Lévi-Strauss on the Origin of Social Contraints (JEAB, 1995, 63, 330 )

“As affectivity is the most obscure side of man, there has been the constant temptation to resort to it, forgetting that what is refractory to explanation is ipso facto unsuitable for use in explanation. A datum is not primary because it is incomprehensible: This characteristic indicates solely that an explanation, if it exists, must be sought on another level. Otherwise, we shall be satisfied to attach another label to the problem, thus believing it to have been solved.…” [more]

Population Control That Really Works [J. Mathews] (JEAB, 1995, 63, 164)

“What some are now calling the Tamil Nadu "miracle" corroborates the research findings in an unforgettable way. In the 1970s, the chief executive of this state in south India launched a free midday meal program for children in primary schools.…” [more]

H. R. Garis on Conditioned Sneezing (JEAB, 1994, 62, 88)

“In Story XVII, ‘Uncle Wiggily and Sammie’s Kite,’ of Uncle Wiggily’s Picture Book, Uncle Wiggily is on his way to the store when he encounters Mr. Twistytail the pig gentleman, who is also a barber: ‘Where are you going, Mr. Twistytail?’ asked Uncle Wiggily. ‘I have just made a wig…’ ” [more]

Samuel Johnson on Patronage and Science (JEAB, 1994, 62, 14)

“The Sciences having long seen their votaries labouring for the benefit of mankind without reward, put up their petition to Jupiter for a more equitable distribution of riches and honours. Jupiter was moved at their complaints, and touched with the approaching miseries of men, whom the Sciences, wearied with perpetual ingratitude, were now threatening to forsake…” [more]

Pierre Bourdieu on Interacting with Contingencies (Habitus) and Verbally Governed Behavior (JEAB, 1994, 61, 464)

“Since the habitus, the virtue made of necessity, is a product of the incorporation of objective necessity, it produces strategies which, even if they are not produced by consciously aiming at explicitly formulated goals on the basis of an adequate knowledge of objective conditions, nor by the mechanical determination exercised by causes, turn out to be objectively adjusted to the situation.…” [more]

Phillip Larkin’s Writing Contingency (JEAB, 1994, 61, 374)

“Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was one of the most renowned poets of this century. In an interview he described a productive period in his life, in part as follows: ‘The best writing conditions I ever had were in Belfast, when I was working in the University there…I wrote between eight and ten in the evenings, then went to the University bar till eleven,…’ ” [more]

Euell Gibbons on Conditioned Seeing (JEAB, 1994, 61, 280)

“I was walking along the bank of an irrigation ditch, headed for a reservoir where I hoped to catch some fish. Happening to look down, I spied a clump of asparagus growing on the ditch bank, with half a dozen fat, little spears that were just the right size to be at their best.…” [more]

D. L. Hull on Multiple Control of Scientific Behavior (JEAB, 1994, 61, 202)

“As multifarious as science has been and continues to be, a great deal about it can be explained by reference to just three elements: a desire to understand the world in which we live, the allocation of reponsibility for one’s contributions (both credit and blame), and the mutual checking of these contributions; in short, curiosity, credit, and checking….” [more]

Spragg on Behavior Modification in the Chimpanzee (JEAB, 1994, 61, 82)

“Prior to receiving morphine injections, all subjects were trained to cooperate voluntarily in receiving hypodermic injections of physiological saline solution. The procedure was as follows: The hair was clipped short over the scapular region, where the skin is loose. Then the animal was trained to lean across the experimenter’s leg, when he placed his foot up on the bench.…” [more]

Behavior Analyst at the Beach [Carole Cable] (JEAB, 1994, 61, 64)

“ …” [more]

Jean Piaget on the Extinction Burst (JEAB, 1994, 61, 10)

“Although it is a perfect example of an extinction burst, Piaget interprets the behavior of his 1-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, as an instance of magic-phenomenism. The passage also bears a remarkable resemblance to Skinner's account of shaping 9-month-old Deborah's hand movements using the lighting of a lamp as reinforcement (Skinner, 1979, p. 293).
   ‘J. banged a key on the bottom of a basket behind the bed where I was lying.’ …” [more]

Upton Sinclair on the Development of Phobias (JEAB, 1993, 60, 330)

“Three days later there came another heavy snow storm and Jonas and Marija and Ona and little Stanislovas all set out together, an hour before daybreak, to try to get to the yards. About noon the last two came back, the boy screaming with pain. His fingers were all frosted, it seemed.…” [more]

Igor Stravinsky on the Composer as a Locus (JEAB, 1993, 60, 202)

“I was guided by no system whatever in Le Sucre du Printemps. When I think of the music of the other composers of that time who interest me—Berg’s music, which is synthetic (in the best sense), and Webern’s, which is analytic—how much more theoretical it seems than Le Sucre.…” [more]

Stimulus Overselectibity in the Wild Boy of Aveyon [Itard] (JEAB, 1993, 60, 144)

“It was evident that my pupil, far from having conceived a wrong idea of the meaning of the symbols, had only made too rigorous an application of them. He had taken my lessons too literally…” [more]

Edwin Way Teale on Shaping Vulpine Hunting Skills (JEAB, 1993, 59, 542)

“Because the red fox is legendary for its cunning and resourcefulness, it is not surprising to find that the schooling that red-fox kits receive is almost human in its program of progressive training. The parents use an elaborate and careful system for educating their offspring in the art of making a living.…” [more]

T. H. Huxley And the Importance of First Principles (JEAB, 1993, 59, 82)

“I often wish that this phrase, ‘applied science,’ had never been invented. For it suggests that there is a sort of scientific knowledge of direct practical use, which can be studied apart from another sort of scientific knowledge, which is of no practical utility, and which is termed ‘pure science.’…” [more]

John Steinbeck on Theories (JEAB, 1992, 58, 536)

“Johnny ‘The Morph’ Morphy, Steinbeck’s philosopher-accountant, is the speaker: ‘Everybody’s got a theory,’ he said.…” [more]

Montaigne on Respondent Behavior (JEAB, 1992, 58, 146)

“I ask you to consider whether there is a single part of our bodies that does not often refuse to work at our will, and does not often operate in defiance of it. Each one of them has its own passions that rouse it and put it to sleep without ourleave.…” [more]

W. Somerset Maugham on Determinism (JEAB, 1992, 58, 106)

“I am conscious that here and there I have taken free-will for granted; I have spoken as though I had power to mould my intentions and direct my actions as the whim took me. In other places I have spoken as though I accepted determinism. Such shilly-shallying would have been deplorable had I been writing a philosophical work.…” [more]

Montaigne on the Keller Method (JEAB, 1992, 57, 338)

“[The tutor] should make his pupil taste things, select them, and distinguish them by his own powers of perception. Sometimes he should prepare the way for him, sometimes let him do so for himself. I would not have him start everything and do all the talking, but give his pupil a turn and listen to him.…” [more]

Montaigne on the Use of Punishment in Education (JEAB, 1992, 57, 176)

“The discipline of most of our schools has always been a thing of which I have disapproved. If they had erred on the side of indulgence, they might have erred less lamentably. But they are veritable gaols in which imprisoned youth loses all discipline by being punished before it has done anything wrong.…” [more]

Bertrand Russell on Discrimination Training (JEAB, 1992, 57, 158)

“To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy. Modern propagandists have learnt from advertisers, who led the way in the technique of producing irrational belief.…” [more]

De Maupassant on Stimulus Control Of Aggression (JEAB, 1991, 56, 2)

“The widow of Paolo Saverini lived…alone with her son Antoine and their dog Semillante, a great, thin beast with long, coarse hair…. One evening after a dispute, Antoine Saverini was killed traitorously with a blow of a knife by Nicolas Ravolati who, the same night, went over to Sardinia.…” [more]

The Chesnuts Control a Conversation (JEAB, 1991, 55, 144)

“December 5, 1863. Wigfall was here last night. He began by wanting to hang Jeff Davis. J.C. [James, her husband] managed him beautifully, and he soon ceased to talk that virulent nonsense and calmed down to his usual strong common sense. I knew it was quite late, but I had no idea of the hour.…” [more]

Reinforcers, Punishers, Changeover Delays and Coca Leaves [D. C. Anderson] (JEAB, 1990, 54, 52)

“[We celebrate the appearance on a distinguished editorial page of a straightforward analysis in environmental terms of behavior under multiple controls.] In a good year, a Bolivian farmer may net about $1,500 from the coca leaves he can grow on a hectare of land. Or, these days, he can tear out the coca plants and collect $2,000 per hectare from the Bolivian Government.…” [more]

Elementary, My Dear Watson: A Novel Case of Conditioned Terror [O. W. Holmes] (JEAB, 1990, 53, 304)

“My cousin Laura, a girl of seventeen, lately returned from Europe, was considered eminently beautiful. It was in my second summer that she visited my father’s house, where he was living with his servants and my old nurse, my mother having but recently left him a widower.…” [more]

Faust on The Priority Of Behavior [Goethe] (JEAB, 1990, 53, 262)

“Faust is translating the Bible; he opens a volume and sets to work.
‘Tis writ, ‘In the beginning was the Word.’
I pause, to wonder what is here inferred.
The Word I cannot set supremely high:
A new translation I will try.
I read, if by the spirit I am taught,...…” [more]

1980 – 1989 (Vols. 33 – 52)

Plotinus on Perception and Memory (JEAB, 1989, 52, 154)

“…Perceptions are not imprints, we have said, are not to be thought of as seal-impressions on soul or mind: accepting this statement, there is one theory of memory which must be definitely rejected.
       Memory is not to be explained as the retaining of information in virtue of the lingering of an impression which in fact was never made; the two things stand or fall together; either an impression is made upon the mind and lingers when there is remembrance, or, denying the impression, we cannot hold that memory is its lingering. Since we reject equally the impression and the retention we are obliged to seek for another…” [more]

On the Token Economy, 1846–Style [C. Maconochie] (JEAB, 1989, 52, 110)

“…The constituent elements in secondary punishment are labour and time. Men are sentenced to hard labour for a given time:-but the time is here made to measure the labour,-and the first proposal of the Mark System is, that instead of this the labour be made to measure the time.…” [more]

Adam Gopnik on the Role of Variation and Selection in Art (JEAB, 1989, 51, 46)

“…the whole point of the Renaissance theory of copying was to emphasize that making comes before meaning. Through the act of faithful copying, Renaissance shop practice suggested, the artist would produce small alterations that could yield new symbolic forms. And yet this process of variation through copying, far from leading only to small, incremental change, had revolutionary effects; a saint who was all feet could suddenly float on air..…” [more]

Joseph Addison on Instinct (JEAB, 1988, 50, 482)

“With what Caution does the Hen provide her self a Nest in Places unfrequented, and free from Noise and Disturbance? When she has laid her Eggs in such a Manner that she can cover them, what Care does she take in turning them frequently, that all Parts may partake of the vital Warmth?…” [more]

Louisa May Alcott on Extinction (JEAB, 1988, 50, 272)

“Meg led her son away,…[but] that shortsighted woman actually gave him a lump of sugar, tucked him in his bed, and forbade any more promenades till morning…Meg returned to her place, and supper was progressing pleasantly, when the little ghost walked again…” [more]

Samuel Johnson on Nature and Nurture [James Boswell] (JEAB, 1988, 50, 96)

“I do not deny, Sir, but there is some original difference in minds; but it is nothing in comparison of what is formed by education. We may instance the science of numbers, which all minds are equally capable of attaining; yet we find a prodigious difference in the powers of different men, in that respect, after they are grown up…” [more]

Edgar Allan Poe on the Extinction of Neurotic Fear by Exposure with Response Prevention (JEAB, 1988, 49, 48)

“In the storv The Premature Burial Poe describes the case of a voung man who suffered a ‘cataleptic’ disorder in which he would lapse into a state of profound unconsciousness. As a result he developed an obsession about being buried alive.
        My fancy grew charnel…the idea of premature burial held continual possession of my brain.… My nerves became thoroughly unstrung, and I fell prey to perpetual horror. I hesitated to ride or to walk, or to indulge in any exercise that would carry me from home…I no longer dared trust myself out of the immediate presence of those who were…” [more]

A. M. Turing on Rule-Governed and Contingency-Shaped Computer Learning Programs (JEAB, 1987, 48, 316)

“We normally associate punishments and rewards with the teaching process. Some simple child-machines can be constructed or programmed on this sort of principle.…” [more]

Wallace Craig on Adjunctive Behavior (JEAB, 1987, 48, 250)

“An appetite (or appetence, if this term may be used with purely behavioristic meaning), so far as externally observable, is a state of agitation which continues so long as a certain stimulus, which may be called the appeted stimulus, is absent.…” [more]

A. M. Turing on the Parallel between Learning and Natural Selection (JEAB, 1987, 48, 96)

“It is probably wise to include a random element in a learning machine.… A random element is rather useful when we are searching for a solution of some problem…” [more]

Alexander Bain on the Virtues of Rule-Governed Behavior (JEAB, 1987, 47, 96)

“The difficulties to be overcome [in the acquisition of habits running counter to strong appetites] are very much the same in the other instances; namely, the power of the appetite itself, the inadequacy of the initiative, the occasional backslidings, and the want of any strong inclination in the mind towards the points to be gained by a complete control.…” [more]

James on Self-control (With Compliments to Bain)(JEAB, 1987, 47, 40)

“Two great maxims emerge from [Bain's] treatment [of moral habits]. The first is that in the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible.…” [more]

Leah Inman Lapham (JEAB, 1986, 46, 148)

“In 1939, Leah Inman Lapham published a cookbook entitled A Rhode Island Rule Book, whose original source, a handwritten volume compiled by her mother, LeValley A. Inman, dated back to the early 1800s. Although following a recipe is an explicit form of rule-governed behavior, Lapham’s brief introduction, reprinted here, described the culture’s use of both rules and social contingencies to establish a wide range of behavior in the young women of that time and place.…” [more]

James Clerk Maxwell on Single-Subject Design (JEAB, 1986, 45, 206)

“I think the most important effect of molecular science on our way of thinking will be that it forces on our attention the distinction between two kinds of knowledge, which we may call for convenience the Dynamical and Statistical.…” [more]

Shakespeare on Cognitive Behavior Modification (JEAB, 1985, 43, 320)
(with John of Gaunt as the therapist, Bolingbroke as the client)

        Richard 11, Act 1, Scene iii
“Gaunt. 0, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words
That thou return’st no greeting to thy friends?
Boling. I have too few to take my leave of you
When the tongue’s ofice should be prodigal
To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart.
Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time.
Boling. Joy absent, grief is present for that time.
Gaunt. What is six winters? they are quickly gone.
Boling. To men in joy; but grief makes one hour ten.…” [more]

Abigail Scott Duniway on Aversion Therapy for Smoking and Drinking [P. Jensen] (JEAB, 1985, 43, 314)

“Abigail Scott Duniway (1843-1915) was an early Pacific Northwest suffragette. One of her most significant victories was winning the right to vote for women in Washington Territory in 1883. However, women’s voting rights were soon jeopardized by…” [more]

Captain James Cook, Behavior Analyst (JEAB, 1984, 42, 352)

“At this time we had but very few men upon the Sick list and these had but slite complaints, the Ships compney had in general been very healthy owing in a great measure to the Sour krout, Portable Soup, and Malt … The Sour Krout the Men at first would not eate until1 I put in practice a Method I never once knew to fail…” [more]

Johannes Ludvicus Vives on the Principles of Conditioning (JEAB, 1984, 41, 16)

“The ancients, when discussing… recondite matters, fell into and entangled themselves in great absurdities; and it is not surprising at all that they expressed distorted opinions about the soul, which is not perceived by any bodily sense, when they made very inapt assertions about what we do perceive through the senses.…” [more]

On Studying the Individual Organism [Sir John Lubbock] (JEAB, 1983, 39, 60)

“This volume contains the record of various experiments made with ants, bees, and wasps during the past ten years.…”

---

‘The principal point in which my mode of experimenting has differed from that of previous observers has been that I have carefully marked and watched particular insects; and secondly, that I have had nests under observation for long periods.…” [more]

George Cuvier’s Secret of Productivity (JEAB, 1982, 38, 124)

“I got into Cuvier’s sanctum sanctorum yesterday, and it is truly characteristic of the man. In every part it displays that extraordinary power of methodising which is the grand secret of the prodigious feats which he performs annually without appearing to give himself the least trouble.…” [more]

Leo Tolstoy: Beyond the Obvious (JEAB, 1982, 37, 170)

“As with astronomy the difficulty of recognizing the motion of the earth lay in abandoning the immediate sensation of the earth's fixity and of the motion of the planets, so in history the difficulty of recognizing the subjection of personality to the laws of space, time, and cause lies in renouncing the direct feeling of the independence of one's own personality.…” [more]

H. L. Mencken on the Shaping of Aggressive Behvior (JEAB, 1981, 35, 208)

“He was the best dog-trainer for miles around, and could transfer even the sorriest mutt into a competent ratter. For this purpose he liked to have them young; indeed, he preferred to begin on them as soon as their eyes were open. At that age, of course, they were no match for actual rats…” [more]

Isaac Bashevis Singer on Behavior Therapy (JEAB, 1981, 35, 186)

“ ‘Father-in-law,’ I asked, ‘what did the rabbi say to you?’
‘He told me to become a flatterer,’ my father-in-law answered. ‘For eight days I must flatter everyone I meet, even the worst scoundrel. If your rabbi had an ounce of sense he would know that I hate flattery like the plague. It makes me sick even to come in contact with it. For me, a flatterer is worse than a murderer.…’ ” [more]

Thomas Paine on Social Contingencies as Functional Relations (JEAB, 1981, 35, 144)

“No one man is capable, without the aid of society, of supplying his own wants; and those wants acting upon every individual, impel the whole of them into society, as naturally as gravitation acts to a center…” [more]

Bertrand Russell on Determinism in Science (JEAB, 1981, 35, 92)

“Science, as it exists at present, is partly agreeable, partly disagreeable. It is agreeable through the power which it gives us of manipulating our environment, and to a small but important minority it is agreeable because it affords intellectual satisfactions. It is disagreeable because, however we may seek to disguise the fact, it assumes a determinism which involves, theoretically, the power of predicting human actions; in this respect, it seems to lessen human power.…” [more]

Samuel Butler on the Determinants of Human Behavior (JEAB, 1980, 34, 34)

“A man is the resultant and exponent of all the forces that have been brought to bear upon him, whether before his birth or afterwards. His action at any moment depends solely upon his constitution, and on the intensity and direction of the various agencies to which he is, and has been, subjected.…” [more]

MacDougall on Behaviorism: A Prognostication of Fifty–Years Ago (JEAB, 1980, 33, 382)

“It is natural enough that Behaviorism should claim its triumphs chiefly in the nursery; so long as we are dealing with young infants we are necessarily confined to Behavioristic methods of observation, because the child is unable to aid us with introspective reports. But that surely is a poor reason for refusing to make use of that aid when, in the course of development, it becomes accessible to us.…” [more]

On Musical Chains, Crabwise [J. F. Cooke] (JEAB, 1980, 33, 358)

“If the [musical] piece is to be memorized in sections, I feel that the method endorsed by Czerny and his two pupils, Liszt and Leschetizky, is the best means of obtaining absolute security. That is, to learn the piece, start with the last two measures, then the last four measures, then the last eight measures, then the last twelve measures, and so on, proceeding backwards until the first measure is reached.…” [more]

Before 1980

Ring Lardner and the Differential Reinforcement of Writing Rate (JEAB, 1979, 32, 334)

“…Lardner had written no short stories between ‘The Golden Honeymoon’ (1922) and ‘Haircut’ (1925), an interval occupied by much talking about writing, people and events, by the writing of his Syndicate articles, by a good deal of drinking and by much camaraderie with Fitzgerald and others. In 1925 and 1926, however, Lardner wrote 12 stories…’ ” [more]

Worsley on Shaping Up Habituation anf Endurance (JEAB, 1979, 32, 322)

“On December 5, 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton left South Georgia Island leading a scientific expedition to Antarctica. The expedition ship, Endurance, captained by F. A. Worsley, sailed into the Weddell sea, and on January 18, 1915, became locked in the pack ice. Remaining locked in the ice, the Endurance drifted until November, at which time the ice crushed and sank her. The expedition members then camped on the drifting ice…’ ” [more]

Kesey on Maintenance of Avoidance Behavior (JEAB, 1979, 31, 372)

“Teddy the bartender prepares for the approach of All Hallows Eve by dusting his neon with a feather duster and removing the fried flies from his electro-kill screen with a Brillo pad. Floyd Evenwrite practices reading the preamble of International Woodsmen of the World aloud before a bathroom mirror toward the afternoon's meeting with Jonny Draeger and the grievance committee.…” [more]

Pope Gregory on Shaping [Venerable Bede] (JEAB, 1979, 31, 208)

“In which Pope Gregory in a letter of A.D. 601 instructs Abbot Mellitus on shaping, as reported by the Venerable Bede.
“ ‘…Therefore, when by God’s help you reach our most reverend brother, Bishop Augustine, we wish you to inform him that we have been giving careful thought to the affairs of the English, and have come to the conclusion that the temples of the idols among that people should on no account be destroyed.…’ ” [more]

Emerson on the Importance of Programming (JEAB, 1978, 30, 254)

“Life brings to each his task, and, whatever art you select, algebra, planting, architecture, poems, commerce, politics,–all are attainable, even to the miraculous triumphs, on the same terms of selecting that for which you are apt;–begin at the beginning, proceed in order, step by step.…” [more]

La Mettrie on Language in Apes (JEAB, 1978, 29, 504)

“Let us pause to contemplate the varying capacity of animals to learn. Doubtless the analogy best framed leads the mind to think that the causes we have mentioned produce all the difference that is found between animals and men, although we must confess that our weak understanding, limited to the coarsest observations, can not see the bonds that exist between cause and effects.…” [more]

Hemingway on Self-Management Behavior (JEAB, 1978, 29, 492)

“Up in the room I had a bottle of kirsch that we had brought back from the mountains and I took a drink of kirsch when I would get toward the end of a story or toward the end of the day’s work. When I was through working for the day I put away the notebook, or the paper, in the drawer of the table.…” [more]

Discriminated Avoidance in the Schoolboy [Henry Roth] (JEAB, 1978, 29, 210)

“The boy who had been reading when David had come in had finished, and his place was taken by a second who seemed less able to maintain the rapid drone of his predecessor. At first, when he faltered, the rabbi corrected him by uttering what was apparently the right sound, for the boy always repeated it. But gradually, as his pupil continued in his error, a harsh note of warning crept into the rabbi’s voice.…” [more]

Bechterev on Shaping (JEAB, 1978, 29, 76)

“In what, for instance, does the training of a dog consist? According to the words of all trainers, it is first of all necessary to create in the dog the habit of obedience to the fullest possible extent..…” [more]

E. C. Tolman on Constraints on Learning (JEAB, 1978, 29, 26)

“[The Law of Fusibility states that] . . . certain characters of signs, means-endrelations and significates will undoubtedly fuse together into single sign-gestalt wholes more readily than will others. It appears, in short, that there will be stronger dispositions toward gestalt-formation when the characters of the parts have certain relations to each other than when they have other relations.…” [more]

Burroughs on the Training of Martian Mounts (JEAB, 1977, 28, 202)

“(Our hero, John Carter of Virginia, has been miraculously transported to Mars through some incomprehensible quirk of fale, and soon finds himself in the company of a band of savage giant green Martians, known as the Tharks, and gradually wins a degree of acceptance within the community.-S.M.Z..)” ‘During our period of inactivity, Tars Tarkas had instructed me in many of the customs and arts of war familiar to the Tharks, including lessons in riding and guiding the great beasts which bore the warriors.’…” [more]

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks [J. Bédier] (JEAB, 1977, 28, 70)

“[Tristan speaks:] " 'Alas, by what ill fortune has he found us? Of what use is this dog, who cannot keep silent, to a harassed man? The King is beating plains and woods, all his lands for us: Hodain will betray us with his bayings. It was for love of me, that in his noble nature he came to seek his death. Nevertheless we must protect ourselves. What is to be done? Give me your counsel..…” [more]

Reciprocal Inhibition Meets the Operant [F. Leuret] (JEAB, 1977, 28, 58)

“The following excerpt is from a case reported by Stewart (1961) as an historical note exemplifying Wolpe's principle of ‘reciprocal inhibition’ in treating neurosis. To one enmeshed in study of the environmental determinants of behavior, however, it seems a striking illustration of the power of deprivation conditions and operant contingencies.…” [more]

Mine Dogs [P. Carell] (JEAB, 1977, 28, 40)

“ ‘Put out a warning over the radio telephone, Muller, about those dogs,’ Lohse commanded. And now they heard it in all the vehicles: ‘Dora 101 to all. Watch out for mine dogs.…’
    “Mine dogs–a term coined on the spur of the moment. A new term for a new and much disputed Soviet weapon…” [more]

Douglas MacArthur on Reinforcement (JEAB, 1977, 28, 26)

“After graduating from the Engineer School, I served for a short time on river and harbor duties in Wisconsin, and in 1908 was ordered to Fort Leavenworth for duty with the Third Battalion of Engineers. As the junior company commander, I was assigned to Company ‘K’, which was the lowest-rated of the twenty-one companies at the post. But I soon recognized the inherent potentials in its personnel,…” [more]

On Stimulus Control [T. Moore] (JEAB, 1977, 27, 432)

“For years Ed Myer gave the 8:30 newscast on Washington’s well-known ‘Hardin and Weaver Show.’ After each show, the news director would call Myer to give him his assignment for the day, and Myer would leave the studio to work on his story. Day after day this procedure would occur: Myer’s 8:30 broadcast, the telephone call from the news director, then Myers into his car and off to break another story.…” [more]

Edmund Burke on the James-Lange Theory of Emotion (JEAB, 1977, 27, 234)

“To this purpose Mr. Spon, in his Recherches d’Antiquité, gives us a curious story of the celebrated physiognomist Campanella; this man, it seems, had not only made very accurate observations on human faces, but was very expert in mimicking such, as were any way remarkable.…” [more]

Mark Twain on Heredity and Training (JEAB, 1977, 27, 60)

“Oh, it was no use to waste sense on her. Training—training is everything; training is all there is to a person. We speak of nature; it is folly; there is no such thing as nature; what we call by that misleading name is merely heredity and training. We have no thoughts of our own, no opinions of our own; they are transmitted to us, trained into us.… ” [more]

Daphne du Maurier on Being Bowssened (JEAB, 1977, 27, 16)

    “The following is an interesting example of the use of probe techniques to determine whether the therapeutically trained behavior has or has not become trapped by the normal environment.
    “ ‘Lunatics, in older days, fared little better than sick animals or witches, for the treatment was to “bowssen” them in pools.…’ ” [more]

Pavlov on Autoshaping (JEAB, 1976, 26, 414)

“When conditioned stimuli are elaborated from various external agents (in studying for example the conditioned food reflexes), the first reaction elicited by the established conditioned stimulus usually consists in a movement towards the stimulus, i.e., the animal turns to the place where the stimulus is. If the stimulus is within reach, the animal even tries to touclh it, with his mouth. Thus, if the conditioned stimulus is the switching on of a lamp, the dog licks the lamp…” [more]

Richard Adams on the Postreinforcement Pause (JEAB, 1976, 26, 334)

“When several creatures–men or animals–have worked together to overcome something offering resistance and have at last succeeded, there follows often a pause-as though they felt the propriety of paying respect to the adversary who has put up so good a fight.” [more]

Jane Austin on Shaping Tantrums (JEAB, 1976, 26, 154)

“And here is my sweet little Annamaria," she added, tenderly caressing a little girl of three years old, who had not made a noise for the last two minutes; "And she is always so gentle and quiet-Never was there such a quiet little thing!…” [more]

Life in the Old East. Part 1: How Maou-tun Won His Throne. [A. Wylie](JEAB, 1976, 25, 360)

“The Shen-yu (or Prince) of the Heung-noo was named Tow-man…The Shen-yu’s eldest son was named Maou-tun, but his beloved consort having subsequently given birth to a boy, it was the aim of the Shen-yu to set aside Maou-tun, in favor of the younger.…” [more]

Life in the Old East. Part 2: Further Adventures of Maou-tun. [A. Wylie] (JEAB, 1976, 25, 388)

“Having thus cleared the way Maou-tun set himself up as Shen-yu in his father’s place in B.C. 209. Scarcely had he assumed power, however, when the Tung-hoo, who had become a powerful nation, hearing of the dark deeds of Maou-tun and his assumption of supreme power, sent an envoy to him asking for Tow-man’s swiftest charger.…” [more]

The Pig’s Feat [K. Tytler] (JEAB, 1976, 25, 346)

“Traditionally, pigs have been used to root out truffles, because they love to eat them and need no encouragement to go truffle hunting. But the farmer must follow his pig very closely, and be ready to grab the truffle before it is eaten.…” [more]

C. O. Whitman on Instinct and Intelligence. (JEAB, 1976, 25, 122)

“In order to see how instinctive action may graduate into intelligent action it is well to study closely animals in which the instincts have attained a high degree of complexity and in which there can be no doubt about the automatic character of the activities. These conditions are perfectly fulfilled in the pigeons, a group in which we have the further advantage that wild and domestic species can be studied comparatively.…” [more]

William James on the Necessity for Contrived Reinforcers in the Classroom. (JEAB, 1976, 25, 92)

“It would seem only natural to say that, since after acting we normally get some return impression of result, it must be well to let the pupil get such a return impression in every possible case. Nevertheless, in schools where examination marks and ‘standing’ and other returns of result are concealed, the pupil is frustrated of this natural termination of the cycle of his activities, and often suffers from the sense of incompleteness and uncertainty; and there are persons who defend this system as encouraging the pupil to work for the work’s sake, and not for extraneous reward.…” [more]

William James on Shaping New Response Repertoires (JEAB, 1975, 24, 368)

“Every acquired reaction is, as a rule, either a complication grafted on a native reaction, or a substitute for a native reaction, which the same object originally tended to provoke.
     “The teacher’s art consists in bringing about the substitution or complication, and success in the art presupposes a sympathetic acquaintance with the reactive tendencies natively there.…” [ [more]

Weighty Analysis by British Press (JEAB, 1975, 24, 322)

“‘DID YOU KNOW? Psychologist B. F. Skinner claims that pigeons are superstitious.…’” [more]

Titchener on Behaviorism (JEAB, 1975, 24, 58)

“…There is now a flurry in favour of behaviourism; but that is largely because the thing is so far all positive, and no criticism worth mentioning has appeared. No doubt the point of view will permanently appeal to certain temperaments…” [more]

Romanes on Pain-Elicited Aggression, with Comments on Constraints on Learning (JEAB, 1975, 23, 348)

“I had intended to ask you [Darwin] while at Down if you happen to know whether stinging nettles are endemic plants in South America. The reason I should like to know is, that last year it occurred to me that the stinging property probably has reference to some widely distributed class of animals, and being told–rightly or wrongly, I do not know–that ruminants do not object to them, I tried whether my tame rabbits would eat freshly plucked nettles.…” [more]

Swift on Positive Reinforcement in Lilliput (JEAB, 1974, 23, 216)

“Although we usually call reward and punishment the two hinges upon which all government turns, yet I could never observe this maxim to be put in practice by any nation except that of Lilliput. Whoever can there bring sufficient proof that he hath strictly observed the laws of his country for seventy three moons, hath a claim to certain privileges…” [more]

Maimonedes on Natural and Artificial Reinforcers (JEAB, 1974, 22, 518)

“…Imagine a small child who has been brought to his teacher so that he may be taught the Torah, which is his ultimate good because it will bring him to perfection. However, because he is only a child and because his understanding is deficient, he does not grasp the true value of that good,…” [more]

Spinoza on Freedom, with Dignity (JEAB, 1974, 22, 322)

“…men are deceived because they think themselves free, and the sole reason for thinking so is that they are conscious of their own actions, and ignorant of the causes by which those actions are determined.…” [more]

On the Use of Averages [Claude Bernard](JEAB, 1974, 22, 72)

“Another very frequent application of mathematics to biology is the use of averages which, in medicine and physiology, leads, so to speak, necessarily to error. There are doubtless several reasons for this; but the greatest obstacle to applying calculation to physiological phenomena is still, at bottom, the excessive complexity which prevents their being definite and comparable one with another. By destroying the biological character of phenomena, the use of averages in physiology and meditine usually gives only apparent accuracy to the results.…” [more]

On Research Addiction [B. Kinsman] (JEAB, 1974, 22, 46)

“Few valid generalizations can be made about science and scientists. Even fewer can be made about all scholars in all fields. Their activities can be likened to an unsystematic conversation, one that has been going on for a very long time. Anyone who joins it, whether he is scholar or layman, joins it in the middle. You have to catch the fragments, decide what language is being spoken, and feel your way into what might have been said before you came in. It's rather like the babble at a very large international reception. Most of the participants are more or less intoxicated.…” [more]

King James Bible (JEAB, 1974, 21, 296)

“But now ask the beasts, and they shall teach thee…;” [more]

Speaking and Language [Paul Goodman] (JEAB, 1974, 21, 276)

“…here is an interesting nuance that goes to the heart of language, the relation of speaker and hearer: We can say, ‘I am walking too fast,’ ‘You are walking too fast,’ ‘He is walking too fast.’ We can say, ‘I admire the view,’ ‘I wonder what they're doing,’ ‘I'm surprised at you,’ and ‘He admires the view,’ ‘He wonders what they’re doing,’ ‘He’s surprised at her.’ But there’s something wrong in saying, ‘You admire the view,’…” [more]

Skinner on Stimulus-Sampling Theory (JEAB, 1974, 21, 98)

“We are concerned with all those responses of the rat that produce the required movement of the lever. Let us suppose that the stimuli corresponding to these responses are composed of a number of elements A, B, C, . . . N (the actual number being very great).…” [more]

Thorndike on the Visual Cliff (JEAB, 1973, 19, 190)

“If one puts a chick on top of a box in sight of his fellows below, the chick will regulate his conduct by the height of the box. To be definite, we may take the average chick of about 95 hours.…” [more]

Thorndike on Preparedness in Learning (JEAB, 1973, 19, 180)

“The truth is that to a difficulty the animal responds by whatever its inherited and acquired nature has connected with the special form of difficulty and that in many animals the one response of those thus provided which relieves the difficulty is selected and connected more firmly with that difficulty's next appearance.…” [more]

Woodworth on the Language of Psychology (JEAB, 1972, 18, 64)

“Instead of ‘memory’, we should say ‘remembering’; instead of ‘thought’ we should say ‘thinking’; instead of ‘sensation’ we should say ‘seeing, hearing’, etc. But, like other learned branches, psychology is prone to transform its verbs into nouns.…” [more]

Bertrand Russell on Thorndike’s First Law (JEAB, 1972, 17, 338)

“Thorndike, as a result of experiments with cages and mazes, formulated two ‘provisional laws’, which are as follows: ‘The Law of Effect is that: Of several responses made to the same situation, those which are accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction to the animal will, other things being equal, be more firmly connected with the situation, so that, when it recurs, they will be more likely to recur; those which are accompanied or closely followed by dissatisfaction to the animal will, other things being equal, have their connections with that situation weakened, so that, when it recurs, they will be less likely to recur. ’ …” [more]

On the Senses (JEAB, 1972, 17, 158)

[Theophratus] “…with regard to hearing, it is strange of him (Empedocles) to imagine that he has really explained how creatures hear, when he has ascribed the process to internal sounds and assumed that the ear produces a sound within, like a bell.…”

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[B. F. Skinner] “Suppose someone were to coat the occipital lobes of the brain with a special photographic emulsion which, when developed, yielded a reasonable copy of a current visual stimulus.…” [more]

Benjamin Franklin “On the operant reinforcement of prayer” (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1969, 2, 247)

“We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian minister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the men did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations. When they enlisted, they were promised, besides pay and provisions, a gill of rum a day…” [more]