Table Of ContentComplex
Human
Behavior
Complex
Human
Beh
a vi or
A Systematic Extension
of Learning Principles
Arthur W. Staats and Carolyn K. Staats
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
H O L T, R I N E H A RT AND W I N S T ON
New York • Chicago • San Francisco • Toronto • London
To Jennifer and Peter
Copyright © 1963 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-17967
28101-0113
Printed in the United States of America
Preface
THE PURPOSE of this book is to explore various experimental and naturalistic
observations of complex human behavior in terms of learning principles
and thereby to offer a relatively general conception of how the physical and
social environments may shape human behavior.
The strategy' is to employ an integrated set of learning principles that
seem to have "heavy-weight" effects. There is no attempt to give an exhaus-
tive account of learning principles or to consider the controversies and
on-going research concerned with those that are presented. In extending
the principles to complex human behavior, areas of application are some-
times reached that have not yet been sufficiently subjected to experi-
mentation. Nevertheless, there appears to be enough support of the basic
principles as well as a sufficient number of demonstrations of the relevance
of their extrapolations to consider a learning conception of complex human
behavior to be a powerful approach.
Certain aspects of the strategy of the book emerged from the experience
of teaching general psychology to a population of students that included
both psychology and education majors and general education students. It
was found that lectures which presented a selected set of behavior prin-
ciples were much more meaningful and interesting to the students when
they were presented in simple form and the possible extensions to human
behavior were outlined in some detail. It was concluded that for the student
who will take only one or two courses in psychology the interpretive appli-
cation of learning principles can yield a practical type of knowledge and yet
remain consistent with a scientific approach. For the major in psychology,
on the other hand, this approach seemed capable of leading the student to
think of human behavior in terms of experimentally derived principles and
to appreciate the technical research underlying the establishment of such
principles.
It will be recognized that the systematic orientation of the present book
is coincident with other efforts to extend learning principles to complex
human behavior. It does attempt, however, to give a more central position
to description of the development and function of language. This is pos-
sible because of recent theoretical and experimental extensions of learning
principles to this area. The present interpretation also brings together the
conceptions of a number of learning psychologists and in so doing attempts
to abstract congruent principles rather than indicate conflicts. The most
PREFACE
VI
influential conceptions have been those of B. F. Skinner, and F. S. Keller
and W. N. Schoenfeld, on the one hand, and J. Dollard and N. E. Miller,
C. L. Hull, O. H. Mowrer, C. E. Osgood, and K. Spence on the other.
While the book that has developed from these considerations is in the
same tradition as that of previous extensions of learning principles to
human behaviors, it does have a new format and does incorporate relatively
new theoretical and experimental developments. As such, teaching uses for
the book can be suggested only tentatively. Thus, the book could be used
in general psychology where the instructor is interested in the systematic
presentation of a set of learning principles applied to various areas of
human behavior, rather than with a survey of approaches and experiments
in psychology. To the extent that the instructor wishes to emphasize learn-
ing, the book might also find use in specific courses in the area of general
psychology, such as child psychology, personality, the psychology of lan-
guage, and human learning.
The book also seems appropriate in a similar sense for students of educa-
tion and educational psychology. In this field one is concerned primarily
with human learning, and the various chapters deal with human behaviors
that are significant to the educational enterprise. Furthermore, the growing
extension of experimental methods and principles of learning to some of
the problems of education enhances the need for an understanding of the
approach and its applications.
The point in the student's career at which the individual instructor might
wish to introduce such a book may be expected to vary. The book is in-
tended to be self-contained and to depend upon no prior special training
in psychology. In this sense it could be thought of as introductory. On the
other hand, the student who already has a background in the basic prin-
ciples may find it productive to consider complex human behavior in terms
of these principles.
Although the authors interchanged comments and suggestions on all
chapters and worked and re-worked the expressive aspects throughout,
some of the chapters were individually and some jointly composed. Chap-
ters 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 11 were composed by A.W.S., and chapters 2, 7, 8,
and 10 were jointly composed.
It was in the conduct of research supported by several governmental
agencies that some of the conceptions basic to the book began to develop.
For this support, appreciation is extended to the Office of Naval Research
for a continuing research project on the psychological processes in language
and communication; to the National Institute of Mental Health for a
project to study personality and verbal response classes; and to the Office
of Education, Cooperative Research Branch, for support of several prelim-
inary experiments investigating certain aspects of the acquisition of reading
PREFACE vii
as discrimination learning. A.W.S. is also grateful for a National Science
Foundation Faculty Fellowship for the first term of 1961-1962, spent at
Maudsley Hospital of the University of London, and for a sabbatical leave
from Arizona State University for both terms of that year—both of which
contributed to the present project.
The authors also wish to express appreciation to several individuals who
read the book in whole or in part and contributed valuable suggestions:
Albert Bandura, Dale Harris, John L. Michael, and Richard E. Schutz. In
addition, Judson R. Finley and Karl A. Minke gave helpful assistance in
the physical preparation of the manuscript.
November 1963 A.W.S.
Tempe, Arizona C.K.S.
Contents
Preface v
1. Introduction
Psychology 4
2. The Method 8
Observation, Description, Classification 8
Operational Definitions 11
Description as Pseudo Explanation 13
Functional Relationships 16
S-R Laws 20
R-R Laws 22
S-R and R-R Laws Compared 2 •>
Additional Aspects of Science 26
The Relationship between Conceptions and Actions 32
3. Relevant Principles of Behavior 35
Respondent or Classical Conditioning 35
Operant or Instrumental Conditioning 41
Conditioned Reinforcement 48
Extinction 55
Schedules of Reinforcement 59
Types of Schedules of Reinforcement 61
Generalization and Discrimination 70
Differentiation and Successive Approximation 77
Sequences or Chains of Responses 86
"Self-Reinforced Behavior 95
Mediated Generalization 98
CONTENTS
Response Hierarchies 101
Motivation 107
4. Language Development 115
The Development of Speech 115
Early Development of Speech Responses 116
Formation of Verbal Discriminations 123
Development of Word Meaning 140
Semantic Generalization 147
Verbal Habit-Families 15 3
Verbal Conditioned Reinforcers and Meaning 154
Development of Word Associations 157
Learning and Grammatical Habits 169
Development of Verbal-Motor Behavior Associations 179
Summary 182
5. Language Function 185
COMMUNICATION 185
Communication Involving Transfer of Meaning 185
Additional S-R Processes in Communication 194
Efficacy of Communication 198
REASONING AND P R O B L EM SOLVING 199
A Learning Interpretation of Complex Problem Solving Involving
Language 204
DEVELOPMENT OF MATHEMATICAL
LANGUAGE SEQUENCES 219
Counting Behavior 220
Addition 225
Multiplication 228
Division 231
Further Extensions of Mathematical Sequences 233
ORIGINALITY 236
SCIENTIFIC BEHAVIOR 245
Prediction and Control 246
