H. Pennypacker | University of Florida (original) (raw)
Papers by H. Pennypacker
ABSTRACT: Political corruption is identified as the behavioral consequence of novel contingencies... more ABSTRACT: Political corruption is identified as the behavioral consequence of novel contingencies of reinforcement introduced immediately after a candidate for public office is victorious and assumes the powers of incumbency. An analysis of the contingencies surrounding the transition from candidate to criminal is presented and strategies for overcoming the corrosive effects of postelection reinforcers are offered. Citizen discontent with the institutions of self-government is becoming increasingly voluble. The nation's newspapers present the evidence on a daily basis. One popular viewpoint is that the structure ofgovernment is responsible for whatever problems are thought to exist. As a result, we are witness to robust efforts to change the structure of government such as reforming campaign finance, imposing term limits, forming additional political parties, and launching numerous proposals to alter state and federal constitutions. Just as structuralism invariably fails to add...
: The Marine Corps Communication-Electronics Schools (MCCES), Twentynine Palms, California, is de... more : The Marine Corps Communication-Electronics Schools (MCCES), Twentynine Palms, California, is developing a computer-based education (CBE) system to support its training requirement. This CBE system is projected to provide computer-managed individualized instruction for courses concerning the operation and maintenance of communication and electronics equipment. The CBE system staff at MCCES has initiated procurement actions to acquire the computer system during FY 1980. The Navy Personnel Research and Development Center, San Diego, was tasked by Marine Corps Headquarters (Code OTT) to assist MCCES with the CBE system development. The purpose of this analysis is to develop an implementation plan that will be used by the MCCES staff to aid them in the development of the planned CBE system. The CBE office needed assistance in developing the strategies that are necessary for moving the instructional concept closer to the reality of an operating CBE system. The implementation plan is mad...
European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 2012
The utility of the phrase ‘evidence based’ has deteriorated to near cliché status. What began as ... more The utility of the phrase ‘evidence based’ has deteriorated to near cliché status. What began as a serious effort to bolster medical testimony with empirical evidence rather than proffered expertise has now become a justification for a wide range of assertions that may have only dubious scientific support. An incident from the author’s personal experience serves to illustrate the danger inherent in this practice with respect to innovation in medicine. The behavior analytic community need not participate in this travesty. Our traditional measurement and investigative practices emanating from the natural sciences allow us to discriminate among levels of quality of evidence. The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies is one organization committed to bringing evidence based solutions to bear on the problems of our culture. We recommend practices and solutions based only on ‘best’ evidence and urge others in our community to do the same.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2001
This commentary is an attempt to sharpen some of the issues raised in the paper and thereby incre... more This commentary is an attempt to sharpen some of the issues raised in the paper and thereby increase the generality of the proposal. Some implications of an exact definition of behavior for strategies of measurement and hence behavioral variability are discussed. The role of both respondent and operant behavior in natural selection is emphasized.
Behavioral Disorders, 1985
This study was an attempt to determine the effect of physical activity on the classroom behavior ... more This study was an attempt to determine the effect of physical activity on the classroom behavior of behaviorally disordered adolescents. A review of the literature suggested a long held belief that vigorous exercise is related to improved behavior and emotional status. Jogging and outdoor reading sessions were participated in by 6 behaviorally disordered sixth, seventh, and eighth graders; 3 of these subjects also engaged in winning and losing football contests. Dependent measures included teacher ratings, the rate and number of talk-outs, and percentage of problems completed per class session. An examination of the data indicated that a decrease in talk-outs and increase in teacher ratings and problems completed were associated with vigorous exercise. The results of this investigation suggest that physical activity may be valuable therapeutic technique to use with behaviorally disordered youth.
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1963
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1962
College students were used to test the hypothesis that the amplitude of the unconditioned GSR is ... more College students were used to test the hypothesis that the amplitude of the unconditioned GSR is gradually attenuated by the CS during conditioning and that this reduction in UCR amplitude vanishes when the CS is omitted and the UCS presented alone. The results "were interpreted as supporting the notion that a conditioned inhibitory process develops during reinforcement, under the control of the CS, which attenuates the amplitude of the UCR in the presence of the CS. The relationship between these findings and similar findings in a study of the relationship between amount of disinhibition and number of reinforcements was thought to add further support to the interpretation offered."
The Behavior Analyst, 1987
The Behavior Analyst, 1987
The Behavior Analyst, 1981
The entertaining and generally healthy discussion of the epistemic peccability of "applied behavi... more The entertaining and generally healthy discussion of the epistemic peccability of "applied behavior analysis" being conducted in these pages (e.g., Michael, 1980; Pierce & Epling, 1980; Woods, 1980) and elsewhere (e.g., Dietz, 1978) indicates, by omission, that a careful re-examination of the term "analysis" has become overdue. The use of this term and its several variants (analyze, analyst, etc.) in phrases that also include the word "behavior" has become so imprecise that little or no resemblance to that which was originally tacted (Skinner, 1953) remains evident. Rather than dwell on a disputable list of examples, let us consider carefully the proper use of the word "analysis" in conjunction with behavior. Thereafter, the reader should have no trouble locating examples in abundance. Dictionaries offer several meanings of the word "analysis" that collectively connote "separation into component parts or elements" (italics added). If we accept in a definition of the word "behavior" reference to ".. . the interaction of the organism with its environment. . .,'" it becomes clear that "the analysis of behavior" is a separation, into components, of the influences on this defining interaction. The focus of analysis in any single instance can be on (a) the response(s) observed, (b) the environmental variables correlated with their occurrence, or (c) both. The latter case embodies the most sophisticated form of analysis-the isolation of functional rela-1I am indebted to my colleague, J. M. Johnston, for urging that I write on this topic. But for his gentle insistence, my contribution could easily have dealt with something banal like measurement. Requests for reprints should be sent to the author,
Psychonomic Science, 1970
Cebus monkeys were subjected to differential classical, differential avoidance, or differential c... more Cebus monkeys were subjected to differential classical, differential avoidance, or differential classical-avoidance eyelid conditioning. Conditioning performance was analyzed in terms of both response probability and eyeblink magnitude. The response-probability analysis failed to reveal either acquisition or discrimination under any treatment condition. The magnitude analysis demonstrated differentiation in the within-Ss comparison of the two conditioning paradigms and suggested differentiation in the differential-avoidance group.
Psychonomic Science, 1968
Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1963
Positive and negative gradients were compared on the dimension of angular orientation (tilt) foll... more Positive and negative gradients were compared on the dimension of angular orientation (tilt) following discrimination training with the presence of a vertical line being positive and its absence being negative for one group of pigeons, and the opposite discrimination for another group. The gradients were initially very similar in form, although the negative gradient became natter in the course of testing. Equivalent training conditions therefore produced similar positive and negative gradients; previously obtained differences between gradients of acquisition and extinction are presumably due to differences in pretest training procedures.
Research Methods in Applied Behavior Analysis, 1986
Perhaps the most significant fact about experimental questions is that they do not exist independ... more Perhaps the most significant fact about experimental questions is that they do not exist independently of experimenters. Even saying that experimental questions are created by experimenters misses the mark by implying that something is being constructed that, like a house, is therefore separate from its creator.
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1964
Presentation of an extraneous auditory stimulus at the midpoint of the CS-UCS interval is shown t... more Presentation of an extraneous auditory stimulus at the midpoint of the CS-UCS interval is shown to inhibit the blink reflex conditioned to a light. Although such inhibition appears to be unrelated to the number of prior reinforcements, its occurrence in individual Ss is inversely re-lated ...
Research Methods in Applied Behavior Analysis, 1986
Among the many struggles that, throughout its history, constitute psychology’s attempts to study ... more Among the many struggles that, throughout its history, constitute psychology’s attempts to study human activity, the conception of exactly what it is about human beings that should be the object of our investigations has been, and continues to be, a mighty one. This struggle is certainly appropriate; there can be no more central and pervasive an issue in psychological research than the definition of the phenomenon to be addressed by experimental methods. One of the reasons why an unambiguous definition of the subject matter is critical is so that the details of research method can be properly suited to the task of preserving the subject matter in the process ranging from definition, through measurement, design, and analysis to experimental inference in undiluted and uncontaminated form. Failures to maintain such purity depreciate to some degree (perhaps beyond any scientific value) the legitimacy of experimental conclusions, such bastardy taking the form of inferior reliability and generality. Eventually, these limitations on experimental data come to characterize entire literatures, thereby retarding the development of a human science and stunting its technological progeny.
Journal of bioengineering, 1978
Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 2003
Application flows naturally from good science, and behavioral toxicology is no exception. Phenome... more Application flows naturally from good science, and behavioral toxicology is no exception. Phenomena discovered and procedures developed in behavioral laboratories are being applied on a wide scale in commercial, industrial, and governmental settings. In behavioral toxicology, this transfer of technology has occurred in an ad hoc manner, albeit with a degree of sophistication. The development of technology transfer in other disciplines is instructive. A symposium at the May 2001 meeting of the Behavioral Toxicology Society examined this issue, and some participants provide their contributions here. Henry Pennypacker examines the issue of whether behavioral procedures can meet the demanding standards required to transfer technology to commercial endeavors and concludes that, under some conditions, they can. He notes that the shortage of well-developed and transferred behavioral technologies results from a lack of understanding of the process of technology transfer on the part of behavior analysts. In the field of engineering, the results of basic research are transformed to candidate technologies that meet standardized criteria with respect to three properties: quantification, repetition, and verification. Kent Anger describes the challenging steps in the trail from the laboratory to wide-scale application-steps that are essential for the scaling up of any behavioral technique. Finally, Paul Mele describes the legal background to patenting and copyrighting ideas, a process that behaviorists have rarely used. Together, these topics identify the requirements and warn of the challenges and intricacies that await those who seek to transfer behavioral technology beyond the laboratory.
ABSTRACT: Political corruption is identified as the behavioral consequence of novel contingencies... more ABSTRACT: Political corruption is identified as the behavioral consequence of novel contingencies of reinforcement introduced immediately after a candidate for public office is victorious and assumes the powers of incumbency. An analysis of the contingencies surrounding the transition from candidate to criminal is presented and strategies for overcoming the corrosive effects of postelection reinforcers are offered. Citizen discontent with the institutions of self-government is becoming increasingly voluble. The nation's newspapers present the evidence on a daily basis. One popular viewpoint is that the structure ofgovernment is responsible for whatever problems are thought to exist. As a result, we are witness to robust efforts to change the structure of government such as reforming campaign finance, imposing term limits, forming additional political parties, and launching numerous proposals to alter state and federal constitutions. Just as structuralism invariably fails to add...
: The Marine Corps Communication-Electronics Schools (MCCES), Twentynine Palms, California, is de... more : The Marine Corps Communication-Electronics Schools (MCCES), Twentynine Palms, California, is developing a computer-based education (CBE) system to support its training requirement. This CBE system is projected to provide computer-managed individualized instruction for courses concerning the operation and maintenance of communication and electronics equipment. The CBE system staff at MCCES has initiated procurement actions to acquire the computer system during FY 1980. The Navy Personnel Research and Development Center, San Diego, was tasked by Marine Corps Headquarters (Code OTT) to assist MCCES with the CBE system development. The purpose of this analysis is to develop an implementation plan that will be used by the MCCES staff to aid them in the development of the planned CBE system. The CBE office needed assistance in developing the strategies that are necessary for moving the instructional concept closer to the reality of an operating CBE system. The implementation plan is mad...
European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 2012
The utility of the phrase ‘evidence based’ has deteriorated to near cliché status. What began as ... more The utility of the phrase ‘evidence based’ has deteriorated to near cliché status. What began as a serious effort to bolster medical testimony with empirical evidence rather than proffered expertise has now become a justification for a wide range of assertions that may have only dubious scientific support. An incident from the author’s personal experience serves to illustrate the danger inherent in this practice with respect to innovation in medicine. The behavior analytic community need not participate in this travesty. Our traditional measurement and investigative practices emanating from the natural sciences allow us to discriminate among levels of quality of evidence. The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies is one organization committed to bringing evidence based solutions to bear on the problems of our culture. We recommend practices and solutions based only on ‘best’ evidence and urge others in our community to do the same.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2001
This commentary is an attempt to sharpen some of the issues raised in the paper and thereby incre... more This commentary is an attempt to sharpen some of the issues raised in the paper and thereby increase the generality of the proposal. Some implications of an exact definition of behavior for strategies of measurement and hence behavioral variability are discussed. The role of both respondent and operant behavior in natural selection is emphasized.
Behavioral Disorders, 1985
This study was an attempt to determine the effect of physical activity on the classroom behavior ... more This study was an attempt to determine the effect of physical activity on the classroom behavior of behaviorally disordered adolescents. A review of the literature suggested a long held belief that vigorous exercise is related to improved behavior and emotional status. Jogging and outdoor reading sessions were participated in by 6 behaviorally disordered sixth, seventh, and eighth graders; 3 of these subjects also engaged in winning and losing football contests. Dependent measures included teacher ratings, the rate and number of talk-outs, and percentage of problems completed per class session. An examination of the data indicated that a decrease in talk-outs and increase in teacher ratings and problems completed were associated with vigorous exercise. The results of this investigation suggest that physical activity may be valuable therapeutic technique to use with behaviorally disordered youth.
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1963
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1962
College students were used to test the hypothesis that the amplitude of the unconditioned GSR is ... more College students were used to test the hypothesis that the amplitude of the unconditioned GSR is gradually attenuated by the CS during conditioning and that this reduction in UCR amplitude vanishes when the CS is omitted and the UCS presented alone. The results "were interpreted as supporting the notion that a conditioned inhibitory process develops during reinforcement, under the control of the CS, which attenuates the amplitude of the UCR in the presence of the CS. The relationship between these findings and similar findings in a study of the relationship between amount of disinhibition and number of reinforcements was thought to add further support to the interpretation offered."
The Behavior Analyst, 1987
The Behavior Analyst, 1987
The Behavior Analyst, 1981
The entertaining and generally healthy discussion of the epistemic peccability of "applied behavi... more The entertaining and generally healthy discussion of the epistemic peccability of "applied behavior analysis" being conducted in these pages (e.g., Michael, 1980; Pierce & Epling, 1980; Woods, 1980) and elsewhere (e.g., Dietz, 1978) indicates, by omission, that a careful re-examination of the term "analysis" has become overdue. The use of this term and its several variants (analyze, analyst, etc.) in phrases that also include the word "behavior" has become so imprecise that little or no resemblance to that which was originally tacted (Skinner, 1953) remains evident. Rather than dwell on a disputable list of examples, let us consider carefully the proper use of the word "analysis" in conjunction with behavior. Thereafter, the reader should have no trouble locating examples in abundance. Dictionaries offer several meanings of the word "analysis" that collectively connote "separation into component parts or elements" (italics added). If we accept in a definition of the word "behavior" reference to ".. . the interaction of the organism with its environment. . .,'" it becomes clear that "the analysis of behavior" is a separation, into components, of the influences on this defining interaction. The focus of analysis in any single instance can be on (a) the response(s) observed, (b) the environmental variables correlated with their occurrence, or (c) both. The latter case embodies the most sophisticated form of analysis-the isolation of functional rela-1I am indebted to my colleague, J. M. Johnston, for urging that I write on this topic. But for his gentle insistence, my contribution could easily have dealt with something banal like measurement. Requests for reprints should be sent to the author,
Psychonomic Science, 1970
Cebus monkeys were subjected to differential classical, differential avoidance, or differential c... more Cebus monkeys were subjected to differential classical, differential avoidance, or differential classical-avoidance eyelid conditioning. Conditioning performance was analyzed in terms of both response probability and eyeblink magnitude. The response-probability analysis failed to reveal either acquisition or discrimination under any treatment condition. The magnitude analysis demonstrated differentiation in the within-Ss comparison of the two conditioning paradigms and suggested differentiation in the differential-avoidance group.
Psychonomic Science, 1968
Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1963
Positive and negative gradients were compared on the dimension of angular orientation (tilt) foll... more Positive and negative gradients were compared on the dimension of angular orientation (tilt) following discrimination training with the presence of a vertical line being positive and its absence being negative for one group of pigeons, and the opposite discrimination for another group. The gradients were initially very similar in form, although the negative gradient became natter in the course of testing. Equivalent training conditions therefore produced similar positive and negative gradients; previously obtained differences between gradients of acquisition and extinction are presumably due to differences in pretest training procedures.
Research Methods in Applied Behavior Analysis, 1986
Perhaps the most significant fact about experimental questions is that they do not exist independ... more Perhaps the most significant fact about experimental questions is that they do not exist independently of experimenters. Even saying that experimental questions are created by experimenters misses the mark by implying that something is being constructed that, like a house, is therefore separate from its creator.
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1964
Presentation of an extraneous auditory stimulus at the midpoint of the CS-UCS interval is shown t... more Presentation of an extraneous auditory stimulus at the midpoint of the CS-UCS interval is shown to inhibit the blink reflex conditioned to a light. Although such inhibition appears to be unrelated to the number of prior reinforcements, its occurrence in individual Ss is inversely re-lated ...
Research Methods in Applied Behavior Analysis, 1986
Among the many struggles that, throughout its history, constitute psychology’s attempts to study ... more Among the many struggles that, throughout its history, constitute psychology’s attempts to study human activity, the conception of exactly what it is about human beings that should be the object of our investigations has been, and continues to be, a mighty one. This struggle is certainly appropriate; there can be no more central and pervasive an issue in psychological research than the definition of the phenomenon to be addressed by experimental methods. One of the reasons why an unambiguous definition of the subject matter is critical is so that the details of research method can be properly suited to the task of preserving the subject matter in the process ranging from definition, through measurement, design, and analysis to experimental inference in undiluted and uncontaminated form. Failures to maintain such purity depreciate to some degree (perhaps beyond any scientific value) the legitimacy of experimental conclusions, such bastardy taking the form of inferior reliability and generality. Eventually, these limitations on experimental data come to characterize entire literatures, thereby retarding the development of a human science and stunting its technological progeny.
Journal of bioengineering, 1978
Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 2003
Application flows naturally from good science, and behavioral toxicology is no exception. Phenome... more Application flows naturally from good science, and behavioral toxicology is no exception. Phenomena discovered and procedures developed in behavioral laboratories are being applied on a wide scale in commercial, industrial, and governmental settings. In behavioral toxicology, this transfer of technology has occurred in an ad hoc manner, albeit with a degree of sophistication. The development of technology transfer in other disciplines is instructive. A symposium at the May 2001 meeting of the Behavioral Toxicology Society examined this issue, and some participants provide their contributions here. Henry Pennypacker examines the issue of whether behavioral procedures can meet the demanding standards required to transfer technology to commercial endeavors and concludes that, under some conditions, they can. He notes that the shortage of well-developed and transferred behavioral technologies results from a lack of understanding of the process of technology transfer on the part of behavior analysts. In the field of engineering, the results of basic research are transformed to candidate technologies that meet standardized criteria with respect to three properties: quantification, repetition, and verification. Kent Anger describes the challenging steps in the trail from the laboratory to wide-scale application-steps that are essential for the scaling up of any behavioral technique. Finally, Paul Mele describes the legal background to patenting and copyrighting ideas, a process that behaviorists have rarely used. Together, these topics identify the requirements and warn of the challenges and intricacies that await those who seek to transfer behavioral technology beyond the laboratory.