References of Place (1993i). Following 'the natural lines of fracture': Concept formation in neural networks [Conference presentation, presented at the Symposium on Associationism, Behaviour Analysis and Connectionism, held at the Annual Conference of the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour Group, University College, London 31st March 1993].
Adams, C. D., & Dickinson, A. (1981). Instrumental responding following reinforcer devaluation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 33 B, 109-112.
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Canfield, T. H. (1941). Sex determination of day-old chicks, II. Type variations. Poultry Science, 20, 327-328.
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Churchland, P. M. (1988). Matter and Consciousness (Revised Edition). MIT Press.
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Edelman, G. M. (1987). Neural darwinism: The theory of neuronal group selection Basic Books.
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Fechner, G. (1860). Elemente der Psychophysik (Two Volumes. English translation of Volume I as Elements of Psychophysics. H. E. Adler (trans.), D. H. Howes and E. G. Boring (eds.) (1966). Holt, Rinehart and Winston). Breitkopf and Hartel,
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Jordan, M. I. (1986). Attractor dynamics and parallelism in a connectionist sequential machine. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Erlbaum.
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Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex (English translation by G. V. Anrep). Oxford University Press.
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Place, U. T. (1992b). Is there an operant analysis of animal problem-solving? [Conference presentation, presented at 18th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis - May 25-28 1992 - San Francisco, California]. Association for Behavior Analysis. Abstract published in Proceedings of 18th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis - May 25-28 1992 - San Francisco, California (p. 155). Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis.
[Abstract]In 'An operant analysis of problem-solving', Skinner (1966/1969/1988) develops an account of problem-solving based on the distinction between two different ways in which an organism can learn to adapt to environmental contingencies: (1) contingency-shaped behavior in which the behavior of an organism is progressively shaped by repeated exposure to the contingency itself, and (2) rule-governed behavior in which a verbally competent human being adapts to a contingency by constructing a verbal formula or rule which is said to specify" the contingency in question. A rule may be constructed, as in the case of contingency-shaped behavior, in the light of repeated exposure to the contingency itself. It may equally well be based on information about the contingency supplied by another speaker, on information derived from a written text, or on an inference from other rules derived from any or all these sources. It is this case where the agent infers a new rule tailor-made for the problem with which he/she is confronted that Skinner has in mind in offering an analysis of problem-solving in these terms.
There is a growing body of empirical evidence (Hayes 1989) which confirms the accuracy of Skinner's description of problem-solving as it occurs in the case of verbally competent human beings. But animals also solve problems; and so do pre-verbal human infants. This kind of problem-solving cannot simply be a matter of contingency-shaping, though previous contingency-shaped behavior is the only resource from which a pre-verbal organism can draw in selecting an appropriate problem-solving strategy. It requires some mechanism like that which Köhler (1925) refers to as "insight" whereby the stimulus class which currently controls a particular response class is somehow stretched so as to include the current stimulus situation.
The case for postulating such a behavior mediating mechanism within the conceptual framework of radical behaviorism is argued by appealing
(a) to the analogy between attending behavior and thinking by talking to oneself, and
(b) to the process whose existence is implied by Skinner's (1938) account of "stimulus class" whereby an organism learns to break up its stimulus environment into stimulus classes "along the natural lines of fracture."
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Download: 1992b Is There an Operant Analysis of Animal Problem-Solving.pdf
Rescorla, R. A. (1991). Associative relations in instrumental learning: The eighteenth Bartlett Memorial Lecture. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 43B, 1-23.
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Rescorla, R. A., & Wagner, A. R. (1972). A theory of Pavlovian conditioning: Variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and non-reinforcement. In A. H. Black, & W. F. Prokasy (Eds.), Classical Conditioning, Vol. 2: Current Research and Theory. Prentice-Hall.
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Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis of behavior. Appleton-Century-Crofts.
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Skinner, B. F. (1975). The shaping of phylogenic behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 7, 117-120.
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Skinner, B. F. (1981). Selection by consequences. Science, 213, 501-504. Reprinted with peer commentary in A. C. Catania and S. Harnad (Eds.) (1984). Canonical papers of B. F. Skinner. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7, 477-481.
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