This ground-breaking book presents a brief history of behaviorism, along with a critical analysis of radical behaviorism, its philosophy and its applications to social issues. This third edition is much expanded and includes a new chapter on experimental method as well as longer sections on the philosophy of behaviorism. It offers experimental and theoretical examples of a new approach to behavioral science. It provides an alternative philosophical and empirical foundation for a psychology that has rather lost its way. The mission of the book is to help steer experimental psychology away from its current undisciplined indulgence in "mental life" toward the core of science, which is an economical description of nature: parsimony, explain much with little. The elementary philosophical distinction between private and public events, even biology, evolution and animal psychology are all ignored by much contemporary cognitive psychology. The failings of radical behaviorism as well as a philosophically defective cognitive psychology point to the need for a new theoretical behaviorism, which can deal with problems such as "consciousness" that have been either ignored, evaded or muddled by existing approaches. This new behaviorism provides a unified framework for the science of behavior that can be applied both to the laboratory and to broader practical issues such as law and punishment, the health-care system, and teaching.

This ground-breaking book presents a brief history of behaviorism, along with a critical analysis of radical behaviorism, its philosophy and its applications to social issues. This third edition is much expanded and includes a new chapter on experimental method as well as longer sections on the philosophy of behaviorism. It offers experimental and theoretical examples of a new approach to behavioral science. It provides an alternative philosophical and empirical foundation for a psychology that has rather lost its way. The mission of the book is to help steer experimental psychology away from its current undisciplined indulgence in "mental life" toward the core of science, which is an economical description of nature: parsimony, explain much with little. The elementary philosophical distinction between private and public events, even biology, evolution and animal psychology are all ignored by much contemporary cognitive psychology. The failings of radical behaviorism as well as a philosophically defective cognitive psychology point to the need for a new theoretical behaviorism, which can deal with problems such as "consciousness" that have been either ignored, evaded or muddled by existing approaches. This new behaviorism provides a unified framework for the science of behavior that can be applied both to the laboratory and to broader practical issues such as law and punishment, the health-care system, and teaching.

Remember fifty years ago when everyone smoked? Since tobacco found its way into Europe in the sixteenth century, smoking has been a controversial issue. Fifty years ago, almost everyone smoked, and fifty years before that, smokers were in the doghouse; up until the early twentieth century, cigarettes were illegal in a number of U.S. states. Needless to say, smoking has always been a ready source of revenue. It has also been a source of health concerns, both real and imagined. This mixture of pleasure, money and risk that comes with the act of smoking means that it's rarely treated fairly by politicians, health professionals or the public. Nowadays, tough anti-smoking laws are to be obeyed in most corners of the globe. The misinformation about, and unreasoning hostility directed at, smoking and smokers is one of the major concerns of this book. After all, smoking has no public cost. Isn't it just the individual smokers who are at risk? Prompted by this burgeoning fascination, Staddon looks further into the facts. And the more he looks, the weaker the case against smoking as a public health issue becomes. Is ETS really dangerous to children? And if so, how can science prove it? And if smoking has no public cost and the medical case for third-party harm is weak, why are smokers still being victimised? In this provocative, thought-provoking book, Staddon is determined to uncover the truth about smoking. But the truth's not always pretty.

This book shows how science works, fails to work, or pretends to work, by looking at examples from such diverse fields as physics, biomedicine, psychology, and economics. Social science affects our lives every day through the predictions of experts and the rules and regulations they devise. Sciences like economics, sociology and health are subject to more 'operating limitations' than classical fields like physics or chemistry or biology. Yet, their methods and results must also be judged according to the same scientific standards. Every literate citizen should understand these standards and be able to tell the difference between good science and bad. Scientific Method enables readers to develop a critical, informed view of scientific practice by discussing concrete examples of how real scientists have approached the problems of their fields. It is ideal for students and professionals trying to make sense of the role of science in society, and of the meaning, value, and limitations of scientific methodology in the social sciences.

This book shows how science works, fails to work, or pretends to work, by looking at examples from such diverse fields as physics, biomedicine, psychology, and economics. Social science affects our lives every day through the predictions of experts and the rules and regulations they devise. Sciences like economics, sociology and health are subject to more 'operating limitations' than classical fields like physics or chemistry or biology. Yet, their methods and results must also be judged according to the same scientific standards. Every literate citizen should understand these standards and be able to tell the difference between good science and bad. Scientific Method enables readers to develop a critical, informed view of scientific practice by discussing concrete examples of how real scientists have approached the problems of their fields. It is ideal for students and professionals trying to make sense of the role of science in society, and of the meaning, value, and limitations of scientific methodology in the social sciences.

Originally published in 1991, this title was the result of a symposium held at Harvard University. It presents some of the exciting interdisciplinary developments of the time that clarify how animals and people learn to behave adaptively in a rapidly changing environment. The contributors focus on aspects of how recognition learning, reinforcement learning, and motor learning interact to generate adaptive goal-oriented behaviours that can satisfy internal needs - an area of inquiry as important for understanding brain function as it is for designing new types of freely moving autonomous robots. Since the authors agree that a dynamic analysis of system interactions is needed to understand these challenging phenomena - and neural network models provide a natural framework for representing and analysing such interactions - all the articles either develop neural network models or provide biological constraints for guiding and testing their design.

"Although I have been basically an academic for most of my life, the way I got there has taken some surprising turns." An unsuspected ancestry, playing in WW2 London, comical schooldays, and a spell in colonial Africa are just a few of the childhood moments described in John Staddon's memoir The Englishman. This is not just another transatlantic autobiography from a British working-class kid who made his name in the USA. It's a witty and entertaining romp through the subject he has made his own. By way of his wide-ranging interests in biology, artificial intelligence, economics, philosophy and behavioural neuroscience, John Staddon introduces and explores his most important work on how animals learn. He discusses the exciting field of behavioural psychobiology, explains theoretical research on choice and interval timing and debates so-called superstition in the learned behaviour of pigeons, rats, fish - and people. The Englishman is an entertaining life story interwoven with expansive thoughts on the fascinating field of behavioural psychology.