The Hidden Logic of Operant Reinforcement. Persist or Start Over?

Abstract

This seems to be the appropriate historical moment to critically reassess the status of operant theory. For this purpose, a central category of the theory was selected, upon which the other concepts as well as the methodological criteria being developed are grounded. The following issues are examined: the origins and meanings of the term ‘reinforcement’; the relationship between contingency, operant, and persistence; early anomalies in the system such a superstition, avoidance and differential selection, and, finally, problems related to the concept of probability, generalized reinforcement, and language as verbal behavior. The dilemma consists in continuing on the same path, or starting over with a different option based on what is recognized.