Reflections on Adaptive Behavior: Essays in Honor of J. E. R. Staddon (Bradford Books)

J. E. R. Staddon's colleagues and former students discuss Staddon's work as a "theoretical behaviorist" and his influence on their own research. John Staddon has devoted his long and distinguished career to the study of the adaptive function and mechanisms of learning. He did his graduate work at the famous Skinner Lab at Harvard in the early 1960's (supervised by Richard Herrnstein, who did his doctoral work with B. F. Skinner), but his work can be characterized as theoretical behaviorism. Staddon, now at Duke University, believes that experimental analysis is never enough to make sense of behavior and that "theoretical imagination" is also required. Staddon's theoretical imagination has distinguished his work over the years and has influenced the field. Staddon is not afraid to deviate from the norm: when psychologists were maintaining their distance from behavioral psychology, Staddon was promoting optimality theories. Optimality theories in psychology are now commonplace. In this volume, Staddon's colleagues and former students discuss topics that have been important in his work: behavioral ability and choice, memory, time and models (the subject of his work at Harvard), and behaviorism. They also reflect on Staddon's influence on their own work and the evolution of their thinking on these topics. ContributorsGiulio Bolacchi, Daniel T. Cerutti, Mircea Ioan Chelaru, J. Mark Cleaveland, Robert H. I. Dale, Rebecca A. Dixon, Valentin Dragoi, Stephen Gray, Jennifer J. Higa, John M. Horner, Nancy K. Innis, Mandar S. Jog, Richard Keen, John E. Kello, Eric Macaux, Armando Machado, John C. Malone, Jr., Kazuchika Manabe, Susan R. Perry, Alliston K. Reid John Staddon has devoted his long and distinguished career to the study of the adaptive function and mechanisms of learning. He did his graduate work at the famous Skinner Lab at Harvard in the early 1960s (supervised by Richard Herrnstein, who did his doctoral work with B.F. Skinner), but his work can be characterized as theoretical behaviorism. Staddon, now at Duke University, believes that experimental analysis is never enough to make sense of behavior and that "theoretical imagination" is also required. Staddon's theoretical imagination has distinguished his work over the years and has influenced the field. Staddon is not afraid to deviate from the norm: when psychologists were maintaining their distance from behavioral psychology, Staddon was promoting optimality theories. Optimality theories in psychology are now commonplace. In this volume, Staddon's colleagues and former students discuss topics that have been important in his work: behavioral ability and choice, memory, time and models (the subject of his work at Harvard), and behaviorism. They also reflect on Staddon's influence on their own work and the evolution of their thinking on these topics. ContributorsGiulio Bolacchi, Daniel T. Cerutti, Mircea Ioan Chelaru, J. Mark Cleaveland, Robert H.I. Dale, Rebecca A. Dixon, Valentin Dragoi, Stephen Gray, Jennifer J. Higa, John M. Horner, Nancy K. Innis, Mandar S. Jog, Richard Keen, John E. Kello, Eric Macaux, Armando Machado, John C. Malone, Jr., Kazuchika Manabe, Susan R. Perry, Alliston K. ReidNancy K. Innis was Professor of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario. J.E.R. Staddon supervised her Ph. D. work at Duke University Contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 1 Theoretical Behaviorist: John E. R. Staddon......Page 14 2 Making Analogies Work: A Selectionist Model of Choice Behavior......Page 36 3 Variation and Selection in Response Structures......Page 64 4 Control of Response Variability: Call and Pecking Location in Budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus)......Page 100 5 Rules of Thumb for Choice Behavior in Pigeons......Page 114 6 Choice and Memory......Page 138 7 The Spatial Memory of African Elephants (Loxodonta africana): Durability, Interference, and Response Biases......Page 156 8 Interval Timing and Memory: Breaking the Clock......Page 184 9 Learning Mechanisms in Multiple-Time-Scale Theory......Page 206 10 Mechanisms of Adaptive Behavior: Beyond the Usual Suspects......Page 228 11 Varieties of the Behaviorist Experience: Histories of John E. R. Staddon......Page 250 12 Santayana Told Us, or The Prevalence of Radical Behaviorism......Page 260 13 The End of Psychology: What Can We Expect at the Limits of Inquiry?......Page 282 14 Reflections on I-O Psychology and Behaviorism......Page 304 15 A New Paradigm for the Integration of the Social Sciences......Page 328 References......Page 368 Contributors......Page 400 Epilogue: Nancy Karen Innis, 1941–2004......Page 402 Index......Page 404

J. E. R. Staddon's colleagues and former students discuss Staddon's work as a "theoretical behaviorist" and his influence on their own research.