
Edward MorrisUniversity of Kansas | KU · Applied Behavioral Science
Edward Morris
Doctor of Philosophy
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127
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (127)
We examined the emergence of applied behavior analysis (ABA) through referencing patterns, analyzing 309 references cited in 36 ABA articles discerned as founding articles in prior research. We also analyzed 338 references in 26 articles in the first volume of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) to see if referencing patterns changed as...
Women’s issues in behavior analysis are widely regarded, today, as having had a resurgence (e.g., the Women in Behavior Analysis Conferences). The resurgence is important. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are the basis of a well-functioning organizations and societies -- ones that are likely to survive. However, the assertion about the resurgence l...
This is a historical note on a precursor of the concept of behavioral momentum in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in particular, Charles B. description of it in terms of behavioral durability. The note is based largely on two email exchanges we had with John A. (Tony) Nevin, who offered insights on behavioral momentum as a term and a concept that a...
In this article, I comment on Normand's, Vyse's, Friman's, Schlinger's, and Reed's articles on publishing books, journal articles, letters to the editor, and columns outside of behavior analysis, that is, "outside the box," as well as communicating with editors, authors, and journalists. Among the topics I address are the prerequisite repertoires a...
A three-leg multiple baseline design across behaviors was used to assess the effects of an instruction-andfeedback package on correct completion of three required civil commitment forms by psychiatric emergency room personnel. The forms were for notices of rights, imminent harm applications, and witness lists. The intervention program consisted of...
This paper addresses the legacy of John B. Watson's (1913b) article, "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It," for applied behavior analysis, in particular, for four of its dimensions: the conceptual systems, behavioral, analytic, and applied dimensions. I begin with brief histories of behaviorism, behavior analysis, and applied behavior analysis....
This article reports a study of the founding of applied behavior analysis through its publications. Our methods included hand searches of sources (e.g., journals, reference lists), search terms (i.e., early, applied, behavioral, research, literature), inclusion criteria (e.g., the field's applied dimension), and (d) challenges to their face and con...
This paper describes and analyzes B. F. Skinner's coauthoring practices. After identifying his 35 coauthored publications and 27 coauthors, we analyze his coauthored works by their form (e.g., journal articles) and kind (e.g., empirical); identify the journals in which he published and their type (e.g., data-type); describe his overall and local ra...
We examined the effects of teaching 5 typically developing elementary students to sound out their spelling words while writing them using the cover-copy-compare (CCC) method to practice spelling. Each student's posttest performance following practice with sounding out was compared to that student's posttest performance following practice with no so...
Presents an obituary for Sidney W. Bijou. "A peaceful, natural death, as he was getting ready for another day. A life well lived to the very last moment," wrote Bob and Jude Bijou of their father, Sidney W. Bijou, a pioneer in child development, behavior analysis, and research administration. He died on June 11, 2009, in Santa Barbara, California,...
This paper addresses B. F. Skinner’s utopian vision for enhancing social justice and human well-being in his 1948 novel, Walden Two. In the first part, we situate the book in its historical, intellectual, and social context of the utopian genre, address critiques of the book’s premises and practices, and discuss the fate of intentional communities...
This paper addresses B. F. Skinner's utopian vision for enhancing social justice and human well-being in his 1948 novel, Walden Two. In the first part, we situate the book in its historical, intellectual, and social context of the utopian genre, address critiques of the book's premises and practices, and discuss the fate of intentional communities...
Relations between behavior analysis and ecological psychology have been strained for years, notwithstanding the occasional comment on their affinities. Harry Heft's (2001)Ecological Psychology in Context provides an occasion for reviewing anew those relations and affinities. It describes the genesis of ecological psychology in James's radical empir...
In 1961, Charles B. Ferster and Marian K. DeMyer published a one-page report in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior titled, “Increased Performances of an Autistic Child with Prochlorperazine Administration.” It may be the first and only report of basic behavioral pharmacology research using both operant apparatus and measures and a...
I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their life. (Tolstoy, 1894)Thi...
Sidney W. Bijou is among the founders of behavior analysis, but the record of his contributions is incomplete. It has not systematically described his contributions beyond his tenure at the University of Washington (1948-1965). The purpose of this paper is to describe his contributions over the course of the next decade-his years at the University...
We examined women's participation, relative to men's, at the annual meetings of the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA) between 1975 and 2005. Among our findings are upward trends in female presenters across formats (e.g., posters), types of authorship (e.g., first authors), and specialty areas (e.g., autism). Where women have attained parity,...
Reviews the book, "Living
Walden Two: B. F. Skinner's Behaviorist Utopia and Experimental Communities" by Hilke Kuhlmann (see record
2005-07226-000). This book is the first overview of the natural histories of the intentional communities based on B. F. Skinner's (1948) novel
Walden Two. It is interesting, especially for readers outside communal...
Our paper reviews and analyzes B. F. Skinner's contributions to applied behavior analysis in order to assess his role as the field's originator and founder. We found, first, that his contributions fall into five categorizes: the style and content of his science, his interpretations of typical and atypical human behavior, the implications he drew fr...
This paper offers a case study of the origins, emergence, and evolution of the term cumulative record as the name for the means by which B. F. Skinner brought his behavior under the control of his subject matter. Our methods included on-line searches, reviews of Skinner's publications, and journal codings and counts. The results reveal that the ter...
This paper brings some data to bear on the criticisms, claims, and arguments that Skinner (a) denied or dismissed biological participation in behavior, (b) addressed it only late in his career or more often later than earlier, or (c) addressed it only because of the overwhelming evidence for it or the criticisms that he had overlooked it. For this,...
These comments address Laties', Dewsbury's, and Rutherford's papers on the extension and application of Skinner's operant psychology during the 1950s. I begin by reflecting on the papers' overall theme-that the success of behavior analysis lies in its practical applications-and add some comments on Planck's principle. I then turn to the three paper...
This paper introduces the nature and practice of bibliography (e.g., definition, history, and genres); it reviews the extant B. F. Skinner bibliographies (1958 to 2001); and it describes the methods used in constructing a new, comprehensive, and corrected bibliography of Skinner's primary-source published works. The bibliography includes 291 items...
Psychology has purportedly undergone two revolutions since becoming a science—one in the first decades of the 20th century, the other a half-century later. These were the behavioral and the cognitive revolutions, respectively. Although behaviorism is now presumably dead and cognitivism ascendant, cognitivism is not today modern in psychology. It is...
Reports the death of Donald Merle Baer (1931-2002). The author discusses his contributions to behavior analysis as well as his various personal and professional accomplishments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article memorializes Donald M. Baer (October 25, 1931-April 28, 2002). Baer was a Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Family Life and of Psychology at the University of Kansas. After earning a doctorate in experimental psychology, Baer began a notable program of research in the experimental analysis of child behavio...
Mills’ book begins as a self-stated intellectual history of behavioral psychology, but in the end is a social constructionist critique of the very idea of a natural science of behavior. In between, it offers brief but welcome coverage of overlooked behaviorists (e.g., Guthrie, Kantor, Kuo), well-researched critiques of neobehaviorists (e.g., Hull),...
John B. Watson (1878-1958) wrote for the popular press on a number of topics during the 1920s, often in the area of child rearing. His facts about child development were not disputed, but his advice was often criticized. This paper examines the validity of the criticism by reviewing what Watson advised in the context of his day. We found that, alth...
This paper offers some reflections on the discipline and profession of behavior analysis, as well as on the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA), on the occasion of the association's 25th anniversary. It is based on a panel session conducted at the 1999 convention that included six past presidents of ABA (Donald M. Baer, Judith E. Favell, Sigrid...
This paper describes response deprivation as an establishing operation. In this context, we review the concept of establishing operation, in particular, its reinforcer-establishing and evocative effects; we place response deprivation in the literature on the reinforcing effects of behavioral activity, wherein response deprivation subsumes the Prema...
This chapter discusses Watsonian behaviorism and offers an account of Watsonian behaviorism structured along three lines of inquiry. Watson's professional activities explain in terms of the successive phases of career; and, within this framework, the chapter analyzes the main features of its contributions. It finds that philosophy, psychology, and...
In this essay, we review Peter Lamal's (1997) text, Cultural Contingencies: Behavior Analytic Perspectives on Cultural Practices, summarizing the chapters and appraising them against the goal of the text. We begin with some professional and disciplinary context, and then review and evaluate the chapters and the text overall. In conclusion we urge t...
[Note that a passage on page 118, lines 7 to 12, should actually be a block quote from Skinner. Due to an editorial error, the passage was not identified as such in the published article. -- BDM] Behavior analysis has been characterized as falling exclusively on the nurture side of the nature-nurture dichotomy. An examination of Skinner’s behaviori...
In exploring Skinner on the nature-nurture dichotomy, we first discuss his ultimate explanations for innate and acquired behavior: phylogenic and ontogenic contingencies. Second, we explore the ways in which he distinguished between these two sets of contingencies, that is, in terms of temporal relations, consequences, and what is selected. Third,...
TODD, J. T., L. A. CUNNINGHAM, A. A. JANES, J. MENDELSON AND E. K. MORRIS.The generation and maintenance of schedule-induced polydipsia in normal male rats without weight reduction.PHYSIOL BEHAV 62(6) 1385–1390, 1997.—Experiment One demonstrated that two normal male Sprague-Dawley rats (∼60 days old) with free access to food and two control rats wh...
Recent conceptual work in behavior analysis has argued that the discipline is not mechanistic, but contextualistic, in world view. This argument has been contested, however, and a mechanism-contextualism debate has ensued. In taking the side of contextualism, I offer four reflections on the controversy. These concern (a) confusions concerning Peppe...
This commentary on EC 608 301, a paper on behavioral research methodology used with individuals with developmental disabilities, argues that the paper does not portray behavior analysis accurately, advances arguments that may not be reliably enough agreed upon, and seeks to modify reader behavior without sufficiently addressing the variables of whi...
Replies to comments by M. B. Bailey and R. B. Bailey (see record
1994-07941-001) and by J. Garcia (see record
1994-07943-001) that were issued in response to the article by J. T. Todd and E. K. Morris (see record
1993-11918-001) on mythology and folklore in behavior analysis. Todd and Morris welcome the comments by Bailey and Bailey but take iss...
Replies to comments by M. B. Bailey and R. B. Bailey (see record 1994-07941-001) and by J. Garcia (see record 1994-07943-001) that were issued in response to the article by J. T. Todd and E. K. Morris (see record 1993-11918-001) on mythology and folklore in behavior analysis. Todd and Morris welcome the comments by Bailey and Bailey but take issue...
Behavior analysts have been called mechanists, and behavior analysis is said to be mechanistic; that is, they are claimed to be aligned with the philosophy of mechanism. What this means is analyzed by (a) examining standard and specialized dictionary and encyclopedia definitions and descriptions of mechanism and its cognates and (b) reviewing conte...
Sequences of temporally spaced responses were reinforced to investigate the effects of delay of reinforcement on the formation of functional behavioral units. In Experiment 1, rats' two- and three-response demarcated sequences of left and right lever presses were reinforced such that different response distributions would occur depending on whether...
The widespread misrepresentation of behaviorism in the scientific and popular literature has caused its contributions to the understanding of behavior to be systematically ignored or denied. This misrepresentation is manifested, in large part, as a form of academic folklore that codifies erroneous accounts of behaviorism's assumptions, findings, an...
The widespread misrepresentation of behaviorism in the scientific and popular literature has caused its contributions to the understanding of behavior to be systematically ignored or denied. This misrepresentation is manifested, in large part, as a form of academic folklore that codifies erroneous accounts of behaviorism's assumptions, findings, an...
Skinner's contributions to and aim and progress and evolution of behavior analysis Discusses Skinner's 3 major contributions to behavior analysis: prediction and control (1931), the 3-term contingency (1938), and radical behaviorism (1945). Skinner's most important contribution, however, was his empirical epistemology. External and internal problem...
The effects of schedule history and the availability of an adjunctive response (polydipsia) on fixed-interval schedule performance were investigated. Two rats first pressed levers under a schedule of food reinforcement with an interresponse time greater than 11 s, and 2 others responded under a fixed-ratio 40 schedule. All 4 were then exposed to a...
This article has two main purposes. First, it introduces the discipline of historiography and, second, it provides a selected bibliography on the history of behavior analysis. In introducing the former in the context of the latter, four important methodological considerations involved in the process and product of historiography are described: The...
Criticizes M. J. Mahoney (see record
1990-03226-001) for presenting facts about and arguments against behavior analysis (BAN) as though they were context free. This is ironic in light of his own wrongly placed criticism of BAN for being objectivist in epistemology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
As the behavioral sciences approach the next millenium, the leading edge of theory, research, and application will become increasingly ecological and contextualistic in world view. As a participant in the behavioral sciences, behavior analysis has already begun to evolve in these important new directions and has done so in each of its three main br...
The ability of instructions and peer modeling to engender responding that would be maintained under a response- independent schedule of reinforcement was investigated with preschool children. In Experiment 1, three children were instructed that a response-dependent schedule was operating and were then exposed to a multiple variable-time 15-s and ex...
Six preschool children were placed individually in an experimental room for 10 to 14 daily 15-min sessions with a mechanical marble-dispensing clown and a toy punching bag. In each of two parts of the study, marbles were dispensed on a schedule consisting of 96-s periods of fixed-time 12-s marble delivery alternating with 96-s nonreinforcement peri...
The thesis of this paper is that contemporary behavior analysis—and the behavior analysis of child development in particular—is contextualistic in world view, in contrast to its traditional characterization as being mechanistic. The contextualistic character of behavior analysis is introduced by presenting some material on the field's historical ba...
According to the quantal interpretation of stimulus control, stimulus-response relations are integral “quantal” units that either occur or do not occur—no middle ground is possible. This paper analyzes the theoretical implications of this interpretation and concludes that, at the level of single response units, stimulus-response relations can alway...
Behavior is a continuous process from prior to birth until death. For purposes of investigation, however, it becomes useful to analyze this “behavior stream” into behavioral units, the description and definition of which have concerned behavioral scientists for many years. The present paper extends this topic further by presenting the integrated fi...
The Task Force on Public Policy was created to examine ways for behavior analysts to be more functional citizen scientists in the policymaking arena. This report informs readers about the contexts and processes of policymaking; and it outlines issues regarding the roles of behavior analysts in crating policy-relevant conceptual analyses, generating...
This study presents a methodology for collecting detailed naturalistic data on preschool teachers' instructions and children's compliance and a descriptive analysis of variables related to instruction rate and compliance probability. In preschools, teachers and children were observed across a variety of classroom activities. Kindergarten and first-...
At its October 1985 mid-year meeting, the Executive Council of the Association for Behavior Analysis discussed the de-sirability of making public awards on be-half of the Association to individuals outside the Association for significant achievements congruent with the pre-cepts of our discipline. In May of 1986, the Association presented the first...
Examined the behavior of 12 children (aged 3.6–6 yrs) for the emergence of superstitious behavior under response-independent, fixed-time (FT) schedules of reinforcement. Three experimental phases were conducted: (a) 2 8-min baseline sessions, (b) 6 10-min experimental sessions of FT 15- or 30-sec marble delivery, and (c) 2 final 8-min baseline sess...
This paper describes the origins and evolution of the term radical behaviorism. John B. Watson's coining of behaviorism in 1913 is presented first, followed by a discussion of the uses of "radical" within psychology during these early years. When the term radical behaviorism first emerged in the early 1920s, its referent was Watson's behaviorism, m...
applied behavior analysis, crime and delinquency and prevention Introduces 3 papers on applied behavior analysis in crime and delinquency that were originally presented at a symposium at the 1986 meeting of the American Psychological Association. They are the work of M. T. Nietzel and M. J. Himelein (see record 1988-23278-001); L. Bank et al (see r...
provide a brief overview of the history and philosophy of contemporary behaviorism
present a conceptual system for the analysis of behavior that is characteristic of contemporary behaviorism
classical Greek philosophy / modern philosophy
British empiricism and associationism
psychological science / structuralism and functionalism / Darwin,...
Examined public information provided by professional organizations concerned with research with nonhumans by sending standard letters of inquiry to 26 animal-rights and research organizations the authors thought would provide relevant information on both sides of the issue. Results show that after 2 mo, more than twice as many animal-rights as rese...
Probability is not an unambiguous concept within the sciences or in vernacular language, yet it is fundamental to much of behavior analysis. The present paper examines some problems this ambiguity creates in general,as well as within the experimental analysis of behavior, in particular. As background material, we first introduce the three most comm...
Understanding and controlling juvenile delinquency and adult crime remain elusive goals. This does not reflect disinterest of either the public, elected and appointed officials, or scholars and scientists. In the United States, as elsewhere, considerable activity pertains to preventing crime and intervening with those who commit it. At federal, sta...
Understanding how applied behavior analysis pertains to crime and delinquency requires more than familiarity with the conceptual system of contemporary behaviorism or with the basic principles of behavior, or with specific behavioral procedures and programs. That understanding requires appreciation of a set of specific dimensions that reflect both...
Examined public information provided by professional organizations concerned with research with nonhumans by sending standard letters of inquiry to 26 animal-rights and research organizations the authors thought would provide relevant information on both sides of the issue. Results show that after 2 mo, more than twice as many animal-rights as rese...
The systematic application of behavioral psychology to crime and delinquency was begun only 20 years ago, yet it has already contributed significantly to our practical knowledge about prevention and correction and to our general under standing of a pressing social problem. In this handbook, we review and evalu ate what has been accomplished to da...