The renaissance of the experimental analysis of human behavior

Ten years ago, a number of authors commented on the dismal state of the basic research area known as the experimental analysis of human behavior (EAHB). At that time, data on the number of research articles using human subjects published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) indicated little progress since the early 1960s. However, updated publication data through 1991 reveal that EAHB research has accelerated in the last decade, reaching a peak of nearly half of all research articles published in JEAB, with an increasing trend evident. The increase in this percentage is not due solely to a long-term declining trend in the total number of experimental articles in JEAB using either human or nonhuman subjects, a trend that appears to have slowed or stabilized in the last 6 years. These data indicate that the EAHB has made dramatic progress in a decade and is healthy and growing.     

Participation by women in behavior analysis

The participation of women in behavior analysis as authors of articles published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), as members of the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA), and as contributors to the 1982 ABA convention was examined. Since the inception of JEAB and JABA, men have appeared as authors far more frequently than women, although women have published relatively more frequently in the latter journal than in the former. Across years, there has been an upward trend in the proportion of JEAB authors who are female; this is not the case for all JABA authors, although it does hold for senior authors. In 1980-1981 and 1981-1982, females represented approximately half of ABA's student and affiliate members but less than a third of its full members. Approximately a third of the contributors to posters and symposia and a seventh of those delivering invited addresses at the 1982 ABA convention were women.     

Self- and cross-citations in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior: 1993-2003

Self- and cross-citations in JABA and JEAB from 1993 through 2003 were examined. Yearly mean levels of self-citation for JABA and JEAB were 34.9% and 33.2%, respectively. Overall, 7.8% of JABA citations were JEAB articles, and 0.6% of JEAB citations were JABA articles. The former value, but not the latter, is substantially higher than the cross-citation level reported for earlier years. The two JEAB articles most often cited in JABA were published over 20 years ago and are concerned with establishing operations and the matching law.     

International publication trends in the experimental analysis of behavior

The present paper assessed international publication trends in the experimental analysis of behavior by recording the geographical origin of the first authors of articles in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB), the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), and The Behavior Analyst (TBA). Five international categories were identified: Australasia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. A cooperative category was also employed to assess the number of publications with authors from different international categories. First, the percentage and number of international articles published in JEAB, JABA, and TBA are presented. Second, a more detailed analysis of the publication rates within the international categories is presented. The number and rate at which new authors from the categories appeared and the percentage of articles published by different authors are also presented. Some limitations of the review and suggestions for increasing international participation in behavior analysis are outlined.     

An empirical update (1969-1989) of D. L. Krantz's thesis that the experimental analysis of behavior is isolated

Citation data from 1970 to 1989 were examined in order to determine whether the "isolation" of the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) that was originally documented by Krantz (1971, 1972) has persisted beyond the early 1970s. Our findings from analyses of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) and of related journals support the following conclusions: (1) In the 20-year period since 1969, JEAB has continued to cite its own articles ("self-cite") at a higher rate than related journals; (2) JEAB's self-citation rate decreased by a larger amount since 1969 than did that of related journals; and (3) JEAB was cited with diminishing frequency by some related journals during the 20-year period. These findings and other disciplinary comparisons provide information relevant to the issue of the health of behavior analysis and related specialties.     

Women in the experimental analysis of behavior

We examined the status of women in the experimental analysis of behavior by comparing authorship by women in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) to authorship by women in three similar journals. For all journals, the percentage of articles with at least one female author, the percentage of authors who are female, and the percentage of articles with a female first author increased from 1978 to 1997. However, the participation by women in JEAB lagged behind participation in the other journals on each measure. Female membership on the editorial board of JEAB also failed to increase from 1978 to 1997. Suggestions are made that may increase the participation of women in the experimental analysis of behavior.     

The analysis of human operant behavior: A brief census of the literature: 1958-1981

A census involving several major journals was conducted to survey the content and scope of the experimental analysis of human behavior. While the percentage of reports involving human subjects published each year in JEAB has lacked consistency, it was shown that JEAB has been the primary outlet for human work among the journals surveyed. Few areas of interest within the study of human behavior have received extensive scrutiny. The normal adult (typically undergraduate students) has been the preferred subject for human research. The results of a citation analysis of JEAB reports featuring human research are also presented.     

Jeab at 50: coevolution of research and technology

Evidence of how behavioral research and technology have evolved together abounds in the history of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB). Technology from outside the discipline (exogenous), from such disciplines as electronics and computer science, has been adapted for use in behavioral research. Technology from within the discipline (endogenous) has developed from both basic behavioral research and existing apparatus. All of these sources of technology have contributed to the corpus of behavioral research as it has evolved in JEAB. Such research, in turn, has provided the environmental pressure necessary for continuing technological evolution both within and outside the discipline. The new technology thus evolved further spurs research along in novel directions. This dynamic coevolutionary interplay between research and technology is an important variable in the past, present, and future of JEAB.     

The Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior at zero, fifty, and one hundred

The experimental content areas represented in JEAB in its first volume (1958) and 50 years later in Volume 87 are in many ways similar with regard to research on schedules of reinforcement, research with human subjects, and several other topics. Experimental analysis has not been displaced by quantitative analysis. Much less research on aversive control has been published in recent than in earlier years. Wishes for progress in the next 50 years include experiments on verbal behavior, the sources of novel behavior, and observing responses based on stimuli correlated with escape or avoidance.     

Neither dark age nor renaissance: Research and authorship trends in the experimental analysis of human behavior (1980-1999)

The anniversary of several milestones in the experimental analysis of human behavior (EAHB) provides a prompt for updating previous surveys of EAHB publication trends, which portrayed the field's overall health as good but raised questions about its breadth and trajectory. For the years 1980 through 1999, we examined trends in annual frequency of data-based EAHB articles published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB); in the topical emphasis of those EAHB articles; in the geographic region of origin of EAHB articles; and in the relative contributions of new and veteran authors. Our findings show continued productivity in the field, but contradict an earlier report by showing little sustained growth in EAHB over roughly the past 15 years. In terms of authorship, an increasing proportion of EAHB articles are authored by veteran investigators, although the field also benefits from a steady infusion of new authors. International participation in EAHB is limited, with most EAHB research originating in North America. In terms of content, our findings replicate those of previous reports in showing stimulus control and reinforcement and punishment to be the field's most commonly addressed research topics, although content emphases apparently differ across regions of origin. Overall, the data depict EAHB at the close of the 20th century as a multifaceted enterprise, one that is neither bankrupt nor at its full potential for contributing to the overall analysis of behavior. We close with some observations on the value of this type of archival research and some suggestions for improving the archival characterization of the field.     

Self- and cross-citations in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior: 1983-1992

We examined self- and cross-citation practices in JABA and JEAB from 1983 through 1992. Mean levels of self-citation for JABA and for JEAB were 22.6% and 36.1%, respectively. Overall, 2.4% of JABA citations were JEAB articles, and 0.6% of JEAB citations were JABA articles, which suggests limited integration of basic and applied research.     

The nature of social and personality psychology as reflected in JPSP, 1965-2000

A bibliometric analysis of the first 36 years (1965-2000) of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP) is presented. The authors analyzed the structure of JPSP on the basis of contents and other aspects related to productivity, such as growth in the number of articles and authors, and "invisible colleges." In 2001, JPSP articles were cited over 23,000 times. An increasing number of older, classic articles are cited, suggesting that there are an accumulating number of citations whose influence endures over time. JPSP articles have grown in length, number of studies included, number of references, and number of authors and have become more international with an increasing proportion of authors from outside the United States. The pattern of findings suggests an increasingly complex and mature science.     

Jeab and the Skinnerian interpretation of behavior

At one time, JEAB editorial policy was perceived by some to consist mainly of dogmatically enforcing a Skinnerian interpretation of all findings reported in the journal. Partly in response to that undeserved reputation, the journal explicitly defined itself as the place to publish research on the behavior of individual organisms, and not as a place that encourages any particular theoretical orientation. My own view is that this should not be the journal's identity; instead, JEAB should be the one journal that seriously considers Skinnerian (and related environment based) interpretations of empirical results, whether or not the study involved an analysis of individual subject behavior and whether or not the Skinnerian analysis is ultimately endorsed by the author.     

Research productivity in animal learning from 1953 to 2000

Searches conducted with Medline and PsycInfo showed that the number of publications dealing with learning in animals increased between 1975 and 2000 and that the increase was substantially greater in Medline than in PsycInfo. An examination of major journals dealing with behavioral studies of conditioning and learning for the years 1953, 1963, 1973, 1983, 1993, and 2000 revealed a different pattern of results. The number of papers published in these journals increased from 1953 to 1973 but has been declining steadily since then. However, this decline was partially offset by an increase in the number of experiments published in each paper. Substantially more experiments were published in 2000 than in 1963 or 1953. The number of core authors in the field also peaked in 1973 and has been declining since. However, there were only seven fewer core authors in 2000 than in 1983, and 1983 had as many core authors as 1963. These data suggest that pessimism about the status of behavioral studies of learning is not warranted if research activity is considered over a 40-year period. Furthermore, increased interest in the neural and biological mechanisms of learning should bode well for the status of behavioral research, because one cannot examine the physiological mechanisms of a behavioral process without first clearly understanding the phenomenon at the behavioral level.     

Trends in European visual science: 1978-1997

European visual science during the past 20 years--with the glaring exception of ophthalmological research--is reflected in the annual programmes of the European Conference on Visual Perception. The number of countries that have participated has increased with time, and the spectrum of topics that have been presented has broadened. The number of multiple-author papers has increased dramatically, as has the number of papers by authors from different institutions and different countries.     

The use of the effect size in JCR Spanish journals of psychology: from theory to fact

In 1999, Wilkinson and the Task Force on Statistical Inference published "Statistical Methods and Psychology: Guidelines and Explanation." The authors made several recommendations about how to improve the quality of Psychology research papers. One of these was to report some effect-size index in the results of the research. In 2001, the fifth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association included this recommendation. In Spain, in 2003, scientific journals like Psicothema or the International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology (IJCHP) published editorials and papers expressing the need to calculate the effect size in the research papers. The aim of this study is to determine whether the papers published from 2003 to 2008 in the four Spanish journals indexed in the Journal Citation Reports have reported some effect-size index of their results. The findings indicate that, in general, the followup of the norm has been scanty, though the evolution over the analyzed period is different depending on the journal.     

Authorship and sampling practice in selected biomechanics and sports science journals

In some biomedical sciences, changes in patterns of collaboration and authorship have complicated the assignment of credit and responsibility for research. It is unclear if this problem of "promiscuous coauthorship" or "hyperauthorship" (defined as six or more authors) is also apparent in the applied research disciplines within sport and exercise science. This study documented the authorship and sampling of patterns of original research reports in three applied biomechanics (Clinical Biomechanics, Journal of Applied Biomechanics, and Sports Biomechanics) and five similar subdisciplinary journals within sport and exercise science (International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, Journal of Teaching Physical Education, Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Sciences, and Motor Control). Original research reports from the 2009 volumes of these biomechanics and sport and exercise journals were reviewed. Single authorship of papers was rare (2.6%) in these journals, with the mean number of authors ranging from 2.7 to 4.5. Sample sizes and the ratio of sample to authors varied widely, and these variables tended not to be associated with number of authors. Original research reports published in these journals in 2009 tended to be published by small teams of collaborators, so currently there may be few problems with promiscuous coauthorship in these subdisciplines of sport and exercise science.     

The selective renaissance of the experimental analysis of human behavior

Two recent articles (Dougherty, Nedelmann, & Alfred, 1993; Hyten & Reilly, 1992) have favorably appraised the growth and health of the experimental analysis of human behavior as a whole. Within the last decade alone, there has been a more than threefold increase in the percentage of human operant papers appearing in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. In the present paper, a more molecular analysis is used, and some concerns are raised about the overall health of the field. The analysis included a determination of the rate at which new authors have appeared, how several areas of research have grown, and a contrast between the proportion of papers appearing in each of several areas of research during the last two decades. Two primary concerns are raised in this paper: (a) The recent growth within the field has been in only three select research areas (general schedule control, reinforcement, and stimulus control), and (b) there is an increasing disparity between the number of papers published in the few areas of research receiving the most attention and the number of papers published in the other areas of research receiving the least attention. Although the experimental analysis of human behavior has made considerable progress in the mere number of publications, these publications have been somewhat limited in scope.     

A Contemporary View of Some of Joseph Sandler's Key Concepts

Three of Sandler's seminal papers—“The Background of Safety” (1960a), “The Concept of the Representational World” (1962), and “Countertransference and Role Responsiveness” (1976)—are scrutinized and discussed to explore the evolution of his thinking over some 40 years. His early insistence on the importance of feeling states and intrapsychic mechanisms and processes, especially those relating to internal objects and internal object relationships, are emphasized as well as the interactions and complementary relationship between theoretical formulations and clinical findings, as exemplified in his research activities in the Index Department of the Anna Freud Centre in London and in his paper on countertransference and role responsiveness. Interrelationships with other concepts, both clinical and theoretical, show up in Sandler's work as well as that of other eminent authors up to the present time, and similarities in conceptualizations are highlighted. Sandler's continuous efforts to clarify psychoanalytic concepts and to integrate differing psychoanalytic conceptualizations and models are illustrated by references to and quotations from the salient papers.     

Invited Review—Survey of Value‐Focused Thinking: Applications,Research Developments and Areas for Future Research

Criteria are the central focus of multi‐criteria decision analysis. Many authors have suggested using our values (or preferences) to define the criteria we use to evaluate alternatives. Value‐focused thinking (VFT) is an important philosophy that advocates a more fundamental view of values in our decision making in our private and professional lives. VFT proponents advocate starting first with our values and then using our values to create decision opportunities, evaluate alternatives and finally develop improved alternatives. It has been 20 years since VFT was first introduced by Ralph Keeney. This paper surveys the VFT literature to provide a comprehensive summary of the significant applications, describe the main research developments and identify areas for future research. We review the scope and magnitude of VFT applications and the key developments in theory since VFT was introduced in 1992 and found 89 papers written in 29 journals from 1992 to 2010. We develop about 20 research questions that include the type of article (application, theory, case study, etc.), the size of the decision space (which, when given, ranged from $200K to billions of dollars), the contribution documented in the article (application benefits) and the research contributions (categorized by preferences, uncertainties and alternatives). After summarizing the answers to these questions, we conclude the paper with suggestions for improving VFT applications and potential future research. We found a large number of significant VFT applications and several useful research contributions. We also found an increasing number of VFT papers written by international authors. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.