ABSTRACT
Reinforcement theories are one-stage models based on the belief that behavior is caused or controlled by external conditions including those that precede and those that follow the behavior. In natural or intrinsically reinforcing circumstances, responses to discriminated stimuli are always followed by a consistently reinforcing event. An example might be the appearance of a typically sugary treat responded to by eating it and resulting in the sensation of sweetness. It must be recognized, however, that such a sequence is culturally bound. One has only to travel to foreign locations to discover that visual cues of sweetness are not universal, that sweet-appearing morsels may not deliver sweet tastes upon being eaten. Sequences of events that culminate in an environmental occurrence that increases the probability of a certain response include an antecedent condition, a response, and a consequence. In natural sequences, the consequence is automatic. It contains the power, intrinsically, to influence conditioning of the response to recur in the same or similar circumstances.
