ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some theoretical and empirical developments that have raised fundamental questions about instrumental conditioning. It shows why many investigators have come to suppose that the Thorndikian view of instrumental behavior, as behavior controlled by its immediate consequences, has become a burdensome oversimplification that perhaps no longer merits a central role in any theoretical account of instrumental performance. Probability-differential theory was a curious blend of opposites: simple, but often intractable; radical on many points, but reactionary on perhaps the most important point. Instrumental performance is an adaptive response to the molar constraints the schedule places on specific behaviors. The work on response deprivation began as an effort to specify the conditions necessary and sufficient for reinforcement of the instrumental response. The chapter discusses some arguments that favor E. L. Walker’s conclusion concerning the superflous nature of glue.
