ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the idea that behavior is a function of the outcomes (or consequences) they produce. Operants are responses that operate on the environment to produce changes or effects and, as a result, have an increased (or decreased) probability of occurrence. The probability of response is most often the rate of operant behavior. If the rate of the particular response (or class of behavior) increases as a result of some specific outcome, then that outcome is defined as a positive reinforcer. The operations of deprivation and reinforcer habituation are described in terms of their effects on reinforcer dynamics. Other events strengthen responding by removing an aversive; these are called negative reinforcers (also known as escape). Some types of consequences reduce the rate of the response and are called punishers. If a behavior has a zero-base rate of occurrence, the response can be shaped by differential reinforcement of successive approximations. When reinforcement is no longer delivered, the rate of the response eventually declines to near-zero levels; this is extinction. Behavior analysis is a scientific discipline based on changing or manipulating outcomes and thereby shaping, directing, and altering the behavior of organisms. Precise procedures and apparatuses have been invented to systematize this analysis and these are discussed.
