Behavior Analysis and Learning: A Biobehavioral Approach, Sixth Edition

By W. David Pierce, Carl D. Cheney, W. Frank Epling

Book Overview

Using a consistent Skinnerian perspective, Behavior Analysis and Learning: A Biobehavioral Approach, Sixth Edition provides an advanced introduction to the principles of behavior analysis and learned behaviors, covering a full range of principles from basic respondent and operant conditioning through applied behavior analysis into cultural design. The textbook uses Darwinian, neurophysiological, and biological theories and research to inform B. F. Skinner's philosophy of radical behaviorism.

The sixth edition expands focus on neurophysiological mechanisms and their relation to the experimental analysis of behavior, providing updated studies and references to reflect current expansions and changes in the field of behavior analysis. By bringing together ideas from behavior analysis, neuroscience, and epigenetics under a selectionist framework, this textbook facilitates understanding of behavior at environmental, genetic, and neurophysiological levels. This "grand synthesis" of behavior, neuroscience, and neurobiology roots behavior firmly in biology. The book includes special sections, "New Directions," "Focus On," "Note On," "On the Applied Side," and "Advanced Section," which enhance student learning and provide greater insight on specific topics.

This book is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology or other behavior-based disciplines, especially behavioral neuroscience. For additional resources to use alongside the textbook, consult the Companion Website at www.routledge.com/cw/pierce.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1138898589
• ISBN13: 9781138898585
• Release Date: June 2017
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 638 Pages
• Weight: 2.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 7.2" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

Great, detailed book on the topic

This text gives a lot of very detailed descriptions and also good examples and charts to help students understand the information. It has been a great supplement to my Operant Behavior course.

Expaning on Skinnerian Ideology

As a book about Behavior Analysis, this book doesn't do bad at all. It has its pros and cons as all books do, and it does adopt something of a dogmatic approach when it comes to Skinnerian belief - as many ABA professions do. Still, that is the way of ABA and, in many rights, it does need to be acknowledged in order to understand how to truly help people. Pros: It courts many of the mottos that ABA courts now: it talks about the individual and the mannerisms displayed according to the problem manifesting, it looks at a number of subjects with a little Darwinian "why," and it tries to address ABA in a way that walks the idealistic line between academia and really-real world without leaning too far either way. In some areas it does a great job of that too, helping the reader to better understand the trials and tribulations people face. In other ways it falters, sometimes missing small things and sometimes (debatably so) not streamlining B.F. Skinner enough and softening to some newer approaches. Cons: Were I to fault this book as a text, it would not be for any of the aforementioned things because they are contextual subjects that are open for debate and because all texts are inherently flawed. I would have to say I did have some concerns that had to do with some of the examples proved throughout the reading, thinking they were a tad overbearing sometimes. This isn't to say that all of the examples are bad - some are really thought out and work the way they need to work. Like an overworked essay or a paper with a few too many pages, there are areas when redundancy creeps in. Overall: Perhaps the review of the book seems a bit heavy-handed when it comes to be book, and perhaps it is. To their esteemed credit, the writers do know what they are talking about, they wrote a great job dealing with a subject that far too few people seem to grasp, and their textbook was readable. Above all, that should matter because, in teaching, texts are oftentimes ignored if they are too laden with weights that really don't have to be there because students are, well, students. Keeping all of this in mind, I would recommended this book for review to teachers that agree with the author's points-of-view, that perhaps want more than one text for diversity's sake, and for students looking to do the same.

Excellent Resource

The 3rd edition of this text was extremely helpful for me in my behavior analysis course. Word definitions were listed in the back for easy access, if they weren't defined in the text itself. Examples given were very helpful in understanding concepts and a lot of diagrams were given to help those of us who understand better via visual learning. Reviews at the end of each chapter included study questions which were very helpful. It was an interesting read, at least for someone already interested in the topic.