B. F. Skinner's legacy to human infant behavior and development.
B. F. Skinner's legacy to human behavioral research for the study of environment-infant interactions, and indeed for the conception of development itself, is described and exemplified. The legacy is largely the practicality, the efficiency, and the comparative advantage--relative to diverse other behavioral and nonbehavioral approaches--of using the operant-learning paradigm to organize and explain many of the sequential changes in behavior patterns conventionally thought to constitute infant development.
Gewirtz
J L
JL
Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami 33199.
Peláez-Nogueras
M
M
D001527:Behaviorism; D002652:Child Behavior; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012931:Social Environment