Handbook of Operant Behavior

This classic edition of the Handbook of Operant Behavior presents seminal work in the field of learning and behavior, foreshadowing a new direction for learning research, and presenting many questions that remain unanswered.

Featuring impressive contributions from leading figures across the field―ranging from N. J. Mackintosh from what was to become the cognitive school through Morse, Kelleher, Hutchinson, and Hineline on the neglected topic of aversive control to Blough and Blough on psychophysics to Philip Teitelbaum on behavioral physiology―the book is a must-read for anyone interested in human and animal learning.

In a newly written introduction, J. E. R. Staddon highlights several issues that deserve more attention: how language is learned and syntax evolves, how animals choose, and a new paradigm for the study of learning in general. The book is essential reading for all students and researchers of learning and behavior, and aims to encourage researchers to revisit some of the fascinating behavioral questions raised by the original book.

J. E. R. Staddon is James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Professor of Biology Emeritus at Duke University. He has done research at Oxford University, the University of São Paulo, the University of Mexico, the Ruhr Universität, Universität Konstanz, and the University of Western Australia. He was profiled in the Wall Street Journal in January 2021 as commentator on the current problems of science.