1. kinner outlines a science of behavior which generates its own laws through an analysis of its own data rather than
securing them by reference to a conceptual neural process. "It is toward the reduction of seemingly diverse
processes to simple laws that a science of behavior naturally directs itself. At the present time I know of no
simplification of behavior that can be claimed for a neurological fact. Increasingly greater simplicity is being achieved,
but through a systematic treatment of behavior at its own level." The results of behavior studies set problems for
neurology, and in some cases constitute the sole factual basis for neurological constructs. The system developed in
the present book is objective and descriptive. Behavior is regarded as either respondent or operant. Respondent
behavior is elicited by observable stimuli, and classical conditioning has utilized this type of response. In the case of
operant behavior no correlated stimulus can be detected when the behavior occurs. The factual part of the book
deals largely with this behavior as studied by the author in extensive researches on the feeding responses of rats.
The conditioning of such responses is compared with the stimulus conditioning of Pavlov. Particular emphasis is
placed on the concept of "reflex reserve," a process which is built up during conditioning and exhausted during
extinction, and on the concept of reflex strength. The chapter headings are as follows: a system of behavior; scope
and method; conditioning and extinction; discrimination of a stimulus; some functions of stimuli; temporal
discrimination of the stimulus; the differentiation of a response; drive; drive and conditioning; other variables affecting
reflex strength; behavior and the nervous system; and conclusion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all
rights reserved)