Chapter 16 Skinner: Behavioral Analysis 479she feels a physical condition within the body and labels it an “intention.” What
are called intentions or purposes, therefore, are physically felt stimuli within the
organism and not mentalistic events responsible for behavior. “The consequences
of operant behavior are not what the behavior is now for; they are merely similar
to the consequences that have shaped and maintained it” (Skinner, 1987a, p. 57).
Complex Behavior
Human behavior can be exceedingly complex, yet Skinner believed that even the
most abstract and complex behavior is shaped by natural selection, cultural evolu-
tion, or the individual’s history of reinforcement. Once again, Skinner did not deny
the existence of higher mental processes such as cognition, reason, and recall; nor
did he ignore complex human endeavors like creativity, unconscious behavior,
dreams, and social behavior.
Higher Mental Processes
Skinner (1974) admitted that human thought is the most difficult of all behaviors
to analyze; but potentially, at least, it can be understood as long as one does not
resort to a hypothetical fiction such as “mind.” Thinking, problem solving, and
reminiscing are covert behaviors that take place within the skin but not inside the
mind. As behaviors, they are amenable to the same contingencies of reinforcement
as overt behaviors. For example, when a woman has misplaced her car keys, she
searches for them because similar searching behavior has been previously rein-
forced. In like manner, when she is unable to recall the name of an acquaintance,
she searches for that name covertly because this type of behavior has earlier been
reinforced. However, the acquaintance’s name did not exist in her mind any more
than did the car keys. Skinner (1974) summed up this procedure, saying that “tech-
niques of recall are not concerned with searching a storehouse of memory but with
increasing the probability of responses” (pp. 109–110).
Problem solving also involves covert behavior and often requires the person
to covertly manipulate the relevant variables until the correct solution is found.
Ultimately these variables are environmental and do not spring magically from the
person’s mind. A chess player seems to be hopelessly trapped, surveys the board,
and suddenly makes a move that allows his marker to escape. What brought about
this unexpected burst of “insight”? He did not solve the problem in his mind. He
manipulated the various markers (not by touching them but in covert fashion),
rejected moves not accompanied by reinforcement, and finally selected the one that
was followed by an internal reinforcer. Although the solution may have been facil-
itated by his previous experiences of reading a book on chess, listening to expert
advice, or playing the game, it was initiated by environmental contingencies and
not manufactured by mental machinations.
Creativity
How does the radical behaviorist account for creativity? Logically, if behavior were
nothing other than a predictable response to a stimulus, creative behavior could not
exist because only previously reinforced behavior would be emitted. Skinner (1974)