Peláez-Nogueras, 1992, p. 1411).
The basics of behavior analysis could be applied to thousands of situations in order to understand the relationship (if any) between events in the environment and behavioral events. This analysis consists, primarily, of the careful observation (in rigorously controlled conditions) of measurable changes in the subject's behavior in the presence of a particular environmental variable. Changes in, for example, "rate, amplitude, latency, duration [or] interresponse time" are studied "as a function of the environmental event contingent upon it" (and compared with responses in the event's absence) (Gewirtz & Peláez-Nogueras, 1992, p. 1411). The behavior change is learning and the contingent event is called the "reinforcing stimulus" or "reinforcer." These reinforcers could be either "positive" (i.e., providing something desirable) or "negative" (i.e., removing something
...