Dead Man Test: May 2011

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Typo on p. 449

In the example below the table, the paragraphs describing the after condition and the before condition should be reversed.

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About DMT

I teach courses in the principles and applications of Behavior Analysis, the science and technology of behavior, which is different from other approaches in psychology in that it takes behavior as a subject matter in its own right, rather than as a tool for studying something else, such as the mind. The main purpose of this blog is to be a supplementary means of communication with students who are taking my courses.

Each post is assigned to a particular topic (see the list of topics below). Most topics refer to a textbook chapter from Principles of Behavior (Richard Malott, 2008) or Applied Behavior Analysis (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007). Click a topic's title to see all the posts under that topic. To comment on a post, click on the "comments" link at the bottom of the post.

The dead man test was devised by Ogden Lindsley in 1965 as a rule of thumb for deciding if something is a behavior. The need for such a test stems from the importance of focusing on what an organism actually does when attempting to understand or modify its behavior. My students and I probably remind each other of the dead man test more than any other concept we study. Malott and Suarez (2003, p. 9) characterize the dead man test as follows:

If a dead man can do it, it ain't behavior, and if a dead man can't do it, then it is behavior.

Patrick S. Williams, PhD
University of Houston-Downtown

Malott, R., & Suarez, E. (2003). Principles of Behavior (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Dead Man Test

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Typo on p. 449

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