Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 3 | 2011 | Number 2 | Online ISSN: 2151-4704
Behavior Analysis and Selectionist Approaches to Robotics
By Joseph Cautilli
Behavior analysis focuses on what environmental factors occur to establish learning in humans and animals. Since the 1990s, attempts have been made to take information learned in this area and help develop robots that can learn from the same environmental factors. Often this is referred to as "selectionist approaches to robotics." Robots are not the future; they are the present. Right now thousands of robot designs and programs are being constructed. Research and development money for the field continues to grow.
Robots are used in everything from constructing automobiles to fixing the nuclear reactors damaged in the tragedy in Japan. Robotic knowledge grows rapidly, and yet basic operant technology has much to offer the field. This SIG has two goals: It tries to offer behavior analysts interested in research and development in the robotics field opportunities to learn the basics of programming operant principles, and it helps those exploring behavioral principles with machines to design experiments that would not be ethical to do with humans.
The SIG currently has both a listserv (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/behavioranalysisandrobotics/) and a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/update_security_info.php?wizard=1#!/pages/Behavior-Analysis-and-Selectionist-Robotics/203462914195). Currently, the SIG has 66 members on its listserv. These members come from the field of behavior analysis, but also include cognitive psychologists, computer scientists, and experimental researchers. Our listserv tends to have a low number of e-mails, averaging about 18 messages per month.
The SIG has discussed topics ranging from programs on stimulus control and verbal behavior to job announcements for positions in robotics departments. Often the members will post demonstration projects that they have created on YouTube to highlight their work.
Last year, the SIG petitioned the ABAI Executive Council to add a research and development position focused on operant contributions for technology development. In addition, it petitioned ABAI to place all robotics symposium and workshops on the same day, so that these could be placed on a separate flyer and sent to robotics and computer science departments. ABAI declined both petitions.