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| Professional Development Series: Non-traditional Research Questions and the Expansion of Behavior Analysis |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 1:30 PM–2:50 PM |
| Independence East |
| Area: TPC/EAB; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Shawn R. Charlton (University of California, San Diego) |
| Discussant: Andrew W. Gardner (Kennedy Krieger Institute) |
| Abstract: . |
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| Behavioral Approaches to Judgement and Fairness |
| EDMUND J. FANTINO (University of California, San Diego) |
| Abstract: We summarize the current status of research programs in our laboratory that focus on behavioral approaches to judgement and decision making, including investigations of fairness. |
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| Was Skinner Conscious? |
| CLIVE D. L. WYNNE (University of Florida) |
| Abstract: Among the many misperceptions about behavior analysis is the widespread belief that behaviorists have no notion of conscious self-awareness. I outline a behavioral theory of consiousness building on some ideas of Skinner’s. People become conscious as they are taught by the social environment to label their private stimuli. Consequently, the route by which we learn to describe (and become conscious of) our private experiences is peculiarly indirect. I review evidence from studies of the development of children’s notions of consciousness; from cross-cultural studies of pain and color perception; from classics and anthropology. This theory offers an empirical approach to consciousness. |
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| Machine Behavior and Human Society in the 21st Century |
| SAM HALIORIS (Utah State University) |
| Abstract: This paper treats some relationships between modern behavioranalysis, robotics, and computer science in a context that will inform theaudience about current developments, trends, and barriers in theinterdisciplinary effort to create machines that replicate human behavioracross domains. Advances in computational power and efforts toreverse-engineer the human nervous system establish a trajectory forstrong artificial intelligence early in the 21st century. Thephilosophical and practical implications of Alan Turing's operationaldefinition of machine thinking serve as a point of departure for apresentation of the innovative behavior-based robotics approach taken atthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial IntelligenceLaboratory. Groundbreaking research on the social impact of advancedrobotics and artificial intelligence in Japan and the United States ispresented as a backdrop to the neo-luddite movement and thespecies-dominance debate. |
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