Reinforcement and discriminative stimulus in a theory of behavior.: A historical-conceptual critical analysis

The concept of reinforcement is examined, through the experimental and applied behavior analysis. A strong operational emphasis is found, probably due to the influence of B.F. Skinner, and also a tendency to abandon such restriction. It is assumed that such restriction lead to the construction of terms such as conditioning with the aim of refer to processes that could have been included in the concept of reinforcement. Also the mechanistic nature of the construct of discriminative stimulus is analyzed; a logical extension of its theoretical domain is proposed in order to include more complex situations of human interaction, with heuristic value, even in the complex area of verbal behavior. Finally, taking into consideration the precise meaning of contingency and in the line of finding similarities and continuities in behavior and procedure among the so called classes of operant and respondent behavior, a concept of reinforcement is proposed that includes both classes, even in situations of non-contingency.