El libro de Donahoe y Palmer se propone explicar las conductas complejas a partir de un conjunto de principios organizadores. Los hallazgos generados por la psicología cognitiva y la psicolinguística pueden interpretarse como productos de historias de aprendizaje que involucran procesos de selección conductual, relativamente simples y generales. Además, intenta mostrar cómo esos procesos básicos de aprendizaje pueden derivarse de principios aún más básicos que se establecen en la investigación neurofisiológica. Estas derivaciones se realizan mediante un modelo computacional conocido como redes adaptativas, que se construyen a partir de elementos simples indiferenciados (y no mediante las unidades altamente modularizadas típicas de los modelos tradicionales de inteligencia artificial).

Libro completo, edición 2003, en formato .pdf. Contenido:

2. Variation and selection of behavior. Simple orientation mechanisms, Reflex mechanisms, Inhibition and reflex strength.

3. Direct orientation and feedback Taxes, The integration of behavior, The nature of explanation.

4. Operant behavior: Causal and functional analysis of operant behavior, The logic of historical systems.

5. Reward and punishment: Reinforcement and the law of effect, Contingency and feedback functions.

6. Feeding regulation: a model motivational system, Reinforcement and homeostasis, Obesity and schedule performance: a static analysis.

7. The optimal allocation of behavior, Utility and adaptation to constraint, The allocation of behavior, Experimental applications.

8. Choice and decision rules: Optimal choice, Matching and maximizing, Overall maximizing.

9. Foraging and behavioral ecology: Diet selection and functional response, Natural feedback functions.

10. Stimulus control and cognition: The definition of stimulus, Stimulus generalization Similarity.

11. Stimulus control and performance: Inhibitory and excitatory control, Behavioral contrast and discrimination, performance, Competition and matching

12. Response strength Time-allocation constraints: The pressure model, Problems.

13. Memory and temporal control: Temporal control, Memory and spatial earning.

14. Learning, I: The acquisition of knowledge, Template learning, Reinforced learning.

15. Learning, II:The guidance of action Historical background.' operant and respondent behavior Behavioral variation.' the origins of operant behavior The guidance of action Experimental applications.

16. Learning, III: Experimental analysis, Conditioned reinforcement, Conditioned emotional response, Avoidance and escape, Set, response-produced shock and “learned helplessness”, Extinction.

Breve examen sobre la conducta operante.