AN ANALYSIS AND TOPICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE LAST 10 YEARS OF HUMAN OPERANT-BEHAVIOR - FROM MINORITY TO NEAR MAJORITY (1982-1992)

Ten years ago Buskist and Miller (1982a), after conducting a census of the human operant behavior (HOB) literature, concluded that the 'expe rimental analysis of human behavior has thus far fallen short of Skinn er's 'active prosecution of a science of behavior''' (p. 141). In this paper, we describe the results from a similar census of the decade of HOB literature which has appeared since the Buskist and Miller paper. Six topics areas were the focus of this paper (a) the percentage of r epresentation of HOB in all data-based reports; (b) the number and rat e at which new HOB (and nonhuman) authors have appeared; (c) the conte nt areas of this research; (d) the subject populations used; (e) the i dentification of influential HOB papers; and (f) the presentation of t his HOB research in the form of a topical bibliography. We found that within the last decade the percentage of HOB reports has increased, th e emphasis in content (topic) areas has changed, and the number of new authors appearing in JEAB has accelerated. Our most important conclus ion is that HOB has seen dramatic increases in both interest and repre sentation in JEAB, and for good or bad, if these trends continue, HOB reports will soon outnumber nonhuman reports. This trend may reflect t he increased recognition of the relevance of behavioral analysis to hu man behavior and to the increased difficulty (economically and ethical ly) in doing nonhuman research.