Laboratory Lore and Research Practices in the Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior: Use and Abuse of Subjects’ Verbal Reports

The experimental analysis of behavior traditionally has focused on direct observation of overt responses that are defined mechanically and recorded automatically. By comparison, research in other areas of psychology employs a broader range of observational devices, including several in which subjects act as observers of their own behavior. The relative lack of self-report data in the experimental analysis of human behavior can be traced to the influence of the nonhuman research that has dominated experimental analysis in general. In the decade ending in 1981, about 93 percent of empirical papers in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior involved nonhuman subjects (Buskist & Miller, 1982)-a situation opposite that of other areas of psychology where human studies occupy ten times more journal space than nonhuman ones (Miller, 1985). Some authors have criticized the failure of behavior analysts to exploit the verbal capability of their subjects as "an excessive reliance on an animal model of human functioning" (Bentall, Lowe, & Beasty, 1985, p. 178). Whatever our judgement of it, the situation is clear: By comparison with general psychological research, behavior analytic research with humans has been quite restricted in the sorts of data it considers. Whereas other psychologists study a broad range of observations and make frequent use of subjects' self-reports, behavior analysts focus on directly observable instances of overt behavior.