A day of great illumination: B. F. Skinner's discovery of shaping.
Jack Michael’s mentorship multiplied itself across generations, and the field still runs on that compound interest.
01Research in Context
What this study did
LeGoff (2004) gathered personal stories from top behavior analysts. Each story tells how Jack Michael shaped their science and career.
The paper is not a lab study. It is a set of tributes, like a scrapbook of thank-you notes.
What they found
Every writer says the same thing: Jack Michael changed how they think and work. His teaching made them better scientists and mentors.
The collection shows one person can steer the whole field by steering its people.
How this fits with other research
Miguel (2013) gives the meat behind the praise. It walks through Michael’s motivating-operation concept and shows how that single idea still guides today’s research and practice.
Alavosius (2022) mirrors LeGoff (2004) but spotlights Beth Sulzer-Azaroff. Both papers prove the same point: generous mentors launch waves of better behavior analysts.
Szabo (2020) and Beene (2019) shift the lens. They ask us to use behavioral tools to fix equity gaps inside our own workplaces. The tribute says Michael shaped people; these papers say now we must shape systems.
Why it matters
You are part of the same chain. When you give clear feedback, run tight sessions, and take time to teach a new RBT, you copy Michael’s method. The field grows only if each link keeps the cycle alive.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In Part 1 of these remembrances of Jack Michael, we briefly described Jack's history in terms of how he became a behavior analyst (Sundberg & Schlinger, 2021). We pointed out that he was one of the first to apply the principles of behavior analysis discovered in the experimental laboratory to the area of rehabilitation. In so doing, Jack was perhaps the first applied behavior analyst. In Part 1, some of his former students and close associates from his early years at the University of Houston, Arizona State University, and Western Michigan University-John Mabry, Grayson Osborne, Jon Bailey, Mark Sundberg, and J. Vincent Carbone-provided their personal tributes to Jack. In Part 2, we offer six more tributes that-with one exception, that of Ted Ayllon-provide insight into Jack's work in the latter part of his career. In addition to Ted Ayllon, these tributes are from Jack's students and close associates Hank Schlinger, Dave Palmer, John and Barb Esch, Carl Sundberg, and Caio Miguel. The authors provide insights not only into their views about Jack but also into their own lives. Collectively, they paint a picture of people from different backgrounds that all found their way to Jack Michael and to behavior analysis. To a person, they describe how their behavior, whether as scientists, practitioners, or both, was radically transformed as a result, and how they attribute that change largely to Jack's influence.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2004 · doi:10.1901/jeab.2004.82-317