The ubiquity of the cumulative record: a quote from Skinner and a frequency count.
"Changes in rate comprise a vast and largely unsuspected subject matter. (The changes are made conspicious with a cumulative recorder, the ubiquity of which in the study of operant behavior is no accident. In a cumulative record, rate and changes in rate are visible at a glance....)" (Skinner, 1966, p. 15) The use of cumulative recorders in the experimental analysis of behavior may remain as commonplace as when the foregoing appeared. In the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, however, the relative frequency of appearance of figures showing cumulative records has decreased consistently across time (Figure 1). Although many variables may have contributed to this decline (e.g., publication of an increased number of nonempirical articles and articles concerned with behaviors not readily represented by cumulative records), the data in Figure 1 seem to underscore a question raised by Ferster (1978) and others: are operant conditioners getting bored with behavior? Time alone will tell, but it is apparent that a collective fondness for a direct and graphic depictor of ongoing behavior-the cumulative record-has faded. ; .2\