Los Horcones

Key takeaways

Los Horcones belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Los Horcones to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Los Horcones from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Los Horcones is an intentional community located in La Colorada Municipality, Mexico (about 40 miles from Hermosillo) and inspired by B. F. Skinner's utopian novel Walden Two. The members of Los Horcones use techniques based on behavioral science to shape their own and each other's behaviors. They use those behavior-shaping techniques in politically coordinated ways and they do so in order to continuously improve themselves and their culture. They are striving to build a culture "based on cooperation, sharing, non-violence, equality and ecological sustainability". In 1999, a total of 13 people (the four founders and their children and grandchildren) lived in Los Horcones.

An experimental community Los Horcones can also be regarded as an experimental community. When the members of Los Horcones encounter problems they design and conduct experiments to test possible solutions to their problems. Depending on the result of an experiment, they may collectively resolve to make an experimental behavior into a community-approved component of their behavioral culture. In this way, the Los Horconans try to exercise control over the evolution of their culture.

Behaviorology movement The Behavior of Organisms, B. F. Skinner's first book, was published in 1938. The research strategy that Dr. Skinner presented in that book was widely adopted and grew into a school of psychology named the experimental analysis of behavior. That school is today known as behavior analysis. As behavior analysis grew larger, a growing number of scholars began to believe that behavior analysis had outgrown its place in psychology and that it was time to establish a separate discipline. Makram Khalil Samaan gave expression to this belief in 1973 when he wrote, "It is time now for the scientific analysis of behavior to call for its own scientific discipline. It is contradictory to its function, objective, methods and content to stay within the realm of psychology." Mr. Samaan suggested that the scientific analysis of behavior become a separate scientific discipline named "behaviorology". In 1974 the Los Horconans began using the term "behaviorology" to refer to "the natural science of behavior". Their summary of behaviorology reads as follows: "Behaviorology encompasses basic research, applied research and philosophy. Basic research includes (a) descriptive analysis of behavior (behaviography), (b) experimental analysis of behavior (experimental behaviorology), and (c) a theoretical or conceptual analysis of behavior (theoretical behaviorology). Applied research refers to behavior-analytic applications of the experimental analysis of behavior to the prevention and solution of social problems. As such, it includes (a) applied research in the form of experimental analysis oriented towards finding solutions to social problems and (b) behavioral technology, in the form of behavior-analytic procedures alone. The philosophy of behaviorology is that of behaviorism, which includes both, philosophical (or metatheoretical) assumptions and the philosophical implications of data obtained by the experimental analysis of behavior and its applications." The International Behaviorology Association (TIBA) held its second convention at Los Horcones in January 1990. To accommodate that convention, the Los Horconans built a convention hall and several residential buildings.

Legal structure

From a legal perspective, Los Horcones is a corporation. The corporation's full name is Comunidad de los Horcones. It was organized in 1973 and it operates under the laws of the state of Sonora. Los Horcones is a producer cooperative.

Location The corporation owns a parcel of land that contains approximately 260 acres (110 hectares). That parcel is approximately 1,312 feet (400 meters) above sea level. The members of Los Horcones live in buildings which are located on that parcel. Most of those buildings are grouped together on the southern half of the parcel. The parcel is bounded on its northern border by Mexican Federal Highway 16 (Carretera Federal 16). The drive from Hermosillo, capital of the State of Sonora, takes about 45 minutes.

Population

In 1999, Los Horcones was populated by 13 people: its four founders (two married couples), seven of their children, and two of their grandchildren. At the time, children in the community were homeschooled and would often audit university courses in Tucson, Arizona after earning their high-school diplomas. Subjects taught to students at Los Horcones included Spanish, English, mathematics, and behavior analysis.

See also Twin Oaks Community Dandelion Community

References and notes

External links Los Horcones website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Los Horcones

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Los Horcones claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Los Horcones before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Los Horcones ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Los Horcones

In research: Los Horcones appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Los Horcones in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Los Horcones is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics B. F. Skinner, Behaviorism, Populated places in Sonora, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Los Horcones outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Los Horcones in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Los Horcones means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Los Horcones out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Los Horcones in simple terms?

Los Horcones is an intentional community located in La Colorada Municipality, Mexico (about 40 miles from Hermosillo) and inspired by B. F.

Why does Los Horcones matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Los Horcones?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Los Horcones.