Transcript Toward a Common Framework for Behavioral and

Toward a Selectionist Framework for
Behavioral and Cultural Selection
AILUN – Lecture 5
Sigrid Glenn
Selection in Three Domains
• Organic (Phylogenic ) selection – Contingencies of natural
selection account for origin and evolution of species and
relations among them (locus: Earth)1
• Operant (Ontogenic) selection – Contingencies of
reinforcement account for origin and evolution of operants
and complex relations among them (locus: repertoires of
individual organism)1
• Cultural (Sociogenic) selection – Contingencies of cultural
selection account for origin and evolution of complex cultural
level entities and the relations among them (locus: socioeconomic entities functioning as coherent wholes –
“cultures”)2
Selectionist Theories of Cultural Evolution
Species
Brains
• Variations of proposed models virtually always leave out the role
of operant behavior and operant selection
• The unit of selection at the cultural level is not identified
• Elements in the systems suggested are not specified
• There is a strong tendency to view the site of retention in cultural
selection as gene lineages or brains
• There is a strong tendency to view natural selection as the
mechanism accounting for culture
Cultures
Natural Selection
A Behaviorist Perspective
Nervous
Systems
Culturo-behavioral
Lineages (embedded in IBCs)
Species Operants
Natural selection
Operant selection
Culture
Cultural selection
• Operant processes as the product of natural selection
• Operant behavior as product of operant processes plus the
particulars of operant contingencies
• Operant behavior as platform for emergence of “cultural things”
• Units of selection at cultural level always involve operant behavior
and sometimes involve organized “cultural things” that can
undergo selection of a third kind
Operant Selection, Social Behavior & Social Learning
• Operant selection accounts for most social as well as non-social behavior of
humans
• Social behavior
– Defined: Behavior for which the behavior of others functions as environment
in contingencies of reinforcement
• Social behavior is embedded in interlocking contingencies
•
– Distinguished as “social” by content of elements in the contingencies
• The environment that is “operated on” is the behavior of someone else
and/OR
• Someone else’s behavior functions as discriminative stimulus, reinforcer,
etc
• Verbal behavior is a major component of social behavior in humans
• Humans possibly highly susceptible to social stimulation
Social learning3
– Defined: Behavior acquired as a result of social interaction
– No new process required to explain social behavior or social learning
From Learned Social Behavior
to Cultural Organization
• Interlocking behavioral contingencies (IBC) are the smallest
supra-organismic individual
• Behavior acquired by learners participating in IBC may never
participate in those IBC again (ex: once taught to read, learner
can read without teacher functioning as environment)
• Behavior acquired by learners participating in IBC may occur
in other IBC (ex: reader can respond in class to what she has
read)
• Patterns of IBC can be transmitted to many behavers in short
time
– Resulting in homogeneity of behavior across many people
– Resulting in homogeneity of interlocking behavioral
contingencies in groups
From Learned Social Behavior
to Cultural Organization
• Behavior acquired by learners participating in IBC may
become part of recurring IBCs (ex: Once 2 people learn
independently to sail, they may sail a boat together –
cooperatively)
• Successive replications of IBC across repertoires constitute
a culturo-behavioral lineage
• Repetition of IBC sequences involving the same people can
be expanded to include the behavior of additional people
and increasing “division of labor” in accomplishing an
outcome
• IBCs can become complex and become hierarchically
related
– Larger units subsume many smaller units
– Larger and smaller units participate in their own contingencies
Nested Interlocking Behavioral Contingencies
in Complex Cultural Entities4
Cultural Lineages
(Recurring Interlocking
BehavioralContingencies)
Organisms
Cook meals
Tom
& Marta
[and many
others]
Operate a restaurant
Operate a chain of
restaurants
Elements of Each Recurrence
Many behaviors of each O have
function for the operant behavior of
the other O(s)
T & M cook meals
T & M hire and manage wait staff
Wait staff serve diners
Diners order and pay for meals
Operate restaurants (multiple actors)
Additional interlocking behavioral
contingencies involved in training,
advertising, etc.
Recap of Elements of Behavior Analytic
Selectionist Framework
• Behavior occurs at locus of individual organism
• Relations between behavior and environment are the
subject matter
• Environment includes both physical and social events
• Unit of analysis is contingencies of behavioral selection
(reinforcement/extinction)
• Behavioral level units (operants) have origins in
contingencies of reinforcement
• Repertoire of a particular organism includes many
operants
From Operant Contingencies
to Cultural Contingencies of Selection
• Extends the behavior analytic perspective to cultural selection
• Cultural selection defined as selection of coherent wholes
involving the behavior of 2 or more people
– Coordinated behavior of multiple individuals occurs at locus of
interlocking behavioral contingencies
– Relations between IBCs and their environment are the subject
matter
– Environment includes physical and social events
– Unit of analysis is metacontingencies (selection/deselection)
– Cultural level units have origin in cultural level selection
contingencies
– Phenomena constituting a particular culture includes many
behavioral units and many cultural level units
Operant Selection Contingencies as Model
Movements in
relation to the
environment (lever)
Effect on environment
(part of the behavioral
definition)
Operant
Recurring
lever presses
Contingent action
of external
environment
Consequence
Switch
Closures
Food
Pellet
All other behavior
Behavioral Contingency
IF it is demonstrated that the behavioral contingency results in increased frequency
of lever presses, then
1) The lineage of recurring lever presses is an operant
2) The behavioral contingency is a functional (operant) contingency
3) The external environment is selecting for lever presses that have the effect of
closing the switch (e.g.. lever presses with force values > x)
A Cultural Analog of Operant Contingencies
• Operant behaviors of 2 or more people are related to one another in a
particular pattern (interlocking behavioral contingencies - IBCs)
– We fish together, you operating the net and I maneuvering the boat
and being lookout for you (our movement/effects function as SDs
and Sr+ for 1 another)
• IBCs (the pattern of interrelated operant contingencies) can recur
– We fish together in the same way many times
• The IBCs can result in a product that is the effect of the IBCs
– Our coordinated fishing operants net 100 fish (analogous to switch
closure as effect of lever pressing)
• The environment external to the IBCs provides consequences contingent on
the product (establishes a cultural contingency)
– People on shore give us money for fish we can’t eat
• The cultural contingency between (1) IBCs/their resulting product and (2)
action by the external environment can function to maintain recurrences of
the IBCs that result in the product)
Schematic of Metacontingency
Behavior of 2 or
more people
Culturant
Effect on environment:
Cultural Product
Recurring IBCs
Surplus
(Specified operants and interlocks) Fish
Action of external
environment
Cultural
Buyers pay Consequence
for fish
All other operants/interlocks
Metacontingency
IF it is demonstrated that the cultural contingency results in increased frequency
of IBCs having the specified operants and interlocks
1) The lineage of recurring IBCs is a culturant (named by Chad Hunter)
2) The cultural contingency is a functional metacontingency
3) The external environment selects for features of IBCs that result in fish
Summary
• Operant social behavior is the content that links
biological evolution to cultural evolution
• Social transmission of learned behavior requires
interlocking behavioral contingencies (IBC)
• Learned social behavior forms the basis of
cultural organization
• Complex cultural organization comprises
hierarchies of IBC
• Recurring IBC may be selected by an external
environment
References 5
1 Skinner, B. F. (1981). Selection by consequences. Science, 213, 501-504.
2 Glenn, S. S. (2003). Operant contingencies and the origin of cultures. In
K.A. Lattal & P. N. Chase (Eds). Behavior Theory and Philosophy. New York:
Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
3 Galef, B. G., Jr. (1988). Imitation in animals: History, definition and
interpretation of data from the psychological laboratory. In T. R. Zentall &
B. G. Galef, Jr. (Eds). Social Learning: Psychological and Biological
Perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
4 Glenn, S. S. (2004). Individual behavior, culture, and social change. The
Behavior Analyst, 27, 133-151.