Transcript Behavior chains - Association for Contextual Behavioral Science

Value-directed living and
the selection of
behavioural groups
Dr. med. Rainer F. Sonntag
Facharzt für Psychiatrie & Psychotherapie
Facharzt für Psychotherapeutische Medizin
In der Wüste 18, 57462 Olpe
[email protected]
1
Functional Contextualism

Talking correctly (how the world is)

Talking usefully (to achieve some goal)
2
Two Problems
3
First Problem



How to talk about remote & abstract
consequences
when reinforcement has to be quite
immediate in order to work? – Or:
How is delayed gratification (and selfcontrol) possible?
4
Second Problem



Behavioral development is a selection
process
What are the units of behavioral
selection?
How can we usefully construct the
development of complex behavior as a
selection process?
5
Evolutionary Biology




From nucleic acid fragments to complex
organisms
Complexity through addition
From genes to groups of genes and
complex, integrated phenotypes
From individual organisms to highly
organized societies (animal & human)
6
The Process



Variability at different levels
Selection at different levels
Retention at different levels
7
Variability of Behavior

Different levels




Single movements
Skills
Behavioral projects extending in time
Question:

What is the unit of selection?
8
Selection of Behavior: Salient
Consequences

Positive reinforcement



Selection
Punishment
as a
unifying
 Favors some behaviors over others
principle?
Negative reinforcement


Favors some behaviors over others
(Jack Michael,
1975)
Favors some behaviors over others
Extinction

Favors some behaviors over others
9
Behavioral Units


A primary, single unit is difficult to find
In the end a behavioral unit is
pragmatically defined


as a response that can be maintained by a
single reinforcer (within a constant
context)
E.g. pressing a lever in a Skinner box
10
Molecular & Molar Units

A molecular unit is a topographically
defined instance of behavior at a
specific time in a specific local situation


Mary gives Tom a kiss (at a specific time
and place).
The rat presses the lever (at a specific time
and place).
11
Molecular & Molar Units

A molar unit is defined as functionally
abstracted and extended in time and
space



Mary loves Tom (many instances).
The rat works for food (different ways).
The rat presses the lever (as an ongoing
pattern of behavior)
12
Behavioral groups

Behavior chains

Deliberately constructed



(Remember: our focus on prediction and
influence not explanation)
Serial
Bound through a common, direct reinforcer
contacted with the last element of the
chain
13
Behavioral groups

Behavior syndromes


Shaped (assumption!; may also be
deliberately constructable but difficult)
Serial & parallel




Singing and playing guitar at the same time
Looking sad, feeling down, and telling a sad
story at the same time
Emotion, „personality styles“ (Anim. Behav.)
Bound through a common, direct reinforcer
14
Behavioral groups

Behavior skills („syndromic chains?“)





Social skills
Problem solving skills
Craftsman skills
Psychotherapeutic skills
Bound through


Short-term consequences (direct reinforcement)
Long-term consequences (rules; indirect
reinforcement) – How does that work?
15
Behavioral groups

Chunks

What are they „really“?




Simple answer: relational networks
Contingency-shaped (?)
Deliberately constructed (e.g. mnemonics)
Bound through verbal stimuli (words, rules)
16
How can we construct how
remote consequences work?

Groups of verbal stimuli (rules, stories)
bind behaviors together and produce
further relational responding.



i.e. stimulus A is responded to in terms of
its specified relation to stimulus B
Contextual cues specify the relational
response (two steps; one step ?)
„Would you, please, pick up my son at the
airport?“ (two hours drive)
17
How can we construct how
remote consequences work?

Success depends on knowledge and
experience of the listener


Are the necessary behaviors in the
repertoire
What are the existing relations between
verbal stimuli and behaviors (e.g. say-do
correspondence)
18
How can we construct how
remote consequences work?

Verbally related verbal stimuli establish
present stimuli as salient consequences




Opening the door to leave the house.
Going to the car in the garage.
Framed coordinately
Sitting down in the car.
Driving by navigating along landmarks. …
 A long vchain of vSDs and vSr/ps
(v=verbal)
19
How can we construct how
remote consequences work?

Verbally related verbal stimuli establish
present stimuli as salient consequences

Taking the wrong turn establish
consequentially contacted landmark stimuli
as vSrFramed oppositionally
20
How can we construct how
remote consequences work?

Adverbial phrases can additionally
determine the temporal and spacial
extension of a behavior (e.g. morality
beyond schedules of reinforcement)



„Every day“, „once in a month“
„Within two weeks“, „tomorrow“
„When you meet him at the airport say him
to call me immediately“
21
How can we construct how
remote consequences work?

The salience of a verbally constructed
present reinforcer depends on


Direct experience with relevant primary
reinforcers
For example: Why getting a high grade?



Learning was reinforcing
Good grades have been socially reinforced
Clinical significance: present moment work
and defusion to promote direct experience
22
How can we construct how
remote consequences work?

The salience of a verbally constructed
present reinforcer depends on


Skillfulness in deriving relations
For example: Learning was reinforcing


Learning is coordinately related to good grades
High grades are comparatively related to good
grades
23
Binding Behavioral Groups

Chaining & shaping of syndromes


Contingency adduction



a skill through direct experience
Two fluent skills are combined through a
task that needs both to be mastered
Verbal construction & chunking
Ongoing commitment („exercise“)

Resulting in an „molar“ pattern, extended
in time
24
Selection at different levels




Hierarchical or
fractal or
pragmatic
organization of behavior

From the molecular to the molar
25
From previous experience groups of behaviors
may be flexibly put together: Binding and
splitting dynamics of behavioral group formation
„Original“
behavioral
repertoire
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
L
K
Entire behavioral repertoire
including flexibility
Selection
by salient
consequences
26
From previous experience groups of behaviors
may be flexibly put together: Binding and
splitting dynamics of behavioral group formation
„Original“
behavioral
repertoire
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
If a behavior (e.g. E) is more often
reinforced as part of a group (e.g. L)
than alone flexibility decreases
L
Entire behavioral repertoire
including flexibility
Selection
by salient
consequences
27
Values as behavioral groups

Values are




freely chosen,
verbally constructed consequences of
ongoing, dynamic, evolving patterns of
activity,
which establish predominant reinforcers for
that activity that are intrinsic in
engagement in the valued behavioral
pattern itself
28
Values as behavioral groups

When training value-directed behavior
we have to combine different behaviors




Self-as-context, acceptance, and defusion
(to choose freely)
Verbal construction (planning)
Initiating action (direct stimulus control)
Say-do-correspondence


From planning to stimulus control
Learning contextually appropriate transfer of
stimulus functions
29
Values as behavioral groups

When training value-directed behavior
we have to combine different behaviors

Present moment


Contacting my own behavior, environmental
events, and correlations between both as an
ongoing activity in order to further guide my
behavior
Commitment

Comparing my ongoing behavior with my
verbally construed values
30
Values as behavioral groups

When training value-directed behavior
we have to combine different behaviors

Using behavioral events (e.g. anxiety,
urges) according to behavioral history


as SDs to take perspective, for example, with
respect to short- and long-term consequences
and this behavioral group (e.g. urge,
perspective taking, value) as motivative
augmental to decrease avoidance-related and
increase value-related stimulus functions
31
Summary of my main point
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
H
H
H
L
K
t1
t2
32
Summary of my main point




Remote consequences are not necessary
conceptually.
Temporally extended, evolving patterns of behavior
are maintained by immediate reinforcement.
Every patterns is a behavior group that includes
verbal behaviors (rules) which establish reinforcers
for the pattern itself.
The reinforcers may be intrinsic to the engagement
in the pattern (as in values) or extrinisic and appear
along with the emitted behavior pattern in the
environment (as in following a track while navigating
through a landscape)
33
Thank you!
34
35
36
37
38
39


Example: I want to be a caring and
supporting father.
What groups of behavior does that
entail?
40
From previous experience groups of behaviors
may be flexibly put together: Binding and
splitting dynamics of behavioral group formation
„Original“
behavioral
repertoire
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
L
K
Entire behavioral repertoire
including flexibility
Selection
by salient
consequences
41
Putting it all together (so far)

Long-term behavioral projects



Getting a high grade
Building a house
Value-directed living
42
43
This Reminds Me of the
Problem of Altruism



Altruism in evolutionary biology:
Given that selection works on individual
organisms or genes
How can altruistic behaviors be
maintained?
44
Answers to the Problem of
Altruism


Inclusive fitness (individual selection,
i.e. kin-group selection)
Multilevel selection (group selection)
45
Behavioral Analogies



Inclusive fitness
Behavioral chains
Functional behavioral groups (classes)
46
Behavioral Analogies

Non-kin groups

Functional verbal groups



Verbal concepts
Sentences  texts  books
„chunks“
47
Natural evolutionary selection


Individual selection
Multilevel selection
Individual selection within groups
plus
 (Individual) selection between groups

48
Natural evolutionary selection

Multilevel selection


Selection between groups is harder and
faster than within groups
For example:



A group with 80% altruists fares better than a
group with 20% altruists although
Within both groups egoists fare better than
altruists
In the end the number of altruists is constant
or rising
49
Natural evolutionary selection

What is the glue?
50
Natural behavioral selection

Molecular selection


Chain selection


Individual behaviors in a specific context (a
precise point in time and place)
A series of individual behaviors
Molar selection

Groups of functionally equivalent behaviors
extending over contexts (time & places)
51
Natural behavioral selection

What is the glue?


Direct reinforcement
Biasing behavior-behavior-relations, e.g.



Temporal proximity (e.g. recency effect)
Spatial proximity (e.g. contextual conditioning)
Then a new kind of glue emerges:

Arbitrarily applicable relational
responding
52
Structure

Population structure



Demography, e.g. age, sex, health status
Kinship
Non-kin cooperative groups
53
Structure

Behavioral structure




Frequency
Age
Topographical similarity
Functional groups


Behavioral chains
Behavioral hierarchies
54