Howard Rachlin

Sensitivity of pigeons to prereinforcer and postreinforcer delay

Delay between choice and receipt of reinforcement (prereinforcer delay) and delay between receipt of reinforcement and the next opportunity to choose (postreinforcer delay) were varied in a discretetrials choice paradigm using four pigeons. The pigeons consistently chose the reinforcer with the smaller prereinforcer delay. Variations in postreinforcer delay did not affect choice unless prereinforcer delays were equal. The results support previous findings that prereinforcer delays contribute disproportionately to the effects of rate of reinforcer access on choice in pigeons.

The effect of rotation on the learning of taste aversions

Two rats were presented a distinctively flavored liquid while enclosed in an experimental chamber rotating at either 12 or 23 rpm. Over the course of the experiment, both rats developed a strong aversion to the liquid. The aversion was shown by failure to drink the liquid when it was offered in a nonrotating experimental chamber and by a reversal of preference for the liquid as compared to water. In this respect, the aversive properties of rotation are similar to the aversive properties of illness-producing agents, such as chemical toxins or X-rays, and are different from the aversive properties of electric shock.

Four teleological theories of addiction

Four theories are presented to account for addiction, defined as a high rate of consumption of a substance that is ultimately harmful to the organism. The theories are teleological and behavioral in the sense that the ultimate motivational forces they posit lie in the environmental context of behavior—in an economic utility function or a process of behavioral adjustment—rather than in an internal physiological or cognitive mechanism. A theory by the psychologists Richard Herrnstein and Drazen Prelec is discussed that shows how melioration (maximization of local, as opposed to overall, or global, utility) may lead down a “primrose path” to addiction. A theory by the economists Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy shows how a primrose path may exist even when overall utility is maximized—provided that utility of temporally distant events is discounted. Two other theories, one by George Stigler and Gary Becker and one introduced here, an elaboration of the Stigler-Becker theory called “relative addiction,” specify economic properties of addictive substances that would create the primrose path.

Self-control by pigeons in the prisoner's dilemma

Pigeons played a repeated prisoners dilemma game against a computer that reflected their choices: If a pigeon cooperated on trial n, the computer cooperated on trial n + 1; if the pigeon defected on trial n, the computer defected on trial n + 1. Cooperation thus maximized reinforcement in the long term, but defection was worth more on the current trial. Under these circumstances, pigeons normally defect. However, when a signal correlated with the pigeons previous choice immediately followed each current trial choice, some pigeons learned to cooperate. Furthermore, cooperation was higher when trials were close together in time than when they were separated by long intertrial intervals.

Shaping the Coherent Self: A Moral Achievement

From the teleological behaviorist perspective, a person’s self is an abstract pattern of the person’s actions. The self becomes incoherent when different situations come to serve as signals for different, sometimes incompatible behavioral patterns. From this viewpoint, self-examination or understanding another person is accomplished not by probing deeply within the self or another person for hidden motives but rather by exploring widely over time for superordinate signals in the person’s life (metadiscriminative stimuli) that can make behavioral patterns coherent. The implications of this perspective are explored in the contexts of moral accountability, self-deception, and psychotherapy.

Altruism is a form of self-control

Some commentators have argued that all particular altruistic acts are directly caused by or reinforced by an internal emotional state. Others argue that rewards obtained by one person might reinforce another persons altruistic act. Yet others argue that all altruistic acts are reinforced by social reciprocation. There are logical and empirical problems with all of these conceptions. The best explanation of altruistic acts is that – though they are themselves not reinforced (either immediately, or delayed, or conditionally, or internally) – they are, like self-controlled acts, part of a pattern of overt behavior that is either extrinsically reinforced or intrinsically reinforcing.

Variable-interval and fixed-interval schedule preferences in pigeons as a function of signaled reinforcement and schedule length

Pigeons were reinforced for pecking on two concurrent chain schedules. The terminal links consisted of a variable-interval or an arithmetically equivalent fixed-interval schedule. For half the subjects a brief response-independent change in key color signaled reinforcement. This procedure eliminated the differences in predictability of reinforcement between the two terminal link schedules. Tested over several variable-interval and fixed-interval schedule values, the pigeons’ preference for the variable-interval link varied directly with the absolute value of the arithmetic mean but independently of the signal presentation.

8 – Teleological Behaviorism

Publisher Summary This chapter explores teleological behaviorism. The chapter presents a view of final causes to show how a form of modern behaviorism, known as teleological behaviorism, makes use of final causes. It argues that this form of behaviorism provides both a vehicle for prediction and control of behavior and a potential meaning for mental terms at least as useful as that potentially provided by physiological or cognitive psychology. Teleological behaviorism expands Skinners original concept of reinforcement from a single event dependent on a single operant. Teleological inferences and models are inferences and models about respondent and operant contingencies that may not be present at the moment but may serve as the context for current actions. One important feature of the teleological viewpoint bears emphasis because the temporal context of a brief event extends into the future as well as the past. Teleological analyses, because of their molar nature, are necessarily less precise than efficient-cause analyses. A given act may be truly understood only some time, perhaps a considerable time, after it occurs because the context of an act extends into the future as well as into the past.

Behavioral Medicine’s Roots in Behaviorism: Concepts and Applications

Behaviorism has a key role in the history of behavioral medicine, both through the development of models of biological and behavioral interaction, such as in the foundational work of Neil Miller, and through applied science, such as in the development of behavior therapy which led to much of the work of behavioral medicine in risk reduction and disease management. Focusing on operant psychology, the chapter counters views of behaviorism as looking only at “stimuli and responses” by articulating relationships among complex aspects of past experience and behaviors, emphasizing models of choice and behavioral economics. It extends those models to diverse behavioral medicine challenges, including cigarette smoking and “self-control.” It then describes the development of teleological behaviorism that emphasizes patterns of behavior and the patterns of consequences that influence them. It explores how this teleological perspective may provide new insights regarding obesity and weight loss. It closes with consideration of broad convergence between behavioral and ecological approaches with their shared emphases on contexts and how an ecological behaviorism might guide future work in behavioral medicine and public health.