Michael Lamport Commons

The Origins of Behaviorism

This chapter will review the cultural evolution of the experimental and quantitative analysis of behavior. We review and apply behavioral stage theory because it makes an ideal means of accounting for the evolution of modern behavior analysis. Stage theory posits that, as individuals progress from lower stages to higher stages, their perception of the world becomes increasingly decentered (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958, Werner, 1940, 1957) from themselves. This process of decentering occurs in individual humans over a relatively short period of time if sufficient cultural contingencies are provided. The process begins at birth and tapers off in adulthood. The same process of decentration is at work over a much larger time frame, namely that of cultural evolution. We argue that if decentration progresses far enough, mentalistic notions of causes of behavior such as free will are replaced by non-mentalistic or more behavioral notions of cause. Thus, cultural evolution recapitulates individual development. We will trace how decentration was selected for, first historically in other fields, and how it results in the late 20th century with AI and neural nets.

Systematic and Metasystematic Reasoning: A Case for Levels of Reasoning beyond Piaget's Stage of Formal Operations.

COMMONS, MICHAEL L.; RICHARDS, FRANCIS A.; and KUHN, DEANNA. Systematic and Metasystematic Reasoning: A Case for Levels of Reasoning beyond Piagets Stage of Formal Operations. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 1058-1069. Modes of cognition are postulated consisting of thirdand fourth-order operations; they are hypothesized to be qualitatively distinct from, and hierarchically related to, the form of reasoning characterized as formal operational by Inhelder and Piaget. An instrument was developed to assess these modes of cognition, labeled systematic and metasystematic reasoning, and was administered to 110 undergraduate and graduate students. The results support the assertion that systematic and metasystematic reasoning exist as modes of cognition discrete from, and more complex and powerful than, formal operational reasoning.

The shape of development

This project examines the shape of conceptual development from early childhood through adulthood. To do so we model the attainment of developmental complexity levels in the moral reasoning of a large sample (n = 747) of 5- to 86-year-olds. Employing a novel application of the Rasch model to investigate patterns of performance in these data, we show that the acquisition of successive complexity levels proceeds in a pattern suggestive of a series of spurts and plateaus. We also show that there are six complexity levels represented in performance between the ages of 5 and 86; that patterns of performance are consistent with the specified sequence; that these findings apply to both childhood and adulthood levels; that sex is not an important predictor of complexity level once educational attainment has been taken into account; and that both age and educational attainment predict complexity level well during childhood, but educational attainment is a better predictor in late adolescence and adulthood.

Organizing Components into Combinations: How Stage Transition Works

This paper investigates the nature of transition between stages. The Model of Hierarchical Complexity of tasks leads to a quantal notion of stage, and therefore delineates the nature of stage transition. Piagets dialectical model of stage change was extended and precisely specified. Transition behavior was shown to consist of alternations in previous-stage behavior. As transition proceeded, the alternations increased in rate until the previous stage behaviors were “smashed” together. Once the smashed-together pieces became coordinated, new-stage behavior could be said to have formed. Because stage transition is quantal, individuals can only change performance by whole stage. We reviewed theories of the specific means by which new-stage behavior may be acquired and the emotions and personalities associated with steps in transition. Contemporary challenges in the society increasingly call for transition to postformal and postconventional responses on the part of both individuals and institutions as the examples illustrate.

Introduction to the Model of Hierarchical Complexity and Its Relationship to Postformal Action

The Model of Hierarchical Complexity is introduced in terms of its main concepts, background, and applications. As a general, quantitative behavioral developmental theory, the Model enables examination of universal patterns of evolution and development. Behavioral tasks are definable and their organization of information in increasingly greater hierarchical, or vertical, complexity is measurable. Fifteen orders of hierarchical complexity account for task performances across domains, ranging from those of machines to creative geniuses. The four most complex orders are demonstrated by postformal stages of thought, which measure beyond formal operations, the highest stage found by Piaget for adults.

Four Postformal Stages

The term “postformal” has come to refer to various stage characterizations of behavior that are more complex than those behaviors found in Piaget’s last stage—formal operations—and generally seen only in adults. Commons and Richards (1984a, 1894b) and Fischer (1980), among others, posited that such behaviors follow a single sequence, no matter the domain of the task, for example, social, interpersonal, moral, political, scientific, and so on.

“Equal access” without “establishing” religion: The necessity for assessing social perspective-taking skills and institutional atmosphere

Abstract We concur with Moshman (1990) that in public high schools there should be unimpeded religious freedom if an empirical assessment shows students have the proficiency to evaluate and freely choose religious systems and practices and to discern attempts by authorities to establish a religion. We differ with Moshman,however, regarding (a) the relative importance of a schools ethical, moral and political climate in influencing the exercise of free religious and political choice; (b) his focus on religious over political freedoms; (c) what kinds of proficiencies need to be assessed; (d) how to assess these proficiencies; (e) his claim that that the reasoning ability of high school and college students is similar; and (f) the manner in which decisions permitting religious clubs in high schools should be made. Reasoning proficiency must be assessed in high school, as well as post-high school, populations of students, teachers, and administrators using a social perspective-taking task with establishment of a religion content. A schools institutional atmosphere must be assessed.

Presenting the formal theory of hierarchical complexity

The formal theory of the Model of Hierarchical Complexity is presented. Complexity theories generally exclude the concept of hierarchical complexity; Developmental Psychology has included it for over 20 years. It also applies to social systems and non-human systems. Formal axioms for the Model are outlined. The model assigns an order of hierarchical complexity to every task, using natural numbers, establishing a quantal notion of stage and stages of performance. This formalizes properties of stage theories in psychology. The formal theory of the model enables extending the concept of hierarchical complexity to any field where tasks and their performances exist.

WHAT POSTFORMAL THOUGHT IS, AND WHY IT MATTERS

The four stages of postformal thought are Systematic, Metasystematic, Paradigmatic, and Cross-Paradigmatic. Each successive stage is more hierarchically complex than the one that precedes it. Each stage uses the elements formed at the previous stage to construct more hierarchically complex elements (e.g., metasystems, paradigms). An actual instrument constructed using the Model of Hierarchical Complexity illustrates the progression in hierarchical complexity. Another example illustrates the nonlinear nature of hierarchical complexity. The distinct tasks of the four stages are described. Postformal thought benefits interpersonal, societal, and academic endeavors by virtue of the kinds of tasks performed at each stage.

The Development of Hierarchically Complex Equivalence Classes

Piaget postulated that one of the fundamental actions of people was to classify objects and actions. These classifications could be grouped together on the basis of the number of times these actions coordinate precursor actions. We call this number the order of hierarchical complexity when it refers to task demands and the stage when it refers to performance. Fourteen orders of such complexity have been analyzed. This paper introduces the notion that equivalence classes can be ordered according to their hierarchical complexity. Here, an adult task shows how the identity relations at each stage are used to define equivalence classes of the next stage. Results showed that some adults with postgraduate education detect metasystematic (12th order) equivalence classes.