Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavior analysis is on the cusp of a major change in the way we think about our most fundamental process: Reinforcement. Whereas the law of effect stipulates that reinforcers control behavior because of their special function in increasing a behavior’s strength, an alternative approach casts reinforcers as stimuli with current value to the organism, but no unique function in changing behavior. Under this approach, behavior is controlled by relations between stimuli, depending on the affordances and dispositions of the organism. This tutorial explores some of the data that has led us to change the way we understand control by current environmental conditions. First, the tutorial examines some of the evidence for prospective control, when reinforcers are absent, or temporally distant, or when reinforcer effects are inconsistent with strengthening. Next, I explore how quantitative models can provide a testable explanation of control by the likely future, as extrapolated from the past. Finally, the tutorial considers the implications of a shift from understanding control in terms of retrospective response-reinforcer pairings to prospection on the basis of the perceived structure of the environment, and argues that in conjunction with quantitative models, prospective control need not invoke an inner organism.

This talk is aimed at behavior analysts interested in new ways to measure and describe apparently changes in behavior, and/or in new approaches to understanding how reinforcers affect behavior.

Sarah Cowie obtained her Ph.D. in 2014 at the University of Auckland, under the supervision of Professor Michael Davison and Dr. Douglas Elliffe. Since graduating with her Ph.D., Sarah’s research has explored how past experience translates into control by the present and the likely future.