Action, conditioned reflexes, genetics and evolution (Vocabulary Flashcards)
Foundations: Reflexes and the External-stimulus View
Skinner’s salamander toe observation: a severed tail still responds to touch, challenging the view that behavior is driven by inner forces (willpower/spirit).
Conclusion drawn: behavior can be understood as responses to external stimuli; the stimulus controls the behavior, and the behavior itself is the reflex.
Key concept: reflex is an automatic, unlearned response to a specific external stimulus.
Implication: many behaviors thought to be under inner control can be explained as reflexes governed by external stimuli.
Skinner’s contribution: reflexes can be studied quantitatively; much of an organism’s response to specific stimuli can be predicted.
Limitation: reflexes account for only a small portion of the overall behavioral repertoire.
Classical Conditioning: Pavlovian Reflexes
Conditioned reflexes extend the idea of reflexes by showing that a neutral stimulus can acquire the ability to elicit a response through association.
Process: neutral stimulus paired repeatedly with an unconditioned stimulus; the neutral stimulus becomes conditioned and elicits the reflex without the unconditioned stimulus.
Rejection of mentalistic explanations: Pavlov did not claim dogs were thinking of food; conditioning shows the stimulus itself can elicit the reflex.
Pavlov’s psychic secretion experiments foundational: demonstrated conditioning and how stimuli come to elicit reflexive responses.
Classical conditioning example: the sound commonly perceived as a bell (often depicted as a bell) was not the true auditory stimulus in Pavlov’s experiments; the actual auditory stimulus was a tuning fork. The bell image is a misnomer.
Significance: conditioning expands the range of stimuli that can trigger reflexive behaviors, aiding quick, automatic responses to environmental cues.
Conditioning, Adaptation, and Maladaptive Reflexes
Not all conditioned reflexes are beneficial; some become maladaptive.
Example: fear of flying can be conditioned by increased heart rate and other arousal cues, leading to irrational fear.
Mechanism of maladaptive reflex: reflex-like responses persist and can give an illusion of control (e.g., gripping an armrest during turbulence) even when they do not influence the actual event (turbulence).
Takeaway: conditioned reflexes have survival value but can overgeneralize or misapply in contexts where they do not serve a useful purpose.
Limits of Conditioning: From Classical to Operant Conditioning
Classical conditioning extends the range of stimuli that can elicit reflexive responses but does not generate novel behaviors.
As Skinner noted: conditioning increases the set of stimuli that can elicit responses but does not create new behaviors.
Novel or complex behaviors require operant conditioning: actions are voluntary, shaped by reinforcement or punishment, and reinforced by their consequences.
Distinction: conditioned reflexes (classical conditioning) involve elicited responses to stimuli; operant conditioning involves learning through consequences that shape future behavior.
Genetics, Evolution, and Learning: Phylogeny vs Ontogeny
Skinner cautioned against confusing genetic inheritance with learned behavior; similar outcomes can arise from different mechanisms.
Phylogeny (evolutionary history): behaviors shaped and passed down across generations through natural selection; reflexes and instincts are typically phylogenetically determined.
Ontogeny (lifetime learning): behaviors learned through interaction with the environment, largely via operant conditioning and reinforcement/punishment.
Inheritance vs learning: genes provide the foundation (structures and predispositions) but do not directly determine behavior; environment and contingencies shape expression.
Moore’s view: genes predispose susceptibility, but do not cause behavior outright; behavior arises from the interaction of genetic endowment and environmental contingencies.
Example of phylogeny vs ontogeny: birds migrating (phylogenetic, inherited) vs language acquisition (ontogenetic, learned).
Important point: phylogeny and ontogeny interact; language learning is facilitated by phylogenetic predispositions for sound processing and speech production, but actual language use is learned.
Implication: do not underestimate the environment; contingencies of reinforcement offer the greatest predictive and control power over behavior.
Quote to remember: operant conditioning complements natural selection; genes predispose an individual to be influenced by the environment.
Caution against simplistic attributions: just because contingencies aren’t visible doesn’t mean genetics alone explains behavior; avoid using genetic endowment as a default explanation.
Personal histories are not excluded from analysis; reinforcement can operate with or without the organism’s explicit awareness.
The Role of Imitation and Neurobiology
A key genetic contribution to human behavior: imitation, the capacity to learn by observing others.
Imitation can be impaired in certain conditions (e.g., autism); related neural processes may involve mirror neuron systems.
Evidence from neuroscience (e.g., mirror neurons) suggests imitation relies on brain networks that can be atypical in autism; environmental manipulation and shaping remain powerful.
Practical implication: for children with autism, mirrors and contingent reinforcement can facilitate imitative learning and social skills through operant conditioning and environmental support.
Multilevel Selection: Group, Individual, and Cultural Dynamics
David Sloan Wilson (1990) delivered a presidential scholar address at ABAI, advocating group selection or multilevel selection in evolutionary theory.
Core idea: genes are transmitted across generations, but organisms and groups act as vehicles for those genes; selection operates at multiple levels.
Three levels of selection (Skinner’s framing and Wilson’s framework) help explain complexity:
Biogenic (genetic/natural selection): genes shape biological design and are transmitted across generations.
Autogenetic (individual learning): operant conditioning and reinforcement shape behavior within an organism’s lifetime.
Cultural (cultural selection): social transmission of behaviors, norms, and practices across generations; practices evolve because they benefit the group or society.
Interaction among the three levels: biogenic, autogenetic, and cultural selection are interrelated and together influence behavior and survival.
Selection by consequences vs cultural selection:
Selection by consequences refers to how individual behaviors are reinforced or punished (ontogeny).
Cultural selection refers to how behaviors persist or spread through social transmission beyond the individual.
Cultural practices (rituals, language, social norms) can evolve because they contribute to group cohesion or survival, even if not immediately advantageous to any single individual.
Skinner’s framework provides a basis for understanding how behaviors evolve and are sustained within cultures as well as individuals.
Eugenics, Group Selection, and an Illustrative Case
Darwin’s ideas raised concerns about eugenics: selective breeding to improve the human race.
Practical concern: how cultural evolution can supersede or complicate strict genetic selection.
Purdue hen experiment (1990) as a case study of selection at the group level:
Setup: nine hens per cage; the most productive hen from each cage selected to breed the next generation if egg-laying productivity is heritable.
Result 1 (gene-centric selection): the line of best egg layers produced a hyper-aggressive strain; many hens were harmed (feather plucking, violence); some cages ended with only three hens.
Result 2 (group-level selection): adjusting the method to select the nine hens with the highest overall group productivity to breed the next generation; this approach yielded increased egg production.
Takeaway: when traits interact within a social group, group-level selection can produce different outcomes than pure gene-level selection; cultural and group context matters for the success of selected traits.
Contingencies, Reinforcement, and Practical Implications
Reinforcement occurs with or without the organism’s knowledge; personal histories contribute to behavior, but reinforcement can still operate implicitly.
The environment plays a crucial role in shaping behavior across the lifetime; contingencies of reinforcement provide predictive power for behavior beyond genetic explanations alone.
The three-level framework (biogenic, autogenetic, cultural) helps explain how behavior can be shaped by genetics, learning, and social practices in tandem, often across different time scales.
Applications in education, therapy, and research:
Behavioral analysis can leverage reinforcement schedules to shape adaptive behaviors.
Understanding cultural selection informs interventions that target social transmission (e.g., language learning, social norms).
Awareness of phylogenetic constraints can guide expectations about innate predispositions and their limits.
Ethical and practical implications:
Avoid simplistic genetic explanations for complex behaviors; emphasize environmental contingencies and learning history.
Recognize that cultural practices can either support or undermine individual well-being; interventions should consider group and cultural context as well as individual learning histories.
Key Formulas and Concepts (LaTeX)
Operant behavior as a function of contingencies:
B = f\left( C \right)
where B is the operant behavior and C are the contingencies of actions yielding consequences.Complementary view of learning and evolution:
ext{Operant conditioning} \quad \text{complements} \quad \text{natural selection}Conceptual framing of three levels of selection:
Biogenic: genetic/natural selection over generations.
Autogenetic: individual learning via reinforcement and punishment.
Cultural: social transmission and reinforcement across individuals and generations.
Gene-environment interaction (informal representation):
B = gig(S,E,R\big)
where S represents genetic predispositions, E represents environmental factors, and R represents reinforcement history.
Takeaways for Exam Preparation
Reflexes are automatic, unlearned responses to external stimuli; conditioning extends the range of stimuli but does not create novel behaviors.
Classical conditioning demonstrates that neutral stimuli can elicit reflexes through association; Pavlov’s careful control avoids mentalistic explanations.
Operant conditioning explains how novel or complex behaviors are formed and maintained via reinforcement and punishment.
Phylogeny vs ontogeny: inherited, species-typical behaviors vs learned, lifetime behaviors; both interact to shape behavior.
Genes provide a foundation but do not determine behavior outright; environment and contingencies are critical determinants.
Imitation and mirror neuron research highlight the role of social learning and neural mechanisms in shaping behavior, with implications for autism and intervention strategies.
Skinner’s multilevel framework (biogenic, autogenetic, cultural) describes how behavior is shaped across biological, individual, and social levels, including cultural evolution via social transmission.
Cultural selection and group-level selection can yield different outcomes than single-genome selection; the Purdue hen example illustrates consequences of differing selection targets.
Always consider contingencies of reinforcement and social context when interpreting behavior; avoid attributing complex behaviors to genetics alone.
These concepts have broad real-world relevance for education, therapy, organizational design, and understanding human behavior in social systems.