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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
An up-to-date approach to behavior analysis within the framework of evolutionary theory
Introduction to Behavior is a contemporary textbook for students in behavior analysis and other behaviorally-oriented disciplines. Dispensing with outdated models of behavior and reinforcement, this book adopts a new conceptual framework for the understanding of behavior, human and nonhuman. It will help students at all levels, particularly students being trained in applied behavior analysis, offering an easily approachable and plausible framework that can inform both research and practice. Excellent for undergraduate and graduate students alike, as well as others interested in the field of behavior science, this book covers standard topics in behavior analysis from an up-to-date perspective. Readers will be introduced to a far more effective way of viewing behavior than the traditional reinforcement-based approach.
- Examine traditional concepts of behavior analysis from an evolutionary perspective
- Gain a concrete conceptual framework that can be used to guide research and practice in applied behavioral science
- Understand human and nonhuman behaviors, both in laboratory settings and in daily life, from an individual and a social perspective
- Build your knowledge of why people make the choices they make given particular environmental inputs
Introduction to Behavior fills an important gap in available texts on behavior analysis, placing helpful behavioral concepts within a sound, evidence-based evolutionary framework.
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Seitenzahl: 232
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Introduction to Behavior: An Evolutionary Perspective
William M. Baum
Copyright © 2024 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Baum, William M., author. | John Wiley & Sons, publisher.
Title: Introduction to behavior : an evolutionary perspective / William M. Baum.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : JW-Wiley, [2024] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “No adequate understanding of behavior is possible without evolutionary theory. Evolution due to selection is necessary to understand why behavior and organisms exist, how culture evolves, and how behavior of individual organisms develops. Evolutionary theory permits going beyond everyday folk psychology that views actions as done by an agent for reasons known to the agent and done because of the agent’s assessment of consequences. Evolutionary theory provides a foundation for a true natural science of behavior, one in which behavioral events are natural events and are understood in relation to other natural events. We no longer see sunrise and sunset as caused by hidden entities or gods, and a scientific approach to behavior should also not ascribe behavioral phenomena to hidden entities like an inner agent or inner thoughts and feelings. This book takes the perspective of evolutionary biology to present the basics of a science of behavior. It begins by discussing what is an organism and then what is behavior. Once we understand that an organism is a process and that activities of the organism are parts of that process, we are in a position to see how behavior interacts with the environment and adapts to environmental covariances and changes in them. The book covers customary topics like choice, stimulus control, foraging, adaptation, verbal behavior, and social behavior, but it does so according to a non-traditional organization consistent with the natural-science and evolutionary framework”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023023302 (print) | LCCN 2023023303 (ebook) | ISBN 9781394184613 (paperback) | ISBN 9781394184637 (ebook) | ISBN 9781394184620 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Human behavior--Evolution. | Human behavior--History. | Behavior evolution.
Classification: LCC BF698.95 .B386 2024 (print) | LCC BF698.95 (ebook) | DDC 155.7--dc23/eng/20230802
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023023302
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023023303
Cover Images: © kali9/Getty Images, Ed Reschke/Getty Images, Dinodia Photo/Getty Images, Ezra Bailey/Getty Images, Noel Hendrickson/Getty Images
Cover Design: Wiley
Set in 10/12pt WarnockPro by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd, Pondicherry, India
For my dear friend Henry
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Preface
1 Organism
2 Behavior
3 Behavior and Natural Selection
4 Covariance
5 Measurement
6 Stability and Change
7 Stimulus
8 Choice and Balance
9 Verbal Behavior and Rules
10 Social Behavior and Culture
11 Coda for Instructors
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
CHAPTER 07
Table 7.1 Matching-to-sample trials in training...
List of Illustrations
CHAPTER 01
Figure 1.1 Amoeba under high resolution...
Figure 1.2 Drawing of a Hawaiian Bobtail...
CHAPTER 02
Figure 2.1 The hierarchy of activities...
Figure 2.2 All activities take time and...
Figure 2.3 Different activities exist...
Figure 2.4 Elements of a basic feedback...
CHAPTER 03
Figure 3.1 Three of Pavlov’s experimental...
Figure 3.2 Positive and negative covariance...
CHAPTER 04
Figure 4.1 Relations among a signal...
Figure 4.2 Positive and negative covariance...
Figure 4.3 Relations among a signal, an...
Figure 4.4 Four possible relations between...
CHAPTER 05
Figure 5.1 Results of functional...
Figure 5.2 Episodes of activities...
Figure 5.3 Time allocation in a...
Figure 5.4 Time allocation in the...
Figure 5.5 Food-induced attack in...
Figure 5.6 Results from one pigeon ...
Figure 5.7 A pigeon in a typical...
Figure 5.8 A rat in a typical...
CHAPTER 06
Figure 6.1 Covariance closes...
Figure 6.2 Feedback functions...
Figure 6.3 Ratio schedule feedback...
Figure 6.4 The organism-environment...
Figure 6.5 Feedback functions for...
Figure 6.6 Session-by-session activity...
Figure 6.7 The transition from...
Figure 6.8 Cartoon representation...
Figure 6.9 Cartoon representation...
CHAPTER 07
Figure 7.1 A discrimination requiring...
Figure 7.2 A mental rotation task with...
CHAPTER 08
Figure 8.1 Visual Representation of...
Figure 8.2 Results of Four Experiments...
Figure 8.3 Choice in a Vigilance Task...
Figure 8.4 Choice in Relation to Relative...
Figure 8.5 Choice in Relation to Relative...
Figure 8.6 Temporal Discounting of Money...
Figure 8.7 Ideal Free Distribution in a Flock...
Figure 8.8 Ideal Free Distribution in Groups...
CHAPTER 09
Figure 9.1 Development of conversational...
Figure 9.2 Representative results from an...
Figure 9.3 Results from the experiment by...
Figure 9.4 Short-term and long-term relations...
Figure 9.5 Results from David Ruiz’s...
CHAPTER 10
Figure 10.1 Actions and payoffs...
Figure 10.2 Results from a Public-Goods...
Figure 10.3 Cumulative cultural traditions...
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Preface
Begin Reading
Index
End User License Agreement
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Preface
No adequate understanding of behavior is possible without evolutionary theory. Evolution due to selection is necessary to understand why behavior and organisms exist, how culture evolves, and how behavior of individual organisms develops. Evolutionary theory permits going beyond everyday folk psychology that views actions as done by an agent for reasons known to the agent, and done because of the agent’s assessment of consequences. Evolutionary theory provides a foundation for a true natural science of behavior, one in which behavioral events are natural events and are understood in relation to other natural events. We no longer see sunrise and sunset as caused by hidden entities or gods, and a scientific approach to behavior should also not ascribe behavioral phenomena to hidden entities like an inner agent or inner thoughts and feelings.
This book takes the perspective of evolutionary biology to present the basics of a science of behavior. It begins by discussing what an organism is, and then what behavior is. Once we understand that an organism is a process and that activities of the organism are parts of that process, we are in a position to see how behavior interacts with the environment and adapts to environmental covariances and changes in them.
The book covers customary topics like choice, stimulus control, foraging, adaptation, verbal behavior, and social behavior, but it does so according to a non-traditional organization consistent with the natural-science and evolutionary framework. It also abandons the concept of “reinforcement,” for two reasons. First, the concept of reinforcement derives from the notion that behavior is controlled by its “consequences.” This is unsatisfactory because it conjures the folk-psychology idea of an agent evaluating the results of action and because it requires imagining some ghostly cause like “strength” in order to account for the temporal extension of activities. Second, a more adequate and powerful alternative concept exists: induction. Induction explains the phenomena that reinforcement was meant to explain and many phenomena that reinforcement cannot—for example, the problem of the first instance (that action must first occur before it can be reinforced), adjunctive activities, Pavlovian conditioning, avoidance (for which reinforcement theory resorted to fairy tales), and performance on basic schedules of reinforcement. I discuss the problems with reinforcement further in the last chapter, “Coda for Instructors,” and those readers who may be familiar with reinforcement theory might want to read that chapter first.
When I was in graduate school, I noticed that textbooks about behavior usually began with a chapter devoted to history and then presented a hodge-podge of topics with no overall connection. I surmised that these travesties resulted from the prescientific state of psychology, from which behavior analysis had sprung. I thought the science of behavior should free itself from the muddle of psychology and present itself as a natural science, part of biology, not as a sub-part of a discipline devoted to understanding mind. I thought I would like someday to write a textbook of behavior, like my undergraduate physics text, that began with basic concepts and then built on those in a coherent framework. This is that book, or at least my attempt at it.
The book is intended for undergraduates and anyone interested in a science of behavior in biology, behavior analysis, and anthropology. It could appeal to students in psychology also. It aims to provide a foundation for thinking about behavior scientifically by offering a conceptual framework with examples from experimental research.
Several people helped me in various ways to produce this book. Carsta Simon, Pete Richerson, Matt Bell, and Dave Ruiz read parts of the drafts, and I owe them many thanks for their feedback. Any mistakes were of my making, not theirs. My son Aaron suggested the title, and my daughter Naomi made the drawings in Chapter 5.
William M. Baum
December, 2022
Walnut Creek, California
1 Organism
We are interested in the behavior of organisms here, particularly animals. Plants may be said to behave, because they exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen with the air and exchange excretions and nutrients with the soil, but this book is about the behavior of more mobile creatures, whether unicellular or highly complex. Before we can understand what behavior is and how it relates to the environment, we must first understand what an organism is and how it relates to its environment.
The biologist H. S. Jennings (1868–1947) studied various protozoa including amoeba. Under the microscope, this single-celled organism looks like a blob that moves by flowing and captures smaller prey like bacteria by engulfing them (Figure 1.1). If the prey moves, amoeba moves with it, overtaking it. Jennings wrote, “Amoeba is a beast of prey, and gives the impression of being controlled by the same elemental impulses as higher beasts of prey.”
Figure 1.1 Amoeba under high resolution microscope. By SmallRex—Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99796205.
The first question we face is: What is an organism? Whether we are studying amoeba, rats, pigeons, monkeys, or human beings, what do all of these have in common that makes them organisms? A facile answer would be that they are all living things. That just begs the questions: what is “living”? and what sort of “thing”?
One point is clear: All organisms have a lifespan, come into existence, last for a while, and then die. A non-living thing like a chair also comes into existence, lasts for a while, and then wears out and disintegrates. So, something more must distinguish living from non-living.
In a word, the something more is exchange. While alive, an organism is constantly exchanging matter and energy with its environment. It is constantly taking in energy-rich resources, like food, water, and oxygen, and putting out waste, like carbon dioxide, feces, urine, heat, hair, scales, feathers, and dead cells into its environment. This exchange keeps the organism alive, and when it stops the organism dies.
What is death? We may understand the difference between life and death in light of the laws of thermodynamics. The second law states that in a closed system, entropy can only increase or remain the same, but never decrease. Entropy is the opposite of order or structure. When you put an ice cube in a glass of water, gradually the ice cube melts, loses its structure, and after a while ceases to exist. Its structure has broken down, and that process illustrates increasing entropy. Eventually the water in the glass comes to equal the surrounding air in temperature, reaching equilibrium, and that process too constitutes increasing entropy. Indeed, in the equilibrium state entropy increases no further, and this equilibrium represents maximum entropy.
If we apply the second law of thermodynamics to an organism, we see that death represents maximum entropy, and an organism’s constant exchange of energy with its environment functions to keep the organism’s state away from maximum entropy. That is to say living consists of constantly taking energy out of the environment in order to keep entropy from increasing and to spare the organism from death. Living means being constantly active.
Being constantly active is not unique to organisms; the only thing constant in the universe is change. At the longest time scale of billions of years, astronomers tell us, the universe is expanding and evolving. At the smallest time scale of tiny fractions of a second, physicists tell us, at the atomic and subatomic levels, basic matter is in constant flux. Show a geologist a rock, and you will hear a story about the processes that produced the rock and how air and water will continue to change it. Show an ecologist a mighty tree, and you will hear how it grew from a seed, developed, and eventually will die, decay, and return to the earth. Everything in the universe is in process. Scientists try to understand the processes.
Like everything else, an organism is a process. What sort of a process? Any progressive change is a process. All motion, for example, like a ball rolling, a river flowing, or a person running. Other processes are changes like growth, development, and deterioration—any change through time. Looked at as part of the dynamics of nature, an organism is an ever-active process, taking from the world around and excreting waste into the world around. Being alive means being continuously active.
Consider, for example, the difference between an organism and a machine—say, a car. A car can sit unused and inactive for long periods of time—weeks, or even months—and when turned on begins to run. It has suffered no damage as a result of its inactivity. No organism can do this; as long as it is alive, it must remain constantly active, constantly exchanging with its environment, if it is to remain intact. An organism, unlike a machine, has no off switch. The key difference between a bear and a car is that the bear is constantly active, fending off increasing entropy, even if asleep or hibernating.
Complex processes like a running car or an organism have parts that themselves are processes. The car’s wheels spinning is a process and part of the car’s running. Likewise, an organism, as a process, has parts too that are processes. The human body, like that of a worm, rat, or pigeon, is composed of cells that are themselves living things, processes. A cell also has many parts that are processes, such as metabolism, secretion of hormones and other chemicals, and reproducing. The cell, as process, joins together with other cells to form larger processes, such as organs, and these organs join together to form the organism.
The cells in a body perform a variety of functions and coordinate among themselves to function together. A liver cell performs different functions from a brain cell, a blood cell, or a skin cell. In their diversity, however, is also a unity, because they all work together to form the larger process that we call an organism. The liver regulates sugar, which is essential for the functioning of other cells. The brain cells regulate many other functions, particularly muscle actions. Blood cells transport nutrients, particularly oxygen, to other cells, and some blood cells also remove pathogens and dead cells from the body. The skin regulates body temperature and protects from injury. All the different cells and organs of the body function together in an integrated way, depending on one another, to keep the organism dynamic and alive.
To appreciate this intimate association and cooperation, an example in which it is not permanent is illuminating. Slime molds have been studied for a long while, because they form temporary organisms. They exist in two phases. In one phase the cells are separate and function independently, like amoebae. They move through a patch of soil, and each one makes its own way, engulfing bacteria and periodically reproducing by splitting in two. The population increases rapidly, sometimes doubling in a few hours. Eventually the supply of bacteria begins to run out, and then they enter the second phase. Some amoebae begin to secrete a chemical that attracts the others, and those other amoebae also begin secreting the attractant. They all join together to form a slug-like organism that contains anywhere from ten thousand to two million amoebae that all move as one. This slug makes its way to the surface, where it morphs into one or more fruiting bodies consisting of a stalk with a mass of spores at the top. The different cells differentiate and serve different functions. Some make up the stalk, and some make up the reproducing organ at the top of the stalk. The spores disperse by being eaten or by clinging to passing insects and other animals. If eaten, they pass through unaffected, and either method deposits spores some distance away in a new area. Each spore opens into an amoeba-like cell, and the separate phase begins over again.
Permanently multicellular organisms are similarly dynamic, just not in such an obvious way. Like any living thing, a cell comes into being, lasts for a while, and then dies. The cells in your body are constantly dying and being replaced by new cells. You lose hundreds of thousands of dead skin cells every day. In the course of seven years, every cell in your body is replaced (except only your teeth). Different organs are replaced at different rates. Your liver only takes a matter of months to be completely replaced. Your bones are replaced more slowly. So, the organism is not a fixed thing. It is constantly changing: a process.
Adding to the organism’s inherent processes is the microbiome. Every organism has micro-organisms living in its digestive tract and also on its exterior. Some of these micro-organisms are parasites, but many actually live in harmony with their organism, and many contribute to the welfare of the organism in major ways. Examples abound. Termites would be unable to digest wood without bacteria in their guts that break down the cellulose. Similarly, ungulates like cows depend on bacteria in their stomachs to digest grass and other vegetable matter. The truth is that human beings could not survive without the micro-organisms in our guts and on our skin, because they are both necessary for digestion and to protect the organism from harmful bacteria that would cause infections. For example, bacteria in our gut break down dietary fiber into small molecules that can be absorbed and utilized, and other gut bacteria help synthesize vitamins B and K. Some bacteria in the vagina produce hydrogen peroxide and lactic acid, which suppress harmful bacteria. This mutual interdependence is known as symbiosis.
These micro-organisms are so essential to the functioning of the organism that they may properly be considered parts of the organism. So, then just what, exactly, is the organism? All the cells in the body share the same DNA, the same genetic material. The microbiome contains entirely different genetic material. Yet all this varied genetic material functions together to keep the organism alive and intact. In all that diversity that all functions together, the body is only a part. Like the body’s cells, the microbiome functions in coordination with all the other processes in the body to keep the organism alive and away from maximum entropy, or death.
To appreciate the mutual benefits of symbiosis and its dynamic nature, an example in which the association with the microbiome is temporary may be instructive. The Hawaiian Bobtail Squid has been the object of study for this reason. It lives in the ocean at moderate depth. If a predator should attack, the predator would most likely come from below. The squid remains hidden during the day and comes out at night. It would be outlined against the light of the moon and stars above and easily seen. At night, however, the squid enjoys the companionship of a large colony of bioluminescent bacteria on its underside. An organ on its underside is conducive to holding the bacteria, probably the result of selection for mutual benefit (Figure 1.2). The light from the bacteria serves to confuse predators below, because the squid is less visible against the light above. As dawn comes, however, the squid flushes out most of the bacteria, goes dark, and hides. The bacterial colony regrows during the day, and is operational again when night comes.
Figure 1.2 Drawing of a Hawaiian Bobtail Squid, showing the organ that houses the luminous bacteria. Reproduced from Jones, B. W., and Nishiguchi, M. K. (2004). Counterillumination in the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid Euprymna scolopes Berry (Mollusca: Cephalopoda). Marine Biology, 144 (6), 1151–1155. Reprinted with permission of Springer Nature.
Now, we may wonder just what is the organism that we call the “Bobtail Squid”? It isn’t just the body of the squid, because the bacteria function to keep the squid alive while they have a comfortable home on the squid’s underside. They seem to be just as important to survival as many cells that share the squid’s DNA. Yet, they come and go in a cyclic fashion, and we are driven to the conclusion that this cycle is also part of the squid as process.
Cycles like the squid’s bioluminescent cycle are the rule, however, not the exception. The cycles in a human body are just not so obvious. Every day the bacteria in the gut multiply and are expelled in feces, and then multiply again. The replacement of cells in the body is another such cycle. An organism is an ever-changing dynamic process. In the next chapter we will consider how the organism’s behavior is part of that process.
Further Reading
Bonner, J. T. (2009).
The social amoebae: The biology of cellular slime molds
. Princeton University Press. A book-length discussion of research on slime molds.
Jones, B. W., & Nishiguchi, M. K. (2004). Counterillumination in the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid
Euprymna scolopes
Berry (Mollusca: Cephalopoda).
Marine Biology
, 144(6), 1151–1155. A study of the Bobtail Squid’s remarkable symbiosis with bioluminescent bacteria.
Nicholson, D. J. (2018). Reconceptualizing the organism: From complex machine to flowing stream. In D. J. Nicholson & J. Dupré (Eds.),
Everything flows: Towards a processual philosophy of biology
(pp. 139–166). Oxford University Press. This chapter lays out the concept of the organism as process.
Nicholson, D. J., & Dupré, J. (2018).
Everything flows: Towards a processual philosophy of biology
. Oxford University Press. This edited volume kicks off a serious exploration of process ontology.
2 Behavior
Organisms behave, but what is behavior exactly? An organism and its behavior are inextricably tied together. There is no such thing as behavior without an organism, and no such thing as an organism without behavior. Behavior serves the organism-process, but how exactly? To understand what behavior is and does, we need to understand why organisms exist in the first place.
We know an organism carries genetic material (DNA) that, together with environmental factors, guides development of the organism from a fertilized egg to an adult form. Why should this be? Why didn’t the naked DNA stay in the “primordial soup,” the warm water pool rich in amino acids in which it originated?
