A Critical Review of the Support for Variability as an Operant Dimension
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A Critical Review of the Support for Variability as an Operant Dimension Siv Kristin Nergaard 1
& Per
Holth 1
# The Author(s) 2020
Abstract There is abundant evidence that behavioral variability is more predominant when reinforcement is contingent on it than when it is not, and the interpretation of direct reinforcement of variability suggested by Page and Neuringer, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 11(3), 429–452 (1985) has been widely accepted. Even so, trying to identify the underlying mechanisms in the emergence of stochastic-like variability in a variability contingency is intricate. There are several challenges to characterizing variability as directly reinforced, most notably because reinforcement traditionally has been found to produce repetitive responding, but also because directly reinforced variability does not always relate to independent variables the same way as more commonly studied repetitive responding does. The challenging findings in variability experiments are discussed, along with alternative hypotheses on how variability contingencies may engender the high variability that they undeniably do. We suggest that the typical increase in behavioral variability that is often demonstrated when reinforcement is contingent on it may be better explained in terms of a dynamic interaction of reinforcement and extinction working on several specific responses rather than as directly reinforced. Keywords Direct reinforcement of variability . Molar . Molecular . Reinforcement .
Extinction . Descriptive and functional classes
In ontogenetic selection, as well as in phylogenetic selection of behavior, the adaption to changing contingencies is explained parsimoniously by the principles of variation We thank Drs. Allen Neuringer and Josele Abreu-Rodrigues, as well as the anonymous reviewers, for constructive and encouraging comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.
* Siv Kristin Nergaard [email protected] Per Holth [email protected]
1
Faculty of Health, Institute for Behavioral Science, OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University, St. Olavs Plass, PO Box 4, 0130 Oslo, Norway
Perspectives on Behavior Science
and selection (e.g., Donahoe & Palmer, 2004). Sources of variation are important both for theoretical and for practical reasons. Without continued sources of variation, selection alone could only serve to further constrict variation within preexisting boundaries. Thus, any evolution of species or of behavioral repertoires beyond preexisting characteristics depends on continuous sources of variation. For practical reasons, sources of behavioral variation are important because they can help us increase or decrease variability when such changes are desirable or essential (Neuringer, 2002). In an extensive article, Page and Neuringer (1985) suggested that variability may be an operant dimension of behavior, in the same way as, for example, response rate, force, duration, and location. Several later experiments have shown that variability, normally measured as
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