The Law of Cumulative Complexity (Mysteries of Living 21 of 72)

The Law of Cumulative Complexity (Mysteries of Living 21 of 72)

Stephen F. Ledoux
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We have expanded into some details about the natural laws governing behavior. This includes forays into respondent behavior and conditioning, and operant behavior and conditioning. Our various examples have begun to show the range and depth, that is, the complexity, of our human behavior and its causes, its independent variables. The complexity even extends to the application of these laws in interventions that can help solve local and global problems.

Stimulus Control: Generalization (Mysteries of Living 22 of 72)

Stimulus Control: Generalization (Mysteries of Living 22 of 72)

Stephen F. Ledoux
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Behavior always occurs in some context. Even in the vacuum of space, behavior occurs in a context, often in a capsule of some sort, for example, a part of the International Space Station, a shuttle, or a lunar lander, or just a space suit. Without at least a space suit, behavior in space ceases quite quickly and permanently.

Stimulus Control: Evocation (Mysteries of Living 23 of 72)

Stimulus Control: Evocation (Mysteries of Living 23 of 72)

Stephen F. Ledoux
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While the process of generalization enlarges the set of evocative stimulus relations, the process of evocation shrinks the set of evocative stimulus relations. The evocation process often reduces the number of stimuli that evoke the response of concern while making the remaining evocative stimuli more effective. Let’s consider to what these terms refer.

Function-Altering Stimuli (Mysteries of Living 24 of 72)

Function-Altering Stimuli (Mysteries of Living 24 of 72)

Stephen F. Ledoux
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Function–altering stimuli are called that, because their presence makes other stimuli function differently from the way they would otherwise function. Up to now our discussions have usually implied that only one antecedent stimulus is involved in evoking a response. While this does occur, more commonly a few stimuli, even several, participate in evoking a response, because some stimuli function effectively as evocatives only if other stimuli are functional first (or at the same time).

Concept Formation (Mysteries of Living 25 of 72)

Concept Formation (Mysteries of Living 25 of 72)

Stephen F. Ledoux
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Having covered some essential components of stimulus control, we can use it to consider the term concept. A concept often refers to the basic set of characteristics that cover some topic, such as a kitchen, or a pet, or smaller or larger groups of these (like cats or domesticated animals). In each of these and innumerable other cases, you might have difficulty listing only the necessary characteristics needed for defining the concept, because exceptions confuse the attempt.

Behavior and Love (Mysteries of Living 27 of 72)

Behavior and Love (Mysteries of Living 27 of 72)

Stephen F. Ledoux
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Love in not a “trait.” We could describe traits not as behaviors but as adjectives that others, who witnessed an event, turn into nouns when telling you about the event, which you never witnessed. If we take these nouns uncritically, they all too easily become fictional accounts for the behaviors that occurred in the un–witnessed event.

Some Stimulus Parameters (Mysteries of Living 28 of 72)

Some Stimulus Parameters (Mysteries of Living 28 of 72)

Stephen F. Ledoux
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Certain problems with some terms demand our attention. For one, we tend to speak of stimuli as if they were things, and in some ways this makes sense. But the reality is more complex. To respect the interconnection between behaviorology, physiology, and other natural sciences, the term stimulus actually refers to an event, an energy trace that makes changes happen, beginning at a functioning receptor cell (or bundle of such cells) at a nervous system entry point. We can call the thing, related to that energy trace transfer, a stimulus. But this is a convenience, a verbal–shortcut.

Extinction and Forgetting (Mysteries of Living 29 of 72)

Extinction and Forgetting (Mysteries of Living 29 of 72)

Stephen F. Ledoux
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The type of extinction we focus on here is operant extinction, a process for which we simply use the single word “extinction.” This kind of extinction is one of the operant environmental–change contingencies that brings about the reduction of, and ultimately, if the process continues, the cessation of the behavior of concern.

Extinction, Preclusion, and Punishment (Mysteries of Living 30 of 72)

Extinction, Preclusion, and Punishment (Mysteries of Living 30 of 72)

Stephen F. Ledoux
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The words preclusion, extinction, and forgetting refer to different processes or procedures. Preclusion differs from extinction in a way similar to forgetting. While forgetting is a process, and extinction can be either a process or a procedure, preclusion is an intervention procedure that can help solve some types of behavior problems.