Molar Analysis of Behavior Focus Pack | 7.5 BCBA CEUs

Description

Learn about the molar analysis of behavior with this focus pack featuring the following interactive video and article quizzes:

Interactive Video: An Interview with William Baum

Below is the entire non-interactive version of this video. It does not contain embedded questions or completion tracking like the CEU version of the module.

Article Quiz: Observation and Theory in Behavior Analysis

Read the following article (reading time: 22 min) and pass a 5-question quiz on it:

• Shimp, C. P. (1993). Observation and theory in behavior analysis. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 60 (2), 481-484. https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.1993.60-481
• Abstract: “Mental representations of visual objects play an important role in guiding everyday behavior” (Cooper &Schacter, 1992, p. 141). This quotation captures much of the tension between researchers in the experimental analysis of behavior and the contemporary surrounding cultural and scientific context. Many regular readers of this journal will feel that the quotation reveals misleading and counter-productive ideas. One is that mental representations that are not observable, and by some accounts may not even have physical instantiation, are nevertheless scientifically legitimate. Another is that such representations can and do cause behavior. Many readers will want to note that indelicate use of such ideas can cause logical, conceptual, epistemological, and ontological errors (Rorty, 1979; Ryle, 1949; Skinner, 1984; Wittgenstein, 1953). There may be no way to do science, however, that guarantees freedom from error. My general purpose here is to suggest that the way in which behavior analysts try to avoid these particular errors may create some of the problems Staddon identifies in his present essay.
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Article Quiz: Introduction to Molar Behavior Analysis

Read the following article (reading time: 50 min) and pass a 9-question quiz on it:

• Baum, W. M. (1995). Introduction to molar behavior analysis. Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis, 21 (3), 7-25.
• Abstract: Traditional molecular mechanics relied on discrete events and contiguity to try to explain behavior in terms of immediate causes. The molecular concepts of reflex and association eventually proved inadequate and were replaced by ones less reliant on immediate causes. Thorndike’s law of effect represents a step in this direction, because it emphasized a response’s past consequences, a factor that transcended momentary events. Skinner further departed from reliance on contiguity by introducing the ideas of operant behavior and stimulus control. Instead of S-R connection, he proposed that the unit of behavior is a population of responses and that a discriminative stimulus defines the context in which this population occurs. He proposed to explain novel and complex behavior by a history of selection by consequences, in analogy to biological evolution. For a dependent variable, he proposed response rate, a molar variable in the sense that it can be measured only over some interval of time. Molar behavior analysis takes the further step of defining environmental variables as similarly molar. Behavior is thought of as under the control of relations that extend through time. Together, behavior and environment constitute a feedback system in which behavior flowing from the organism is fed back by the environment in a flow of consequences which affects the flow of behavior. Such a view has more explanatory power that contiguity-based views and opens the possibility of a quantitative science. Further extensions move entirely away from discrete responses to considering behavior as composed of patterns of activities that extend through time. Such patterns tend to persist, but may be changed by consequences. This conception frees molar behavior analysis from dependence on immediate causes and establishes it as an evolutionary science.
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Article Quiz: Contingency and Behavior Analysis

Read the following article (reading time: 1 hr) and pass a 6-question quiz on it:

• Lattal, K. A. (1995). Contingency and behavior analysis. The Behavior Analyst, 18 (2), 209- 224. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392709
• Abstract: The concept of contingency is central to theoretical discussions of learned behavior and in the application of learning research to problems of social significance.-This paper reviews three aspects of the contingency concept as it has been developed by behavior analysts. The first is the empirical analysis of contingency through experimental studies of both human and nonhuman behavior. The second is the synthesis of experimental studies in theoretical and conceptual frameworks to yield a more general account of contingency and to integrate the concept with other behavioral processes. The third aspect is one of practical considerations in the application of the contingency concept in both laboratory and applied settings.
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Article Quiz: The Molar View of Behavior and Its Usefulness in Behavior Analysis

Read the following article (reading time: 23 min) and pass a 5-question quiz on it:

• Baum, W. M. (2003). The molar view of behavior and its usefulness in behavior analysis.The Behavior Analyst Today, 4 (1), 78–81. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0100009
• Abstract: The molar view of behavior contrasts with the older, molecular view. The difference is paradigmatic, not theoretical. No experiment can decide between them, because they interpret all the same phenomena, but in different terms. The molecular view relies on the concepts of discrete, momentary events and contiguity between them, whereas the molar view relies on the concepts of temporally extended patterns of activity and correlations. When dealing with phenomena such as avoidance, rule-governed behavior, and choice, the molar view has the advantage that it requires no appeal to hypothetical constructs. The molecular view always appeals to hypothetical constructs to provide immediate reinforcers and stimuli when none are apparent. As a result, the explanations offered by the molar view are straightforward and concrete, whereas those offered by the molecular view are awkward and implausible. The usefulness of the molar view for applied behavior analysis lies in the flexibility and conceptual power it provides for talking about behavior and contingencies over time.
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Article Quiz: What Counts as Behavior?

Read the following article (reading time: 55 min) and pass a 5-question quiz on it:

• Baum, W. M. (2013). What counts as behavior? The molar multiscale view. The Behavior Analyst, 36 (2), 283-293. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392315
• Abstract: Because the definition of behavior changes as our understanding of behavior changes, giving a final definition is impossible. One can, however, rule out some possibilities and propose some others based on what we currently know. Behavior is not simply movement, but must be defined by its function. Also, our understanding of behavior must agree with evolutionary theory. I suggest 4 basic principles: (a) only whole organisms behave; (b) behavior is purposive; (c) behavior takes time; and (d) behavior is choice. Saying that parts of an organism behave is nonsense, and, moreover, evolutionary theory explains the existence of organisms mainly through their adaptive behavior. Behavior is purposive in that behavior is shaped by its consequences, through an organism’s lifetime or through interactions with the environment across many generations of natural selection. Behavior takes time in that behavior is interaction with the environment that cannot take place at a moment. Moreover, at a moment in time, one cannot definitely identify the function of behavior. Identification of an activity requires a span of time. Behavior is choice in the sense that a suitable span of time always includes time spent in more than 1 activity. Activities include parts that are themselves activities on a smaller time scale and compete for time. Thus, behavior constitutes time allocation. An accounting problem arises whenever any behavior is attributed to multiple consequences. In the molar multiscale view, this raises the question of whether 2 activities can occur at the same time. The question remains open.
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Article Quiz: Toward the Unification of Molecular and Molar Analyses

Read the following article (reading time: 1 hr 28 min) and pass a 8-question quiz on it:

• Shimp, C. P. (2013). Toward the unification of molecular and molar analyses. The Behavior Analyst, 36 (2), 295-312. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392316
• Abstract: Three categories of behavior analysis may be called molecular, molar, and unified. Molecular analyses focus on how manual shaping segments moment-to-moment behaving into new, unified, hierarchically organized patterns. Manual shaping is largely atheoretical, qualitative, and practical. Molar analyses aggregate behaviors and then compute a numerical average for the aggregate. Typical molar analyses involve average rate of, or average time allocated to, the aggregated behaviors. Some molar analyses have no known relation to any behavior stream. Molar analyses are usually quantitative and often theoretical. Unified analyses combine automated shaping of moment-to-moment behaving and molar aggregates of the shaped patterns. Unified controlling relations suggest that molar controlling relations like matching confound shaping and strengthening effects of reinforcement. If a molecular analysis is about how reinforcement organizes individual behavior moment by moment, and a molar analysis is about how reinforcement encourages more or less of an activity aggregated over time, then a unified analysis handles both kinds of analyses. Only theories engendered by computer simulation appear to be able to unify all three categories of behavior analysis.
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