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Behavioral Momentum and the Law of Effect See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12031687 Behavioral momentum and the Law of Effect Article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences · March 2000 Impact Factor: 20.77 · DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X00002405 · Source: PubMed CITATIONS READS 300 460 2 authors: John A Nevin Randolph Grace University of New Hampshire University of Canterbury 125 PUBLICATIONS 4,412 CITATIONS 135 PUBLICATIONS 2,481 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, Available from: Randolph Grace letting you access and read them immediately. Retrieved on: 25 May 2016 BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2000) 23, 73–130 Printed in the United States of America Behavioral momentum and the Law of Effect John A. Nevin Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824 [email protected] Randolph C. Grace Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand [email protected] Abstract: In the metaphor of behavioral momentum, the rate of a free operant in the presence of a discriminative stimulus is analogous to the velocity of a moving body, and resistance to change measures an aspect of behavior that is analogous to its inertial mass. An ex- tension of the metaphor suggests that preference measures an analog to the gravitational mass of that body. The independent functions relating resistance to change and preference to the conditions of reinforcement may be construed as convergent measures of a single construct, analogous to physical mass, that represents the effects of a history of exposure to the signaled conditions of reinforcement and that unifies the traditionally separate notions of the strength of learning and the value of incentives. Research guided by the momentum metaphor encompasses the effects of reinforcement on response rate, resistance to change, and preference and has implications for clin- ical interventions, drug addiction, and self-control. In addition, its principles can be seen as a modern, quantitative version of Thorndike’s (1911) Law of Effect, providing a new perspective on some of the challenges to his postulation of strengthening by reinforcement. Keywords: behavioral momentum; clinical interventions; drug addiction; preference; reinforcement; resistance to change; response strength; self-control 1. Introduction to change and preference covary and that they provide in- dependent, convergent measurement of a single construct The stimulus presented by the experimenter, the response analogous to the mass of a physical body. In terms of the tra- of the organism, and the reinforcer that follows the re- ditional distinction between learning and performance, ve- sponse are fundamental elements in the science of behav- locity (identified with response rate) characterizes ongoing ior. Skinner (1969) suggested that these three terms define performance, whereas mass (derived from resistance to the discriminated operant as a unit for analysis. This target change and preference) reflects the learning that results article argues that there are two separable aspects of dis- from a history of reinforcement in the presence of a dis- criminated operant behavior that has been trained to asymp- tinctive stimulus situation. tote: its rate of occurrence, which depends primarily on the We begin by contrasting response rate and resistance to contingencies between the response and the reinforcer, and change as measures of the traditional construct of response its resistance to change, which depends primarily on the contingencies between the stimulus and the reinforcer. The distinction between response rate and resistance to John A. Nevin is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at change is captured by the metaphor of behavioral momen- the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of tum, in which the rate of a simple, repeatable response in the about 100 articles and book chapters on stimulus con- presence of a distinctive stimulus is analogous to the velocity trol and reinforcement processes in animals, and the of a physical body in motion. Following Newton’s second law, relevance of these processes for human well-being. when responding is disrupted in some way that is analogous Randolph C. Grace began his professional life as an to imposing an external force on a moving body, resistance to electrical engineer but became more interested in psy- change of response rate is related to an aspect of behavior chology, and he received his Ph.D. in that subject from that is analogous to inertial mass in classical mechanics. the University of New Hampshire in 1995. He is cur- To pursue the metaphor, Newton’s law of gravitation sug- rently Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Can- gests that an analog to gravitational mass may be derived terbury, and his research and teaching interests include basic learning processes and choice, human decision from the attractiveness or value of access to reinforced re- making, and statistics and research methods. He spends sponding as measured by preference. Although they refer some of his time away from the university playing ten- to different aspects of behavior – namely, resistance to nis, exploring the South Island of New Zealand, and try- change in the presence of a stimulus and responding that ing to understand rugby and cricket. gains access to that stimulus – we will argue that resistance © 2000 Cambridge University Press 0140-525X/00 $12.50 73 Nevin & Grace: Law of Effect strength and describe some research on resistance to change effects of reinforcement on average response rate. Presum- that distinguishes response rate and resistance. After a re- ably, if shaping contingencies were kept constant across con- view of related work on preference, the convergence of ditions that varied in the rate or amount of reinforcement, av- resistance and preference is treated via the momentum erage steady-state response rate would give a direct measure metaphor. Supporting research involving concurrent mea- of the strengthening effect of reinforcement. surement of resistance and preference is described, and the In his review of the literature, however, Morse noted that discrepancy between resistance and preference resulting the steady-state rate of a single response maintained by a sin- from the partial reinforcement extinction effect is resolved gle schedule of reinforcement was not always an orderly by a model of resistance to change that incorporates gener- function of reinforcer amount when reinforcement contin- alization decrement. After considering some extensions to gencies were constant. For example, Keesey and Kling clinical interventions, drug effects, and self-control, we argue (1961) found that response rates maintained by variable-in- that the findings of research on behavioral momentum con- terval (VI) schedules were essentially constant when rein- stitute a modern, quantitative version of Thorndike’s (1911) forcer amount was varied. However, Keesey and Kling also Law of Effect and we review some challenges to the Law of reported that response rate was positively related to rein- Effect from the perspective of behavioral momentum. forcer amount when each of three different stimuli signaled a different amount and alternated within each session (see also Shettleworth & Nevin 1965). In effect, Keesey and 2. The strength of steady-state free Kling’s method established three discriminated operants de- operant behavior fined jointly by the antecedent stimuli, the responses in their presence, and the consequences of responding signaled by The idea that behavior varies along a dimension of strength the stimuli (Skinner 1969). Following Skinner, we take the appears in Sherrington’s (1906) studies of reflexive behavior, discriminated operant to be a fundamental unit in the sci- where strength was measured by the latency and amplitude ence of behavior. The relations between the strength of dis- of response to an eliciting stimulus. It appears also in Pavlov’s criminated operant behavior and the signaled conditions of (1927) studies of conditional reflexes, where strength was reinforcement will be explored in sections 3, 4, and 7. measured by resistance to extinction or to external inhibition as well as by the latency or amplitude of response to a condi- 2.2. Choice, strength, and value tional stimulus. Hull’s (1943) theorizing relied heavily on the construct of habit strength, which was established by rein- Extensions of the steady-state operant paradigm to choice forcement and expressed in performance measures such as between two continuously available operants inspired a latency, amplitude, probability, and resistance to extinction new approach to the measurement of response strength of a learned response. However, these measures did not al- and reinforcement value. In a much-cited study, Herrnstein ways covary, casting doubt on the utility of the construct. (1961) arranged concurrent VI VI schedules for pigeons’ Moreover, as was suggested by Logan (1956), responses that responses to two keys, effectively arranging two simultane- varied along dimensions such as latency and amplitude could ous discriminated operants defined by key location, and be construed as different responses rather than as instances found that the relative frequency of responses to one alter- of a single response that varied in strength. native roughly equaled (matched) the relative frequency of Following Skinner’s (1938) relatively atheoretical ap- food
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