Evolution, Behavior Principles, and Developmental Systems: A Review of Gottlieb's Synthesizing Nature‐nurture: Prenatal Roots of Instinctive Behavior

Abstract

Gottlieb's developmental psychobiology book provides a base for reexamining the place of the experimental analysis of behavior in the life sciences. His experimental program demonstrating the critical function of the environment in the development of a species-typical behavior helped force an acceptance of probabilistic epigenesis, the acknowledgment that the developmental genomeenvironment system is fully interactional. (Indeed, nature vs. nurture is deader than a doornail.) The repercussions for evolutionary biology and the roles and categorizations of genes, behavior, and environment in behavior-environment relations are explored in light of current knowledge, including specific implications for the experimental analysis of behavior.

Operant generalization in quail neonates after intradimensional training: Distinguishing positive and negative reinforcement

“…The unexpected inhibitory results of our exploratory study reinforce the lesson that generalization gradient form can be a complex function of behavioral history, contextual, and developmental factors, in contrast to the more straightforward characterizations that have sometimes appeared to apply. We suggest in particular that the relationship between operant and Pavlovian effects in generalization deserves closer examination (see also Schneider, 2003). In other respects, the precocial quail chicks showed the capability for quickly discriminating between different auditory tempos and reinforcement rates, and producing otherwise-standard gradients as a result.…”

FACTS, INTERPRETATIONS, AND EXPLANATIONS: A REVIEW OF EVELYN FOX KELLER'S MAKING SENSE OF LIFE

“…Behavior analysis may, or may not, follow a similar path. CONCLUSION A number of authors have noted that behavior analysis has its historical roots in biology (Boakes, 1984;Schneider, 2003;Thompson, 1984). As this review has attempted to show, although contemporary behavior analysis and biology have little contact with each other, there are strong similarities in how these disciplines approach their respective subject matter.…”

A case study in the misrepresentation of applied behavior analysis in autism: The gernsbacher lectures

“…Among the best contemporary alternatives to the dichotomy is developmental systems theory (Gottlieb, 1998;D. S. Moore, 2001;Oyama, 2000;see Midgley & Morris, 1992;Schneider, 2003Schneider, , 2007.…”