A Behavior System: An Introduction to Behavior Theory Concerning the Individual Organism

379 Pages·1958·26.142 MB·English

by  Clark L. Hull

A BEHAVIOR SYSTEM
An Introduction to Behavior Theory
Concerning the Individual Organism
New Haven:YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Foreword
TothecompletionofthisbookProfessorHullgavealltheenergy
thathecouldmusterduringthelastthreeyearsofhislife.Owingto
declininghealthhewaspermittedtoworkonlyafewhoursaday.
Visits to his office and laboratory and attendance at scientific
seminarsanddiscussionswere drasticallycurtailed.Despitethese
handicapshewon therace.OnMay 10,1952,hedied,with the
satisfaction ofhaving finished a major portion ofa program of
researchandwritingthathehadsetforhimselfyearsearlierashis
contributiontotheeffortsofthe InstituteofHumanRelationsto
developabasicscienceofbehavior.
Themanuscript was turned overto theYale University Press
upon itscompletion early in February 1952.The galley proofs
werereadyshortlybeforehedied.Hedidnotseethem.Theywere
read fortypographicalerrorsand inconsistenciesby his assistant
and secretary,Ruth Hays.Throughout the readingofboth the
galleyandpageproofsFrankA.Logangaveinvaluableassistance
inmattersrequiringtee‘nn'iea‘iknowledge.HadPro‘iessorHu‘n‘t‘i‘ived
toreadthegalleyproofs,hewouldnodoubthavemadesomelast
minutechangesintechnicaldetailsandwouldhavedetectedany
major alterationsthatneeded tobemade.Hewaskeenly aware
thatinthisrapidlygrowingfieldnovolumecanlongremaincom-
pletelyuptodate.
Thesubjectindexandglossaryofsymbolswerepreparedbyhis
researchassistant,johnA.Antoinetti.
IntheprefaceProfessorHullgivesgenerousacknowledgmentto
allwho aided him in thepreparation ofthemanuscript.We,in
turn,nowdesiretohonorhim forhisgenerosityinmaking freely
availabletoallofussucharichreservoiroforiginalideas.
Ala},7952 Liam:A.hIAY,Director
InstituteofHumanRelations
Preface
AdecadeormoreagoIdrewupaplanwhichpr0posedthewriting
ofthreevolumesintendedtocoverinanelementarymanner the
rangeofordinarymammalianbehavior.Thisbookisthesecondin
that series.The first volume, Principle: ofBehavior (1943),was
designedinthemaintostatethemoreimportantprimarybehavior
principles considered necessary to mediate the deductions ofa
natural-sciencetheoryofbehavior.Asmallsupplementaryvolume,
EssentialsofBehavior (1951),presents theseprinciples inarevised
andnearlyup-to-dateform.Thepresentworkisintendedprimarily
toshowtheapplicationoftheprinciples to thedeductionofthe
simplerphenomenacharacterizingthebehaviorofsingleorganisms.
According tomy originalplan thethirdandfinalvolumewould
apply these sameprinciples to the deduction ofthe elementary
phenomenaofsocialbehavior,i.e.,ofbehaviormanifestedwhenthe
interactingobiectsaremammalianorganismsofthesamespecies.
IgreatlyregretthatinallprobabilityIshallnotbeabletowrite
thethirdvolume.
InthefollowingpagesIhavemadeaseriousattempttogivea
quantitative,systematicaccountofsomeofthemore important
formsofnon-social behavior. Imake nopretense ofhaving said
thelastwordonanyofthem.Itrustthatthequantitativemethod-
ologyemployedwillreadilymakeapparenttoallseriousstudents
thearmswhichpresumablyhaveeludedourscrutinyandinsight;
hiddenfallaciesmay seriouslydelaytheadvancementofayoung
science.
Iamgladtotakethisoccasiontothankthemanypersonswhoin
oneway or another have contributed to thisvolume.john M.
vii
vlil PREFACE
Felsinger,Arthur I.Gladstone,and Harry G.Yamaguchi per-
formed a major task in experimentally quantifying reaction
potential (gEg).WilliamJ.Arnold,Arthur I.Gladstone,Allenj.
Sprow,andCharlesB.Woodburymadenecessaryempiricalquan-
titativedeterminationsofvarioussortsofbehaviorchaining.Dr.
Yamaguchi andJohnA.Antoinetti performed thecomputations
uponwhichmany ofthe theoreticalgraphsarebased,andMr.
Antoinetti alsoprepared thesubjectindex.FrankA.Loganread
andgaveanexpertcriticismoftheentiremanuscriptduringthe
finalstagesofitspreparation.Frederick5.Gatesmademostofthe
linedrawingsforthevariousfigures.Inadifferentcategoryare
Professors Carl 1.Hovland,Neal E.Miller,andIrvinL.Child;
thesemenhavegivenmoralsupportandotheraidwheneveritwas
needed. Professor Kenneth W. Spence, through his unfailing
interestinandunderstandingoftheproblemsherediscussed,and
throughcriticisms,suggestions,andrelevantexperimentswhichhe
and his studentshave performed,has contributed to a degree
feeblyexpressedby thesefewlines.Instillanothercategoryare
manyworkers,someofthempersonallyunknowntome,whohave
doneexperimentsbearingontheproblemsconsideredhere,orwho
havesubjectedmy theoriestosearchingcriticism.Bothempirical
and theoretical-critical investigationsare,atbottom,cooperative
searchesforthetruthwhichweallseek.Ihavelearnedfromall
thesepeople,andItakethisoccasiontothankthem.Iwishtothank
RuthHays,nowrounding‘outmore thanascoreofyearsasmy
secretary,forcontributinghergeniusineffectivescientificexpres-
sion.IthankProfessorMarkA.May,DirectoroftheInstituteof
Human Relations, for vigorous andcontinuoussupportin this
difficultandsometimesdiscouragingtask.Andfinally,Iamdeeply
gratefultoYaleUniversityandtheInstituteofHumanRelations
forthefreedomfromroutineacademicdutieswhichhasmadethe
completionofthistaskpossible.
C.L.H.
NewHaven
January,7952
Contents
Foreword
Preface vii
1.IntroductoryConsiderations
2.SimpleTrial-and-ErrorLearning 15
3.DiscriminationLearning 59
4∙�BehaviorandtheMolarStimulusTrace(3’) 100
5.FractionalAntedatingGoalReactions 124
6.SimpleBehaviorChains 156
7.LearningWithintheIndividualBehaviorLink 192
8.BehaviorinRelationtoObjectsinSpace 215
9.MultidirectionalMazeLearning 275
10.TheProblem-SolvingAssemblyofBehaviorSegments 308
11.Value,Valuation,andBehaviorTheory 327
12.ConcludingConsiderations 347
GlossaryofSymbols 357
IndexofNames 361
IndexofSubjects 363
�∙
introductoryConsiderations
Sciencehastwoessentialaspects—theempiricalandtheexplana-
tory.Theempiricalaspectisprimarily concernedwith thefacts
ofthe science as revealed by observation and experiment.The
explanatoryortheoreticalaspect,ontheotherhand,consistsina
seriousattempttounderstandthefactsofthescience,andtointe-
grate them into a coherent, i.e., a logical,system.From these
observations and integrations there are derived,directly or in-
directly,thebasiclawsofthescience.Sinceinayoungsciencea
certain amount of uncertainty naturally surrounds these basic
laws,especiallyastowhethertheyarereallybasic,i.e.,primaryor
underivable,their validity istemporarily assumed. It isforthis
reasonthatwe haveherecalledpostulateswhat we assumetobe
laws.Onceasetofpresumptivelybasiclawshasbeenisolated,the
wayisOpenedforthedevelopmentofanatural-sciencetheoretical
system.Thatisprimarily thetaskofthisvolume.Itwill present
inacertainamountofdetailanelementarytheoryofbehavior.
TheSpecifictaskofthepresentchapteristopreparethereader
inarathergeneralwayforthechapterswhicharetofollow.Per-
hapswe can best showwhat ourpurpose isby contrasting this
volumewithPrinciplesofBehavior,whichwaswritten earlier.That
work was designed in the main to present themore important
presumptive elementary lawsofmammalian behavior, together
with relevant explanatory considerations so that they would be
provisionallyunderstood.Becauseofthenoveltyofthisapproach
tobehaviortheoryatthattime,wefeltitdesirabletogiveanum-
beroffairlyelaborateexamplesofthedeductiveuseoftheprin-
ciplesinthelogicalderivationofsecondarylaws(oreXplanations)
t
2 A BEHAVIOR SYSTEM
ofmorecomplexbehaviorphenomena.Forthisreasonmanyread-
ersofPrinciplesofBehaviorhavemistakenly considered thatwork
aspresenting a completed system.Actually itcontained merely
somepreliminaryillustrativeexamplesofwhattheultimatesystem
wasintendedtobe.
Thechapterswhich followChapter1 aredesigned tosetforth
insomedetailagenuineportion ofthedevelopingsystem—that
portion concernedwith non-social behavior.Paralleling thepre-
sentationofthetheoreticalconclusionstherewill be given,from
time to time,a summaryofthe agreementsand disagreements
betweenthedeductionsfromthepostulatesandthecorresponding
empiricalfacts.Inthisway thereaderwillberemindednotonly
ofthenecessityofcontinuouslycheckingtheresultsoftheoretical
implications,but of the current defects as well as the modest
successesofthesystemassofardeve10ped.
Anotherincidentalfactorwhichmaybenotedinthisconnection
is the surprising extent to which experimentation has not yet
covered in a quantitative way the fields already broached in
systematictheory,andvice versa.Thusexperimentscontinuously
callfornew theoriestoexplaintheirfindings,and theoriescon-
tinuously call for new experimentsto test the validity of their
theorems.Thetwoaretrulyinseparable.
Perhapsthereaderofthefollowingchapterswillbeaidedinhis
understandingofoureffortsifherecallsthatthedevelopmentofa
systematic science of molar behavior isjust beginning. What
appeartobebasiclawspresent themselvesasthesystemgrows.
Also,occasionallyaprinciplepreviouslyconsideredtrueisfound
to be inerror;itisthen drOppedoutofthepostulate setor is
changed.Butwhenyouchangeapostulateinalogicalsystemsome
oftheconclusionsinthesystemasawhole,e.g.,asectionorso
written threeorfouryears earlier,should be changed,because
thedifferentpartsofascientificworkareallexpectedtobecon-
sistentwithoneanother.Ifthisisnotdone,theportionswritten
earlierandthosecontainingthelaterdevelopmentsmay noten-
tirelyagree.Butifpublicationisevertooccurtherecomesatime
whennewdeveloPmentsmustsimplyberecordedandconsistency
betrustedtolatermanuscriptrevisions.Itisprobablytoomuchto
hOpethatallsuchinconsistencieshavebeen foundand rectified
inthepresentwork.
INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS 3
Inthisconnectionitmustbeunderstood thatbehaviorconsists
in an exceedingly complex mass ofinterrelations.On the other
hand,expositionisessentiallylinear,andalinearpresentation of
behavior complexities inevitably distorts the reality.One ofthe
mostobviousdistortionsarisingfromthisfactliesinover-simplifica-
tion.Toarriveatagenuineunderstandingofthemultidimensional
relationships ofbehavior is a personal achievement requiring a
lifetime.Ourefforttopresentsomeofthetruerichnessofbehavior
realityinthisexpositionisseenscatteredthroughthetextinthe
frequentreferencestootherrelatedparts.Thehurriedreadermay
ignore these references, but the serious student with time for
thoughtwillfindthemhelpful.
Strictlyspeaking,thebody ofascientificsystemconsistsofthe
mathematicalderivationsofthetheoremswhichcorrespondtothe
empirical factsofthe science.The deductions presented in this
volumeareallofarelativelysimpleconcreteform,andaremostly
quiteinformal.Atonetimeafewofusworked outforalimited
rangeofbehaviorastrictsystemtoexploreitspossibilities (3).It
isprobably tooearlytodothisonalargescale,thoughtherare
personsqualified forsuchataskshouldbeforevery longattempt
todoitatleastforthefieldcoveredbythepresentvolume.
Thenthereisthequestionofthenumericalvaluesofthediffer-
ent constants or parameters which appear in the mathematical
derivations.Notoneoftheseisreallyknownatpresent exceptas
theroughestapproximation.Themostconspicuousexampleofthis
isfoundinthefieldofindividualandspeciesdifferences,thevalues
ofwhicharebelieved tobebasedalmostentirelyondifferencesin
constants.Thesamelimitation holds inregard to the equations
representingmanyofthefunctionsstatedinthepostulates.Natu-
rally the lack ofthis knowledge places great limitationson the
rangeoftheoreticalpredictionsandoncomparisonswithempirical
fact.Sometimes,otherwise significantpotential theoremsarenot
evenmentioned becauseofthemagnitude oftheseuncertainties.
Inothersituations,however,wheretheprobabilityseemstofavor
agivenoutcomeatheoreticalinterpretationisattemptedmainly
asameans ofcalling attention to theproblem and our general
approachtothesolution.
Butclearly,beforehecanfollowintelligentlythedeductionsof
thebehaviorphenomenapresentlytobediscussed,thereadermust
4 A BEHAVIOR SYSTEM
know thesubstanceofthepostulates uponwhich thereasonings
arebased.Whetherhehassomefamiliaritywith thesystemasa
wholeorwhetherheiscomingtoitforthefirsttime,heprobably
will haveoccasion toreturnto theseprinciples more than once
forthoughtful scrutiny;their implications are no more obvious
atfirstsightthanarethoseoftheaxiomsofEuclid.Forthisreason
thepostulatesareassembledinthepresentchapter,andtofacili-
tateeasyreferenceandidentificationtheyarelistedinsequence,
eachpostulatebeinggivenanupper-caseRomannumeral.
Also assembledinthepresent chapteraretheformulationsof
certainmajorimplicationsofthepostulates,herecalledcorollaries.
Theseareplaced insequencewith thepostulates,eachcorollary
followingthepostulate upon which itmainly depends;they are
identifiedby lower-caseRomannumerals.Weshallfind someof
these corollaries to be ofconsiderable use in the deductions of
certaintheoremswhichwillappearinthebodyofthiswork.
Thereasoningunderlyingtheformulationsofmostofthepostu-
latesand corollaries has been published previously (7;2);the
reasoninginsupportofothersisgiveninthepresentwork.The
readermaylocatetheselogicalconsiderationsbyconsultingeither
thereferencenumbersattachedtocertainpostulatesandcorollaries
orthefootnotesindicatingwheretheymaybefoundinthefollow-
ingchapters.Itmaybeaddedthatmostofthesepostulateshave
been based onthebehavioroflowerorganisms,particularly the
rat,inthebeliefthatthebehaviorofallmammalsoperatesaccord-
ingtothesameprimary laws.Humanshavetheaddedcapacity
ofspeech,symbolicbehavior,with itsaccompanyingadvantages
to the higher mental processes. Whether this introduces any
primarybehaviorallawsremainstobedetermined.
Wemust notethatthissetofpostulatesandcorollariesdiffers
insomerespectsfromanypreviouslyputforward.Forexample,
thedelay-in-reinforcementprinciple (J)ischangedfromapostu-
lateto a major corollary (iii).Also, where the substance of a
principle isexpressibleasaprovisional numerical equation,the
latterisnowgivenasthebestavailableapproximation.Forpur-
poses of convenient reference to and identificationofthemore
importantequationspresented throughoutthisandthefollowing
chapters,a sequentialnumberplaced within parenthesisaccom-
panieseach,ontherightohandmargin.