TY - JOUR
T1 - Internal-Clock Models and Misguided Views of Mechanistic Explanations
T2 - A Reply to Eckard & Lattal (2020)
AU - Sanabria, Federico
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Association for Behavior Analysis International.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - Eckard and Lattal’s Perspectives on Behavior Science, 43(1), 5–19 (2020) critique of internal clock (IC) mechanisms is based on narrow concepts of clocks, of their internality, of their mechanistic nature, and of scientific explanations in general. This reply broadens these concepts to characterize all timekeeping objects—physical and otherwise—as clocks, all intrinsic properties of such objects as internal to them, and all simulatable explanations of such properties as mechanisms. Eckard and Lattal’s critique reflects a restrictive billiard-ball view of causation, in which environmental manipulations and behavioral effects are connected by a single chain of contiguous events. In contrast, this reply offers a more inclusive stochastic view of causation, in which environmental manipulations are probabilistically connected to behavioral effects. From either view of causation, computational ICs are hypothetical and unobservable, but their heuristic value and parsimony can only be appreciated from a stochastic view of causation. Billiard-ball and stochastic views have contrasting implications for potential explanations of interval timing. As illustrated by accounts of the variability in start times in fixed-interval schedules of reinforcement, of the two views of causality examined, only the stochastic account supports falsifiable predictions beyond simple replications. It is thus not surprising that the experimental analysis of behavior has progressively adopted a stochastic view of causation, and that it has reaped its benefits. This reply invites experimental behavior analysts to continue on that trajectory.
AB - Eckard and Lattal’s Perspectives on Behavior Science, 43(1), 5–19 (2020) critique of internal clock (IC) mechanisms is based on narrow concepts of clocks, of their internality, of their mechanistic nature, and of scientific explanations in general. This reply broadens these concepts to characterize all timekeeping objects—physical and otherwise—as clocks, all intrinsic properties of such objects as internal to them, and all simulatable explanations of such properties as mechanisms. Eckard and Lattal’s critique reflects a restrictive billiard-ball view of causation, in which environmental manipulations and behavioral effects are connected by a single chain of contiguous events. In contrast, this reply offers a more inclusive stochastic view of causation, in which environmental manipulations are probabilistically connected to behavioral effects. From either view of causation, computational ICs are hypothetical and unobservable, but their heuristic value and parsimony can only be appreciated from a stochastic view of causation. Billiard-ball and stochastic views have contrasting implications for potential explanations of interval timing. As illustrated by accounts of the variability in start times in fixed-interval schedules of reinforcement, of the two views of causality examined, only the stochastic account supports falsifiable predictions beyond simple replications. It is thus not surprising that the experimental analysis of behavior has progressively adopted a stochastic view of causation, and that it has reaped its benefits. This reply invites experimental behavior analysts to continue on that trajectory.
KW - Determinism
KW - Explanation
KW - Induction
KW - Internal clock
KW - Mechanism
KW - Parsimony
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U2 - 10.1007/s40614-020-00268-6
DO - 10.1007/s40614-020-00268-6
M3 - Comment/debate
AN - SCOPUS:85090924761
SN - 2520-8969
VL - 43
SP - 779
EP - 790
JO - Perspectives on Behavior Science
JF - Perspectives on Behavior Science
IS - 4
ER -