A step towards ending the isolation of behavior analysis: A common language with evolutionary science.
Say "selection/deselection" instead of "reinforcement/punishment" when talking to non-behavior analysts and watch doors open.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Swaim et al. (2001) wrote a think-piece, not an experiment.
They asked: what if we swap the words "reinforcement" and "punishment" for "selection" and "deselection"?
The goal was to make behavior analysis sound familiar to evolutionary scientists and to the public.
What they found
The paper argues the new words would end the field’s isolation.
Selection/deselection links operant change to natural selection, so biologists would "get us" faster.
How this fits with other research
Takashima et al. (1994) had already pictured the environment as a selector that keeps or drops responses. Swaim et al. (2001) push the same metaphor into everyday vocabulary.
Rachlin (2007) shows the lens works outside the lab: selectionist talk helps explain religion as learned behavior. The wording travels.
Catania et al. (2019) cleans up other jargon (evocative/abative). Together the two papers form a mini-movement to make our terms less confusing.
Lindsay (2002) seems to tug the other way—he wants us to keep saying "punishment" loud and clear. The clash is only on the surface. F et al. rename the process to bridge fields; R defends studying the process itself. Both can live together: use selection/deselection when you teach evolution-minded colleagues, keep punishment in your clinical notes.
Why it matters
Next time you explain a behavior plan to a biology teacher, doctor, or parent who loves science, try saying "the environment selects this behavior." You will see nods instead of blank stares. The word swap costs nothing and builds instant allies outside our bubble.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In spite of repeated efforts to explain itself to a wider audience, behavior analysis remains a largely misunderstood and isolated discipline. In this article we argue that this situation is in part due to the terms we use in our technical discussions. In particular, reinforcement and punishment, with their vernacular associations of reward and retribution, are a source of much misunderstanding. Although contemporary thinking within behavior analysis holds that reinforcement and punishment are Darwinian processes whereby behavioral variants are selected and deselected by their consequences, the continued use of the terms reinforcement and punishment to account for behavioral evolution obscures this fact. To clarify and simplify matters, we propose replacing the terms reinforcement and punishment with selection and deselection, respectively. These changes would provide a terminological meeting point with other selectionist sciences, thereby increasing the likelihood that behavior analysis will contribute to Darwinian science.
The Behavior analyst, 2001 · doi:10.1007/BF03392027