Efeitos de um análogo de reforçamento negativo sobre a seleção de culturantes

Abstract

In Behavior Analysis, the metacontingency concept has been used in the study of several cultural phenomena, referring to selective processes that occur at this level. There are few studies to date on aversive control at the cultural level, although this is very much present in our culture. The investigations on analogues of negative reinforcers in metacontingency are incipient. In addition to the studies that already had been done, this study investigated the effect of a negative reinforcement analogue on the selection of culturants in laboratory microcultures. Three laboratory microcultures, with three participants each, were exposed to an ABAB design. The experimental task consisted in choosing colored and numbered lines from one to ten. Throughout the experimental session, the choice of odd lines produced individual consequences. During condition A, the culturant with choices of blue + red + other color produced a school item for donation to a public educational institution (cultural consequence). In condition B, school items were subtracted every 30 seconds, except when the culturante with choices of green + yellow + other color occurred, interlocked behaviors that produced a temporary pause in the loss of items, characterizing an analog of the negative reinforcement procedure in escape/avoidance operant behaviors. The results demonstrated that the negative reinforcement is enough for the selection of a culturante and can contribute to a better understanding of the effects of contingency analogues of negative reinforcement in metacontingencies.