Avaliação de um procedimento de aproximação sucessiva sobre a seleção de uma prática cultural complexa

Abstract

The investigation of cultural selection has become more consistent theoretically and empirically in the Behavior Analysis especially after Sigrid S. Glenn proposed and developes the concept of metacontingencies. At the level reached by empirical investigations, a challenging issue relates to the complexity that cultural phenomena usually present. Cavalcanti (2012) evaluated the possibility of increasing the probability of complex interlocked behavioral contingencies (IBCs) by means of a successive approximation procedure (analogous to modeling operant response) involving a task of choosing rows of a matrix by group members. This study was conducted at the Laboratory of Social Behavior and Cultural Selection of this University (LACS / UFPA) and consisted of a replication with two microcultures, of Cavalcanti's first experiment with addition of the following changes in the procedure: a) introduction of generational change, b) steady order of choice by members of the lineages in the microculture and c) The use of two sets of criteria for the production of cultural consequence (one with each microculture). Study participants were undergraduate students from various courses, excluding psychology, distributed in two microcultures (A and B) consisting of 4 participants positioned in 4 different lines (L1, L2, L3 and L4). In each microculture 4 participants worked simultaneously sending individual responses (choice of lines in a 10x10 matrix) which produced individual consequences (exchangeable chips for money) every time the operant contingencies in place (choice of odd lines) were met. Regardless of operant contingencies was also the release of reinforcing cultural consequence in the form of figures stamped on a card which were exchanged for school items to make up a kit at the end of the experiment. The experimental session consisted of cycles of attempts (moves made by the microcultures) and generations of participants. Each generation corresponded equivalent to 20 cycles of trying. In each generation a new participant was inserted to replace the one with more time in the study. Substitutions made occurred within each specific strain. The general objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of the gradual increase in environmental complexity procedure (criteria required for the production of cultural consequences) on the "modeling" of cultural practices in the context of sucessive generations. For the two microcultures data suggest the efficacy of the procedure of gradual increase in environmental complexity in the production of complex IBCs and provide greater generality to the results found by Cavalcanti. However, the study provided no comparison of microcultures exposed of gradually increasing complexity with continued exposure of a microculture to the more complex environment. For this reason, it is clear that the procedure analogous to modeling was effective in producing complex IBCs, but not that it was more effective than the continuous exposure of a microculture, for the same number of cycles, to the more complex environment.