The ontology of behaviour

ABSTRACT Behaviour analysis provides a functional definition of operant behaviour but at the same time often uses topographic definitions of classically-conditioned behaviour. This may be an ontological error, which would have serious consequences. Functional accounts of classical conditioning have been proposed, and they are part of a move towards locating all conditioning processes within behavioural ecology. It is recommended that behaviour analysts use a systematically functional account of all behaviour, which distinguishes between the roles of phylogenetic and ontogenetic functions, and which can embrace unconditioned behavioural repertoires as well as the behaviour changes produced by classical conditioning and operant conditioning in one framework.

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