Hall Genae A
Anal Verbal Behav. 2004;20:37-43. doi: 10.1007/BF03392991.
Drash and Tudor describe six sets of reinforcement contingencies which may be present in the environments of some children eventually diagnosed with autism and suggest that these contingencies account for the etiology of "autistic" behaviors. Nevertheless, merely observing such contingencies in the environments of these children is insufficient to establish a positive correlation between the contingencies and "autistic" behaviors, let alone a causal relationship. To demonstrate a positive correlation, it is necessary to present evidence that the relevant contingencies are present more often in the environments of children exhibiting these behaviors than in the environments of children not exhibiting these behaviors. This condition has not been met, since no evidence to the effect that such contingencies are absent in the environments of typical children or children with disabilities other than autism has been presented. In fact, the opposite appears to be true, as is argued in the present commentary. It appears that Drash and Tudor's account of autism etiology is incomplete in that it neglects the role of unlearned differences between children and their possible interactions with the social environment in shaping "autistic" behaviors. Despite the misconception held by some that behavior analysis is a radically environmental approach, unlearned differences may be discussed within a behavioral framework. A "completely behavioral" account may discuss such differences in terms of susceptibility to reinforcement or punishment, speed of conditioning, or other unlearned characteristics which are potentially testable.
德拉什和图多尔描述了六组强化偶发事件，这些偶发事件可能存在于一些最终被诊断为自闭症的儿童所处的环境中，并认为这些偶发事件是“自闭症”行为病因的原因。然而，仅仅在这些儿童的环境中观察到此类偶发事件，不足以确立这些偶发事件与“自闭症”行为之间的正相关关系，更不用说因果关系了。为了证明存在正相关关系，有必要提供证据表明，与未表现出这些行为的儿童所处环境相比，表现出这些行为的儿童所处环境中相关偶发事件出现得更频繁。这一条件尚未得到满足，因为目前还没有证据表明，在典型儿童或非自闭症的残疾儿童所处环境中不存在此类偶发事件。事实上，正如本评论中所论证的那样，情况似乎恰恰相反。德拉什和图多尔对自闭症病因的解释似乎不完整，因为它忽视了儿童先天差异及其与社会环境的可能互动在塑造“自闭症”行为方面的作用。尽管有些人误以为行为分析是一种完全基于环境的方法，但未习得的差异也可以在行为框架内进行讨论。一个“完全基于行为的”解释可以从强化或惩罚的易感性、条件作用的速度或其他潜在可测试的未习得特征方面来讨论此类差异。
