Blakely E, Schlinger H
Behav Anal. 1987 Fall;10(2):183-7. doi: 10.1007/BF03392428.
Behavior analysts have traditionally defined rules as discriminative stimuli. Three problems with this interpretation are discussed. First, because the effects of rules are often delayed, and the effects of discriminative stimuli are immediate, classifying rules as discriminative stimuli violates the definitional requirements of the latter. Second, when rules are defined as discriminative stimuli, other truly unique effects of rules may be obscured. Finally, both rules and contingencies develop new behavioral relations; however, when rules are interpreted as discriminative stimuli, their effects are not readily compared with those of contingencies. As an alternative, we suggest that rules be interpreted as function-altering contingency-specifying stimuli. Implications of this function-altering interpretation for terminology and research strategy are discussed.
行为分析师传统上把规则定义为辨别性刺激。本文讨论了这种解释存在的三个问题。第一,由于规则的效果往往是延迟的,而辨别性刺激的效果是即时的,将规则归类为辨别性刺激违反了后者的定义要求。第二,当规则被定义为辨别性刺激时,规则的其他真正独特的效果可能会被掩盖。最后,规则和偶发事件都会产生新的行为关系;然而,当规则被解释为辨别性刺激时,它们的效果不容易与偶发事件的效果进行比较。作为一种替代方案,我们建议将规则解释为改变功能的应急指定刺激。本文讨论了这种改变功能的解释对术语和研究策略的影响。