The biological behaviorism of William D. Timberlake

Behaviorism is one of the main theoretical currents that have explored and tried to explain human behavior. From a perspective that intends to work solely from objective and verifiable empirical data, this approach meant its time a great revolution and has meant a notable advance in terms of developing new perspectives and improving others already existing.

Over time, different subtypes of behaviorism have emerged, focused on different elements or making various relevant theoretical contributions. One of the subtypes of existing behaviorism is the biological behaviorism of William David Timberlake.

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Bases of biological behaviorism

Behaviorism, as a science that studies human behavior based on empirically evident objective elements, has analyzed the human behavior from the capacity of association between stimuli and responses and between the emission of behaviors and the consequences of these that cause the behavior to be reinforced or inhibited.

However, despite the fact that it has diverse and very useful applications, behavioral practices and techniques have traditionally been carried out carried out in non-natural contexts, located in a controlled environment in which other multiple facets that can reach affect.

In addition, the subject is usually considered to be a merely reactive entity, which receives the properties of the stimuli and reacts accordingly, producing learning. It is not usually taken into account that the subject presents characteristics that influence behavior, the traits and abilities being rather the result of learning. Various neobehavioral authors have varied this approach, taking into account the abilities of the subject himself and the inheritance of behavior patterns and partially innate abilities.

The perspective defended by Timberlake's biological behaviorism proposes that learning is a biologically based phenomenon that occurs from patterns of behavior and constitutional dispositions that are given innately and that are linked to the niche or environment in which the subject lives develops.

It is a version of behaviorism in which both functional and structural factors of behavior are combined. Natural selection has generated the evolution of perceptual dispositions, the skills and behavioral patterns that allow conditioning to be generated and certain ways of understanding or acting to be learned more or less easily. In other words, Timberlake defends the existence of brain variables and structures that help explain behavior.

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The role of context

The niche or functional context is the place in which the subject develops and that allows the organism to evolve. This niche has a structure and properties that allow, through learning, to generate modifications in the already existing elements in the subject.

So, the experience and activity of the individual generate a modification of the responses to the environment and a change in preference and perception of stimulation. In other words, we learn from experience to generate alterations in the organism. The characteristics of the stimulus will be perceived differently as the subject is acting.

In this aspect, biological behaviorism is novel, since it assumes that the behavior is not generated by the stimuli themselves but it only causes a change in pre-existing conditions. It is the subject who actively generates structural changes that allow them to react to the reality of certain ways, but it is taken into account that there are elements that are relevant to the environment and the learning.

behavioral systems

Timberlake's biological behaviorism proposes the existence of behavioral systems, groups of hierarchically organized independent functional patterns that describe the organization of the basic functions for the survival of the individual before even carrying out an apprenticeship, which will vary said structuring.

This system is configured by various behavioral subsystems, which specify a part of the function that generally explains the type of action that is carried out.

These subsystems in turn are configured by the modes or ways in which each action is performed or reality is perceived as part of the different behavioral subsystems. in these ways modules or categories are derived that group various actions. And in each module there are specific responses that can be caused by environmental stimulation.

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The learning

Although the biological behaviorism of William D. Timberlake part of an ecological conception that takes into account the existence of internal aspects that allow directing learning, the truth is that Timberlake defends that learning continues to be the effect of the behavior itself. And it is that the different systems need learning at the behavioral level in order to be able to develop and modify effectively

Each organism comes with a set or set of abilities that allow it to learn certain behaviors before certain stimuli. For example, if we had no perception of pain, we would not remove our hand from the fire. But having said perception of pain will not prevent us from reaching out to the fire either. We will not learn to do it if we do not carry out through experience or learning the set of associations between stimulus and response.

Biological behaviorism is a subtype of behaviorism that part of the radical behaviorism of B. F. skinner and who studies behavior through operant conditioning, but it takes into account the existence of an exploratory contact of the elements of a system before the association begins. In order for the study subject to carry out real conditioning, it is necessary to tune the environment and the subject in such a way that what can be learned adjusts to the possibilities of the subject and the latter can learn.

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Bibliographic references:

• Cabrera, F.; Covarrubias, P. and Jimenez, A. (2009). Behavioral systems from an ecological approach. Studies on behavior and applications. Vol. 1. Guadalajara.

• Timberlake, W. (2001). Motivational modes in behavior systems. In R.R. Mowrer and S.B. Klein (Eds.), Handbook of contemporary learning theories (pp. 155-209). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• Timberlake, W. (2004). Is the operant contingency enough for a science of purposive behavior? Behavior and Philosophy, 32, 197-229.