Behavioral unit of selection and the operant-respondent distinction: the role of neurophysiological events in controlling the verbal behavior of theorizing about behavior

The aim of this article is to discuss the following questions: Can neurophysiology reveal something new about behavior--something that we could not know only by means of behavior analysis? Can neurophysiology influence the way we think about behavioral relations? To investigate these questions, I present an example in which neurophysiological events controlled, in addition to behavioral events, the verbal behavior of theorizing about behavior. The example under analysis concerns the biobehavioral approach hypotheses about the operant-respondent distinction and the unit of selection. I will discuss how information about the neurophysiology of retention contributed to this debate by sometimes favoring the ideas proposed by the biobehavioral approach, but, in some cases, by also providing evidence that challenge these very same ideas. I will argue that this example provides a positive answer to both of the aforementioned questions. Key words: neuroscience and behavior analysis, unit of selection, operant-respondent distinction, biobehavioral approach, neurophysiology of retention
In the late 1980s, just before the so-called decade of the brain, but also at a time when neuroscience had already achieved significant advancements (Shepherd, 2010), Skinner wrote the following [...]