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Patterns yes, agency no

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

William M. Baum
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824-3567. wm. baum@unh.edu
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Abstract

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Contrary to his own perspective, Rachlin introduces a ghostly inner cost to explain the persistence of behavioral patterns and agency to explain their origins. Both inconsistencies can be set straight by taking account of history and a context larger than the pattern itself. Persistence is explained by stimulus control, if one assumes that defection from a pattern has stimulus properties and is punished. The origins of patterns are understood as an outcome of selection in the larger context of cultural or biological evolution.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995