Selection is a Mechanism: Commentary on Leão & Neto

Abstract

Leão and Neto have presented an interesting and complex history relating to Skinner’s conceptual and empirical evolution of the notion of consequences selecting patterns of behavior.  As these authors are careful to note, terms like “selectionism” and “determinism” (and I would add “mechanism”) have multiple uses in the language and thus attempting to provide anything like a clear picture of just how Skinner changed in his thinking about the nature of the operant over a decade or so of quite active work is more than a challenge.