Analyzing Variable Behavioral Contingencies: Are Certain Complex Skills Homologous with Locomotion?

This paper discusses how behavioral contingency analysis can demonstrate that locomotion behavior is the phylogenetic ancestor and biological homologue of certain complex verbal processes such as reading or copying. More broadly, it illustrates how behavioral contingency analysis can show how behavioral phenomena that may seem unrelated actually involve the same underlying behavioral processes.

Also available at: Mechner, F. (2009). Analyzing variable behavioral contingencies: Are certain complex skills homologous with locomotion? Behavioral Processes, 81, 316-321.