Fig. 2.

A Metacontingency. Note. IBCs = interlocking behavioral contingencies; AP = aggregate product; SE = selecting event; R = operant behavior; S^D = discriminative stimulus/event; S^R+ = reinforcing stimulus/event. The solid rectangle encapsulate IBCs, whereas the dotted rectangle encapsulates a culturant. Single-arrows denote dependency relations. Dots denote evocative or discriminative functions. The ellipsis suggests that IBCs can involve more than two individuals. Note that the IBCs represented here resemble a verbal episode between two individuals, P1 and P2, described by Skinner (1957) with similar nomenclature. These IBCs only constitute one example—not all IBCs involve such relations