Table 1.
Events and Relations Composing a Metacontingency in Experimental Settings
| Cultural selection of culturant | Event 1. Increase in or maintenance of probability (> 0) or rate (> 0) of potential occurrences of culturant |
| Events 2. Potential selecting events | |
| Relation 1. Dependence of potential selecting events on potential occurrences of culturant | |
| Relation 2. Conditionality of increase in or maintenance of probability or rate of occurrences of culturant given dependent selecting events | |
| (a) Probability or (b) rate of potential occurrences of culturant | Events 1. Potential occurrences of culturant |
| Relation 1a. Occurrences across opportunities | |
| Relation 1b. Occurrences per unit of time | |
| Potential occurrences of culturant | Events 1. Interlocking behavioral contingencies |
| Relation 1. Dependence of aggregate products on interlocking behavioral contingencies (provides basis for delimiting occurrences) | |
| Interlocking behavioral contingencies | Events 1. Operant behavior (across n individuals; n > 1) |
| Relations 1 (> 0). Determinable probability or rate of occurrences of one individual’s operant behavior given environmental alterations produced by operant behavior of another individual (relation is reflexive; requires operant behavior of multiple individuals composing the group) | |
| Reinforcement of operant behavior | Event 1. Increase in or maintenance of probability (> 0) or rate (> 0) of potential occurrences of operant behavior |
| Events 2. Potential reinforcing events | |
| Relation 1. Dependence of potential reinforcing events on potential occurrences of operant behavior | |
| Relation 2. Conditionality of increase in or maintenance of probability or rate of occurrences of operant behavior given dependent reinforcing events | |
| (a) Probability or (b) rate of potential occurrences of operant behavior | Events 1. Potential occurrences of operant behavior |
| Relation 1a. Occurrences across opportunities | |
| Relation 1b. Occurrences per unit of time | |
| Potential occurrences of operant behavior1 | Event 1. Whole organism-environment interaction |
| Relation 1. Dependence of environmental alterations on whole organism-environment interaction (provides basis by which behavior can be divided into occurrences) |
1 Although this may be more typically described in terms of operant responses, this description is used to highlight that (1) patterns of responses may constitute a single unit and (2) operant behavior is measured by environmental change it produces, whether mechanical or just stimulational. However, it is worth noting that operant behavior can also be measured in terms of time allocation (Baum & Rachlin, 1969) rather than probability or rate of occurrences.