Resumen de Autocontrole cultural: efeitos da interação verbal sobre a seleção de culturantes

João Aristides Tomaz de Almeida, Yan Valderlon dos Santos Lima, Emmanuel Zagury Tourinho

• English

  Self-control refers to a response pattern that can occur in situations of concurrence between contingencies, under which a response produces immediate reinforcers of smaller magnitude (impulsive response), while a concurrent response produces delayed reinforcers of greater magnitude (self-controlled response). At the cultural level, self-control refers to the competition between an impulsive culturant, which produces cultural consequences of immediate and smaller magnitude, and a self-controlled culturant, which produces delayed cultural consequences of greater magnitude. Several empirical studies of cultural phenomena adopt metacontingency as procedure of analysis. Metacontingency describes functional relationships between intertlocked behavioral contingencies (IBC’s) with their aggregate product (AP), culturants, and environmental selecting events, cultural consequences. Taking as reference previous works on verbal behavior and cultural selection, the objective of the present work was to evaluate the effects of verbal interaction on the selection of self-controlled culturants.

  Twelve people were divided into 4 microcultures, 2 microcultures exposed to the ABAB design, 2 exposed to the BABA design. In condition A was allowed verbal interaction, in condition B the verbal interaction was not allowed. FreeMtrix © software was used for data collection. The task consisted in choosing colored lines (blue, red, green, yellow, purple) numbered (1 to 10) in a figure. Even or odd row choices produced 1 individual token. There were two programmed metacontingencies: the impulsive culturants, composed of combinations of lines green + yellow + purple color; green + yellow + blue; green + yellow + red, which produced as a cultural consequence 1 school item for donation 1 day after the experiment.

  Meanwhile, self-controlled culturants, was composed of combinations of lines colors blue + red + purple; blue + red + yellow; blue + red + green, which produced 10 school items for donation 10 days after the experiment. Both culturants (impulsive and self-controlled) were selected, but with greater occurrence of self-controlled culturants. The possible occurrence of exposure to the experimental task is discussed. Finally, suggestions are made for procedures for future investigations of cultural phenomena. Although the basic data are recent, studies on cultural self-control could help our understanding of relevant social problems or appropriate cultural design.

• português

  Vários estudos empíricos de fenômenos culturais adotam a metacontingência como procedimento de análise. Metacontingência descreve relações funcionais entre contingências comportamentais entrelaçadas (CCEs) com seu produto agregado (PA), culturantes, e eventos ambientais selecionadores, consequências culturais (CCs). Autocontrole cultural descreve contingências em que culturantes autocontrolados, que produzem consequências culturais atrasadas e de maior magnitude, concorrem com culturantes impulsivos, produzem consequências culturais imediatas e de menor magnitude. O presente estudo avaliou os efeitos da interação verbal na seleção de culturantes autocontrolados. Participaram 12 pessoas divididas em 4 microculturas, 2 expostas ao delineamento experimental ABAB, 2 ao BABA. Na condição A permitia-se interação verbal, na condição B não. Para coleta de dados usou-se o software FreeMtrix©. A tarefa consistiu na escolha de linhas coloridas e numeradas em uma figura. Escolhas de linhas pares/ímpares produziram 1 ficha individual. Havia duas metacontingências programadas, nas quais culturantes impulsivos produziam como consequência cultural 1 item escolar para doação 1 dia após o experimento; e culturantes autocontrolados produziam 10 itens escolares para doação 10 dias após o experimento. Houve seleção de ambos os culturantes (impulsivos e autocontrolados), porém com maior ocorrência dos culturantes autocontrolados.