Behavioral systems analysis: Methodological strategies and tactics

Abstract

A general-systems model stressing the inherent organizational aspects of continuous behavioral-environmental interaction is presented as a natural extension of 20th century developments in scientific worldviews. The cultural context of scientific inquiry has often been depicted as a dynamic process which has evolved through at least three phases of philosophical orientation, or paradigmatics. Each paradigm has carried its own special implications for research strategies and tactics. Beginning with a substance-property view emphasizing self-action, scientific philosophy gradually shifted to a cause-effect orientation with emphasis on the lineal-mechanical aspects of that presumed process. Developments within this century have brought science to the integrated-fieldlsystems view of natural phenomena, with an associated emphasis on organizational properties and dynamics. However, psychology has lagged considerably in accommodating to this latter stage of scientific philosophy, both theoretically and methodologically. The model presented identifies with modern integrated-field/systems theory and offers empirical illustrations of its implications. Emphasis is placed on practical distinctions between structural, functional, and operational analysis, with special attention to such model-specific phenomena as behavioral velocity, kinematic syntax and variability, systemic coherence, and dynamic stability versus perturbed oscillations in systemic operations. Compatibilities between the behavioral systems model and various other contemporary efforts to expand psychological paradigmatics are reviewed in conclusion.KEY WORDS: behavioral systems, individual organism, scientific philosophy, systems methodology. w RITICAL OBSERVERS of behavioral sci- FROM INTEGRATED-FIELD TO SYSTEMS METHODOLOGYUnfortunately, the mechanistic stage of science left a methodological legacy in be-

Operations analysis of behavioral observation procedures: a taxonomy for modeling in an expert training system

“…However, before focusing on this taxonomy, four overarching issues need consideration: (1) structural versus functional descriptions of behavior; (2) event versus state perspectives on behavior; (3) mutually exclusive and exhaustive behavioral categories, along with the relevance of R. D. Ray and Delprato's (1989) concept of measurement domains as a classificatory means for parsing concurrently occurring behavioral events and their recording; and (4) methods of calculating IOA. Each issue represents a decision that is best made prior to selecting a procedure from our taxonomy.…”

BehSys Anal: An artificially intelligent hypermedia resource library for descriptive behavioral research

“…Using these criteria, we have barely begun to truly develop what qualifies as a "library," but we do have enough illustrations to demonstrate most features that such a library will eventually incorporate. The modules described above, including the working prototypes of the AI engine and the AKG components, in addition to the animated graphic simulation of operant conditioning (see Ray, in press), are working applications of a 20-year research program on behavioral systems analysis (Ray, 1972;Ray & Brown, 1975, 1976Ray & Delprato, 1989;Ray, Upson, & Henderson, 1977;Upson & Ray, 1984).…”

“…Although current designs for the tutorial and monitoring systems are based upon our own conceptual models of behavioral systems (Ray & Delprato, 1989), they have many similarities to systems developed quite independently and from various alternative perspectives. In our approach, text construction is based on knowledge networks, whereby associative paths (and strength of connectivity) among fundamental units are used to develop the concepts of different functional clusterings, or levels of knowledge integration.…”

“…There is also a significant contribution to be made by applying a "competent systems," as opposed to an "expert systems," approach, as suggested by Abramson (1990) in his use of "influence" networks. In fact, such networks have a very strong relation to our own behavioral kinematic analysis approach (Ray & Delprato, 1989).…”

“…The AKG supplies knowledge to the AI engine but also generates a database that allows instructors to analyze and compare students' learning strategies. In addition to supplying instructors with the usual performance feedback, such as number of correct/incorrect questions, the AKG supplies standardbehavioralsystems measures(see Ray & Delprato, 1989) of the user's behavior, including topic-access frequency, mean duration, total time per topic and subtopic, path of sequence and access, and so forth. These portions of the library, along with the navigational strategies and presentation designs, also constitute a HyperCard-based authoring system for additional module development.…”