BREEDING ANALYSIS OF NATURAL UNITS IN BEHAVIOR GENETICS

On receiving my assignment for this refresher course, my self-appointed task became an examinat ion of the term behavior, and considerat ion of the kind of knowledge genetic analysis has to contribute to the understanding of behavior and behavior analysis has to contribute to understanding in biology. At a reception following a conference two summers ago, Joshua Lederberg asked me “How do you define behavior?” It’s a disconcert ing exper ience at any time to be caught off guard harbor ing an unanalyzed premise. It’s doubly so when it happens on one’s first encounter with a Nobel laureate. A survey of textbook and dictionary definitions proves very unsatisfactory and suggests a possible reason for his question. In one form or another, most definitions hinge upon response to stimulation. As Skinner (1938) has so appropriately pointed out, while response to stimulation certainly does occur, so does behavior occur in the absence of antecedent events that bear an easily demonstrable stimulating relation to a given behavior.