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Preferences and Alternatives: Comments on Catania’s (1981) The Flight From Experimental Analysis

This paper is a brief commentary on a discussion by Catania (1981) of contributions to a symposium on the quantification of steady-state operant behavior. At that time, Catania had expressed concerns about an over-emphasis upon quantitative methods that might overshadow or even replace an experimental analysis of behavior. In a later evaluative overview of the field, Catania’s (2008) concerns on the issue appear to have been eased considerably, though perhaps not entirely. In his earlier commentary, Catania (1981) reviewed briefly five published experimental studies that he regarded as examples of favoring quantitative methods over an adequate experimental analysis. Because of space limitations I will be focusing upon only one of the experimental studies addressed by Catania, that of Leigland (1979). This study constituted the major portion of a master’s thesis submitted in 1977, and it is a rare and very enjoyable opportunity to be able to revisit this research in some detail after more than three decades. This commentary will address briefly the three central criticisms presented by Catania (1981). These were (a) that issues of “preference” may be addressed by concurrent chains schedules but not by concurrent schedules, (b) that Catania presented a plausible alternative interpretation of the results to that proposed by Leigland (1979), and (c) that the overall study was incomplete in that it did not go far enough in analyzing contingencies that might account for the findings and interpretations reported.