Baum, W. M. (1973).
The correlation-based law of effect.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
20, 137-153.
It is commonly understood that the interactions between an
organism and its environment constitute a feedback system. This
implies that instrumental behavior should be viewed as a
continuous exchange between the organism and the environment. It
follows that orderly relations between behavior and environment
should emerge at the level of aggregate flow in time, rather than
momentary events. These notions require a simple, but
fundamental, change in the law of effect: from a law based on
contiguity of events to a law based on correlation between
events. Much recent research and argument favors such a change.
If the correlation-based law of effect is accepted, it favors
measures and units of analysis that transcend momentary events,
extending through time. One can measure all consequences on a
common scale, called value. One can define a unit of analysis
called the behavioral situation, which circumscribes a set of
values. These concepts allow redefinition of reinforcement and
punishment, and clarification of their relation to discriminative
stimuli.