Against matching theory: Predictions of an evolutionary theory of behavior dynamics

• An evolutionary theory of behavior dynamics is compared to matching theory.
• The evolutionary theory implements the idea that behavior evolves in somatic time.
• An artificial creature with a population of potential behaviors is created in code.
• The population undergoes selection, recombination, and mutation over ticks of time.
• A critical experiment comparing competing predictions of the theories is proposed.

A selectionist theory of adaptive behavior dynamics instantiates the idea that behavior evolves in response to selection pressure from the environment in the form of resource acquisition or threat escape or avoidance. The theory is implemented by a computer program that creates an artificial organism and animates it with a population of potential behaviors. The population undergoes selection, recombination, and mutation across generations, or ticks of time, which produces a continuous stream of behavior that can be studied as if it were the behavior of a live organism. Novel predictions of the evolutionary theory can be compared to predictions of matching theory in a critical experiment that arranges concurrent schedules with reinforcer magnitudes that vary across conditions in one component of the schedules but not the other. Matching theory and the evolutionary theory make conflicting predictions about the outcome of this critical experiment, such that the results must disconfirm at least one of the theories.