1. Integrating Psychological Neurobiological Levels in
Contextual Behavioral
Science
Steven C. Hayes, University of Nevada

2. The Psychological Level
The study of whole organisms acting in and with a context considered historically and situationally

3. The Neurobiological Level
The study of the nervous system of organisms in reaction to external and internal events and in relation to behavior

4. Defining Our Levels of Analysis
If we are going to apply a pragmatic approach we need to start with an open mind about our units
We define them for pragmatic purposes
But as we define levels what is the relationship among them?

5. Contextual Behavioral Science
The dangers of moving across levels without care:
Hiding ignorance in concrete knowledge at other levels of analysis
Moving across levels can hide ignorance. Example. We do not know what kindness is so we look to the brain to tell us

6. Contextual Behavioral Science
The dangers of moving across levels without care:
The appeal of reductionism
Explain reductionism
If neurobiological differences are found it is enormously tempting to begin to talk about how compassion impacts the brain. But note that the very selection of these participants was based on the poorly understood processes that the research wanted to understand, and yet the importance of these processes and their ability to be detected needed to be assumed to make sense of doing the neuroimaging study in the first place.

7. Contextual Behavioral Science
The possibilities of research across levels of analysis:
Seeing consistent processes
Evolution
Reinforcement
Memes
Organ development

8. Contextual Behavioral Science
The possibilities of research across levels of analysis:
An integrated fabric of science
The importance of depth
Precision score and depth

9. Contextual Behavioral Science
Depth means that no unit that is fully adequate at the psychological level can be fully inadequate at the neurobiological level and vice versa

10. Contextual Behavioral Science
If we claim we are modeling well understood units, the brain has to agree or our model is incorrect
Example: metaphor
Is A > N = C > D a model of metaphor?

11. Specifying the Challenges of Higher Levels of Organization
“The contribution that a science of behavior makes to neurology is a rigorous and quantitative statement of the program before it.” (Skinner, 1938, p. 432)

12. The Vision of Contextual Neuroscience
Place neurobiological evidence inside a larger effort to understand the situated actions of whole organisms, focusing on the depth of psychological processes known to be important
Integration cannot be stronger that the weakest link
This effort is hard but it is supportive of all participants