The Experimental Study of Relations Between Culture and Verbal Behavior: a Scoping Review

Abstract

In the causal model of selection by consequences, the cultural level describes the origin and maintenance of cultural environments, in which the effects collectively produced the group as a whole. In the area's production, productions with the concepts of metacontingency and macrocontingency stand out, especially the study of the role of verbal behavior in cultural selection. This work carried out a systematic review of the behavioral-analytic literature on the relationship between metacontingency, macrocontingency and verbal behavior. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) recommendation, we carried out a scope review of articles published in Portuguese, English and Spanish in specialized journals in the area, as well as Brazilian dissertations and theses. In the end, the selection protocol included 28 works. In general, there was a predominance of studies on metacontingency, using verbal behavior as an independent variable based, above all, on the matrix experimental task and the Iterated n-players Prisoner's Dilemma Game (INPDG). The studies discussed their results on the influence of verbal behavior on the selection, transmission and maintenance of social and cultural behaviors, especially based on Sigrid Glenn’s proposals on the subject.