August 11, 2025 • 16 mins
We often talk about what students can do by referring to their repertoire. But what does it mean to refer to their repertoire? A lot of philosohpy in one little mini episode!
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Links and References:
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do--3419521/support.
Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/wwdwwdpodcast
Links and References:
- Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York, NY: The Free Press.
- Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. Cambridge, MA: Prentice Hall.
- Skinner, B. F. (1974). About Behaviorism. New York, NY: Vintage Press.
- Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-we-do-what-we-do--3419521/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Why we Do what we Do. Welcome
to Why We Do what we Do? Mini. I am
your host Abraham, and I'm yourro Shane. We are a
psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans and
(00:24):
non human animals do and sometimes we dig deep, deep
into the philosophy of a single topic, which is what
we're doing today. Yeah. Yeah, So I think suffice it
to say really quickly that if you are joining us
for the first time, this is a short form style
of episode that we do. These come out on Mondays.
There are a quick dive into something. We try and
(00:46):
keep it fifteen minutes or less, which we've been very
successful with the last several episodes we have done, because
sometimes we have gone quite long. But we're going to
try and keep it short.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's well within our repertoire to keep it under fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Ooh, good, nicely done. We are behavior analysts by training,
and I think that gives us a lens through looking
at psychological events that I find particularly useful, and so
we're gonna use that lens to try and really objectively
break down a concept here that we're gonna be talking about.
(01:19):
But if you're joining us, for the first time.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I hope that you enjoy this. This is going to
be one that does have some technical jargon, although we
are also going to break it down into more colloquial terms.
And this one is sort of more deep in the
philosophy end of things and one of those topics where
you hear it and be like, I just don't care
about that, and that's fine, But nevertheless, I hope you
do enjoy Would you hear today and you maybe walk
away from this thinking at least a little bit differently
(01:42):
about this topic that than you did when you arrived here.
Either way, if you'd like to support us, you can
join us on Patreon, pick up some merch from a merchdoor,
or leave us a rating and review like subscribe, tell
a friends, and I'll talk more about the ways that
you can support us at the end of this discussion.
I think that that's all I have to say before
jump into our topic. Are we ready?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, let's do it all right.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
We talk about people's repertoire and having a repertoire, but
what does that mean exactly? And what we're gonna do
is we're going to describe the different definitions of repertoire
that have been proposed, and we're going to provide our
own to try and help explain this. And I'm hoping
that by describing a repertoire and how we know what
(02:24):
it is, the reason it's worth asking and answering this
question will become clear because I help, it'll illustrate the
sort of thinking that went into why we should maybe
not necessarily take this turn for granted, but consider what
it really means and what we're talking about as we
use it.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
If that makes sense, yeah, I think it makes perfect sense.
So let's go ahead and dive in. I think we
generally understand repertoire to mean things we can do or
skills that we have. Right. In fact, a seminal behavioral
textbook initially described repertoire as quote, all of the behaviors
a person can do. Can say that without laughing, all
(03:01):
of the behaviors a person could do. So that's everything
that we do, all of.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
It's it's just all of it. Yeah, it is kind
of funny. So this comes from Latin repertorium, also from
French repertoire and an older English version repertory. These different
words meant things like the whole body of items that
are regularly performed, which was a direct quote, by the way,
and quote the stock of skills and types of behavior
(03:27):
that a person habitually uses. End quote. Those are a
little bit more descriptive. They're more sort of I give
us some more direction. But those are the history of
where the word comes from.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
So we might analyze a particular set of behaviors or
a lack of behaviors is belonging to or being absent
from someone's repertoire. Indeed, if we are able to observe
any kind of behavior or performance, we can definitively say
that the person has the observed behavior in their repertoire.
And something you'll hear us say sometimes too, is like
it's in strength in their repertoire. It's not in strength
in their repertoire. You'll hear that sometimes too.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yes, all good points. B. F. Skinner, famous psychologist, described
repertoire quite a bit, and he described it as quote
a behavior which is what a person or company is
capable of doing given the right circumstances end quote. I
took some out of that quote because he's sort of
elaborating on that that really wasn't.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Who Skinner long winded, No.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Was not integral to the definition. So I cut that
part out. I did that for the second part two.
He also said, quote, a verbal repertoire is a convenient construct.
A person is said to possess a vocabulary of so
many thousands of words if these words are observed in
his verbal behavior during a period of time. End quote.
That one obviously comes from this book Verbal Behavior from
nineteen fifty seven, Riveting. So those are some ways that
(04:43):
he sort of describes repertoire.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, riveting stuff. I mean, there's clear. It's clear why
he's a best selling author and just constantly quoted because
he's so easy to quote. Yeah, man, Skinner's so hard
to read. Okay, So how do we know whether something
is or is not in someone's repertoire? How do we
know when something should be added, removed, or modified in
a repertoire? Abraham, you have answers, right.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Some kind of sure?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Okay? Cool?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
So yes, so we have that repertoire is like a
set of behaviors or skills. This to me is kind
of vague. We are behaving all of the time, sure,
all the things that we do all of the time
our behavior. So it's I kind of I find myself
asking when we're talking about a repertoire, what makes one
behavior a skill or worthy of consideration as belonging to
(05:30):
a particular repertoire but not some other behavior That sort
of I'm thinking about this, thinking like, I mean, we're
always doing stuff, and what do we mean is to
say like that is not in their repertoire, or this
is or this belongs to a certain repertoire and this
does not, and starting to draw those lines between like
all the behaviors that we're doing all the time, and
(05:52):
saying some of them have this special categorization that means
it belongs to a particular repertoire of some sort.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right, So we're gonna go ahead and into this. We've
got just a fair warning, technical jargon warning. We are
going to talk about advertisements. Okay, obviously we didn't define advertisements.
We know it when we see it. It's kind of
like pornography, right, it's like, you know what it is.
(06:20):
It's lax definition, it's nebulous, and uh it's a little
bit jarring.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Oh, we did define that. We did a whole minyon.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
We did. Yeah, we we we nailed pornography, advertisements not
so much, all right, So let's uh, let's talk about repertoires. Okay, So,
a repertoire is a discriminated operant. That is, it is
a class of behavioral topographies behavior topographies that have been
shaped and discriminated such that the threshold for measuring these
topographies arbitraris. It may be will occur in the presence
(06:49):
of a salient discriminatet stimulus SD with an available reinforcer.
So now we understand it, we can end the episode
right now. We don't have to explain it further because
that was really easy to understand.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yes, yeah, as you know, if you've listened to us before,
we tend to try and avoid the super technical jargon,
but I did want to have it in there for
those of you who appreciate that sort of thing. Less technically,
a repertoire is specifically observable behavior that occurs in the
context in which that behavior has been learned. I really
agonized over trying to write this as a simplified definition,
(07:20):
but I wanted to get after the point that when
we're talking about a repertoire, it means we're saying essentially
that there are conditions such that that behavior can and
does occur. And when we talk about a behavior, that
means that we're isolating some topography of behavior, meaning the
way that it looks, how it appears to us as
(07:42):
being its own thing, which does make sense. Like our
behavior is going to have specific forms that are shaped
and reinforced over time to appear a certain way. That's
how language works. It's like just very highly shaped, articulate
movements of our lips, tongue, and throat as we move
air over those surfaces. Sure, and that is something that
(08:02):
we learned to do and become very good at, and
it has a lot of steps and components to it.
But all that being said, like a repertoire is these
specific ways that our behavior looks and appears that occurs
in specific context when it would be available for that
behavior to occur. And I like to think of this
in terms of like what I also can't do, Like
there is no particular context you could create for me
(08:26):
where all of a sudden I'll be able to do
a triple backflip from a standing position, at least not
right now, because like I do not have and have
not practiced this skill, so you cannot create a situation
in which I can perform it. For someone who is
an Olympic level athlete, you could create that context and
they would perform that skill potentially assuming that's something that
(08:46):
they've done. And so just sort of outlining here the
fact that, like the repertoire shows that, like, given this circumstance,
I engage in a particular set of behaviors that look
a specific way relevant to that circumstance, Like just doing
if you go to like go to a cashier and
instead of handing the money, you do three backflips from
(09:08):
a standing position, unlikely they'll accept that as legal currency.
They will probably be like, that's amazing, please pay for
this now and time. Yeah, some people will probably be
interested in that, but not all others. And that is
to say, because that's not the situation where you do
that behavior, that's specific behavior. You do a different behavior
in the situation. So that's sort of what I mean,
if that makes sense, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, yeah. So Another example would be this, like let's
say we have a student that has multiplication quote in
their repertoire. If given any single digit multiplication problem, they
correctly solve the problem. Does that mean that they understand
the concept of multiplication. No, we could teach a pigeon
to pack out the answer to every conceivable single digit
multiplication problem, but we didn't specify that it had to
be understood, only that it had to be performed, which
(09:51):
is so we nailed it.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yeah, So that is to say, like to say that
the performance occurred is sufficient to say that it's in
a repertoire, whether or not there is additional language around
that performance that might we might also describe that language
as being understanding if you will sure, and that would
maybe be a different thing to say in a repertoire,
is like, do they have in their repertoire that they
(10:13):
understand multiplication? Well, then we're asking a different question. We're
looking for a different observable behavior, which is probably that
they can explain it would probably be where most people
would find themselves that they would use language that sort
of indicates that they could talk through it. But that
being said, like, I also think you could ask JATGBT
to explain it and it would be it would explain
it very well and still suck at multiplications.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
So, yeah, what.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
These things mean. It depends on the situation. And so
I guess all this is to say that the Cloquil
definition works, It's just a little vague and imprecise. A
repertoire is the behaviors that occur in the context in
which they can occur and readily do so. So yes,
in a way, it is all the things that a
person or not human animal can do in the right conditions.
Is like a very colloquial way of thinking about it,
(10:56):
but I wanted to really dive deep into understanding like
this is a specific topography of behavior selected by environmental
circumstances that then allow that behavior topography to occur in
the right circumstances where there is some kind of reinforcer
and a stimulus that evokes that behavior, if you will, right.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And so as for when we change a repertoire, like
where we add, subtract, or modify anything that depends on
the relevant stakeholders, including the individual, and if change is
specifically requested and acceptable to the individual and can be
reasonably justified to ensure that they have greater access to
reinforcers or or a less restrictive environment, then it is
likely appropriate to get to analyze and promote alterations to
(11:37):
a given repertoire that basically saying, does this person want this?
Can we improve this behavior? Can we change this behavior?
Let's go ahead and do it as long as they
want this.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Thing, and I specify like, as long as they can
be reasonably justified, because like some people might ask to
change a repertoire of someone where that change is not
going to do that person any good, like right, And
actually I've I think, as we talked about in our
series on ABA, like there is I think a tendency
to over emphasize compliance and like following instructions as a
(12:10):
way that people behave, And I'm like, I don't want
them to follow on all instructions. There are going to
be people who take advantage of them if they do that,
Like we need to teach appropriate non compliance and right,
So exactly there is an aspect of that anyway that
gets a little bit too tangential for us in a
mini right now, But I think just understanding that, like
there are conditions under which it makes sense to change
your repertoire, we're kind of always doing that anyway, Like
(12:33):
it's always happening to us and we're always doing it,
Like as we go through our sort of day here
in life, our repertoire is being shaped. There is just
a more deliberate way to do it, and like, you
have a specific target in mind, and that's powerful stuff,
and so you don't want to do that without careful
consideration and scrutiny. Yeah, absolutely so for non languaging organisms,
(12:54):
such as non human animals who cannot give consent, it
might be appropriate to adjust repertoires when doing so similarly
promote safety and well being for the animal. Of course,
there's a bit of this that's subjective in the eye
of the beholder. But for instance, many animal trainers at
zoos now use behavior analysis to teach animals to accept
medical care. As an example, this allows them to prevent
(13:15):
or quickly overcome disease and survive more comfortably for longer.
Of course, we could have a debate over the quality
of life in a cage at a zoo and what
that means for these animals. But I think alternatively, these animals,
like they're going to try and give them some kind
of medical care anyway, and if they're not using these
systems to teach them like how to accept that medical
care in a way that is not stressful for them.
(13:37):
Then instead, what they're going to do is use mechanical restraints,
heavily sedate them, or do other things that use a
lot more punishment and aversives to control their behavior so
that they can perform those procedures. And like that is
I would argue worse for the animal than allowing them
to sit comfortably and accept medical intervention that will save
their lives and improve their circumstance in many cases. And
(13:59):
I also thought about, like what if you go out
into the wild and you train a bunch of wild
animals to be able to recognize and run away from
traps and poachers and like have them therefore succeed more
in the wild by the virtue of the fact that
they are overcoming people who would otherwise hunt them for
sport or for meat, And that might also be in
the best interest of those animals. That is not We're
(14:19):
not getting into a discussion over the overall ethics of hunting.
I think that is a very deep, long conversation we
could potentially have at some point. But mostly I'm thinking
about people who do overhunting, illegal hunting situations where there
are animals who are potentially in the verge of extinction,
or animals that are falling victim to traps and things,
whether they're not even the intended target, you know, like
(14:40):
someone's outright hunting for deer and they end up catching
like a danger wolf or something like that. If we
could teach those animals to recognize and avoid those traps,
that might also be in their best interest.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, I think sounds good.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
All right, Well that turned into a big ethical conversation. Really,
I just wanted to unpack what a repertoire was. But
I feel like we've more or less explained. Do you
feel like we have any more to say about repertoires?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I do not.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Okay, Well, hopefully that this Scott's got you thinking about this,
trying to understand, like, think about what a repertoire is.
Let's not take it for granted and consider like what
we're asking and answering when we think about and talk
about these things. If you would like to tell us
your thoughts in a repertoire, you can email us directly
at info at wwdwwdpodcast dot com. If you'd like to
support us, you can join us on Patreon, pick up
(15:24):
some merch at our merch store, leave us a rating
and review like subscribe and go tell a friend, and
all of those things help us out, and we really
appreciate you. If you do join us on Patreon, you
get bonus content, AD free content early episodes, and I
will shout out your name on our full length episodes.
But if you don't want to do any of those things,
and hopefully we'll just see you back here next time.
And we appreciate you joining us at all for this discussion.
(15:45):
Thank you so much to my team of people who
help make this podcast happen. Thank you all for listening.
Is there anything that I forgotten that you'd like to
add before we wrap up this mini?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Nothing that's not already in your repertoire.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Beautiful Why We Do What We Do Mini is out.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Bye. You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
You can learn more about this and other episodes by
going to WWDWWD podcast dot com. Thanks for listening, and
we hope you have an awesome day.
You're listening to Why we Do what we Do. Welcome
to Why We Do what we Do? Mini. I am
your host Abraham, and I'm yourro Shane. We are a
psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans and
(00:24):
non human animals do and sometimes we dig deep, deep
into the philosophy of a single topic, which is what
we're doing today. Yeah. Yeah, So I think suffice it
to say really quickly that if you are joining us
for the first time, this is a short form style
of episode that we do. These come out on Mondays.
There are a quick dive into something. We try and
(00:46):
keep it fifteen minutes or less, which we've been very
successful with the last several episodes we have done, because
sometimes we have gone quite long. But we're going to
try and keep it short.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's well within our repertoire to keep it under fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Ooh, good, nicely done. We are behavior analysts by training,
and I think that gives us a lens through looking
at psychological events that I find particularly useful, and so
we're gonna use that lens to try and really objectively
break down a concept here that we're gonna be talking about.
(01:19):
But if you're joining us, for the first time.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I hope that you enjoy this. This is going to
be one that does have some technical jargon, although we
are also going to break it down into more colloquial terms.
And this one is sort of more deep in the
philosophy end of things and one of those topics where
you hear it and be like, I just don't care
about that, and that's fine, But nevertheless, I hope you
do enjoy Would you hear today and you maybe walk
away from this thinking at least a little bit differently
(01:42):
about this topic that than you did when you arrived here.
Either way, if you'd like to support us, you can
join us on Patreon, pick up some merch from a merchdoor,
or leave us a rating and review like subscribe, tell
a friends, and I'll talk more about the ways that
you can support us at the end of this discussion.
I think that that's all I have to say before
jump into our topic. Are we ready?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, let's do it all right.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
We talk about people's repertoire and having a repertoire, but
what does that mean exactly? And what we're gonna do
is we're going to describe the different definitions of repertoire
that have been proposed, and we're going to provide our
own to try and help explain this. And I'm hoping
that by describing a repertoire and how we know what
(02:24):
it is, the reason it's worth asking and answering this
question will become clear because I help, it'll illustrate the
sort of thinking that went into why we should maybe
not necessarily take this turn for granted, but consider what
it really means and what we're talking about as we
use it.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
If that makes sense, yeah, I think it makes perfect sense.
So let's go ahead and dive in. I think we
generally understand repertoire to mean things we can do or
skills that we have. Right. In fact, a seminal behavioral
textbook initially described repertoire as quote, all of the behaviors
a person can do. Can say that without laughing, all
(03:01):
of the behaviors a person could do. So that's everything
that we do, all of.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
It's it's just all of it. Yeah, it is kind
of funny. So this comes from Latin repertorium, also from
French repertoire and an older English version repertory. These different
words meant things like the whole body of items that
are regularly performed, which was a direct quote, by the way,
and quote the stock of skills and types of behavior
(03:27):
that a person habitually uses. End quote. Those are a
little bit more descriptive. They're more sort of I give
us some more direction. But those are the history of
where the word comes from.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
So we might analyze a particular set of behaviors or
a lack of behaviors is belonging to or being absent
from someone's repertoire. Indeed, if we are able to observe
any kind of behavior or performance, we can definitively say
that the person has the observed behavior in their repertoire.
And something you'll hear us say sometimes too, is like
it's in strength in their repertoire. It's not in strength
in their repertoire. You'll hear that sometimes too.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yes, all good points. B. F. Skinner, famous psychologist, described
repertoire quite a bit, and he described it as quote
a behavior which is what a person or company is
capable of doing given the right circumstances end quote. I
took some out of that quote because he's sort of
elaborating on that that really wasn't.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Who Skinner long winded, No.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Was not integral to the definition. So I cut that
part out. I did that for the second part two.
He also said, quote, a verbal repertoire is a convenient construct.
A person is said to possess a vocabulary of so
many thousands of words if these words are observed in
his verbal behavior during a period of time. End quote.
That one obviously comes from this book Verbal Behavior from
nineteen fifty seven, Riveting. So those are some ways that
(04:43):
he sort of describes repertoire.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, riveting stuff. I mean, there's clear. It's clear why
he's a best selling author and just constantly quoted because
he's so easy to quote. Yeah, man, Skinner's so hard
to read. Okay, So how do we know whether something
is or is not in someone's repertoire? How do we
know when something should be added, removed, or modified in
a repertoire? Abraham, you have answers, right.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Some kind of sure?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Okay? Cool?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
So yes, so we have that repertoire is like a
set of behaviors or skills. This to me is kind
of vague. We are behaving all of the time, sure,
all the things that we do all of the time
our behavior. So it's I kind of I find myself
asking when we're talking about a repertoire, what makes one
behavior a skill or worthy of consideration as belonging to
(05:30):
a particular repertoire but not some other behavior That sort
of I'm thinking about this, thinking like, I mean, we're
always doing stuff, and what do we mean is to
say like that is not in their repertoire, or this
is or this belongs to a certain repertoire and this
does not, and starting to draw those lines between like
all the behaviors that we're doing all the time, and
(05:52):
saying some of them have this special categorization that means
it belongs to a particular repertoire of some sort.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right, So we're gonna go ahead and into this. We've
got just a fair warning, technical jargon warning. We are
going to talk about advertisements. Okay, obviously we didn't define advertisements.
We know it when we see it. It's kind of
like pornography, right, it's like, you know what it is.
(06:20):
It's lax definition, it's nebulous, and uh it's a little
bit jarring.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Oh, we did define that. We did a whole minyon.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
We did. Yeah, we we we nailed pornography, advertisements not
so much, all right, So let's uh, let's talk about repertoires. Okay, So,
a repertoire is a discriminated operant. That is, it is
a class of behavioral topographies behavior topographies that have been
shaped and discriminated such that the threshold for measuring these
topographies arbitraris. It may be will occur in the presence
(06:49):
of a salient discriminatet stimulus SD with an available reinforcer.
So now we understand it, we can end the episode
right now. We don't have to explain it further because
that was really easy to understand.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yes, yeah, as you know, if you've listened to us before,
we tend to try and avoid the super technical jargon,
but I did want to have it in there for
those of you who appreciate that sort of thing. Less technically,
a repertoire is specifically observable behavior that occurs in the
context in which that behavior has been learned. I really
agonized over trying to write this as a simplified definition,
(07:20):
but I wanted to get after the point that when
we're talking about a repertoire, it means we're saying essentially
that there are conditions such that that behavior can and
does occur. And when we talk about a behavior, that
means that we're isolating some topography of behavior, meaning the
way that it looks, how it appears to us as
(07:42):
being its own thing, which does make sense. Like our
behavior is going to have specific forms that are shaped
and reinforced over time to appear a certain way. That's
how language works. It's like just very highly shaped, articulate
movements of our lips, tongue, and throat as we move
air over those surfaces. Sure, and that is something that
(08:02):
we learned to do and become very good at, and
it has a lot of steps and components to it.
But all that being said, like a repertoire is these
specific ways that our behavior looks and appears that occurs
in specific context when it would be available for that
behavior to occur. And I like to think of this
in terms of like what I also can't do, Like
there is no particular context you could create for me
(08:26):
where all of a sudden I'll be able to do
a triple backflip from a standing position, at least not
right now, because like I do not have and have
not practiced this skill, so you cannot create a situation
in which I can perform it. For someone who is
an Olympic level athlete, you could create that context and
they would perform that skill potentially assuming that's something that
(08:46):
they've done. And so just sort of outlining here the
fact that, like the repertoire shows that, like, given this circumstance,
I engage in a particular set of behaviors that look
a specific way relevant to that circumstance, Like just doing
if you go to like go to a cashier and
instead of handing the money, you do three backflips from
(09:08):
a standing position, unlikely they'll accept that as legal currency.
They will probably be like, that's amazing, please pay for
this now and time. Yeah, some people will probably be
interested in that, but not all others. And that is
to say, because that's not the situation where you do
that behavior, that's specific behavior. You do a different behavior
in the situation. So that's sort of what I mean,
if that makes sense, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, yeah. So Another example would be this, like let's
say we have a student that has multiplication quote in
their repertoire. If given any single digit multiplication problem, they
correctly solve the problem. Does that mean that they understand
the concept of multiplication. No, we could teach a pigeon
to pack out the answer to every conceivable single digit
multiplication problem, but we didn't specify that it had to
be understood, only that it had to be performed, which
(09:51):
is so we nailed it.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yeah, So that is to say, like to say that
the performance occurred is sufficient to say that it's in
a repertoire, whether or not there is additional language around
that performance that might we might also describe that language
as being understanding if you will sure, and that would
maybe be a different thing to say in a repertoire,
is like, do they have in their repertoire that they
(10:13):
understand multiplication? Well, then we're asking a different question. We're
looking for a different observable behavior, which is probably that
they can explain it would probably be where most people
would find themselves that they would use language that sort
of indicates that they could talk through it. But that
being said, like, I also think you could ask JATGBT
to explain it and it would be it would explain
it very well and still suck at multiplications.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
So, yeah, what.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
These things mean. It depends on the situation. And so
I guess all this is to say that the Cloquil
definition works, It's just a little vague and imprecise. A
repertoire is the behaviors that occur in the context in
which they can occur and readily do so. So yes,
in a way, it is all the things that a
person or not human animal can do in the right conditions.
Is like a very colloquial way of thinking about it,
(10:56):
but I wanted to really dive deep into understanding like
this is a specific topography of behavior selected by environmental
circumstances that then allow that behavior topography to occur in
the right circumstances where there is some kind of reinforcer
and a stimulus that evokes that behavior, if you will, right.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And so as for when we change a repertoire, like
where we add, subtract, or modify anything that depends on
the relevant stakeholders, including the individual, and if change is
specifically requested and acceptable to the individual and can be
reasonably justified to ensure that they have greater access to
reinforcers or or a less restrictive environment, then it is
likely appropriate to get to analyze and promote alterations to
(11:37):
a given repertoire that basically saying, does this person want this?
Can we improve this behavior? Can we change this behavior?
Let's go ahead and do it as long as they
want this.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Thing, and I specify like, as long as they can
be reasonably justified, because like some people might ask to
change a repertoire of someone where that change is not
going to do that person any good, like right, And
actually I've I think, as we talked about in our
series on ABA, like there is I think a tendency
to over emphasize compliance and like following instructions as a
(12:10):
way that people behave, And I'm like, I don't want
them to follow on all instructions. There are going to
be people who take advantage of them if they do that,
Like we need to teach appropriate non compliance and right,
So exactly there is an aspect of that anyway that
gets a little bit too tangential for us in a
mini right now, But I think just understanding that, like
there are conditions under which it makes sense to change
your repertoire, we're kind of always doing that anyway, Like
(12:33):
it's always happening to us and we're always doing it,
Like as we go through our sort of day here
in life, our repertoire is being shaped. There is just
a more deliberate way to do it, and like, you
have a specific target in mind, and that's powerful stuff,
and so you don't want to do that without careful
consideration and scrutiny. Yeah, absolutely so for non languaging organisms,
(12:54):
such as non human animals who cannot give consent, it
might be appropriate to adjust repertoires when doing so similarly
promote safety and well being for the animal. Of course,
there's a bit of this that's subjective in the eye
of the beholder. But for instance, many animal trainers at
zoos now use behavior analysis to teach animals to accept
medical care. As an example, this allows them to prevent
(13:15):
or quickly overcome disease and survive more comfortably for longer.
Of course, we could have a debate over the quality
of life in a cage at a zoo and what
that means for these animals. But I think alternatively, these animals,
like they're going to try and give them some kind
of medical care anyway, and if they're not using these
systems to teach them like how to accept that medical
care in a way that is not stressful for them.
(13:37):
Then instead, what they're going to do is use mechanical restraints,
heavily sedate them, or do other things that use a
lot more punishment and aversives to control their behavior so
that they can perform those procedures. And like that is
I would argue worse for the animal than allowing them
to sit comfortably and accept medical intervention that will save
their lives and improve their circumstance in many cases. And
(13:59):
I also thought about, like what if you go out
into the wild and you train a bunch of wild
animals to be able to recognize and run away from
traps and poachers and like have them therefore succeed more
in the wild by the virtue of the fact that
they are overcoming people who would otherwise hunt them for
sport or for meat, And that might also be in
the best interest of those animals. That is not We're
(14:19):
not getting into a discussion over the overall ethics of hunting.
I think that is a very deep, long conversation we
could potentially have at some point. But mostly I'm thinking
about people who do overhunting, illegal hunting situations where there
are animals who are potentially in the verge of extinction,
or animals that are falling victim to traps and things,
whether they're not even the intended target, you know, like
(14:40):
someone's outright hunting for deer and they end up catching
like a danger wolf or something like that. If we
could teach those animals to recognize and avoid those traps,
that might also be in their best interest.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, I think sounds good.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
All right, Well that turned into a big ethical conversation. Really,
I just wanted to unpack what a repertoire was. But
I feel like we've more or less explained. Do you
feel like we have any more to say about repertoires?
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I do not.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Okay, Well, hopefully that this Scott's got you thinking about this,
trying to understand, like, think about what a repertoire is.
Let's not take it for granted and consider like what
we're asking and answering when we think about and talk
about these things. If you would like to tell us
your thoughts in a repertoire, you can email us directly
at info at wwdwwdpodcast dot com. If you'd like to
support us, you can join us on Patreon, pick up
(15:24):
some merch at our merch store, leave us a rating
and review like subscribe and go tell a friend, and
all of those things help us out, and we really
appreciate you. If you do join us on Patreon, you
get bonus content, AD free content early episodes, and I
will shout out your name on our full length episodes.
But if you don't want to do any of those things,
and hopefully we'll just see you back here next time.
And we appreciate you joining us at all for this discussion.
(15:45):
Thank you so much to my team of people who
help make this podcast happen. Thank you all for listening.
Is there anything that I forgotten that you'd like to
add before we wrap up this mini?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Nothing that's not already in your repertoire.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Beautiful Why We Do What We Do Mini is out.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Bye. You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
You can learn more about this and other episodes by
going to WWDWWD podcast dot com. Thanks for listening, and
we hope you have an awesome day.
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