It’s all about contiguity. Two things are contiguous when they are rubbing up against each other. When a behavior ‘rubs up against’ a consequence, predictability occurs. You say ‘sit’, the dog sits, you say “good dog” and give a treat. Soon, the word ‘sit’ triggers the behavior because the two events – the performance of a specific behavior and the treat – are contiguous.

If you have a shallow understanding of behavior you assume that contiguity lies in immediate proximate sequences. Meaning temporal contiguity. Nay, nay. Pavlov demonstrated that the latency between events leading to a predictable outcome is almost a non-factor. “Wait ’til your father gets home” can instill dread from the moment you break your dad’s bowling trophy until he comes home, hours later. If you are spanked at that time, your brain will make the carelessness with the bowling trophy and the spanking – contiguity is achieved.

I have known Dr. Peter Killeen for about 30 years. As an academic, he wrote many scientific papers. one stands out on the topic of contiguity. I will ask a question that relates to his point…

Is 8:00 this morning closer to 8:05 this morning than 8:00 tomorrow morning? If you are an east coast commuter you may sense the drift. If you get to the station at 8:05, you missed your train. Bad news. Your morning pattern has a serious downside if you don’t make your arrival prior to 8:00 by at least a couple minutes. The behaviors relative to getting on the train are set to occur at a specific time. At 8:05 you are either on the train reading your paper or you are on the platform, fretting about being late to work.

So, 8:00 today is contiguous with to 8:00 tomorrow.

The environment is multi-dimensional. Selecting a specific, arbitrary factor to explain all is invariably an incomplete perspective on what’s really happening. Even simple animals can perceive complex contexts and make things ‘rub up against each other’. That is not a mark of intelligence, merely the effects of survival and adaptation. The rat pressing a lever is trapped in a sequential immediate world. Applying such an arbitrary austerity on the process of learning and doing is rarely beneficial.