What is a response class?

In Ch. 7 (p. 129) Malott discusses the three ways to define a response class. Skinner pointed out that no one ever performs a response/behavior the same way twice. Opening the refrigerator with your right hand is basically the same behavior as opening it with your left hand, even though they're obviously different too. But because they're more similar in important ways than they are different, they're considered members of the same response class. So a response class is a collection of similar behaviors.

What Malott does for us in Ch. 7 is to explain the three ways in which the members of a response class can be similar to each other. If two or more responses are similar in one or more of these ways, then they're members of the same response class.

(1) First, behaviors can be similar on one or more response dimensions. A response dimension is a physical property of a response. So this means that responses may be members of the same response class because they're physically similar.

(2) Behaviors can also be similar because they share the effects of reinforcement or punishment. That means that if one member of a response class is reinforced or punished, and its frequency subsequently changes, the frequency of the other members of the response class will also change in the same direction, even though they haven't been directly reinforced or punished. An implication of this is that if reinforcing or punishing a behavior changes its frequency, and the frequency of another behavior also changes in the same way, that's an indication that the two behaviors are members of the same response class.

(3) Behaviors can also be similar because they serve the same function or produce the same outcome. That means that if a behavior is followed by a particular reinforcer or aversive stimulus (punisher), then other members of the same response class will also be followed by that reinforcer or punisher. So if two behaviors produce the same reinforcing or punishing consequence, that's an indication that they're members of the same response class. This doesn't prove that they're members of the same response class, but it may suggest that you should investigate further to determine if, in fact, they are.