What term describes a fictitious variable used to explain a phenomenon that adds nothing to the functional understanding, such as attributing lever-pushing to intelligence when the light is on and food is available but not when the light is off and no food is available?

• A. External Validity
• B. Explanatory Fiction
• C. Extinction
• D. Forward Chaining

Answer: (B)

Explanatory fiction describes using a fictitious variable to explain a phenomenon while adding nothing to the functional understanding. In this example, saying that lever-pushing is due to intelligence creates a mental or internal cause that doesn’t help us predict or control the behavior in a functional way. The real work in analysis is to examine how environmental factors—like the light being on and food being available—shape the behavior. If the behavior changes with those controllable conditions, that shows a functional relationship; the supposed cause of intelligence doesn’t provide any testable, actionable account of why the behavior occurs or how to modify it.

External validity would involve whether findings generalize across settings or populations, which is not about creating fictitious causes. Extinction is the process of a previously reinforced response decreasing or stopping because reinforcement is no longer provided, not about introducing imaginary causes. Forward chaining is a method for teaching tasks in sequential steps, unrelated to the explanation of a behavior’s functional determinants.