ABSTRACT
The fact that it is possible to interpret token economy and applied behavior analyses as providing evidence for the model is highly supportive of the underlying variables and relationships it posits. But it is also necessary, before undertaking the interpretive reconstruction of actual consumer behaviors, to establish how the elements of the model can be identifi ed and measured for purposes of new empirical research. This step is essential to the appraisal of the model itself and to understanding what sort of account of consumer behavior it is capable of producing. Moreover, in order to know the nature of the interpretation, it is necessary to determine whether and how empirical research following a more traditionally “scientifi c” approach might be undertaken within this framework. Knowledge so gained will also show the extent to which the model must be evaluated according to alternative criteria such as internal consistency, aesthetics, plausibility and integration of patterns of purchase, and consumption with a single explanatory framework. How far, then, can the elements of the model be made operationally measurable? The three key variables concerned are behavior setting scope, learning history, and behavior; since the discriminative stimuli in the current setting prefi gure contingent consequences of various kinds (utilitarian reinforcement, informational reinforcement, aversive outcomes), some means of distinguishing and measuring may also be required. Note that all of these variables relate to the behavior of an individual consumer in a particular consumer behavior setting. This level of measurement and operational modeling corresponds, therefore, to the consumer situation.
