Meaning and Verbal Behavior in Skinner’s Work from 1934 to 1957

Abstract

This paper explores the historical development of Skinner's treatment of meaning from 1930 to 1957. Twelve papers published between 1934 and 1957, and parts of The Behavior of Organisms and Science and Human Behavior related to verbal behavior, were analyzed. Before 1945 meaning was taken as a property of the verbal response, and from 1945 on, meaning was supposed to be found among the determiners of a verbal response. We argue that these different conceptions of meaning were related to distinct aspects of Skinner's explanatory system. Finally, the notion of meaning presented by Skinner in 1945 is related to the theoretical breakthrough represented by Skinner's assertion of the three-term contingency. This idea permitted verbal behavior to be analyzed in terms of its functions.

Meaning in behavioral analysis.

“…The concept of meaning explored in Skinner's writings on literature contrasts with his later analysis presented in Verbal Behavior . His pre-1945 writings on poetry and other forms of literature considered meaning a property of words, reference a relation between words and the things referred to, and meaning a potential determinant of verbal behavior (Andery, Micheletto, & Sério, 2005). But in his post-1945 writings, especially in Verbal Behavior , Skinner completely rejected his own earlier formulations of meaning.…”

Meaning in behavioral analysis.

“…Skinner's definition of meaning as the relation between verbal operants and their causal (controlling) variables has been discussed by other behavioral scientists (Andrey, Micheletto, & Serio, 2005; Lowenkron, 2004; Moore, 2000, among others). Much of the behavioral analysis of meaning (the entire range of verbal behavior for that matter) is unknown to many SLPs.…”

The Hefferline Notes: B. F. Skinner’s First Public Exposition of His Analysis of Verbal Behavior

“…This paper is a descriptive and comparative account of what is in the Notes, compared to the content that appears in Verbal Behavior (Skinner, 1957). The account is preliminary, however, because a more scholarly analysis would demand an historical-analytical comparison of the Notes, the William James Lectures (Skinner, 1947b), and the text of Verbal Behavior, with systematic attention to the development of Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior and its necessary embedment in his general theory of behavior (see Vargas, Vargas, & Knapp, 2007, for a summary of the construction of Verbal Behavior; also see Audery, Micheletto, & Serio, 2005, for a discussion of changes in Skinner's position).…”