Verbal behavior.

Private events: Do they belong in a science of human behavior?

“…More than four decades ago, Skinner (1957) wrote, "There is no reason why methods of thinking and of the teaching of thinking cannot be analyzed and made more effective" (p. 449). What we are proposing is that behavior analysis get on with such a program of research and theory.…”

A comprehensive science: A review of Moore’s Conceptual Foundations of Radical Behaviorism

“…Chapters 8 (''Verbal Behavior 1: Elementary Verbal Relations'') and 9 (''Verbal Behavior 2: Complex Verbal Relations'') provide the basics of Skinner's (1957) functional analysis of verbal behavior and more recent, equivalence-based interpretations, respectively. In the latter chapter, the basics of equivalence relations introduced in Chapter 8 are given more extended treatment via relational frame theory (e.g., Hayes, BarnesHolmes, & Roche, 2001).…”

“…16) concludes with an excellent section on ''Chomsky Versus Behavior Analysis,'' which includes a history of the controversy regarding Chomsky's (1959) widely influential review of Skinner's (1957) Verbal Behavior. The section also includes a summary of Chomsky's misguided arguments against Skinner's functional analysis of verbal behavior and a useful segment on MacCorquodale's (1970) reply to Chomsky's review.…”

“…The literature of radical behaviorism began with Skinner's 1945 paper on ''The Operational Analysis of Psychological Terms'' and continued in various sources throughout his career (e.g., Skinner, 1953Skinner, , 1957Skinner, , 1964Skinner, , 1969Skinner, , 1974. The first person to address and explore the unique characteristics of the system described by Skinner was Willard F. Day, Jr. (for a collection of papers, see Leigland, 1992).…”

A functional analysis of verbal delay in preschool children: Implications for prevention and total recovery

“…Or if the child produces an approximation of "mama" in the presence of mother, she may immediately hug the child, and say, "You said mama!" In addition, as the child, as a consequence of reinforcement, begins to produce sounds that more closely approximate those of the mother, the child's own verbal behavior may assume an automatic reinforcing function as discussed by Skinner (1957) and Bijou and Baer (1965, p. 160), "Hence one might say that the sound of the baby's vocalizations 'automatically' strengthens the vocalizations themselves. As a result the infant's vocal responses become both stronger and differentiated into those which more and more closely produce sounds like the mother's speech..." Eventually through a gradual shaping process, the infant's spontaneous cries evolve toward specific sounds, then words, then phrases, and finally toward functional verbal behavior.…”